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Jenna Royce’s labours begin in midafternoon during her ninth moon of pregnancy. Three moons before she had expressed a desire to give birth to her child in the place where she grew up despite tradition and her marriage to the heir of Runestone. But for love of his wife almost twenty-five name days Ben Royce decides that he will honour her wishes. The entire Royce family, except cousin William who will stay behind to rule as Regent in Mother’s name, descend upon the Eyrie. And when Jenna’s labours begins Ben is right at her side. The Old Falcon, Rodrik Arryn, waits with his son, Elbert, (and Jenna’s father at his side). Lady Rhea Royce and her husband Alaric Stark are there with their other three children: twenty year old Arthur, fifteen year old Ella, and ten year old Harlon. The labour is thankfully a short one. But once the babe is born screams fill the chamber. 

Rodrik enters when Master Amos calls for him and Jenna’s cries are heard. Rhea races in with Alaric shortly behind her and the sight she sees fills her with horror. Jenna’s babe, minutes old and crying, has a head full of thick silver hair. And Rhea knows if those eyes open they may be a deep amythest. She almost collapses but Alaric holds her up. She slams the door shut behind them. The noise stuns everyone into silence. 

She looks to the Old Falcon and to her son who has a fury and a pain in his eyes. “Uncle you must let them clean up Jenna. I know you and Ben have questions. And I will answer as soon as Jenna is clean and the babe looked at. The babe is your’s Ben.” She takes a deep breath and this is when the tears start to choke her throat. Rodrik, her beloved uncle looks at her with alarming understanding and fury. Ben looks angry and confused and Rhea knows he may never forgive her for this. “The babe is you blood son.” 

“Then why does does the child look this way Mother!!!!”

And her son’s angry interrogation is interrupted by the calm voice of her husband. “Ben. The babe is of your blood. The child of you and you wife.” Alaric sighs, closes his eyes, and looks at the man in front of him. The man who was a boy her loved and raised as his own. “The answer is simple. You and the babe have dragon for blood kin. Not any wolves.” 

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The babe has been cleaned and given to Jenna who is holding her newborn son fiercely. Rhea knows that her good daughter will fight to the death for her son. Her silver hair babe with brilliant blue eyes. Her uncle, the old Falcon Rodrik Arryn and his heir Elbert, stand with Jenna. She knows that House Arryn will not allow one of their own to be slandered. She looks over at Alaric with their children. She looks over at Ben. Her eldest son and heir. Ben who is her mirror with his brown hair and amber eyes. Her firstborn and the babe she vowed to love forever and always. Ben who may be her mirror physically but is like his father in so many ways. Ben with his rage, carelessness, ability with a sword, and charisma that makes it easy for his to draw people to him. Ben who despite his temper has the Stark honour and grit. Ben is the best and worst of his parents. Both seen and unseen. 

Rhea hates that it has come to this. She hates that the secret she has spent twenty-five years protecting has come to the light. She had hoped she, Alaric, William, Gerold, and Alyssa would take this to their graves. It is as if the gods are laughing at her. The storm outside has worsened and Rhea can feel the buzz in the air. She rarely uses her abilities but as a warg she knows when one is close. A dragon is near. And she knows which one it is. All of her children have inherited her gift in one way or another. But she had never wanted this burden to come down onto Ben’s shoulders. There will be no running from this. The entire realm will know the truth of it now. Just like she owes it to her kin now. 

Rhea Royce stands by the fire. Everyone else in the room looks at her. She takes a deep breath. “Ben your father is Daemon Targaryen. The man known to the World as the Rouge Prince. I met him for the first time when I was thirteen and went with my cousin Aemma to Kings Landing.”

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And so Rhea Royce tells a tale. She tells of going with her cousin to the dragon’s den to foster under the queen for three years. She tells of the bond shared between the Royce children and Aemma. She tells of the hatred she developed for once Daemon Targaryen. She tells of how she best him in a duel and faced down the Red Wyrm to win a bet. She tells of how the years passed and how the hatred turned a grudging respect and then friendship. How the lines became blurred and a bond formed. How an argument turned to a kiss in the dark. How the kisses turned to everything she needed and never knew she wanted. Of how vows were made under the weirwood tree. How those vows were broken when the Queen desired Daemon to marry her beloved Gael. 

How Rhea missed her moonblood and approached her friend Alaric to marry her to protect her honour and save her child. How Rhea and William married in the godswood of Kings Landing and left the city not even two days later. How Ben was born a small child and no one suspected a thing. How both had vowed to love and raise the child as a Royce of RUnestone and a Stark of Winterfell. 

