Throughout the Dance of Dragons - House of Dragon

Part VII - Library encounters

After their small encounter in the garden the evening of Daenaeras name day celebration, Aemond and her had few to none interactions. They would steal glances at each other or exchange brief pleasantries when it was expected of them. It seemed that both decided on the same – to stay away. They had different reasons why one avoided the other as Daenaera snapped out of the girlish crush she had when she was little, she felt foolish for allowing the prince to distract her.

As well as she noticed the dirty and degrading looks Aemond would show her brothers, how during training he was holding back only to the extent of not chopping the head of Jacaerys. It angered her how he looked at others around as if none was worthy of his presence. Aemonds arrogant and cold demeanor turned the childish crush she had on him to an annoyance. She would examine his words and body language whenever he spoke out and it intrigued her a bit to find out what he really is underneath the fierce, cold, merciless and emotionless prince facade that everybody saw him to be. She found it interesting when his mischievous side would show up and she could get to see him smirking and humming. As she had to admit that for a prince who had only one eye that eye had an intense gaze equal to two of them.

Aemond on the other hand evaded Daenaera for different reasons. Main one was her being a distraction, she intrigued him. It would be hard from him to focus when she was in the room blabbering on and about with her brothers or his sister. He found her haunting his thoughts which he detested, it would interfere with his studies and training. It angered him that she had such an effect on him, he thought through their encounters and it irritated him. He had acted in ways he should have not allowed himself, she had gotten him to act out and that he could not continue doing. Aemond knew that if him and Daenaera would ever get close enough for him to claim her – he couldn't stop himself. And if the feelings he had would get stronger he would rain chaos through all the Kingdoms without blinking his eye. He agreed upon himself to evade her in every means possible so that his boiling feelings would not get the better of him.

It was not helping either of them that Daenaera and her family was not returning to Dragonstone. The Kings desire was that they would live under the same roof longer as he enjoyed their company and as he was getting old of age, he wanted to spend as much time as possible with his beloved family. It was that only the King enjoyed their company as every other encounter between Rhaenyras children and Alicents sons would be tense. The only children that had seemed to get along well were Daenaera and Helaena. They had grown closer to each other but not the point of sharing personal information. During the whole moon and a bit of Daenaera staying in Kings Landing Halaena only once mentioned her marriage, she did not say she was unhappy but rather glad because Aegon was ignoring her most of the times.

Regarding marriage topics Rhaenyra did not push the matter on Daenaera after her name day celebration. As they both briefly discussed that the lords who have showed up then were not the best of matches. There were still a couple that Daenaera had to meet when time comes, one of them being the well-known lord Stark. Her mother however did keep her notified about marriage proposals coming back and forth but Daenaera had ignored them purposely. She made up her mind that she will drag the time she has of her freedom for as long as she can.

However, she was notified that she needs to get ready for upcoming attention from the Lords as a tourney will be held in a moons time and Daenaera dreaded it. She remembered the encounters she had during her name day and she for sure did not want to repeat them. Even though it sparked her imagination when she thought about what will be the interaction between Aemond and Darrion Lannister after the incident on the dance floor.

The palace was bustling with maids, chattering and running around had made Daenaera annoyed at it. It seemed that there was not a part of the palace where she could find peace of mind. Only during evenings would Daenaera go by herself to the library to read in silence sometimes she would not read at all but just sit there in her own comfort. One of the evenings while she was sitting in the library it was especially comforting as the silence was such that you could hear a needle drop if it did. The only occasional sound was the cracking of candles and Daenaera flipping a page of a book she had been reading.