Alicent Hightower raised a bastard - The Stranger's Child.
Except she didn't.
Naenyra looked nothing like the Targaryen beauty that her father expected. She was, as her mother always wished, a Hightower at heart, and how she looked only proved it...
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There was one thing about Daeron's arrival that had Nyra on edge, something that she knew she would eventually need to explain to her other family, and she could only pray that they would understand. If anything, it was a good precursor to understanding the other's reaction to him, a way for her to try and soften the blow. Her aunt and uncle had welcomed him in with open arms but Daeron was different, he had seen what effects Rhaenyra's children had on court - how they had been allowed privileges that Nyra was not granted, even as a trueborn daughter.
"You're nervous." Ness noted after a while, Nyra's eyes lost as she was toying with white sage, the leaves look tattered as they kept slipping from the twine. It wasn't often that Nyra was nervous but seeing her fiddle with something she was so used to doing with ease surprised Ness; she knew by now that the young girl was thinking deeply. "Share your thoughts." She told her, a kettle in hand.
Nyra dropped the bundle, sinking back in her seat as she shot a look to her aunt. "I'm not nervous." She muttered defensively.
"You've got half of that smudge stick on the table," Ness pointed out, Nyra looking down. She had made a mess of it. "Don't try to lie to me, I've known you for far too long for you to be dishonest in this house. Spill it."
She swallowed. "I'm going to have Daeron meet Harwin later." The act itself was making her nervous, her brother having developed a distaste for the Knight that had been bold enough to all but claim those children in the training yard that day. She could still see it, the way his fist kept pummeling into Criston's face, the way he had defended them so fiercely. The King would never have done such a thing for her, and Harwin had done it because of some teasing.
Her aunt paused, pouring the hot water into a pot, watching the steam curl from the bowl before glancing at her niece. "And that is a problem because...?"
She had never told her aunt this, though she was sure she had heard some of the rumours - Ness had visited King's Landing a handful of times. Nyra went back to picking at the bundle. "He is the father of Rhaenyra's children." The room fell silent, a deep breath rattling through Ness.
"And you think your brother will not understand?" Nyra shook her head. How could he understand that at the age of nine, she had asked Ser Harwin to swear to her? That part of her knew a war would brew in the future between the two factions of her house, that by having Ser Harwin at her side, she would have the upper hand over her sister?
Ness left the side before coming around and sitting beside her niece, taking hold of her hand. "Do you know, Naenyra, I was there the day your mother decided to reclaim her house?" She began, Nyra's dark eyes lifting to her aunt. "It was Rhaenyra and Laenor's wedding, Harwin Breakbones was there as well - I remember him well, he carried your sister from the fight when Criston killed that boy." Perhaps then it should have been seen as an omen for the years to come.
