Bronze Beauty | Daemon Targaryen

A Child Is Born

Year: 95 AC

It was said that when Diana Royce was born, the Gods, Old and New embued their wisdom into her. Even as a young child, she possessed a poise and confidence not seen in even the wisest and fairest of maidens. This was a blessing to some, but to Old Yolbert Royce, it was concerning.

No matter how much he loved his granddaughters, they were just that: daughters. Two little girls, the older set to inherit the Lordship of Runestone if his son Yolden's wife Hera didn't provide him with a male heir.

The girls were as different as night and day. Rhea, the eldest sister and Yolden's heir, was all confidence and blunt words, while Diana was content to shine from the shadows, allowing her sister to draw most of the attention. The girls were close, both with a love for riding and hunting, but while Rhea revelled in the chase and kill, Diana found peace in the woods, surrounded by nature and bathing the horses and hounds that followed the party in praise and attention.

When the game proved too fast or competent for capture, Rhea was known to pout for days, raging in the comforts of her rooms while Diana fought to soothe her with kind words and gestures.  The younger daughter simply saw the hunt as a chance to spend time uninterrupted with her family; the hunt was merely the icing on the top.

That wasn't to say Diana wasn't as, if not more, skilled in bowmanship or horsemanship than her sister. On the contrary, she practiced every day and excelled. She never hesitated to take the shot while hunting and always ensured the kill was clean, even if it meant using a hunting knife and getting her hands soiled with blood.

But where the sisters differed was in their other studies. Rhea railed against her Septa, refusing to sit down for long periods to study the history of Westeros and all of the political manoeuvres taken by her family in the centuries since House Royce was founded. For a girl who was always on the move, being stationary for so long was torture.

As for Diana, she would be content to hide away in a dark and secluded corner with her books for all her days if allowed. Especially if that corner was comfortable with food, cushions, and her favourite hound to sit at her feet while she entertained herself with myths and legends of old, immersing herself in history.

Which itself proved to be a problem when the girl arrived for breakfast with dark circles under her eyes from staying up all night reading and not resting. Yolbert Royce never thought he would see the day when a father was forced to punish his child by taking away her books.

Diana pouted, of course, but unlike her sister, she didn't rail and scream for all to hear; instead, she chose to sit in sullen silence, which distressed her mother to no end. Hera Royce Nee Redfort dotted on her daughters and took great pride in their accomplishments and was dismayed at their failures.

In fact, both parents were uncharacteristically close with their children, considering they were of noble birth. Hera Royce fed both girls at her breast, refusing a wetnurse, and Yolden refused his advisors when they pushed him to try and father more children after it was revealed by the maester that Hera would have difficulties falling pregnant and carrying to term in the future after Diana's birth proved difficult.

When asked by his lords why Yolden refused to impregnate his wife, his son simply replied he would not risk his wife's life when he had two healthy heirs already. Then he scooped up the then two-year-old Diana and carried her away, uncaring when the jam from a tart the girl was eating stained his doublet.

It was when the girls turned eight and ten years old that things began to change, Rhea was expected to inherit Runestone one day, and as such, her studies differed from Diana's, who would one day marry a lord of her Father's choosing and leave to live and run his keep, birthing his children.