twin flames | daemon targaryen

two

"Rhaella, my love," Aemma said softly, brushing her fingers through Rhaella's curls. The sun was beginning to descend in the sky, coloring the clouds in magnificent rays of pink and gold. Aemma's handmaidens were bustling about her chambers, preparing everything for her impending labors. Aemma winced as pain shot through her stomach.

"Rhaella," Aemma said again, her voice more firm. Rhaella shifted in her arms, nestling her head further into the side of Aemma's swollen stomach.

"Muña," Rhaella murmured back. "Let me stay here with you." Aemma laughed, running her hand once more through her youngest daughter's hair. It reminded her of the days when Rhaella was a toddler and would not go to sleep unless Aemma sat in bed with her. It would take Aemma nearly half an hour to untangle herself from her daughter and she often just gave up and slept in the princess's small bed.

"Your father wants you to join him for dinner tonight," Aemma reminded her. "Your cousins will be there, Laena and Laenor. You always enjoy their company." Rhaella sighed, lifting her head to look at her mother.

"You are right," Rhaella admitted. Laenor and Laena were perhaps her favorite people of the Targaryen family, though they were technically Velaryons.

The three were nearly the same age and when they accompanied their father to the Red Keep for Small Council business, they would always be found with Rhaella somewhere in the gardens or in the dragon pit to visit Seasmoke and Gaelith.

"Go, you must bathe before you join them," Aemma urged her, wincing as another pain shot through her. Rhaella frowned at the movement and stared at her mother worriedly.

"Dinner is not for several hours," Rhaella reminded her mother quickly, placing her hand upon her mother's swollen stomach as though she can ease her pain with a simple touch. "Muña, I do not wish to leave you."

"And why not, sweet one?"

Rhaella hesitated. The Old King Jaehaerys appeared in her mind, the promise he made her and Daemon made ringing in her ears. There was no way that Rhaella could tell her mother of her dreams. She could not tell her how she saw Baelon's birth and death nor how she watched her mother die on the birthing bed, cut open and bloody because of the whims of man. She could not tell her mother that she feared this would be the last time she saw her.

"I just worry for you, mother," Rhaella said finally, struggling to hide her desperate worry. Aemma chuckled, oblivious as she placed her hand atop Rhaella's.

"Dear one, I should be worrying for you, not the other way around. I will be fine. This is not the first time that I have been on the birthing bed. Hopefully this time I may give you a little brother, though your sister believes the babe to be a girl."

"He will be named Prince Baelon," Rhaella said. Aemma tilted her head, looking at her daughter with eyes full of adoration.

"You think it's a boy as well?" Rhaella nodded her head, and Aemma's smile grew upon her lips. "And you want to name him Baelon? That is a strong name, I like it."

The two were quiet for several moments, taking the other in for what would likely be the last time, though Aemma did not know it. Rhaella stared into her mother's bright blue eyes and promised in that moment that she would never forget how they seemed to reflect the sky on clear summer days. In the last months, Aemma had become weak and pale as the pregnancy wore on her. Her hair fell limply upon her shoulders and there was strain with every movement. Her eyes, though, still held that kindness, that gentle fire Rhaella had known all her life.

"You are so beautiful, Rhaella," Aemma said finally, reaching up to cup her daughter's cheek in her palm. "My peaceful, little dragon. You are one of the many blessings in my life." She blinked back tears as she gazed at her youngest child.