Amber. 30. // When I’m not here I’m reading.📚 🧈🔥 on ao3 My 2012-2019 blog is long gone. But I’m still burning, baby! Multishipper: Jonerys. ClairexJamie. Weirdcest. Hannigram. Malec. Destiel. Historical greats.
Tags: Post-Episode 6x09 | Established Relationship | AU Canon Divergent | R Plus L Equals J | Post-ADWD | Flashbacks | Mystery
Weeks after their betrothal began, Daenerys and Jon stand together at the Wall, united by the truth that once tore them apart. Their reunion has survived secrets and estrangement, but trust must be rebuilt.
As old debts resurface—Dany's choices as Queen of Meereen, Jon’s past as Lord Commander—against the odds, they begin to hope for something permanent: a child conceived in love. When that private hope becomes public prophecy, can they protect their future? Or has the realm's past already decided for them?
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A romantic tale of hope and new beginnings.
Chapter 4: “If Destiny Is Real (And Kind)”
Present: At their betrothal feast, Dany earns her place beside Jon—but the Wall’s quiet politics start testing her.
Past: Dany wins passage through the only surviving Valyrian city through restraint, not fire…only to learn that some betrayals can’t be foreseen.
Present: Gifts are given, but prophecy names a child she didn't know she was carrying. Fully exposed, Dany finally stops shrinking.
Fic Commentary for Chapter 3: Nothing Is Ever Truly Lost 🐉 🌹
You dreamt that someone loved you, Jon thought. And I do.
Opening Thoughts
Chapter 3 is where the past-present timeline fully settles into its rhythm: in which the past can't be changed, but with love it can gain new meaning.
The present section follows Jon and Dany through the final days before their betrothal feast at Castle Black, while the past section reveal the political and emotional choices that brought Dany from Meereen to her last stop in Essos: Volantis. Rather than treating those flashbacks as exposition, I wanted them to answer the questions the present keeps asking.
Let's dive in.
Hardin's Tower and the Deathbed Visit 🥀
The chapter begins with Jon recognizing that Dany is carrying something heavier than Euron's letter alone. Before politics can continue, he wants her to know him again. So he takes her somewhere deeply personal: the foot of Hardin's Tower, and the room where he was resurrected.
That visit becomes the emotional foundation of the chapter.
Instead of explaining resurrection or prophecy, Jon simply tells Dany what it was like to die and come back—and what she gave him by loving him afterward. In return, Dany begins loosening the grip on her withdrawal, joining Jon for dragonflight practices and throwing a quip or two just to see him smile.
It gives them a sense of movement he'll notice is gone, once she withdraws again.
How the Journey to Volantis Began
The past section in Meereen describes the tense audience of an envoy from Volantis (my OC, Bellara Volgare), who withstands interrogation from Dany's council. They try to find out who sent her and what she wants, pushing Dany's decision-making to evolve in realtime.
Victarion, Bellara, Moqorro, Marwyn, Tyrion, Jorah and Missandei each compete for influence. Dany has to decide whose counsel reflects loyalty, whose reflects ambition, and how to act decisively without surrendering her own morality.
By the time she discovers that the envoy is an abolitionist working for the Sealord of Braavos and is poised to offer her a fleet in exchange for plundering Old Volantis, the potential for victory is real—but so is the emotional cost she carries years later, into the present.
Fragile Peace and The Hoped-for Child 👑🐉
Back at Castle Black in the present, the chapter narrows once more.
Jon is getting used to flying with Rhaegal, and has noticed Dany's absence from training. He thinks everything is fine, until he finds her in the King's Tower unsettled and unkempt. She finally lays it out for him: her prophetic dreams, the loss of Viserion, and Euron's letter on the rumor all threaten their fragile peace.
Jon's responses form the heart of the chapter, and in some senses, the fic.
Most importantly, he reminds her that nothing is ever truly lost—only changed. Their conversation turns openly toward the child they both secretly hope for, transforming what had been silent longing into a shared future.
