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110 AC
Before she was anybody else's, Princess Rhaelys belonged to her mother and her mother alone. She was her mother's own babe, a girl just like Rhaenyra was. She was just six and ten when her daughter was born. Rhaenyra had at least a little piece of her mother now.
The 110th year after Aegon's conquest, a feast was held for Princess Rhaelys of the Houses of Velaryon and Targaryen, first of her name. Or moreso, for her birth. The birth that was expected to bring a boy to the realm. Instead a girl was born. Princess Rhaenyra held the babe in her arms, cooing to her at times. Ser Laenor looked over to his wife and his daughter a few times, but he spend more time dancing with Ser Qarl Correy who was his rumoured favourite. Rhaenyra did not mind, as she spend much of her alone time with her good-sister Laena and Ser Harwin Strong.
Laena was Rhaelys' aunt, the daughter of Rhaenys and Corlys and the sister of Laenor. She was eight and ten, two years Rhaenyra's elder. She rode the she-dragon Vhagar, and often rode together with Rhaenyra and Syrax. The first Rhaenyra had told of her daughter's birth was Laena, her dearest friend and close confidant. "Was the birth terribly painful?" Rhaenyra nodded but gave the babe over to Laena. "I bled hard, but for her... Just look at my fair babe. I would not wish for anything else. Rhaelys is the only thing that matters now." Laena nodded and looked down on her niece. "She is beautiful, Rhaenyra. You and my brother have done well. And so quick, only seven moons after the wedding and yet she is big." Rhaenyra smiled at the babe in Laena's arms.
"She is sturdy, the Maester has said. I want the next one to be born on Driftmark. Rhaelys on Dragonstone, and mayhaps a boy in your father's castle." Rhaenyra said as Laena handed the babe back to her. "I would like that. It has been too long since I have been home, Nyra. Last spring, I believe." Rhaenyra thought of it. Spring was two years ago, before Rhaenyra had even married Laenor. Spring took so long in Westeros. As did all of the seasons. Rhaenyra did not understand why it was so. They lived in Summer now, and each and every summer the wise old men thought it was the endless summer if it lasted more than a few years. Because after summer, winter came...
"Rhaenyra!" Alicent spoke to her stepdaughter, the fakest smile on her face. "May I hold the babe, stepdaughter?" Nyra put a fake smile to her face and nodded. "Of course, my Queen. Her name is Rhaelys. Princess Rhaelys Velaryon." Alicent smiled a genuine smile once the babe was in her arms. "She is pretty, our future queen." Alicent's mind went to the boy next to her. She quickly got to her knees and showed the babe to Aegon, the Queen's first born son. Just three years old, he was little Rhaelys' half-uncle.
"Aegon, meet your new niece, Princess Rhaelys. What might you think of her?" The three-year-old looked at her curiously for a moment, before nodding his head. "Pretty," He put out his hand and stroked her hair, so innocently as children could. "Your wife she may be one day, my boy. What do you think of that?" He smiled happily as he pulled his hand back from the babe. "Pretty girl," He repeated himself as Rhaenyra quickly took her babe from Alicent's arms.
"Aegon can't have two wives, Stepmother. He will surely be wed to Helaena, don't you think?" She asked her, reminding Alicent of that queer Targaryen custom. The same thing she had once accused Rhaenyra of doing with her own uncle Daemon. "Mayhaps he will wed Rhaelys, if he will not have Helaena. You know how picky Targaryens can be," Rhaenyra smiled a fax smile as she eyed Laena.
Laena always reminded her to be calm. "My daughter can decide who she will wed for herself, I will not force anything on her. Not like I was forced, nor you, my Queen," They shared a look. A look of lost lovers, a look of everything that mattered. They always had to pretend as if their feelings had never mattered, as if they had never happened. They always had to pretend. "She will mayhaps choose Aegon, my Princess," Laena said, as she smiled at her good-sister. They both knew no daughter of Rhaenyra Targaryen's would wed her uncle, but they wanted to get away from Alicent and the babe Prince.
"She can't leave," Aegon murmured, putting himself to Rhaenyra's leg and holding on to it tightly. "Don't you worry my sweet. Helaena will play with you later." Alicent said, stroking Aegon's hairs. Helaena, just a year and a half, could not play with him yet and Aegon knew it. "She no fun!" He demanded to play with Rhaelys, even if she would be less fun than Helaena right now. "They share a wetnurse, do they not?" Alicent asked her stepdaughter, who nodded slowly. Rhaenyra understood little of what her stepmother was asking. She didn't want to get made fun off if she fed her daughter herself, so she would hand her over to a wetnurse.
"Then Aegon, you will see her once you go to bed and Helaena is fed. We can have Princess Rhaelys carried over to the same room to be fed and you can watch!" Rhaenyra was confused and disgusted by what her former friend had said. "Why would he watch?" Aegon looked confused. He didn't want to watch, he knew that. He just wanted to see Rhaelys and play with her. He thought she was more fun than Helaena, because of that look in her eyes.
Helaena's were a deep blue and in Rhaelys' he saw himself. They were purple and so clean as the floors and so he saw himself, and he liked seeing a piece of himself in Rhaelys. "She is my own. My daughter. I will see her fed by the wetnurse, but your son should not see. When they are older, they can share a Maester and train together under a member of the Kingsguard." Alicent looked confused and smirked. "Why would she train? She's a girl," Rhaenyra nodded, calmly but sternly. "She is my daughter, and the future of the Realm. She will be its Queen. And so she must learn how to defend it, and defend herself."
That was the day that Alicent saw Rhaenyra as more than just a spoiled little girl; she was a mother who had come into her own and would protect what was hers. Her children and the Kingdom included. It was the day Alicent truly started to fear for her and her children's lives.
Rhaelys Velaryon had been born in fire, and would die in it as well.
