AU idea:
I was curious about how Helaena and Ormund would interact in life. Oil and water! It didn’t exist anywhere so I finally decided to throw down some ideas…
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Little Helaena grew up with an enormous crush on her older cousin Ormund, naively believing his mask as a gallant knight. To the point where she spent years when she was younger sewing him a gorgeous green tapestry that smelled amazing because she kept coating her hands in vanilla to weave it into her stitching as she went. She’s talented at making tapestries and he collected them. Poor girl. There was love in every stitch.
But her mother, Alicent, knew he was a sexist bully that hated Targaryens and that he has zero patience for Helaena’s witchy ways. (She was right. Helaena was everything he hated.) So Alicent kept her daughter away from Ormund to avoid heartbreak and later would give the impression this incredible tapestry was a family gift to go along with Daeron leaving to ward. (Ormund downplayed how much he privately loved the gift in his thank you note, but it quietly hangs in the key spot in his bedroom. No warmth in the note. These were Targaryens.)
Meanwhile, Daeron became his ward. The boy was very close to his older sister, Helaena, and tells Ormund that his sister is a Dreamer and that she has a crush on him, she made the tapestry… etc, etc… (Thanks little Daeron)… Ormund is put off by what he interprets as an empty headed dragon witch childishly day dreaming about him… especially now that she’s marrying her own BROTHER… but… he has to admit it is an incredible tapestry.
Daeron is raised by this bully (who does love him very much). And Helaena writes often and Daeron wonders if part of her is fishing for information about life with Ormund, though she wouldn’t admit that now as this age… Meanwhile, Daeron no longer tells Ormund anything about his sister because the man has been so unkind.
Nevertheless, Ormund never forgot this useful information. That there was a Dreamer that he could manipulate. So years later as the Dance of Dragons gets uglier… he shifts from Plan A, B, C… all the way to down to Plan E trying to survive (no one can be relied upon in his view… Aegon, Aemond, Criston, the Baratheons… etc, etc) … and eventually he shifts onto the plan where he might actually have to resort to dragon magic to beat the dragons (yuck, but desperate times)…
So he really plays up with Daeron how they can’t surrender… If they surrender Daeron, Alicent, Helaena and Helaena’s children will be doomed… Otto and the little boy have already been murdered. So he doesn’t care if the rogue prince roasts him alive at the parley, he’s never giving up the boy he’s raised as a son… And Daeron thaws a bit and Ormund can more effectively talk to him about about Helaena to learn more so he can better manipulate her…
He shares what his spies know… that she and her unborn baby are starving… they really must get her out of there… (saying without saying that they are the heroes… that he is not mad and selfish despite what Gwayne is likely saying behind closed doors…)
Ormund is not surprised when his spies say she’s deteriorating in the Red Keep (he’s sexist and has never respected her personally). Of course the useless twit has given up and will wither away. He doesn’t consider the heavy toll of Dreaming. And he forgets he has his own weakness that can disable him. He just writes her off a useless woman. One poisoned from inbreeding and Targaryen madness.
He determines he’ll pretend to be nice to her (despite his disgust). Exactly like he does with Ulf the White later.
And eventually his spies manage to carefully slip a note into her room that is clearly from Ormund saying not to give up, he’s going to rescue her. (He shamelessly pretended to be gallant like the cad he was). But his spies indicate that she has started eating again.
She moves the note in her hands for hours before burning it. The wheels turning. Deciding what to do.
He does soon have her and her little daughter rescued. Not without a little bloodshed. And this time she doesn’t resist or refuse or hinder. This time she actively chooses to cooperate. She supports as she can. Her daughter does not make a sound. She chooses to finally walk away from King’s Landing and from her family.
She has her own plan now.
She arrives at Tumbleton with blood all over her, but she is resilient and unfazed. She greets Ormund warmly and thanks him for not leaving her daughter behind. She hadn’t expected that since no other rescue plan had ever factored in her little girl. And so Ormund played up how sorry he was about her little boy and how they couldn’t sacrifice each other to win this war. Surrendering would have sacrificed her and Daeron… (Gwayne was trying not to roll his eyes listening to this. But Helaena was thinking about her mother gone away to murder Aemond. Insisting to leave her baby girl behind earlier.)
So she was brought to Tumbleton. And she seems to fall for his charming act. He manipulates her in a way that her sister, the False Queen, couldn’t manage and he gets SO much useful information about what’s really going on and what’s going to happen next. Helaena wants to help him and her dreams come more frequently and they become much clearer and easier to understand. They become more relevant and useful. She’s deeply motivated now and it comes out in her dreams. She naps in the middle of the day intentionally. And this is how she knows that she still loves him. After all this time. Whatever he’s become, she never stopped loving him.
