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I don’t own anything. Everything belongs to GRRM! Dark! I have never written a story of Ice and Fire Justice for Elia Martell…for the Martell family!

Justice for Brandon and Rickard Stark! It’s not Elia’s fault, I swear! Not for Lyanna and Rhaegar fans! Elia Martellx Rhaegar Targaryen, violent but brief Aerys II Targaryenx Elia Martell There are other pairings… Once again, I don’t own anything…

She peeked out of her chambers to find the halls empty of life but that was normal. Everyone dismissed except for the Lion Knight. The Maester Pycelle was quietly rotting away in the black cells… It was deathly quiet and she shuddered. The Lion Knight was with the dragon king and for a moment she sighed in relief. Elia’s face throbbed…her body bruised. She was exhausted but evil did not rest and with her babes and the dragon Queen’s babes’ lives hanging in the balance, she could not rest…

Perhaps the king will grow tired and just kill her to give her the rest she seeks…

Up until a few moons ago, she truly shared the abuse with her good mother and her cunt ached as a reminder that she was the sole heir to the beatings and rapes. Now with the Queen unable to do her duties due to her being heavy with child…

Everything has fallen on her…

She hated it…

This wasn’t supposed to be the duty she was supposed to inherit from the Queen but she knows it is not the Queen’s intent.

She went to an ornate chest hidden from view and took a last look to her sleeping babes. Recently, she had been hiding her children when she was being called to the dragon king. It was unsafe in the Keep. She never hid them in same place twice and alternated places in her room. She placed a last kiss to their chubby cheeks and closed the chest before going out into the hall.

Without servants and the majority of the Kingsguard and castle guard, the Queen imprisoned with the young dragon prince, in a place she could not reach without drawing the anger of the king… It was lonely…

No one else to share her pain. There was the disgraced wolf lord but he was currently being held in the Black Cells as well, with the Maester’s and the wolf’s father…their corpses rotting before his haunted gray eyes. She wants to see him…

She needs to…

She remembers their shouting and threats for her prince…

The wolf princess…

Beloved by the realm…

By the world…

Sister and daughter of the winter wolf lords…whisked away by her dragon prince. Tucked away from abuse, from the torture…

A true princess locked away in a tower…

What did that make her? She was future Queen…she gave the realm what it desired…a male heir.

“I need the third head…” Too weak to even give the first two. Not a warrior but born of a warrior family. It took four conquests with dragons for the Targaryens to conquer her people and she can’t even push out another babe to satisfy her prince.

Would he even be satisfied?  The question always comes to her.

Could someone with everything want more?

Too soon, the smell of burnt rotting flesh hits her nose and she is slightly taken aback at how silent and quickly she arrived to the bowels of the Keep. She gulped and willed her aching body to go to the rear of the cells. She paid no attention to the rot, the decay, the blood, the bones…

She wants to break out into a run but her patience is awarded when she is face to face with the wolf. He is as beat up and tortured as she is. He is missing his sword hand and he is curled in a corner away from the corpse of his father. She cannot leave her babes alone for too long. Her little princess is so terrified that she has resulted in wetting the bed when they have worked so hard to get her to say something when she has to pee. Her prince’s heir has noticed a change and is clingy and suckles a lot more than normal. Her breasts hurt because not only was her prince suckling, but also her princess was sneaking suckles in the middle of the night and the dragon king…

She is just grateful that he hasn’t ripped her nipples off…

“I-I will try t-to get you out of h-here…” she says and she notices how weak and tired she sounds. His laughter is a hoarse bark,

“He knighted me with my own hand…he is merely keeping me here until my armor and cloak are done. I am a knight when I did not want to be. I wanted to be with her…” He speaks of her dearest friend and the little star born between them but…

He does not know… the dragon king will spit it in his face as he drapes the white cloak upon his heavy shoulders. The little star has died and from what the dragon king has being laughing in her bruised face that her friend is damn near to end herself and she wants to end herself too…

They are cut off from all communication…only the dragon king receives messages.

No one knows what goes on here.

They don’t know what goes out there. The city gates are closed, no one to leave and no one to enter. Anyone caught leaving is executed and their bodies hang as a reminder…

She is beaten because if she wasn’t a weak sand whore…her prince would be here…

Her babes wouldn’t be scared out of their mind...

The wolf lord would still have his hand and his father.

She cannot reach her brothers, who think she is just sitting safely waiting for her prince’s return. She wants to comfort her friend and send for help but she tried that once and the king smashed her face against his solar desk. He dragged her to the fireplace and she screamed bloody murder as her hair was burnt off.

“You are no sun!” Her hair grew back in a shock of white and was to her shoulders. It is matted with blood.

“I-I’m sorry f-for e-everything…everything is m-my f-fault…” she says. The words are no stranger to her tongue, and it’s practiced just like her courtesies.

“Do not believe for a second that any of this is your fault…”

It is…

It is why she is punished so…

It is why her prince is not here…

“…B-But…”

“Leave before you’re caught here…” Her heart pounds as she ducks and dodges through the shadows of the Keep and she thanks the gods for her safe return and that her babes are still cuddled in the chest, shielded by blankets. Her dragon princess is wide eyed, reaching for her and her baby prince is still safe in his sleep. Another surprise awaits her and it is the dragon Queen, beautiful, sad, bruised…pregnant with a frightened dragon at her bosom.

“The children were still sleep so I let them be…” she whispers.

“H-Hi s-sister…” the young prince whimpers, clutching his mother tight.

“H-Hello, m-my sweet p-prince,” she says. Elia lifts Rhaenys up as best as her aching arms could and sits her gently down. Her sweet princess rushes to her young uncle and they hold each other at the Queen’s feet. She gets her young heir and pulls a chair next to the Queen, she holds her sleeping son. It is silent…

They grab each other’s hands and squeeze as the first of many tears fall.

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Chapter 2

After the tears had fallen and dried, the Queen and the young prince are once demanded back to wherever the dragon king is keeping them which causes her dragon daughter to have a tantrum. Try as they might, young prince Viserys and the Queen try to reassure her and tell her to be a good girl.  Once she is reduced down to hiccups, Elia soothes her with milk until the dragon king calls for her. She holds off as much as she can before she hears his roars. Her babes are in a clingy mood and she is afraid for them. They are usually sleep which allows for her to easily hide them. It is the Plow Knight, Ser Darry that tells her that her babes will be safe with him and that she must hurry before the dragon king comes and seeks her out for himself.

That just would not do

She leaves her babes in gentle hands and she rushes to the throne room where she is met with a beating that spills blood from her nose.

“When I call, you come!” He hisses.

“F-Forgive me, M-My G-Grace…m-my babes…”

“Fuck your babes!” He spits on her and she quiets. She is gentle with the wipe of her nose and is temporary marveled by the brightness of her blood. She sees the Lion knight standing, his hands clenched tight around the sheath of his golden sword. His beautiful face is sad but she sees how hard he hides it. The Lion Knight does what he can to ease the darkness that fills the Keep. Though, he is a hostage too…

Unable to reach his father, his sweet Lion sister, or defected cub of a brother…

He protects the king but he has fallen prey to the king’s abuse as well. The Lion is sometimes beaten by those who support the king’s madness. He is not beaten like she is or the wolf lord but it is enough to make him wonder about his vows and if he is the insane one for trying to fulfill them. When he is not with the king, he is with her and her babes or with the Queen and her timid dragon. He bandages them and keeps their wounds clean…the children latch to him because they see him in the way they should have seen her prince.

Their protector...

He does not mind, in fact, he loves the adoration and keeps them distracted when she or the Queen are too beaten to open their eyes.

She is dragged to the steps of the throne, where he leaves her shaking and bleeding. Her face hurts and she could feel it beginning to swell. The Lion looks on with sadness and anger but he dares not look at her.

“Bring my new guard!” The king shouts, gleefully. As they wait, she is beaten again for pure amusement and she is quivering and curled in a ball when the wolf lord is brought before them. If it wasn’t for the black eyes, bruised and cut lips and the look of anger and defeat, the wolf lord would’ve been handsome in his white cloak. Noticing the change of emotions on the wolf's face, the dragon king says,

“Ser…be grateful, you could have joined that coward you call a father but you live! Live to see how much my son destroyed your virtuous sister! You’ll get to hear him fuck her over and over again as you guard him as your king! Your father died for nothing!” A kick to her face causes her to wean in and out of unconsciousness. Her vision doubling as blood and tears cloud it. She spits blood out and a tooth and she sighs with relief that it is one of her back teeth she has lost. She’s already ugly, a tooth missing in the front would just add to her ugliness.

“Maybe bring your Lady Star here…marry her off to some lord where he’ll whore her out to all of his lowly men. She’s quite beautiful…I should have married her to my son instead of this worthless bitch!” A kick to her ribs makes her see lightning…

“F-Forgive me, M-My Grace…” she wheezes.

"Hush! Bitches aren't supposed to talk!" The tears burn but what are her tears to him? Or to her prince?

Or to anyone else in the realm?

"You will guard my Queen and true son," the dragon king commands the wolf. He then demands the Lion Knight to take him to wherever they were being kept and to return to him. Elia does not look up from the stone floor.  Elia soon finds herself being dragged into the hall, beating her until she is thrown aggressively into a room and the door is shut and the dim light from the hall disappear from view. Her labored breathing is all she hears.

It’s dangerous if he’s quiet…

She is in so much pain that she doesn’t have her senses about her. She is violently yanked and thrown around until somehow, somehow, he is between her legs, her skirts, no longer pretty, are around her bony hips and it is a violent ride filled with screaming, hitting, and biting…

So. Much. Biting.

He hates her, swears she is nothing and yet, he takes her as he did his wife before she became big with child but she always comes to the conclusion that even in madness, a man is still a man. She sees hell once more and it scalds her. She is flipped and he rams into her without a care and she feels her insides screaming as he continues his ride while trying to rip her hair out of her scalp. Inside, she cries for her mom and her brothers. Outside she is beaten and fucked beyond reason, she wants to look away but she sees fire and a very angry dragon breathing it. It is over and he leaves her but not before taking a piss on her.

“Bitch.” She is left there in a pool of blood and urine.

“I-I’m s-sorry…” she cries weakly to no one. It is the wolf that finds her and he is panicked because it takes her a few moments longer to respond. Not caring about the smell or the blood, he hurries to her chambers where the Queen, Ser Darry, and the babes wait anxiously. The babes are asleep because they do not see the state that she is in. The Queen in all of her beauty and pregnancy, waddles to get water and rags to clean her off.

The wolf is supporting her because she cannot hold her body up because she hurts so bad. She keeps her cries quiet because she does not want to wake the children. They get little sleep as it is…

Her dress is changed and it is a plain thing because the royal tattered skirts she had been donning are destroyed beyond repair. The dress is fit for a kitchen maid. It is not restricting but it rubs uncomfortably against fresh wounds. The Queen bids her to rest and she tries hard to remember the last time she was able to have a night's rest. Elia finds though, that in her brief naps, what plagues her waking moments also plagues her sleep.

It's one of those moments in which her eyes are too heavy and too blackened to stay opened.

Her sleep is dark and silent but she hears the echoes of her prince's sad words,

"I need a third head..."

Ruled by a prophecy that has plagued his family for centuries...

He considered himself the Promised Prince or maybe it was their son...

She doesn't know...

She used to...

Her head has been smashed one too many times, the details are now foggy to her.

She wakes and she panics because it is dark and silent, just like her sleep. She feels her young prince tugging at her dress with his teeth and she allows him to suckle. She feels the soft body of her dragon princess and for a moment she is overcome with small happiness.

It hurts to smile...

Chapter Text

I don’t own To fit the things in that I want to fit in, the fated rebellion has been going on for longer than expected…

Chapter 3

She is woken by a small gentle shake but she recoils with a small cry. Lately, no touch directed towards her has been gentle. Any touch now…

Just scares her…

It is the beautiful and yet freshly bruised face of the handsome Lion Knight. He smiles and reassures her that it is nothing. He smart-mouthed the dragon king, he says…

Elia does not push it because she is beaten for just existing…

How have the gods made her durable for such punishments but not durable to bear children?

She should be dead or close to but…

How does any of this work?

She searches for her babes and find her sweet princess curl protectively around her dragon prince. The Lion Knight produces food, and another thought passes through her mind…

When was the last time she ate?

It is quiet, the dragon king wanders in his chambers, muttering and cursing. It is a rare peaceful moment in the Red Keep and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. The wolf knight brings the Queen and the young dragon prince and they all gather in Elia’s chambers. They move and speak quietly, so afraid to draw attention of the dragon king. The Lion Knight is so patient with the children and offers them laughs and sweet cakes. The wolf knight is quiet but watches the scene with kindness. The Queen does more to ease Elia’s wounds because there is no Maester. Elia nibbles because her appetite is nonexistent these days. The peacefulness does not last and it shatters with the roar for Lion Knight and her. Ser Darry comes to watch her dragon babes and the wolf knight escorts the Queen and fretful prince back to where the dragon king demands them to be.

Her sweet daughter tries to follow her, her small face scrunched up in fear and she makes grabbing motions for her.

Her heart is breaking…

The Lion Knight leads the way and for every time she walks down the hall to the throne room, the hall seems to grow smaller and darker every time.

“The bitch is with child!” The dragon king screams at her. He punches her and his rings cut into her lips. She feels the red warmth pour on her face and it causes her to cry. He backhands her and the blow is so hard that it knocks her off her feet. The wounds that were beginning to heal are undone. He beats her and then,

“Go get my new toy…” He sits his whole weight on top of her and she is beginning to wheeze. “I am going to break you and bow you… I already have you bent,” he cackles. He spits in her face and all too soon she hears the Lion Knight’s return. The new toy in question is a whip with three leather cords with tiny silver dragons knotted on the end. She quivers but has no strength to move as he admires it and whips the air.

“Y-Your Grace…” Ser Jaime says…taking a step towards them…almost…

He thinks better of it…

“I thought so,” the dragon king says nastily.

This will be the thing that kills her…

“P-Please…” she sobs. She braces herself anyway because her cries and pleas mean nothing.

Have meant nothing…

She is whipped and her skin is split opened. Luckily, she is whipped for every year of her and her prince’s marriage. The pain wants to make her cackle because the number of years they have been married is the same number of the new gods.

Seven…

She is dragged into dark abandoned chambers and she is taken beyond reason. If the lashes weren’t enough, if the brutal force of sex wasn’t enough…

The dragon king beats her. He screams and yells slurs at her. He curses her children and wishes Rhaegar would rid of them. She thinks she has died but she resurfaces to anger and fire.

She hates everyone and curses them.

Even her brothers…

When it’s over, she is a whimpering and quivering mess of blood and bruises. Her back is open and exposed and she sobs.

She pleads for forgiveness.

She knows she is worthless…

The blue crown on top of a wolf’s head told her so.

She clutches the stained and ragged sheets of the bed as her ride is violent. Images of her prince riding passed her turn red and melt into an unknown giant bashing her baby dragon’s head against a wall. At the echoes of Rhaenys’ screams as she is stabbed, that hell is over and she just lays there wishing for death.

Elia sobs as her blood seeps into the sheets…

She is left by her dragon prince like discarded trash and now his father does what he pleases.

She has done nothing wrong…

Yet, she is treated like a criminal. It is the wolf knight that finds her and the Ser Darry. It takes a few moments to rouse her but she wakes at the third timid call of her name.

Over the next few moons, her beatings, and rapes, while still brutal and violent have ceased as the king descends into deeper madness.

She doesn’t recognize herself. Her hair is still a shock of white and her face is covered bruises and cuts, healing and unhealed. One of her eyes is has been swollen shut and her nose constantly bleeds. She is malnourished, her arms are bony, but her breasts are large from the constant suckling and she is noticing an increase of size in her stomach. She is spared the new toy of the dragon king during her beatings. Her seven lashes are still vivid…

It is one of those rare moments of peace that they are having. Her chambers are just where they feel safe. Prince Viserys is invested in the stories of the north and the wolf knight is happy to indulge. She, the Queen, and Ser Jaime coax her dragon princess to eat but she wants milk. Elia promises her a suckle if she takes just a bite.

“N-No…” her princess whimpers.

“She will not eat because you d-don’t eat sister…” Prince Viserys explains shyly. He is clinging to the wolf knight’s leg.

Elia does not have an appetite…

Has not had one for moons since her prince left her here with his father. She peels an orange with much effort and takes a slice into her mouth. The juice stings the cuts on her lips but it is refreshing. She gives a slice to her princess and she takes it and nibbles on it, placing her small body in Elia’s lap. The night goes without incident.

She doesn’t remember falling asleep but she is shaken awake by the young prince.

“S-Sister…momma…” his violet eyes are wide and watery. The Queen is clutching her stomach and an anguished look is on her face.

“T-The baby…”

On her floor, with just the simplest of essentials and the memory of her giving birth, she helps the Queen start the delivery process. Viserys holds her young prince and princess as the wolf knight, the Lion Knight and Ser Darry help her and the Queen.

After some time, a healthy baby girl is born.

Her name is Daenerys…

“I-I’m s-so s-sorry, E-Elia. I h-had not want this f-for you…” the Queen sobs, as she places gentle kisses on the small infant head of her daughter.

If only she was born sooner…

“I leave Viserys and Dany to you…” Elia waits for more but nothing comes and she looks up to see the glassy eyes of the Queen staring off into space.

Don’t leave me here with him…

"P-Please...d-don't leave me..." she sobs.

Chapter Text

I don’t own

Chapter 4

She wakes and she panics but then it’s dread that sets in when she realizes that she is on the floor of the dragon king’s chambers. Since the Queen’s death, the beatings and rapes pick up and she is being treated like a dog.

“Since my son likes dogs, you should start acting like one, right Ser Brandon? You all sleep and eat off floors up there, yeah?”

She sits up and pain shoots up and down her body. Nausea hits her and she peeks up to find the king gone from his chambers. She worries for the babes, who are exposed. The nausea overcomes her, and she has to crawl to the nearest bucket. She is disgusted at what she finds but she cannot linger on it as she empties the contents of her stomach. The door opens suddenly and she crawls back to her place by the bed. It is the wolf knight.

“Come, the children haven’t eaten, and they are becoming difficult…” He carries her to her chambers where she hears small cries of her dragon prince and the infant dragon. She does all she can to clean herself as to not frighten the children. Her hands shake as she fastens another dirty dingy dress around her body. The dragon king forbids her to wear her royal things under the threat that he will destroy them.

Some of those things belonged to her mother…

She can’t get those things back if they are destroyed…

Viserys clutches the Queen’s crown as he clutches her distressed dragon princess.

“W-Where w-were y-you, m-mommy?” Rhaenys’ whines. The wolf knight pushes food towards her and demands she eats. He tells her that both her dragon prince and the stag lord are paused at the battlefield because of a storm that happened the day baby Dany came into the world, so the ground was too wet to continue the battle over their beloved winter wolf. She holds both of the younger babes, placing them on either bruised teat. The wolf knight feeds her as she feeds them and he is tender and patient with her. He is careful of her bruised and scarred lips. It is when her dragon princess receives her turn at suckling that the older dragon prince finally eats. As the babes drift off to sleep, the Lion Knight comes and tells them that the dragon king has the Queen’s body, refusing to part with it.

The Lion Knight cares for her wounds and the three men look among each other.

“We can run, open the gates…” the wolf knight whispers.

“What of the city watch and his supporters?” Ser Darry asks, peering over at the single cradle holding the younger dragon babes.

If they are caught, she is sure they would all be killed...

“The people are starving. We won’t have food to last us if the war keeps up,” the wolf knight argues quietly before one of his bruised eyes make their way to her quivering form,

“She won’t last…”

She won’t…

She knows…

“Ser Jaime and I will take on the role of kingslayers…” Ser Darry shudders. The wolf knight is determined.

She is not called by the dragon king and it allows her to rest and be with her babes.

They are all her babes now

It is just her, Ser Darry, and the wolf knight. They discuss their plans of escape and she cradles Viserys and Rhaenys to her bosom. She becomes more anxious the more plans are being laid out. She leaves her babes cradling each other on her bed and she begins to pack some jewels and clothes.

“Mommy, d-don’t l-leave m-me. I g-go t-too…” her sweet princess cries. She reassures her dragon. It does not help and she cries softly, reaching for Elia.

The Lion Knight comes and tells them that they leave the next eve but the dragon king has demanded for her.

“N-NO, M-Mommy, d-don’t leave!” Rhaenys cries loudly and Elia begins sobbing as Ser Jaime escorts her and she notices how even smaller and darker the hall has gotten.

“J-Jaime…I can’t d-do this anymore…” she whispers.

“I know. I don’t want to see you do this anymore…” the Lion Knight places a comforting hand at the small of her back.

She tries not to wince at the touch.

When they arrive, she fights the urge to vomit as the smell of decay fill her nose. She and the Lion Knight hide their horror.

The dead Queen sits and it is the dragon king that talks to her and brushes her hair.

“They will pay…” they hear him whisper to the lifeless corpse. Decay is setting in on her lovely face.

She does not get a chance to grieve before she is backhanded and dragged to the steps.

“You are the reason my son is not here and the realm is in turmoil. Your weak womb…your Dornish heritage…” the dragon king hisses.

“F-Forgive me…” she says softly.

“The dragon says that there is no more forgiveness!” He beats her and when she is thrown to the side, an odd request has been made to bring her young prince Viserys and the Lion Knight is hesitant. He and the wolf knight have assumed the role as pseudo fathers for the dragon babes. The Plow Knight is also protective of the young ones and the three do everything they can to ease the babes.

Where the Lion Knight and Plow Knight are indulgent, the wolf knight is realistic. They do not mind that she and the babes are dependent on them, even though they do not belong to her. They belong to the dragon king…

He can order all three of them to kill her and the babes…

“Should I call for the lion princess instead? Or would I be doing your father a favor of ridding him of that poor excuse of human, the imp?” The dragon king taunts.

She is backhanded again and blood spills. The Lion Knight goes and she is beaten again in his absence and to fill the silence. She thinks about her dragon princess and how upset she must be. While the three knights protect the babes, Viserys is her true protector.

She is coughing and vomiting when the Lion Knight comes with a clinging Viserys. The Lion Knight tries to hide the prince’s view of the dead Queen and is successful until the dragon king, one of his feet on her back, demands that he come see his mother. Her heart shreds at the sound of his childish screams and he is snatched up by the dragon king.

“F-Father…p-please…s-stop…”

“You’re weak and worthless just like your brother!” The weight of his foot is lifted as the dragon king drags the young prince to the ugly seat of the throne.

“I have to burn them all, my dear boy. They descend on the capital and bring winter!” She finds the Lion Knight, her vision blurry.

Has her prince died?

Who descends?

She does not make any move to rise but gasps when she is overcome with nausea and vomits again.

“W-What do you m-mean, f-father?” There is a rumble in the bowels of the keep and it shakes the walls…

“Fire is the only thing that can kill them, remember that!” A dagger is impaled in her babe’s eye and he screams and as he screams the room shakes.

The floor becomes hot…

As he kicks and screams, he kicks and sends the dragon king down the steps…

There is a sound of a sickening crack and she is face to face with the limp body of her tormentor when he reaches the bottom. The Lion Knight quickly goes to the young prince and grabs him. When he gets to her, he helps her up and she begins sobbing.

“We will cry later; we have to open the gates and get out of here.” The Lion Knight looks as if he is about to cry but he schools it.

As they leave the throne room, it erupts in a sea of green fire and the explosion sends them out of the throne room fully.

The last thing she sees is haunting…

The Queen, the dragon king, and the skeletons of the great dragons of old being engulfed by green and black flame…

The Lion Knight shakes her out of her revere, and they see the wolf knight and Ser Darry with the other babes.

“The fuck?!” The wolf knight says when he sees Viserys’ face.

“The boy is still breathing. We don't have much time to wonder how the Mad King got a hold of wildfire…” The Lion Knight says in a rushed tone.

With screaming babes, they flee into the crowd of panicked people. It is sheer brute force that the wolf knight has that gets them to the front of the gates. It is the news of the dragon king’s death that the city gates, after two years, are opened just as more explosions go off in the Keep. She finds herself lifted, with her dragon babe in her arms and placed on a wagon, her sweet princess rushes to her bosom, sobbing, searching for milk. Prince Viserys is placed gently, and she tries to clean his face as carefully as possible, as quivering and shaking hands would allow her. Ser Darry places the infant dragon next to her.

“We should head towards Dragonstone…”

She does not want that...

“Let’s pay my lord husband, the king, a visit on the Trident…” she finds herself saying.

“Your wish is our command…” the three knights bow to her.

Chapter Text

I don’t own

 It feels like forever since she has felt the sun and it is a glorious feeling. It a quiet ride to the Trident. She does not dare look back at the burning capital and focuses ahead with pained determination. Her gaze flickers to the young prince, who is sleeping with a clean and yet bandaged face.

He will have one eye but he will live.

She is eternally grateful…

A few Septas and Maesters managed to escape and have made good work with healing Viserys and her. She is bandaged and they tell her that she is with child…

She snorts and it is the Lion Knight riding closely next to the wagon that looks at her. She shakes her head to indicate that it is nothing. He is skeptical but does not push it.

Elia notices how swollen her legs, ankles, and feet are…

Everything on her is swollen…

Even her eyes and the rest of her face.

A whimper from Prince Viserys gets her undivided attention, the boy prone to nightmares now, more than ever. With Rhaenys clutched tight to her, she pulls Viserys even closer to her and his whimpers cease. Aegon and Dany are cuddled in a makeshift basket with handles and blankets, violet eyes wide at their new surroundings. The people that managed to escape, follow.

They are a traumatized bunch and they follow an even more traumatized Queen.

The wolf knight says they call her the Queen that survived hell or the Sun with the white hair. She does not know how to take the names, but they are far better what the dragon king called her. The ride to the Trident is temporary and they arrive in a few days.

They take their time because she is in no hurry. It is an experience for the babes when they set up camp along their journey. She cannot recall when the babes had sun and fresh air.

It is on one of these nights that the wolf knight and Ser Darry produce some of her mother’s jewels and the dragon Queen’s crown. She is overwhelmed with emotion and she takes the crown and places it next to Viserys. She clutches her mother’s jewels close to her chest, images of her sweet mother coming into view.

The wolf knight and a few other men go hunt. As they do so, she is able to send letters to their families.

Her hands shakes and the quill feels heavy as she writes. Her nose bleeds because it’s just a thing it does now. Some droplets land on the letters addressed to her brothers and to the wolf knight’s brother. She addresses a letter to the stag lord’s brother and to the Lion Knight’s family. She is proud that her hand is steady when she writes to the other lords of the realm.

The wolf knight returns with a boar.