Evening Council, Dreams and the Decree
Naturally, they are interrupted by their duties. Jon and Dany have reached a place of deeper understanding before returning to public life.
While everyone else is trying to finalize the decree and prepare for the feast meant to welcome their armies to the Night's Watch, Jon is quietly processing the realization that Dany dreamt of him years before they ever met. It's probably the greatest love confession he's ever received from her, and he spends the rest of the scene trying very hard to remain a functional king.
The decree says:
murder won't be tolerated,
factional violence won't be tolerated,
the Wall belongs to everyone fighting for the living.
Most amazingly, Dany is considerably more grounded after their conversation. Together they sign the decree, demonstrating to everyone in the room that they have become genuine partners in rule—not simply in love. Of course, the council notices.
Closing Beats: the Volantene Confession 🛁 ⚓️
Finally able to rest the last night before the feast, Dany coaxes Jon into a hot bath. Safe in his arms, she makes a final confession. Her thoughts have been dominated by the lingering belief that obtaining her fleet somehow turned her into someone who sees people as instruments rather than companions.
Jon's responses form the heart of the chapter.
He refuses to let Dany define herself by bloodshed alone. He reframes the fleet as something she earned through resilience and leadership rather than something bought only through violence—awed by what the moment revealed of her character across time, the woman he's bound himself to:
“You know,” she said after a time, her voice hoarse with feeling, “you’re the only one who’s never asked me to prove who I am.”
“I only wanted you to show the realm who you are, Daenerys, in your own time. That was my dream. You’ll see it done.”
“I’ll try, Jon.” She kissed him again. “At least, if I fail, it won’t be for my faults alone. We’ll have you to blame.”
Their shared hope for a child surges in the way they make love. but she's already pregnant so Naturally, she enters the feast the next evening pleasantly sore between her legs.
Author's Note 💌
This chapter and the next have been the most fun to write so far, because I get to turn their pasts from a chain of tragedies into the paths that brought them together, their understanding of the other deepening.
Perfect, because more tragedy is coming. *hehe*
Next up is the betrothal/welcome feast at Castle Black, which has become a court that actually threatens the coalition's fragile peace. Prophecy steps into the open, and Jon and Dany's private unity is finally tested before the realm.
“It’s summer now, and you’re craving a simpler existence. You want to read. You want to write. You want to meet strangers for dinner, and not refuse another drink at another bar. You want to dance. You want to find yourself in a basement, neck loose, bobbing your head as a group of musicians play, not because they should, but because they must. It’s summer now, and you’re looking forward to worrying less. You’re looking forward to longer nights and shorter days. You’re looking forward to gathering in back gardens and watching meat sputter on an open barbecue. You’re looking forward to laughing so hard your chest hurts and you feel light-headed. You’re looking forward to the safety in pleasure. You’re looking forward to forgetting, albeit briefly, the existential dread which plagues you, which tightens your chest, which pains your left side. You’re looking forward to forgetting that, leaving the house, you might not return intact. You’re looking forward to freedom, even if it is short, even if it might not last. You’re looking forward.”
People keep saying they want Morgan and Karadec to get together already, and they are missing the point. They need at least 2 ndes, one relationship failing because of the other, a divorce era. Someone here needs to be buried alive or driven of a bridge and Karadec needs to have a going of the books for Morgan's kids plot. Someone definitely needs to get shot. We haven't had a cop slow burn like this a while, let them hit the tropes before getting a dramatic getting together after one of them tries to quit in 3 to 4 seasons.
“Jory brought us here once, to fish for trout. You and me and Jon. Do you remember?”
...“I didn’t catch anything,” Bran said, “but Jon gave me his fish on the way back to Winterfell. Will we ever see Jon again?”
To my 25 - 35 year olds, you've reached the age where people around you are starting to give up on themselves because they think it's too late. Don't let that energy rub off on you. It's not too late.
