Come Back To Me

Chapter 12

Later that evening, Daena spent the rest of her day sleeping in her chambers. Partly from exhaustion of her late night festivities and lessons with Daemon, but mostly to avoid another supper with the greens. Every bit of her felt drained to the point where she didn't even change out of her fighting clothes. The king wouldn't be in attendance due to his rest, so she decided to take that as her attendance for supper being optional.

That was until the doors to her chambers swung wide open with Rhaenyra storming in, slamming them shut behind her. Daena had jolted from her sleep, instinctively reaching underneath her mattress until she saw it was her mother.

"What in seven hells is wrong with you? After everything your grandsire, the king, said and you cannot even be bothered to attend supper with your family?" Rhaenyra was nearly out of breath from the rage building inside her. Daena sat up with a groan when she felt how sore the muscles in her back were.

"Mother, I apologize for not joining my family, but I will not join...his family. I was willing to keep my mouth shut and head down, but his son wished to continue to taunt me and my brothers. If I am to be in a room with him, I may very well take his other eye and I know you do not wish for any more trouble." Daena crossed her arms as her eyes narrowed. All that crossed her mind was that smug look on his face.

"Daena, you can't...you cannot let this rage consume you." Rhaenyra stepped forward sympathetically, but Daena rose to her feet with her voice raised with returned anger.

"Yes, I very well can! You have no idea what he did to me! Do you have any idea what it is like to one night wake up and you cannot even remember your own name?! Or my own mother's face?! And to have my grandfather sit there and tell me the last bit of who I am is being taken. I don't know who I am! I am absolutely no one! I am nothing! There isn't anything for me! And it's all because of him!" Daena was practically screaming at this point, pacing back and forth as tears ran down her face.

"I'd imagine losing an eye might spark similar feelings." Rhaenyra finally reclaimed her anger, but Daena stopped in her paces and just stared at her in disbelief. Rhaenyra cleared her throat, lowering her voice "And I'd wager your brother lost just as much because of that very same boy yet you do not see him openly attacking or insulting them."

"Lucerys is still just a child."

Rhaenyra arched an eyebrow, narrowing her eyes as she rubbed her swollen belly. "I was talking about Jacerys."

Daena's face was riddled with confusion. The two stared each other down, until Rhaenyra patted the bed and sat. Daena joined her side and took her mother's hand. "What exactly does Jace have to do with this?"

"Your brother...was to marry Princess Helaena. Their betrothal was about to be announced just as Alicent announced Helaena's betrothal to Aegon."

"What does this have to do with me? Or Aemond for that matter?" This must've been from before the incident. She searched every inch of her mind, but still only found those gray patches looming over.

"Jacerys overheard Aemond speak with his mother just before it was announced. He was trying to prevent your betrothal to Aegon." Rhaenyra scanned her daughter's face for any sign of a twinkle in her eye. She'd hoped maybe it would bring back something, but instead Daena looked thoroughly confused. "And when your title was stripped, your brother was then pushed next to be my heir. One day he will return to King's Landing and have to face her and him every day. To love someone in secret is one of the cruelest things I would never wish upon anyone."

Daena stared down at her hands folded in her lap. She loved her brothers dearly, but never once thought what that night truly did to them. They never really brought it up after their return to Dragonstone. When she'd ask her brothers about it or make a joke of it, she'd get shut down immediately. Eventually she learned to just never bring it up. All she knew of that night was what one of her cousins told her.