Stelsa, the girl crafted from the broken leftovers from the Gods, is far from the expectations of a normal lady. Her father, Aaeron Meryls, and her uncles sought to train her in the way of the blade. Many whisper about her origin - is she bastard li...
"Stelsa would be a winter storm INSIDE KING'S LANDING."
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STELSA NEVER NOTICED HOW much days dragged on. For so long it had seemed the days were a blur, and now every moment seemed agonizingly slower, every waking moment seemed tedious, and every nightfall seemed monotonous. The worst part is time seemed to continue working as it had for everyone else but her. She watched as bystanders tried to catch the time slipping between their fingers, while she stood still. It had been weeks, yet it was not long enough. Each evening Stelsa found herself tucked away in her secret garden, because that is all it was recently. Hers. Aemond was out of sight and consequently out of mind, for everyone but Stelsa it seemed. She had felt sad the first few weeks, longing to have Rhaenyra, Jace, and Luke back to occupy her time. When it became apparent that they would not be returning, Stelsa's sadness morphed into anger. They had abandoned her. They. Had. Abandoned. Her. What made it worse was Aemond still resided in the same walls as her, but he had taken to leaving her too. Did she miss the letter stating everyone must flee from her company? At the same time? Stelsa hated it. She hated, hated, hated it.
Stelsa squeezed her thumb tighter into her palm, eyes still trained on Heleana where she sat across from the queen. The princess had been eyeing the flower arrangements laid before them for the past hour it seemed, but Stelsa knew it had been just moments. The Queen had tightened her brows together and taken to tapping her fingers against her knee, annoyance brewing in her eyes as she waited for an answer. Stelsa broke from her thoughts and leaned forward, touching a bouquet of purple irises mixed with small, white flowers Stelsa did not quite know the name of, "What about these for the tables? I believe the purple and white are a beautiful contrast." Stelsa threw out, and that seemed to chase away the annoyance in the queen's gaze.
"I agree." Alicent responded, leaning forward to pick them up, "Heleana? Aegon? What do you think?" Stelsa turned to Heleana who nodded, her eyes practically gleaming at the choice. She felt assured in her choice then, even though Stelsa knew nothing about this sort of thing, at least it seemed to make Heleana happy. That was all that mattered. Someone had to be happy and it surely would not be Stelsa.
"As long as there is wine, I will be content." Aegon mused from where he laid across a couch, one arm thrown over his eyes while the other toyed with a gold glass of wine. Stelsa moved closer to Heleana, but was careful not to touch her. She wanted to protect her, but Stelsa found it difficult to. How could she? Here Stelsa sat helping plot Heleana's demise and said nothing to object to it. Why was she sitting here as though she had no tongue and could not defend Heleana? The prince she was to marry had taken to the cups more recently. Everyone in the palace knew that and his behavior showed it.
Stelsa could not remember a time in recent weeks that Aegon was not drunk or holding a glass of wine. That was all he did now, all he was. Stelsa hit the wooden sword against the dummy before her – finding it to be an outlet to the anger she felt inside her. She could not say what she wished. Could not do as she pleased. When had her life become so constrained? When did her life become this way? Stelsa stepped back from the dummy for a moment, arms burning at her sides at the fire inside threatened to spew from her fingertips. She was the only one left that attended training. Jace and Luke had taken off. Aemond had locked himself away. Aegon was drinking his life away.