Her appetite returns with a vengeance and the child inside her reminds her that she has to eat for two now. She feeds the younger babes and coaxes her Rhaenys to eat as well. Prince Viserys is given soup. He has his mother’s crown in his lap but he looks haunted and pale. The scars on his face are as vivid as the ones on her back.

When they arrive at the Trident, it is loud and the clash of weapons scare the babes. She was plagued with nightmares from the night before and it fuels her anger.

Someone must pay…

She bids Viserys to protect the younger babes, a job he takes seriously.

“N-No, m-mommy…” her sweet princess is her shadow and refuses to be parted from her. It is a struggle, even with the help of the wolf knight and the Plow Knight but Elia slides out of the wagon. The ground sinks beneath her feet. She reaches for her sweet princess, not wanting a tantrum to brew. Ser Darry tells her that he and the wolf knight will hang back with the wolf knight. She waddles with her sweet princess clutched at her skirts, with the Lion Knight and a few other men following behind her.

Her breath quickens as she sees Rhaegar, first of his name, king of the Seven Kingdoms dodges a near fatal blow to his chest.

“STOP!” It is the cry of one of the Dornish soldiers that halt the stag lord and dragon king. Every man’s attention are on her and the Lion Knight, who has his sword unsheathed.

It is dismay on Rhaegar’s face and she kind of wishes that the stag lord would have dealt the final blow to her husband…

That achieves nothing…

It does not ease her pain…

Her dragon heir is still young, too young to ascend and there was no one she could trust to rule as regent until her dragon was old enough.

She does not know if the dismay she sees is from the fact that she still lived and his father had not rid him of his first wife...

She hands Rhaenys to the Lion Knight and she finds herself, bruised…

Bent, Broken, and Bowed...

Waddling onto the mud-covered battlefield, she is aware of the shocked look on the soldiers faces but she waddles, her rage at the surface.

Someone has to pay…

Rheagar

His veins run cold as he sees his Sun, bruised and scarred. The raven black hair that once reached to her waist was ghostly white. Whiter than his and it was matted, tangled, and to her shoulders. She was barefooted and quite…wide.

Delicate and thin but wide at the same time. Her cheeks were sunken in and the gold eyes were heavily bruised and swollen. Her skin, that reminded him of the golden sands of Dorne, was pale. Various other colors decorate it, like black, blue, yellow, and red.

He wanted to kill whoever did this to her…

He knew who did this to her…

Her being here meant that his father was now dead…

But why make the trip?

If what they experienced a few eves ago happened at the capital...

With horror, he realizes that the wideness is contributed to her being with child.

Something he was trying to avoid… to make sure she lived…

It has been two years since he left, to march into battle…to ensure his family’s dynasty and his son’s birthright.

His Sun did not look like this when he left. His gaze goes to the lion knight, who holds his dragon princess. He does not understand the flood of anger that overcomes him.

The lion knight was supposed to protect them.

When he thinks anger would come, it is sadness that settles because he knows the lion knight was sworn to his father.

His thoughts are suddenly shattered and covered in red as a small fist makes contact with his nose. Like his thoughts are shattered, his nose is shattered and he feels hot liquid cover his face. The blow shocks him because no one has ever landed a hand on him outside of training exercises and even then, they are minor.

He feels his face beginning to swell and he tries to reach for her. He tastes blood in his mouth and spits it out. His Sun shrinks from him. The men all around are quiet and wide eyed, even the stag lord. He goes to wipe his nose and winces at the pain he feels.

“The people…” someone points. Rhaegar does not want to tear his watery gaze from his Sun but he has to. He finds a crowd of people appearing, with a wagon behind the lion knight.

“W-What’s left of them…” Elia whispers. Gasps are heard.

The people looked malnourished, destitute, and disturbed.

“What in the seven hells went on in the capital?!” There are more gasps when it is the winter lord and Ser Darry that bring a wagon, holding a bandaged Viserys and the rest of the dragon children.

“We were told that Brandon Stark was killed with his father. Then Elbert Arryn died not too long after!” A stag soldier stepped forward.

“Elbert was taken s-somewhere else a-and killed. Lord R-Rickard is i-in f-fact dead, as i-is Maester Pycelle and a few others..." Elia explains. Rhaegar sees that she quivers and her own nose bleeds. Ever the lady, she delicately dabs at it with a spotted rag that she pulls from her bosom.

“The smoke we saw and the quake of the earth we felt a few days ago…” the stag lord starts off. His stormy blue eyes are wide, and on his Sun., The storm had paused their battle two moons ago and then, a few days before, there was a sudden violent shake that knocked them off their feet. Some of the men had to chase after the horses and others had to clean up the disarray both camps had experienced. There was a green light and smoke billowed in the sky.

“Let’s g-get everyone s-settled, my l-lords?” Elia asks, there is a plea in her voice and only someone with a cruelness could tell her no. Rhaegar and the stag lord nodded.

When tents are set up and everyone has established some small stability, he finds his Sun among her people. Rhaenys is clutched tight at ragged skirts as Viserys holds her and his Sun is nursing an infant dragon. The hand she punched him with is swollen and he sees a Septa fussing for her to do something to take the swelling down.

Seeing their Dornish Queen in such a state, the Dornish men are cold and somewhat hostile towards him. There are whispers and heated glares and he feels unwanted.

The stag lord’s side looks more appealing to them…

There are many Targaryen loyalists on the field with him but the Dornish army, coupled, with the stags and the wolves would be too overwhelming for them. Ser Alliser Thorne and Ser Barristan Selmy plead to follow him but he does not allow it.

It was rare moments that he entered the Dornish encampments but the Sun shines here and so he enters the viper’s pit. He does not see the lion knight or the wolf lord.

His nose has swollen to the size of a lemon but the bleeding has subsided.

When he draws near, he finds his heir on the other side of his Sun, at her feet, playing with a toy knight.

“Is that my mother’s babe?” He finds himself asking timidly. She nods.

“H-Her name is D-Daenerys.” He does not ask where his mother is, he is only comforted...

She is now finally free of his father…

His eyes are quick to the small but yet swelling belly that his wife’s had. He gulps…

“I-I am a f-faithful w-woman. Y-You know t-this…” she starts off. He nods.

He is not a faithful man…

“Did my father order it? Tell me the man’s name so that I may have his head…” He says.

“I-If h-he was s-still alive, w-would you stand b-being called a kinslayer and kingslayer?”

Oh no…

No…

Gods…

Anger and disgust at his father’s actions…

It happened because he allowed it.

Lyanna…

“I didn’t intend for this; I promise you this!” He pleads at her. She looks at him then.

“You s-sure? I m-mean, it’s the p-perfect excuse. Y-You leave u-us, knowing how unstable and d-dangerous your f-father was. H-How he hated me and t-treated y-your mother…”

She cannot possibly think he concocted this whole thing with his father to rid of her and his babes!

She was always going to remain his wife, his Sun, and Queen. His son, was always going to ascend and carry on the dynasty of the dragon.

Lyanna and his Visenya was never going to change that.

Aegon the Conqueror had two wives, why couldn’t he?

She pulls his sister off a bruised and bitten teat, and holds her, rubbing small circles in her back.

If only she was born sooner than later…

“Never! After the war, I was going to come and remove my father, you know this…” He sounds desperate.

“Delightful that was the e-end goal for you and R-Robert. One defeats the o-other and descend upon the capital to rid the r-realm of t-the M-Mad King. If t-that is t-the original p-purpose, t-then w-why not b-band together? O-Ohhh…” she pauses, sitting Dany down in a basket.

“The b-beloved w-wolf p-princess…it’s r-romantic, w-when you t-think a-about i-it. T-Tucked a-away i-in a t-tower with o-only t-the best knights t-to guard h-her at the b-behest of the d-dragon king and her two loves fight o-over who gets t-to fuck her cunt…” her laugh sounds like a bark.

He says nothing and he feels himself shrinking inside of himself.

“She was never k-kidnapped, was s-she? She accepted y-your hand the s-same way she accepted t-that r-rose crown. R-Robert is f-fighting a f-fool’s w-war because y-you already f-fucked her c-cunt, d-didn’t y-you?”

His eyes go to her belly again and he feels his ears heat. When he doesn’t answer,

“N-No matter. I h-have called for m-my brothers to bring her and s-she will t-tell and y-your manipulation and betrayal will coincide. Her father, Jon Arryn’s n-nephew have l-lost their lives over a l-lie. My u-uncle has lost h-his life fighting f-for a f-false cause…”

“I-I’m out here fighting for you! Fighting for our family…”

“B-Bullshit!” She spits at him. It is like venom and he is worried that she would try to finish breaking his nose and he steps back to give her some space. She sighs and begins sobbing…

“P-Please…” she rubs at her stomach and exhales loudly.

“Elia…I love you! You are my Queen…I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I don’t know what you want me to do!”

“I brought some soup…” the lion knight comes in and he hurriedly sits it down. He is not ashamed at the interruption but his eyes are weary and Rhaegar sees how tense the lion knight becomes.

“J-Just g-get out…p-please, Your G-Grace…” she cries. He is taken aback at the title she uses and he is taken back to the days following Harrenhal. He didn’t like the formalities his Sun used back then and he didn’t like them now.

Wanting to keep her calm, he goes to leave the tent but not before he sees the lion knight trying to coax her to calm down. He goes to hug her and it is the first time the lion knight meets his gaze. Rhaegar makes a look of disapproval, but the lion knight is headstrong.

What has he done?

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Rhaegar

His Sun does not sleep and if she does, it is brief.

“You need to sleep, we’re safe now. No one to roar anymore…” Rhaegar remembers the Stark lord-knight telling his Sun one eve.

Rhaegar, the stag lord, and others are told of what happened inside of the walls of the Red Keep.

It is horrifying and a struggle for his Sun to re-live her beatings and rapes. The executions of so many people and the locking of the city gates. She tells them how the wolf knight was locked away with the corpse of his father and the Maester and how he is knighted with his own hand. They are told how bodies hang as a warning for the people to not wake the dragon.

Don’t you see father, you were already awake…

She describes with grief about his mother and how she and his brother were locked away too. The grief becomes heavy as she tells them about Viserys and how Viserys had achieved what they had failed to do.

It is dark and twisted and he feels so sick at himself. There is the wildfire and the explosion and that is when they finally have the courage to speak.

“H-He said that fire i-is t-the only thing t-that k-kills t-them…” she s-said. Her gold gaze is still swollen and bruised but it does not take away from the intenseness. The majority chalks it up as a mad man mumbling and then jokes about how a mere boy of eight killed the dragon. Many laugh and many have looks of disapproval.

Fire can kill anything, father, even you…

“Are you two done fighting, then?” A soldier from the Vale asks. Everyone looks between the dragon king and the stag lord.

“If not, instead of having an all-out war, why don’t you two just punch each other to death,” the wolf knight suggests.

“We are out here for your sister, our liege lord, and Lord Arryn. We are out here because we thought you were dead!”

“It was foolish of me to go marching to the capital like t-that…” the wolf knight's head replies softly. At those words, Rhaegar feels eyes on him but he dares not look up. He can feel his ears heat and there is suddenly silence.

Oh…how he has made a mess of things…

“Did you f-force my sister, Your Grace?” The question forces him to finally look up and he feels like a child being scolded. His Sun finds more interest at the infant princess at her bosom. His dragon princess under the table with a kitten she has found. He is sure that Balerion, the black cat that followed after her has long perished. Either by his father’s hand or by the fire. The lion knight is there too, with a clinging Viserys, who clutches their mother’s crown tight.

“Come with me…” He remembers the beautiful flush on Lyanna's face as her eyes shifted from side to side as she contemplated. Her hand was soft in his as he pulled her onto his horse…

“N-No. She said she did not want to be married to Robert...”

“That I know but the relationship between Robert and Ned has made my father ignore my sister's happiness..."

"I love Lyanna!"  the stag lord slams his fist down. His princess whimpers from under the table. She finds room on his Sun's lap and hides her face in her bosom.

"Do you? You whore about. My sister disapproves of such behavior..." the wolf knight replies.

"So much so that she runs off with a married man?" A Dornish soldier points out.

"My father and I were gravely mistaken. He was right, my father and Elbert died for nothing…” the wolf knight rubs his eyes.

“What do you mean, for nothing?! Someone has to pay!” The stag lord continues to rage.

“W-Would y-you like to k-kill me instead for b-being a weak sand w-whore? I a-am t-the r-reason His Grace ran w-with y-your b-beloved w-winter…”

It is these words whispered from His Sun that forces the stag lord to sit and quiet. Stormy blue eyes hold hers and there is a slight shake of his head.

“I-It w-would e-ease y-your a-anger. B-Bring justice to the Stags, the W-Wolves, a-and the Arryns. Y-You could just s-slaughter us in our sleep. T-The royal family is h-here, in its entirety,” she pushes. Her voice is full of defeat and coldness.

Rhaegar does not like her words.

“What you speak, is treason…” Ser Alliser Throne says in a horrified tone. The room is in a grip of silence that matches his tone.

“I-Is it? If h-he would h-have been v-victorious over His Grace, it is w-what w-would have a-awaited us a-anyway…”

Rhaegar finds his brother staring at him with one cold dead eye as he clutches the lion knight’s cloak.

“The fighting ends here…” Rhaegar says, leaving no room for disagreement.

Elia

She wakes and is confused at the brightness of light. The light is the sun coming through the cracks of the tent. She has slept through the night…

His Grace had come to her last night as her princess was cuddling next to her and rubbed her feet. He told stories of knights and dragons to her princess until they both fell asleep.

They have been at the Trident for a few days now. The first of many lords to arrive is Lord Tywin, the Lion Knight’s father. Of course, his allegiance continues with the dragons. His Grace gives him a seat on the council.

Not Hand…

Master of Coin is his new position, and he seems satisfied with it. There is a promise to revisit the marriage between Oberyn and the Lion princess. To make her a true princess…

They all seem happy with the idea. Her brothers have not arrived, nor has the other Kingsguard with the beloved winter wolf.

She grows large. Where she was delicate with her other two pregnancies, she finds that she is picking up weight with this one. Her hips are wide and her breasts are heavy. The morning sickness is brutal but her wounds are healing. She is happy she sees a single black strand of hair growing in the mass of white. The Maester and Septa tell her that she may be bed ridden soon but not before she makes her rounds with checking over what was left of her husband’s people.

She begs Rhaegar to allow her to keep the Wolf Knight and the Lion Knight for herself and the babes. The Plow Knight already belongs to the babes but he is aging.

He does but not without…

“I am sure she will give me my Visenya but in case…” he is on his knees, clutching her stomach. The baby inside kicks hard.

The baby will kill her. She knows how desperate he is to have a Visenya. If his wolf queen does not deliver, all of it falls on her…

She hated it…

She is sure that when she dies, he will be waiting for her, to continue his torture of her.

She agrees.

She also suggests that he, his new council (once he finished filling the positions), and the Lord Commander, the Bull, put in place new laws that will allow the Kingsguard to remove the king if he becomes unfit. He agrees eagerly.

He promises to do right by her but all she wants is for the babes to be safe and her little heir to ascend to a peaceful and prosperous realm.

When she is supposed to be relaxing with her feet propped up, she sneaks down to the river, her Rhaenys following close behind and places her feet in the cool water. Her princess does the same. The kitten she has claimed as her own and has named, Meraxes, has followed them. She is talking to her princess when the stag lord comes. She brings her princess close to her as she begins to whimper. Meraxes hisses as his approach becomes closer. He has no armor and no hammer but his size alone makes her fearful.

He could easily kill them with his bare hands…

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“M-May I join you, Your Grace?” The stag lord asks, rather shyly. She nods and he sits. She has never interacted with the stag lord but knows him to be a loud, whoremongering, and yet a talented lord. He likes his wine, his women, and swinging his war hammer.

The Wolf Knight tells her that the bond that he and Eddard has as true brothers could never compare to the bond Eddard has with the stag lord. Due to the Wolf Knight being the eldest brother, he had not the fostering that Eddard had. He was learning how to rule Winterfell.

Now…

“That role falls onto Ned. Unless the king dismisses me but even then, I am not sure it’s something I want to do now. I want to be with Ashara…”

Rhaenys, while clutching tight to her, is curious of the man and waves shyly at him. He smiles softly at her.

It is quiet for a few moments before,

“I am a fool. I was told that Ned should have raised the banners, but Ned is not a fighter…”

“You bitch, your weak womb has caused them to raise their banners against the dragon!” She is backhanded and the mad king is yelling and screaming at her.

“After we were told that the king kidnapped Lyanna and that Brandon, Elbert, and Lord Rickard marched to the capital to call for him and to answer for his crimes, I thought I was doing the right thing...” his gaze is forlorn, and it holds hers so tightly.

No one knew where Rhaegar had taken the wolf queen. It was only after he got halfway to wherever that he decided to send one singular letter to the dragon king and then the majority of the Kingsguard was gone. She, the Lion Knight, and the Queen were told that they were going to look for him.

It is only after her brother Oberyn sends his last letter to her that she finds out that Rhaegar has the wolf queen in Dorne and that is the same eve that the castle walls echo for the dragon prince’s head.

The rest of the realm was under impression that the dragon prince whisked the beloved wolf away and violated her…

They were still even after the banners were called and raised…

After that, all communication from Elia and the others is taken. Any letters addressed to them are burned and letters to their families are forged. She tried to get help and get the truth out there before things escalated…

She still remembers the heat on the back of her neck as her hair was burned off…

“Now, I see…all of it was in vain…”

“N-Not i-in v-vain…” She whispers, “A-Anyone w-would h-have d-done t-the same. L-Lies w-were f-forged b-but t-the t-truth is o-out.” She watches her princess’ tiny toes wiggle in the water.

He nods,

“Ser Brandon told me that he took her to Dorne…”

He gulps before saying his next sentence,

“I-I am sorry, for more than you know. I l-laughed when he rode past y-you that day. You have my fealty and I will serve your son. I-I would have never had killed you or your babes if…you’ve done nothing wrong t-to me or to a-anyone…” the back of his strong neck is flushed.

She did nothing wrong…

“It’s n-not right that you s-suffered s-so…” he stumbles over his words and she finds a small smile breaking onto her face. The flush goes from his neck to his face.

“You look like a t-tomato!” Rhaenys squealed. She snorts and then laughs as he and her princess break out into childish banter.

She hears her name being called and it is her brother Oberyn, followed by the Lion Knight, Prince Visery, and…

Ashara!

She is running, nearly tripping over her feet but the Oberyn keeps her from falling onto her face.

Her beautiful face is distressed.

The stag lord helps her up and they are all on guard of him and she reassures them that there is no danger.

Oberyn pauses, his face nearly breaking when he takes in her appearance, before he schools it.

Her Star embraces her.

That means…

“She’s dead,” her brother says, not wasting a beat. He unlatches his cloak and drapes it around her shoulders when he finds that she is quivering.

She is not sure how to take the news.

She turns to the stag lord, whose head is hung low.

“I will g-go see Ned. T-Thank y-you, Your Grace,” with a small bow of his head, he leaves.

Her sweet princess disappears within the cloak, Meraxes in her arms and she finds that Viserys is doing the same. She clutches them close to her and then grips the cloak to keep it shut.

“She died in the birthing bed.” The Lion Knight explains.

Something that surely awaits her.

“The child…there is a child,” she says.

“A boy named Jon,” Ashara says.

Fuck…

When they arrive back to the camps, everyone’s eyes are on her. She seeks out the king and her other brother and find them with the other lords and ladies that had arrived.

When she sees her brother, Doran, she wishes she was a little girl again, so that he could pick her up and comfort her.

“My Queen,” he bows.

They will talk later…

Rhaegar is sad as he carries his wolf son to her, and she finds that she will have another child suckling from her.

He will be raised with the dragons and has been legitimatized and added to the line of succession, after Danereys.

She has no hate towards the babe, but he feels heavy in her arms.

It is when she is settling down for the evening, her sweet princess and prince are cuddled together and next to her. Her prince is suckling and the younger babes are in the basket, sleeping soundly.  It is when her brothers, the Star siblings, and the Wolf Knight comes.

“You should really stay off your feet,” Ashara says, flopping down next to her. The Star Knight is somber as he bows and then settles at her swollen feet.

“Say the word, I can make it look like an accident,” the Viper Prince whispers. He cares not that two of the guards are in hearing distance. She props her dragon prince on top of her large stomach as he curls into her neck and slowly falls asleep. She pats his back gently.

“U-Unfortunately, w-we need him alive if Aegon is to ascend p-properly.” She replies. Oberyn curses and pouts.

“The weight of his sins are heavy and it will not be an easy road to gain back the trust of his people, the lords and ladies of the realm, and his Queen,” Doran says. They are all in agreement. Rhaegar was beloved by his people. He was kind and didn't let his status keep him from interacting with them. 

Everyone was sure that he was going to be a good king...

“He means to send you and the babes to Dragonstone, while he and a few others go investigate the capital,” Oberyn starts off, “I would feel comfortable if you finished your healing and had your child at home, in Dorne.”

Could she go to Dorne without thinking of the wolf princess dying on its sands?

Could she look at it as her home after her husband’s betrayal on the very lands she was raised upon?

“Elia is too heavy with child to make the trip and plus, Rhaegar would not allow it,” Doran points out.

“No matter, I will be there with her. You won’t be able to rid of me, this time,” Ashara says to her and she chuckles softly.

“He’s sending me away, my friend. I don’t mean to leave!”

The echoes of Ashara’s words as she is ordered back to Starfall wake her to the dragon king sleep where Ashara was curled not too long ago with their dragon heir between them. A large hand has been placed on her belly and he is snoring softly.

She still loves him…

She hates him …

He is the reason she is bruised and battered.

He all but told her that she was not good enough.

They were so fond of each other before Harrenhal. There was laughter and friendship between them. They slept in the same chamber as one and he was so attentive to her after their babes were born.

She would have been happy if he would have just taken a whore from Flea Bottom…

How could she still have love?

How could she feel safe with him?

She does not have the strength to rule as her son grows. 

She knows the people are weary of the dragon king. 

Everyone is...

While he is not like his father, what does one calls this, if not madness?

Rhaegar never showed signs of madness. Obsession, maybe, but before he left, she always felt safe with him.

The cry of one of the babes in the basket calls for her attention. She is an expert at getting out of bed and not disturbing the other occupants. 

It is the wolf child.

She coos at him softly and she offers him milk which he takes with vigor.

Elia feels tears on her face as he suckles.

He looks so much like his wolf mother...

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It is three eves before everyone is set to part ways. She and Rhaegar are crowned King and Queen of the Seven Kingdoms on top of the muddy earth of the Trident. She is barefooted because her feet are too swollen to fit into slippers. Her brothers and Ashara had brought some dresses from Dorne and she finds that they are uncomfortable and tight around her huge form.

“You can’t be crowned Queen in a kitchen maid’s dress…” Ashara says.

Her cheeks heat when she sees that everyone has bowed and accepted them as the new rulers of the realm.

She will do right by them even when madness decides takes her husband…

There is the Great Council of the Trident and it is there that the dragon king signs into law that the Kingsguard could remove the king or heir to the king, if there are signs of madness or if they are no longer fit to do their duties. They had to provide reasonable evidence to the council for the council to sign off on the removal.

There is silence as each lord signs the document after Rhaegar.

They call it the Law of Rhaella…

It is the first time everyone is agreement with one another.

Her brother and the Lion princess are married on the Trident as well. With the coronation and their wedding happening within days, they all decided to have one big feast.

She is nursing her husband’s wolf son when Lord Eddard comes to her. She prefers to be alone these days, she used to be out there, dancing, laughing, mingling but now…

As broken as she was…

She does not feel as though she belonged out there now.

“I can take him back to Winterfell and raise him as my own, Your Grace,” he says softly. She has had little interaction with him or the other brother, Benjen. The Wolf Knight has told her that it was a long night in which he and his brothers talked about their sister and father.

“Ned is reasonable and rational, Benjen…not so much. He is young, though, so he will grow out of his anger and bitterness. Ned understands that our sister is not as innocent as much as he wants her to be…”

“He will be raised with his brother and sister. It’s only right.” She still stutters her words, but she is proud that she does not stutter this time.

“Please, in memory of my sister. I know how women treat their husband’s son when they are by another. Spare him your anger and bitterness. You already have my brother and my fealty…” He is desperate.

“Anger? Bitterness? He is a babe. It is not his fault he is here. I cannot blame him for my husband’s and your sister’s foolishness. Rest assured; he will know nothing but love from me. I mean, if not, then a wet nurse would have her teat in his mouth instead when my babes milk freely from me.” She cuddles him closer to her.

He is resolved and nods.

“When he is old enough, he will know his mother. I will not keep that from him and I will not turn him against the winter. When he is old enough, expect visits and letters from him,” she says. The Stark lord nods and reaches to place a kiss on the babe’s forehead.

“I trust you…”

She frowns as she finds that most of her things have been moved into her husband’s tent. After the conversation with the Stark lord, she, with Jon in her arms and Rhaenys and Viserys at her skirts, waddles into her husband’s tent to get just a singular blanket to cover herself with against the evening wind. When she first arrived at the Trident, she was determined to not be anywhere near her husband or his camp, preferring to be with her people instead.

As days passed, every time she goes into the tent she has taken residence in on the Dornish side, she finds some of her things missing.

As she looks around her husband’s tent, she finds some of her missing things and more in her husband’s tent.

Even the babes!

She finds Aegon and Dany from the bassinet they were moved to, smiling and waving at her.

“How did you two get in here?” She asks gleefully at the two and it ensues laughter from them. She kisses Jon’s head and places him in between his brother and baby aunt.

It is when she is trying to ease onto the cot is when her husband comes in and helps her the rest of the way. He props her feet up on a pillow and she sighs with gratitude.

“I might have to have someone start carrying you…” he jokes softly.

“They’ll break their backs,” she replies, and he chuckles.

“How much longer?” He asks, rubbing her stomach and with twisted awe they both watch the baby move under her skin.

How much longer before she dies?

The Maesters and Septas says that she and the babe are healthy, she’s healthier than she’s ever been. They speculate that Maester Pycelle was maybe doing something sinister for her to be weak in her previous pregnancies.

They assure her of a smooth birthing process and that she will be due by the time or after they reach Dragonstone.

“I was thinking of changing Jon’s name…” he then tells her.

“What do you m-mean? Everyone is used to the name…” she says.

“I wasn’t there even though I promised her I would be. I was so sure that it would be a Visenya, so I did not think of any names if she was to give me a boy. Jon is such a simple name, and it certainly does not fit with the other children…”

Or the dragon, is left in the air.

“Well, you are his father…what name would be suitable?”

“I was thinking of Jaehereys…”

“Jaehereys is fitting, Jon will be his nickname…” she is somber because she has grown fond of the name Jon. A child without a dragon’s name because she is sure that her husband will give his father’s bastard a dragon’s name.

Girl or boy...

