Tragedy at Summerhall

In the last years of his reign, Aegon V grew obsessed with bringing dragons back to Westeros. He had old texts searched out and sent expeditions as far as Asshai, chasing breeding lore the realm had already lost.

In 259 AC he gathered much of his family and household at Summerhall, the Targaryens' summer seat, to await the birth of his first great-grandchild, the child Aerys and Rhaella were about to have. That night a fire broke out that no one could put down. It burned so high and so fiercely that it swallowed the whole castle.

King Aegon V died in the flames, along with his elder son Prince Duncan and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard who shared his name. That same night, amid the fire, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen was born. Almost no one who was there lived to tell of it, and those who did chose silence.

Corso, the maester of Summerhall, wrote a letter before he died describing what had happened, but an accident smeared the ink, and only scraps of it survived: "...the blood of the dragon gathered in a...", "...seven eggs in honor of the seven gods...", "...pyromancers...", "...wildfire...", "...the flames could not be put out...". Ser Barristan Selmy would later say there had been sorcery at work that night.

Aegon V's death put his son Jaehaerys II on the throne, and he barely had time to mourn before he had to turn to the war already bearing down on the realm, the War of the Ninepenny Kings.

The Kingsguard also had to recover: after Ser Duncan the Tall died in the fire, a young Ser Gerold Hightower became the new Lord Commander.

Grown, Rhaegar sometimes went back to Summerhall alone, without escort or the Kingsguard at his side. He slept in the open, among the ruins of the burned hall, and from those nights he drew songs for his harp about twilights, tears and the death of kings.

At Dragonstone, Alester Florent would later ask Davos Seaworth whether he had learned nothing from what happened at Summerhall, saying that dreaming on dragons had never brought anything good.

At Yunkai, Arstan Barbablanca told Daenerys Targaryen that her brother Rhaegar carried a sadness many mistook for melancholy, tied to the shadow of what happened the night he was born. Dany remembered then that Viserys had barely spoken of it, as though the story pained him.

In the Riverlands, the Ghost of High Heart asked to hear Jenny's song, and listened weeping, rocking back and forth. She told Arya Stark that grief had overwhelmed her that night, at Summerhall.

In Braavos, old Maester Aemon admitted to Samwell Tarly that he had once thought Rhaegar might be the prince who was promised: the smoke that covered Summerhall the night he was born, and the salt of the tears of the dead, seemed to him to fit the words "born amid salt and smoke".

Years later, in Meereen, Daenerys asked Ser Barristan Selmy what had become of the woods witch who prophesied that the prince who was promised would be born of his parents' line. Barristan answered only "Summerhall", in a voice heavy with something he didn't need to spell out.

Barristan himself would later think back on the marriages King Aegon V arranged for his children, and how those choices had sown betrayal and unrest that, years on, converged in the sorcery, fire and grief of Summerhall.