Archive of Our Own

The realm knows of how Rhaegar had loved Lyanna. The realm knows of how their son, Jon Snow, Aegon Targaryen, had fallen to his love and was sent beyond the wall. The realm, however, tends to ignore Dorne in their ambition of apotheosis, and Dorne always knows.

Arianne Martell was not stupid and above all not blind to the way that politics in Westeros worked. It was why Dorne had taken a step away, hiding their own political changes, by allowing Ellaria and Oberyn’s daughters to seek revenge as the face of Dorne. It was why they had hidden what they knew from the rest of the realm because what some might find as good for the realm didn’t always work. Dorne had been more simple although the loss of their King under the guise of revenge was the best way to change their political form while stepping out of the game by keeping appearances all the same.

It was why Henryk took the name of Martell instead of Sand in order to act as Dorne’s sole ruler in King's Landing. It was why Arianne remained a silent Queen keeping her country's parliament hidden among other more dangerous information.

She wasn’t stupid or blind after all and everybody knows everything or so they would think.

When Ellaria and the Sand Snakes were slaughtered it only showed that their sacrifice to fool the realm had worked. The only fallout, the one thing that Dorne had not counted on, was Aegon killing Daenerys, as his cousins twisted the tragedy of a hero into the high tale of a tyrant. And one more meeting, when Henryk was summoned into Kings Landing, only seemed to confirm what Dorne had always feared. The Lords and Ladies of Westeros were not willing to give up their power to break the wheel. Even with a slim voting system amongst them, the wheel was not broken, and the true power still remained in the hands of the powerful houses. Even the Starks, children of Ned who held honor where there was none, had been quick to bite upon another who would see power taken from them.

Power is power , Arianne thought, and it resides with the Starks where they think it should reside: themselves.

Pitiful truly, only Dorne knew more than it would ever tell, and now that Yara sat before their parliament she knew that they were not alone. That the system created by the very person that Daenerys had first confined in would only allow the wheel to continue spinning.

“Henryk brought me here to show me something. Is this it? This parliament?” Yara had asked, and for a moment Arianne wondered if Yara had been told anything before then.

“Not entirely, but I cannot say no. Ever since Dorne stopped being ruled by a King, I was next in line for the throne, but alongside my Prince, the son of Oberyn and Ellaria, we have created a system. One not known by anyone outside of our country. One where there is balance and equality, where even the people in the towns and streets get their voice heard.”

“I trust in you, Yara Greyjoy, to know that Dorne has broken from the wheel, and we hope that you will work with us to break all of Westeros. Though I have heard the news from the East--the news that Henryk heard from you--that Daenerys Targaryen is in the world once again. I also hear that her brother, Viserys Targaryen, is alive and a red priest of Volantis serving under a priestess named Kinvara. Is this truth or something that everybody knows?”

“Truth,” Yara swore, “but I had not heard that Daenerys had a living brother.”

“Everybody knows everything and those that do know nothing at all. I trust this Kinvara as much as you have and Dorne will sail with you to see what can be done.”

“Thank you, Queen-”

“Arianne.”

“Arianne, that you would trust me. That your parliament and people would trust the Iron Born. I cannot say, however, that I am not biased. That I do not want justice for Theon’s death to have served no purpose but to further the Starks. But I do promise that my intent for seeing what Daenerys had truly wanted done.”

Arianne smiled at that, “I would not expect anything less. This game of thrones has caused many to forget that in the end, we are nothing more than flawed humans. It is with this that I entrust that what you find in Dorne will assure the future we hope to create and sometimes a symbol is worth more than a throne.”

What everybody knew was that Elia had loved Rhaegar and Rhaegar had loved Lyanna. What nobody knows was that Lyanna loved Elia, and Elia loved Lyanna all the same.

On the second day of being in Sunspear, Yara is introduced more to Dorne’s parliament and political system. She learns that Dorne had plotted to dispose of the Lannisters during the War of the Five Kings, but they had not anticipated the Red Wedding to occur. Then with the death of Oberyn, they had to change their plan altogether, as he originally held the role that Henryk had since stepped in.

