"Lord Aeos," lisandre initiated the conversation once again breaking the serene silence that had settled between them. "What of Daenerys and Viserys?"
"Viserys has written a letter to Rhaenys and is desperately waiting for her response. We do not need to be a genius to figure out that he is interested in the dragons and the less I speak of his temper the better it would be," she said.
"The last I heard regarding them, Varys was on his way to Pentos. He will most likely et with them and bring the situation under his control."
"This Varys is another enigma. What does he even want with them? He was the one who sent Illyrio to you with the proposal of taking Daenerys's hand in marriage."
Jon took a mont to organize his thoughts while lisandre waited patiently.
Viserys and Daenerys were topics upon which Jon had remained enigmatic, generally avoiding any conversation even with Rhaenys. None of them had been able to guess his true plans for the siblings, and lisandre hoped to finally uncover sothing today. At the very least, she was hopeful; if Jon decided to avoid the topic again, there was little she could do about it.
"Varys is indeed a mysterious man," Jon finally spoke, breaking the silence. "It is hard to judge what he truly wants or where his loyalties lie. He often claims to serve the realm, but I have my doubts about those claims."
"Daenerys and Viserys," he sighed, and lisandre perked her ears. "The first thing I plan to do regarding them is to dissociate them."
lisandre raised her eyebrows in confusion while Jon continued.
"What I an to say is that both of them should never be discussed in the sa breath," he said. "Viserys and Daenerys, though siblings and despite spending their entire lives together, are fundantally different. There are no similarities between them."
"Viserys is an arrogant fool. He has no sense, no brain, no tact and no understanding of his realities. He is one of those people who thinks that rely having the Targaryen na gives him all the power and privilege in the world. He still thinks himself to be a king," he almost said with a scoff.
"I would not fault him entirely, as his upbringing played a significant role in the developnt of his character, but his own inherent flaws cannot be ignored."
"Daenerys, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of her brother. She is calm. To many people and even to her own brother, she may appear ek or even a coward, but her character is remarkably strong. Her mind is sharp, and compared to her brother, she is much more grounded in reality."
"But alas!" he sighed. "Neither Viserys nor his well-wishers, which include Illyrio and Varys, value her. For them, she is nothing more than a key to a powerful army. Be it and my forces or a Dothraki horde, they will sell her to whoever bids the highest price."
He fell silent, rembering the callous words Viserys was known for, claiming he would let all forty thousand Dothraki and their horses fuck his sister if it was the price required to get his army.
"And yet you still have not revealed your plans regarding them," lisandre insisted. "What exactly will you do with them?"
Since it seed to her that Jon was in the mood to talk, she thought it best to persuade him to open up just a little more about the siblings.
"Even if you do not wish to engage them now, sooner or later you will have to encounter them," she said. "They will co for Rhaenys and her dragons. They will co for the Iron Throne. Varys and Illyrio will again try to involve you with them. You cannot avoid them forever."
Jon chuckled. lisandre's intentions were never hidden from him for long.
"You will get to know… You will get to know soon enough, lisandre," he said. "But not now."
"I will not take any action as of yet," he concluded. "Let Rhaenys reply to Viserys first. Let her be the one to decide their fate."
lisandre sighed. She knew she would get no further information from Lord Aeos today. But even so, she was satisfied. She had learned a few things, at the very least. She had seen Jon's views on the duo. She had learned that Lord Aeos, most probably, loathed and was disgusted by Viserys. And that he held a certain soft spot for Daenerys.
"lisandre," Jon said, his voice turning serious as he shifted the topic. "What is the progress in the Disputed Lands?"
lisandre straightened her back, matching his gravity.
"Lord Aeos," she said. "We are engaging the smaller settlents now, and the progress will soon be visible. Perhaps in a couple of months."
Jon nodded.
"I will tolerate no mistakes or negligence in this endeavor," he said. "The Disputed Lands represent a massive stretch of fertile territory. We need a vast amount of crops to feed our population, and those lands are the solution to our problem."
For a long ti, the Disputed Lands had been a bone of contention between the cities of Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh. Many vital trade routes passed through them, and they were rich in timber and forest products, not to ntion the soil itself was exceptionally fertile.
But since the three cities had been in near-constant strife over the territory, the land had never been utilized to its full potential. Furthermore, the threat of raids from Dothraki khalasars and various bandit groups had kept a large part of the region, especially those areas which were far away from the main cities, a wilderness.
"Lord Aeos," she responded. "Everything is going according to plan, but we still have the Dothraki and bandits to contend with. It is an extrely difficult task to guard against their raids. The more crops we grow, the more these people will be enticed to strike our lands."
"No," Jon said, shaking his head. "Do not worry about that. I have plans regarding the Dothraki and the bandit groups. Once I am done with them, they will never even dare to look into this direction."
"The Golden Company?" lisandre asked.
"They, too, have a part to play in this plan," he agreed, though he did not clarify any further.
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