𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐈𝐄 | aemond targaryen

𝐱𝐢𝐢𝐢. but you would still miss me in your bones

❝the world is in your hands

or it's at your throat❞

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

The iron throne loomed over Rhaenyra as it always had. A sign of what was to come, a sign of what she could gain. Of what she could lose. The heir held her sons to her side as the court congregated for the hearing.

Helaena and Aegon had already been announced as they stood on the other side of the hall, so close yet so far apart. Rhaenyra had experience a loveless marriage and it was obvious to her what that one was.

The mother had not granted her with a husband after the death of ser Leaner and ser Harwin so she had spent her days on Dragonstone lonely. There had been a time where she believed Daemon would be the one to free her from the torment of silence. But he had been spending more time than ever at court, even more than when he would visit her.

Rhaenyra was not a fool, she knew whom he had been visiting.

Speak of the stranger and he doth appear, Rhaenyra thought to herself as Daemon strode into the hall. Although he nodded to her with all the formality of a prince, her heart ached as he stood on the other side of the hall. Far from the green, albeit, but so much farther from her.

Rhaenyra had also found, on those lonely years on Dragonstone, how much she yearned for her daughter. Something disgustingly primal attaches mother and daughter from birth, that was the monstrosity of women. That line between hatred and love would only ever be blurred by the tears brought forth by sweet poison you feed one another.

Rhaenyra missed Visenya, a girl who was still alive.

At that moment, she heard the swish of skirts along with the gentle thud of a mans boots. Turning her head to the door once more she saw that girl she had killed so many years ago, reborn in dragons fire and a cloak of green.

Visenya had grown into a beautiful young woman, made even more luminous at the obvious yet still small swell of the child that grew within her. She was all moonlight and gold silver hair, she was everything Rhaenyra had never been.

She watched as her daughter was guided to the greens by Rhaenyra's half brother, not even sparing a look in her mothers direction. All Rhaenyra could think was she had lost a daughter and a grandchild.

Visenya's husband pulled out a chair for the pregnant woman and bade her sit, kissing her on the forehead as Rhaenyra's daughter protested which seemed to silence her. He took his place behind her, holding her hand as he did so. Rhaenyra was sent back into a memory as Vaemond Velaryon began to speak.

A memory of her daughter, bleeding from the side of her head with a tired look in her eyes. The same man who stood at her side now was a boy in this memory, stood behind her so she felt safe although he himself had just lost an eye.

Rhaenyra remembered with stinging clarity how her old friend had rushed to Visenya to embrace her, comfort her. She remembered how she herself did not move. But she remembered also when Visenya chose her side, and she chose hers.

"...I have spent my entire life on Driftmark, defending my brother's seat." Vaemond said as Rhaenyra snapped out of her reverie. "I am Lord Corlys' closest kin, his own blood. The true unimpeachable blood of House Velaryon runs through my veins."

"As it does in my sons, the offspring of ser Leaner Velaryon." Rhaenyra said, shaking off any emotion in her voice as she pointedly left out her daughter. Alicent noticed this and her fists clenched. "If you cared so much about your houses blood, Ser Vaemond, you would not be so bold as to supplant its rightful heir."