28

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112 AC

Kingslanding

Daeron Nymeros Martell

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"You sure you didn't want to stay behind?" I ask Rhaenyra as she walks with me through the halls of Maegor's Holdfast.

"I wanted some time away from both of them, I needed to breathe." I yawn as I nod and look out a window seeing the pitch-black night sky.

Queen Aemma is still sleeping and probably will be for a while, a team of Dornish women will be watching her night and day for my own safety. If something happened to her now after I healed her then I would be accused of killing her even though I basically revived her. The King at least knows and would be on my side so that helps my case but I would rather still have my own people watching over her. The Kingsguard might feel insulted but the women of Dorne know how to fight well and can be in the room at all times since the Queen won't be off-put by them as much as a man, at least in my opinion.

King Viserys took the baby after sending everyone off and watching his wife for a while longer. He named her Visenya and shortly after I left to give the family some alone time, though Rhaenyra has other plans it seems. I look to my side and see her walking with her hands held together and clenched as she stares ahead with a stone-like face.

"You did not seem too interested in holding Visenya, she likely would have liked it." I comment to test the waters and her face scrunches up slightly.

"I was too concerned with my mother to think about it, I will hold her tomorrow after I have had some time to think and calm down." Seeing her mom mortally wounded and knowing it had to be approved by her father seems to have set in.

"Well if you want me to be there I will, I will be heading to her room every morning and every night before bed until she can be on her own. I expect after that much damage she will be suffering some side effects that will last quite a while, the phantom pain will be horrible if I had to guess." She purses her lips and side-eyes me.

"Phantom pain?" She asks curiously and I nod trying to relate it to something simple, saying ghost limbs sounds kind of dumb.

"Have you ever slept on your arm wrong and it was numb or you were unable to move it when you woke up?" She nods after clenching her hands a few times. "It's like that feeling but the limb is actually gone usually, it apparently can stress people out when it happens. I healed Queen Aemma completely and her body is in a much better state compared to when she was still pregnant. She will wake up not really understanding she is healed, at least her body won't understand right away and she might still feel the pain. It is called Phantom pain as far as I can understand but I am not an expert on it." I will leave out the part about some people trying to recreate the wound or cutting more of their body off to stop the 'itch'.

"Sounds miserable." I nod in agreement as we pass another massive window, this one giving a view of blackwater bay.

She stops for a moment and looks out the window with a faraway look in her amethyst eyes. Her hands clenching and unclenching making me uncomfortable that there is not much I can do to ease her current emotions. I do not even know what part is bothering her the most and asking might have her withdraw. So the best I can do is distract her, good news is there is no Kingsguard following her at the moment.

"Want to get your mind off of it for a while?" I ask while an idea forms in my mind that might just work.

"What do you have in mind?" She looks away from the window and I smile as I pull on the bond with Gaelithox.

"Why not try riding a big dragon for once?" The moment it hits her is obvious as her eyes widen but her hands stop clenching and relax a little.

I take the chance and lace my fingers with hers and gently pull her with me as I head to a good spot to have my partner touch down. It is a good thing he is a black dragon and is hard to see at night, though I don't doubt someone will still see us.

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112 AC

Kingslanding

Daemon Targaryen

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My brother hacked open his wife like a butcher in an attempt to finally get his heir, if it was not for the Martell she would have died. She would have died and left him with no son, he would either accept that I am his heir or marry again to try for more children. That or he would name Rhaenyra the heir but I can't see him doing that, his council would pull their hair out.

Not only would it be about her being a girl but she is marrying a damn Martell who is still not even a part of the realm. The faith would raise all seven of their hells if Dorne was given so much power and that is ignoring the Lords and Ladies sworn to the crown. It would be an insult to all of them, Rhaenyra marrying to create an alliance is different from marrying and taking the throne. The Martells would have more power than every lord in the realm and that is ignoring their dragons which already gives them more power than everyone else.

Well almost everyone, I am confident in my suspicion of the magical abilities of Prince Daeron since he was able to heal Aemma. That gives him an edge and the size of his dragon is also bigger than Caraxes but that does not scare me. So long as they are alone I am confident in picking them off one by one.

But I don't need to worry about that for now anyway, I have a new niece and I remain the heir. There will be no problems and it might actually work out better if I could convince my brother to keep it that way now that it turned out like this things can work out better. He told me about the pact between the House Targaryen and House Martell, one bride for them and one bride from them would seal the pact if I was able to marry Princess Myriah.

She is a beautiful young woman, a Valyrian painted with Dornish colors and she has the benefit of the Dornish figure. Valyrians are known for their beauty and silver hair with purple eyes but rarely do they have a body as 'full' as Princess Myriah. She has plenty of the blood of the dragon not just in looks but in attitude as well, she even has a dragon which not many women can claim.

