BOUND BY DUTY | daella targaryen | hotd fanfiction

VII. the hour of the owl

The tournament that honored the new alliance between House Targaryen and House Hightower in 117AC was still a long-talked topic among royals, nobles, and even commoners, who learned about its contents from the knights-errant and servants who were lucky enough to compete or serve at the Mad Tournament, as later it was called.

Historical records say that the young knight and bridegroom, lost his own tourney, but in the end, the Maesters just rolled it over.
He won four jousting duels, however, unofficially, The Rogue Prince took the fifth winning applause, which was to be said the most loudest applause of all the eighteen duels.

Be that as it may, some historians take it to be the younger sister of the Great Tournament of Harrenhal, in the year 281AC, where the same bizarreness occurred for a woman as beautiful as Princess Daella Targaryen was.

-

The after-party of the tournament was held in one of the Red Keep halls an hour after the rough end of the tournament, where the final winner was not even announced.
The tables were overflowing with a variety of food from desserts, meats, broths, fresh fruit to the best Arbor wine and ail.
The nobles were entertained by whispering about the last duel of the tournament or playing various board games while drinking the red liquid, but behind all the faces that looked sharply at the royal sisters, there was tension.
The tension that also affected Daella, who was unable to clear her head from the moment she saw the duel between her uncle and her fiance on the field.
Rhaenyra tried to take this unpleasant feeling on her shoulders, but the absence of The King, their father, and The Queen did not help at all.
They were out of reach since the tournament, along with the Hand of The King, whom Daella sought out as soon as she entered the hall, hoping that he would at least give her some explanation.
The aforementioned fighters of the last duel were also out of reach, nowhere to be found.
"We should do something. I will speak to the guests." she said and immediately approached the window behind which the moon was already forming a semicircle.
As the heir to the Iron Throne, Princess Rhaeneyra took control of the tension and addressed the guests with great elegance and sincerity, while also apologizing for the absence of The King and Queen.
With the speech, she proved herself worthy of the throne.
After the speech, Daella approached her sister and thanked everyone for their presence and congratulations on her marriage.
The guests received an explanation, however, even after the explanation, impatience could be seen on every face in front of them.
Daella tried to look for Candace in the crowd, but there was no sign of her. The hall where the party was held was huge, crowded with dozens of heads much taller than her.
"The absence of your father has upset your wedding guests, Princess." said a familiar voice of Larys Strong.
Daella looked at him.
"It seems my family conspired against me and my sister and left us at the mercy of impatient guests."
Larys seemed much more understanding than when they first talked a few weeks ago.
"It's more like your uncle conspired against the whole family. Or at least that's what it looked like on the field." he said completely nonchalantly, his words echoing the truth.
Daella turned to him, looking into his eyes hoping to find in them the real reason why he was still having conversations with her, no matter to whom his loyality went to.
"His arrival was a shock to everyone." she said with the same tone.
"If i have to be honest with you, Princess, I had a feeling he was going to kill your betrothed."
"And how would you feel if he did?" she asked him with all the curiosity she threw in front of him.
His pupils grew larger, but his voice did not change.
"Well you are not taken yet. Tell me Princess, did you know about this?" he asked her, looking directly into her soul.
"You mean if I wanted to run away from my marriage which tomorrow will be sealed and seen before all the Gods above us?"
she paused for a second, looking infront of herself.
"No, I didn't know. The assassination of Otto Hightower's son would bring me no pleasure, just a lifelong nickname invented by the common people." she said almost whispering.
Larys smiled softly, but didn't have time to continue his conversation with the Princess, as the Hand of The King, Lord Lyonell Strong entered the big hall, walking towards them.
Daella could just see her sister walking towards them with a question hanging over her.
Lord Strong gave his son a quick look, then gave his full attention to the sisters.
"Your father has an important meeting and he begs you to host the party for him." he said it reffering to Rhaenyra.
Rhaenyra nodded, but it was still clear that she wanted to know the details of his 'important meeting'.
He then spoke to the younger daughter of his King.
"He awaits you in his chambers, Princess." he said with a completely different tone.
Daella immediately left the hall and headed to the other side of the Keep where her father resided.
She knew exactly what he wanted to talk about.
She was accompanied by two guards, but Daella still had the feeling that she was going through the miserable walk alone.
She wanted to walk to her chambers, wrap up and go back to Dragonstone.
She would gladly trade solitude for the chaos that an engagement to a man like Gwayne Hightower caused her.
When she finally reached her father's chambers, she found that he was not waiting for her at all.
He wasn't there.
'Where are you.' she asked herself as she looked around the chamber.
She already had such anger in her!
She couldn't find peace even with the view of the stars, which shone much more today than other nights behind the big windows.
She had such anger towards Daemon, towards her father, towards the whole world.
After what seemed like hours to Daella, the doors flew open with a furious Viserys walking into his chambers.
He was alone.
Without Alicent or Gwayne, or even her uncle.
