² 𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃 ━━ rhaenyra targaryen

𝟎𝟎𝟕. comforts of prosperity

I. Duties and Responsibilities
Rhaenyra Targaryen x Ariyanna Hawthorne

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IT WAS SILENT IN THE RED KEEP, the servants come and go as quiet as they can as quick as they can leave to not disturb the grieving royal families. It's already deadly serving in the most high castle, they did not want to add fuel to the fire by angering a grief strucken Targaryen or Hawthorne in the mix of serving them.

Nathar tempts in bursting in his sister's bedchambers and although a lot of people would beseech him for such actions, he would not care for them. His sister is hurting, his own blood and sibling that he should be able to protect but how can he kill despair and grief? He could not. No matter how good he was with a sword, he could not truly save his sister from the reaches of suffering. One of his gravest pain.

     Ever since the Queen's passing and followed by her son, Prince Baelon, everyone was walking on eggshells, especially with the King and Princess who is left alone to deal with the damages of loss. Nathar could not find a moment of time to comfort his best friend, Rhaenyra who is always out of his sights and ears. She must have been avoiding him deliberately just as how Ariyanna did not want to see anyone and stay in her apartments.

     "How is she?" Alicent asks under the Godswood tree and free of any responsibilities she deemed unfair as long as she was around with people her age such as Nathar. Nowadays, it seemed the only person she can talk to freely is him. With Rhaenyra being at odds with her own feelings and Ariyanna who has not seen a shed of daylight outside her room, the choices varies.

     "Even I do not see my sister, Alicent." Nathar claims with a tint of distraught but covers it with a small and sad smile. He sat in front of her, legs tucked and a sigh escapes his lips. "I'm afraid she doesn't eat. I see her handmaiden come and go from her apartments but I do not see the plate of food she brings and carries out fully eaten."

     "That's certainly a problem."

     "And so is Rhaenyra." Nathar adds, glancing away from her. "How is she?"

     "She's... Rhaenyra." Alicent claims, unsure of how to say it more frankly but even then, they both understood what she had truly meant when Nathar scoffs lightly and nods. "She's probably asleep, restless nights, as she claims to us." Unlike Ariyanna, Rhaenyra comes out her bedchambers but not from her free will, she always hopes that Ariyanna would be by her brother's side to welcome her as well but she is not and always brings disappointment to Rhaenyra's hopes. "Who is with Ariyanna now?"

     A question Nathar did not know how to answer straightforwardly. For now, while he converses with Alicent in Godswood, Ariyanna is kept in her room in her own will and decision, sat on the carpeted floor with scattered paper on the lower table in front of her where she is lurched over, charcoal and graphite in her hand to cover the paper in sketches she keeps curling into a ball due to imperfection. To eyes who would see her now, it would seem she hadn't slept in days for in truth was only hours. Ariyanna allowed the nightmares to swallow her at night and would wake up, sit in front of her low table to try and get this drawing right.

When Bryllden Hawthorne came forth to his daughter's apartments, he first saw her unbothered and kept tainting the paper with coal. Then when he sat down across from her, he noticed the scattered parchments that covered most of the table as well as the untouched tray of food near.

     "Ariyanna, you need to eat." He tells her calmly at first, not allowing himself to be scared of his own daughter for she did not seem like it for one. "You are scaring your brother who you turn away."

     "I turn him away because he worries for me and if I see that sliver of care, I will face the wrath of grief that I am not ready to deal with yet." Ariyanna explains blankly, not once had she looked at her father in front of her and kept her head down.