As the babes and the dragon king sleeps, nightmares awake her and instead of going back to sleep, she slides out of bed. She is packing and then she is alternating her dresses, so they fit better and finally, she is finishing repairs to a couple shirts for Viserys.

Rhaegar wakes and scolds her for not resting. It is not harsh and she allows him to pull her back to the warmth of the cot. She notices that Meraxes has found a way to squeeze in between Rhaenys and Viserys.

The dragon king showers her with kisses until she falls back to sleep.

Chapter Text

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Traveling with five children was not easy and she was in tears and clinging to Ashara and the Lion Knight by the time they reached Dragonstone. Her nipples were sore, her feet were sore, and the babe inside of her was restless. She again had to say goodbye to the dragon king as he continued to the capital with her brother, the stag lord, and a few others.

She begged the Bull to keep her brother from killing the king…

Or severely injuring him…

Seeing how exhausted she was, Ashara made sure a hot bath was drawn quickly for her.

When she and the babes are bathed and dressed for bed, she, Ashara, and Ser Darry get the younger babes settled in the nursery. It is slightly smaller than the one back at the Keep but now with Jon- Jaehereys…and the child within her, she is not sure the nursery at the Keep could hold all six children. Viserys is happy enough to get his own room. She had worried over him but with the other lords and ladies bringing their children, he has flourished back to being the energetic boy she knew him to be. He has found a close bond with the stag lord’s younger brother; Renly and they were inseparable at the Trident.

Her sweet princess was a different story. She refuses to be parted from her, even when she gets her own princess bed in the nursery. She tries to reason with her, telling her that Meraxes will be with her but she says she will sleep better with mommy.

Of course, when she gives her kisses to the other babes and begin to leave the nursery, they are loud with their cries. She shoos Ashara and Ser Darry away and takes up residence in the nursery until the babes fall asleep. Rhaenys is determined and is on her skirts with Meraxes in her small arms, when she is finally able to leave to her own chambers.

It is a moon after their arrival that the dragon king and her brother returns. Her brother’s visit will be short as he is eager to get to Dorne to be with Cersei. The stag lord sends a letter addressed to her with her brother. He is careful to give her the letter and tell her it’s from the stag lord in front of the dragon king. Oberyn is sadistic with his smile as he sees Rhaegar frown in disapproval.

When they tell her what they found at the capital, she shudders. They tell her that even Maegor’s Holdfast has crumbled to nothing and the only thing standing was…

The Iron Throne…

Their story grows more haunting as they tell her of the burnt bodies turning into ash whenever they tried to touch them.

“I have never known the capital to be so deathly silent…” Rhaegar whispers.

It is empty of life and that they had to walk the rest of the way to the burnt city gates because their horses refused to finish the journey.

“Not even the birds fly over or around it, sister,” Oberyn explains. They also tell her that even with the sun high in the sky, that the sky around the capital is dark due to the smoke.

That night, as she sleeps, she is plagued by very awful nightmares that have her awake and sleep at the same time. She swears she hears the roar of the Mad King and even imagines his form just standing over her. She bites and cries into a pillow not to draw attention.

She is very exhausted when the day comes and for once she stays bed ridden. She reminds herself to read the stag lord’s letter later and keeps it under her pillow. It is good weather, and she, Ashara, and the babes laze about. Viserys, who usually follows behind his two adored knights but because she is stationary, they have joined her in her chambers with the babes has opted to spend time with the dragon king, his elder brother.

Rhaegar used to be his hero but after seeing everything his mother and Elia went through and how terrified his beloved niece was, he treats him cordially. When they were at the Trident, like Elia, Viserys stayed very far away from Rhaegar. It was by the time his bandages came off that he started giving Rhaegar a chance.

When he first left, Viserys constantly asked after him and neither Elia, the Lion Knight, or the Queen could give him an answer except,

“He’ll be back soon…”

As much as she could, the Queen could not shield Viserys from his father and when he wasn’t terrorizing everyone, he would call for Viserys and tell him stories of his ancestors and dragons.

When he lost his mother and was only clutching her crown, his eyes full of sorrow,

“Does he not love us anymore?”

She couldn’t tell who he was referring to and she never asked.

All she could do was hold him to her broken body…

It is different now, with one eye he is much surer of himself. He writes Renly and the other sons of the realm. His mother’s crown is safe in a chest at the foot of his bed and when he is not with his studies, he is down on the training fields with the Wolf Knight or the Lion Knight.

“Sister, I want to be stronger to protect you, Nys, and the other dragons when Jaime and Bran can’t…”

Her other babes grow and her dragon heir is finding interest in climbing things that he should not be.

It is the second moon of their arrival at Dragonstone when she goes into labor. She is prepared and locks the door to her chambers and crawls to the basin of water that was supposed to be for her bath.

She is alone and wants to be alone to deliver this child.

If the child dies, she wants to grieve in her own way.

If she dies, then they will break the door down to retrieve the child off her lifeless body.

If they both die…

There is pounding on her door and calls for her name as she pushes, tears and sweat falling onto her face.

“P-Please…leave m-me be…” she sobs. Her sobs fall onto deaf ears as they continue to pound and call for her to open the door.

She was alone in her suffering at the hands of the Mad King, she will be alone in this.

She sends silent prayers to the old and new Gods to protect all of her babes and that Rhaegar becomes the king the realm needs.

When she delivers her last push there is a babe in her arms, pale and lifeless. White hair decorate its little head and the features are scrunched up in a frown that reminds her of the babe’s father. She quivers and shakes as she cradles the lifeless child to her bosom and begins to cry uncontrollably.

The water grows cold…

It is a girl but a girl that does not breathe. She pats the babe on its back but it does nothing to rouse the child and she wonders why she wants the babe to live.

It was to be her personal win.

She wanted to show Rhaegar that he was wrong about the wolf queen.

Dragons get their fire from the sun not from the thighs of an ice princess…

“W-Why k-keep me alive w-when this was to be my r-reward?” She asks the babe, showering the babe with kisses and tears.

There is a small cough and then a cry from her bosom and she is met with mismatched eyes, one violet and the other red.

Something akin to a laugh and cry erupts from her and the babe only greets her with a toothless grin. She places a wet kiss on her head just as the door to her chambers breaks down with a frantic king, guards, Maesters and Septas on the other side.

Ashara rushes in and her face is flushed from crying but grabs the child from her arms as the Wolf Knight and the Lion Knight help her out of the basin.

She hears a gasp and she realizes that it is the first time the dragon king has seen fully bare body. He and the rest of the guard fully see her scars and there is a myriad of emotions on the dragon king’s face. The Star Knight grits his teeth and there is horror on the Bull’s and the Bat’s faces. Ashara, with one hand, tosses a nightshift to the Knights to give her some decency. She is carried to her bed, where the darkness takes over.

Chapter Text

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Ashara

He is always enthusiastic when they are joined together, and she has to cover her moans as he takes her in every way, he can think of in the short time they have together. It is such a night. She was simply bringing new linens to their beloved Queen’s chambers when she is snatched up and brought into an abandoned room and her skirts are over her hips. He is hungry with getting a kiss from her and she doesn’t have the heart to refuse him. There is teeth and tongue, and she finds that it tickles, and she laughs joyously.

Love…

There is so much of it between them. Coming from her and coming from him and it always combusts between them.

He promised her marriage. He promised to take the Star to the North. He promised to take her like a wolf…

They were robbed.

They were to have a babe and that, too was snatched from them cruelly.

She remembered the day.

There was so much blood…

She was inconsolable.

She wrote him and in return she got the news of his death and she shut down.

She now looks back on it in shame. She should have been stronger. Especially, knowing what he and her Queen went through.

He lost his father and watched his death and decay in front of him. He lost his hand and was forced to watch her sand sister get brutalized. All hopes of becoming the honorable Lord of Winterfell are taken from him.

She was to become the Lady…

South and North, so opposite and so alike…

That’s what brought them together.

It started with a flirtatious smile and then a dance, and then she found her lips swollen from kissing. After that, she found their clothing shed and they were one.

When they finally meet again at the Trident and joined together on its muddy earth, it is desperate and both of them are in tears because they missed each other.

They have both suffered.

Her brothers were all happy to have a wolf join the family and he reassured her that his family would feel the same. She already liked Ned, but Lyanna and Benjen…

Not so much…

He knows of her feelings, but he does not discourage them.

“Lyanna is dead but give Benjen time…”

Ned’s wife, Catelyn Tully, was to be married to Brandon, but news of his death forced her to marry Ned.

It is the only time she is happy that Brandon traveled to King’s Landing…

If he married Catelyn, he would not be hers.

He was hers…

The Free Cities were at their disposal, and she had a little bag packed for her and their babe with a few things to bring with her.

When she found out he was knighted and was to be part of the Kingsguard, she told her oldest brother that she would journey to King’s Landing and be lady in waiting to her dearest friend and be with her wolf, even though he couldn’t be with her in the way they should be.

In a way and, she hated it, she understood Rhaegar and Lyanna. Ready to run away together and abandon their duties.

Things she was set to do with Brandon if marriage could not happen between them.

However, she did not know how deep Rhaegar’s love went for the girl…

Brandon says she was headstrong and he is stupid for thinking that someone like Rhaegar could ever kidnap her.

“I wasn’t thinking, Ash…”

No one was thinking.

The babe died and she was told its father died not too long after.

He grips her, to bring her attention back and she is met with fierce gray eyes and she gives him one soft kiss on his nose. Instead, their lips meet.

When it’s over, she grieves his warmth.

He holds her, draping his white cloak over her, tucking it around her. He is fully dressed but she takes her time in putting deep violet garments back on.

She does not care if anyone finds them this way

“As she sleeps, he carries the child everywhere…” He speaks of the king. Her dear friend has not woken since she passed out after the birth of her daughter. The Maesters says she still breathes and has no fever. With her Queen not waking, the king has legitimized the child and placed her in the line of succession after Rhaenys and before Viserys.

Visenya…

No Targaryen daughter has been named that after the original holder of the name. There was an attempt, during the Dance of the Dragons, but only a deformed stillborn babe named Visenya remained.

Horned and with scales…

Though, that could have been a result of the inner breeding of the dragons.

Still, there have been multiple Aegons and Rhaenys’ but only one Visenya.

She died being known as a traitor and delved in the dark arts. Her only son, Maegor the Cruel was just as bad, if not worse.

King Rhaegar is over the moon.

When she and Brandon finally part ways, he to take over guarding the babes and she, to their Queen.

Always,

“My Wolf…”

“My Star…”

Elia

Her body feels dry when her eyes open.

How long has she been asleep?

She tries to move and feels a small weight on top of her.

“M-Mommy…” Her sweet princess whines and she realizes the girl had climbed and slept on top of her during the night. She rouses her and gently moves her to her side. She is glad the child does not fight but instead falls back to sleep.

She aches and briefly, she wonders if they are back at King’s Landing under the abusive hand of the mad king.

No…

Her body is stiff, and the stone is cold under her feet but she pushes herself off the bed, gritting her teeth.

She searches for water and finds it. It spills down her chin as she drinks all she can. She catches her appearance and notices that her belly has shrunk back down. Her breasts are still large and she notices that she has kept some of the weight from her pregnancy. There is more black in her hair and she is starting to look like herself.

Truly…

For a while, her features looked like a washed out and bruised dragon but her Dornish side is returning.

Slowly but surely…

She’s had a child…

She weakly looks about her chambers and finds an empty bassinet. Elia grows worried but shuffles to the door and pulls it open.

It is the Lion Knight and the Star Knight guarding her.

“You’re finally awake!” The Lion Knight says, happily, embracing her. The Star Knight pats her gently on her cheek and then goes to alert the dragon king. The Lion Knight directs her back to bed but he does not leave.

“We thought you were never wake,” his voice shakes.

“I am awake now and I am wondering if I imagined that pregnancy…” she inquires. He laughs softly.

“Visenya is with the king, has been so since she came out of your womb. You were able to still milk while you were sleep, so the babe and the other babes do not starve.” He explains.

She is not surprised that the dragon king would overindulge in her daughter, but she hopes he knows he has other children as well.

“My sister is with child! My father has gone to Dorne to check on her…” She is warmed by his words, and she shares his happiness.

“I’m sure you’re dying to see her. Maybe, His Grace, because you have my approval, will allow you to go see her.” His eyes sparkle and she laughs, reaching to move a strand of gold out of his face.

“My Queen,” Rhaegar announces from the door. The Lion Knight rises and bows. She is sorrowful when he leaves.

She sees the babe in his arms squirm, a soft whine could be heard, and he rocks the babe gently.

“I hope that you show our other babes, the same love,” she says, her arms reaching out. He nods and hands her Visenya.

The babe settles and takes her milk. She is a beautiful babe, and she is happy that she takes after Danereys with her features. It’s only when the babe frowns, is when the mad king makes an appearance. She is horrified at the thought of a boy, now.

Though, Rhaegar and Viserys share the mad king’s features, it is Rhaella that has soften them. She sees more of a softer version of their father.

He wasn't always so mad and angry at the world...

Rhaegar's looks reflect what the mad king was like in his youth, before the madness took over.

He is completely absent in baby Dany, except for when she makes unpleasant faces. The same will go for this babe too.

“Why did you lock the door?” the dragon king asks, “I wanted to be there with you.” He reaches to cover her sweet princess, pulling her gently so that she is close to them.

“I-I…some battles you have to face alone. I have many battles to overcome before I am healed. Some, I need help with and others, I need to face alone…” Rhaegar nods in understanding.

“I was scared when I found that you wouldn’t waken. I am not ready to be parted from you. It seemed that way before but that is but a lie. I love you. I’ve always had…always will…” He reaches to place a chaste kiss on her forehead. She says nothing. He takes it as an invitation to continue.

“I was wrong. What I did was wrong. I should have came and talked to you. I should have talked to her father…I should have killed my father…” he says the last part with much fury. His fists are balled tightly, and she notices how angry he is.

She can forgive him but she cannot forget. She knows that she cannot trust him and that he, without his father, has made her feel in the worst type of way.

She reaches to caress his face and he is surprised at the touch. He flushes and leans into it.

“Do right, this time. The realm needs a king. A king that isn’t lost in his prophecies and stories. The children need a father that is attentive and to teach them to be better than their predecessors.  I forgive but I will not forget. Jaehereys and Visenya are reminders of why I cannot forget. The scars on my body are why I can’t forget.”

“You have my loyalty and love…”

“You promised those when we married and, oh, how the five years we had already been married, meant nothing in the five minutes you placed the blue crown on her head…” she explains.

“I-I’m s-sorry…” His voice cracks.

“You still have my loyalty and love…because as much as I hate to, I still love you…”

She cannot stop him when his lips invade hers and it is strange…

“I will earn your trust back…”

Chapter Text

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Rhaegar

He is complete. His family is complete and there is a fragile peace that settles over the kingdom. Repairs to the capital have been under way and he is left with burnt blueprints of what the Red Keep and Maegor’s Holdfast once looked like. He was trying to replicate how the Conqueror and his son built the capital and it was going smoothly but it would not be in its former glory. Rhaegar decided that rebuilding one of the buildings and making it larger would suffice. Lord Tywin says that it would be best, since the gold had to go to more important things, like rebuilding the homes of his people, the Great Sept, and a numerous of other things. He goes back and forth between his two homes. When he is in Dragonstone, he finds himself a father and devoted husband.

He watches his Sun, with their Rhaenys, hot on her heels, as she walks and converses with his Hand to the King, Jon Arryn and Lysa Tully, his new wife.

To say that the realm was shocked that he made Jon Arryn his Hand.

His father killed his nephew…

 Jon Arryn was wise and after his Sun came to the Trident that day, he found himself seeking advice from the man. He then decided that it would be good to make him his Hand.

Some would say that it was Rhaegar’s way of keeping an eye on the man.

While some of it was true, it wasn’t malicious. It was his Sun’s older brother that he had considered to be his Hand but instead Doran suggested that Jon Arryn was good for the position.

There wasn’t anyone else, outside of Lord Tywin but he already had a seat. Jon Connington was in exile and while Rhaegar had lifted the exile, the Lord of Griffin’s Roost wasn’t inclined to be Hand again. Owen Merryweather would remind him too much of what it was like under his father’s rule.

He shudders…

His Sun’s approach brings him out of his thoughts, and he offers a soft smile to their dragon daughter. She is still too shy of him, but she waves, and he is grateful.

His Sun is dressed in her Dornish silk and Myrish lace. The white that covered her head is just a lone patch that lingered at the front of the darkness. The scars on her face are just shadows and have hardened her soft appearance.  She still has the weight of her last pregnancy, but it is flattering on her.

“How were your meetings?” She asks. He holds his hand out to her and he sees the hesitation before she is resolved and takes it. He pulls her closer to him.

“They went swimmingly. I am due back in King’s Landing within the next moon. The floors of the first level have been laid,” he explained.

Since the throne was the only thing left, they had to start building around it. He had the skulls of the dragons, which were burnt by the fire, shipped to Dragonstone.

“I will have a few things packed for your journey, then,” she replies. He asks about the dragon babes.

“Viserys is still in his studies with one of the Maesters, after that, Ser Brandon will take him to the training yards. Aegon has learned how to get out of his bassinet and I’m sure Jon and Dany will be following his lead, soon. Visenya grows beautifully.” She says proudly.

He does not point out that she calls Jaehereys by his old name.

In the eve, they sup together. The court in Dragonstone had always been small but now, there are just a scattered few. Viserys is chatty with his princess. She clings to her mother but listens to her uncle as he details to her about his studies and training. The younger babes are sleep in the nursery with the wolf knight to guard over them. The lion knight is in Dorne, visiting with his brother, sister and father. He has offered the wolf knight the same, to go and see his home, see his infant nephew, Robb, but the wolf knight says he is not ready to visit.

“I have heavy shoulders, Your Grace…”

He too had heavy shoulders and an even heavier heart.

He feels cheated.

How does the cheater become the one to be cheated?

Visenya being sired by his father was a blow he was not expecting. His father always made it known how much he hated Elia and how she was not Targaryen enough. When their daughter was born, that’s when he should’ve acted and stood up for his Sun and their baby dragon.

“She looks Dornish! She smells Dornish!”

He remembered how Elia nearly broke as his father refused to even hold the babe but it was his mother, bruised and covered in bites, that held their baby and adored their Rhaenys.

He did nothing to quiet his father’s tongue.

He was weak and he hates himself.

A coward...

He is glad of the new powers that are given to the Kingsguard. He would never forgive himself if he hurt Elia or the children in the way that his father did.

He’s already hurt them because he does not have their trust.

“If I ever turn into my father, I want you to not only remove me but kill me…”

If needs be, the Star Knight will be the one to end him. He already finds it hard to live with what he had already done but he knows he will not be able to live if he ever brutalized Elia or put a hand to harm his children.

When they turn in, he wants to follow his Sun and he finds a chance when, for the first time ever, Rhaenys does not fight to go with his Sun. Instead, she curls in her princess bed with Meraxes and is fast asleep.

Elia is surprised but showers her with kisses. They check on the other babes and Viserys, who is sprawled out on his bed and lightly snoring.

He is lightly surprised when she turns and goes into the direction of his chambers, but he is still nervous. He is taken back to their wedding day and when they consummated that very night. They were both shy and anxious, but the night ended with flushed cheeks and hungry movements.

It was not the same with Lyanna. She so desperately wanted to be married before he took her virtue, and he shared her desperation enough to try to fulfill that for her. He wanted their Visenya to be born with the same titles as her siblings. Only thing was… the Dornish do not worship the Old Gods and they barely worshipped the New. Plus, Doran, upon finding out that Rhaegar and Lyanna were in Dorne, forbade any Maesters, Septas, and anyone else that could be helpful to them, to marry them…

She delivered Jaehereys alone…

“I have received a letter from Lord Stark,” she says.

He does not know if he likes his Sun receiving letters from the winter lord or the stag lord. 

Rhaegar wonders what was in the stag lord's letter.

“He asks about Jon, and he tells me that his baby Robb is wide eyed and curious,” she recounts the letter with a warm smile.

“Have you not told him that his name is Jaehereys?” He watches as she begins to take some of her jewelry off at the vanity.

“I did and I have told him that I still call him Jon. Rhaenys and Viserys calls him Jon Jon. So, he will continue to call him Jon. Jaehereys will only be used for formal gatherings…” He does not disagree.

If that is what his Sun wishes, that is a wish he can grant.

He does not want to think about Lyanna and so he goes to kiss his Sun...

It is a clumsy kiss but there is heat behind it. Clothing is shed and they become one.

It is like the first time but where there was once laughter and moans, there is somberness, tears, and pleas. Where there was once hunger, there is patience.

"You keep me here because you are ashamed!"

He jerks awake at Lyanna's cries. It is light and he subconsciously reaches for his Sun. He does not find her, and he sits up to an empty chamber. His hands shake and he presses his fingers to his eyes to keep the angry face of Lyanna out.

She didn't understand how unwanted she was in Dorne. How dangerous it was, even with the Kingsguard protecting her. 

He was not ashamed then, but he was ashamed now. 

After a night with his Sun, he is ashamed of how he could ever think his Sun could forgive him and accept his wolf.

Especially after how his father treated her.

If Lyanna had lived, he knew she would hate to become Queen, but the people of the realm would never respect or accept her.

She is partly to blame...

He would never be able to protect her from the persecution.

"Your wife's people would hate me..."

They already hated him...

He does not know why he thought Dorne was a good place to take Lyanna. 

"Let's go to the Free Cities. Let it just be us!"

She was enthusiastic and he was obsessed with her ideas of freedom.

Life without duty...

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Elia

“So…” One of her eyebrows are quirked at the slyness of Ashara’s smile. She knows what she is about to ask her, and she snorts. She tastes her words before she says them.

He was gentle but he had always been. She dares not compare him to his father…

That was just pure hell…

A hell she thought she would never recover from. She was ready to close that part of her off. She was ready to see different women coming from her husband’s chambers.

She knows that she wouldn’t have the courage to seek another. Her confidence is in tatters, and she feels the focus would go to her scars rather than her pleasure.

“Nothing has changed. He was gentle and was in no rush…” Ashara accepts her answer.

“You should be careful with Ser Brandon,” she goes on to say. Ashara shrugs and tells her that she does not care.

“I have m-moon tea. I d-don’t want to lose another star again,” her friend’s voice quivers. After the birth of Visenya, Elia drinks it.

She does not want to be with child again…

She makes a quick note to get more of it now that she will be welcoming her husband back to her chambers.

“Momma’s milk?” Aegon is stumbling towards her. He has found his footing and his words and is walking and talking. He only knows a few words, but he speaks them loudly and clearly. She reaches for him, and he comes to her and cuddles against her bosom. Jon and Dany are crawling towards her, hungry looks in their eyes, and it causes her and Ashara to burst into laughter.

When they leave the nursery with Ser Darry and Wylla, a Dornish maid that cared for Jon during his journey to his father, she and Ashara go to the beach. They strip their shoes and walk barefooted on the black sands. It is there that Ashara produces a letter.

It is the stag lord’s letter.

“You haven’t opened it yet. I’m sure you didn’t want Rhaegar to read it. When you were sleep, it seemed he was looking for it but didn’t catch that it fell behind the bed. I almost couldn’t find it…” she explains.

She takes it and takes a deep breath as she opens it.

‘My Queen,

I hope this letter finds you and the children well. As promised, my brothers and I have returned to Storm’s End safely. I have been to the capital and have seen the carnage, the bodies, and it brings light to how poorly we acted in removing the Mad King. My selfish desires made me blind to what the true issue was. We should have joined instead of being against each other. I plan on giving Storm’s End to my brother, Stannis. The realm sees me as a traitor to the crown and it would be honorable if I didn’t take the seat. Once I go to the Vale to pay my respects to Elbert and to Winterfell, to do the same for Lyanna and her father, I plan on taking to the seas. To clear the mind. Renly asks for Viserys and Stannis and I have thought it would be in his best interest to write the young prince. To strengthen the bond between our houses. You have my fealty and I pray that I have your forgiveness…”

Robert’

When she is alone, she responds to the letter, offering her apologies for the lateness of her reply. She lets him know that he has her forgiveness.

“…For every action a man does, there is and will be another man that will react…” She remembers her brother, Doran, telling her.

She sends the letter with the Wolf Knight and Ashara goes with him, leaving her with a mischievous smirk on her face.

The Star Knight and the Star Lord are aware of their sister and her dealings with the Wolf Knight and they are supportive, but Arthur and his brother knows that there will come a time in which Ashara has to be wed to a lord and give heirs.

Elia is willing to let the Wolf Knight go, so that he can be with Ashara but even then, it cannot happen.

He has no lands, no kingdom, and the realm sees him as a turncoat.

Before, it could be fixed, so that the Wolf Knight wouldn’t have to marry the Tully girl.

The Wolf Knight says that she is a more perfect match for his brother.

With heavy thoughts, she goes to change for supper.

She and Rhaegar dine together, it is the night before he is set to leave for the capital. Rhaenys and Viserys joins them, and the children are in playful spirits. They are attentive parents as they listen to Viserys when he talks about his studies and training and Rhaenys, when she details them about the younger babes.

The Bull knocks and produces a ragged and red headed, Jon Connington. It's a pleasant surprise because the last time she saw him, he was leaving for his exile. Rhaenys was learning how to walk and Viserys was still so small when the Lord of Griffin’s Roost waved goodbye to Rhaegar. There were letters sent between them but when Rhaegar left, the letters stopped.

“My dear friend!” Rhaegar greets him. They go to hug one another and as they do so, Rhaenys climbs onto her lap and Viserys sits closer to her. When they separate, Jon offers her a deep bow but frowns at her scarred appearance. His eyes go to Rhaegar and his lips thin in disapproval.

Rhaegar catching on,

“I would never hurt Elia like that…” she sees that his ears are becoming red.

“There is a lot that you need to be caught up on, milord,” she speaks, wrapping her arm around Viserys. At the sight of Viserys’ eye,

“Indeed! What went on in King’s Landing, the Trident? I heard you disappeared with the wind and then there was a war. I would have forgotten my exile and came to fight with you,” Jon Connington explains. His eyes are wide and horrified.

“It is best a story to tell when the children sleep. There’s no need for them to relive it,” Rhaegar suggests. She offers to take the babes and leave the men. The look on Rhaegar’s face says that he does not want her to leave but he allows it. She offers him a smile, placing a comforting hand on his arm.

“Carry me, mommy…” Rhaenys cries. She does not refuse her princess but she notices how big she is getting.

Rhaegar

“What in the Gods…?” Jon exclaims after his wife leaves with the children. Rhaegar flushes but goes to pour wine for himself and Jon. He calls for one of the handmaids to clear the table of supper and bring more wine.

He knows it will be a long night.