Once she is done speaking Rhea sniffs and wipes the tears from her eyes with her hands adorned with Runes. The entire time she told her tale she had been sidling with a gold chain she wore around her neck. A gold chain she never took off. A gold chain no one would ever know had been given to her a nameday gift from a stuttering boy who said he loved her. 

No one has to say what the Rouge Prince has been up to over the years. A failed married to Gael Targaryen that ended with the barren girl taking her own life. Of his marriage to Laena Velaryon and the twin daughters she has born him. The entire situation is a mess. 

Her children and kin look at her with anger and some pity. She can take the anger but she does not want pity. She does not want their pity. She knows she was a foolish girl to love a dragon. She knows she was a fool to trust his words. She knows she was a fool to make a blood vow under the weirwood tree. 

and despite all of this she still loves him. It has been fifteen years and Daemon is still buried too deep too cut him out. He is with her in every breath and he will haunt her until she dies. And now her family will pay the price. 

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Ben Royce looks as his mother as he struggle to process what he has heard. In a matter of hours his entire world has been shattered. His first born child, the Lord of Runestone after him, born with silver hair. His mother telling him that his father is the Rouge Prince. The product of a teenaged love affair the ended with betrayal and secrets. Ben has always felt a rage in his bones. Something that made him sometimes feel like his marrows were on fire. He is not grounded like his mother or steady like his father. He has always been a bit to angry and felt like he had too much to prove. But his talent with a blade is unparalleled and he is able to walk with people from all walks of life. Ben has always had an arrogance that seemed out of place. Only now to discover that arrogance is inherited. 

Ben looks at his mother with love and shame in her eyes. Love for him and her children. And love for a man who broke her heart twenty-five years ago. He looks at Alaric Stark, the the man who raised him and loved him all the same despite his dragon blood. He looks at his siblings and good family. He looks at his wife who holds their son in her hands. 

Ben knows now that this will change everything. It will uproot the politics of Westeros completely. He has no wish for this. Ben wants only to go home to Runestone with his family and to be left alone. 

But he also feels a need to show everyone who and what he is made of. He has the wish to show the Rouge Prince what he lost and what Alaric Stark gained. The fire in his belly burns and he feels it rise though his spine. His locks eyes with his mother. He decides then and there that he will always be Ben Royce, son of Rhea and Ben. He will defend the Vale and its people to his last breath. If the dragons try to destroy his peace let them come. He will destroy them all. 

And at that moment lightning strikes and a deep rumble is heard. A roar follows. A dragon has come to the Eyrie. 

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Everyone in the room startles and pales. Shouts are heard outside in the halls and the ground shakes. Rhea Royce turns alarmed to the door. The beast is here. She throws open the door and ignores the yells behind her. She will face the creature like she did twenty-seven years ago. She hears the footsteps behind her. She hears her name and someone grabs her hand. It is Ben with Alaric behind him.

”Mother I will go. Stay here with Father.”

”Ben no!! You don’t know what is out there. It is a greedy thing that will not leave without taking something in return.”

Her son smiles and then kisses her forehead. “It seems my inheritance has come. It seems right I answer the call.”

And so Ben Royce the heir to Runestone exits the doors of the Eyrie to look at the behemoth standing on the bridge leading the castle to the road up to it. Midnight black with vibrant green eyes that reflect in the lightning strikes Ben knows what creature this is. The Cannibal. A creature almost as old a Vhagar and certainly almost as big. A angry and vicious creature who ate its own kind. Ben wonders if there will be parallels to himself.

He feels something like a whisper in the back of his head. The creature’s head looms closer as flames escape its mouth. The giant maw opens and a roar so loud escapes rattling his bones and echoing in the mountains surrounding them. Ben does not blink and does not move. He refuses to cower. If this creature is to be his death he will not go like a coward. He has made his choice.

And then the whisper in the back of his head becomes a scream. A scream filled itch rage and loneliness and curiosity and amusement. Ben welcomes it all. He moves toward the beast and extends his hand. The scaled head meets him half way. A rumble from the belly of the beast feels like a small form of contentment. Then the best opens its jaw. Ben looks unsure until he sees it. A dragon egg caught in some of the dragon’s teeth. A worn egg but undamaged. Tentatively he reaches on his toes to grab it. The eggs nearly burns but Ben holds it tight. It seem like his son may have a scaled companion of his own. 

As the rain falls Ben stands stroking the snout of a rumbling dragon. He prick his thumb on a jagged scale. His blood runs down the midnight scales bleeding together with the rain.