When Rhea Royce died, the noble house of Royce blamed the Rogue Prince. Daemon Targaryen was the culprit for the downfall of the House, no matter what was said. Leaving Runestone with no Lord or Lady at its helm, a decision was made to promote a min...
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THE rise of darkness had become Donella's favourite time of day. She had grown into a routine of sorts in order to continue training with Aemond.
At first light, she would bring food to Helaena so that the Princess could break her fast. They would spend the morning together until Donella grew weary from her late night, and then the Lady would return to her rooms. She cited a different excuse every day. I should check up on your laundry. Layla is not feeling very well today, I need to spend some time with her. Princess, I think I have a stomach bug, I would hate if you or the babes caught something from me.
Donella would return for a nap, despite the cries of Layla who just begged for some peace once more. When Donella awoke, she would spend the rest of the day with the Princess, batting down any comments of concern. As the evenings drew in, Donella would rest once more (after feeding the little beasty, of course) until the darkness had blanketed King's Landing. As the clocks chimed midnight, she would slip out of her room in her most inconspicuous clothes, hair tied high behind a hood to meet Aemond in the courtyard.
He would often be hiding in the shadows as well, providing an extra task of finding the Prince before any training was to take place.
Their training regime would solely depend on the information which Donella could bring to him.
Tonight, she had something good,
"Helaena is pregnant once more."
Aemond cocked a small smile, "How far along?"
"Not very," Donella admitted, "And I don't believe that she even realises yet... Though, I am certain that she is."
Aemond pondered her claim for a moment, "If my sister doesn't realise that she is with child, how do you? Are you secretly a Maester in disguise?"
"No," Donella couldn't help but smile at his words, now that would be a good surprise, "But it's the little things. She had an aversion to olives during her last pregnancy. Tonight, she could barely stand to be in the same room as the salmon,"
"Olives and salmon are hardly the same,"
"No, but her reaction to them was."
Aemond pondered for a moment, before giving Donella a short nod, "Well done."
Donella's heart clung to his praise with all its might as a smile broke free of her restraints. She bounced happily on the spot as a wooden sword was passed to her.
Aemond didn't think that he'd ever seen someone as happy to receive a wooden stick as Donella was. He would admit that he had been hard on her during the past week. To him, it was important that Donella realised that swordplay wasn't just about your ability with the blade. It was about the condition of the body, the intelligence of the person wielding the blade, discipline, perseverance and so much more. The two things which were important that he was sure Donella had already mastered were simple. Observance and the desire to learn. It was why he insisted that she brought him a piece of information every night. Yes, it was part of their deal, and he had learned a great deal about the Lords and Ladies around the keep thanks to her information, but it also meant that Donella continued her original goal. She had gathered so many secrets about the inner workings of the court that it would not take a blade to take any of them down if she was smart about it. Rumours spread like dragon fire in the capital of Westeros.
Occasionally, Donella had a slow day in the Keep. Instead of bringing Aemond something valuable, she had brought him the rumour of a wife sleeping with a commoner. Boring stuff. He had rewarded the girl then by removing the sword from their training completely. One-hundred laps around the courtyard. Enough to completely wipe Donella out, raise her stamina and fitness level, and teach her that petty rumours were not payment for this transaction.
Tonight, she had done well. Picking up on the little details was something that Donella excelled at, especially with a person she knew as well as Helaena. Nobody else in the Keep would have noticed the early signs of the Princess' pregnancy, but Donella did. They would practice in a pair tonight.
"We're going to learn how to defend against attacks," Aemond explained as Donella took her position, "I will start slowly whilst you learn, but then we will speed the process up, are we clear?"
Donella gave a short nod, "I'm going to come straight at you. I want to see how you instinctively defend from me."
Aemond slowly slashed his sword in a diagonal motion from right to left. Donella ducked.
"What are you doing?"
"Dodging,"
"You're supposed to be defending,"
"The best way to avoid conflict is by avoiding the conflict,"
"Ella, if someone is trying to cut you down with a sword you have done a shit job at avoiding conflict. You are trying to block my attack, not duck underneath it. I would simply remove your head from your body instead."
Donella scowled but re-gripped the blade as she stared at him, ready to go once more.
Aemond explained her task this time, "You must determine where the attack is going to be made. I am going to swing my sword, but where will it make contact with your body? When you've decided, it's time to move your sword in the way in order to block the attack."
Aemond swung his sword in the opposite direction this time - slowly still. Donella's eyes darted between the key points of his body before she brought her sword up to defend her shoulder - where his sword would have hit,
"Good girl," He praised. Despite her focus, Donella's cheeks flushed pink, "Now push my sword down and away. Parry it."
She did as she was told, and the tip of Aemond's blade hit the floor with a wooden thud.
"Now again, but a little faster."
The pair continued like this for hours. What was first a scan of the motion of his body, became an instinctive move to Donella. They didn't work it up to full speed, of course - it was Donella's first night learning to defend, and Aemond really wasn't particularly keen on breaking her arm. But they were able to move as if they were engaging in a slow-motion spar.
Donella was learning a little too much about the way that Aemond's body moved. She could tell where his arm was going to land just by a twitch of his muscle. She knew where he was going to attack because of where his remaining eye looked. If he made a move to look, he was going to attack from his good side - the side where the eye studied her watchfully. If his eye did not move it was a little harder to determine. Aemond could not give away his movements if he could not look at where he would attack. She had to watch his arms then to determine their action.
Gods, his arms. Only someone built of sin itself could possess arms like that.
Maybe if Donella wasn't too busy studying Aemond's arms, she would have noticed Dyana's gaunt face in one of the windows.