And all the while… he continues to use her and manipulate her and play the dashing gentleman that just wants to rescue his family… reminding everyone these people murdered her baby boy and her grandfather and will kill Helaena and Daeron next if he gives up… But he doesn’t really mean any of it. They had already passed the point of no return before Aemond disappeared. This was survival for ALL of them now.
He was initially surprised that she was pretty. He hadn’t remembered that. But then the platinum blond hair and the purple eyes… ugh… Incest, invaders with lizard magic… It was difficult to mask his disgust. But he needed her powers and he could teach a masterclass in deception.
You can’t force Helaena to do anything. You could beat the hell out of her and she won’t give in. You could never be cruel around her to anyone, especially animals. Daeron had warned Ormund early on that Otto and Alicent often couldn’t get the girl to compromise her morals.
Gwayne had witnessed some bizarre episodes at King’s Landing and politely ventured that she was strange and stubborn and the visions likely weren’t REAL… she babbled nonsense and no one had patience for it in her family… She would babble to herself quietly as she played with little bugs in the dirt…
It made sense to Gwayne that mad Ormund was going to listen to mad Helaena. On paper it shouldn’t make sense. Ormund hated dragon magic and women wielding authority. However, Ormund was essentially his brother and it made sense to Gwayne. Beat dragon magic with dragon magic. Madness begets madness. It was an annoying and uncomfortable performance to watch though and it would fail.
So Ormund had been warned about Helaena’s nature and he was prepared from the start to play a character she would want to help. (The False Queen couldn’t get anywhere with the dreamer and he wouldn’t make that mistake. It would feel good to succeed where everyone else had failed and to prove Gwayne wrong.) He would never admit it, but he hadn’t anticipated her strength of character and somewhat respected it. Somewhat. She wasn’t quite what she seemed, at any rate.
He realized early that fake-nice Ormund could miraculously get her to cooperate in ways no one else could. She told him everything… But it took extreme patience and restraint… (the patient hunter gets the kill)… He needed to stop doing certain things so she didn’t figure out how nasty he really was… he needed her powers. He amazed himself as the character he created charmed this woman… He noticed that his path was smoother in life with everyone when he played this character, when he acted this way… being likeable was powerful in a way…
He continued to charm and influence her. It got to the point where a quiet “Laena” was all it took to shut a situation down… (When had he started calling her Laena for short?)
And when did he start being kind to her little daughter when she wasn’t within hearing range? That was entirely unnecessary. The little one was a product of incest and an “accident” should have been discreetly arranged. But no. He didn’t want… Well, she needed to tell her mother that he was wonderful. He needed to keep her mother happy and having the girl was key to that. That is why he didn’t leave her behind. It wasn’t weak and foolish. It was strategy. (Every change could easily be justified.)
For her part, Helaena appreciated the firm control Ormund had over his world. Her royal family has been chaotic by comparison. Her brothers could be scary. Her father had not been a commanding presence despite being king. Lord Hightower had an iron grip on everything all the time and it made her feel safe for the first time that she could recall. (She would also be lying if she said she wasn’t impressed that he was the richest lord in the kingdom, living in the tallest building in the entire world and also had the Citadel and the Starry Sept…)
She also recognized he wasn’t as gallant as he seemed in public with a handsome face and fine manners and fancy words. Privately he was as odd and alone as she was. They were both apparently odd ducks that people were uncomfortable around.
She quietly worked on a tapestry beside him, answering whatever he needed to know… He eventually got used to her being around and at some point it wasn’t so annoying anymore, less acting was required… He listened to anything and everything she had to say patiently, no matter how strange. He was creative and artistic, so he could follow the symbolism and listen to the dreams with interest and open mindedness… others got confused and impatient… but he genuinely understood the abstract nature of visions and she finally had someone to talk to about them. It felt good to actually talk about this. Especially the scary visions. They had been making her very, very sick and she had nearly died from them. But now she was strong. She was starting to have good visions and she had hope.
Eventually she started just coming right out and saying what she could sense the message was. He didn’t question her. She had always been right.
And one night she pointing out quietly that he needed to start putting blood and other awful things on his face over and over so he could survive. He pretended not to know what she was talking about… and she didn’t repeat it or even look up from her stitches. But it haunted him. He kept thinking about it and eventually he discreetly started forcing himself through what could be considered exposure therapy. Hopefully she was right and he would no longer be so disadvantaged in combat. But his pride didn’t allow him to ask her about it.
