The Time Curse (Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon Fanfic)

The Walk of Shame and Madness

Morgana awoke to the familiar feeling of arms wrapped tightly around her bare waist and the warm sound of slow, lazy breaths tickling her ears. 

Rhaegar's body heat encompassed her just as she had grown accustomed to with her other lovers. She often wondered if each generation of Dragon was just a reincarnation of the previous. The names might change, their manner of speech, their preferences, but that familiar hum of magic remained the same through the centuries. 

Morgana had forgotten at this point how long she had been in Westeros. 

Years had passed, possibly nearing a decade. She had been in Westeros longer than she had been a student at Hogwarts, the realization was startling. Something so monumental in a young witch's life seemed an insignificant amount of time to her now. 

Careful not to wake her sleeping lover, Morgana slipped from his grasp and made her way to the mirror, drowning in her own thoughts. 

She observed her own reflection meticulously. 

It looked exactly the same as she had when she was eighteen. The only thing different was the greying runes covering her bare arms, ringing like a warning bell across her skin of her approaching departure from this time. 

Same malnourished small frame, the same high noble cheekbones, the same sharp sculpted nose, same pale ivory skin regardless of the time she spent in the sun. Her hair length hadn't even changed, not a bit of growth to symbolize the years.

Her appearance had not changed at all since arriving yet she was certain she had aged. The only thing older about her was the look in her steel grey eyes. 

She looked down at her arms, noticing how dark the runes were getting. 

She would leave today, she knew she would... She didn't know how Rhaegar would handle a separation so quickly after the bond was completed. Most of the bonds took a few days to lose the maddening edge. 

She recalled all of her previous lover's struggles with the heat of the bond. Visenya had been rather violent, just like her son Maegor. With a wave of her hand, a potion appeared. It had less addictive effects than the milk of the poppy, so she laid it on the table at the mirror's side. Rhaegar would probably need it. 

It hurt, to know what was coming... But she didn't stop it. 

She felt as if nothing she did could change the outcome of the future she had already visited. All the power of magic, all the foreknowledge at the tips of her fingers, and yet Morgana Slytherin felt completely powerless against it. 

She didn't warn Rhaegar, she didn't do anything. 

She simply watched Rhaegar wake smiling and waited for his fate to befall him. 

"Where is Aerys?" Morgana asked at the breakfast table, eying the empty seat at its head. 

"He is... unwell this morning, my Lady" The Lord hand Lannister admitted, trying not to look at Rhaegar who was kissing her neck, uninhibited by his wife sitting on his other side. Elia didn't seem to mind as she happily ate her favorite fruits, ignoring the scene at her side. She playfully teased Rhaegar, when they had entered that morning but didn't acknowledge them beyond that, content with her own victory. 

"Unwell?" Concern flooded Morgana's features, ignoring the jealous animalistic growl that formed in Rhaegar's throat when she showed concern for the mad king. 

"...Yes, my Lady," Tywin answered, afraid that she would know if he was lying. 

A loud pop echoed through the room as Morgana apparated out of Rhaegar's tight hold. A loud unsightly squeal left the silver prince as he fell from his chair, losing his balance from where Morgana once sat. 

Morgana approached the bedside of the king, he looked pale and pained upon his silk sheets. 

His stiff scowl, softened as she reached to caress his sleeping face. Sweat coated his brow, he looked sickly at the moment. "Aerys." She whispered and he stirred at the sound of her voice. 

His violet eyes found her in the morning light, blurred from sleep her beautiful features were still burned into his memory, "Morgana... My Morgana... Why? Why can't I feel you? Why can't I feel our connection? I feel nothing at all. I feel like my soul has been stolen from me like I do not remain even in my own body. What has happened to us, Morgana?" 

Morgana reached for the bond between them but felt nothing. The bond had faded completely. Unlike Visenya, Jaeharys, and Viserys, Aerys refused to accept the temporary nature of the bond. 

Aerys was no longer Morgana's and Morgana was no longer his.

Over the centuries, many stopped believing in the existence of the dragon witch, writing her off as a goddess or a mythical guardian. After the war which felled the great house of the Dragon, House Targaryen, many of the small folk and lords alike held to this belief. 

Poets often wrote of the mystical dragon-witch bond as an allegory for lust for the iron throne itself. All Targaryens felt that draw to ultimate power, yet few achieved it. But even when a king sat on the iron throne, there was an understanding that one day the throne would pass to their heir. All accepted this as a fact of life, all but the Mad King Aerys. 

Like the Iron Throne, King Aerys Targaryen hated the idea of his son, Rhaegar, inheriting the dragon bond. After the dragon witch bond disappeared from Aerys, he lost himself. He ripped out his own hair and mutilated his chest trying to claw out his own heart. 

It wasn't until I forced milk of the poppy down my king's throat that the screaming stopped. 

The next morning, the dragon witch came down with the heir at her side and I knew what had happened. I had read the accounts of King Jaeharys after Morgana had established a new bond with his grandson Viserys. I had read of the pain and the emptiness that the vacant space in his heart caused. 

A new bond had been solidified. The Iron Throne had chosen its next heir.

The King Maker, they called her. The Dragon witch, the uncrowned queen. 

And then as the sun set, she was gone. Rhaegar had never looked so much like his father then he did at that moment. He sunk to his knees, screaming his throat raw, demanding the gods return his heart to him. 

I have been cursed to bear witness to the power of the Dragon witch against mortal men in Druskendale and against the god-like mortals of the Targaryens. She crushed both with ease. 

Many of those who stood with Robert Baratheon claimed the dragon witch to be a mythical creature of the poet's creation. Some know better. Some recognize that Morgana Slytherin was very real. Some bore witness to the power of the dragon witch. 

Fear the day she appears again, for she will bring not but Fire and Blood. 

~The Journals of Lord Tywin Lannister