Jon is patient when he tells him everything from beginning to end. The times he thinks that Jon is about to interject, Rhaegar is grateful that the man allows him to finish his words. When he does finish, Jon is pale.

“He did that to the young prince?"

"Aye and it was my young brother that kicked him down the throne steps that caused his neck to break." Rhaegar explains. Jon gulps,

"I was deep in my goblet when news got back to me about banners being raised. Something told me to come back to King’s Landing but I ignored it and now I wish I hadn’t.”  Rhaegar downs the rest of his wine.

“I need someone to take over as Lord Commander of the City Watch when the capital is rebuilt,” Rhaegar explains. He knows his friend will not want a seat on the council. His original thought was to have the wolf knight become Lord Commander, but he knows how dependent his Sun and their babes are of him.

Jon nods,

“Aye, I will take the position. I’ll also make the journey with you in the morn.” A weight has been lifted and then,

“Who knew there was wildfire beneath the Keep…” Rhaegar was sure his father’s true loyalists that fed his madness knew of the wildfire. The Lion Knight says that what was left of them are scattered or have been executed by his father.

He will find them and bring justice…

Rhaegar shook his head,

“I’ve lived in the Keep my whole life and never in those years have I ever heard of or saw wildfire. Although, it’s my fault for not being fully perceptive to my father’s madness…”

“Are you going against the dragon, boy?!” his father shouts at him, throwing a goblet of wine at him. He moves out the way and he shakes with fear and shock as he watches the goblet crash and the wine spill over the carpet.

“You think I conspired this? With Lord Tywin? Father, you were almost killed! Why would I want that?” He argues.

“You are my heir. You did this so that his lion bitch of a daughter could become queen! I should chop your head off! No lion will sit on the throne of the dragon. You will marry the Dornish whore, Elia Martell. At least she has Targaryen blood in her.”

“I didn’t plan this father, please. You have to believe me!”

“I had to rip the bitch’s parts out and throw them and her to the fire for the people of Duskendale to be satisfied and they are still calling it light…” Rhaegar finds a shard of glass at his throat, and he wonders how his father became so quick.

“I have no qualms with replacing you and getting a new heir, boy! You are the weakest part of me. Your mother will give me another and he will know what a true dragon is…”

Duskendale was his father’s downfall, though some would say he was already showing signs of madness. He still cared for his father, even when he constantly threatened his life and titles. He was a good son. A good and honorable heir. He thought he was doing all the right things. No one is born with the knowledge of how to be a prince and heir.

Or the knowledge of how to be human…

When he goes to his Sun, after parting ways with the Griffin, he finds her sewing with Rhaenys on her lap. He does not make his presence known and he is content with watching his Sun with their daughter. She hums and talks to her, and her fingers are graceful with the needles.

“Will you be ready to sleep, my little dragon?” he hears her ask Rhaenys gently.

“No sleep,” she shakes her head. Her violet eyes are watery as she clutches her.

“Alright, you can stay up for a few more moments.” She soothes her dark curls. He makes himself known and she smiles.

“Is she well?” he asks.

“Yes. When it was time for her to go to her bed, she wouldn’t stop crying. I didn’t want her to wake the other babes, so, she will be with me for the night.” He nods and sees that he must turn in if he is to make a proper journey in the morn.

Instead of going to his chambers, he settles in hers. He allows himself to be drifted off the sleep by her hums.

Chapter Text

I do not own

Eddard

“Here you are,” his red headed Tully said. She is pregnant again and their Robb is walking, clutching tight to her blue skirts. He does not like her and their cub in these crypts.

It his fault that they find him here…

He was in his twenty-first year of life, and she was only in her twentieth. She was meant to be his brother’s wife, but he is glad that she is his.

At a terrible cost…

He and Robert were supposed to be traveling and whoring about. Brandon was supposed to be the honorable Lord Paramount of the North. Catelyn was supposed to be round with his child…

All of it fell onto him now…

Whose fault is it, though?

There is no blame…

Everyone had a part in this…

He took the crown and his family’s sword and the responsibility of the North with shaky hands.

It couldn’t fall on Benjen. Benjen was too hot headed and for a moment, Ned wonders if he was the only one born with self-control. It seems that all of his siblings were born with hot blood.

“Coming down here isn’t going to bring them back…” While so soft, his wife’s voice echoes loudly.

His wife made it known that it was wrong what his sister did.

“Ned!” She started before grabbing his arm to keep him place, “She left and lied when telling your father where she was going. If for a moment there was a chance, Lyanna should have gone and talked to your father about being with the dragon prince. A lot of lives could have been spared…” He turns away from her.

His sister was always blunt and loud and so he cannot quite wrap his head around his sister’s secrecy. She often told her brothers how she didn’t want to marry and if needed be, Robert was the last person she wanted to marry.

When Robert wanted something, he often got it. Women fell for him because he was so handsome, strong, and charismatic.

It is what soured Lyanna to the idea in marrying the Storm Lord. In fact, blind was he to the lack of interaction they had when they were together.

“I know but I can’t stop myself from coming here.” He takes his heavy cloak off and wraps it around her and his heir.

His heir…

A small red headed thing with bright blue eyes.

No matter the looks, it is his heir. He always knew he would have a child, but he was a second son, so the birth of his children wouldn’t hold as much weight as if he was the first born. He is now a second born son with the rights and titles of a first born.

It’s almost as if Brandon did die.

No…

He writes his brother as often as he can as does Benjen. There is no anger between them just melancholy and regret.

He has to be strong and honorable for the North. Due to the raising of the banners and the calls for the head of the crowned prince, the Starks are betrayers to the crown.

Like Torrhen Stark, he knelt to a dragon king. He knelt on the Trident when Rhaegar and his abused and raped wife were crowned king and queen.

He didn’t know what to do when he received news of his father’s, brother’s, and Elbert Arryn’s death and so Robert took the reins.

He picks Robb up and puts his head against the boy’s soft cheek. Small arms wrap around his head and Catelyn coos at him.

"I don't want to marry him, Ned!"

Lyanna's voice is loud...

He will do right by his wife and children...

He will do right by the North.

Before he leaves, he throws one last glance at the crypts of his sister and father.

Oberyn

His daughters are all on their tip toes as they try to peer into the bassinet holding their twin siblings, Joanna and Lewyn. His Lion has finally given birth and she is flushed and covered in sweat.

Still so beautiful…

When he returned home to Dorne, it was not awkward between them, and she grew to adore his bastard daughters and they her. Even though she is the daughter of the strict Lion Lord, she fits in well in Dorne.

As if she was made for it…

It was a thought once visited but what an insult for his sister to be offered the imp!

She would have been safe from the turmoil...

Cersei wanted to be Queen, but she sees what she could have lived through.

The dragons, the wolves, the blue falcons, and even the stags wouldn’t survive the fury of the Lion…

She is happy with being a Princess in the true sense. Although the question remained,

Jaime…

 It was no secret what was going on between the two.

In fact, it was upon first meeting the twins that he, with amusement, saw the electricity between them. It was then he knew that whoever the cub married, would always be in competition with her brother.

Rhaegar wouldn’t approve…

So, Oberyn accepted him in their bed and the viper conquered both lions.

“Now, now, Jaime, how can you expect to protect my sister when your legs shake?”

He has yet to find anyone to keep up with him.

Cersei and Ellaria were a surprise, but Cersei is eager. They are close and during the hottest of nights in Dorne, when Cersei was pregnant, he found the two bare and curled around one another.

Nothing could go wrong in his world.

“A-Are t-they normal?” She asks weakly. It was a worry she had, that their babes would be defected like her brother.

He peers into the bassinet and is greeted with two completely normal and beautiful children. His daughter is like her mother in every way, except the black hair but the green eyes sparkle upon seeing him. His son has the black hair but he is sleep so he does not see his eyes.

“Perfect,” he reassures her. She sighs with relief before she allows the maidens to dab her forehead with a wet cloth.

Ellaria kisses the girl on her forehead.

“Rest, you will need to milk soon,” she says.

“I want to hold her!” Obara cries. He chuckles,

“You are still so small to hold her.” He tells her as he picks up his daughter. This is nothing new to him.

It is his son that he is eager to hold.

He will allow his son his slumber.

Cersei reaches for him, and he sits next to her.

He places Joanna on Cersei’s bosom as Ellaria scoots the girls out of the room.

“I will get a bath ready for you, sweetling.”

“I have written your father and your brothers. I’ve also written the Queen,” he tells her.

“I’m sure father is already on his way.” She laughs weakly. It had already been decided that their first-born son would rule Casterly Rock and so when Lewyn was old enough, he will be fostered there.

The Lion Lord has accepted Oberyn to be deserving of his daughter, but he knows he is more Doran’s speed than anything. They converse and make political moves and he can’t help but see the two men beginning to admire one another.

“I love you, I love our little family,” she whispers, caressing his face.

“I love you too.” He grabs her hand and kisses it.

Elia

Her family grows and she is happy. She can’t stop the smile from appearing on her face as she wraps the letter up from her brother and puts it with the rest of the letters that she keeps in a small wooden box.

She received news that Lord Stannis has married a woman from the isle of Lys. She is slightly surprised by the news, but Lyseni women had the looks of the dragon, though they have no fealty.

Viserys says that Renly likes the woman and that she is sweet on him.

“Mama…” Aegon places a flower on her lap.

“Such a sweet son,” she says, kissing him on his button nose. He flushes and claps before going back to his siblings. She takes the flower and places it in her hair.

This is as close as she’ll ever get to having flowers on her head…

“Are you and Rhaegar going to marry the children to one another…?” Ashara asks suddenly. She is taken aback but she knew she couldn’t avoid it much longer.

She and Rhaegar haven’t talked about it. It is tradition for the dragons to marry one another. She gulps…

He has his Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya…

He would want them to marry, though, Rhaenys is a little too old for Aegon.

He would marry their daughter to Viserys.

What of Jon? What of Danereys?

The other kingdoms in the realm would want to be compensated. If not by riches, by a marriage into the royal family.

Someone will want their daughter to be Queen…

She and Rhaegar were a rare case. There wasn’t a sister born his age…

She laughs softly, if Viserys was just a bit older and was a girl…

It would be seen as an insult if Jon was a choice for one of the great houses of the realm. To marry a high-born lady to the son of the woman that nearly ripped the realm apart...

She wanted Viserys to marry Doran’s girl, Arianne.

Elia is now not so sure it could happen.

It is something she is not ready to discuss…

The interbreeding of the dragon was imbedded in the Targaryen blood and bones.

The gods flip a coin…

She wonders what side it landed on when the mad king and Rhaegar were born.

She knows madness might show up in her babes…

“You know how the Targaryens are…” she starts off softly.

“Everyone does but I and everyone can agree... that it is a cause for their…madness…”

She nods.

Fire and Blood…

The realm has seen more fire and blood at the hands of the Targaryen family than it ever did.

They still come out on top…

It is something the realm is used to. The realm had plenty of opportunity to rid the Targaryen family on many occasions but who is ready to sit on the ugly seat of the Iron Throne?

Who would be worthy enough not to be cut?

Rhaegar has yet to sit on the throne and she is worried the throne will not receive him and cut him like it cut his father.

What if it cuts her son?

Chapter Text

I do not own

Elia

She wakes to someone moving over top of her. Her eyes are heavy, and she struggles to open them. When she does, she is faced with fierce and yet tired violet eyes. She tenses briefly before she forces herself to relax.

It is her husband, who, has returned from the capital. The room is still dark indicating that it was still in the eve. She had expected him and her prince, Viserys, in the morning but him being here means that they were in a hurry to be home.

“Warm me…” he whispers urgently against her bosom. Her shift is moved, and her legs are opened.

She wants to just lay and curl around him, but her body lets her husband knows that it wants to participate in his ministrations.

As the capital nears completion, her husband’s travels keep him away from Dragonstone for long periods of time. There have been talks of moving her and the children in one of the finished wings, but she wasn’t keen in the idea in traveling with four walking and talking toddlers.

Fingers are gentle but they grip tightly, maybe to keep her in place or to make sure she is not a figment of his imagination, but they are everywhere on her. The bed creaks with his movements and she hears clothing being removed.

Their lips meet and they are one. When she thinks they have finished, he keeps going and when light comes, he has exhausted her, and has exhausted himself.

She feels that her sleep was brief and she muses,

When they tell her to rest, she does not get it…

Elia leaves him to his rest and checks on Viserys.

Now, a boy of ten, Viserys was much more mature than her brother was at the age. He has become wise and loves his books. She is fortunate that they are books about war, history, and weapons.

The books about prophecies have been destroyed in the fire…

 His one eye, which was been sewed shut, takes nothing from him being skilled with a sword, a spear, and bow and arrow. 

He is deep in his slumber, and she goes to cover him with a blanket and smooths his unruly silver stands of hair. She sees his eyepatch, which had the Targaryen sigil sewn with red thread, lost in his pillows.

He must've been too tired to take it off...

She moves it to his bedside table and is quite content with caressing the silver on his head.

“They arrived late in the night,” a voice says. She turns and finds the Wolf Knight with her sweet princess perched in his arms.

She nods and greets him and her Rhaenys.

“How was your first night in your own room,” she asks her, caressing her face. As the babes outgrow their small bassinets, they grow comfortable in small beds that take up space in the small nursery. Rhaenys has been given her own room and it took some time for her princess to get used to the idea of being away from the younger babes.

“I’ll sleep mommy if Bran guards me…”

Who were they to refuse her?

“Bran will guard me again?” She asks and both adults chuckle at the request.

“Only if you allow me,” he tells her, and she laughs sweetly.

She does not get the nursery door open all the way before she is attacked by four hungry babes. It is Aegon, who is successful with gripping tight to her skirts with an angry and flushed face. When she has him in her arms, he wastes no time in pulling the top of her dress down and latching on to one of her breasts.

When the babes have calmed and she is able to feed them, it is when Ashara finally arrives at the nursery. She and the Wolf Knight frown at her friend’s appearance, which was sickly pale.

“It is nothing. Just slightly ill…” she reassures them. She has her doubts, but she does not agitate it.

When they break fast, the dragon king and Prince Viserys come down to join them.

“Uncle! Papa!” Rhaenys cries, waving her jelly covered hands. They both greet her sweet princess with warm smiles.

They laze the day away in Aegon’s garden. The Kingsguard and the royal family are in attendance. The Kingsguard have stripped their heavy armor and have donned only their swords and they are in playful moods with each other and the children. The only one missing, was Ashara.

She complained that she wasn’t feeling well and the smell of food at breakfast made her feel sicker.

When she can break away from her family without her little ones following her, she seeks out one of the maidens that had followed her to the Trident.

“Is there any moon tea?” She inquires not only for her friend, but for herself. The maiden flushes before shaking her head.

“We just ran out, my Queen. One of the other girls needed it. A man forced himself upon her in the stables and she got with child. She was able to take it early enough not to carry the babe. There is to be a shipment within the next few days…” Moon tea was being split between her, Ashara, and the other ladies that resided at Dragonstone.

They all have to be cautious…

She finds her friend, with Dany and Visenya at her skirts, bent over a bucket, heaving.

“F-Forgive m-me…” Ashara’s says weakly. As her friend has helped her, she returns the favor. Her daughters mimic her and try to be helpful as well. When she has Ashara comfortable, she notices her quivering.

“What does Brandon say about your illness?” Elia asks her.

“He just wants me to rest. He will come to me tonight,” Ashara explains. Elia nods.

“It might be too late to take moon tea when the moon tea does finally come…”

“I looked for it yesterday and couldn’t find any…”

“A maiden has told me that the last of it was used…”

“…Because a man feels that he can take whatever he wants when he wants…” Ashara finishes for her before vomiting into a bucket.

She knows how true this is…

“Is Lady Ashara well?” the dragon king asks her when she closes the door to their chambers. Similarly, to the Trident, her things were beginning to find a place in her husband’s chambers without her knowledge. She still has her chambers, but she is ever in them when Rhaegar is at the capital.

She nods.

“She thinks it was something she may have eaten,” she replies.

“Is it?” He retorts, unbuttoning his doublet. She feels her eyes narrowing.

“It may be, or it could be that she has a sickness that has yet to befall us.” At her reply, his lips thin.

“I know you and Lady Ashara have been asking about moon tea,” he answers. She stiffens but shrugs, unbraiding her hair.

No matter how much time goes by, she cannot rid herself of the white patch that has now made a home at the top of her head.

“It is something that must be taken.” It is silent before,

“I don’t think I can go through another pregnancy again.”

“Are you done having children with me, then?” The question, which sounds more like an accusation, surprises her and she does not have an answer ready for him.

She is not so sure. The Maesters tell her she can have more babes if she wishes but she remembers how miserable she was when she was pregnant with Visenya.

He is not his father…

They both have children from different people and at times, she feels like she is having an outer body experience. Their family dynamic was not common. Most women did not take to their husband’s children, and wives were punished if they brought another man’s babe into their husband’s household.

She is lucky.

“If our Jon was born to be your fated Visenya and your wolf queen lived, would you still seek out more babes from her?” It is his turn to be taken by surprise.

Even in the dim candlelight, she sees the tips of his ears grow red.

“There needs to be a third head…”

He sighs before running his fingers through his hair. 

"I was fraught and everything I did was rushed. Everything I did costed the realm and costed her, her life. I nearly lost you. I lost the trust of the realm."

"If you leave and try to Aegon from me, I will follow you..."

It was something that plagued her. The only reason she hadn't packed and took the babes back to Dorne...

The girl took and fucked her husband and then had the nerve to die on the sands of her birth...

"I wouldn't, and I wouldn't now, if she was still alive. Seeing and knowing what my father did to you...I don't think I could continue on with Lyanna. I would have sent her back to Winterfell. Marriage couldn't happen between us because she never wanted to be Queen of the realm..."

Though, she wanted to be Queen of Love and Beauty...

She does not like talking about the wolf girl.

She does not hate her, she can't, not with her son milking from her and calling her mama. 

She knows that her existence would have been uneasy if the girl was alive. While the wolves were said to be an honorable bunch, it was the people they surrounded themselves with, that she wouldn't be able to trust.

"I did everything because I didn't want to lose you. Maester Pycelle said that it wouldn't be wise for you to be with child. That you, the babe, or both of you would die. I wasn't going to lose you. I see now that I was selfish. I see now that I am being selfish..." he finishes softly.

They do not join but it is a night where they are next to each other, silence between them. The conversation is done but not forgotten and it weighs heavily in the air.

They listen to each other breathe as thoughts and memories will them to sleep.

Her thoughts and memories are molded into one big nightmare of a giant looming over her and her Aegon.

The screams of her sweet princess echo...

Chapter Text

I do not own

Rhaegar

“How could you do that, my dragon?” His ears are red, but he finds that the heat that was at his ears is now traveling to his face. He rarely got on his mother’s bad side. Her face, though, bruised, was still beautiful but he saw the disappointment on her face, and he felt more ashamed than when his Sun walked past, him without seeing him.

That wasn’t shame…

His Sun was born from the hot sands of Dorne, he did not know she could become so cold.

He knew he was wrong…his Sun deserved the crown…

“It wasn’t with ill intent towards my Sun, sweet Mother,” he said softly. His mother didn’t believe him. She gave him a look of scolding and he is reminded of the day when he was a mere boy and he was caught stealing from his father’s solar. His mother needed not to say words but offered a look that made him feel like the worse person in Westeros.

Such is the case now.

How could he do such a thing?

Especially when his Sun carried another one of his dragons in her belly.

“Then what was it? The Dornish are hissing, the stags have their nostrils flared…what do you mean by crowning that girl over you future Queen? Unless you mean…”

He is horrified at the thought.

“No! I do not mean to bastardize my baby dragons. Elia is my Sun Princess and will be my Sun Queen. I…I was just honoring the girl for her valiant behavior as Knight of the Laughing Tree…”

Lies...

“Oh? That was her? How improper! She could have been killed.” He senses the dragon rising in his mother. While his father’s dragon was dangerous and burned everything in its path, hers was ice to the fire and all she needed was her sharp and sneering tongue. The only one who could match his mother in that aspect, was his Sun.

“If you wanted to honor the girl, you should have thrown a bag of gold to her and gave your Sun a more perfect crown…”

“What is a flower crown to the future Queen of the entire realm? She will have a crown of gold and diamonds. Flowers die, after all…”

He wakes quickly to bright light and suddenly reaches for…

An empty space…

He frowns but sits up.

He wonders how late he has napped but he is suddenly in a hurry.

He re-dons his doublet and straightens the unruly strands of silver on his head. He rinses his mouth out with mint water and is out in the hall with the Bull and the Star Knight following behind him.

“Has this Littlefinger arrived?” He asks them.

“No, Your Grace,” The Star Knight replies.

Littlefinger, or Petyr Baelish of the Fingers was to arrive to Dragonstone that day with spare moon tea and to talk to him about other business. He cared not what the other man had to say, only that he dropped the dreaded liquid off and leave.

He can bask in his Sun again…

The ship carrying the ingredients needed to make the tea and other supplies was lost at sea and in desperation, his Sun reached out to Lady Lysa at the suggestion of the wolf knight.

“Well…I don’t know what happened to him after he fled Riverrun but the Lady Hand might…”

“Why did he flee, Bran?” Viserys asked. The wolf knight grew uncomfortable briefly before,

“He challenged me to a duel for Lady Catelyn’s hand when we announced our wedding morn…”

He remembers someone telling him of their marriage.

How he and his father changed everyone’s fate…

It was two eves ago that Lady Lysa pulled his Sun off to the side and told her that he would meet.

“She says he will only meet with Lady Lysa and I…” His Sun tells him and the Kingsguard.

“Well, there can’t be a meeting then,” he tells her.

“This is for the sake of the women of the realm. If he has some to spare or at least knows of someone until the ship is found or another shipment comes, it will be helpful.”

He had to bend.

He is joined by his Lord Hand, and they find his Sun with Lady Lysa. The place at his Sun’s side, which was once occupied by their dragon princess, has now been filled by their even younger princesses. Though, Rhaenys, is still by his Sun’s side but as the protective and helpful older sister.

His sons are near, and they are energetic and playful with the lion knight and their uncle, both, who are indulgent. Their sweet laughter fills the throne room.

His family…

The warmth dissipates, however, when Petyr Baelish of the Fingers is announced.

He does not want this man anywhere near...

He finds that his Lord Hand shares the sentiment by how thin his lips have gotten.

“He’s still short…” the wolf knight snorts. Rhaegar nearly mistakes it for playfulness, but he sees how the wolf knight’s brow is furrowed and there is nothing but seriousness in his gray eyes.

“It’s not the size of the man that matters. Can he be trusted?” The Bull asks.

“That’s something for you to ask the Lady Hand. Better yet, Lord Edmure Tully. Lady Lysa sees Littlefinger through sweet eyes. Edmure will tell you no tales.” The wolf knight explains,

“Catelyn only sees him as a brother.”

 They all look to Jon Arryn.

“Lysa is withdrawn when it comes to the man who took her maidenhead. I’m sure there is still some emotion still there…”

Rhaegar rolls his shoulders, but he will not bend. He will not give into his baser instincts and demand the man to leave and tell his Sun that he is willing to wait…

A few more moons…

“From what you could tell, would you trust him?” The Bat asks.

“I would rather get my hand cut off again…” The wolf knight replies bluntly.

Elia

Her muscles are tight, and she wishes that her Star was here with her instead. The babes take to her well and she would keep her Dany from wanting milk. She tries her best to make sure Lady Lysa’s existence is comfortable on Dragonstone. The babes are indifferent when it comes to her, but she is nervous around them. She assures the girl that they do not have all their teeth and do not bite, even when they still suckle from her. However, when she thinks she has broken through to the girl, the girl distances herself.

Dammit, Ashara…

She feels how tight the grip Dany has on her leg, but she cannot focus on that.

She is also aware how silent the room is and how eyes are centered on them.

“Petyr…” Lady Lysa greets. Elia notices how the Tully’s face is as red as her dress.

“Catelyn says that Lysa has always been sweet on Littlefinger…”

“What in the hell is a ‘Littlefinger’?” The Bat asked. The wolf knight chuckles.

“His real name is Petyr Baelish, of the Fingers. He was short as a kid, so he adapted the name Littlefinger from Lord Edmure Tully…”

She wouldn’t be meeting with the man if the ship did what it was supposed to do and simply showed up.

Lord Baelish smiles at Lady Lysa.

How can a smile hold so much cunning and be so warm?

“Lady Lysa, it’s so good to see that you are well. Beautiful as ever. Quite a match you made, marrying the man that would become Hand to the king.” The girl flushed.

“It was a match that needed to be made,” she explains.

“Of course,” his grey-green eyes are quick to the dragon king and the Lord Hand before they settle back on to her.

“My Queen.” Gold eyes meet grey-green, and she forces her smile to reach across her face. He bows to her.

“I hope your journey was well, Lord Baelish,” She says, picking up Dany, who was trying to climb up her leg. She is glad the girl calms as Visenya and Rhaenys clutch tight to each other and to her skirts.

“Indeed. I must say that I was surprised to receive a letter from Lady Lysa after so much time,” he says.

“F-Forgive me but pressing t-times, calls for pressing m-measures,” Lady Lysa argued softly, a pretty blush appearing on her face.

“Very true. I too am suffering from the lack of moon tea. My girls will not do their duties until a shipment has been made. With Flea Bottom destroyed, I was on my way to the Free Cities to see if one of my other holdings had some to spare,” he explains.

“G-Girls…?” Lady Lysa asks innocently.

“Yes. I find it lucrative to have them,” Lady Lysa flushes more when she realizes what he means.

“Shall I greet you to my babes and to His Majesty? I have a small spread waiting for us in Aegon’s garden so that we can talk there,” Elia suggests. Dany hides her face in her bosom as she struggles with her other girls.

She introduces him to her princesses, and they are shy and fearful of him but he laughs kindly. When she approaches her boys, Viserys is stone faced and her other princes hide behind the Lion Knight.

“Forgive them, my lord,” the Lion Knight apologizes.

“They are but children. It is a good thing to be shy of strangers…”

He pales upon seeing the Wolf Knight and the Wolf Knight smirks. He keeps his composure and bows to the dragon king.

“The Targaryens still sit upon the throne…” Rhaegar stiffens.

“Is there a reason we shouldn’t?” Lord Baelish chuckles darkly,

“Forgive me, Your Grace. I only meant that with the rebellion, there were many who thought you wouldn’t be victorious against Lord Robert. Yet, I am happy that it did not come to that,” Lord Baelish bows. She can see her husband’s ears turning red.

With introductions out of the way,

"Shall we?" Elia asks.

Chapter Text

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The Wolf Knight

When he goes to follow his Sun Queen, he finds his cloak in the grip of his Lord Commander.

“It’s best you stay here,” he gestures for the scarred Bat to follow their Lion brother and their Queen. The man sends an apologetic look to him before marching to keep up with Jaime.

