|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 19, 2014 22:36:09 GMT -5
Just one room in Prince Trystane's suite, his bedchamber is by far the most pleasant. It is dominated by a large bed draped in sheer silks and linens. There are several windows set in arches along one wall, which are often left open to catch the breeze.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 19, 2014 22:38:24 GMT -5
Visenya was waiting for Trystane in his chambers, lying on her stomach across his bed, draped in gauzy white robes and drinking wine. The bottle and another glass were close at hand. She was reading the latest reports from the marches.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 22:43:42 GMT -5
Trystane entered shortly after, and was not at all surprised to see Visenya lounging in his bed. "What are you reading, my dear?" he asked, pouring a goblet of wine for himself.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 19, 2014 22:53:58 GMT -5
She smiled at him when he came in and sat up, expertly spilling not a drop of her drink. "Reports from the northern border. Just missives about where and how the raids have been going. They are ceaseless." She shook her head disapprovingly. "I wish we could just take the castles back, and end this silly harrying back and forth."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 23:04:07 GMT -5
"Then let us strike against them. WIth Silvering and Nymeraxes, as well as Lord Dryland and his dragon and your son as well, those whoresons occupying Yronwood and Wyl will not be able to stand against such strength," Trystane replied. "The Stone Hawk would have sacked Nightsong last year, if my mother had provided him with more men, or permitted one of the dragon riders to join him in battle."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 19, 2014 23:11:16 GMT -5
Visenya sighed heavily. Trystane and Valaena seemed to be of similar minds, though her daughter would have them go west and her lover to the north. "Haven't you thought of peace? Arrange a ceasefire and a few marriages, a little smooth talking and perhaps Dorne could regain her castles with no more blood shed."
"No, I'm not stupid enough to believe that will work. But perhaps a peace could be arranged. Rhaena is a cruel woman, but she is fair, to my knowledge."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 23:14:52 GMT -5
"And offer them what? The Queen of Westeros desires nothing less than the subjugation of Dorne," Prince Trystane replied, his voice growing hard. "I will not see my people made subservient to that tyrant, for the sake of a few border castles. If she invades Dorne, her attempt will end in the same failure as her predecessors', and we shall remain free."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 19, 2014 23:32:37 GMT -5
"Trystane, Trystane," Visenya said soothingly, as soon as she heard his tone change. She got onto her knees and went toward the edge of the bed nearest him. "I want Dorne to keep her sovereignty as much as you do. I want revenge for what Borros Baratheon did to myself and to my family. But Valaena must marry, and I would have her marry someone of my blood."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 23:35:10 GMT -5
"And I want what you want, my love, but not at the price of Dorne's freedom. Short of offering our fealty to the Iron Throne, we have nothing that Queen Rhaena will accept in exchange for an end to the fighting. Unless we can negotiate from a position of strength, we will gain nothing by treating with her," he replied.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 19, 2014 23:47:57 GMT -5
"How do you expect us to gain such a position? The armies and navies of Dorne are not so numerous as those of the Reach, much less the Stormlands. We could take the castles back and evict Baratheon's ilk, but that would be an act of open aggression and render her less likely to treat with us." Visenya seemed thoroughly frustrated by the mere thought of it. "We cannot win, and in three generations Dorne will have no dragonriders at all." She sank down again as though deflated, going so far as to set her wine aside.
"There was another matter, as well," she added, quietly, spreading her papers out against the sheets and selecting one in an unusually elegant hand.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 19, 2014 23:50:41 GMT -5
"Dorne resisted dragons for eighty years without any of her own, and I suspect she will continue to do so even if we lose the gifts you have brought us," Trystane replied. "If you truly believe that, then you we ought to utilize our dragons' strength as much as we can now, while they are still available to us. Make no mistake, love, seizing Yronwood from that whoreson who sits in it would be no more an act of an aggression than when Lord Fowler besieged Nightsong last year. Until we win a decisive victory over our enemies, they will not respect us if we ask them to the bargaining table."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 20, 2014 8:26:58 GMT -5
He was right, as much as she did not wish him to be. "But your mother is so...conservative. Even if we were to lead an assault, would she give us the men? Four dragons, three of them almost negligible in size compared to Silverwing, against a garrison of Stormlanders who have surely installed ballistae atop their battlements by now." She sighed heavily.
"Anyway, I received this today, from across the Narrow Sea. What do you make of it?" She proffered the letter.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 20, 2014 9:05:02 GMT -5
Prince Trystane took the letter, scanning its contents. "I saw Nightsong's defenses last year. It is a stout castle, but not overlarge; even if they packed every inch of the walls with ballistae, they would not be able to truly threaten a dragon the size of Silverwing. Yronwood is more formidable, but no defense can truly protect a castle from attack coming from the sky. That is why when the Dragons invade Dorne, we abandon our castles and send our people into the high mountains; the dragons may burn what they will, but their soldiers will find no Dornish towns to ransack, no Dornish crops to steal. We are herdsmen, not farmers, and the Dragons never seem to learn that war is not waged in Dorne as it is waged in Westeros," he replied.
