And here, the chapter you were waiting so much for...

"The King will be arriving today" Brynden told his nephew as he sat down in front of his broken mirror, a property he inherited from his mother, and stylish his hair into a northern style. Normally, he would use his favoured valyrian braids, but now he couldn´t afford a mistake. But it annoyed him to no end. To have to change his favourite part of himself because of that fat king was… "Daeron"

"I´m listening" the boy answered, finishing with his hair. He lifted himself from the chair, fastening his cloak with an old wolf pin that used to be owned by his uncle. "Be there, kneel, act nicely and entertain the royal guests" he showed his teeth to the door. "Hide the dragon behind pleasant smiles."

"Don´t take it like that, it´s important for royalty to hide their true feelings in front of their nobles and ambassors. How are you going to deal with them once we are finished with this when you can´t even keep your cold façade up?" Bloodraven said with a serious look. "This is part of your kingly training, the most important one. Your proof of fire, if you want to put it somehow."

"Proof of fire?"

"If you can control yourself in front of the Usurper and his Lannister wife, then you can do it confronted by anyone" the both of them stared at each other, having a silent conversation until the younger dragon simply nodded. Breathing in, Jon prepared himself for the spectacle. He went down the stairs, finding Robb in the way. He was fighting with his cloak, passing a hand absentmindedly through his chin. The other boy stifled a laugh, making the Stark heir turn to him. "After shave problems, brother?"

"Jaja, continue laughing. You only are like that because you don´t need to shave or cut your hair in Winterfell. We will see who has after shave problems when Tom has you in his chair."

"And let him see my silver roots? Not a chance" The Targaryen answered, passing a hand through his hair. He hated having to cut it so it only reached his shoulders and to cover his beautiful natural colour with that brown pudding, but it was the only chance to keep him safe, so… "Stay close to me, I´m going to need all my willpower to control myself today."

"Me and Grey Wind will be" then something came to Robb´s mind. "And before I can forget" the redhead took him to the kennels, where the dogs were kept. In a particular one was… "We found him and his littermates near their dead mother´s body in the forest when we were returning from an execution. Father wanted to kill them, but I convinced him to let us keep them. That one doesn´t have an owner yet and I thought you would like to have him."

"Thank you, he is great" Daeron picked up the albino direwolf, holding it to his face while the pup licked him. Robb also smiled, happy to lift his cousin´s mood now that they were going to receive the worst visits he could imagine. At least for him. "He is a silent one, not emitting a sound. I´m going to call him… Ghost."

"And I hope he helps you remember that you are as much direwolf as you are dragon."

"I do remember that" he put the pup away from his face, then to the ground. "But right now, he will have to remind me that I have to be a direwolf" he sighed. "Do you think I look too much like my mother?"

"More like father, but right now, it´s better like that" a sound interrupted their conversation. "Ready, your Grace?"

"As much as I will ever be" the both of them went to the courtyard, where the Stark household was preparing to receive the King´s retinue. Robb walked straight for the family line with all his siblings while Daeron camouflaged himself in the back. He breathed in and out, willing himself to act like the good little bastard he never was and be invisible. By his side, Bloodraven prepared himself to remind his great nephew how to behave if his warm blood reached his head.

The Baratheon King and practically all his court entering the courtyard, first the knights and the soldiers, guarding an enormous wheelhouse that probably contained the queen and royal children. The entire household kneeled, the hidden king with them. He didn´t like it, but he need to survive to get his throne. After a few minutes, Daeron lifted his head a bit, his eyes falling on an enormous knight accompanying a young, proud looking blond boy. A knight that for a second he confused with the Mountain for his high. Fear and anger creeped into his soul, his mind plagued with murderous thoughts. A raven landed on his shoulder, calming him down. It was not the Mountain, it was his younger brother, the Hound. So the brat must be Prince Joffrey, the heir to the Throne.

Keeping his mouth and expression in check on willpower alone, he turned to see a fat man entering on a mighty stallion. The dragon felt pity for the horse for a moment, before hate swirled on his stomach. There, in front of him, was the Usurper Robert Baratheon in all his splendour. Or as much splendour as he could have looking like a pig ready for slaughter. The raven croaked on his shoulder, feeling his internal fire. Having the man that murdered both of his parents in front of him was hard to tolerate, his hand even started to itch for the Valyrian steel dagger he had with him, but… but… he lowered his head again.

