The Art of Love & Hate

Chapter 2

2 time jumps in this chapter. They leave for Dragonstone and Aemond looses his eye. I hope you guys like it 🥰

4 years later.

Darya knew that most of the people in the Red Keep did not like her, well, they did not like her mother. She had grown up hearing the whispers that she was a bastard, hearing people talking badly about her and her mother. Her father was a good man, but she did not see him much. He was sad a lot of the time and preferred to drink and stay out of the palace. He would leave her mother, her brother, and her alone most of the time. Her uncles also did not like her, they were cruel to her and Jace. She did not say much about it because they were cruel to their own sister, or at least Aegon was. Aemond loved his sister and he always defended her.

She had been three name days the first time she asked her mother what the word bastard meant. Her mother had looked overwhelmingly sad and asked her where she had heard that word. Her mother had told her those were lies and she should never repeat them. While Darya understood what her mother had said, she wondered if those words were a lie then why they made her mother so sad. The rumors were not as cruel to her, as her brother. While she had brown hair, she had the purple eyes of the Targaryens and the Valyrian features. Her bother Jace had not been as lucky, he had brown hair and eyes, and people said he looked too common to be a Targaryen, so was her youngest brother Joffrey, who was less than 1 moon old. She hated the way people talked about her brother and her mother, they did not deserve it.

Now something had happened between Criston Cole and Harwin because her mother's sworn shield was being sent away. She did not want Harwin to go, he was the one who always played with her and told her stories. Who was going to take care of them if he left? She ran after him when he walked out of her mother's chambers.

"Wait!" Harwin stopped and turned to look at her. "Please, stay."

"I wish I could." He kneeled in front of her and ran a hand over her head. "But I have to go, I cannot stay."

She did not understand. "Why?"

"Because I have to do my duty." He kissed her forehead as tears ran down her face. "Do not worry, I will return soon."

She wanted to cry and scream at him not to go, but princesses could not act that way. She watched him go and stopped trying to stop her tears. She did not want to make her mother sad so she ran to the gardens and hid in the farthest corner. She did not want to see or talk to anyone.

"Are you crying because that man left?" Aemond's voice surprised her, but she did not react the way he wanted her to. Aemond enjoyed scaring her and she did not want to give him the satisfaction. She dried her tears and looked at her uncle, who was giving her a questioning look. "I do not think it is smart for people to see you cry, it would only make the rumors grow even larger."

"Why do you care?" She gave him a questioning look. "I thought you hated me."

Aemond frowned and sat beside her. "Why would you believe that?"

"You are always mean to me and my brothers." Her uncle had never been nice or even polite to her and her brothers. There were times when she could almost believe that he liked Jace, but for some reason, he had never seemed to like her and enjoyed making her suffer. "Why are you here now?"

"I saw you run this way." He shrugged like he was not sure why he had followed her either. "I could tell you were crying, I just wanted to make sure you were not hurt."

"Well, you will be happy to know you will not have to see me any longer." She gave him an annoyed look.

Aemond's frown became even more pronounced. "What do you mean?"