The Dance Of Sapphires

4 - The tears of a mother and daughter

Jearionna

My mother asked me to come to her chamber, she had some bad news for me. All my way to her I worry more than I should and play with my blue sapphire necklace anxiously. I walk up to her door, nod to her knight and walk in. Her sitting on an armchair, rubbing her afterbirth stomach. She has a saddened and pained expression on her face and I start to get even more worried. What could have possibly happened? I walk up to her and she stops looking at the fire in the fireplace and looks up to me, with eyes glossy from tears.

"Oh, sweet girl..." she says lowly, her voice raspy and sore from crying. "What happend, mother?" I asked, going closer to her, taking her big hand in my smaller ones. She lets out a shaky breath. "Something has happened" she says. "Ser Harwin Strong has gotten in an accident" She frowns even more. I felt my heart break and my whole body shiver. I feel like throwing my guts out. "What kind of accident?" I feel my own eyes start to water. "There was a fire in Herrenhall and Harwin got burned alive" my mother reveals the truth and I start to cry. I loved Harwin he was always kind to me and my brothers, he made me laugh and took care of me. I loved my father, but Harwin Strong loved me like his own daughter. You could even say he raised me, ever since I was a babe, he was the one to spend the most time with me and now he's dead. I start to shake my head and whisper words of denial. But it was the cruel truth, my best friend, the man I owe everything is dead. I grasped my mother and she took me in her hold. She held me whilst I cried into her, gently rocking me back and forth. Once I was calm, but still crying, I excused myself from my mother and went to my room.

On my run to my room, I accidentally bumped into someone. I couldn't see who it was through my tears, but the person wasn't tall, taller than me, but not taller than adults. It was one of the kids. I look up and I see Aemond staring at me. He looks saddened over my condition and I remember the situation and start to cry even more. That's when he did the strangest thing, the most unexpected one, he brought me into a hug. He started holding me and gently sliding his hand up and down my back, just like I did to him that day in the gardens. I was far too caught in my saddness to be aware of what he did. It was Aemond, the boy who hated me more than anything and now he was holding my fragile body as I cried into his shoulder. Once I realized that we were standing in the middle of the hall, I broke our hug and took a few steps back. He only smiled with pity and took my hand, leading me to the gardens. The only place we used to get along, at least a little bit.

All the way to the gardens he held my hand protectively and I had calmed down a bit, not crying only sniffing and taking deep breaths. Once we got to the gardens he walked me to a tree furthest away from the castle and sat me there behind him. He brought his knees to his chest and held me close to him with both of his hands as I cried into his shoulder.

We sat there what felt like hours and once I couldn't cry anymore, I looked at him and asked "Why are you doing this to me?" "Because you did the same, even though I pushed you away" he said. "But I didn't even do anything, I left you" I said, regretting my past choices. "Yes, but you left, because you knew I wouldn't have wanted you to see that" he smiled at me. "Thank you" I whispered. "Thank you" I said again, almost like an echo. "No problem, sweetheart"

The next day we left and went to Dragonstone, I was sad. Aemond and I finally started getting along and that's all I ever wanted, us to be friends. But I also wanted to escape from Kings Landing and all the grief, so Dragonstone with the most fascinating castle and the most beautiful beaches was perfect.

I got one of the prettiest rooms in the castle, of grey stone and marble, with many different paintings of dragons and old Valyria on the walls, enourmous book shelves with the most beautiful collections of the most beautiful languages, fur rugs and the biggest fireplace. The room also had a huge dark wood, writing table and a small coffee table with two light green armchairs behind the fireplace. The bed was giant, stuffed with geese feathers and covered in Dornish silks, on top a northern fur.

But the best thing was the balcony, the balcony of carved stone railings and fancy armchairs, the best thing was the view, the black sea and harsh waves, strong mountains and rivers floating from them to the sea, almost like arteries that plump the blood to our hearts, white beaches that my brothers play at and salty winds that play around the black and red dragon sigil flags.

It was beautiful to say the least. I already loved the place.