Rewriting Targaryen History

The raven from Storm’s End arrived beneath a sky clear enough to make every man upon Honeyholt’s walls search for Vhagar. No dragon followed it.

The bird came alone from the east, exhausted from a journey broken across several loyal keeps. Its feathers were damp despite the dry morning over Honeyholt, and one claw had been wrapped with a narrow strip of yellow cloth carrying the crowned stag of House Baratheon.

That banner had remained absent from the war for too long.

Borros Baratheon had not declared for Aegon when Oldtown raised its banners. He had not sworn openly to Rhaenyra either. While Dondarrion, Tarth, Swann, and several lesser Stormlords affirmed the succession Viserys had named, Storm’s End remained silent. Borros had answered letters with courtesies, delays, and assurances that the Stormlands would act when their lord had judged the truth of the dispute.

He had spent months judging while other men died.

Silence had protected him while the strength of both factions remained uncertain. Aegon possessed Sunfyre, Aemond rode Vhagar, and Oldtown gathered an army large enough to threaten half the Reach. Rhaenyra held King’s Landing and the greater number of dragons, but her realm had begun splitting before she could secure its roads.

Borros had waited to see which claim could survive its own supporters. Now Aegon was dead. Daeron had sworn to Rhaenyra. Jason Lannister lay among the dead of the Riverlands, and the western host retreated under Lord Humfrey Lefford. Ormund Hightower had returned to Oldtown with only a fraction of the army that marched upon Honeyholt. His surviving men had surrendered, changed allegiance, or filled guarded camps outside our walls.

Only Aemond and Vhagar remained capable of changing an entire region through their arrival.

Borros had finally reached his judgement. I broke the seal inside Honeyholt’s hall while Dick, Black Rat, Jasper, Landrey, Lord Bulwer, and several Reach commanders waited around the table. The letter had been written by a maester at Storm’s End, but the declaration beneath it carried Borros Baratheon’s name and seal.

He recognised Rhaenyra Targaryen as the lawful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.

The words were more direct than anything Borros had sent since Viserys’s death. He affirmed that the late king had named Rhaenyra before the assembled realm, that no lawful judgement had removed her from the succession, and that Aegon’s death had ended whatever claim Oldtown continued to raise through him.

The Stormlands would answer Rhaenyra’s commands.

Storm’s End would deny harbour, roads, provisions, and men to the Hightowers and any lord still fighting beneath Aegon’s name. Borros ordered his vassals to renew their oaths, cease private feuds over the succession, and prepare forces for royal service if called.

I read the declaration a second time before placing it upon the table.

Landrey leaned forward to examine the Baratheon seal. "He has chosen a fortunate moment to remember the oath his house swore."

"Borros has never confused speed with wisdom," Lord Bulwer said. "He waited until enough men died to make the decision safer."

There was bitterness in his judgement, though Bulwer had followed Ormund until betrayal made another loyalty preferable. He understood the convenience of late conviction better than most.

"He still declared," I said. "The timing may offend us, but Storm’s End matters more than the pride wounded by its delay."

Dick turned the parchment so he could read the final lines. "The declaration says pressure from his principal vassals had made neutrality impossible. Dondarrion, Tarth, and Swann appear to have been particularly persistent."

"They were loyal before Borros found certainty," I said. "Each of them controlled enough roads, ports, and borderlands to make the Lord Paramount’s silence increasingly difficult to maintain."

Borros ruled the Stormlands, but no lord ruled through title alone. House Dondarrion guarded the marches. Tarth commanded an island and harbour too important to ignore. House Swann held strength near the Dornish border. If those houses recognised Rhaenyra while Storm’s End refused to choose, the region would begin obeying Borros in ceremony and others in practice.

A Lord Paramount who waited too long could discover that his vassals had already made the decision for him.

Dick looked toward me. "Rhaenyra will need to decide what reward accompanies the sudden discovery of Borros’s principles."

"Recognition does not require immediate reward. His declaration protects his own position as much as it helps ours."