Shrykos is the Goddess of beginnings, endings, transitions, and doorways which is quite fitting if the pact can be sealed by the dragon's rider.

I am starting to feel the wine and I have not even made a toast to my new niece, that won't do. I gathered my friends for a celebration of the birth of a new Targaryen and it won't do to not even mention them during the event.

This would be a very different day if the babe was a boy, everyone would celebrate for my brother and his new heir. But with the babe being a girl there will be no celebration for a cockless prince after he hosted a tourney for his 'new' heir. Everyone will be so disappointed to hear it was a girl, they will all still have me as the next in line and I am sure it will eat at them.

"The King and council have long-."

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112 AC

Kingslanding

Rhaenyra Targaryen

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Holding onto a rope Daeron pulls me up the side of Gaelithox who is being unnaturally silent, it seems he is aware we are being sneaky. The massive dragon came in as silent as the grave and landed with a grace even Syrax at her smaller size would have difficulty pulling off. Daeron hooks an arm under my armpit and pulls me the rest of the way and I am soon set onto the saddle.

The sight of Gaelithox is much different from my little sweet girl Syrax, this massive boy is hard to even see from while up here. I shift in the saddle and grab two loops that are at the front of it that seem to be for tying something down. Daeron pulls the slack from the reins and sits up straight behind me and I start to feel my heart pounding.

"You will be fine, we don't bite." He chuckles behind me as his voice sends a tingle through my back.

"Then let's get going, I am ready to see just how well you can fly this big boy." He hums as he adjusts himself in the saddle, it does not feel like it was made for multiple riders with how close we are having to sit.

I am reminded once again why it is stupid to put chains on the dragons, if Syrax was free like Gaelithox I could have just had her meet me. But instead, now I am on the back of Gaelithox with Daeron behind me while I try not to press my back against him. This close together makes it hard to not react to him, his smell tickles my nose and when his arms brush my sides the heat seems to make me melt. The thoughts about my Mother and Father have flown long away while I try not to melt away like ice.

I am a dragon and dragons are fire made flesh, I do not melt.

""Let's fly Gaelithox, take us on a nice little trip."" With no grand roar or trill to confirm he heard Daeron the black dragon pushes off the ground with a few flaps, we are gliding away from Kingslanding. "I expect that caught the attention of a few people at least, hopefully, no one saw both of us..." I snort and shake my head, when they do not find me in my room or somewhere else they will send people out to search.

I expect one of Otto's little rats to already have let him know we are together but I don't want to ruin the moment so I will keep that to myself. I am glad to get some time to clear my thoughts after everything I just saw, Daeron is pleasant company with how my mind is right now. I am terrified for my Mother and furious with my Father for what he did and I will need some time to figure out what I want to do.

But I am grateful to Daeron for saving her, he exposed himself just so he could help her if something happened and thankfully he did. I can't imagine thinking about my mother's funeral instead of taking a nice flight over the bay as the stars light up the night.

"Too big for you?" I hear Daeron ask and I roll my eyes regardless if he can see them or not.

"I can handle it, Gaelithox is quite gentle all things considered. I was expecting the ride to be a bit rougher but he is just a big sweetheart like you said." I lean forward to pat Gaelithox on a spike and he lets out a soft trill but I stiffen when I feel something behind me.

Daeron quickly shifts backward, likely taken by surprise that I basically thrust my rear at him out of nowhere. I feel my blood both go chill and yet also light on fire as I sit back up as straight as a spear. The wind thankfully starts cooling my face as I try to shake off what I just did.

"Yea he can be nice when he wants, I only had to drown him a few times for him to let go of his reservations towards me. I envy you for having known Syrax your whole life, but I also could not imagine a different saddle from the one on Gaelithox at this point. No dragon can match my partner and I never care for one to try anyway." My mind swirls as I try to come up with something while also being grateful once more toward him that he moved past what I did.

"She hatched in my cradle and I have flown her since I have been able to at least once every few days. I didn't get to know her until I was old enough though, the keepers raised her and trained her." I wish I had memories from when she was a little baby able to fit on someone's shoulders, I long to see baby dragons.

Gaelithox climbs toward the clouds and we both have to hold on as he angles upwards or we would slide off. I can 'feel' the difference in power while being on Gaelithox, each beat of his wings shakes the air almost. The difference is not as noticeable even when I fly Syrax beside Gaelithox, this dragon is powerful.

"I would rather our kids should they hatch an egg grow up around their dragon, seems more intimate to me." I feel my heart jumping again and almost turn around to glare at him for his words.

But I will let him have them for now, he did just save my Mothers life so the least I can do is let him dream of 'our' babies. But the heat building up in my body almost begs to differ from what my mind is saying. I came up here to forget an uncomfortable situation and now I find myself in another one.

Well, this one is at least only slightly uncomfortable or maybe even begrudgingly pleasant and not horrifyingly uncomfortable like the one back on the ground.