Rhaena’s defection to Jaehaerys strengthened the challenge to Maegor’s rule with a dragon, a royal daughter, and a stolen symbol of kingship. Forced into marriage with her uncle Maegor, she abandoned him when Jaehaerys gathered supporters at Storm’s End and flew to join the rival claimant.

Background and Stakes

The defection came amid an open contest for the Iron Throne. At Storm’s End, Lord Rogar Baratheon had proclaimed the fourteen-year-old Jaehaerys the true and lawful king, and Jaehaerys had named Rogar Protector of the Realm and Hand of the King. His mother, Queen Alyssa, and his sister Alysanne stood beside him as he drew Dark Sister and vowed to end Maegor’s rule. Jaehaerys rode Vermithor, while Alysanne commanded Silverwing; the gathering already represented a challenge backed by two dragons.

Rhaena’s position made her choice more than a change of sides in a family dispute. Maegor was her uncle and the husband she had been forced to wed. By leaving him for Jaehaerys, she rejected that imposed bond and aligned herself with the claimant whose supporters had declared Maegor a usurper.

The Flight from Maegor

When news reached the Red Keep that Jaehaerys was assembling forces at Storm’s End, Rhaena mounted Dreamfyre and flew to join him. She did not go alone: her daughter Aerea accompanied her. Her departure carried both a personal and a dynastic consequence, taking Maegor’s wife and a royal child out of his reach and into the rival camp.

Rhaena also took Blackfyre, stealing the sword from Maegor’s scabbard as he slept. The flight thus joined a physical break with Maegor to the removal of a potent royal possession. The account records the theft as part of her departure, not as a separate later seizure.

Consequences and Significance

Rhaena’s arrival made the gathering at Storm’s End stronger in dragons as well as people: the passage marks the force there as rising from two dragons to three. Dreamfyre’s presence added weight to Jaehaerys’s claim, while Aerea and Blackfyre further tied the defection to the royal succession and its symbols.

The episode is a sharp reversal in Maegor’s fortunes. A claimant who had been compelled to marry the reigning king became one of the figures strengthening his rival’s cause. The account establishes the immediate significance of her choice—her flight, her daughter’s presence, and her dragon joining Jaehaerys—but does not specify what later use was made of Blackfyre or describe the outcome of the ensuing struggle.