The mist swelled around Dragonstone's cliffs, heavy with the promise of rain. Within the walls of the great keep, the tension built like a stormcloud gathering weight above the sea. Word had spread Vhagar had flown under the control of a boy who lost an eye in claiming her. And the Shadow still soared, untamed and unclaimed.
THE BLACKS
Rhaenyra Targaryen stood upright behind the long council table, hands braced on its carved surface. The hearth fire lit her pale features, revealing the steel in her eyes. Every breath she drew was measured, every syllable that followed heavy with resolve.
"They steam and boast of Vhagar," she intoned. "A boy… riding a mountain of flame and scale. They call it strength."
Corlys Velaryon, leaning on his cane, watched with somber gravity. His voice low: "Bold? Surely. But wisdom that remains their gamble."
"Do we have not the same fortune?" Rhaenyra returned. "Our banners bear dragons too giants of our own."
She gestured. Caraxes, coiling in memory. Syrax, Seasmoke, Meleys, and more silent names on the breeze of power. Dragons that still answered her call. Dragons born within these stones.
"Yet none is the Shadow," Jacaerys, still nursing a tender bruise, reminded her softly.
"He watches," Lucerys whispered, chin tucked. "High above, yes… but always watching."
Rhaenys, standing near the window, glanced at the ocean beyond wide, dark, untamed.
"He stays free," she murmured. "Though he could fall to any who dared clasp him, the Shadow chooses none."
A hush fell as the ancient oak door creaked. Maester Gerardys entered, parchment in hand, face pale.
"Your Grace…" he began. "There are rumors… not of his origin, but of his nature."
He paused, threading his hood back.
"Says the Dothraki. He calls it Flame Without Master. They speak of its cruelty. Of wyverns torn apart. They call it reckoning in the sky."
A collective exhale rattled the old stones.
"We call him the Shadow," Rhaenyra said quietly. "He is still unclaimed. And yet he remains within our sight."
"If he chooses none"
Corlys interrupted gently. "then we maintain what we have. But we must not do nothing."
"If he does choose," Rhaenys said, voice low but firm, "he must choose a Black."
The words hung, thick and unstoppable. No argument answered them. No dissent followed.
They looked at each other family, battered and bruised by blood, but unbowed.
Late that same evening, Rhaenyra found herself alone with her sons in a small chamber overlooking the roaring surf. The room smelled of smoke and salt, and moonlight bathed the stone floor in pale silver.
"He who rides Vhagar has power," Jace said, voice hushed. "Power enough to break kingdoms."
Rhaenyra knelt to his height, running a finger along his jaw.
"Yes. But he rides tonight's shadow. That shadow is still ours."
Lucerys, rubbing a sleeve over his cheek, spoke quietly: "He growled at me. Shook the stones. I thought"
"He thought you weren't ready," she said, voice gentle. "He is dangerous and worthy of respect."
She straightened.
"And you are worthy, my Lucerys."
They stared at each other a promise unspoken, fragile.
"We cannot claim him yet," she continued. "But we can learn to befriend him."
Her sons nodded, shadows beneath the flickering lamp.
"But how?" Jace asked, wary. "Approach again?"
"Not yet," she replied. "Not until we understand him."
A long pause.
"He is flame," Lucerys whispered, "but he is not our weapon."
"He is a weapon," Rhaenys echoed from the door. "But he answers only to himself."
They watched her step into the room calm, measured.
"Then let us be worthy of his glance," Rhaenyra said.
MC POV
The Shadow sat, still as storm-wrought stone, atop a blistered cliff above. Windbeats tugged at his massive wings, and though the night sky pressed close, he made no move.
His eyes, molten in the moonlight, were drawn to the glimmer of torchlight far below vessels of promise or folly, he could not say. He smelled the heat of their ambition, the cold of their schemes.
He remembered their arrogance — including the children's. Arrogance that almost burned. He had spared them… this time.