Chapter 5.1- The Seadragon's Roar

On today’s episode of women being near impossible to understand, we have the pre-teen Laena Velaryon, I wrote in my journal as I looked at her over the dinner table. Mother would ask me to put it away once the old arrived, so I quickly went back to writing my thoughts down as I thought them. Laena had been pissed at being unable to go flying with Vhagar. With that context, one would have expected her to be overjoyed at that punishment being lifted with my imminent departure. But against all odds, she’d lashed out— at Mother and father for suggesting it, and at me for accepting it with what she might have viewed as no resistance. My lack of resistance came from understanding that causes were worth fighting for and which ones were not.

I’d made my objections known, and been overruled on all accounts so I decided to look at the bright side. House Baratheon was famously martial. Getting to spend time there meant I would become a much better fighter. It also meant less time under Corlys’ careful eye. He let me invent as I wished, but I knew he kept a careful eye on everything I did, and to avoid questions, I’d been forced to keep my work limited to ships and even in that case to stuff that was technically possible with the science they had in this world, just not very efficient. Most of my innovation was just streamlining old processes and working with conventional wisdom and taking things to their logical conclusion. I was just iterating, not revolutionising the way I would otherwise have preferred to.

Nothing from the books made me think either of the Baratheons would care much about what I got up to. The third advantage was the fact that it meant my grounding would come to an end. Not being able to fly had been a punishment in and of itself, and then there was the additional woe of lost training time and being forced to spend my days either with the boring old fog of a Maester who had earned his links in history, strategy, and astronomy of all things. Needless to say, it hadn’t taken much for me to be brought over to their side of things. Of course, I’d done nothing to correct their assumption that the tales of a knighthood and routing the Dornish with Borros Baratheon’s counter-raiding group had been what swayed me to their side.

“Laenor” I turned to Corlys once he said my name. He then gestured towards the door and immediately it opened, welcoming a man dressed in full plate. He was not very tall, standing at about Corlys’ 5,10” and his muscle’s were not particularly well developed. Still, e gave off this aura that said he knew what he was doing when it came t a fight.

“This is Ser Ben Celtigar, a cousin to Lord Celtigar who has agreed to swear to you and act as your sworn shield during your time in the storm lands.

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