Eventually Helaena saw that they would all die if she did not intervene with Ulf the White. Ulf was a difficult person to motivate, but she spoke from the heart.
She saw his life and she felt very sad for Ulf, touching his hand. She called him “uncle” (he is) and asked him to please make sure they didn’t kill her baby. They’ve already killed one baby. “Please help me.” And the sweet girl secured her Uncle Ulf. He was locked in now. Not loyal to any crown or army… but to his niece. She’s actually kind, sincere, compassionate and does not worry about the exact circumstances by which he is her uncle.
The battle of Tumbleton arrives.
She’s so scared for Ormund as the battle is starting. She’s not sure if she fixed it. Or if it can be fixed.
He’s still an awful person… but his heart softens a bit at the realization of how it feels to actually be cared about by someone in this way.
Meanwhile, there is no way the bastard can use little ones as shields with Helaena around. That plan was out now. He realized her nature early and he’s stopped doing a lot of awful things he used to do because of her. Somewhere along the way pretending to be a better person shifted into some real change. But he doesn’t even notice. (Roxton notices. He’s fond of Helaena and wants revenge for her lost babe).
By this time, Ormund still finds Helaena problematic. But she isn’t disgusting anymore. He doesn’t hate her anymore.
Especially when he hides her and her little girl under the floor boards, but she won’t let go… She won’t let go at first and she blurts out tearfully that she loves him.
The battle goes differently and he survives. And when he pulls her out from under the floor he pretends like it never happened. Because she’s married and pregnant and a dragon witch.
But there is only more war as Aegon and Aemond come back angry at both sides… (Ormund knew they were alive, she had told him everything early on).
She keeps helping him navigate the war. He hides her role lest she be assassinated or stolen. They are always a few steps ahead and he knows it is not his brilliance behind it… (well, he thinks he’s brilliant for acquiring her, manipulating her and using her information correctly)… Meanwhile, her secret priority is to keep them both alive. She has always known that Aegon will die eventually and she doesn’t try to prevent it. She feels bad, but she wants to be free and he was not nice to her over the years. It wasn’t a good life where she was respected. No one believed her back there.
Shortly after the battle, Helaena ends up losing her baby unexpectedly in public. Ormund slips into one of his panic attacks at first. But he fights through it to lift her up and run her to help, realizing his witch might be dying… (and maybe he likes her a tiny bit now, but he’d never admit it)…
Gwayne finds him in the hallway, out of the way now, looking totally shell shocked with her bloody hand print on his face. Ormund doesn’t even notice there is blood on his face... though he vividly recalls her reaching for him from the bed with a bloody hand and he didn’t recoil. He wanted to blurt out “please don’t die” … but he’s not a child and he swallows it and says nothing as she touches his face.
Now in the hall, Ormund is speaking strangely and he doesn’t notice the blood on his expensive clothes… on his face… He doesn’t seem as focused on losing his secret weapon as he should be. He even mutters something unintelligible about them keeping the little girl.
And Gwayne realizes within seconds that the relationship between these two is more complicated than he realized. But Ormund would never admit it. Not even to himself.
Helaena thankfully survives. She also continues to help Ormund survive one day at a time throughout the war. She has been through hell again and it becomes easier to be kind to her now. Less fake. He never admits that he was frightened. That it was a wake up call. He never mentions he’ll take care of her daughter if anything happens. (He does say he is sorry for her loss and he means it. But when did he start hugging her back?)
They just survive day by day. They have both lived so much longer than they were ever supposed to live…
She can see herself below her castle window with spikes through her body… but it is changed now. A secret note had come… “I will rescue you”…
And the truth is revealed. She’s the one steering this ship. She’s rescued herself.
Despite all the hardships, she remains hopeful.
With her powers she’s known for a long time now exactly what Ormund really is. But she also knows what he’s slowly going to become. That he’s been slowly changing for the better already. And while he’ll never be a good person, in this hellish world, he’s good enough.
And as she continues to influence all his decisions… she can see the happy ending she always wanted is actually a possibility… it is not the fairy tale she dreamed up about a dashing knight while she spent years making a tapestry as a young girl… it is instead something messy and difficult…imperfect… she’s suffered so much and yet persevered with resilience and tenacity… Her happy ending is slowly built over time between two unusual, stubborn survivors accidentally growing into better versions of where they started.
She’s stronger now and she carved out this path for herself.