"Their armies cannot live off our land, cannot fend off the poisonous creatures that inhabit our lands, not the diseases to which they are unaccustomed. Dorne is a rather inhospitable place, for those who have not learned to love the land as every Dornishman is taught, and Reachmen and Stormlanders will continue to die until they learn that fact."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 20, 2014 9:16:56 GMT -5
When he finished the letter and looked up sharply at his paramour. "Is this some kind of a jape?" he asked. "You cannot think you are receiving a letter from a woman who died sixteen years ago."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 20, 2014 11:34:25 GMT -5
Visenya sat back on her heels, listening and waiting for him to finish reading. With all four if the dragons, the castles would be not terribly difficult to take. And if Nightsong was properly captured, she could be traded for another, or kept, as it may be. She did not fancy riding to battle, as the burning of men made her feel ill and gave her no pleasure (save for Baratheon, so many years ago, which had made her cry with delight and relief), bit if it was necessary for her country she would do it. Despite Sarella, Dorne had shown her more love and welcome than she had even known in Westeros.
When he finished at last, she raised her eyes to him again. "Well whoever wrote it has the right of it. At Darkheart she did swear friendship to me," Visenya said, remembering how she and Maekar and Vira had all three shared a bed that night. It still made her vaguely uncomfortable, but without Maekar between them now she found herself much warmer to the idea of a renewed friendship with Vira, that is, if the letter was not a hoax. "I am inclined to believe that she somehow survived. I want her to have lived. What do you think, though? Will the Burned Rider turn his eye on Westeros? I cannot think I would like to be ruled over by one such as him."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 20, 2014 15:43:26 GMT -5
"Unless he dies before he gets the chance, he most assuredly will, my love," Trystane replied. "As for the letter; the words may be true, but who penned them? Were there any others who knew of the events of which you spoke, who Vira may have told before her death? I admit, it is queer for someone to attempt to entrap you after such a time, but it is queerer still to believe that Maekar's Mistress (as Vira was often called in Westeros) could have survived Queen Rhaena's wroth."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 21, 2014 12:24:20 GMT -5
"Unless he dies before he gets the chance, he most assuredly will, my love," Trystane replied. "As for the letter; the words may be true, but who penned them? Were there any others who knew of the events of which you spoke, who Vira may have told before her death? I admit, it is queer for someone to attempt to entrap you after such a time, but it is queerer still to believe that Maekar's Mistress (as Vira was often called in Westeros) could have survived Queen Rhaena's wroth." "Who would she have told? I cannot think of why, if she is hiding her identity in such a way." She tapping her fingers against her thigh as she thought. "And it had a banner with it, from my uncle Maelys. I have that back in my rooms. No, it must be Vira." Visenya was quiet, wondering what the implications of this were. If only Valaena had been a boy, then he could marry Viras daughter. "But what do you think of...allying like this?" She looked up into Trystane's face. He was very strategy-minded, which she appreciated and found useful. "Do you think it may be to the benefit of Dorne?" |
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 21, 2014 12:44:05 GMT -5
Trystane looked back to the letter, and frowned. "Dorne will never kneel to this Burned Rider. By all accounts he is a greater tyrant even than the whore on the Iron Throne, and no Martell would so sully themselves by submitting our people to that writ. If she truly gains a dragon, perhaps I could convince my lady mother to offer her sanctuary in Dorne, if her dragon was put into service against our enemies," he said, looking down at Visenya, though she could read very little from his expression.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 21, 2014 16:24:25 GMT -5
"I fear what will happen if we do not submit, but I think it would be worse to live under the law of such a...creature." She could not bring herself to say man.
"I would like to write to her. What shall I say?"
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 21, 2014 18:40:03 GMT -5
"Offer her sanctuary at Whitesands, should she desire it," he suggested. "If she comes with a dragon she will have to seek specific permission from my mother before entering Dorne, but if it is just a former friend of the Lady of Whitesand, there is no reason to bar her entry."
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 22, 2014 9:31:06 GMT -5
"I will," Visenya replied, taking the letter back and studying it. "I do not think that she will win the Burned Rider's favor, but she has won the favor of tryannical men in the past." She thought of Maegor and shuddered to think of lying beneath him. The horror of it had certainly lessened as the years went by, especially after being brutally raped by Baratheon (of which the horror remained).
"How have you spent your day, my love? Have you any news or manoeuvres to tell me of?" She laid down on her stomach again, letting the letter from Vira fall into the pile of reports and dangling her feet in the air beside the bed.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Black Dread on Jun 22, 2014 10:31:40 GMT -5
"Not at the moment, my love," he said, climbing onto the bed and laying himself down on top of her and kissing her neck gently moving down her shoulder. His body pinned hers to the bed and he placed his hands over hers, entwining their fingers together. "Though come to think of it, I can think of a maneuver that that I would like to share with you," he added mischievously, wiggling his hips against her backside.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lady Visenya Targaryen on Jun 22, 2014 12:18:40 GMT -5
Visenya giggled and pretended to struggle . "And to think I was attempting serious conversation with you about important matters concerning the principality."
"But pray, tell me more about these manoeuvres that you had in mind, since you seem to have me as a captive audience."
|
|
all alone and also really bored 
Hopefully going to kickstart the festival too