Daella walked to the center of his chambers and waiting for his shout.
The King looked as if he already had a great argument with someone before his enter, as he had agitated eyes, wide nostrils and irregular breathing.
He stopped three steps in front of her.
"Did you know about this whole circus?" he asked her in a surprisingly calm voice.
Daella stared at him, trying to read anything from his expression.
"I didn't." she said sincerely.
Viserys looked at his daughter.
"Then why did your uncle tried to kill Alicent's brother, Daella?" he said louder.
Daella walked up to him.
"Tournaments are often deadly, aren't they?" was the only thing she said. She didn't feel good about her father standing in front of her. Something was not right at all.
"Don't play games with me, Daella. Sir Gwayne could have been killed with one slash!" he was shouting now.
"I didn't know about anything!"
"Are you telling me that Daemon only came to relieve his boredom by trying to kill Sir Gwayne?" he stepped closer.
Daella agressively wigled the ruby ring of the person who was the reason for their argument.
"And you want to tell me that he disappeared for a month and a half just out of nowhere? Tell me the truth of your secrets and then maybe I'll tell you something!" the fury this answer caused him was indescribable.
Daella was sure that he had to try very hard not to slap his own daughter.
"I will not tolerate you talking to me in such a tone!"
"You want to hear the truth then? Alright then, I sent him a letter right after he left because no one in this family was able to tell me the reason for his leaving! I didn't ordered him to come and try to kill my future husband!" echoed throughout the King's chamber.
Viserys stood speechless for a moment.
Daella looked down at the ground.
She didn't want anything else in her life, just a father's understanding, which she hadn't received in years.
She slowly calmed down while Viserys did the same.
After a while he spoke.
"Daemon is a mad man, Daella. He may be my brother, but I really don't believe half the things that come out of his mouth. I won't lie when I tell you that the Small Council sees a piece of him in you. That's why, until I'm sure you two are not up to something, you are not allowed to walk around unguarded, and also not allowed to fly on Vermithor. I'm sorry, but you must do your duty first."
Daella's eyes widened, her mouth hanging open, unbelievably disappointed in her own father.
"You can't take my dragon away from me."
"Vermithor will not be taken from you. He is yours Daella, you are only forbidden to fly on him until bring royal children to the realm." it could be seen that he was trying to resist his own emotions.
And that he didn't invent all of this himself.
She felt so dizzy that she felt like she would fall on the cold floor in no time.
She walked over to his stone model of Old Valyria and leaned against the huge table.
Noticing this, Viserys immediately turned to his daughter.
"You're allowed to go to bed. I'm not going to make you go back to the afterparty. Go rest but keep my words in your head, daughter."
Daella looked at him, shot out the last of her strength, ready to leave the room.
Before opening the big doors, she turned one last time to her father.
Only anger remained in her gaze.
"Don't punish him." she said and left the room not giving him a chance to reply.
Daella did not remember the way to her chambers at all.
She got a rush of shock until she felt like she wasn't thinking about anything. Her mind was suddenly a big cloud of nothingness.
It wasn't until she closed the door to her chambers, leaning against it with her eyes closed that it all dawned on her.
The incredible anger and madness that completely pushed away all the sadness and pity she felt for herself all day long.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.
Many things were spinning in her head in a big circle from which she could not get away.
If she really wanted to, she could get out of the marriage in one step, but she couldn't do it. She wouldn't be able to touch on Gwayne Hightower's life, despite how much she hated his family.
Not because she liked him, but because she knew that her father with Alicent at his ear would make her next marriage even more of a hell.
And even if she wanted to escape without harming anyone, she wouldn't be able to leave Vermithor here.
And Rhaenyra.
Her dear sister.
When she finally opened her eyes to the world, hoping for peace after all that happened today, chaos appeared on her face.
Chaos in the form of her uncle standing across from her on the other side of her dark chamber.
With dilated pupils, she stared ahead in disbelief.
She walked up to him with a fast pace and punched him in the chest with all the strength she could find in herself.
"How dare you come back after abandoning me for a month?" came out of her mouth after the chest punch.
"Do you really think I did this of my own free will, Little Dragon?"
"Don't call me like that." she fought back.
Daemon clearly saw the result of his departure on his niece who was so angry that she could not stand still in one place.
"Instead of helping me, you came to the tournament to show off." she continued.
Daemon quickly grabbed her shoulders, pushing her against the cold wall.
"Be quiet and listen to me, niece." he said in a completely different tone than hers, caressing directly into her violet eyes.
"Your father sent me away whether I wanted to or not. For duty. That's all I can say."
"For duty then? Your duty was to protect our family from people like Gwayne Hoghtower! I thought that at least you would protect us when my father can no longer do it!" she revealed her truth to him.
Daemon was honestly surprised, but he could not easily listen to the words she addressed to his name.
His pride was more important to him.
"I've been protecting you since your childhood, so don't come at me with those words!" as if he had to remind her his loyality to their family, with such a convicing tone that he used not more than once in her entire life.
Daemon tightened his grip until she felt like he wanted to get to her bones, hold her under her skin like no other.
