court of lies | robert's rebellion

the below of the surface

"maybe it is not about happy endings, maybe it is just about the story"

282 AC, Starfall

Four moons ago...

"I know it sounds like madness.", Rhaegar said with a pensive tone as he played with the small star-shaped glass rested in his study. "But I believe you and I understand each other, Lord Dayne."

"No, not at all.", Andric rubbed his face.

It was middle of the night and he was woke up by his brother's hand on his shoulders. Half an hour later, they were sitting at his office, him trying to convince himself that this was all a dream, drowning himself in wine, Rhaegar talking about prophecies he couldn't grasp, rest of his companions were waiting outside.

"I know what you think.", Rhaegar turned to him. "You think that I have lost my mind and so does them,", he pointed out the door, meaning his companions. "the Targaryen madness hit, my coin fell to the wrong side and all that.", he shook his head. "I never bought much into that saying for I never thpught it to be true but I am more than aware how cautious it makes the mortal man about us.", he sighed. "For centuries, as long as we had dragons, it was thought Targaryens were closer to the Gods than men but it is also not true, no? We are mere humans at the end of the day. We sleep, we breathe, we eat, we bleed when you cut us down. Not much God material here, I fear. But I will not deny we were blessed to tirffle with powers no man can truly understand. I,", he pressed. "am blessed for that."

"You want to bring back the dragons, I understood that much.", Andric deadpanned. "Weapons to annihiliate thousands when they do something you do not like. Can you truly say Westeros was a worse place without tools for mass desctrustion?"

"You see, you are wrong.", Rhaegar was not behaving like his usual composed self, Andric didn't want to say 'mad' but he didn't know which word fit better here. "Dragons were never meant to be weapons.", he shook his head. "They were the creatures of the magic, the balance between what is good and what is evil."

"And what is good and what is evil, Rhaegar?", Andric asked with a genuine interest, trying to see how far he was gone. "If you claim you are evil, you will not take a foot away from my castle and if you claim your are good...", he raised his eyebrows. "Well, good doesn't do what you do."

"And what I do?"

"Bringing back tools,", Rhaegar closed his eyes to the second use of such an insulting word. "to ruin everything just because of selfih reasons."

"Magic is true and magic exist in our world, Lord Dayne.", Rhaegar made an sudden move and sat to his chair, Andric didn't even flinch. "You are a smart man, you do know that. It is more than a faint wish or a fever dream, magic is real and it is here. What will tore the world apart is having inbalance between the forces of them."

"Between good and evil?", he mocked. "Then I fear they were a little late toring ap-"

"Between the forces of the dead and the living.", Rhaegar deadpanned. "You know what I am talking about.", Rhaegar seemed taken aback by the sudden look on Andric's face, and muttered with surprise. "You have heard-"

"Of course I heard the legends and the myths about the Long Night all those saviours each one of them claims. But they are what they are, Rhaegar, legends and myths. No matter how much we want them to be true, they are not."

"I don't want them to be true.", he shook his head. "I wish it wouldn't be true but it is. There is a war coming, dead will stole from the living and if we want to have a chance to survive, at least a chance to fight back, we must balance the forces, bring back the magic to the living to its full power. Returning of the dragons will not just give leverage to my house, Lord Dayne, I know better than giving a dragon to the likes of my father. We need dragons to stregntehn our magic. So we can have a chance."