"You got fat" the pudgy king told his uncle, not noticing the murderous purple eyes glued to the ground of one of the back lines member. His uncle and the Usurper laughed together before embracing each other. How could the man laugh with the murderer of his own sister? And to embrace him like a brother! Even so, Daeron kept his mouth shut, his expression neutral, his eyes barely lifted from the ground so they didn´t catch the attention of anyone. He was so concentrated in that that he didn´t catch anything until…

"My Queen" he lifted his head only to see his uncle place a kiss on the Lannister queen´s hand. Lady Catelyn bowed to the woman, who wore a self-sufficient and smug expression in her face. Cersei Lannister looked every bit a queen, a great beauty, but to the Targaryen she was just a target. As well as her children. Finally, after the introductions, the king shouted for his wine, to which Lord Stark responded with an invitation to the Main Hall. All the household was sent back to their tasks, while Daeron was quickly to disappear.

"The nerve… THE NERVE!" the king finally exploded in his lonely room in the Tower of the Widow, throwing decoration after decoration around the room, breaking a few vases while his great uncle observed, letting him release his anger on the poor things. "HOW DARE HIM TO RECEIVE THAT MAN AS IF HE IS HIS BROTHER?! AFTER ALL WHAT HE DID! HE MURDERED MY MOTHER! AND MY FATHER! THE NERVE!"

"Daeron, calm down now, your screams could be heard outside the room and that would be dangerous" Bloodraven said in a calm tone, gaining a glare from his nephew. "Oh, I don´t enjoy his presence more than you, but I´m not the one that can be seen and executed, no?"

"I know, I know, you don´t have to repeat it" he rubbed his arms, trying to get the anger out of his system. "I just… it got to me."

"No, Daeron, you controlled it pretty well. It didn´t get to you" Brynden approached to give him as much moral support as he could with his intangible form. "Losing control would have been stabbing the man as soon as you noticed him for all the damage he has done to you, for all he took from you, but you didn´t. This proves how smart and strong you really are" the Raven smiled at him. "I´m proud."

"I haven´t done anything yet to deserve that feeling"

"On the contrary, you have done much. Especially considering how quickly I´m forcing you to mature" a pause later, a raven sat on the boy´s head. "My strong prince, so much like his ancestors. You are already a better king than that fat joke I saw outside."

"Thank you" the king answered, sitting down on his bed and letting the Bloodraven take a seat next to him. "It was unbecoming of me, throwing a tantrum after meeting Robert Baratheon. I already knew what the man did, I should have been prepared and controlled myself a little bit better."

"My king, you might have the bearings of a great king already, but you are still only a six and ten namedays old boy. You can´t expect to completely control your emotions"

"You gave me that proof of fire."

"Yes, but it was not letting them know that you have such anger inside of you. And you passed" Brynden put a phantasmal hand on his shoulder. "Keep that in mind and act normally through the day, hiding your feelings in front of them. That will get you far."

"Or teach me deal with obnoxious courtiers or annoying ambassors" Daeron rolled his eyes. "Anyway, we are not here to discuss my mummery in front of the Stag King, no?" down to business, as always, thought the Raven. "If you have some information or a passage of the past you have to show me…"

"It was a bad idea teaching you that ability, no?"

"It is not like I can do that without your aid" they looked at each other with a smile before laughing together. "I guess you want to talk me about the affairs of the Realm then, uncle. What was happening while I was gallivanting in Essos?"

"More of the usual, but that´s worrying in itself. You might want to take a quill and paper, because this is something you might not be able to solve on your own." Daeron lifted his eyebrow, not believing him, but obeying the elder man equally. After a few minutes, he stared in horror at the data that was written on it. He surely couldn´t deal with this himself, he was going to need Larence for it. Seven Hells, he was going to need an army of Larences to solve this situation.

"Gods dammit, what was that fat stag thinking? He is practically selling the Throne to Tywin Fucking Lannister!" he said after an analysis of the Realms finances. "And asking for loans from the Iron Bank without the means to give them back… that´s mad!" he threw the papers. "We are going to end up being governed by the Braavossi at this rate!"