They are his charges…

“It might make things a tad harder for Her Grace if Lord Baelish is staring at the man who humiliated him in front of the woman, he loved…”

Right…

He feels a quiet shame thinking about that day so many days ago.

He was fond of Catelyn and knew they would grow to love one another…

Catelyn was pretty, Ashara was beautiful.

Catelyn was proper, could sing a fish out of water, and was devout in the Faith. She’d make any man a happy one.

Ashara was proper but only formally but even then, she found a way to be improper. She knew of no religion, and she could be wild like a wolf. Any man would be happy to have her.

He loved her…

On the way to King’s Landing, he told his father how heavy his heart was. He cared for Catelyn, but he did not see her next to him.

“Alright boy, if that’s how you truly feel, I cannot deny a man when his heart is true. I will talk to Lord Hoster Tully and then we will meet with the Daynes…”

His father died in front of him, and he was ready to accept death as he struggled with his last breath with rope tied around his neck.

He made a mess of things…

No…

He only made a mess because he thought he was defending his sister’s honor. He thought he was being the beloved and protective older brother.

It’s does not do the soul good to be angry at the dead.

Their lives were forever changed…

What doesn’t change is his father’s screams and the smell of his father’s rot…

They are a constant presence…

He hates sleeping…

If it’s not with Ashara, he cannot sleep.

Like Jaime does, when nightmares plague the lion, he wanders the halls of Dragonstone as if he was still following the mad king, or in Brandon’s case…

As if he was following the broken Queens, living and dead.

Anger, brief as it is, comes when he looks at King Rhaegar. He is the reason his sister is dead; he is the reason his Sun Queen has been tortured to the brink of death.

Though, they are moving on…

They are alive and the dragons survive.

His brothers aren’t sent to the Wall or executed in the name of the crown.

The wolf survives…

With substantial loses. They have been driven back to the North with their tails tucked between their legs.

Two linger in the dragon’s pit…

The mad man was right…

For nothing…

They are the training grounds when he sees Prince Viserys approach the edge of the field. He is quick to the boy’s side.

He reminds him of Benjen, his younger brother. He treats him as such.

Though, Benjen never experienced hell like Viserys did.

The boy grew on him, more when he curled in his lap and asked him about what his father was like.

“I’m afraid of f-father…w-why d-does he h-hurt sister l-like that? It m-makes Nys cry…”

“I don’t know…”

“Did y-your father e-ever hurt people?”

His father was a large man, a bear more than a wolf but he was gentle, especially with his younger siblings. He was indulgent and patient in all of them when they grieved their mother’s death.

He can’t recall his father ever being brutal or cruel, even when they hunted. He never disciplined him or his brothers when they acted out and spoiled their sister.

He didn’t know much about dragons. He knew they loved fucking each other, but he assumed that was a southern thing, but they were powerful and terrifying when they had dragons.

Without dragons, they are still terrifying…

Still powerful…

He didn’t know a house that would still be standing after the amount of fire and blood the Targaryens spread and shed across the realm.

It just shows how much dominance the dragons still had…

Fire and Blood...

“He is a weird man…” Prince Viserys says softly. They have a bond that no one else had…

He is missing a hand and the boy is missing an eye…

One-eyed Viserys and The One-handed wolf…

He nods.

“That I know. I don’t have many fond memories of him…”

“He unsettles sister, and the Lady Hand is oblivious, she keeps giggling…”

Before he is able to answer, the king and his other brothers make their way over to them.

He wants to laugh because all of the men are second brothers, and he is a first. Their older brothers hold their family seats, and his younger brother sits on his. Though, there has never been a Stark in the Kingsguard…

It is unnatural because wolves belong in the North.

They accept him and have trained him to use his left hand better.

The Star Knight helps him understand the dragon king better.

"Even though Rhaegar is the elder son, he and Aerys were never close..."

“What have you gathered, young prince?” The Bull asks.

“He says that he has holdings in the Free Cities and that he might have some to spare. They are mostly talking about their childhood. He wants to talk mostly to you, brother,” Prince Viserys explains, turning his head to the king.

“I am aware but that can only happen when his council with Her Grace is done. Did he indicate what he wanted to talk about?”

“Flea Bottom and wanting to be the sole person to run it. Why? What is in Flea Bottom?” All the men shift uncomfortably.

“W-Well, my prince, Flea Bottom was a slum before it burnt down. It is home to all the debauchery that takes place in King’s Landing. It is a profitable place but for all the wrong reasons…” the king explains.

“Will you allow him that, brother?” the prince asks.

“I am not sure…” He frowns in thought.

When they see the Sun Queen, Lord Baelish has his arm intertwined with hers with Lady Lysa in the background looked sordidly disappointed.

He is always warmed by the sight of his Sun Queen. A far change than when he first saw her at Harrenhal. He didn’t think much about her then, but it could have been from the shock of his sister donning a blue crown.

He saw her, at the feast, after he had a shouting match with Lyanna to give back the crown, and he saw a woman withdrawn. She was thin and exotic, and he thought she was a pretty sun. She is still withdrawn, still exotic...

She bears the scars of the nightmare they lived...

"Will the women of the realm be able to breathe again?" The king asks, his gaze directed on the arm entwined with the Queen.

Littlefinger bows,

"They may still need to hold their breath until I send word back from the Free Cities, Your Grace. There is hope..." Baelish explains.

Chapter Text

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Ashara

She is greeted by her two of her most favorite people. Her Sun Queen has some of her dresses left over from when she was pregnant and has brought them to her with her Wolf. The younger babes talk and follow them, though, Prince Jaehereys has found a spot in the Sun Queen’s arms.

“I don’t know where your father keeps the dragon bones. You better not go searching for them, either…” her Wolf warns them, as they toddle behind him. They all crowd into her room and her Wolf and Sun Queen sit on either side of her, the children following suit. The adults knew and tried as they could to keep Prince Viserys from finding them, he found them on his own.

They were in the deepness and darkness of Dragonstone.

Besides the throne, they too survived the green fire…

“How did it go?” She asks them. She has been bed ridden for moons, it seems like. When she thinks she can go about her duties to be lady to the Queen, her stomach, or rather, the babe thinks otherwise.

She has long accepted that she is with child again. Her Wolf knows, her Sun Queen knows, and her brother knows. The swelling in her thighs, breasts, and stomach has told her so and she is afraid. She did everything right with her last pregnancy, she rested, she changed the food she ate, she did everything the Maesters, her Septas, and even what her good sister told her and she still ended up holding a small limp body in her arms.

“First, how do you feel?” Elia asked, soothing the fussy and clingy wolf in her arms.

Ashara had a soft spot for the boy…

If her babe lives, they will look like him…

She knew she shouldn’t, but she sneaks him sweets because his chubby cheeks and curly black hair reminds him of what her Wolf looked like as a child.

“I feel better. I am tired of this room…” she replies. Elia chuckles, offering Jaehereys her breast, which he takes, and he curls into her and quiets. The heir to the throne, sits close to his mother and brother, peering up at them with concerned violet eyes. The girls lean on her and the Wolf Knight.

“He’s meeting with Rhaegar and Lord Arryn right now,” Elia explains.

“They’ve been meeting for hours now…” her Wolf says, pinching her toes gently. She flushes at the contact.

“About what, exactly?” Before either one can answer there is a knock on her door.

It is the Lion Knight, with the Prince Viserys and the Princess Rhaenys.

“How are you feeling, Lady Ashara?” Prince Viserys asked, a disapproving look on his face on how the younger girls were laid out on her bed. At his look, they straighten but continue their rebellion by leaning on her Wolf.

“Better, my prince. I am hoping to be able to join Her Grace for sup this eve,” she replied.

He nods.

Such a serious boy…

“They are still conversing; I am bringing the prince and princess because I am going to relieve Ser Whent. Arthur will take my place,” Ser Jaime explained. Her Wolf nods.

“What could they possibly be talking about?” She asks.

“It has to be more than Flea Bottom and its governing…” Her Sun Queen says. She reaches to caress the top of the heir’s head and he leans against her.

“Littlefinger comes from a small house, so it’s natural to want to find a position that would put him on the same level as all the other Lords and Ladies. To bring recognition to the Fingers…” her Wolf explains.

“Well, he will have to solve our problem first…”

When they leave to get ready for supper, it is just her and her Wolf…

“We should have been more careful…” he says softly. She shook her head, grabbing his face to bring him closer to her.

“We get a second chance, my love. I am not going anywhere, and neither will this child. If this child lives, then you will get to watch your babe grow, if not…then we continue as before…”

“Ashara…what if your brother finds a husband that he finds worthy of match? Allyria is still a babe,” he argues.

She hates to think about when the time comes…

She hopes it never does…

“Our child will be born a bastard. My child’s life is already cursed. If you marry, your husband will not love our child. He may demand the child to return to Starfall or to Winterfell…” his eyes are glassy and her heart breaks for them.

They cannot be free no matter what route they think would be right to take.

They should have been careful…

She does not care though…

“After this babe is born, we can’t…”

“Don’t…” she seals his lips with hers.

She is glad she is healthy enough to go down to sup with the royal family and their guest. She is also pleased that the dresses fit, and they are comfortable and hide her stomach. Her Wolf is split between her and his beloved dragons and her eyes well as she can see their babe being raised with the dragons.

She and Elia wanted to raise their babes together and planned to…

All of that was dashed away with the snap of fate’s fingers…

The dragon babes are on their best behavior, but they are close to the Queen or the Wolf and Lion. She and Elia meet gazes and her gaze goes to the empty seat of the king. She shrugs and Ashara takes her seat.

Littlefinger converses with Lady Lysa and Lord Arryn is stiff as a board. He tries his best to hide his displeasure at his wife.

Ashara had a strong inkling that the woman didn’t like her. She had thought everything had worked better with Catelyn marrying Ned…

Not everything…

Didn’t Lady Lysa know that she and her sister faired better than most with their matches given the circumstances they were in?

She was a deflowered maiden that married the future Hand of the King, and her sister married her betrothed’s brother, still becoming the Lady of Winterfell…

Ned was a good man, from a good family and Lord Arryn was said to be wise and just as honorable.

“Ned said that she was all in her tears during their wedding morn. Both she and Catelyn had to be married at the same time, you see…” her Wolf had explained to her.

She felt for the girl…

No man wants a deflowered maiden…

She was sure every reasonable match for marriage was promptly washed down her legs the night she lost her maidenhood. She found herself married to an old man who had seemed to be struck with bad luck and who didn’t have much life left in him…

Ashara cared not about her maidenhood. Her house was a minor house so she was never expecting a lord from the Seven Kingdoms to ask for her hand.

She subconsciously wraps her arms around her stomach.

Lady Lysa is all in her giggles throughout the meal and she sees her brother and Ser Whent snickering in the background. She snorts when the Bull throws an admonishing glance their way.

“How is Catelyn?” Lord Baelish asks and that is when Lady Lysa sobers up.

“S-She is w-well. She just gave birth to a little girl, named Sansa,” she explains.

“I was surprised to find that she had married Lord Eddard but due to certain conditions, I’m sure it couldn’t be avoided. Tell me, do you have plans to make the trek back to Winterfell to see your brother and his new family?” Baelish asks her Wolf.

“I can’t…I can’t face my family home with what I’ve done…”

For centuries, the Starks have been a quiet and honorable bunch. While the other kingdoms have seen their fair share of battles and disagreements, the North has always retained a neutral standing.

This last blight has put the Starks in a dark light and where honor was seen in them, treason and the dishonor that Lyanna Stark brought upon their house by running off with a married man…

Where there used to be pride in them is now filled with regret and shame.

“There have been talks but I am saving the trip when Prince Jaehereys is old enough…”

“Oh? I’m sure it can’t be comfortable serving the son of the man that killed your father…”

The atmosphere could be cut with a sword but her Wolf does not stumble, a wolfish grin on his face,

“Not as uncomfortable to know that Catelyn-Lady Stark, still sees you as a little brother…”

She must put her hand over her mouth to smother her laughter. Baelish pales and Lady Lysa is frowning at the Wolf.

It is the first time Lord Arryn relaxes and there is a small smile gracing his lips.

Viserys

He should be going back to the Great Hall to finish his supper but his curiosity and protectiveness over his family overcomes him and he turns the opposite way. He clutches his black hooded cloak to his small form and drapes his head in the hood. He does not want to be caught…

No pudding…

He is sure his brother would bar him to his rooms.

He arrives at Lord Baelish’s room to find it locked.

No matter…

He searches his pockets to find a pin that he has been using to unlock things. He throws a thanks to Ser Whent, who has taught him to pick locks.

“Why do you want to learn how to pick locks, my prince?”

“So that I can unlock things…”

“Some things are better left locked.”

“Then they are not good things…”

“I will teach you but do not get caught and don’t go prying where your nose doesn’t belong at your leisure…”

So far, he only broke one rule by unlocking one of the cells that kept the burnt dragon skulls.

This is not at his leisure. Something is not right about Littlefinger…

He does not like how sly the man comes off or how his eyes look like they are laughing even though there is no joke being told. He knows the man makes his brother and sister uncomfortable…

He insults his brother’s Hand and Viserys has come to like the man.

A sound click of the lock is music to his ears and he checks the hall to find it empty and ducks into the man’s room. He locks it behind him, and he takes in what he sees.

The man is neat and there is nothing that immediately tells Viserys that something is off. He catches his image in the mirror but he quickly turns away from it.

He sees a chest that has been hastily tucked in the shadows of the room, partially opened. Viserys goes to it and finds maps, books, gold, and a singular envelope that is addressed to Lord Hoster Tully.

‘My Lord,

I am but a man of the City’s Watch. I hope this letter is found in the right and rational hands. To stop the madness of King Aerys. I am sending this letter with a lowly man, as to not bring attention. I may be found out and executed by the time this letter has reached your hands. There is no loyalty and corruption in the City’s Watch and the fire eaters are spreading their fear and magic over the capital. If they do not do that, my brothers of the watch, steal and rape. Lord Rickard Stark has been murdered and his son, Brandon Stark has been spared and has been taken hostage, as has the Lannister cub, the Sun Princess, the Queen, and the royal heirs. Men, women, and children are being executed for trying to escape as the king has shut the gates. Please, I beg of you, send help before the man burns us all…’

Viserys drops the letter as if it burns him.

Why does Littlefinger have this letter?

Chapter Text

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Lysa

“Your behavior was the most improper,” her husband scolds. She flushes and feels tears filling up in her eyes.

No matter how hard she tries, she does nothing right…

“It was n-not. I w-was only p-playing my part in m-making him feel c-comfortable while h-he f-figures o-out our situation…”

She does not understand the distance people were putting between themselves and Littlefinger. She was raised with him, and he has proven himself countless times to her father.

“You giggle as if you are to be married to him. In front of His Grace, in front of me…have you no shame, Lysa?”

She did nothing wrong…

No one would think it improper in greeting a childhood friend that she hadn’t seen in several moons.

She bites the inside of her cheek, to keep tears from overflowing over her eyes.

“F-Forgive m-me, lord husband…” she whispers.

He nods at her apology as if she just merely stepped on his shoes.

“Do not wait up for me.” He leaves her and she wishes that she could just run to her sister’s room and cry on her shoulder.

Their marriage wasn’t one of love. She thought that they would be like Catelyn and Ned.

She knows that he feels cheated.

She was not pure and she was seemingly the only match available to him.

Her father tried to give her a pretty strong man but all were either married, betrothed, or being knighted, as was the case with Ser Jaime.

“Unfortunately, for the both of us,” Lord Tywin pauses, his green eyes rolling to his eldest son,  “My son has decided he wants to be knighted and will be on his way to King’s Landing. I have another son, though. If she marries and finds herself with child and the child is of normal attributes, then your grandson will be the new Lord of Casterly Rock when I die…”

Lady Lysa looked to the golden lions that were perched behind their father.

She would feel out of place here…

Ser Jaime, because she should start calling him that now, looked at her apologetically. His deformed brother, a small shadow, hid behind his leg. Lady Cersei was not in attendance, for that she was grateful. She didn’t think she could put up with the lion beauty.

“No, M’lord, I am honored that you would meet with us on such a rushed notice…”

She felt so ashamed that day. She could barely meet her father’s Tully eyes. After that, she knows her father looks upon her in disappointment and shame.

The same disappointment and shame she had in herself.

She needs council and she found talking the Queen helped her see through the fog that filled her head.

She didn’t know much about the Martells or the Dornish people that they ruled over. They are the only kingdom to still have the titles of Prince and Princess while everyone else had been demoted to Lord and Lady.

She was always told they were savages and fought with no honor.

The more she is around the Queen, the more she sees that they are honorable and everything but savages. They are mere mortals that have been burned by the dragons just like the rest of them.

With wet eyes and cheeks, she seeks out the Queen.

She finds her in her chambers, Prince Jaehereys snuggled in her arms.

“Lady Lysa, come in. I was just putting the babes down for the night,” she widens the door and allows her to come in. She sees that the younger children have taken residence in her room with the older Princess. They all wave at her and she bows to them, smiling.

If there was one thing she couldn’t control, it was the envy she had towards her sister, or any woman for that matter. The Sun Queen was no exception to her jealousy.

She longs for a child…

Her wedding night, she thought the loss of her maidenhead would allow her to approach her marriage bed with a confidence that for once, Caitlyn, didn’t have. She thought she would be able to produce multiple children.

Such lies she told herself…

Her days are filled with loneliness.

“Why has tears wet your eyes?” She is always in awe at how she could read her, but Lysa knew she was never good at hiding her emotions.

Not as good as Catelyn…

“F-Forgive m-me b-but I n-need y-your words of wisdom,” she didn’t know she was fixing to cry in front of the woman. The tears were hot on her face and the Queen was there, wolf babe in hand and ushering her where the other babes couldn’t see, so she wouldn’t distress them.

They are found on the balcony, facing Aegon’s Garden. The air smelled of sea and she suddenly missed home. The Sun Queen wraps the wolf babe in a blanket.

“What troubles you?” Her fingers twist in her light gray skirts.

“D-Do y-you think my b-behavior was w-whorish w-with Lord Baelish?” The Sun Queen is softly shocked by the question. Her eyes bore into her much like her father’s and her husband’s did.

“I know you do not love your husband and I am aware of your…past…” Lysa could feel her head fall.

She loved Petyr…

Yet, she knew that he didn’t feel the same and that he adored her elder sister.

Like everyone did…

She, like second sons, lived her life in her elder sibling’s shadow. She watched Caitlyn grow more beautiful each day, she got the best matches, and the boys who talked to Lysa, did so to get close to Caitlyn.

Caitlyn was also pure, unsoiled…

“While harmless…the Lord Hand is aware of your past with Lord Baelish.”

“I wasn’t m-married then. I am m-married now. There is n-no love b-but t-there is duty and h-honor. I know i-it wasn’t easy for my f-father to find a match s-such as this. I-I have n-not thought to b-betray my L-Lord husband..."

Lysa, knew how low her father’s head hung when every Lord told him excuses of why they couldn’t marry their sons to his soiled daughter. She had vowed that whatever husband would accept her; she would not stray…

“I have been in the Lord Hand’s shoes,” Lady Lysa is suddenly cold and clutches her cloak tighter to her. The Sun Queen is not sad, in fact, a small smile graces her scarred face as she places a soft kiss on top of dark curls.

Lysa was truly a child when they journeyed to their mother’s home, Harrenhal. As most wives did, their mother followed their father to the Riverlands.

When they went, Lysa was speechless at how dark and grand it was and she wondered how someone as sweet and pure as her mother survived such a place.

“L-Lysa…U-Uncle said that t-there are g-ghosts here…”

Like everyone else, Lysa and her family watched in shock as the dragon prince passed his Sun Princess.

She remembers the coldness of the Sun as the dragon prince sang a song and played his lyre and the wolf girl sobbed maiden tears. She also remembers the same lyre in pieces the next morn.

She dreadfully hopes that her actions are not like the wolf girl’s. While Littlefinger was not married, she was.

The shock of running off with him would kill her father…

She thinks sardonically that the same happened to Lyanna.

It sinks in and she nods.

She will truly apologize to her husband.

Before she does, she stays with the Sun a while longer and they play the guessing game of what is being discussed between their husbands and Littlefinger. She helps the Queen tuck the sleeping dragons in as they do so. Each guess is wilder than the next that it sends them both in a fit of giggles.

She waits up for her husband even though he has told her not to. She is finishing a letter up to her brother when her husband finally comes.

He scolds her but it holds not cruelness and she smiles softly. She goes to him and places a hand on his arm, pulling him towards the bed.

“I-I hope you’re not too a-angry w-with m-me…”

Chapter Text

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Rhaegar

 “Why Dorne, my love?” Lyanna asked. Rhaegar did not answer her but stared out onto the golden sands of his Sun’s home. A soft hand touches his face and he feels the tips of his ears heat.

“I-I don’t know why I came here…” He was thinking of his Sun. The whole journey, his thoughts dripped of her and his children.

He wonders if they are safe…

He wonders if his future Queen will accept his wolf…

The air was hot and he had to shed his helmet, his silver hair falling down his shoulders. He notices how it was beginning to knot and he wonders if Lyanna had a gentle hand to brush his hair.

His Queen mother and his Sun always brushed his hair…

“A-Are you sure? I don’t think we should stay long here…” the wolf’s gray eyes shift from side to side, her hand on the handle of her sword.

A warrior…

That was enough for him to push his horse towards the Tower that stood in the middle of the gold sands and red mountains. He had seen the tower when he first visited his Sun and he had plans to take her there, to celebrate another successful marriage between the dragons and the Sun.

She will never forgive him for this…

He calls the tower, the Tower of Joy, in honor of his new love and the joyous occasion his Visenya’s birth would be.

“I want to swear our vows in front of the Old Gods…” Lyanna whispers against his chest.

“It may be a stretch, because the Dornish do worship gods, but your wish is my command, my love.”

“What of your Sun?” She asks, lifting her beautiful head from his chest.

Elia…

Images of his beloved Sun makes him want to push Lyanna away but he pulls her back to him.

“She will come around…”

Rhaegar wakes with an awful jerk, which causes the babes on his chest to whine.

 The dream is so vivid that there is a left-over smell of winter and blue roses trapped in his nostrils.

He looks down and sees that his wolf son and dragon heir have curled on top of his chest. He sniffs lightly at the chocolate and silver curls and is glad that he smells sun and Dornish silk. His hands still shake when he dreams about her and now is not the exception.

He shifts and he is met with sounds of disapproval next to him. He smiles and turns his head to see…

Lyanna!

She smiles a bloody smile, and her eyes are full of tears as she reaches for their wolf babe…

He truly wakes, sweating and panting, his babes cry as they are nearly tossed off him as he sits up. He hurries to collect them. They are flushed in the face with watery eyes, and he soothes them.

To his displeasure, it is the Lion Knight that comes in to see what has caused his charges to be roused from their sleep, the Star Knight following behind.

“I-I had a nightmare and I f-forgot they were on me,” he explains.

“I can take them back to the Queen, Your Grace,” the Lion Knight says, going to reach for Aegon. His hands shake but he pulls his heir back to him.

“She and Lady Lysa have seen Lord Baelish off?” He asks. Both knights nod.

“Then we will all go see Her Grace.”

“Mama?” Jon hiccups with a tilt of his head. He nods and when he goes to put the boy down, he refuses and he ends up carrying him, with Aegon at his side.

They find his Sun with the Star’s sister and Lady Lysa. They are on the beach, barefooted, as are the other babes. His eyes follow to the direction of the sea and could see the faint outline of Lord Baelish’s ship sailing away.

He hopes that the man never returns and instead, just sends the moon tea…

He gave the man what he wanted with the stipulation that he keeps Flea Bottom from turning into a dirty hopeless place and to keep the levels of rape down.

“I can’t keep men from acting out their desires, Your Grace…”

“Of course, you can, my lord. On top of the security the City Watch brings, you will employ men of your own to protect my people who live and rely on Flea Bottom. If you don't, well...I don't see why we can continue this meeting...”

He was going to do right by his people.

He and his Sun promised to do right.

His ancestors cared not for the people they ruled over. They burned them with dragons, punished them for seeing beyond the dragon’s madness, and starved them during times of war.

What is a king if his people do not trust him?

He and his ancestors have done enough to not have the trust of the realm…

The dragons still rule…

“Mama…” Jon whines, pointing in the direction of his Sun. The women were laughing at whatever was being said between them. When he sits Jon down, he and Aegon run to their mother.

Elia…

“If I knew I couldn’t be executed, I would break this lyre over your head…” His sun said through gritted teeth and gold eyes that were welling with tears.

He does not stop her as heat appears and she smashes his lyre, over and over again.

He deserves it…

He wants to take it back. He wants to rewind all the way back to when he met the wolf girl and just completely ignore her. He wants to make a crown of yellow, red, and orange. He wants to play his lyre for his future Queen instead of his winter princess.

“If you want her, release me. I only have a princess. I can call for her and we can go to Dorne to be with my brothers. You and your father won’t have to deal with our Dornish smells!”

He bites the inside of his jaw and he tastes blood.

She then gave him a true heir and her leaving was out of the question.

“I-If you leave and try to take Aegon, I’ll follow you…”

He doesn’t like what he has done because it has made him paranoid.

She, beaten, bruised, and broken with the leftovers of his newly acquired people, came to the Trident. She bore the physical scars of his sins and his neglect of her. She had their adoration, and she had the whole realm on her side, even the lords and ladies. They were sympathetic to her, and he feels as if all she needed to do was snap her fingers and he would be removed from the throne…

From this life…

He is king but he serves his Queen.

All creatures bow to the sun. Without the sun, dragons cannot get their fire…

The white streak in the darkness of her hair is his reminder to never turn his back on the sun.

Elia

She is by the window as she views the heart-breaking scene in front of her. She is only here for support and comfort.

It is such a private moment for Ashara, that she requested that only her brother, the Star Knight to stand guard.

Lord Baelish had given them a singular bottle, with a promise to get more.

Ashara stares at the Wolf Knight, her eyes watery and her lips quiver. Her arms are wrapped protectively around her stomach, and she shakes her head.

“You will not ruin yourself anymore with me…your brother says that lords are starting to ask for your hand. Drink,” the Wolf Knight says and her eyes close at the pain she hears.

“I-I don’t c-care…” she says softly.

“Foolish woman…” he growls but it holds little heat.

“Elia,” Her friend cries. The Wolf Knight is looking at her as well, a look for her to make their Star see reason.

She can’t 

She wants her friend to be happy and receive the happiness she deserves.

There is one other sister but she is the age of her young dragon babes.

If a match needed to be made, it needed to be made now…

It didn’t look good for a woman of high birth to be without a husband, even worse for her to have a bastard.

“You know that in another life…”

“Another life, Elia? What about this life? You know, the one your husband ruined for everyone?!”

