Adult Content Warning
This work could have adult content. If you continue, you have agreed that you are willing to see such content.
-
this is the river I crawled from and I refuse to drown here by aletterinthenameofsanity for Ailendolin
Fandoms: House of the Dragon (TV), A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms
23 Sep 2026
Tags
Summary
In the end, it is not that hard to execute the plan.
It is easy as taking a cup of tea to his nephew. Simple as that. Daeron doesn’t even think about summoning a food taster, because why would he?
For all that has separated them, all that Gwayne abandoned him into the hands of Ormund Hightower, Daeron trusts him. He trusts that Gwayne wouldn’t seek to harm him.
And it is the truth, in its way. Gwayne wouldn’t seek to harm him. He would do anything to save Daeron’s life, whether he likes it or not.
Gwayne knows, in this moment, as he sets the cup of tea down on Daeron’s small table in this small room that Ormund has set aside for him in the Footlys’ keep, that he is like as not to lose Daeron’s trust for the rest of time.
But if the price of Daeron’s trust, his faith, is his life, then Gwayne is willing to pay it.
So the night before the battle, as those in Tumbleton are drinking away their last nights on earth, Gwayne drops milk of the poppy into Daeron’s tea.
(When Daeron refuses to leave Tumbleton, Gwayne makes the decision for both of them. He will not lose his nephew to their uncle's ambitions, whatever it takes.)
Series