𝙱𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚢 𝚒𝚗 𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚜 & 𝙵𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚜 - 𝙰𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚊𝚛𝚢𝚎𝚗

Blooming Flowers and Feelings

The day was warm, with the sun shining brightly and not a cloud in sight. Many ladies walk with their lord husbands or with one another throughout the Gardens of the Red Keep. Some share the latest rumours being spread around court, while some just enjoy the warmth of the sun beating down on them.

A group of three were among the people outside enjoying the warm weather. Princess Helaena had dragged her new friend and younger brother to accompany her for the day. She wanted Lyannas' knowledge of the flowers in the gardens and Aemond to spend time with. The day had gone well so far, with Helaena picking out flowers she liked and then asking Lyanna to identify them before Lyanna put them in the basket she was carrying so that she could press them for {Helaena.

Aemond had only shared a few words with either one of them. He stood tall and walked along with them, answering the question Helaena asked in his head rather than aloud. Part of him feared that he would be wrong when he chose to identify one of the flowers. He wanted to be sure, not just of the name but also of the meaning and use of the flower.

Lyanna rocked her weight from one of her feet to the other, her gaze not on Helaena or Aemond but on a group of ladies not too far away from them. Aemond stood beside her; his face held no expression, and if anything, the prince looked bored. His shoulders were pulled back, and his hands folded before him. Helaena was on the ground in front of a bush of powder-blue flowers with bright yellow centers; they were arranged in rounded, divergent clusters along the length of the branch.

"This one, Lyanna?" Helaena asked as she held up a small cluster of the small powder-blue flowers.

Aemond racked his brain for the name of the flower and the meaning. Wanting to show off his knowledge of the flower, he had spent the past two days reading the few books the maester had on botany. He even went as far as to ask Helaena for the books that Lyanna had given her.

Aemond knew the flower, but the worry that he might be wrong prevented him from speaking its name. But as Lyanna didn't respond to his sister, he felt the silence eating away at his nerves. After two more beats of silence, he finally chose to speak up.

"forget-me-nots, sister," Aemond said as he shifted his weight onto one of his legs. "A sign of fidelity and love,"

Aemond did his best to try and see from his peripheral vision if Lyanna had heard him. He was almost sure he was correct about identifying the flower, and the only doubt sprouted from the worry that he might be wrong.

Lyanna looked back towards Helaena, and at the flowers she was kneeling at. Slowly, she nodded to confirm that Aemond was right about the name, having heard him. Aemond rolled his shoulders back in pride as she did so. Of course, he was right.

Helaena brought the flowers to her nose, smelling them as she spun them around. Helaena spoke to herself, "I like them. The colour reminds me of Dreamfyre."

"When gifted, they mean you will never forget the person and keep them in your thoughts and heart. The tea is good when you have a cough," Lyanna added with a heavy sigh.

Her tone was enough for Aemond to look away from his sister and towards her. Lyanna's jaw was clenched, and her shoulders were tense. He knew well enough now that he was not the reason for her shift in mood, for only moments before, she and Helaena were happily joking with one another; once giving Lyanna a once over, he forced his gaze back onto his sister.

Helaena did not mind her friend's shift in mood, only holding out the bundle for Aemond to take. The prince accepted the flowers and copied his sister's action of bringing them to his nose to smell them. The small flowers had no scent, Aemond realized.