Blood Upon The Snow ||| Cregan Stark

one

"Twins, Princess! You have yourself a set!"

It was a surprise to all when Princess Rhaenyra gave birth to twins. They'd expected only one child for her first, she hadn't grown exceptionally large. But there they were.

A boy and a girl.

An odd pair, truly. They didn't look much alike. The girl was smaller than the boy. And many features of theirs were confusing.

The boy had brown hair. Deep and dark. Very uncharacteristic, since both of his parents had silver Targaryen hair. And his eyes. Not the pale purple. But deep brown.

On the other hand, the girl did have the silver hair. It was curly but silver still. What was strange about her, though, were her eyes. When she opened them, everyone was surprised. One of them was a pale purple. But the other was brown.

Mesmerizing. And odd. Both of them.

Whispers. They started small, easily dismissed. They'd had twins! Just like their father, Rhaenyra's children were twins. Couldn't that be proof enough? And of course, the brown hair and eyes could be explained away by the Baratheon blood from their grandmother.

The colour of their skin was a bit harder to explain. No tint, no melanin from their father. But even that could be brushed off as the pigment skipping a generation.

They weren't bastards. It was a silly rumour, nosy gossipers.

Jacaerys and Jacaera. In keeping with the custom of naming twins similarly, the babies were named. Just like their father and his sister.

As was tradition, each baby had an egg placed in their crib. The eggs were from their mother's dragon, Syrax. Jacaerys was given a green and yellow egg and Jacaera was gifted a purple and black egg.

Rhaenyra adored her twins. Her heirs.

She'd been told Jacaerys had been first, therefore he was the true heir. But Rhaenyra wouldn't ever know if it was the truth. She would have to trust it. Jace was her heir.

But she loved both of her twins equally. She cherished her first children, a spark of joy in the marriage of convenience. The two never wanted to be separated, they cried being forced into separate cradles.

Everyone had been right. Rhaenyra would never love anything the same as her firstborns. Lights of her life.

Having a daughter was something Rhaenyra had wanted. No matter when, she wanted a girl. To cherish as her mother had cherished her. Show her how big the world could be, how she could manipulate it.

It was clear to many, even from the moment Jacaera and Jace were presented to court, that she would capture hearts. The most unique maiden in the realm and she was only a child.

Rhaenyra wouldn't let Jacaera turn into a girl with an inflated head. But teaching her to use what features the gods had blessed her with would be vital. Many would wish to take advantage of her.

Some were not so easily fooled, however. Queen Alicent was skeptical the moment the twins were born. But one was a mistake. One pregnancy. The girl could be proof enough. If the next looked like their father.