The words cut because she is true and her eyes are starting to burn.

“I-I know t-this…” is all she can say.

“I am not marrying anyone. I am not getting rid of our baby! I am staying h-here…” Ashara begins sobbing.

Elia embraces her and her and the Wolf Knight eyes meet.

He wears the same look of sadness and defeat as he had when they were under the tyranny of the mad king. 

They cannot change her mind and she leaves them with an exhausted heart and mind. 

When she makes the turn to go to her chambers, it is the Bat that chimes,

"Your Grace wants you to return to his chambers." She sighs because she wants to be alone but she does not want her husband to seek her out.

"Is everything alright with Lady Ashara?" He asks. 

She nods because it's neither a lie nor the truth.

He helps her undress and pulls her to the bed when she is bare.

They are one and he is demanding of her attention. She takes many positions on him.

Her name is a continuous prayer on his lips and in between his kisses.

She grips the sheets as their ride becomes wild and her own calls become loud, and when it's over, he curls around her and clutches her tight.

While she is happy of the distraction, it does not last very long and she is up thinking about her friend.

The exhaustion is still heavy but it does not make sleep come...

Ashara, you don't deserve this pain...

Chapter Text

I do not own

Elia

“You whore!” The dragon king screams, yanking her head back and dragging her away from the dining table. The pleas of the dragon Queen and her sweet princess fill the hall.

“Husband, please!”

“Mommy!”

She is backhanded and her hip catches on the edge of the table and she falls down the few steps that lead to the table the kings and queens sit to have their meals.

She tries to crawl away from him, shocked at the violence suddenly directed towards her. The Star, the Bull, and the Bat, haven’t even been gone for two nights…

The dragon king beats her in front of his Queen and the children, beats her in front of the lion knight and the Maester…

They are quiet except for the babes whimpering and blood clouds her vision and stains her Dornish silks.

“Don’t get up…it will anger him m-more…” the Queen says to her later when her beatings are over.

She was used the small slaps but this…

What was her crime?

What has she done to deserve this?

The next time she is beaten,

“What’s wrong with your cunt that my son doesn’t want it?!” Is spat at her.

She wakes quickly and tears are already on her face.

Her first of many beatings…

She remembers it the same way she remembers the first time the dragon king raped her.

She remembers both memories as vividly she remembers her wedding day.

“You will know what happens when you go against the dragon!”

“P-Please, M-My G-Grace…don’t s-soil yourself w-with m-me!”

She shakes her head of the memory and looks to see that the younger babes have occupied the space her husband took when he was at Dragonstone.

He and Viserys were at the capital and he says that he would be calling for her and the children soon. Though, not finished, the Keep was majority completed and it was time for the royal family’s presence back at the capital.

She has been plagued by nonstop nightmares ever since…

Some are of her turmoil and torture, some are of the burnt form of Lord Rickard, and some are of a dark tall giant looming over her and her babes.

This new bout of night terrors leaves her shaken to the point that she calls for her babes to be in the chamber with her because she is used to Rhaegar being next to her when she has such dreams.

She wipes her face and covers her babes, who sleep in a tangle of limbs.

The room spins when she gets out of bed and she grips one of the bed posts to keep her footing.

She eats lightly when they go down to break fast with the Arryns and Ashara.

“You look like you haven’t slept in three nights,” Ashara points out.

“You’re not…?” Ashara whispers.

“Gods no. I haven’t been able to sleep lately…” Elia’s eyes go down to the swelling stomach of her Star.

“I’ve wrote my brother but Arthur thinks I should make the journey home for a bit. ‘To clear my head.’”

“I don’t want you to go home…I-I need y-you…” Elia says and she hears how truly exhausted she sounds.

“I know but I fear he will call me home anyway…it will o-only be temporary. I am safe enough to t-travel…” Ashara sounds shaken but sure.

She does not like this…

It is just like before when Ashara was demanded away from her…

She does not know what to do about Ashara’s and the Wolf Knight’s situation…

The Kingsguard aren't allowed to have families. No wives or children, though, she does not doubt the current Kingsguard indulge in the flesh…

They are men…

The Star and the Wolf are in a twisted situation because they love each other and the Wolf was never to be knighted…

He is knighted…

He took the vows…

He was forced.

Her head is pounding and when she is done with her duties and meetings, she needs to rest. The weather is hot and unbearable, even with the breeze coming from the sea.

These are the moments she misses the Water Gardens of her home…

She needs council and calls for the Hand.

Jon Arryn

The Queen of the Seven Kingdoms is a face he loves and is ashamed to see at the same time. His memories of her, before the rebellion, are blurry but he remembers a sad woman. When he arrived at the Trident and finally saw her…

Finally saw her…

He is ashamed…

He has never known a princess that has been treated so brutally...

She has become his Queen and has shown nothing but kindness towards him and his wife, despite some of the scars she wore, that were a result of his actions.

He is happy of the friendship she gives his young and nervous wife. The letters Robert has addressed to him says that the Queen is forgiving and asks about his safety in the open seas.

He knows his King does not like Robert writing his wife…

The same way he does not like his wife writing Petyr Baelish.

“I need your logic…” she says. She looks exhausted and he is full of concern.

“Tell me, Your Grace, I will try my best to help in any way that I can,” he replies.

“Lady Ashara…” she is nervous. He knows what Ashara and Ser Brandon are up to. He is an old man, after all. He knows the Star’s belly grows and that he also knows, Lord Stannis has just lost his wife and daughter to the birthing bed.

The news arrived some nights ago and Lady Ashara is the only woman of marrying age that could take the Lady of Storm's End seat.

It is a political move, perfect for the Lord of Starfall and perfect for King Rhaegar to keep an eye on the movements of the Stags.

Such an innocent move but one that works in his favor.

Lady Ashara, childhood friend of the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, married to the Lord of Storm's End...

“I feel like a mother trying to figure out her daughter’s unwanted pregnancy but instead of trying to rid of it, she wants to keep it…” She jokes but there is no laughter in her voice and then she shudders…

“Lady Ashara needs no mothering,” he replies and this is what gets a small laugh from her.

Ashara Dayne was beautiful. She would make a perfect match for any Lord, coming from such a minor house in the south.

He remembers Elbert being mystified by her beauty when they went to the Tourney of Harrenhal.

He thought to ask the Lord of Starfall what his plans were in marrying his younger sister but it was Brandon Stark who told his brother of the kiss he stole from the Star.

“You are right, my lord.”

He was told the woman was sent back to Starfall, following the news of her being pregnant but no one knew who the father was. There were talks of rape and dishonor, but now he sees that they are all talks.

“Lady Ashara is a woman grown. If she is ready to bear the burden that comes with bearing a child outside of marriage, then there will be nothing you say or her brothers will say that will change her mind. Tell me, if the first babe had survived, do you think her path would be any different? As for Ser Brandon…” The Sun Queen looks up in realization, as if seeing him for the first time.

Brandon and Elbert were closer in age and had the same duties of taking over the family seat.

It was Elbert that went to the capital that day…

Only the Wolf survives...

“Everything I have ever been told of him have been good things. I see a good man that cares for a woman he loves…”

He tells nothing but truth.

When they think no one is looking, he sees how Ser Brandon and Lady Ashara look at one another.

"They can never be..." she whispered.

He knows this and it is a painful and despairing situation.

"There is a game to be played, you know this, my Sun Queen..."

"I want to play another game..." she pouts and he chuckles.

"You and I both share the same sentiment. This is the game we are forced to play. If she keeps the child and chooses not to rid of it, her brother will marry her to Lord Stannis. He is the elder brother and the Lord of Starfall. He makes the moves with the pieces on his board and unfortunately his sister is one of his pawns. It will be up to Lord Stannis to accept the child as his or send the child to Winterfell or Starfall."

It is a horrible realization but it is something that exists for all of them.

"Ser Brandon is a knight of the Kingsguard and it is a lifetime vow..."

"It is early. We will let the man mourn his wife and child..." She says suddenly.

"Of course."

Rhaegar

It is its own being and it stands strong and proud, though, dark and ugly among the new.

He will sit on it soon...

The throne of his ancestors has seen many kings...has seen death and bloodshed take place in its room.

Has seen the brutal acts take place against his Sun...

No matter how much light he tries to bring into the throne room, the Iron Throne is still menacing...

Ready for the first sign of weakness...

For the cuts to appear.

Chapter Text

I do not own

Elia

“I expect by the time you get my words, that you will prepare your journey back home to be by my side…”

She frowns.

It has been a moon since Rhaegar and Viserys left for Dragonstone.

King’s Landing is not finished yet and she thought she could stay on Dragonstone until it was completely finished.

She just does not want to travel with five children…

Her babes are walking, running, hiding, and telling her no.

The journey will be difficult, even with Lady Lysa, Wylla, and the guard. Lord Arryn had gone to Storm’s End to meet up with Robert to help him grieve his good sister and little niece’s death and then he would be going to the Eyrie.

Ashara, not too long after was called by the Lord of Starfall and she left a few morns ago.

“I will return…this isn’t like before…”

“M-Mommy…” Visenya interrupts her thoughts, and she smiles gently at her mismatched eyed child. She places her on her lap and she snuggles into her.

Her eyes go over her chambers and all the things that needed to be packed.

She sighs and decides that she will pack the important things and call for the rest.

Ashara

Her brother, Adrian, the Lord of Starfall rubs his temple as he squeezes his eyes shut.

“There goes the marriage proposal to Lord Stannis…” her brother’s advisor says.

“Forgive me?” She asks as her eyes narrow.

Her brother sighs and leans back in his chair, his eyes a shade darker than hers.

“I was hoping you would have gotten over your infatuation…”

“You know that I love him and that he loves me…” her voice is softer than normal. She can’t fight the urge to rub her swelling belly and she flushes.

“Forgive me, but I cannot marry you to a man who is forbidden to marry…”

“Then don’t marry me at all.” She retorts.

“It is your duty to marry!” His advisor snaps.

“Enough, don’t snap at her. She is my sister.” Adrian says coldly. It quiets the wheezing old man and she is glad she has brothers like hers. He smiles gently at her,

“Ser Stark is a part of the Kingsguard now and you know they are forbidden to marry or have children. This fairy tale you are conjuring isn’t going to work. It can never be, Ash.”

She knows this and she is prepared to be a marriage less maiden with a bastard at her teat.

As long as she is with Brandon…

“I know but I do not ask for marriage from him. I don’t expect him to be a father in his position. I just want to be with him…”

“You can’t. You are still early to rid of the child and be prepared to be married to a Lord of my choosing, even if it isn’t Lord Stannis,”

Does he know what he asks of her?

She’s already lost a babe…

She doesn’t want to lose this one…

“If I don’t…?”

“I don't know...there's nothing that prepares you for when your sister decides her own road. Father died, leaving me in charge of your well-being, Arthur's well-being, Allyria's well-being, and the well-being of the people of Starfall." He explains.

She shakes her head.

"I have a place in the court of the Queen, if I am not allowed here..." she stands.

"Ash, you will always have a place here, this is your home, now sit," Adrian says. 

She sits. 

"I told you I support you in everything you do but have the child and I will find a suitable man to love my niece or nephew. Ser Stark belongs to the royal family now."

She shudders...

"You will stay here until you have the child and until you and the child are able enough, you can travel back to King's Landing to be with the Queen. When a match is made, you will accept the proposal."

She nods slowly, tears hot on her cheeks.

Arthur

“W-Why Dorne, my P-Prince?” The Star Knight asks uneasily. His eyes roam the tower, looking for any threats…

Looking for Prince Oberyn…

He knows the Viper Prince does not know he is here, but he will soon find out…

His other Prince, Prince Rhaegar…the future dragon king…

Why bring his bitch to his wife’s home?

Rhaegar is nervous and the tips of his ears are red.

“I-I wasn’t t-thinking…”

A heaviness is in his heart…

“How can you do this to Elia when her brothers are a few steps away?” Arthur presses.

“Enough, we are here by the orders of King Aerys. We are to protect the Prince, not question him,” Ser Gerold tells him sternly. He looks at his superior with despair but the Bull is stubborn and gestures that he and Whent get the rest of their things off their horses.

Whent is gentle as he pushes him towards the entry way of the tower. He catches a glimpse of the gray eyed bitch as she peeks her head from behind Rhaegar.

He is going to hate every moment of this…

When they all eat, he eats alone, and he wants to throw himself off the tower when he is forced to guard the Prince and his bitch.

"They sure fuck alot..." Ser Whent whispers to him.

He notices that they do not fuck when he is guarding them…

How considerate…

The Prince tries to talk to him as if they are still friends and even inquires about how is wife and children were doing!

“If you’re so curious, then why did you leave them?” He asks as he sharpens his sword.

He knows he speaks out of turn and he has his close friendship with the Prince to blame for this but he feels Elia’s betrayal.

He has played on these sands with his sister and the Martell siblings, he has nothing but great memories of the Water Gardens and intricacies of the Martell palace.

The Stars and the Suns…they were always close, they moved as one.

He had his first kiss here…thanks to Elia…his cheeks are slightly flushed. He chuckles when he remembers the uppercut Prince Oberyn gave him when he found out he kissed his sister.

A princess could never be married to a second brother of a minor house.

His jaw still clicks when he eats…

“It’s wrong, what I am doing, I know but it will all make sense later…”

Arthur is woken by screaming and yelling and he sighs because since news came from King’s Landing detailing the deaths of Lords Rickard, Brandon, and Elbert, the grey eyed bitch and Rhaegar have been arguing with one another non stop.

His poor sister…

He wants to hop on his horse and ride to Starfall and be with her and his brother.

Elia…

He knows the king has not been kind to her…

“So, you’re leaving us to guard her?!” Arthur yells at Rhaegar.

“Ser Arthur!” The Bull admonishes. Rhaegar’s head falls and he pauses but he is suited in his red armor and he climbs on his horse.

“They have raised the banners against the royal family, which includes Elia. If I don’t fight…Elia is not safe.”

She was never safe…

“Ser Arthur,” He is pulled from his thoughts and he sees that it is His Grace that calls to him.

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Promise me…if I ever turn into my father…”

His Grace flushes and tucks a silver strand behind his ear.

“I was wondering if your sister made it to Starfall safely,” Arthur smiles at the mention of his little sister.

“Aye. She arrived a few nights ago, safe and sound…”

Her and her unborn babe…

He wants what his sister wants.

She is the happiest he has ever seen her…

He has his brother in the Knighthood, Ser Brandon, to thank for that.

He thanks him for protecting the Sun.

“That’s wonderful.” He is not sure if he and His Grace could have the same friendship as before.

“Fuck the dragons!” Oberyn spits at him. He does not mention that he spits at the bitch’s pyre as he throws the torch on top of it.

“How improper,” Howland Reed gasps.

“Improper?” Oberyn’s gold eyes flash angrily at the Northerner.

Howland regrets his words.

“Improper that this whore ran off with a married man? Improper that they came to my home…the home of your future Queen and desecrated it?” The viper asks nastily. Howland’s head bows in shame.

“My sister is not a whore!” Eddard Starks says, his eyes full of tears.

“Only whores run off with married men…” Doran whispers coldly.

“He kidnapped her…”

“He didn’t. I heard only moans of pleasure and sweet calls of his name. That is not behavior of someone being kidnapped…” Arthur blurts…

He feels Oberyn’s heated gaze on him and he finds himself surrounded by Adrian, Ashara, Doran, and Oberyn. He fights himself not to draw his sword because they are not enemies.

Why do they surround him?

He has vows to keep…

If he knew he could get away with it, he would have thrust Dawn into Rhaegar and his bitch’s throat as Rhaegar thrust into her.

“Elia and the children are due within the morn, I hope she likes it. The people seem to,” His Grace says fondly. He can’t help but share his smile.

He is doing good…

It is timid but his people are starting to trust him again.

He is not like his father…

Or like so many like his ancestors.

Elia

“B-But I want mommy’s milk…” Dany said, pointing at her breasts. Her chubby cheeks flushed angrily.

“We agreed that you were too old for mommy’s milk. Plus, you keep biting mommy…” She explains. Dany crossed her small arms and turned her head away from her plate of food.

They were nearing shore and so far the journey was manageable, with a few getting sea sick.

“Oi! Eat your food or you’ll be food for the creatures in the sea!” The Wolf Knight threatened.

Danereys Targaryen has her father’s temper…

As did Visenya…

“No! Mommy’s milk!”  She pouted, scooting her small body to put her back to everyone.

“Well, I want Mommy’s milk t-too…” Visenya said, putting her fork down.

“Oh no you don’t!” The Wolf Knight growled. Visenya pouted but picked her up and began eating, tears welling in her eyes, food stuffed in her mouth,

“Y-You’re a b-big m-meanie!”

One dragon tamed…

“My love, please, eat and you’ll get your pudding. It’s your favorite, yes?” She said, brushing the silver ringlets on her small head..

“No!” Dany said, making grabbing motions for her.

Her sons are easy, a breeze, they are eating their pudding and watching the scene with amusement. Rhaenys, too, is eating her pudding, hiding her giggles.

Though she too has had her tantrums…

She was used to be the only child for awhile and then Aegon came…

Darkness and hell came…

So, there wasn’t time for her tantrums except for the rarity.

Most of it was terror…

“My sweet princess, p-please. Eat your food, mommy would hate if you were hungry,” Elia pleads gently.

“You whore! Feed me your teats!” Dany turns but it is not her princess…

It is Aerys…

She jerks with a cry at the Wolf Knight waking her. She backs away from him violently, back hitting the wall.

“You were talking in your sleep. Are you alright?” He asks. He places a hand gently to her cheek,

“You’re burning up.”

“Are we still at s-sea?” She asks tentatively.

“Yes, but we are nearing shore, Rhaegar is supposed to meet us there,” He replies.

She tries to stand but her legs are shaky and falls back onto the bed.

“I am alright. I’ve always had a weak disposition…” she explains.

It is why she has been belittled by the realm…

Abandoned by her husband…

Beaten and pissed on by his father…

She stands and she is a little stronger…

Her steps even stronger.

Her husband is waiting when the ship docks and there is her people, cheering and welcoming her.

She is shocked at the welcome and the King of the Seven Kingdoms is beaming ear to ear when he greets her.

He frowns at the heat coming from her skin, but he does not make a scene.

He simply says,

“Welcome Home, my Queen.”

Chapter Text

I do not own

Cersei

“Father, Lew is a boy of three and plus, I don’t want to separate my twins,” she explains, rubbing her cheek against her son’s. He hugs her head and giggles at the affection. Lord Tywin, Lord of Casterly Rock sports a small smile at the scene but soon seriousness sets back in.

He is so eager to take her Lew from her…

“Doran says the boy knows his letters and is reading full sentences, far beyond a boy of three,” he points out.

She is a proud mother.

Her twins are exactly how she wants them,

One, like she and Jaime.

She can tell them apart, just like her mother was able to tell her and Jaime apart, when no one else could.

“Well, we have my other daughters to thank for that,” she explains. Her husband’s daughters were possessive of her twins, often fighting over them and calling them their babies. Her twins are often kidnapped and found in Doran’s or her husband’s solars with books in their small laps. The girls helping them sound out the words.

They call it their “teaching time”.

“I’m quite surprised that you take well to his girls,” her father says. She smirks.

“Yes, I am also quite surprised you take well to his girls. Obara thanks you for her new spear.” She sees the top of her father’s bald head redden slightly and she hides her laughter in her son’s black curls.

“Oberyn said the girl is taking interest in taking up the spear, but Ellaria says that all the spears were too dangerous and old. The girl wields it with perfection. I know a warrior when I see one, Cersei. The girl will be an excellent shield for Joanna.” She agrees with him.

When she and her father part ways, she has her Lew, all she needs is her Joanna.

She finds her in the kitchens, using Tyrion as a step stool as her small arms reach for the sweets, they had been hiding from her.

“Joanna Myrcella Martell,” She scolds. Her daughter doesn’t flinch but looks at her with wide Lannister green eyes.

“Sweets, momma,” she points.

“Uncle Tyrion,” Lew runs to her defected brother, and she can’t help but feel slight warmth at the love her twins have towards her brother.

“F-Forgive m-me s-sister…” Tyrion flushed. Lew grabs his sister’s hand, and she snatches it from him and points to the sweets.

“Nothing to forgive, Joanna has everyone, including the people of Dorne wrapped around her small finger. I am not surprised she is using it to her advantage,” She explains. She goes and grabs the jar and gives a sweet to each of her twins and to Tyrion. Her daughter is satisfied and takes the still waiting hand of her twin.

“T-Thank you, sister.”

She misses Jaime…

She misses Oberyn…

Her husband had to make a trip to Starfall, and her Jaime was in King’s Landing.

Oberyn is one half of her, and Jaime is her other half.

She loves them so much.

Her heart still aches at the tears that stained her brother’s beautiful face as he recounted his tale of the hell he went through under the hand of the Mad King.

“I wanted to leave, father…I was scared…” Jaime’s lips quivered, and hands shook as he gripped the goblet of wine. He then downed it,

“I couldn’t leave her. I couldn’t leave her or the children. He was going to kill her. I know it. He would always tell me how he would. He would always threaten Cersei’s and Tyrion’s lives…”

When he came to Dorne, her brother pleaded forgiveness from her husband.

Forgiveness he gave…

Her cheeks heat and she felt an impatience to have her husband and brother at her side again.

It had always been her and Jaime but with Oberyn, she realizes how truly inexperienced she and her brother were until the Viper Prince sank his venom in them and they both sang out his name.

"Are you happy you didn't marry me to King Rhaegar? I am..." She asks her father, fiddling with her necklace nervously. 

She had always wanted to be Queen and she is ashamed that she thought unkind thoughts about her good sister, especially after seeing her beaten appearance on the Trident.

That could have easily been her...

Elia

She has avoided the throne room.

Has so since her arrival back at the capital a few morns ago. Her husband and younger babes have ventured in, much to her displeasure but they are dying to see the dragon skulls.

She knows she will have to; the Queen’s seat is in there…

The nightmares are getting to her…

She is close to sailing back to Dragonstone and barricading herself within it.

Her sweet princess remembers her surroundings and has nightmares too.

She’s wet the bed on her first night and she clings to the Wolf Knight with a desperation that Elia is close to having.

She is Queen…

Her husband has rebuilt everything with care and has tried his best to erase the darkness that she feels still lingered within the Keep.

She loves what he has done and loves that their people are better cared for this time around.

His roars still echo…

Even in death, Aerys has found a way to torment her.

“You know, we don’t have to do this, sister,” Viserys says weakly.

They must…

She’ll go mad if they don’t.

“If we don’t, t-then…we will never b-be able to m-move on,” she explains.

She can’t call herself a Queen…

Viserys gulps.

The Wolf Knight, the Lion Knight, and her daughter are in attendance, all haunted by the happenings of this room and castle.

They all have been avoiding this room and have found every excuse not to be in it since they arrived.

“Well, let’s get it over with,” the Wolf Knight grunts, picking up Rhaenys. Elia nods and takes a deep breath. Her hands are sweaty that they nearly slip off the ornate handle, but she musters her resolve and pushes the grand doors opened.

It is quiet and her eyes dart to the dark corners in which the Mad King could be hiding.

It's dangerous if he's quiet...

The light that her husband has let in with the numerous windows he has placed does nothing to dissipate the darkness that overshadows the throne of his ancestors.

Her first step, Viserys lets out a whimper that sounds like he is calling for his mother.

“The dragon is not pleased, you bitch!” She is punched in the face…hard. The blow knocks her off her feet. She is not given enough time to react before her hair is snatched up and the dragon king drags her to the steps leading up to the throne.

“P-Please, f-forgive m-me…I did n-not mean to a-anger the dragon, Y-Your Grace, p-please…”

“My Grace! You will refer to me as ‘My Grace’!” He beats her and she is begging for forgiveness.

She falters but she straightens her back and continue her walk. The Wolf Knight looks as if he is in pain as his eyes are directed to the spot his father was burned to death at.

“FATHER!” Elia, the dragon Queen, the Lion Knight, and the elder children watch in horror as the wolf lord reaches for his father, nearly strangling himself against the rope. The smell of burnt flesh fills her nose and through bruised and swollen eyes, she cries. She wishes for the young wolf lord to stop struggling and she wishes for his father to stop screaming as the flames eat his flesh.

“S-Sister…your nose,” Viserys points out. She gently wipes at it and finds crimson on her fingers.

It will not deter her…

She forces herself to relax as she approaches her seat, an image of the dead Queen before her causes her to shake her head of the image of decayed beauty.

Taking a deep breath, she sits and she smiles.

Uneasily so...

She sees the worried looks on everyone’s faces.

She reaches for Viserys and Rhaenys and they crowd around her.

“It w-won’t be b-bad t-this time, yes?” She asks them. They both look at each other and the knights wearily before shaking their heads.

“T-The bad d-dragon is g-gone…” Rhaenys whispers. She nods at her sweet princess.

The Queen’s seat is soft and smells of lavender.

“Y-Your father and brother is king n-now and h-he will never hurt us l-like that. He won’t l-let anyone hurt us l-like that.”

Unless another wolf girl catches his eye...

Viserys eye produces a tear and falls on his cheek. She hurries to wipe it away.

No more tears…

“T-This is a f-fresh beginning for all o-of us and we w-will make g-good m-memories here,” she explains as her sweet princess begins to cry. Elia places her on her lap and soothes her. Tears are on her own face as Viserys breaks and she embraces him too.

Her watery gold eyes look up to the knights. They are somber and are strong but she sees…

They are full of tears too…

“W-We survived this, and we c-can survive more.” She tells them, she feels her nose bleed again.

It will stop its bleeding soon and for good...

They both bow to her, and she bows her head to them, clutching two of her most precious.

“T-Thank you, for e-everything.”

Without them, she would be dead, her babes would be…

The giant from her dreams, the one that looms over her and her babes to deliver a killing blow to them wins without the Wolf Knight and the Lion Knight...

When she sleeps that night, the mad dragon’s roars are but faint echoes, but instead of nightmares of tears, beatings, and rapes... she dreams of dragons in the sky and her babes riding on top of them.

Chapter Text

I do not own

Rhaegar

He wakes with a jerk and he instinctively reaches for Elia but he finds her side empty and ice cold as if she has never laid there. He sits up quickly, and he gasps as he realizes he is back in Dorne and in the Tower of Joy.

It is dark and barren and the once Red Mountains lack crimson and are covered in white snow.

Suddenly a draft that went to his bones makes him hide underneath the covers, but it is an effort in vain for the draft is just ice and is unmerciful. It seeks out any sign of life to freeze it away.

He has no choice…

He is a King and a warrior.

He is the dragon.

Fire melts ice…

When his bare feet hit the ground, he yelps as the floor feels like shards. He grits his teeth as if he is pain, but he keeps going.

