White Wings of Summer

[Westeros]

The white ravens have flown from the Citadel, following the long debate of the Conclave. Summer has arrived, ending the long Spring of seven years. Why did the debate take so long? The proceedings of the Conclave are said to be closely-held secrets, yet rumors followed on those white wings, rumors that claimed that one faction of maesters believed it a false Summer, and others argued in fact that the signs suggested a very short Summer season. Regardless of the truth, in much of the realm the news of Summer’s arrival was meant with some cheer, and expectations of festivities. Would the king throw a feast? Perhaps even host a tourney?

Or are such plans already under way, as some might suspect, for King Aegon has been unusually busy with meetings of the small council and other lords and officers of the court besides. The exception has been Prince Daeron, who has had little and less of the king’s time, perhaps in part due to his spending time away at his seat as Prince of Dragonstone… but it’s well-known at court that he and the king are increasingly quarrelsome, and not even the efforts of Queen Naerys or the king’s mistress Missy Blackwood (who, curiously, has become friends with both the queen and her son) have had much effect.

There are other rumors as well, and not only at court but in the city beneath Aegon’s High Hill as well: of strange activity at the Guildhall of the Alchemists, who were recently visited by the king; of the unusual number of ships of the royal fleet that have recently docked; of the Grand Maester’s rookery being full almost to bursting with newly-acquired ravens. But truth be told, in these times it is the happier rumors—of fetes and tourneys and pageants—that dominate the court, regardless of what turmoil may be lying underneath the day to day life of the court.

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