Sure, he does betray Rhaenyra cause he's had enough of how he was treated and because Ormund promised him things, but also because he's desperate. Not because he wants to, but because he has to. He has to believe that someone, somewhere, will treat him better than Rhaenyra and Daemon. Someone will see him. They'll look at him and won't see a toy, or something less. They won't laugh at him or mock him or think him stupid. But I'm pretty sure he has his doubts. Because Rhaenyra had promised him things as well. What if Ormund knifes him when he thinks he's safe? However, that Hightower scum knows how to persuade and get what he wants. And now, he wants Ulf and Silverwing. So why stop at Honeyholt? Give him Driftmark. I really love how Ulf does know when he's wrong - at some extent - and knows how far to push things. So... Why not? That's why he agreed. But what about that line: "They will burn." and his not fully sane smile afterwards? Why did he say that? I'll tell you. Because he hates the world. He hates it. He doesn't hate Rhaenyra or Daemon or anyone in particular, but society itself. Why shouldn't he? All his life, he's been nothing, a bastard without a mother, without a name, without any idea of who he is. Even as a kid, he was thrown around, treated worse than a mongrel dog. And for what? Because he's a bastard. So why not punish him for just existing? Let's mock and push him around, (I also believe he was abused too), just because he's alive. He said it himself, he wished for death more days, than he wished to live! Of course that poor kid will get scarred and learn to hate the world for how it treats him. And then someone told him he's a Targaryen. He's isn't just the bastard of a noble house. No, he's a dragonseed. Do you have any idea what that does to a starved, traumatised and broken boy, who's spent years believing he's worth nothing? It gives him hope. Makes him think he's someone. That he's destined for something great. But then... Why isn't his mother here? Why didn't his father acknowledge him? Wasn't he enough? Wasn't he worthy of their love? Of a name to call his own? Maybe he isn't worthy. Because of what the world told him he is. A bastard. Bastards have no place in the world, no rights, no name to call their own. That's why. That's the reason why no one cared to look at him and say: "I know what you are." Why nobody cared enough to claim him. That's why... No one loves him. And as kid, that's what Ulf probably needed the most. A family. A place to be seen. Loved. Fed and warm and safe and protected. Instead, he only got hurt by the cruel world he grew up in. And ended up hating it. All of it. However, something that's even stronger than hatred, is hope. And Ulf did hope. He did hope that what the priest told him was true, because if it wasn't, who was he? What was a gutter-rat like him worth? But if it was true, if he was indeed a Targaryen, then he had a meaning in his life. A destiny. And he built his entire life, his entire personality around it, hiding the little traumatized boy he still was under a belief so strong it became his entire identity. But claiming a name doesn't immediately make you someone. Doesn't magically make things easier. In fact, it makes them harder. Imagine the first time he said it to someone, that he's a Targaryen. And those people probably started laughing. Why wouldn't they? How could this dirty, filthy, illiterate gutter-rat have anything to do with the Valyrian Dragonlords? The rightful rulers of the Seven Kingdoms? What did you think that did to Ulf, huh? It made his hatred deepen, coil around his soul and harden it. First, a mother he never knew left him. Then, he had to claw his way into existence from absolute nothing, being beaten and looked down at because of his blood. And when he finally has something, even if it's nothing more than a fragile hope, the world still turns it's back on him and mocks him. And he lived with that pain for decades, until some people believed him.