"Borros may disagree."

"Then Borros can write another letter."

Landrey gave a brief smile, though the mood in the hall remained too measured for celebration. The second message had travelled with the first. House Estermont and House Wylde had followed Storm’s End.

Both had declared for Aegon during the earlier uncertainty. Their banners had given the Green faction a foothold within the Stormlands, though neither possessed enough strength to challenge the greater loyalist houses alone.

Estermont’s island and ships offered possible passage along the Narrow Sea, while House Wylde’s position gave Oldtown friends near routes connecting the Stormlands to the Crownlands.

Their declarations had mattered while Borros remained silent. Once Storm’s End chose Rhaenyra, they became isolated. Dondarrion lands stood against them from the west. Swann and lesser loyalist houses denied easy movement through the southern marches. Tarth threatened the waters and coastal routes, while Borros now possessed the lawful authority to call the rest of the Stormlands against any vassal who remained defiant.

Neither Estermont nor Wylde had the numbers to fight their neighbours and Storm’s End together. They submitted quickly.

The language used by their maesters attempted to make the reversal appear principled. Both houses claimed their earlier declarations had been made before the full truth of Aegon’s seizure became known.

They cited Aegon’s death, Daeron’s oath, and the continuing safety of Alicent, Helaena, and the twins as proof that Rhaenyra did not intend to exterminate her half-siblings or every house that had once opposed her. There was truth in that. There was also fear.

Estermont agreed to open its harbours to ships loyal to the queen and surrender any messages or agents sent by Oldtown. House Wylde renewed its oath through Storm’s End and promised men for the defence of the Crownlands if Borros called them.

Their former support for Aegon would still require judgement. Submission did not erase what they had done, but it removed the need to conquer them. So long as Rhaenyra offered terms that allowed proud lords to bend without expecting execution, more houses might choose survival over fighting for a dead king.

"The rebel presence in the Stormlands has collapsed without a battle," Jasper said after reading the report. "That is more than we managed in the Reach."

"The Stormlands did not have Ormund leading twenty thousand men beneath their trees," Landrey replied. "Nor did they have Aegon arriving on Sunfyre to convince everyone that another charge might save them."

Jasper’s expression tightened at the mention of the battle, but he accepted the distinction. "They also had several loyal houses willing to pressure their lord before the enemy could gather properly. It would have been useful if Highgarden had shown the same courage."

"Highgarden’s neutrality denied Ormund reinforcements," I said. "I would have preferred its banners, but a neutral Tyrell prevented the Reach from becoming one host beneath Oldtown. Borros’s declaration is stronger because his vassals had already made opposition costly."

Lord Bulwer studied the Stormlands. "Estermont and Wylde will expect forgiveness because they changed sides before soldiers reached their gates."

"They may receive pardons with conditions," I said. "Hostages, oaths renewed before Borros and the queen, surrender of correspondence with Oldtown, and men provided for royal service would be reasonable."

"Would you trust those men near King’s Landing?"

"Not within the city. They can guard roads, ports, and supply routes beneath commanders already proven loyal. A house does not need to be trusted completely before it can be made useful."

Bulwer understood the implied comparison. His own soldiers had been accepted into Rhaenyra’s service after Ormund left them behind. They were not placed alone or given control of positions that could endanger the army. Bulwer men served beside Dread Legion veterans and Reach companies whose allegiance had not changed after defeat.

Trust was being built through supervision rather than gifted because an oath sounded sincere. He did not object.

The council spent the remainder of the morning examining what the Stormlands’ declaration changed beyond its borders. Borros could threaten any Green movement through the south-eastern Crownlands.

Tarth and Estermont together might strengthen Rhaenyra’s access to the Narrow Sea, though Corlys’s death and the division upon Driftmark still complicated every naval calculation.

Stormlander troops could also march north toward King’s Landing if Aemond threatened the capital. That possibility mattered most. Vhagar remained unseen.

