The Fire That Burns Within US - Aemond Targaryen

Making Amends

135 - Red Keep

Visenya sits in front of the Queen. Wine and her favourite lemon cakes sit on the table.

She hoped to spend the day in the training yard, but Ser Cristion had shown up at her chambers and escorted her to the Queen's room. She was surprised when the Queen told Ser Cristion to stand outside the room, thinking that the Queen had not forgotten the threats that Visenya made last time in King's Landing.

"Prince Aemond has told me that he wishes for the wedding to be soon," Alicent breaks the silence in the room; she moves and pours some wine into the glass in front of Visenya and her glass.

"Yes, he does. I think if it were up to Aemond, then we would be wed tonight," Visenya jokes,

"The wedding shall be held in the Sept. There should be more than enough room to hold all the guests as well," Alicent tells Visenya; she takes a sharp breath at the Queen's words. "I understand you wish to have House Tully, House Stark, and a few of their bannermen house to come?"

''Yes, I do wish them to be in attendance, but I don't think the High Septon would be okay with the wedding being held there, given that the wedding will have quite a bit of bleeding," Visenya tells Alicent. Visenya hopes to have a traditional Valyrian wedding, but she now understands that the Queen might not stand for that.

"What?" Alicent asks Visenya, genuinely confused as to what the princess is saying.

"A traditional Valyrian wedding has a lot of bleeding in it," Visenya answers, finally taking hold of the wine glass and she takes a sip.

"The wedding will follow the Faith of the Seven Princess," Alicent tells her. Alicent might have been married into the Targaryen house long ago, but their traditions and customs still confuse her.

"Why? I do not believe in the Seven; I follow the traditions and gods of old Valyria," Visenya says. She didn't want her wedding to be in the Sept. The one time she had gone into the Sept, she did not like it; the towering statues of the seven gods freaked her out.

"Prince Aemond follows them. You should think about compromising for him," Alicent tells Visenya, but when the princess doesn't budge on the idea, she knows she will have to appeal to another weakness. "Your mother also had a ceremony following the traditions of the Seven with your father,"

Visenya looks down at her wine glass at the mention of Rhaenyra and Laenor's wedding. She had heard stories about how the wedding feast turned into a bloodbath and how the Queen wore a green dress. The night ended in the union between her parents.

Alicent reaches over the table and takes hold of Visenya's hand on the table. Alicent gives it a slight squeeze.

"We have had our differences, but I wish to keep them in the past. You are to be my daughter-by-law, and I do not wish for either of us to start this new chapter with feelings of hate," Alicent tells her. She does genuinely wish to mend their relationship, and she hopes that Visenya can be forgiving.

"We can have the ceremony in the Sept, following the tradition of the Seven, but in exchange, I don't have a bedding ceremony," Visenya tells her; the custom of the bedding ceremony never sat well with Visenya. She knew that if she went through with it, one of the men taking in it would end up dead by her hand. "The men that will be there are either my family, men I have earned the respect of, or I do not know. I will not be humiliated like that,"

"I see that as a fair deal. You will need to pick who will escort you in place of your father," Alicent tells Visenya before realizing her words. When Rhaenyra and her children still lived in King's Landing, Alicent remembers how inseparable the father-daughter were; Alicent remembers losing her mother and how grief was overwhelming. "Forgive me, Princess. I don't think I ever gave you my sympathy for your father's passing,"