[THIRD’S PERSON POV]
A full month had passed since the royal family had first arrived at Harrenhal to visit Princess Rhaena and the newly born Prince Aelor Towers.
During this extended stay, the royal family had lived comfortably within the restored chambers of the Tower of Widows.
They would always dine together in the great hall alongside Princess Rhaena and Prince Aelor.
Over the course of this single month, King Jaehaerys, Queen Alysanne, and the young princes and princess of the realm had slowly begun to reach the absolute pinnacle of health for their respective ages.
Prince Aemon and Prince Baelon had both entered a growth spurt, while the infant Princess Alyssa was also becoming noticeably healthier and much stronger with every passing day.
What the royal guests simply did not know was that Aelor had been secretly using his mystical powers on them.
He would frequently test his healing abilities upon the young princes, as he had been exposed to them the most during their daily visits.
Aelor was actively diagnosing their bodies and quietly healing the detrimental effects of incest that their Valyrian genetics had suffered from over the generations.
Despite possessing a highly magical bloodline, the gradual thinning of magic in the mortal realm meant that the royal family would slowly suffer from these biological flaws, perhaps even passing the dangerous genetic sicknesses down toward their future offspring if left completely untreated.
Queen Alysanne also felt remarkably lighter than before she had arrived at the gates of Harrenhal.
She was entirely free from her terrible morning sickness, and her difficult pregnancy had become extremely easy over the following weeks.
Even King Jaehaerys, a man who had been heavily carrying the massive burden of the entire realm even during this royal progress, had noticed himself becoming far more relaxed.
Deep psychological trauma from his violent past experiences had been slowly and gently healed by Aelor, simply by the king sitting within the vicinity of his infant nephew.
The entire surrounding territory of Harrenhal also benefited massively from another month of Aelor being alive in the world.
The seasonal harvest became incredibly plentiful, the local livestock grew much healthier and fatter, and agricultural produce increased in sheer numbers.
This magical bounty allowed their vast territory to easily store plenty of essential goods while also maintaining a massive surplus that they could comfortably sell to traveling merchants from other places across the realm.
Taking advantage of this grand prosperity, Princess Rhaena even reached a highly lucrative agreement with King Jaehaerys.
The House of Towers would officially provide prime lumber for the grand plans the King had regarding the creation of a massive royal navy.
She formally agreed to trade massive amounts of strong oak wood, which is widely considered one of the best materials for creating sturdy ships.
It was a valuable resource that the forested territory of Harrenhal currently possessed in complete abundance.
Seeing the miraculous agricultural changes that were happening across the fertile territory, the resident maester suggested a brilliant idea to Princess Rhaena.
He proposed building a dedicated medicinal garden to plant rare and valuable healing herbs.
He argued that they could sell these potent remedies for a lot of gold if the project proved to be successful.
After just half a moon of planting and carefully monitoring the experimental garden, the maester could say with absolute certainty that the medicinal plants would spectacularly bloom.
He was fully confident that the lucrative garden could be expanded massively after a single year.
“Perhaps the sudden presence of so many adult dragons helped with the local plant life. The vast amounts of dragon excrement that they are currently releasing into the wild forests might have been making the surrounding land much more fertile,” the maester offered as a logical explanation for these impossible changes.
It was a weak theory that even he himself could not truly be convinced by.
However, being a rational man of science forged by the Citadel, he was entirely forced to think of a mundane explanation.
He desperately wanted to deny the rising rumors among the smallfolk that Prince Aelor was a living incarnation of the Old Gods, a wild belief that was becoming exceedingly more popular with every single successful birth of healthy livestock.
Even the massive dragons soaring above the castle were not completely unaffected by the lingering magic.
Dreamfyre surprisingly laid another healthy dragon egg within the courtyard, and the beautiful Silverwing produced a vibrant dragon egg as well.
As the supreme head of the royal household, the king claimed full political control over any dragon eggs that would be laid by Targaryen mounts.
Princess Rhaena yielded the two eggs, but she immediately demanded heavy financial compensation in return, ensuring her own house would richly profit from the royal seizure.
High above the towers, both Vermithor and Silverwing also began to become incredibly active.
They would frequently fly side by side with Dreamfyre and the growing black dragon hatchling.
The young beast belonging to Aelor had incredibly doubled its size since its miraculous hatching.
It had already reached the frightening size of a fully grown black bear.
The young dragon was slowly and steadily building up its muscular bulk while still miraculously remaining extremely agile and unbelievably fast in the open air.
[AELOR’S POV]
During this entire month that the royal family had stayed here, I was still just a helpless babe.
I really did not have much physical activity to do, so I just used all my abundant free time to drastically increase my mental control over my skin-changing.
I boldly started to practice my new abilities with other living creatures as well.
I began my magical experiment with a lone black raven that I saw resting upon the stone balcony of my chamber.
Looking at the bird, I suddenly remembered the specific scene of the Three Eyed Raven teaching his mystical arts to Bran the Broken.