"Or you, as your expedition to Valyria gave you the meanings to pay the debt" Brynden remind him, but his nephew only grumbled. What the Raven was saying was true, of course, but this cut the expenses a lot in his war treasury. More than he could afford. "Besides, once the Lannisters are taken care of, your debt to them will disappear."

"This is a greater problem, uncle, and you know it." Daeron took his hands to his hair in despair. Dammit, even Ramsay, who was terrible with numbers, would notice that this was bad news. How did the Stag King ignore it? "We are heading to a war, but the Lannister and Baratheon coffers are empty. Wars always meant money to hire troops, forge equipment, weaponry… Where are they going to get the money from? Squeezing it from the poor? It´s not enough."

"I know"

"Dammit, what was that imbecilic Master of Coin doing?"

"He was busy filling his own pockets with the Realm´s money and planning how to climb the social ladder through an affair with a Lady Paramount crazily in love with him" the boy lifted his head to look weirdly at his uncle. "Petyr Baelish, an old friend of Lady Catelyn. He is also the same man that your uncle Brandon fought over Catelyn´s hand in marriage. Lady Lysa Arryn also happened to be madly in love with him since early childhood. Enough to help him murder a Lord Paramount."

"What a horrible taste, all of them" he grabbed a valyrian dagger from his night table. "So… he might want to get rid of my uncle once he is there to make Lady Catelyn a widow?" Bloodraven looked at him. Excellent deduction. "It was easy" he answered, not concerned. "Robb already informed me that the King plans to make my traitorous uncle his Hand. He also wanted to ask for that brat Sansa´s hand in marriage to his son."

"Poor creature, Lady Sansa" Brynden said. "The visions I have had of the Lannister Bastard posing as a Baratheon Prince are horrible even for me. One that delights so much in cruelty should never be allowed near the Throne."

"Lannister Bastard?" now that was interesting. Why wasn´t he informed before?

"You should better act as if you don´t know this until it´s made public or you have a way to prove it, but Joffrey Baratheon is actually the product of Queen Cersei´s affair with a knight. He doesn´t have a drop of Baratheon blood in his veins."

"Interesting… too bad I can´t use it yet" Daeron commented, waving his hand. "It would bring me more trouble than benefit to accuse the Crown Prince of being a bastard" then smiled as if something funny occurred to him. "You know, I might be up to assist the banquet tonight after all."

"Didn´t Lord Stark told you don´t have to? That he will send a servant with your dinner here?" Brynden raised an eyebrow. His nephew never made it easy, to predict the future. And that was the fun part of being with him. His unpredictability… it made his live interesting.

"But how am I going to endear myself to the King if I don´t go?"

"Confident that you will keep your cool in front of him?"

"More than ever" he picked a silk package from one of his travel chests. It was an ability he learned a while ago in Pentos and, while the abilities he learned from Brynden were better, this little trick will impress. And just for fun, he took another, bigger package with him. "Let´s see if this doesn´t catch the queen´s attention."

"Do you really want the queen to notice you?"

"Just to play a little bit with her mind, that´s all" Daeron smiled again, raising a small sack in front of his eyes. Let´s see if the Lannister woman can with this.

-In the banquet-

"The cards said that you will have a prosperous live and many, many children" Jon Snow said, smiling at the Lady in front of him as he grabbed his cards again to pass to the next client. Now, the tarot cards were something he learned from a pentoshi street magician and not the best divination instrument if you have to be honest (they had a great percentage of failure), but combined with his warging habitlies, they were other thing.

He learned to warg when he was little, because no one lived with Brynden Bloodraven for long without witnessing a bit of magic. In his case, he had always taken it for normal, having seen it since he was a baby, but once he started living openly in Winterfell, he noticed that it was anything but normal. That having ravens dusting your room and rabbits helping you clean wasn´t normal. So he started pestering Brynden with questions about his abilities until he got answers and the promise that he will teach him. The training was hard, but he finally managed to master it. And turn it into something useful to get information of reluctant sources. Like those ladies.

