In the wake of the chaos that broke out during Princess Elaena’s nameday celebration, House Targaryen has been ominously silent. Courtiers would speak with hushed voices of what had happened and what would be done, and the lords of the small council would say almost nothing at all on the matter. King Daeron held a meeting into the night with his Hand, Prince Viserys, and the day after saw them both visiting Prince Aemon as he recuperated from the terrible wound that his brother gave him. Whispers have it that the Dragonknight’s beauty will no longer be what it once was, but it’s just as well as he was never a vain man. As to Aegon . . .
For two days, he was kept under guard in his apartments, with meals sent to him. Finally, Prince Viserys visited his son, and the Kingsguard allowed no one near to overhear a word of it; all that can be said for sure is that Prince Viserys seemed grim and unhappy when he left. Eventually he returned, but with an angry Young Dragon with him. When they departed next, they seemed more satisfied of the result, but still Aegon remained in his chambers. Princess Naerys—so often wounded by her husband and brother, yet so gentle—sent for word of when Aegon might be released, but no answer was given to her.
And next, it’s said that Prince Viserys paid a personal call to the home of Reyna Saltcliffe, who seemed to be the fulcrum on which everything turned. One of his escort would be heard to claim that the prince was tendering his apologies for his son’s behavior to the lady, but no one dared ask Viserys directly. Shortly after he left her manse, a troop of the City Watch descended on the manse in which Aegon’s lowborn mistress was said to reside. Called Mistress Megett by some and Merry Meg by others, the fate of the woman hangs in the balance. And so, too, does that of the four daughters she bore for Prince Aegon over the course of the four years in which he kept her hidden under his father’s very nose. It’s been said that Prince Baelor has offered up a recommendation as to the children, suggesting that they be given to the Faith so that they might absolve themselves of the sin their father thrust on them, and even now the Young Dragon is considering it. Rumors have since spilled over, shared among commoners, merchants, and nobles alike, repeating the claim that Aegon went so far as to arrange a farcical wedding to the woman after he had set his eyes on her.