He has questions and he was going to get answers.

There is a child’s laughter, and he can hear scuttling feet as they dip out of view.

Everything is still the same here.

The furniture, the view of the sky and the mountains.

It smells like winter and roses…

Death…

His steps are rough and he sees his Wolf Bride…

Oh…how he has ruined her and killed her…

Her eyes are void, nothingness…

A hole filled with darkness where her stomach was, and she wears the dead crown of roses around her head.

“You told me we would be together, even in death.” She whispers, her voice full of sadness.

He closes his eyes and yet…

He has nothing to say.

He lives and he is happy…

He doesn’t deserve his happiness…

“I-I’m sorry f-for what I did to you…”

“Sorry?! Is that all you have to say?” Her dark orbs are angry and he feels the air grow colder.

She is there then, in front of him.

“I shouldn’t have given you that c-crown…y-you shouldn’t have taken armor and p-participated…”

“So, it’s MY fault that your eyes strayed? I have always wanted to fight. I believe in honor! Was I nothing more than a vessel to you?” Though she does not yell, her voice is cold, matching the wind, and he cannot feel his feet anymore. When he looks down, he sees that his feet are purple and blue.

“I loved you. Sometimes I still d-do but i-it was wrong. E-Elia g-got hurt really b-bad because of me and t-that was n-never supposed to happen!” He says and he feels the heat of his anger evaporate from the top of his head.

A tightness is in his throat and Lyanna’s face morphs into the nastiest smile he has ever seen and the tightness in his throat is unbearable until he realizes that he is being strangled and suddenly a rope appears around his neck and he is forced to his knees.

Her face morphs and the surroundings change and he is in the throne room…

His father is there.

“You’re weak, boy! You are the one your mother should have lost!”

Elia is there, holding their sweet princess and his heir, and she is battered.

He fights against his binds as his father approaches his family.

“Get away from them!” He chokes against his binds. His father turns back to him, the same nasty smile on his dead face that was on Lyanna’s.

He snaps his fingers and his small family bursts into flame.

Their screams are horrifying, and he is fighting against the rope, but it only grows tighter.

“NO!”

He wakes as if cold water has been thrown on him and he is covered in sweat and he breathes as if he is out of breath.

Rhaegar’s hands shake violently and his eyes dart quickly around his chambers to make sure he was back in King’s Landing.

He is…

It is dark and he frowns because he is alone.

He does not like when Elia is not next to him during the night.

She was there earlier; he was sure they went to bed together.

He hates when he has to sleep…

He cannot recall when he doesn’t dream, he just knows that when he sleeps, he is always dreaming and he can’t escape.

His dreams are not what they were once.

He used to dream of dragons and restoring his family dynasty to it's full glory.

The Promised One...

Now, his dreams consist of his sins and the winter he committed them in.

The door opens and he tenses but relaxes immediately when he sees his Sun.

“It’s still deep in the night, where were you?” He is up and pulling her back to the bed.

He is cold and he needs the Sun…

She allows him to pull her and undress her.

“Where were you?” He asks again. He wants to sound firm, but he knows it’s all a front to cover the quiver in his voice.

“Jon sick all over himself during the night. I think he and Aegon might have snuck one too many sweets and he stuffed himself.”

His hands shake as he runs them along her body.

“I-Is he well?”

She nods, smiling gently, taking his hands in hers and placing a kiss on his knuckles.

He needs the Sun…

“Rhaegar, your hands, they are ice cold, and they shake. A-Are you well?”

He does not answer her, not trusting himself to.

He is one with her for the rest of the night.

He does not want to sleep because he does not want to go back to his dreams.

“You keep me here because you’re ashamed of what you have done…”

Rhaegar grips Elia tightly during their ride and buries his head in her neck to block out the despair in his Wolf’s voice.

Even when he tries to escape, echoes still manages to find him…

“M-My love…it i-is a-almost morning…” his Sun whimpers.

He seals her lips with a kiss…

She is right and they had a lot to do today in preparation of the Lords and Ladies of the realm making their way to see the newly built capital and to celebrate Aegon’s fifth name day.

When they are spent, he holds the Sun close, and it serves to be the only thing that helps him sleep.

He wakes before her, and his eyes are heavy and full of tears. Her scars on her back are still lurid, the skin raised and jagged, and he traces them gently, careful not to wake her.

“I know that I am the source of her pain, but…t-the whip…I w-want to know why that was d-directed towards her,” Rhaegar asks the wolf and lion knight. He has finally seen the full extent of her scars and he is dismayed.

She sleeps and the tiny babe, that he nearly ripped the realm apart over is in the bassinet next to him.

The wolf and lion knight both looked at each other, hesitant.

“His Grace got word of the wolf- Lady Lyanna’s pregnancy…” the lion knight replied.

His heart hurts for his Sun.

His eyes open and he is not sure when he fallen back to sleep.

His Sun has parted from him.

When he joins the rest of the household, he sees that his Lord Hand and Lady Ashara had returned during the night…

While he was trapped in his dreams...

He is not perturbed at seeing a small bundle at Ashara’s breast and the stiffness of the wolf knight.

Though, his Sun tries to keep their relations from him…

He has eyes and ears…

Whether possessed by him or by the handmaidens that are in their midst.

She looks happy…

Ashara had always been forward and had not a care about it.

One of her brothers is one of the deadliest knights in the Seven Kingdoms…

It didn’t hurt that she is the close friend of the Queen.

He was hoping for her brother, Adrian, could have swayed her but seeing her excitement as she details his Sun about her child and he sees that the Star Knight and his Sun share her happiness…

He does not know what it is like to lose a child, he recalls faintly that his mother had lost pregnancies and babes after he was born and before Viserys.

He remembers how small Viserys was and how possessive and paranoid his father was of him. There was a point that he or his mother couldn’t see the little dragon.

Then there were more lost pregnancies…

He became a father, and both of his dragons and wolf were healthy…

It nearly killed Elia…

It killed Lyanna…

A woman could fight a thousand battles and survive but the birthing bed is one battle they cannot conquer…

He shudders because he could have been left with neither the Sun nor the Wolf.

He would be forced to re-marry…

“Congratulations, Lady Ashara,” he says gently, bowing to her. She smiles widely,

“Thank you, Your Grace.” She shows him the babe and he chuckles, looking at the Star Knight.

He looks just like Arthur, though, he sees the flecks of gray in the violet and the hair is the shade of darkness as Jaehereys and the wolf knight.

He is glad of her happiness.

The Keep is bustling, and the distraction is needed.

He has his meetings, and he spends time with his family. He oversees the remainder of repairs to the capital and that takes up much of his time until he is needed back at the Keep to greet his good-brothers, Prince Doran and Oberyn.

Prince Doran is a cool controlled sun and Oberyn…

Oberyn just wants to kill him…

“I’ve always hated you. People have said that my sister doesn’t deserve the dragon prince and doesn’t deserve to be Queen, but it is him that doesn’t deserve the Sun…”

If there was a man he could never have his back to, it was the viper prince.

When he joins them, he reaches for Elia and her body is soft against his.

Everyone but Oberyn rose upon his entrance, but he is aware of the gold eyes rooted on him in defiance.

“How was your journey, my princes?” He asks, taking the wine his wife offers him.

“It was safe and very manageable, carrying three children, that is,” Prince Doran explains.

He takes notice of his brother’s betrothed, Princess Arianne and the newest addition to the Lannister and Martell dynasties, Prince Lewyn and Princess Joanne, Lord Tywin’s grandchildren. 

“Beautiful as ever, Princess Cersei,” he complimented. She flushes,

“Thank you, Your Grace,” straightening the ribbons in her daughter’s hair.

He minds his manners as he greets the most hostile of his wife’s family.

“Prince Oberyn…”

“It was what my brother said, well…manageable, especially with three children…” he interrupts him.

“Oberyn…” Elia scolds through gritted teeth, the tone she takes when she has to calm their sometimes rowdy sons.

Rhaegar is used to his good brother’s behaviour…

Though…

It is even more hostile than before.

“No matter, if you don’t love my sister, we gave her to you and you were supposed to protect her and the children she gave to you,” Prince Oberyn hissed, his eyes angry and shiny with tears that he refused to let fall.

They are in what used to be the throne room, and the smell of burnt hair and flesh is a scent that prevails.

The Kingsguard that came with Rhaegar to the destroyed capital, stepped a little closer to him.

The stag lord and the others were behind Oberyn, watching the scene with pity.

“I’ve always loved Elia. I admit that leaving her w-with m-my father wasn’t the b-best c-choice…”

“Lies! If you loved her then we wouldn’t be in this situation! The crown shouldn’t have been blue. The banners wouldn’t have been raised! If you loved my sister, you should have cut your father’s tongue when he insulted your daughter. We gave you the Sun and you dishonored her in the worst way!”

No matter how much he pleads for forgiveness, he knows it would take more for him to get the viper's...

Oberyn

“Please, my love, careful with your tongue…” Cersei whispered worriedly. He brought her close to him and she buries her golden head in his chest.

“No worries, my Princess. He has given me many reasons not to trust him…”

His sister looks exhausted…

He and his Lion have settled in their chambers, their twins tour the dragon skulls with the other royal children, with Arianne and Viserys overseeing them.

“He is the King and it does not good well to talk out against him, even though our sister is Queen,” she cautions wisely.

Cersei looks up, her green eyes bright.

He knows she speaks truth and the poor bastard could exile him and keep him from ever seeing his sister or even worse, keep him from his sweet wife, Ellaria, and his children.

His grip tightens on her.

Nothing would part him from this woman…

He sighs before he relaxes and presses her closer to him, causing her to giggle.

“For you and my sister, I will be a little nicer to the fool…”

Cersei smiles widely before he kisses her.

Ser Jaime comes in and he flushes at the mischievous smirk on Oberyn’s face. Cersei runs to greet her brother.

Oberyn takes notice that he is not in his armor and his hair is wet from the bath.

“My Prince and Princess,” Ser Jaime bows before Cersei pulls him deeper into the room and closer to Oberyn.

Dragons fade away and they are replaced with wanton Lions…

Chapter Text

I do not own

Elia

“Well…?” Her Star wears a look of mischief.

It would be improper…

“It is quite lovely, sister,” Her good sister explained, running her fingers over the airy fabric.

She is glad it is just the two of them…

While they waited for the Tyrells and the Starks to arrive, the stag lord, Robert made an appearance. He came within the night, much to the dragon king’s chagrin and her brother, Oberyn, greeted him with wide open arms.

Viserys was more than happy to have his young friend, Renly with him and coupled with Oberyn’s girls and her young boys…

There is nothing but childish laughter that fill the Keep.

“This is what got us where we are now…Rhaegar isn’t going to like this…” she tells them.

“We didn’t like him crowning another woman so…” Ashara started.

“At least try it on, after all, he brought it all the way over from Myr,” Cersei suggested eagerly. Ashara nods her agreement.

She doesn’t like how Ashara agrees with Cersei so readily.

She is not even sure if it would fit over her large breasts and wide thighs and hips…

She is fat…

She had once longed for a bigger bosom and wider thighs, growing up, for it was sign of being fertile, healthy, and yet she was not prepared when after the birth of Visenya, that she had received them.

Her back hurt and she had to be careful of the garments she wore. Everything was tight around her form and she is often alternating her dresses to loosen them and to make sure her bosom didn’t spill out.

There are faint bite marks on them…

What was once a dream has now become a slight annoyance for her.

With the stag lord, he brings stories of the Free Cities that both adults and children, alike, listen intently and with amazement. Even Rhaegar listens with a hesitant wonderment.

Along with his stories, a dress of orange silk and gold lace is brought to her.

She thanks the gods that the stag lord does not give it to her personally or in front of her husband…

He sends it with a handmaiden later in the morn, accompanied by a letter that Cersei and Ashara read with forbidden giggles.

“It is inappropriate to gift another man’s wife and I do not know anything about dresses but when I saw it, I knew it couldn’t be left in the shops of Myr. It is a perfect garment if I ever saw one.

Perfect for the Queen of the Sun…”

She quickly tossed the letter in the fire.

Her hands shake as she runs her fingers across the dress and she sighs.

She will at least try it on…

When she does, it fits perfectly, though, there is a cleavage, and a slit that goes to the knee on the left side. The dress is held up by jeweled chains that drape over her arms and shoulders.

By Dornish standards, the dress is too extravagant.

She wants to find the stag lord and demand where he got her measurements.

“I cannot keep this dress, I would never be able to wear it without questions being raised,” She tells Cersei and her Star.

She would have to wait for Rhaegar’s death to be able to wear it…

The dress is beautiful, that she cannot deny. It is not restricting and it is soft around her wide form.

“You should wear it…at the Tourney…” Ashara suggests.

She quickly shakes her head.

She wasn’t even sure she would be attending and she did not care if everyone thought it wrong for the Queen to miss her son’s name day tourney.

She swore she never wanted to attend a tourney ever again…

Rhaegar wasn’t even going to have one, opting for a festival and feast that would be open to the people but it was their heir who asked to have one.

“You’re too young to even participate, my dragon,” Elia told him, taking notice at how all the adults shifted uncomfortably.

“You and papa asked what I wanted, and I want a tourney. I never seen one before…” Aegon replied, his violet eyes wide.

“Perhaps, my dragon, you would like a weapon of your choice?” She proposes.

“He is still too young to wield a wooden one,” Rhaegar says. Aegon pouts, crossing his small arms, his silver curls falling in his face.

“Well, you will not give me a sword and I know you will say I am too young to go hunt and I can’t go to Dorne…”

It was decided that they would have a tourney.

She wants to vomit…

“It would be rude if you didn’t wear it,” Cersei sings. She then turns to them both.

“In my position, would either of you chance this?”

She asks the wrong women…

Ashara has proven that she would do what she wanted when she wanted and Cersei…

Her father was Lord Tywin…

Though he wasn’t king, he had the presence and the pull of one, which allowed Cersei an arrogance to be reckoned with.

She never had their courage…

She also didn’t want to start trouble when their peace was still so fragile.

They both nod, struggling to keep from smiling.

She has in fact, asked the wrong women…

It is sometime during midday that the Tyrells come, bringing their two younger children, Loras, who is around the same age as Viserys and Renly and Margaery, who is the same age as her younger babes. 

Not too long after, the Starks arrive and it is a rather rigid greeting between the dragon king and the Lord of Winterfell.

It warms her to see the Wolf Knight greet his brother joyously.

It has been a long time since he last seen them…

Lady Catelyn is beautiful and it looks as if the North does her good, she has two red heads at her hips and a dark haired girl at her bosom.

Everyone somewhat freezes at the sight of the child because it is Lyanna Stark they look at.

A tinier version of the wolf princess, she reminds herself, and Elia has to force herself to breathe.

She is a child…it is but the Stark look…

Her Jon, looks more like his mother, than this child did…

Lady Catelyn flushes and holds the girl, Arya, closer to her.

When Lord Stark sees Jon, he is all smiles, and Jon takes to him and little Robb and Sansa take well to their cousin. He is even more overjoyed at Ashara’s, Torrhen and gives the Wolf Knight a congratulatory pat on the back.

“Where is Benjen?” the Wolf Knight asks, watching Lord Stark, hold Torrhen. Lord Stark looks at his wife before sighing,

“I-I don’t know. One night, he just up and left. I have received but o-one letter from our brother indicating that he was well and not to worry,” he explained.

“Left?”

“We had a disagreement. He wants to join the Night’s Watch.”

Elia is surprised because no one willingly joined the Night’s Watch.

The Night’s Watch was more of a punishment and nothing, but criminals took residence at the cold sheet of ice that kept Westeros separated from the wildlings.

Yet, a King’s son was a Maester there…

Maester Aemon, son of king Maekar Targaryen, first of his name and Dyanna Dayne, brother of Aegon the Unlikely, fifth of his name, who went on to become king instead of Aemon.

She knows little of the man, only mentions of his name but she knows the man to be ancient and that he was at court the day the cursed prophecy was told of the Prince that was Promised.

She does not know if her husband has corresponded with his great-great uncle and she hopes that if he does, that it is about his well-being instead of prophecy.

“For whatever reason?” The Wold Knight asks, and it is then, the Stark lord and his lady wife tense.

“H-He blames himself for not stopping Lyanna…”

“What do you mean?” Ashara blurts.

“H-He knew she was going to meet with Rhaegar…”

The morn of the tourney, after a night of fighting herself not to relapse to the cordial mood she had sported when she was at Harrenhal.

Her dragon does not know what he has asked and she cannot fault him for he was still warm and safe in her belly when Harrenhal happened. 

For the young babes, the adults swallow their unease.

She wears the dress...

There is no wolf girl here, the only wolf girls are but children who do not know the trouble their wolf aunt has caused. 

When she goes to meet up with her family to go down to the field the tourney was being held, her husband's lips thin and his ears are red but it is the stag lord, who beams upon seeing her.

"Sister, that dress is beautiful!" Cersei says, but Elia could hear the slyness in her voice and Ashara's covers her smile as her shoulders shake. 

"I don't remember that dress..." Rhaegar says, testing his words before he says them. 

"Well, Your Grace, your memory wasn't always the best. I recall a time when you forgot who your wife was..." Oberyn sneers. Cersei elbows her brother but he is not ashamed. The stag lord works hard to hide his laughter under the looks of disapproval given to him by Lord Stark and Lord Arryn. 

Rhaegar does not let it distract him from eyeing her form up and down.

"It is quite beautiful but where...who...gift it to you?" Rhaegar is pulling her closer to him.

"I gifted it to her," the stag lord answers. Everyone looks at the stag lord as if he has lost his mind.

Rhaegar looks as if he is in the middle of having a stroke...

Chapter Text

I do not own

Rhaegar

Improper…

He does not know what was more improper…

The dress…

Or the man that gave his Sun the dress…

It’s no different than when he gave the stag lord’s betrothed a crown of such beauty that one could sing softly about the blue and the fresh dew that sparkled on the soft petals.

The dress…

The dragon rises within him, and he wants to rip the dress off…

He cares not of the snide remarks of his good-brother or the beaming smile of the stag lord.

The dress is too revealing from the southern style that was in fashion and it reminds him how exotic his Sun was and how more exotic she became…

She looks up at him expectantly and he feels the softness of the dress as he pulls her even closer to him.

This is their dragon’s day…his name day…the day he came into their world.

Not too long after, he nearly ripped the realm apart…

He swears it was to spare her life to not try for another but knowing that his father’s Visenya calls him papa and curls next to him when the mood strikes her…

He is a foolish and impatient man…

He thinks he has shocked everyone when he smiles gently at his Sun and thanks the stag lord for such a gift.

He will rip it off and rip it to shreds later…

Rhaegar is different from the stag lord. He was never hot headed and he can’t recall a time when he lost his temper.

His father’s temper has scared him into always being cool and level-headed…

Even when he fought against the stag lord, he didn’t have the anger that the stag lord had.

He fought because it was the duty to fight in his father’s stead. To fight for his family against those who threatened it.

He will rip the dress off…

He does not like the burning that is in his chest and he wonders if this is what Elia felt when he rode past her that day, so many moons ago.

His fingers grip the fabric but he keeps himself from shredding into the silk and lace.

Rhaegar made sure the tourney was a small and short event and he is glad he did because he sees how uncomfortable everyone is.

They hide it for the babes…

It is the children that are excited, even Viserys.

He forgets that Viserys and his sweet princess were at the capital when Harrenhal happened, so this is an experience for him as well.

He opted for those participating to use wooden weapons because he does not want casualties.

He does not participate…

His days of fighting in tourneys are over…

When it comes time to crown the Queen of Love and Beauty, it his good brother that crowns his wife, the Lion Princess. The crown is red and gold and she is a flushing beauty when they share a small kiss.

“What is a crown of roses when Elia will wear a crown of diamonds. Flowers die, after all…”

His mother looks at him skeptically.

“You do your wife and her people a dishonor. How would you have felt if another gave your Sun a crown?”

He licks his lips nervously and he clenches his fist as he feels his brow furrow.

“I-I would n-not l-like it…”

There is still a festival and a feast and it is then, everyone visibly relaxes.

He is triumphant when he sees his Sun only dance with their children and her brothers.

He does not like how he feels…

His shoulders tense when she dances with a few of the Kingsguard but he hates how he is grateful of the appearance of Littlefinger.

He does not come back empty handed and has brought a few men in his employment.

One is a boy no older than fifteen with a scarred face and exposed bone.

“His name is Sandor Clegane of House Clegane, the Lannisters are their overlord,” Littlefinger explained to him and the disgusted awe of his brother, Viserys. They were in the privacy of his solar and Rhaegar tried to reel in his absentmindedness.

He wonders if his Sun was dancing with the stag lord…

“W-What happened to h-his face?” Viserys asked.

Littlefinger’s smiles always unsettle him…

“He has an older brother just like you, young prince.”

“So?” Rhaegar frowns at his brother’s forwardness.

“I do not have an elder brother but I do know that older brothers are to protect their younger brothers…not stick their face in a fire over a toy knight…” Rhaegar nearly chokes on the wine he drinks and Viserys has a look of misery.

He knows for sure he would never do such a thing…

Their father has done enough to Viserys…

There is not a day he fights the urge to tear up when he sees his brother’s missing eye.

Like Prince Aemond…

He is the one that fought in a war and he only escaped with a few bruises and scratches.

Yet, his brother, the wolf knight, and his Sun bear scars of a war no one knew was happening.

They are lasting scars, where bruises and scratches heal quickly.

“Where is his brother…n-now?” Rhaegar is hesitant of his question, almost knowing and afraid of the answer.

“The Mountain? He is somewhere…on the run. Lord Tywin has called for the man’s execution for his other crimes, and he has disappeared well before the war. Sandor is the sole heir to the Clegane holdings, which aren’t much, but he refuses to return and has been, in his words, existing…”

“He knows the job he has been offered and he is willing to go through with it and knows of the punishment that waits him if he breaks the rules,” Littlefinger goes on to explain.

When they go back to the feast, he is with relief that his Sun has his wolf son and she is dancing with him as Lady Catelyn dances with little Robb and they both are conversing. His shoulders relax when he sees they are all laughs and smiles. His eyes dart to the stag lord and he fights a smile of disgust when he sees the stag lord flirting with one of the maidens from Flea Bottom.

She looks Dornish…

Arianne is teaching Viserys, Renly, and Loras a Dornish dance that causes the boys to be red cheeked.

He asks his Sun for a dance, and she accepts.

“I-I am quite surprise that you are taking well to all of this…it is improper and I regretted it as soon as put it on. Can y-you forgive m-me?”

All was forgiven as soon as he decided that he was going to rip it off her.

“Elia, of course. I know he meant no…ill will by gifting you the dress. You deserve nice things and the dress is very nice,” everything melts away when she smiles sweetly at him.

He knows what it was like for Elia…

How he shamed her…

To drive the sword of betrayal even further, he had enough courage to play a song for the wolf princess, in front of his wife and the wolf cried tears that were meant for him.

“I am proud of you and I l-love you. I won’t wear the d-dress a-again,” he smiles softly at her words.

They’ve come a long way…

“I love you too.” He likes how warm he feels but it could also be from the wine he drank. He felt as though he drunk more than his usual.

When the children whine their exhaustion, they tuck them in and then they go to their own chambers.

He is too exhausted himself to start a fight and so he opts to undress his Sun and throw the dress somewhere in the shadows as he becomes one with her.

If he doesn’t look at her, he won’t see the questions and the shame…

Only the wolf girl is in his sight…

The Sun does not matter in this moment.

The crown feels heavy and yet, his hands are so sweaty that it might slip easily from his grip.

His ears are red and he hears his heart pound as his approach draws nearer.

The silence of everyone is loud but he refuses with all of his might not to see the looks of disgust, awe, and shock.

Or to see the look of breaking on his Sun’s face.

He surely knows a look nasty triumph is on his father’s face but he does not see.

Only the wolf shines bright and her flush is beautiful when the crown touches her locks.

Then horror and regret sits in as he slams back to reality.

It is too late.

He unknowingly seals everyone’s fate.

Eddard

He wishes for his youngest cub to be sleep, curled with her siblings in the joining chamber.

She is defiant and her gray blue eyes are wide and curious as she suckles greedily from Catelyn.

Catelyn is a patient mother and coos at Arya as soothes dark locks.

Catelyn tells him to go ahead and sleep but he never leaves his wife awake by herself. He instead settles across from her and they chatter quietly.

“I asked the Queen when it would be right to have Jon-Prince Jaehereys visit Winterfell. He is getting up in age and you’ve received letters from him…”

His family grows, not just through him, but through Brandon and Lyanna.

He smiles gently as he remembers the misspelled letters he has been getting from his nephew.

“…Expect letters and visits from him…”

“She says?” Catelyn chuckles softly as to not disturb the near sleeping cub in her lap.

“She says she is okay with it, if you’re okay with having both Prince Viserys and Prince Aegon as well.” His eyes widen.

Both dragon princes?

He is surprised the Sun Queen would want the dragons to visit the home of the woman her husband slighted her with.

She would never pay his sister in kind and visit herself…

His sister has done more to the woman without ever properly meeting her.

Without fully looking her in the eye…

When he and his brother tried to get Lyanna to offer her apologies to the woman and return the crown, Lyanna refused.

“What’s done is done, Ned and Bran…I can’t help the prince’s decision, after all, he’s not crowning me to be Queen of the realm. I don’t even want to be Queen…”

“No doubt, Bra-Ser Brandon has piqued Prince Viserys’ interest in Winterfell and seeing that Prince Jaehereys and the heir to the Seven Kingdoms are practically attached at the hip, he will want to go where his brother goes and vice versa.” His wife explained.

He shudders slightly at the fact that his brother has been with the elder prince in the darkest of moments, he knows his brother offered stories of Winterfell as a distraction.

They are close.

“Aye, if the king would allow it, of course.” Catelyn is suddenly abrupt but careful with getting up and carrying Arya into the room without waking her. When she returns, she sighs with relief, and he shakes with silent laughter.

She settles on his lap, and they wrap their arms around each other.

“I wasn’t expecting Littlefinger…”

Neither was he…

He does not like how the man looks at his wife…

Or how he looks at his daughter, who, is a mirror image of her mother…

He is rational and his wife reassures him that he is a brother to her.

It does not keep him from being even more watchful of his wife and children.

He only knows about the Lord of the Fingers through his wife’s musings over her childhood.

He is a constant presence…

“Lysa says that a shipment that the capital and Dragonstone needed became lost at sea and Littlefinger offered to retrieve a few supplies that he had stocked up.” Catelyn explained.

He would naturally want something in return…

As long as it’s not his wife, he cares not what it is.

Chapter Text

I do not own

Robert

“Rob, you know Lyanna doesn’t like when you whore…” Ned explained, closing the book he was reading. They were winding down from a day of training, hunting, and riding. He felt his lips thin because this has been the subject of their conversations lately.

