Chapter Text
In truth, everything began with a dream. Legends said that when Daenys Targaryen was still a maiden, she had a powerful prophetic dream, showing the destruction of Valyria by fire. Her father heeded her dream and moved his family and belongings to faraway Dragonstone. All the other dragon lords mocked Lord Targaryen's decision, considering it cowardice. But when the Doom of Valyria came twelve years later, there was no one left to laugh.
Everything that came afterward, Aegon I and his conquest, the mighty dragon kings, the seven kingdoms of Westeros united under one crown - all this happened only because of the Dreamer.
Alyssa Targaryen was thirteen years old when it turned out that she, too, was a Dreamer.
That day was warm and sunny. The first true day of spring after a long winter. All the children of Prince Maekar Targaryen and Lady Dyanna Dayne ran out into the gardens of Summerhall, happy that after a long time of cold and darkness, the sun had returned to their sky.
Alyssa would later remember that she had been wearing a green dress. How easily a child's mind can focus on the smallest, most trivial details when too much is happening.
Alyssa chased her younger brothers, Daeron, Aerion, and Aemon, through the garden paths, while tiny Daella tried to keep up with them on her short legs. Lady Dyanna sat on a bench a short distance away, holding one-year-old Aegon in her arms. Alyssa remembered her tender smile and the way she gently stroked her swollen belly. She remembered how beautiful her mother was.
How different the world looked then.
Alyssa finally caught Daeron and grabbed his hand.
-I won-she shouted triumphantly.
-No, you didn't, you cheated!-he replied gruffly, moving to punch her in the arm. She giggled and jumped back to a safe distance and was about to respond when she felt a sharp pain behind her eyes, as if a hundred knives were stabbing her brain. The pain was so excruciating that her legs gave out, and Alyssa fell screaming to the wet ground. She felt a thick, metallic fluid begin to flow from her nose and ears, and vomit welled up in her throat. Somewhere far away, she heard Daella's desperate sobs and Daeron's voice calling for a mother, and then darkness enveloped her.
A silver star flies across the purple sky. A black dragon follows it. At first, it seems quite innocent, but then the star begins to fall, straight into a sea of blood. The dragon follows close behind it, trying to catch it. But it still falls. The star screams. How terribly it screams.
The stars don't scream, Alyssa wants to say, but she can only watch.
The star sinks into a sea of blood. The dragon writhes in pain and agony. And finally, grief causes the dragon to shatter into millions of pieces, and with it, the purple sky also rips apart.
She woke with a sharp gasp. She was lying in her room. The fire in the fireplace burned brightly, casting a red glow on the canopy above her bed. It looked like blood.
Blurry faces hovered above her.
-My sweet girl-her mother's voice sounded clear despite the fog in her mind.
Alyssa's vision sharpened, and in the figures leaning over her, she recognized her mother and maester.
-What happened?-she whispered.
-Suddenly, you started screaming and fell- Lady Dyanna said-blood began to flow from your ears and nose... you were unconscious for several hours. We couldn't wake you, we were afraid...-she stopped abruptly.
Alyssa looked into her mother's purple eyes, identical to her own, and saw unshed tears in them.
-I dreamed terrible things- she said quietly. -I saw a silver star sinking in a sea of blood and a dragon torn to pieces by grief.
-Don't think about it, my darling- Her mother's gentle, warm hands brushed back the hair that was stuck to Alyssa's forehead.-Dreams are just dreams.
The maester nodded.
-They were certainly caused by the fever that caused you to faint.
-But... it was so real. - Alyssa pressed her hands to her face, trying to push the feeling of fear and helplessness from her heart. She felt dried, smeared blood beneath her fingers and shuddered. Fire and blood. These were the words of her house. Her father had always told them they were the reason to feel proud. So why were they symbols of destruction in her dreams?
-Don't think about it, my daughter, let's wash you and then you'll eat something and you'll feel better soon.
Alyssa thought again about the screams in her dream, then nodded and accepted her mother's outstretched hands.
Five months later, she would remember that moment.
When her mother, Silver Star, screamed horribly, dying in her birthing bed, which had turned into a sea of blood.
She also thought about it in the dark months that followed Lady Dyanna's death, when her father, the dragon, who was still alive, seemed to die inside with longing and grief.
She often wondered during that time if she had insisted more strongly that her dream was a prophecy and not a fever, would it have made a difference? Could they have done something to save Lady Dyanna? If she had guessed its meaning sooner, could she have helped her family survive the fall?
Alyssa Targaryen was thirteen years old when it turned out that she was a Dreamer.She was also thirteen when she realized it didn't matter. She was helpless against what was to come. Her dreams weren't a blessing meant to prevent terrible events. They were a curse that would one day drive her into madness.