The Treaty of Sunspear was signed, sealed, and sent forth across Westeros, borne by swift riders and ships under banners of truce.
The lords of the realm received the news with disbelief — and outrage.
In the Reach and the Stormlands, many noble houses had paid dearly for Aegon's war: sons lost, castles burned, harvests ruined.Now, they muttered of betrayal."Nine years of blood, and the Dornish still sit their sun-blasted sands as kings?""Aegon bends the knee to them, after all?"
In the marches, where hatred for Dorne burned hottest, the lords of House Fowler, Blackmont, Yronwood, and Dayne were cursed with every breath.The lords of the Stormlands, once fiercely loyal to Orys Baratheon and Aegon himself, grumbled in their great halls and sharpened their swords for the day when war would surely break out anew.
Among the smallfolk, too, tongues wagged.Many had lost kin to Dornish raids during the long war. They spoke bitterly of the dragon's shame, and prayed to the Seven that the Dornishmen would one day suffer as they had.
Yet King Aegon, on his high seat in Aegonfort, did not waver.
To Visenya, he said only:"I have broken them as far as I dare. To break them further would break us as well."
The Queen disagreed, but for the first time, she did not press him.
The consequences of the treaty were swift and lasting.
Dorne remained independent, the only land in Westeros not bound to the Iron Throne. No taxes were paid to the crown; no oaths of fealty were sworn.
The Riverlords and Northmen accepted the peace grudgingly, for their own people had suffered little compared to the South.
The Lords of the Reach and Stormlands, however, grew restless, their loyalty fraying like an old banner in the wind.Many looked to Aegon's heir, young Prince Aenys, with doubt and disdain, muttering that a weaker dragon would sit the Iron Throne after Aegon passed.
The Dornish themselves held their independence fiercely. Though trade and diplomacy resumed in the years to come, they never forgot the dragons' fire that had scorched their sands, nor the blood that had been shed at Hellholt, Ghost Hill, and the Boneway.
As for King Aegon, he returned more often to Dragonstone than to King's Landing in the years that followed.Some said the loss of Rhaenys had hollowed his heart; others whispered that the mysterious letter haunted him still.
Visenya Targaryen, cold and unbending, remained at Aegon's side, sharpening Dark Sister and her own plans for the future.
Peace had been bought — but it was a brittle peace, like glass stretched too thin.
The dragon slept.
But someday, the world would tremble again when it woke.