“When we marry, my whoring stops. She is the only woman for me, Ned.” He could tell Ned was skeptical and he felt his cheeks flush.

He loves Lyanna Stark.

She is strong and not interested in pretty things.

She does not care how her dresses look, for she always donned pants underneath, or if her dark locks are brushed.

She loved riding and wielding a sword because being a lady was boring to her.

Lyanna Barantheon…

It was a name fit for the future lady of Storm’s End.

He is a fool…

If he would have proven himself more to her then she wouldn’t have turned to…

Rhaegar Targaryen…

“…She doesn’t like when you whore…”

It’s something he couldn’t help.

He loved women…

Ever since he noticed breasts and then experienced the warm pocket of a woman…

They were even more enjoyable when mixed with wine…

Robert tried to refrain from wine and women one time, and it was the worst time of his life. His head ached, his stomach was cruel, and he thought his dick was going to fall off. He was sluggish and everything and everyone annoyed him.

He tried…

For the sake of Lyanna…

Now, he realizes, it wasn’t enough. Would have never been enough.

He was strong and everyone thought him handsome…

He wonders darkly what his cousin had that he hadn’t.

Targaryens…

There was a mysterious pull towards them, whether you liked them or not.

He remembers being told,

“You can have a dragon as friend but they are worse as enemies…”

The relations between Barantheons and Targaryens go as far back as Aegon the Conqueror.

He and Rhaegar never saw each other as family…

He only liked Queen Rhaella because she reminded him so much of his dragon grandmother.

Still…

Even when bruises showed…he never reached out…

He raised banners against his family and was prepared to kill his cousin.

He shudders.

What would have happened, then?

The Sun Queen’s battered image pops into his head and her words are whispers in his ears.

“The royal family is here, in its entirety. You can have the justice you seek…”

She let him know that he could still have his vengeance but seeing her…

“It’s what would have waited us anyway if Lord Robert was triumphant…”

If he was triumphant…

He would have marched to the capital, that was for sure.

Then what?

He still wouldn’t have harmed her or her children…

If he killed Rhaegar, who was next in line, then the throne would have fallen to his infant son…

Could he have allowed his son to ascend, or would he have taken the throne for himself?

He doesn’t like the Sun Queen’s words and how calm and easy they were when they fell from her lips.

He doesn’t like how he laughed at her when her husband rode past her or the anger he felt when Lyanna cried at the dragon prince’s songs.

She never looked at him the way she looked at Rhaegar.

He never looked at her the way Rhaegar looked at her…

He always saw Lyanna as someone he was going to marry. She was the end goal for him. He was going to quiet his whoring ways and he was going to make her happy. He wanted them to their bridge their families together and truly be Ned’s brother. They were going to raise their sons together and that the Starks and Baratheons would defend each other and defend the Eyrie together.

Lyanna never wanted that…

Though, she has a son.

A perfect replica of her with dragon eyes.

He didn’t know what to feel when her son arrived at the Trident without her, but he grieved with his friend and his brothers.

He still didn’t know how to feel…

Sometimes he feels such a red anger towards Lyanna…

It is the wolf that hunts the stag during the hunt…

He is wrong in his anger; he shouldn’t even have it…

“Let me call the banners for you…”

Sometimes he feels regret…

Regret was something he rarely felt. When he did something, it was with reason.

“I feel weird, Stannis…” His younger brother quirked an eyebrow in confusion. They were still glued to the Trident. It was after the meeting that they had with the Sun Queen, and they sat, listening in horror at her stories of went on at the Keep.

“What do you mean? If it’s a stomach-ache, you know that we go outside for those kind of things…” He heard Renly’s smothered giggle from somewhere deep in the tent, but he could not see him.

He frowned and then shook his head,

He was not up for jokes at the moment.

“D-Does she really t-think I would kill her and her children? Stannis…you know I have never killed a woman or a child…” Robert argued.

Stannis looked at him in pity before they no longer could hold eye contact.

“Come now, Robert. You know how these things go. Even though you yourself would never harm them, some would take advantage of your victory…”

Sometimes the relationship he had with Ned was with the brother he shared blood with…

Stannis was the true opposite of him.

He preferred books and studies.

Robert had a hard time with words. They were never his strong suit and most of the time, he had to have Stannis read and write his letters for him.

Except for those going to the Sun Queen.

“What do you mean by “take advantage”?” He asked his brother, who was younger and so much wiser than him.

“Traitors to the crown. Traitors that would benefit if the young heir or none of the Targaryens survived. If Rhaegar fell and then his father…the same fate would have fallen onto the rest. You would sit on the throne if you wished it or someone else.”

After that, he went out of his way to seek her out.

Her forgiveness…

He will never forget her pregnant form on the Trident.

The blood, the discoloration of her skin, the swelling of her face…

How ghostly white her hair was…

The fury and despair on her face…

Her punch was weak but they all heard the bone in Rhaegar’s nose break and how the blood stained his pretty face.

He had to seek her out…

He was lucky to find her and her dragon princess resting their feet in the water.

He wanted to run with them…

Robert didn’t take things that didn’t belong to him and with that, he so nervous and fearful to be in her presence…

The Sun never looked so breakable…

He wanted her friendship and thought it was a quiet win that his brother, Renly, was in good standing with Prince Viserys…

One Eye…

He wants nothing more from the Sun…

He wished he marched and saved her…

“If it’s friendship you seek then keep it as that. He is the king and if he feels that you’re trying to be too bold with her…he needs no battle to fight. He can send you to the Wall, into exile, strip you of your titles and lands. It’s different now from when he was just the dragon prince…he has more power…” Ned explained.

When he goes to break the fast, he notices that it is just the king and the young princes. There are few Lords but he sees a few arriving as he and he frowns deeply in confusion. Renly and Prince Viserys are in deep conversation when he gets closer to the table.

“Good morn, brother,” Renly greets happily.

“Did you sleep well?” He asked, ruffing his hair.

“Aye, I did, did you?” He nods before his eyes meet Rhaegar’s but as always, they do not hold eye contact for long.

"Good morning, Prince Viserys," Robert bowed his head to the boy.

"Good morning, Lord Robert," there is a slight pink flush on the boy's face.

“Where are the women…?” he asked.

“They are having a separate meal,” Viserys explained. When the young prince sees the confusion deepen,

“For the Queen to get the women of the realm better and the King to get to know the men. Some things are too long to write, sister says.”

That he knows…

He finally sees Ned but he is stiff and uncomfortable and he sees that Petyr Baelish talking to him. His young Robb is quick to Prince Jaehereys and Robert can’t bear the sight.

“Good morning, Lord Eddard,” the boys greet. Ned smiles brightly at them and Lord Baelish shrinks upon seeing the Wolf Knight get closer to the table and seemingly disappears from everyone’s presence.

“He keeps asking me about Catelyn and Sansa…” Ned whispers to him when they are eating.

“Just bear it for one day more and you, your wife, and your cubs will be safe from him in the North,” Robert reassures him.

“The children will hate to leave…” Ned sighs.

He is not a child and he will be glad to be free of his cousin’s eye.

Chapter Text

It’s been quite some time! Life happened, it’s still happening but I wanted to update our favorite royal family! Thank you….Thank you for anyone that is still sticking around for the Rhaegar shit show!

Rhaegar 

It is the dead of night…

He should be sleep but his wife’s absence makes sleep nonexistent. When he was able to find a comfortable position to lie in and allow the day’s thoughts lull him to sleep, his brother and Ser Gerold shake him awake to alert him that on his wife’s travels from the Eyrie, the inn she has stayed in has been overrun by the Mountain and his horde of bandits and there has been no word or sight of the Sun or the caravan traveling with her. Her trip was already delayed by a sudden flood that prevented her from traveling from the mountains of the Eyrie.

He could forgive that…

The Mountain, newly added Kingsguard, Ser Clegane’s older brother, was known to be vicious and evil. He was currently on the run from his liege lord, Lord Tywin Lannister, for his crimes. He’ll cut the man’s head off himself if harm came to his Sun…

He’s never killed a man before but his Sun…his heirs…

He wasn’t able to kill the last man who put a hand to Elia…

“Would you stand being called a kingslayer and kinslayer?” Elia’s words, so many moons ago upon the Trident, haunt him and grip him tight every time he runs his fingers over the scars on Elia’s back.

When Lord Arryn asked him the same question, after Visenya came into the world,

“Yes. If my father was still alive after he did what he did to not only Elia but my mother, my brother, he terrorized my daughter…killed good men…I would end my father’s reign of madness and bear the weight of it…”

Rhaegar’s reign is fragile but peaceful. It is prosperous and all he hopes is that there are no regrets when he finally relinquishes his rule to his son.

Gods knows that he has so much he is already regretting…

The opening of the door breaks him from his thoughts and he is faced with his one eyed brother dressed and pulling his riding gloves on.

Violet pools stare at twin pools.

“What are you doing?” Viserys’ tone is light but Rhaegar senses a slight scold to it. Rhaegar frowns,

“Where are you going?”

“To go find sister and Jaime,” Viserys said. Rhaegar pays no mind at the familiar call of the Lion Knight.

“My prince, there you are!” The wolf knight is flushed and out of breath but a sigh of relief could be heard. He clutches a letter in his hand and taking a deep breath, hands it to Rhaegar.

“There’s nothing you or brother can say or do to stop me,” Viserys says calmly.

His brother is only in his twelfth year of his life, soon to be three and ten. Taller, hair longer and where bright hopeful smiles lit his face up, only seriousness and smaller smiles grace his face. His brother’s childhood was riddled with darkness, a mad man for a father, and a beaten Queen for a mother. By the time Viserys came into the world, his parents didn’t try to put a front of togetherness as they did for him. Their mother was so beaten that she was hardly seen at times. Then after Rhaegar left, Viserys and their mother was locked away and she had already given up.

She was only able to protect him as she could…

Their father was deepening his madness.

Rhaegar, being the older brother, should have filled in the blanks where his parents gave up and gave Viserys a better childhood.

He was clutched in his own madness…

Elia has been the only one there and even then, Viserys had to witness her bent, bowed, and broken.

“I know but the letter is in her hand, read it and if you still want to go…” the wolf knight’s gray eyes are on Rhaegar and Rhaegar feels his head nod.

“We’ll go.”

‘My dearest, Forgive the delay. It seems the more anxious I am to be home, the more prevents me from my journey. We are safe, it was the quick thinking of Ser Jaime and Ser Arthur that got me safely away. We are back on the King’s Road and a beg of you a few more nights of patience. We will be home soon. Kiss my dragons. Sleep, I want you well rested for my return...'

No more travels…

The letter does nothing to ease him and he is settled on his next move,

“Ready the horses.” It is not Viserys but Rhaegar that announces his wishes because he can’t forgive this instant. He can forgive floods but a threat to his Queen, the mother of his heirs, is unforgiven and he can’t bear the thought of going to sleep knowing of what could have conspired.

“My brother has always been evil, even as a child. What he did to my face is tame to what I’ve seen and know he can do. We had a sister once…” Ser Sandor Clegane explains gently. Rhaegar and the other men are dipped in horror. It is Viserys that gulps and speaks what the other men are wondering,

“W-What happened to her?” A nasty smile appears on the man’s deformed face.

“I don’t know what she did to cause his anger but I do know that he was the last to be seen with her until we found her with her skull crushed…” Viserys looks as if he is going to be ill…

Rhaegar shudders and his resolve is more absolute.

Elia

Bright light wakes her and she is temporarily taken aback by her surroundings. She is tucked between the Lion Knight and the Star Knight. She is not stunned by her lack of proprietaries because she used to curl up next to Arthur when they were children, when their childish antics exhausted them. During the terror of King Aerys, Jaime slept at the foot of her bed when she was too beaten to move. Any onlooker would flush at a woman traveling with three men. Though, the three men are recognizable on sight, she herself had a change of appearance and those not close to her might have trouble recognizing her.

She is no longer thin and frail.

They do not look like a Queen traveling with the Kingsguard. She is no stranger to travel and knows not to take what she isn’t willing to travel with. She never dresses in her silks or jewelry…

She used to…

The scar on the Bull’s hand reminds her to never travel like her life’s position.

She was just a princess then.

During this travel, she dresses comfortably and like a kitchen maid. She dons a hood for most of her trip and she is glad she is used to the scratchiness of the material…

The knights do not dress in their white cloaks or armor. They dress down with their swords attached to their hips. She wanted the journey to the Eyrie to be smooth and light weight. It was only to be a short visit because Lady Lysa asked for her and Lady Catelyn. She has grown close to the Tully women, one being the Lord Hand’s wife and the other being the wife of her son’s uncle. They have grown to talk more, not only of Jon, but of the other children and the happenings of their kingdoms and husbands. Lady Lysa has become a young mother to Little Elbert, whom she calls her little Robin and the Arryns are overjoyed and proud parents. It was a difficult pregnancy and birth and Elia is so happy for them. She ended staying longer than expected due to a summer storm flooding the path down from the mountains. When they were able to travel down, they had traveled some days before needing rest and settled on an inn for food and rest before deciding they would leave early morn to continue their journey.

“I was wondering if we should stay off the road for a bit…” the Bat Knight suggests, his eyes darting around.

“Did you notice something last night?” The Star asks, getting up, stretching.

“Probably just animals…”

“Big giant ones?” Elia muses, getting up, her mind going back to the giant of a man from the inn.

“Was t-that really Ser Sandor’s brother?” the Lion Knight asked softly.

“Looking at how big he himself is…”

“I have never seen a woman scarred and pretty before…” the giant reaches over and runs a finger down one of her white locks and she is so frozen and so scared.

“O-Oh? I have never s-seen a m-man so b-big before…” Elia states. Her smile quivers but she is determined to keep it. Her whole body quivers… She hears screaming and nightmares from previous sleep choke her. The Queen of the Seven Kingdoms is backed up against a wall and she hates how small, dark, and familiar the hall feels. All she has to do is scream. The giant’s hand is so close to her throat that she fears any sound or move would end her.

“I’m big elsewhere too…” manic eyes are leveled with her gold ones, which widened and she shoves disgust deep down. Remembering the Hound Knight’s words about his brother’s anger,

“Y-You don’t want to s-soil yourself w-with me…”

“Ella! My sweet cousin, you must not wander off!” the Star Knight exclaimed, worry in his violet eyes. The giant pulls away.

“You’re Ser Arthur, of the Kingsguard…” His tone is displeased and when Elia tries to go to the Star Knight, the giant slaps a big hand against the wall behind her head to keep her place. She hears wood splintering and Elia gulps and she doesn’t move.

“Aye,” Arthur stays in place but his hand is resting on the handle of Dawn.

“We should have ended him right then and there…” the Bat suggested.

“I agree but there were too many of his followers for us to take. We will alert His Grace and Lord Tywin that he is close but for now let us focus on getting Her Grace home.” the Star Knight explains.

When the Star Knight would not show the Mountain he wasn’t stepping down, the Mountain brushed his knuckles against Elia’s cheek,

“Until next time…” She prays it will be a long time before next time.

“Safely…” the Lion Knight pronounces as if reading her mind.

They are in the midst of their journey and she, deep in her thoughts when she feels her horse being grabbed by the Bat Knight. She looks up to see that their group have halted and the Bat Knight holds her horse’s reins to prevent her from going any further. Her heart stops when she sees a band of horses and men speeding towards their small group.

“That looks to be His Grace…” the Star and the Bat point out.

“Why would he venture away from King’s Landing?” Elia whispers to herself. They had maybe a day’s ride, she needed no royal escort so late in her journey.

She was only meaning to send the letter to reassure him…

Yet, here he is…

He is not donned in suit and armor and does not carry banners, just Viserys, and the rest of the Kingsguard. They too are dressed to not draw attention and Elia is caught of breath at how handsome her husband is.

“All Targaryens are pretty. I have never seen or known an ugly one. Maybe they are doing something right, fucking each other. Elia…” Oberyn teased inappropriately. Cersei, Ashara, the Wolf, Star, and the Lion Knights choke on their laughter and Elia swats at her little brother gently.

“ I would sooner throw myself off the highest tower…”

Would him being ugly be different? Would the wolf girl have felt the same if she wasn’t dazzled by the beauty of the dragon?

Viserys jumps off his horse and she jumps off hers and he is running and has to brace herself when he embraces her. She feels warm tears stain her cloak and she holds him and kisses the top of his head.

“You miss me, my little prince?” She whispers against silver locks. He says nothing and only nods in her bosom. She holds him even tighter. Still holding her first little dragon,

No matter how big he gets, he’s always her little dragon…

Elia looks at Rhaegar, who is hopping off his horse and rushing over.

“Should we be worried?” The Bull Knight asks.

“He’s still in the area but how close he is…” the Bat Knight starts.

“Maybe follow the trail of corpses leading away from and to the inn…” the Hound Knight suggests.

“Ser Clegane…” the Bull Knight scolds, horrified. Rhaegar pulls her and Viserys close to him.

“Her Grace rides with me. Let’s try to be back in King’s Landing by nightfall,” Rhaegar demands.

I don’t know if I am satisfied but I promised myself to post whatever I put…

Until next time…

Chapter Text

It’s been quite some time! Life happened, it’s still happening but I wanted to update our favorite royal family! Thank you….Thank you for anyone that is still sticking around for the Rhaegar shit show!

Viserys

“S-She kissed me...on the lips…” he whispered to Bran as they walked to the training field. He sees Bran’s lips tilt in a small smirk.

They are not home but in his sister’s home.

This is his second visit, his first was traveling to see Arianne when she fell ill.

As a betrothed should…

He liked how warm he felt when her eyes lit up in surprise and happiness at his arrival.

He was in awe of how he liked how she bathed in vanilla and lavender, just for him because those were the scents that comforted him.

Now, he was six and ten, tall, and his hair kept cut just at his shoulders. He grew skilled with his weapons even with his one eye and he is allowed to travel in and out of King’s Landing, on his own, much to his brother’s and sister’s chagrin. He has already been to Highgarden, Storm’s End, and Casterly Rock on his own.

“Well, it’s high time for you to receive your first kiss,” Bran said, patting him on his back.

Viserys feels his cheeks heat.

“When did y-you receive yours?” Viserys felt himself ask. The elder man looked thoughtful,

“I was ten. It was with some Northern girl. I remember it being very wet…” Bran replied.

Viserys frowned.

“Come now, was Arianne’s kiss wet?”

No, it wasn’t…

He wants to seek her out and do it again.

Viserys feels his body is on fire and it wasn’t because of the Dornish heat.

“N-No…it w-was…nice,” he feels himself smiling as he remembers her softness and the smell of silk.

He always thought he would marry his niece, Rhaenys or his sister Daenereys but once his brother and sister sat down and explained to him why they were banning the tradition of dragons marrying each other…

Father…

Mother…

He did not fight them and wants to help quell the madness that runs in his family.

Looking in the mirror and seeing his one eye and remembering the rage and insanity in his father’s eyes when he pierced through his vision and painted it red.

Viserys remembers holding tight to his broken sister and Bran, Jaime, clutching Rhaenys as she sobbed for him and Elia, as the Maesters worked on getting the rest of his eye out. They hadn’t reached the Trident then and he remembers his sister coaxing him to drink something stronger than wine to dull his senses.

It didn’t…

Viserys had never felt pain before his father tried to take his eye out and when they worked on finally getting the rest of his eye scraped out, which felt like his skull was on fire…

Viserys vowed to not feel that pain ever again.

Which is why he trains and learns as he does…

Then he remembers holding Elia tight as the Maesters stitched up some of her wounds and can recall how agonizing it was to watch them close the wounds on her back.

He tried offering her what they gave him but he recognizes a pregnant woman when he sees one.

So he held her hand and did not wince when at times her grip tightened.

He knows that he might be struck with his family’s insanity or worse…

His brother…

He looks at Rhaegar longer than usual, at times, maybe to see little signs of him turning into their father and he peers a lot closely at his sister.

The only scars there are faint and done by his father.

Rhaegar is always as he has been…

Quiet, observant, and wise. He had never seen a man so serious…

Guarded…

He is indulgent in his children but instills in them the importance of right and wrong and to be mindful of others.

It is a peaceful reign under his brother…

He wants to keep it that way for his nephew…

Viserys grows stronger and is protective of his family.

He wants to be strong like Bran and Jaime…

“Make sure it stays at kissing. You don’t want Prince Doran calling for you to be speared, do you?” Bran warned. He shudders and knows how the Martells are still unforgiving towards Rhaegar.

“I-I understand…” Viserys agreed, not quite shaking the image of Prince Oberyn tying him up and driving a spear through his chest from his mind.

They reach the training field and Viserys can’t get over how high the sun is.

“We will keep this session short…” Bran suggested, moving his already sweaty dark hair from his face. He has a second hand now but only wears it when he is guarding or training.

Viserys likes using the spear but he still has to learn to focus his aim to make a killing blow with one arm…

He finds it hard to do with one eye…

Bran, is talented, even with one hand and he twirls the spear between his fingers.

There are a few onlookers that brave the heat, one being his niece, Rhaenys, now twelve. He wishes she stayed little but now, she, like him, is getting taller. Her hair is long.

Viserys realizes at some point that there is no urge to continue the tradition. He sees her as his little sister…and his nieces…are his nieces. Of course, they are his little sisters by blood, through his father but since Rhaegar assumed the father role…

They only ever call him ‘Uncle Viserys’…

She smiles and waves enthusiastically at Viserys and Bran and they return her smiles. He hears Bran chuckle and he waves at her. He flushes when he sees Arianne, with her circle of maidens and Arianne smiles sweetly at him.

Arianne sits next to her cousin and immerses her in conversation and Rhaenys giggles at something she says.

He sees his sister and his other nieces at supper after he has washed the sand and heat off him.

He approaches and he smiles brightly at Jaime and Ser Whent. They both greet him with equally bright smiles.

Elia reaches for him and he goes to her.

She’s just like his mom…

He misses her so much…

“Were you okay in this heat, my dragon?” She asks concernedly. His smile is gentle and leans into her hand that is on his cheek. She bids him to sit and offers him a goblet of cool spring water. He obliges, reaching over to pinch Daenerys’ bottom.

He gets a giggle and then he finds she plops herself rather hard into his lap.

"His Majesty calls for our return. He asks us to be on the road by the time we have his words…"

Sitting, Viserys frowns and before he could say anything,

"You just got here, sister. Write him and tell him that you will take your time with your return…" Prince Oberyn says, coming into the dining hall, followed by Princess Joana and an even younger boy, Prince Tristan.

Prince Lew has already started his fostering at Casterly Rock with his grandfather, Lord Tywin.

Viserys knows how anxious his brother was to let Elia leave and especially with the crowned heirs…

The threat of the Mountain is still high and on his brother’s mind.

Rhaegar was never particularly possessive but when he found out that the Mountain was so close to Elia…close enough to kill her, Rhaegar keeps her close to him.

At times, he bars her to his chambers with the Star Knight and the Bull to guard her...

All the children were to come but his brother said that the boys stay at King's Landing or there would not be a trip at all.

"My sons stay here…"

Viserys deep down knew it was a ploy to get her to stay because Elia wanted to show all the children the Water Gardens. He smirked when his brother was surprised to find that she still going to go.

"Sister, if you are ready, I am ready," Viserys spoke. The sun is small with her smile.

“Are you sure, little Prince? I want you to explore more and make sure you’re comfortable here,” she reaches to tuck a braid behind Visenya’s ear.

When he sees Arianne…

He feels warmth.

“I am more than comfortable here; it feels like home…”

They stay a few more eves and then leave and Viserys opts to travel outside the royal carriage with the Kingsguard.

To quicken the journey, they go through the Red Mountains and they pass the remains of a tower that once stood and he sees the adults, stiffen and pale. The pace of the horses quickening.

"What did that used to be, why do you stiffen?" He asks Bran when they take a rest. He does not let his sister know of his curiosity. She is easily distracted by the youngest girls, who are throwing sand at each other.

The guard share looks.

"Perhaps, His Grace would be better to tell-"

"Tell me," Viserys keeps his tone kind but wants no push back.

"His Grace forbade us, until you and the children were older…" Jaime argued softly, he throws worried glances at his sister.

"I am older…did my brother bring that woman here?" He blurts.

"Aye, my prince." Ser Whent spoke up.

Growing up, Viserys picked up on things. He knew his brother had likened another. He then understood why Bran came to King's Landing that night.

How they watched his father burn…

Viserys remembers clutching tight to both bruised mother and sister and frightened niece.

He hears the screams when he passes the throne room sometimes…

He is with Bran or Jaime during those times.

"Do you hear him…?"

It doesn't matter which of them he asks…

They always answer him,

"Always…"

He knows if the three of them hears, his sister and Rhaenys does as well…

Though, his sister has promised brighter days…

None of them venture in unless they have to…

When his sister sits on the Queen's seat, he sees how her form still quivers and her gaze is remembering…

Horror…

She schools it so quickly but her fingers clutch at the arms until the knuckles are white and she nearly runs out when she is no longer needed.

Viserys does not venture close to the throne and favors being near the doors leading out of the room…

"Fire burns them!"

He has to exist with the fact that he has killed his own father…

He does not know if he misses his father…

"That fills in a lot…" Viserys responded.

He hates Rhaegar…

He didn't save them or try to squash their father's impending doom…

He left them…

He didn't protect their mother…

He loves his brother but he understands.

He does not like what he was forced to know…

Elia

It is a struggle to hold a girl of seven in her arms as her elder daughter clings to her. She looks at the Wolf Knight, who holds the other girl.

“I-I don’t know why I expected it to still stand…” Her voice was so low.

She didn’t want to say anything.

She didn’t want anyone to know it affected her or that she even took notice.

Elia didn’t know why she thought it to stand.

What if it did?

What would she have done?

March in and demand for the truth?

Grab the girl by her hair and off her husband?

Nonsense…

Rhaegar is home, demanding her return and the wolf girl…

Dead…

“Ned told me they had Dornish men raid the place and then they set it ablaze…” the Wolf Knight responded quietly, rearranging Visenya to sit next to him.

He wasn’t the only one that stiffened, passing through the Red Mountains…

The Bat and Star refused to look in the direction of where the tower once stood but she could tell how rigid and cool they got.

 The children sleep through the ride, leaving the adults to mull in their thoughts.

The journey from Dorne back to King’s Landing has drained the party.

She cannot wait to see her sons but how the dark overcomes the sky, she knows that will have to wait until morn.

She and Bran rouse the children, upon approaching the gate into the city.

Elia expected Rhaegar to be sleep but he is wide awake and waiting for them at the Keep’s entrance with the rest of the Kingsguard.

When she finally lays down next to her King, who clutches her tight to him, her dreams warp into the shocked and horrified look of the wolf girl.

 The crown of blue roses in a state of decay…