Perzys Ānogār {HOTD}

lanta

Visenya and Aemond had returned to the Red Keep and Visenya immediately went to find Aegon. She knew the jokes and teasing were a way to make him feel better about himself, but Visenya wouldn't let him keep targeting Aemond. They were family, they had to stick together, especially since the family was already divided enough. The Greens and the Blacks people called them.
The Greens were the Hightower-Targaryens. Queen Alicent, Visenya, Aegon, Helaena, Aemond, Daeron and Otto Hightower. The Blacks were King Viserys, Rhaenyra, Daemon, Jace, Luke, and the Velaryons. The divide was clear, and the tension between the two sides could be cut with a knife.

Word had spread around the keep of the birth of the Prince Joffrey Velaryon like wild fire. The midwives said he was born strong, kicking like a goat.
Strong indeed, Visenya thought.
None of Rhaenyra's children resembled their supposed father. They held no Velaryon features, they didn't even have the silver hair that both Valyrian houses had. They did, however, resemble Ser Harwin Strong, captain of the city watch. Everyone could see that Rhaenyra's children were Harwin Strong's. Even blind Maester Elwyn could see it, and the man lost his sight ten years ago. Well, everyone except King Viserys. He ignored all of Rhaenyra's indiscretions, and seemed to have no issue with her flaunting her illegitimate children around the keep, nor with the fact that a bastard would take the throne after her. If his plan to crown his eldest daughter actually went ahead, that is.

Visenya knew Aegon would want to be as far from the hustle and bustle of the new royal baby as possible. The blatant favouritism their father had for his oldest child was a sensitive subject for his five youngest children. Aegon especially, who also had a strained relationship with their mother. His penchant for wine and shirking his duties as a prince made their mother more critical of Aegon than the rest.

There were many hidden passages in the red keep, built by Maegor the Cruel, and Visenya and her siblings took full advantage of them. Visenya pushed open a false wall revealing a stone passageway that lead straight through the keep to the East side. It was eerie walking bellow the keep, several tonnes of stone and hundreds of courtiers walking above you. It was an unsettling thought that the walls and ceilings could collapse on her at any minute, but the princess was on a mission to find her twin and the passage was the quickest way across the keep.

She knew that Aegon would be at their spot. An old room that was used by one of their mothers former ladies in waiting. She had moved to the Dreadfort in the North after her marriage to Lord Bolton, and the room was never taken by anyone else. Visenya and Aegon had made the empty room their own, they'd brought blankets and pillows, logs for the fire, a stack of books from the library, and a stash of wine from the cellar. Aegon wasn't a reader, but sometimes he liked it when Visenya would read to him after a bad day. They would sit for hours, hiding from everyone, talking and drinking.

Visenya saw the true Aegon in the hours they spent together. He was determined and ambitious, perhaps in the wrong ways, but determined and ambitious nonetheless. He wanted to be better than their nephews at all costs. He wanted love and approval from their parents and Visenya. He knew they would be married soon, and he wanted her to love him as much as he loved her. He was full of self-doubt, thinking he wasn't good enough to be king, or that he wasn't good enough to love.
So, Visenya spent their time together reassuring him, loving him and trying to pull him away from the wine that made him feel all those negative emotions ten times worse.

As she opened the door to the room, she saw the logs burning in the fire and her twin lounging on the bed with a cup of wine. She closed the door gently behind her and stood at the edge of the bed.
"What you done earlier was cruel," she stated.

"It was just a joke," he sighed.

"You humiliated our brother in front of the little Lord Strongs," Visenya chastised, "you know Aemond hates that he doesn't have a dragon, you know it upsets him."