"Don´t fret, your husband will soon show the same kind of affection he did before your four children. You only have to remind him that his dealings with Petyr Baelish will have to be reduced soon" and to doom someone. Warging abilities were especially great to mess with someone´s life. "Thank you, the next…"

"I would like to know my future" Queen Cersei approached his little post in the back of the banquet room. The boy´s purple eyes stopped on her with mischief carefully concealed. The woman surely was there to mock him in front of everyone, of showing the bastard his place, but that was not going to happen. Not with his abilities. Anyway, the woman was extending a hand with a golden coin on it in that moment. "This will cover it, no?"

"Of course, your Grace, please make yourself comfortable" he invited her, glad to have caught her attention. And that of all the people in the room. The prepared his cards and was about to set them, but teathrically stopped himself. "You know, my queen, how about we stop playing this game and pass to the serious thing."

"I didn´t know the cards were a game"

"They are just not the most trustworthy method of divination. Fit for peasants, maybe minor nobility, but not for a queen" Cersei smiled, ready to mock him, but he grabbed something from under the table. He unwrapped the silken envelope to show a circular board with runes of the Children of the Forest. Then a little sack. He picked a stone from the sack and showed it to her. "Blood of an Old God, a very strange kind of precious stone indeed. From a fossilized weirwood tree. It´s more accurate" he held it in front of her eyes. "Do you want to continue, your Grace?"

"Of course" Jon took the amber in his hands and threw it over the board. Bloodraven looked at it with interest. The bead and board were indeed a good method of divination, but, as he himself knew, information was power. And HIS information more. "This is interesting. You have asked someone to tell you your future before."

"How do you know it?" now Cersei was struggling to keep her cold face. How did the bastard know she asked Maggie the Frog about her future when she was a child?

"This formation of beads here in the future side of the board clearly said predestined, which can mean that the person already knows" Jon continued analysing the board with a straight face as Bloodraven whispered into his ear. His hands followed one of the veins. "Part of the prophecy already has become truth. You married a King, you bear him three children… and he already has sixteen bastards" her face was livid then, something which amused him a lot. Because he saw it, fear in her eyes. That was delightful. "Oh, it says that you also know that you will survive your children."

"You…"

"What am I seeing here? Gold will be their crowns and gold their shrouds? Was that what the other person said?" the Lannister woman´s blood ran cold at those words. How did he know? How did he know the exact words? "The beads say that one will die in a mantel of red and purple, right in your arms without anything you can do, other surrounded by enemies, deprived of her beauty by a star…"

"Stop, I think I heard enough" Cersei lifted herself from her chair, getting away with such a face that caused Jamie to follow her out of the room and Robert to laugh. He approached the boy with a sour faced Eddard Stark, who saw the beads the boy was taking away.

"I´m sorry if I have caused your wife trouble, your Grace" Jon said, not dropping his façade a bit despite the anger waking in his entrails. "You see, divination is a pastime of mine and can´t stop myself from showing off in the banquets."

"It´s not problem, dear boy" Robert answered, giving him a smile. The stench coming from him was so penetrant that Ghost whined under the table. "You gave me a few hours without her, I´m grateful" he sat down in front of the other. "So, you are the bastard" he nodded. "I can´t imagine how Ned did it. He always talked about his honour, you know."

"Yes, I indeed know him despite not seeing each other for two years" the man gave him a curious look. "I´m a merchant or that´s what I´m striving to become. I work as a helper in ships some times."

"Curious, your father told me you were planning to join the Night´s Watch"

"Maybe that was what he remembered from when I was little, but I changed my mind" he looked at Eddard, who was absurdly livid. "Maybe we need more time to together to put us to date."

"Indeed we do" the Lord of Winterfell answered. "Jon, please accompany me to my solar, I would like to have some words with you. Your Grace, please excuse us" and before Robert could open his mouth to retort, they were both gone from the room. And once in the solar… "You are taking too many risks, Daeron. Scaring the queen that way. What were you thinking?"

Oh, he still didn´t know? He was exploiting weaknesses, like a good player. After all, he needed all the advantages in this dangerous game he had just entered to.

Jon and Brynden out to break havoc in the world. And playing mind games is one of young Daeron´s specialities, as he is aiming to be King. Anyway, he has enough amunition to start his reconquest and the eggs that will be the key to his victory. Now he just has to prove that he is better at this than Tywin Lannister, but that won´t be easy. Even with the warging. What do you think? Review!