"We come from pure strength Daenerys." Her brother told her as he flipped through the old tome. "Viserra Velaryon. As untamable as the sea itself. Her brother Aemar. A greenseer and a mighty warrior. Aemond Targaryen. Rider of Vhagar, the largest dr...
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"War, is afoot again in the Stepstones Rhaenyra." Laenor reported later that afternoon when he had returned to her bedchamber. He had been out with his. . . companion Ser Qarl drinking in celebration of his latest son's birth when he had heard the news and returned to the Keep. "The Triarchy takes new life from its alliance with Dorne. They're waylaying ships and cargo. Qarl's been fighting there. He showed me -" he drunkenly fell into the chair across from her just before the hearth. "He showed me a sack of sapphires as big as walnuts he took from the pirate he slew."
Rhaenyra looked unimpressed as she stared blankly at him.
"Ah, after all this time this is just what I need, a little adventure. A good, honest battle to enliven my blood again. He says there is a Tyroshi general there, a giant they say, who dyes his beard purple and wears women's frocks." he laughed, "A few months maybe, oh to be back at sea."
"Are you mad? Do you know what's happened? While you've been guzzling all the ale in Fleabottom? Gods know what besides."
Disheartened, Laenor sobered up enough to be disappointed as his heart sank. "Dark rumors are hunting us Laenor. They nip at our heels. Questions about our sons' parentage. Vile, disgusting insinuations."
"Disgusting? Vile?" he questioned and her head tilted and her eyes widened some. "You must not find it so disgusting or vile when you are procreating with -"
"Do not." she warned, "I have never called your, friends and your, hobbies such things."
"No, you have been kind enough not to." he sighed, "But the way you speak now, as if offended by these disgusting, vile accusations when you yourself know they are true. Your real offense is that people use their eyes. You're offended, at the fact you have been caught."
"Would you not be?"
"I am not, even though I have been caught as well. Rumors plague me as well as they do you Rhaenyra. The difference is I do not have a throne teetering on the accusations."
"My throne is my birthright -"
"Then why have you not acted to secure it?" she looked shocked that he was pursuing this so far, "I understand your need to seek comfort in the arms of another man. But if the throne meant so much to you why not. . . finish in other ways? Ways that do not lead to another questionable child. Why not drink moontea to ensure the consequences do not come back to haunt you as they are right now? I am led to believe that you love your children more than the throne and that is good, that is as it should be. I love those boys as well, with all my heart. But you seem to desire both and seem so, aghast, that someone, or more than one someone, has been whispering things behind your back that threaten that perfect idea in your head."
She was silent, Laenor had never spoken to her this way.
"We all have a pretty picture in our heads Rhaenyra. But then life steps in and shatters the image like glass. We can try and mend it but some pieces, some shards are just too broken to stick back together. I thought we both learned that after our wedding feast. We scooped up the remains and have made the most of things. . . but the picture in your head is one where. . . you get everything you ever wanted. And no one, not even royalty gets to have that. Not in this world."
