Fire and Blood (Book One)

Chapter Twelve

Valaena found herself staring at Daemon for a while longer, she was still a bit anger over leaving Pentos and yet her feelings for him were just as strong as ever if not stronger. Her throat felt tighter along with her chest at the sight of him mourning, he like her and everyone present, was grieving his wife's death. Valaena reminded herself of this and looked away to focus on what was being said and she noticed all four of her children looking over at Daemon. The weather was terribly cold and the skies had turned darker with every passing hour, Laena's uncle Vaemond Velaryon delivered the eulogy in High Valyrian, in which he included several pointed remarks about Velaryon blood remaining pure while glancing at Rhaenyra Targaryen's alleged sons with Laena's brother Laenor, who looked nothing like him. While Laena's husband Daemon Targaryen was sombre at her death, he couldn't help but start giggling at Vaemond's pettiness in bringing this up now of all times, causing Valaena to subtly shake her head at his actions.

Laena's stone sarcophagi was dropped over a coastal cliff into the sea to rest beside her ancestors. The bereaved court then gathered at a Cliffside courtyard of High Tide castle for the wake, which was filled with long awkward silences and strained conversations: this event had forced Rhaenyra and Alicent Hihgtower's families to meet in one place again. This was right after Valaena and Rhaenyra had removed themselves from King's Landing to Dragonstone, due to the (accurate) rumours after the birth of her boy Joffery that all three of her sons were actually Harwin Strong's bastards. Moreover, Laena's death had spurred Daemon to return to Westeros for the first time in a decade, along with his daughters by Laena who had never met the rest of their family apart from Valaena, herself. Also gathered at the castle, for the funeral were all of the dragons currently bonded to riders that were big enough to mount, Laena's Vhagar apparently bereaved rested elsewhere on the dunes of the beach. Alicent and her supporters were the only ones who had gained from the recent events: after Larys Strong secretly had his own father and his older brother killed in a fire, he had been made the new Lord of Harrenhal and Otto Hightower had returned to take Lyonel's place as Hand of the King.

Laena's traumatized daughters Baela and Rhaena Targaryen met their grandmother Rhaenys for the first time and she consoled them, Valaena told her children to go and comfort their cousins, she watched as Jace walked over but no one knew what to say, so Baela and Jace just silently held hands. Valaena also noticed that Rhaenys was glaring at Jace and Luke, who she knew weren't really her biological grandchildren. Laenor himself was stunned by his sister's tragic death and had waded out into the surf on the beach below to be closer to her resting place. Corlys angrily told Laenor's lover Qarl Corey to retrieve his "patron" from his embarrassing behaviour, Alicent's children were also present but were detached from the events. Aegon was visibly bored and got increasingly drunk on the wine being passed around while lecherously eyeing the serving girls, while Helaena was infatuated with capturing a spider, while muttering cryptically to herself about "dragons of flesh" weaving threads of green and black, Valaena watched her children interact with their cousins and heard Aegon remark to his younger brother that he was annoyed that their mother had recently announced he was betrothed to marry his younger sister Helaena because he thought she was an idiot, causing Valaena to subtly sigh and look at her younger half sister with pity in her eyes.

Valaena watched as Aemond was the only one of Alicent's family to show even a hint of sympathy for the Velaryon side of the family, when he briefly glanced over at the grieving Baela and Jace and considered saying something but he silently backed away. Suddenly she saw Alyssa standing on the stone and sighed, she watched as she continued to walk carefully down the stones and peeked her head out at something, whatever she had seen, Valaena bit her tongue and turned around instead and started to walk over to Daemon. Her heart was now beating faster and faster when she got closer to him, his back was facing her when she stopped and he felt someone standing close to him. He slowly turned around and looked at Valaena, who even though they were in public with many people around, she did the unthinkable and stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, slowly he wrapped his around her waist. As they hugged, Valaena felt him hiding his face in her long silver hair, "I'm deeply sorry, Daemon." Valaena muttered holding him close until they slowly leaned back with us staring at each other again. "It means a lot to have you here." He whispered. Valaena smiled at him and gently stroked the hair out of his violet eyes. "You need all the support at the moment." "I don't really care if I'm supported or not like I informed my dear brother." Valaena smiled up at him, a genuine smile across her face after so long, a smile that only one can feel towards a loved one.