succession | d. targaryen

x.

299 A.C.
KING'S LANDING
•••

ELAENA HAD TRIED TO BE A GOOD PERSON. IF SHE HADN'T BEEN A GOOD PERSON, it was to protect those that she cared about. She never did anything to harm anyone. And yet none of that mattered. It didn't matter. Elaena was just as bad as all the people she looked down upon. She was worse than Jocelyn. She was almost as bad as Rhaegar.

t was as though no matter how many cups of wine she drank, she still couldn't escape the memories of that night. She'd never be able to escape it. That night was forever with her. She and that night were one and would forever be.

Just like she and Daenerys were forever bound by that twisted lie.

She was angry. She'd sacrificed so much for Daenerys, did everything to protect her and in the end Jaehaerys had been nothing more but an innocent boy killed by his jealous sister who spouted lies, forever tarnishing his reputation and Elaena's. It was selfish. Perhaps that's all Targaryen's were. Selfish.

Rhaegar had been selfish with Lyanna and now she was dead.

Daenerys had been selfish and now Jaehaerys was dead.

"Stealing wine from the kitchens, I wonder what your father would say."

Elaena tears her gaze away from the Blackwater and is able to make out Cersei's tall and slender figure in the dim moonlight.

"I don't need my father's permission to drink," Elaena responds, "Or to steal."

"Ah," Cersei says, "Young rebellion."

Elaena scoffs, "Don't act like you're so much older than me."

"We met once," Cersei says as she walks over and takes the flagon on wine from Elaena. Elaena looks at Cersei, watching as she meets her eyes and doesn't look away as she drinks straight from the flagon.

"Did we?" Elaena asks.

"You were just a girl. The cutest thing. Well mannered. Very kind. You used to follow your sister everywhere."

"I remember," Elaena says as she looks at Cersei, "You were mean to me because I had accidentally bumped into you and creased your dress."

"I was trying to impress the prince."

"Rhaegar did not want you," Elaena responds, "He didn't want Elia. He didn't want my sister. He wanted Lyanna and he impregnated her, and he killed her."

"I suppose gone is the kind girl," Cersei observes.

"She was foolish," Elaena mutters as she looks at the Blackwater, "Stupid girl."

Cersei observes Elaena's side profile, "I doubt that."

Elaena looks over at Cersei, her eyes narrowing.

"Why are you even here?"

Cersei chuckles, "In King's Landing?"

"No, I know why you're here. You want your son to marry Shaena because you believe that she'll be Queen someday. Elia made that mistake and now she sits in Dragonstone with a husband who was unfaithful and no chance to be Queen."