Of the Blood of the Dragon

Prologue

Not many people know the true history of House Valar.

House Valar also hailed from Valyria along with House Targaryen and House Velaryon. House Targaryen ruled the skies, House Valar protected them, and House Velaryon ruled the seas. Valar's cannot bond with a dragon although some of House Valar possess the power to shift into a Dragon, others possess the power of dragon fire. Instead of bonding with Dragons, House Valar instead bonded with dragon riders. Once bonded, a Dragon rider and a Valar couldn't be separated from one another.

For years, being a Valar was a death sentence. Always upholding the crown and protecting the realm. Every member of House Valar was a slave to something. Whether it be love, duty, or power, they all died the same. Victims of their loyalty to House Targaryen.

Valaria Valar who was the sworn protector of Aegon the Conqueror and his two sister wives Visenya and Rhaenys was the first Dragon Shifter to come to Westeros. Valaria who was mated to Aegon was killed in 37 AC when Maegor the Cruel ordered for her to be drowned in Blackwater Bay shortly after his father's death.

Since Aegon's Conquests no Valar has possessed the power to shift into a dragon.

That was until Valaena Valar was born.

In 88 AC, both Princess Alyssa Targaryen and the daughter of Valerion Valar, Vaelys Valar went into labor, however only Princess Alyssa survived. Prince Daemon Targaryen and Lady Valaena Valar were born on the same day.

So it is that Daemon and Valaena grow up together, her always clinging to his hand a little too tightly, and he glares at anyone who dares to upset her. Anyone with eyes can see that Daemon loves Valaena as much as she loves him.

They don't wonder at the Dragon Shifter harming the prince, nor at the admiration always shining in his eyes. They hold hands and share sweets, and they are happy children.

Only a Valar could truly love a Targaryen. Valaena had grown up reading stories of Valaria and Aegon, A Valar and Targaryen that were made for another that you couldn't deny the great love they had for the other nor the way they just fit like two puzzle pieces.

She wanted a love like that and longed for the day she would meet her Targaryen mate.

On Daemon and Valaena's ninth name day, Valaena is sent to Braavos for training in order to become the Protector of King Jaehaerys after her grandfather, Valerion. However, the knight escorting her took her to the House of Black and White to be trained instead.

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As the first century of the Targaryen dynasty came to a close, the health of the old king, Jaehaerys, was failing. In those days, House Targaryen stood at the height of its strength with ten adult dragons under its yoke. No power in the world could stand against it.

King Jaehaerys reigned over nearly sixty years of peace and prosperity. But tragedy had claimed both his sons, leaving his succession in doubt.

Baelon had sired three sons by his sister Alyssa. Two, Viserys and Daemon, still lived. Had Baelon ever taken the Iron Throne, Viserys would have followed him without question, but the crown prince's tragic death at the age of four-and-forty muddied the succession.

Moreover, King Jaehaerys still had one surviving son: Vaegon, an archmaester at the Citadel, holder of the ring and rod and mask of yellow gold. Known to history as Vaegon the Dragonless, his very existence had been largely forgotten by most of the Seven Kingdoms. Though only forty years of age, Vaegon was pale and frail, a bookish man devoted to alchemy, astronomy, mathematics, and other arcane arts. Even as a boy, he had never been well-liked except for Lady Vaelys Valar. It is said that Lady Vaelys and Prince Vaegon shared a love for the arcane arts and that she was the only one who ever truly knew him.