𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 | 𝗮𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗿𝘆𝗲𝗻

Chapter 23: wedding day

120 d. C

King's Landing

After many moons had passed, the time had finally come. Daemon would marry Rhaenyra and no one could say anything.

It had been difficult to convince Viserys to accept their marriage.

At first he was opposed since he believed that Daemon only wanted to marry Rhaenyra to be king and not because he loved her.
However, after several weeks of his insistence and the many reasons he gave him of why he loved Rhaenyra, he finally accepted reality.

All he wanted was her. Not the crown. What's more, he had sworn allegiance to her to prevent future nobles from trying to skip her in succession and give him the crown.

Then he proclaimed to the seven kingdoms their betrothal and started planning their wedding.
Even if it was not their first time marrying Viserys had decided that the two most important people of his life deserved the celebration of the century. There was a two week tournament. Lords from all over the realm traveled to King's Landing for the opportunity to make advantageous betrothals of their offsprings now that the young kids of the royal family were starting to grow.

It was known to everyone that Shiera Velaryon had started to grow into a beauty. Soon to be at par with her mother's nickname of the realms delight.

Docens of Lords had sent letters with their proposals to the young princess with the intention of marrying their sons to the daughter of the future queen.

Another important thing was that Rhaenyra still hadn't confirmed her heir with the nobles of the kingdom. So for the moment the probability that Shiera would become the future queen in the future only increased the desire of the lords to win her hand.

Obviously this sudden interest in Shiera had made Aemond even more suspicious of everyone.

If he hadn't left her side before, now he tried at all costs to avoid her being left alone when he had sword training or history and philosophy lessons.
He had managed to get Nyra to allow Shiera to attend his lessons with him and always participate in some way in sword training.

If it's true that her blindness made her training a little more difficult, they had managed to find a tutor from Braavos. He was from a mercenary group called the Faceless men. They had experience with blind people and had accepted to teach her how to defend herself.
At first it had been difficult. Shiera had always been a soft child and the hard training hadn't helped.

Thankfully all those hard times were now at the back of her head as she paid attention to the ceremony that had revolutionized the entire of Westeros.

Both Rhaenyra and Daemon had chosen to wed in the old traditions of Valyria. Much to the chagrin of Alicent and Otto Hightower. They had argued that a marriage other than by the faith of the seven was blasphemous and therefore invalid. Obviously, because he had seen this coming, Daemon argued for his part that the Targaryens followed Valyrian customs and that as far as the faith of the seven was concerned, they were protected by the Doctrine of exceptionalism.

If it's true that the tournament had been open to the vast majority of nobles, the ceremony was taking place in a more intimate way.
Not everyone had the right to know the oldest customs of Old Valyria and only those closest to the royal family were present.

Rhaenyra and Daemon were both dressed in white robes which faded into a blood red at the hem of the sleeves. They had their hair up in intrincated braids and Rhaenyra sported a hair piece made of dragon scales.

As the officiant recited the Valyrian rites Daemon and Rhaenyra cut each other's lips, they used the blood that emanated from the wounds to paint the symbols of fire and blood on the others foreheads.