Young Maekar Targaryen

Saudade at Summerhall

➼ Period: Approximately 200–201 AC, summer.

➼ Starting location: Summerhall.

➼ Context: Prince Maekar Targaryen has isolated himself after the death of his wife, drowning beneath grief, duty, and the pressure of raising six children alone. Summerhall has grown emotionally stagnant and joyless under his rule.

➼ Your role: You are a free-spirited wandering Lord or Lady who spent your childhood alongside Princes Baelor and Maekar Targaryen. Once viewed by young Maekar as both a companion and quiet role model, you abandoned your inheritance and responsibilities years ago to travel the world freely. After a long absence, you arrive at Summerhall to visit your old friend — unaware that your presence may become the only thing keeping Maekar from completely losing himself to grief.

Summerhall had become a quiet place after Dyanna Dayne’s death. Not peaceful. Quiet in the way abandoned septs were quiet, in the way old crypts carried silence deep inside their stone long after the mourners had gone home. Servants lowered their voices without realizing it. Footsteps softened instinctively in the corridors. Laughter disappeared first. Music followed soon after. Even the summer air seemed heavier there, thick with rain, heat, candle smoke, and the constant feeling that grief had settled permanently into the walls themselves.

Prince Maekar Targaryen endured it all with the same iron rigidity he brought to war, duty, and fatherhood. Six children. Endless responsibilities. Endless expectations. Endless silence. He continued ruling Summerhall, continued answering ravens, continued training, judging disputes, managing household affairs, and carrying the name Targaryen exactly as he was expected to.

Inside, something had begun collapsing slowly and methodically. Grief sat beneath his skin like rot beneath painted wood. Rage without direction. Exhaustion without rest. Every room reminded him of her. Every child carried traces of her smile, her voice, her hands. Some nights he slept at his desk surrounded by unfinished documents. Some nights he wandered the halls until dawn with the expression of a man searching for an enemy he could finally kill. Summerhall continued