The Vow
Picture, if you will, the Red Keep at dusk. A king is dying—and he has one last gambit to play.
This week's saga opens on a question of crowns and succession, before spiraling into something far richer. Meet our players. King Viserys, ailing, tender-hearted, forever convinced that the right words on the right parchment can hold back the dark. Rhaenyra, his named heir, sharpened by a lifetime of being told to wait. And at the center—she—the younger daughter, the wall the king would build in front of his firstborn. A regent who will rule but never reign, sworn to set the crown on her sister's head the moment her father draws his final breath.
But here's the twist that'll keep you by the wireless. Bound beneath her ribs lives the Living Mithril—an ancient thing that renders her incapable of speaking falsehood. The whole realm will come to trust her word as bedrock. Ah—but the Mithril has goals of its own. And a truth-teller steered by a hidden hand is no comfort at all... it's the most dangerous creature in the Seven Kingdoms.
Watch the king work three rooms in a single night. Veiled threats traded with the scheming Hightowers. A wounded reckoning with the daughter he's asking to step aside. And at last, a dim solar, a low fire, a father's cold hands closing over hers—"Tell me you will be the wall, and I can rest."
The pen hangs unlifted. The Greens are counting the days. And something patient and unreadable holds its breath inside her.
Will she be the wall? Or will she use the truth to claim the kingdom and the crown for herself?
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A dying king, a daughter who cannot lie, and a crown that must change hands before the realm tears itself apart. Rule as the wall between your sister and a war, while something ancient stirs beneath your ribs with purposes all its own.
Created Jun 30
Updated Jul 1
Published Jul 1