twin flames | daemon targaryen

eleven

Rhaella opened her eyes to the sounds of screams filling her chambers, so loud and high-pitched that her ears rang from the intensity. Then she realized she was the one screaming.

"Princess! Princess! You are okay! Calm down!" A woman shouted over Rhaella's screams, her brown eyes wide with fright. 

Rhaella looked around frantically, hurriedly pushing herself up into a sitting position. Her sheets fell from where they laid on her chest to pool around her hips. Rhaella shivered as a blast of cold air hit her sweat-soaked nightgown. She looked over and saw several of the windows were open. 

Her chambers were filled with several handmaids, all of them standing around her bed with frightened and worried expressions. Rhaella breathed heavily as goosebumps covered her skin, the princess near the point of hyperventilating as her eyes trailed over the unfamiliar faces around her.

"Rhaella, breathe!"

Rhaella turned her head to see Laena standing at her side. Her beautiful cousin was crying, heavy tears falling down her cheeks. Dark rings circled her eyes as she looked at Rhaella with a panic-stricken expression.

"Wh-what?" Rhaella could barely talk.

"Breathe!" Laena urged her again, her violet eyes wide with fear. Rhaella stared at her, trying to copy the slow breaths in and out that Laena was demonstrating for her. The Targaryen princess's heart beat began to slow, her head pounding as everything around her came into focus.

"Rhaella, how do you feel? Does anything hurt?" Laena asked her as Rhaella calmed down, reaching forward and taking Rhaella's clammy hands in her own.

The doors to the chambers opened, bringing in a gust of warm air. Everyone looked to see Rhaenys walk inside with a maester in House Velaryon's service.

"Princess, you are awake," the maester greeted with relief. Rhaenys raced to Rhaella's side, standing next to Laena as she took the other of Rhaella's hands in her own. The younger Targaryen had never seen Rhaenys so scared than she did in that moment at her bedside.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Rhaella asked the maester, her voice hoarse. It felt like she had swallowed sand, and Rhaella started to cry at the pain, her eyes flitting back and forth between the maester and Rhaenys.

"Dear girl, you've been asleep for a week," Rhaenys whispered to her, running her other hand over Rhaella's knotted curls. Rhaella stared at her in disbelief, tears still running past her cheeks.

"You came down with a fever the night you arrived at High Tide," the maester explained, making his way around the bed. He tutted softly as he reached forward and laid the back of his hand gently against the skin of her forehead. "You are still a bit warm. When the ladies came to wake you the next day, they found you murmuring in your sleep and feverish."

"We feared the worst," Laena muttered, hiccuping as she brushed away her own tears. "This morning, you just started screaming. You were still asleep, yet you were screaming. You would not wake up no matter what we did."

"I—" Rhaella paused, her mind suddenly flooded with images from her dreams. Her stomach lurched as the image of Rhaenyra being burned alive flashed before her eyes, and one of the handmaidens was quick to bring a basket up for Rhaella as she vomited.

"And you say that you have never heard of this before?" Rhaenys asked the maester softly, watching Rhaella carefully as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and laid back against her pillows, the energy drained from her. "She looked on the verge of death and now she is awake—"

"I will write to the Citadel," the maester promised. "Perhaps some have seen this affliction before. It could be from someone who came to King's Landing for the hunt that the princess came into contact with."