And although Dorne was more than willing to make sacrifices for success if it meant a better future they had still taken the deaths of the Martells hard.

However, the war at the beginning of winter had destroyed remaining houses that had held power since Aegon created the Iron Throne. The Tyrells were all gone from the earliest generation to the distant cousins that held little land and title. The Baratheons had been left to a single bastard that Robert had probably never batted an eye at. The Lannister’s only remained with Tyrion, and she couldn’t imagine him having a son to continue the line.

Yara had even heard that the Freys were all gone and dead. House Nymeros-Martell, Arryn, and Tully had been reduced in number greatly. So much so that Yara doubted that the Houses would exist in two decades to come; just as her own House would come to an end. Then that only left the Starks, the only House to come out unscathed in the end, as they kept the others in the same system that destroyed them.

Of course, the Targaryen’s still existed in the world with Jon Snow. Then there was Daenerys and Viserys, both resurrected, and both living in the east. A House whose very restoration was meant to fix the mess that had followed Robert’s Rebellion. Nonetheless, Yara did not know if either would have a child, and she bitterly doubted that Jon Snow would unless it was made his duty to the North.

“Mayhaps it is best, ” Yara thought as she marked through the names that had signed themselves towards fighting against the Night King and his Army. A slim piece of paper that had remained crumbled away in her coat. Signatures from names that no longer would matter as she burned away the paper with her candlelight.

“In the end, none of us that have played will remain to win the game. A better ending than most.”

What everybody knows is that a dragon has three heads and it takes three Targaryens to mount three dragons.

What nobody knows, or perhaps doesn’t remember, is that the Targaryen’s were not the only ones to ride dragons in the skies.

“Dragon eggs?” Yara had never seen such a thing; only the product of them. Drogon had disappeared towards Volantis with Daenerys body, or so that was what had been told at the meeting. The other two, Rhaegar and Viserys, had died in the west and had been just as unimaginable as the former. Yara had never really held any interest in them aside from the mild curiosity at a sight that had not long since been seen. Though she had a hard time believing that eggs this size could produce creatures so large and fierce.

“Rhaegar had Elia send them to Dorne when his father began to hear whispers of conspiracy against him. It had been his intention to give them to his three children, but that never happened.” Arianne had opened the wooden chest to Yara when the sun had risen the next morning with the intent of taking them east. Sitting upon a nest of orange Dornish cloth were six dragon eggs, as hard as stone, yet unblemished by time.

“Are you sure that they will hatch? Would it not take years from them to grow even if they did?” Yara pulled her hand away, watching as the box closed the eggs into shadow once again.

“We do not know, but if Daenerys Targaryen is alive then surely there must be hope in taking these with us when we sail to Essos?”

Yara paused in her infatuation, pulling her hand away from the dragon eggs. She had spent many summers fighting amongst cunning men and sailing to places where even the kind would not tell everything. “There is something else--something you are not telling me.” It wasn't questioned, she knew, and she held hope that Henryk and Arianne would tell her. That those few days from Dorne spent amongst sand dunes had been enough to create trust amongst their Houses.

Arianne pursed her lips into a thin line before turning to face Dorne’s parliament. With one hand she raised to move forward and Yara watched as a young woman stepped out from the line.

“Everybody knows of what Lyanna and Rhaegar did. That Rhaegar had believed he would fulfill the prophecy: first with a Rhaenys, then with an Aegon, and finally with Lyanna he had expected a Visenya.” The Dornish Queen explained, closing the chest of eggs as the woman in her parliament stood before Yara.

“What does that have to do with her? Rhaegar lost his two children with Elia and Lyanna had an Aegon.”

“Yes, Aegon and Rhaenys died by the Mountains hands, and Lyanna had named her son Aegon. Everybody knows this, only what they don’t know, and what Dorne has kept hidden was that Rhaegar was not wrong in his assumption.”

“He had a Visenya with Lyanna Stark.”