twin flames | daemon targaryen

forty-eight

Time on the island of Driftmark stood still. The war cries of the Targaryen dragons ceased, and the inhabitants of Spice Town and Hull slowly crept out from their hiding spaces, looking up at the sky apprehensively. Waves from the Blackwater Bay continued to batter against the coast of the island, the only sounds to be heard as the world seemed to hold its breath, waiting, anticipating, preparing.

Then the Red Queen and her Rogue Prince descended on the castle of High Tide.

The sun shined down upon Rhaella, its golden rays caressing and surrounding her and her white golden hair until a halo seemed to glow over her head. Her dress, still muddied and torn from her escape from the Red Keep, fluttered about her ankles in the sea breeze, causing her to appear as though she was floating above the stone pathway to the castle like she was too ethereal and otherworldly to touch upon the stone.

Daemon walked beside her, his eyebrows furrowed, his hand on the hilt of Dark Sister at his side, fury radiating off of him. The sun did not caress him, it bent around him and avoided him, leaving him in dangerous darkness. His clothes were still soaked with the blood of the Hightower soldiers he had killed in the Red Keep, a warning to the crowd beginning to gather as they entered High Tide.

As the Red Queen and the Rogue Prince entered the castle, the crowd that had gathered both outside and in could only stare. Their jaws dropped at the sight of the Targaryens, and their hearts thundered in their chest as they stared at the haggard and dangerous appearances of Rhaella and Daemon before them. It was clear that the rumors that had already begun to spread of what had occurred in King's Landing that morning had been true.

The King was dead. The dragons, black and red and green, were divided. Rhaella Targaryen, their Peaceful Princess and now their Red Queen, was Heir, the next Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.

Many who lived within the halls of High Tide and in the ports of Spice Town and Hull had known the youngest daughter of Viserys and Aemma for as long as they had been alive. She was known to Driftmark, having fostered on the island in her youth and serving as a constant presence on the island of Driftmark for the last decade, raising her children on the island ruled by the Sea Snake after her home of Dragonstone had been claimed by Rhaenyra.

Rhaella would bring her seven children into the port towns on the island to meet the merchants, many of whom she had known since she was a girl. Rhaella would show her children the sights and sounds of the port towns, opening their worlds to life outside of nobility where the smallfolk, the heart of the Seven Kingdoms, resided.

Rhaella and her seven dragons fished off the docks in Spice Town, and it was in the town that they were introduced to the cultures of lands beyond Westeros by speaking and bartering with merchants who had traveled as far as Volantis to trade in the bountiful ports under the Sea Snake's purview.

The Reds would speak and dance with the musicians in the streets of Hull, and Rhaella would invite the musicians to come into High Tide to perform for House Velaryon and Targaryen and the traveling nobility residing in the castle. Rhaella would ensure the musicians and the fishermen who provided food for the fanciful feasts in High Tide were given coin and food far more generous than anything they ever would have received before, and tales of Rhaella's generosity and graciousness traveled over the island.

Rhaella Targaryen had placed herself in the center of life on Driftmark and invested fully in it. She and her family had become one with the people of the island and the thriving culture the island housed. She helped renew their economy by securing new trades with Essos. She ensured the people of the island were fed, housed, and employed by working with Corlys to provide funds for the businesses in the ports. She taught her children to help the people who depended on them as members of the ruling House in Westeros rather than use them for their products and coins, and Baelon had already begun to follow in her footsteps in helping to rule the island and its flourishing society.