𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐄 ~ aemond targaryen (discontinued)

7 ~ Tomorrow ~ 7

Helios was twitching, eager to finally stretch his wings out and catch the currents of the wind.

But before take off, I had to be sure all my bags were totally and completely secure to the saddle, lest the few clothes I had to my name plummet from the sky and join the fish of Blackwater Bay for a swim.

Helios had never flown before with luggage and I wasn't yet sure of how he would handle the extra weight attached. So I secured my two bags a little tighter than I might've had to.

The dragon wasn't the only soul keen to leave the ground.

Rhaenyra and her boys had already left for Dragonstone the night before and whilst she had offered to wait for me, I declined. Her situation was more urgent than mine - having her soon to be husband already there awaiting her arrival- and I wished to share a proper goodbye with Helaena, the maids who had taken care of me and the King. I took interest in speaking to none other than them.

I wasn't even sure if the Prince knew I was leaving. I had chosen not to tell him, knowing he would beg to come with me, or for me to stay. My resolve around him was too weak to bear it and I would surely give in.

Aemond would hate me for this. But the truth was, I was already beginning to hate him. And so the guilt nestled inside me was weak and small and quieter than the deafening urge to escape this place and build a new life. A new name. A new fate.

I wished to complete my last years of growth, mending myself, strengthening myself. Becoming the type of woman who I could have only wished to admire from afar whilst trapped here. I wished to be big enough for the history books, for my name to elicit feeling and emotion.

Here, in the Red Keep, I was tightly incased in a binding that allowed no room for potential. If I remained here, I remained the sad little Bastard of Viserys Targaryen, first of no name and of no fate.

I was a soul that needed more than the possibility of marriage and children. I refused to be a pawn in the chess game of politics.

I, Khaelyra, would take flight for Dragonstone and one day return bigger than the skies.

Aemond

Aemond had been clawing back at the shame steadily, balling up inside him over the past two days.

Khaelyra had completely refused to speak to him. He couldn't blame her. He was a rotten wretch for the way he had spoken to her last.

Aemond had always dreamed of the days that followed his taming of a dragon. But he was left disappointed. Dissatisfied. Lyra had always fit happily inside those visions. What worth was his happiness if it couldn't be shared with his favourite soul?

It was getting to such a point of desperation that Aemond actually considered going to her door, falling to his knees and begging for forgiveness. He deserved the shame of it, but stubbornly, he couldn't bring himself to do it,

Some of the things he had spat at her, he couldn't truthfully take back. He believed in his claims, and some were indisputably true.

Lyra did not belong in the Red Keep, and yes his blood made it so he ranked above her. Both the truth. But that didn't mean he liked it. The truth was a painful thing, even for him.

Secretly, Aemond wished she was a high ranking Lady, so that he might not face any further dishonour for choosing to be her friend.

And so that he might not face denial from his parents in the proposition of marrying her one day. He wished to take her hand freely. To love her, freely. To belong to her in every possible way, in name, in title, body and soul. It had been his wish since... Aemond didn't know how long. Lyra had always been what he wanted most. Even more so than a dragon.