‘God, I truly hate that character,’ I quietly thought to myself.
Being a massive fan of the original Game of Thrones television series in my past life, I had watched the entire show from beginning to end, and I still could not believe the utter disappointment of what had actually happened in the final ending of that story.
After a few moments of intense concentration, I was finally able to vividly see myself reflected in the dark eyes of the raven.
I completely managed to slip my human consciousness into the simple mind of the bird.
I took off and flew freely through the air with the body of the raven, exactly like how I did with my growing dragon, Ancalagon.
I eagerly explored much more of the vast ruins of Harrenhal, since there are a lot of narrow places and tight corridors within our massive castle that I simply could not fit into while using the much larger body of Ancalagon.
I saw the many servants of our noble house working far below.
I carefully watched them from the high rafters and listened intently to see if there was anyone who could be secretly planning something treacherous against our family.
Fortunately, it seems that absolutely everyone is still incredibly thankful for the daily benefits and the perfect health they are currently receiving from the passive aura of my Essence of the Healer.
‘Could I possibly skinchange into several other ravens simultaneously while still remaining firmly inside the body of this first raven?
‘I then became incredibly curious to test my own limits.
I flew around the courtyard and began to actively look for the high chamber where the resident maester was currently staying.
I know for a fact that he keeps a large wooden roost completely full of messenger ravens to ensure that the castle can swiftly send important messages to other places across the realm.
When I finally found the open window of the rookery and entered the chamber, I immediately turned my feathered head toward the crowded iron cages.
I focused my mind and repeated exactly what I had just done with the current raven that I was already controlling.
‘Practice truly does make perfect,’ I thought with deep satisfaction.
I now currently had exactly five and twenty ravens acting simultaneously as my obedient skin-changing partners, sharing a single connected hive mind.
‘It seems that the magical powers granted by the Essence of the Healer are vastly stronger than I originally thought.
Well, considering that I could theoretically end the White Walkers without any problems, since my aura can instantly heal any ancient curse and purify anything, this immense power should have been completely apparent to me already.
There is also the added benefit of peak potential, which miraculously brings all the latent magical abilities of my Valyrian and First Men blood to their absolute peak.
Honestly, I am far more surprised that I am not yet experiencing prophetic dragon dreams more than anything else.
But I suppose I will just have to wait patiently for that to happen,’ I added to my lingering thoughts.
After completely satisfying my curiosity, I gently removed my consciousness from the massive flock of ravens.
I returned to my original pair of human eyes, where I saw the familiar stone ceiling of my own chambers.
I then slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.
I was already completely bored out of my wits by my physical limitations, and I could not help but be incredibly excited for the day my infancy would finally be finished.
[THIRD’S PERSON POV]
The grand royal progress was finally coming to a close, and the royal family was preparing to leave Harrenhal and return home to the Red Keep.
During their extended stay, King Jaehaerys and Princess Rhaena had successfully reached a firm political agreement regarding the future of the young boy.
Prince Aelor would continue bearing the noble name of House Towers.
However, when he reached the age where he had first mounted his dragon, he would travel to the capital to live under the direct protection of the Crown as a royal ward.
This fostering arrangement was specifically designed to forge a strong bond of friendship between Aelor and the young royal princes.
Furthermore, Aelor would be officially betrothed to a trueborn daughter of King Jaehaerys.
This marriage pact would perfectly ensure a permanent connection between their two powerful families, securely binding the legacy of the young boy to the Iron Throne long after Princess Rhaena was gone.
Now, standing proudly at the massive iron gates of Harrenhal, Princess Rhaena prepared to see her royal siblings off.
Little Aelor was currently being carried carefully by his dedicated wet nurse, watching the bustling activity with his bright blue eyes.
The final warm goodbyes were being said among the adults, while the young royal princes and the infant princess were already seated safely inside the large wooden carriage alongside their royal caretakers.
“Farewell, Lady Rhaena. You have been an incredibly gracious host to us during this past moon,” King Jaehaerys declared formally to his older sister.
He thanked her deeply for the immense generosity and the bountiful feasts that she had consistently provided.
They exchanged the standard royal greetings and briefly reaffirmed the political promises that they had firmly agreed upon in her private solar.
“I will come visit you much more regularly, sister, and I will bring the children with me. The atmosphere here is extremely peaceful, and my current pregnancy has been vastly easier than all of my other times. Perhaps I will even choose to give birth here when the time finally comes,” Queen Alysanne said affectionately to Princess Rhaena.
The two sisters then stepped forward and embraced each other in a deeply genuine hug, their previous bitterness completely forgotten.
“You are always welcome to visit us anytime, Your Grace,” Princess Rhaena answered with a soft smile.
After exchanging a few more pleasantries in the morning sun, King Jaehaerys was brought his armored warhorse.
He mounted smoothly, while Queen Alysanne was gently led back to the royal carriage by her sworn knights.
With a loud command echoing through the courtyard, the royal family finally began their long journey back to the capital city, leaving the towering stone walls of Harrenhal behind them.