Chapter 04: Training, Politicking, More Training

King's Landing, Crownlands

2nd Moon, 259 AC

Prince Aerys Targaryen

It was unusual for a royal funeral to be so rushed, as it left no time for anyone to attend but those who were in the King's Landing, it was a necessity to finish the coronation and secure the line, as the Royal Family has never been so vulnerable since the end of the Dance.

The next day was a flurry of activity, everyone was busy preparing for the event, and it came and went in a blur, with the coronation finally coming to an end, we can now rest and grieve, not that I was doing any grieving myself, as after fully assimilating my predecessor memories any attachment left from him was extremely dulled, not that I don't care about my new family, but I have no time for the dead, so I buried myself in studying the history of my family and this world to discover anything that can be helpful in any way.

I made many discoveries by just studying the books of history available at the Royal Library and inquiring from the Grandmaester, chief amongst them is how lucky this dynasty is, as I was shocked by how incompetent most of the rulers were, the most hated and feared Targaryen King which is Maegor the Cruel, was the best thing that happened to our dynasty after Aegon I folly of leaving the two most powerful political institutions in Westeros in the hand of the vessel of a vessel "the Hightower", as with his death the first institution made their move by the hand of their military arm "The Faith Militant", and honest to God if not for Maegor the kingdom would have fallen by the time of the Dance of the Dragons, so in my humble opinion Maegor was a necessary evil, and he was evil no question asked.

The Dance itself is another catastrophe that deprived us of our most powerful weapon "The Dragons" (yes My House used to ride dragons, and the entire civilization that we hail from) and it could have been avoided by a simple act, which the fool Viserys couldn't even do, and I consider him the worst King to ever grace this Dynasty if not the whole Continent.

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The less said about all of this Blackfyre shtick the better, as it still hunts us to this current moment, not that I intend to let fester any longer, but I need a lot of plotting and dedication to deal with this mess.

And acing the cake would be my Grandfather's folly that nearly killed us all if not for a stroke of luck, or I should say the machination of fate, because if I didn't come here this dynasty would have ended with my very frail father.

But I also read some very interesting things about the legends of this land, because if those stories are to be believed then this land has many secrets that are waiting to be discovered, alas I need to sort out a lot of problems before I can go on any adventures.

Saying all of that, I didn't spend most of my waking hours in the library even if I wanted to, but I spent a healthy amount on the training grounds of the Red Keep sharpening my armed skills, as after all this is a martial society and we were on the verge of an unavoidable war with an enemy that wants all of my family dead and Throne for his House of bastard pretenders, under the tutelage of the Red Keep's Master-at-Arms Ser Edric Dayne, I wasn't left unattended as he was pleased that the Prince is finally putting the much-needed effort into his training, he was a Godsend gift that kept on giving, as apparently, he was the in-runner for the title of the Sword of the Morning, he was a terror with the sword and a master of every weapon on the armory of the barracks of the Red Keep, I didn't pay any attention to jousting because of how irrelevant it's at real war, and I worked especially hard on archery and weapons of war, such as the mace, morningstar, and war axe, of course I can't be master of all of those weapons in such short notice but it paid well to be prepared for many occasions.

Following this pattern days turned into weeks and Lords kept trekking into King's Landing in preparation for Royal Ball, during this time I made sure to make myself acquainted with every person of import in the Red Keep and King's Landing at large, from the Small Council members to the Red Keep staffs, the Men-at-arms, the nobles of the court, and the City Watch Commander and Officers, during those meetings, dealings as well as every interaction I've had with people at the Capital I was applying a mild Charm that works by making people more prone to suggestions, as long as they don't go against their self-interests, I was also applying more specialized charms in my meetings with important people according to the situation, ranging from minor mind probing to a powerful Confudus curse, such as the case with the High Septon to make him talk the Most Devote into the possible relocating to the Grand Sept of Baelor, of course, that will be a long term project, as I need to meet most of them to personally 'convince' them of the merit of this endeavor, and the the coming Ball once again prove as an excellent opportunity to do this, as this Ball is proving to be the most congregated gathering since the formation of the Iron Throne.

As I was Politicking and training my body and skills at arms, I didn't forget to tame my magic, so spent some of my learning time acquainting myself with what is known of the flora and fauna of this new World so that I could find ingredients to potions and rituals or at least a replacement of them, I wasn't so lucky with magical creatures but found a lot of magical plants.

As a courtesy of no industrial pollution, nature is still strong and thriving, and the lack of an apparent magical community helped preserve the magical plant life, so I was able to gather the ingredients for a very useful ritual, which will help me regain complete control over my magic as well as unlock any magical ability dormant or otherwise in my bloodline.