Reports from Harrenhal placed Green soldiers within the ruined castle, but Aemond and his dragon had departed without leaving a reliable direction. The Stormlands were now loyal, but that did not make them safe from him. Borros’s declaration might even draw Vhagar south if Aemond wished to punish the region before its forces gathered.

I dictated a response to Storm’s End before the council dispersed.

Borros’s declaration would be welcomed in Rhaenyra’s name, though only the queen could grant final terms to houses that had supported Aegon. I urged him to secure the principal roads and harbours immediately, place reliable men around the holdings of Estermont and Wylde, and prevent private vengeance against soldiers who obeyed their lords before the submission.

The Stormlands needed to change allegiance without falling into reprisals. A lord whose keep was burned after yielding would teach the next lord to resist.

I also requested that Borros begin gathering a mobile force near Storm’s End without stripping every castle of defenders. Vhagar’s location remained unknown, and a great concentration of soldiers would offer Aemond a target too valuable to ignore. Smaller formations could protect roads and assemble quickly once the danger became clearer.

Dick listened while the scribe repeated the message. "Borros may not enjoy receiving military advice from Honeyholt."

"Then he may disregard it and discover whether Vhagar respects his title."

"That should encourage humility."

"Nothing encourages humility in a Baratheon for long."

The scribe’s expression remained carefully blank.

When the letters had been sealed, I went to the northern rise where Dravvaxx rested.

His healing wing had survived several short flights during the final week of our month at Honeyholt. The scar remained thick and uneven through the membrane, and the muscles beneath the shoulder tired more quickly than before. He could carry me if needed, but neither the dragonkeepers nor I believed he was ready for sustained battle.

He watched me approach and lowered his head enough for my hand to reach the scales near his jaw.

"The Stormlands have declared for Rhaenyra," I told him. "One part of the realm has managed to choose without requiring us to burn an army first."

Dravvaxx exhaled softly.

"You are correct. They took an unreasonable amount of time."

His silver eye remained fixed upon me. I looked east, though Storm’s End lay far beyond the horizon.

Borros Baratheon’s decision removed the final uncertain great region near King’s Landing. The Vale had sworn through Luke’s mission. The North had sent the Winter Wolves after Jace secured Cregan Stark’s support.

The Riverlands rallied around Daemon despite Aemond’s seizure of Harrenhal. The Reach had been divided, but Ormund’s main host no longer existed. Now the Stormlands stood beneath Rhaenyra’s banners.

Estermont and Wylde had abandoned the Green cause because remaining loyal to it meant standing alone among enemies. Oldtown still held. The Arbor still possessed ships. The Westerlands remained hostile despite Jason Lannister’s death. Aemond and Vhagar remained somewhere unseen.

Yet the war Aegon’s supporters had tried to spread across the Stormlands had ended before becoming a true campaign. There would be no separate Green host marching north from Storm’s End. No chain of hostile castles isolating King’s Landing from the south. No Baratheon army waiting to decide the crown only after reaching the capital’s gates.

The Green presence in the Stormlands no longer existed.

It was a victory achieved through pressure, fear, reason, and the accumulating evidence of every battlefield that came before it. Borros had not seen the light from sudden devotion. He had seen the direction in which the realm was moving and understood that standing still would eventually leave him beneath it. I could live with that. Rhaenyra did not need every lord to love her.

She needed them to recognise that her rule offered a future, while resistance offered isolation, hunger, and the fate of the armies broken at Honeyholt and in the Riverlands.

A raven left for King’s Landing before sunset carrying the declarations of Storm’s End, Estermont, and Wylde. Another flew toward Harrenhal’s western approaches, warning Daemon that the Stormlands were secure enough to support the Crownlands if Aemond appeared.

The news spread through Honeyholt’s camps by evening. Men cheered more loudly than they had when Aegon died. The death of a king and dragon had stunned them into silence. The surrender of a region without another battle offered something easier to welcome.

No new graves accompanied Borros’s oath. For the first time in weeks, the realm had changed in Rhaenyra’s favour through ink rather than fire.