Tales Of The Heart [Aemond Targaryen]

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

And if you were an endless path,

I was created for this journey.

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I can't figure out if the queasy feeling in my stomach is from coming to terms with Daemon Targaryen as my actual father or the sudden realization that my mother's necklace is missing from around my neck.

The day is still very fresh in my memory when she took the necklace off her neck and then secured it around mine. 

This will protect you where I can’t. She whispered like it was our little secret.

And it was protecting me or as my step–now biological–father explains, it was protecting me and everyone around me.

“Why?” I uttered, holding tears at the brink of my eyes. “Why do people need to be protected from me?” The hurt was clear in my voice as Rhaenys Targaryen averted her eyes from me towards the open sky.

“What am I?” 

There it is, I've finally said it—the question that's been haunting me.

The question, once confined to the depths of my thoughts, now echoed audibly, breaking the silence that had surrounded it for so long. Eyes turned towards me, and I could feel the weight of the moment.

It was as if a door had opened, revealing a path to understanding, resolution, or perhaps even more questions.

Daemon Targaryen approached me with a deliberate and measured stride. “You-” he softly kept his hand above mine, “are my daughter.” He claimed in a firm tone. 

He is not sure. He doesn’t have an answer to my question.

"Your daughter," I withdrew my hand abruptly, "nearly killed the king and his entire family." The words emerged harsher than I had intended, my teeth clenched under the strain. He retreated his hand to his side.

Striving to regain composure, I inquired further, “There must be a reason why you chained me to Caraxes. You must know something.”

I struggled to maintain a hushed tone, but my efforts were in vain. Desperately seeking solace, I instinctively reached for the base of my neck, hoping to find comfort in my mother's necklace. To my dismay, there was nothing to grasp.

“Listen to me, Maenya, I’ll answer your questions but not while you are this exposed and vulnerable to your emotions.” His hand came to hold my face as he tried to assure me. “Do you have something you can keep close all the time?” 

His question startled me. “why?”

“To be bound as a protection talisman.” My grandmother answered. “And that object is supposed to be with you all the time. Just like your mother’s necklace.” She came close to my bed.

My father was already taking a look around my things as I joined his search, a glint crossed my mind. I reached out under my pillow to get the fancy yet lightweight dagger. I am not used to carrying blades with me but I guess now I should. 

Father took the dagger from my hands and unsheathed it. “From where did you score such a tempting blade?” His eyes were on the sharp object in his hands.