ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴄᴜʀꜱᴇᴅ ᴄʀᴏᴡɴ ☠♕AEGON II & AEMOND TARGARYEN☠♕

Chapter One

If the gods did exist, they remained painfully indifferent in regards to Camilla Strong.

Their blind eye became fixed the moment she was born in the crumbling ruins of Harrenhal. A premature birth, the girl was not expected for another two months. Her mother meant for her birth to be seen in the warmth and light of the Seven. Under the guise of King's Landing with her lord husband's family. She provided for her husband three children before Camilla. The babe meant to be a blessing. Women at her age did not carry to full term and live to tell the tale.

The labor had been the easiest of them all. Perhaps due to Camilla's size, that's what the maesters said, at least. The child barely cried once pulled out from her mother. There would be tales about the girl's silence: she witnessed the ghosts of Harrenhal first hand and was too speechless to utter a single cry.

Camilla Strong would always be a quiet girl, and the rumors of her deathsight would follow the girl into adulthood.

But, in truth, she did cry. Days later when she and her mother left for King's Landing. She cried so loudly on the road, her lady mother needed to pass her onto her wetnurse. Another first. Lady Strong had prided herself in taking care of her newborn children. The woman's age, newfound stress, and leaving so soon after giving birth was a recipe for disaster.

The woman suffered a great fever once arriving in King's Landing. The woman died days later in her sleep, holding  Camilla.

The Strong family mourned and vowed to care for Camilla the best they knew how.

~

Camilla held onto the hope that Aemond would come through the door any minute now.

The boy became a central focus for the young girl about a year ago. She had no clue how to read people, so if he felt similar, Camilla would never know. But in her fantasies, the Targaryen's soft eyes and respectful voice carried her and lulled her to sleep.

She often felt out of place with people, but interactions became easier once she learned how to mimic expressions and body language. Sometimes the cover slipped, especially when she was spoken to. With Aemond, Camilla did not need to worry about hiding. As a prince, he was nauseatingly respectful to women. He never pushed her to speak and often steered her, politely, out of the conversation. Like Camilla and his sister, Helaena, Aemond preferred silence.

The boy, his elder brother Aegon, and their nephews were down at the Dragon Pit. Non-Targaryens were not permitted. They had been gone for hours. Camilla's skin had begun to itch. She needed to see him.

Just a glance would do. It always did. The girl did not want much from him.

Camilla rubbed a finger against one of Helaena's bug boxes. Her mind went numb the harder she pressed. The paint on that side had faded a long time ago. She laid on her side while her best friend and mother, the Queen, chatted beside her.

The Queen was Mother. Mother for many years now. Mother did not fear Camilla and her curse of Harrenhal. Because Mother was devout. The gods had their eyes on her.

"It has eyes," Helaena mumbled, inspecting a long-legged insect. "But I don't believe it can see."

"And why is that so, do you think?" Mother asked.

"It is beyond our understanding."

Camilla's lower body jerked. A sound escaped her mouth from the force of the movement and her eyes became unblinking. It was over the moment it began. Mother and her beauty held the girl to her chest. Using the cuff of her green dress, Mother wiped the corners of Camilla's mouth.

The fabric fell into her body and made her insides crawl. Camilla sat up and tugged at her mouth to pull it out. The more repetitive she was, the more came out and the better her body felt. "Thank you, Mother," she said into the floor, never once letting up her pulling.

Mother's chamber doors opened. A guard with his shiny gold armor held a charred Aemond by his arm. Camilla's tugging intensified, as she watched the boy. Solace filled her to the brim. Her skin, now dried and chapped, stung. Camilla tucked her bottom lip into her mouth.

"They gave me a pig!" Aemond shouted. "They said they found a dragon for me."

A pig? Pigs were not dragons. Camilla did not understand. Pigs were not dragons and dragons were not pigs. Did Aemond not understand that? Camilla wished to stand and explain it to him. Maybe then the sorrow in his eyes would not blind her.

"You will have a dragon one day," Mother promised.

Helaena twirled the bug between her fingers. "He'll have to close an eye. All for her blood."

~

"Do you believe in dragon dreams?"

Camilla's brother, Larys Strong, did not like to be interrupted when teaching her. But ever since yesterday, Helaena's words circled in Camilla's brain like a vortex.

"Interrupting is rude and uncouth," she quickly said. She gently rocked in her seat and stared at her open book. "But as are my thoughts. You know everything about books and people and Harwin knows everything about being a brute. Knowing takes away the fear, you always say that. What does your head tell you about dragon dreamers?"

The second son of Lyonel Strong looked at his young sister, his protegee, with lingering annoyance. The girl was a wonder, never fitting in anywhere. He observed her growing intelligence and chose to take her under his wing as a private tutor. His father did not mind. Larys was brilliant and unassuming with his physical disability. Camilla had no physical troubles, but her mind was a different story. Between insistent rocking, her inability to hold the simplest of conversations, and the seizures, perhaps his sister had been cursed.

But even a curse had its uses.

"You speak of Helaena Targaryen."

Camilla nodded with widdening eyes. If Larys did not know better, he'd assume she was sleepwalking. "Dreams led the Targaryen family to Westeros. Daenys the Dreamer had visions of the fall of Valryia. Had she not dreamed, and had her father not believed, the world would be a very different place."

Yes, there would be no Aemond.

"Camilla," Larys warned. "Remember to keep your thoughts inside."

The girl rocked harder. "S-sorry."

Children tried to keep themselves hidden, especially where love was concerned. It did not take a mastermind to see that both his sister and Prince Aemond fancied each other. Camilla had the favor of the Queen, as well. A second daughter, arguably. Larys entertained the idea of marriage between his father and brother one night, but his words were shot down. Camilla was too young, too unstable to ever be married to a man of such high decree. They wanted to keep the girl safely locked away.

"You believe then?"

"You are looking for confirmation to feel what you already feel," Larys told her. "What I believe does not matter if you believe, with all your heart, that the young Targaryen has visions. But she must have told you something that concerned you, no?"

His sister violently shook her head. Larys assumed as much. Camilla disliked the vague. It was a wonder she and Helaena were friends. "'She', she had said. Helaena never uses names but I felt it inside that 'she' is me." Camilla stopped moving. "I will bleed in order for Aemond to have a dragon."