Caelyra: Sister-Wife and Dragonborn

9:I Return To You Always

"You must endure it like I do, Caelyra. It is the duty of being a Targaryen bride."

Caelyra looked at her mother as they broke their fast together in a small courtyard her mother usually  use as a dining place on nice days.

"Why?" she couldn't  help but ask. "Why must I let my brother walk all over me?"

Her mother sighed, reaching  over the table to touch her hand gently. "He isn't  just your brother anymore.  Just like my brother isn't  just my brother anymore. It is tradition  for brother and sister to be wed in our family, and we must accept it. You are his wife, child. He can do whatever  he wants with you, whenever  he wants."

Caelyra  gritted her teeth at her mother's  words. Had her mother become so numb to what is being done to her that she does not feel any pain for her own daughter?

"He treats  me like a whore, Mother.  Because  of lies and I...I can't  even proof to him that the lies are just that...lies."

"Oh, Cae..."

Her mother's  voice was full of sympathy  that sounded so fake that it made Caelyra  want to puke. Puke like she had that morning when she had woken up. Thankfully  to an empty room. She didn't need her brother to hover around her like a large fly to see if his hard work had paid off.

Cersei  Lannister  already  had spread the fake good news about her being pregnant. It had already been told to the King, who had summoned  her and Rhaegar  to court to confirm it. Rhaegar  had told the silly lie again, though he had not confirmed it, nor did he deny it.

"I want to be trea...ted fair...ly. Not like some bird in cap...tiv..ity whose wings were clipped. I'm  st...uck in a ca..ge, Moth...er." She cringed  inwardly  at the blunder yet again of speaking  slowly and with difficulty.

Sometimes, she spoke like everyone  else, but there are times when her mouth don't  want to form the words quickly enough and that is why she had been named retarded by many of the people  of court, including  the monster  who sits the Iron Throne.

It hurt her that no one  understood  that she would have to overcome  years of silence from her lips.

Her mother didn't  reply to that, a look of some sort on her face that Caelyra  had seen so many times before.  It was annoyance  and something  else, and it was directed at her as always.

Because  she had always been the bane of her mother's existence, her father's  accusations of it being her mother's  fault for birthing a child such as her standing between them forever.

Caelyra had come to accept  it. But it still stung that she could not have a relationship with her mother like her brothers had. An untarnished relationship that  flourished with care. Though, to be fair, her mother did love her, she was quite certain  of it. It just wasn't  like the love she held for Viserys and Rhaegar.

"Have you gone to see the Maester?" her mother asked.

"No, why?"

"To confirm  your brother's words, Cae."

Caelyra snorted unladylike. "What that old fool Pycelle  knows is dangerous.  He'll  probably  kill my babe before I can b–

"Caelyra!" the Queen hissed, her eyes narrowing. "Do not make a mockery of the death of a babe." She clutched  her pregnant  belly protectively. "You know how many I...." She trailed off, tears forming in her eyes.

Caelyra  felt guilty for a moment, remembering  how much  life had been cruel to her mother whenever she had birthed a babe, or miscarried one.

"I'...m sor...ry. "