However it didn't hurt her at all.
"I told him the truth." he added to the previous sentence a little calmer but there was still some irritation.
"What truth?"
"That you deserve a better fate than to be wed to someone like that green cunt."
Daella's pupils widened.
She finally had the long-awaited help infront of herself, yet unable to say something back.
Instead, she left the wall and his strong grip that was so unknow to her.
"You obviously don't get it, do you? Instead of what you did on the field, you could have come up with a more convicing bizarreness, perhaps then i would be more bold to think that you came to save me and not just show myself off!"
From his deep breathing, Daella understood that she should have rather say nothing.
His gaze was sharper than ever.
Then he laughed.
"And yet, for a split second you thought you'd be without a betrothed before the sun would go down." he whispered.
"Of course I did! And wished for it." her angsty voice could be heard to the end of her big chambers, especially the emphasized second sentence.
"Nevertheless it wouldn't change anything. My father would find me a new suitor within a moon month, and let him feast on my bones every night after the wedding for some fleet or a gold mine." she added after the small pause.
The weight of her struggle was so strangely intimate, as it unintentionally got under Prince Daemon's skin.
And they were just words.
How will the actions make him feel when he will see her tomorrow, under The Seven, giving her whole being to Gwayne Hightower?
"How did you came into my-" her voice stopped for a split moment, full of disbelief "you were there yesterday too, am I right?" she stood facing him with her mouth open, waiting for his words which she could swallow and keep inside her as well as the entire content of todays events.
The Rogue Prince looked at the ground as if he was ashamed to admit the truth.
As if it even mattered!
"And I thought I was already paranoid! How did you get into my chambers?" the Princess almost shouted.
Daemon laughed like an idiot at her anger.
"Beside your bed you have a hidden door made by Maegor the Cruel, the same as in almost every royal chamber in the Keep, Princess." he stepped closer, a bold decision, Daella thought.
The smell of a burning candles reached her nose while she processed the information that reached her ears.
It took her a moment to gather her thoughts before the anger she thought she had sent out in vain at her father tonight, returned to her body, ready to attack the next person standing in front of her.
"You returned to King's Landing yesterday and didn't let me know? You sneaked into my chambers but didn't dare to talk to me?"
she walked up to him and punched him in the chest again.
"You could have gotten me out of here before it was impossible! Where am I going to get without Vermithor, without you?!"
"We are both imprisoned Daella! Nothing I have done in the past month has been of my own free will!" he admitted.
She saw that he didn't want to tell the details, he was playing with riddles.
"What did you tell him that day?" she asked again, this time literally begging for an honest answer without riddles.
"Don't." he twisted his head to the side.
He was trying so hard to get away from it!
Daella, standing barely two inches from him nervously spread her arms, but the words did not come out of her mouth.
"Have I no right to hear those words, uncle? Do I have no right to know about your conversation about my future husband?"
"You have no right to question my loyalty, Daella." he muttered anxiously.
"Loyalty for whom? Because it seems to me that you are only loyal to yourself!" she shouted, but not so loudly that the guards behind the door would have a chance to find out that she was not alone in her room.
Daemon took off at full speed from the spot, stopping only when he grabbed her arm and pulled her to him.
"You have no idea what you're talking about." he said.
The Princess watched every move he made, every wrinkle on his forehead caused by her words of anger that she could not take out on anyone else.
"It doesn't really matter anymore." she answered quietly.
"It does."
His irregular breathing was so loud that Daella felt like he was breathing above her ear, which was not far from the truth. He was only inches away from her, staring into her sad amethyst eyes that she had inherited from his brother.
Yet it looked like the only thing that she had in common with her father.
She was more like Daemon. Daring and fierce.
"I don't need you to worry about me." she whispered with a crushed expression after a long silence that was standing beside them in the middle of the room.
Daemon approached her, knowing that the truth lay on the other side of her statement.
"You should hear yourself. Your tongue is dancing a tragic dance." he whispered as well.
"Dancing never hurt anyone."
Daemon leaned his face closer to hers, deliberately trying to prove her wrong about everything that came out of her young, inexperienced mouth.
"Yet I feel that now it is cutting my legs with every other step that is made by you, Little Dragon."
Disbelief, surprise and chaos remained in her breathing, kicking out unspoken thoughts.
"What happens after the dance?" she asked breathlessly.
"I don't know."
She let herself be carried away by the moment, forgetting the previous ones as the minutes dragged on.
Prince Daemon eagerly pursued her as an unconquered land full of treasure.
Maybe she really was.
Something everyone fight for because of the hidden treasure, only to find out after the battle that the treasure has been stolen before they even set foot on that holy land.
The amethysts in the form of her eyes went down to her hands, watching the ruby ring that belonged to him.
Daemon looked in the same direction, smiling at the ring he had been looking for since returning yesterday.
The ring that belonged to his father, Prince Baelon, like the other two he had on his own hands at the moment.
He stared at her, at her colorless cheeks and sleepless eyes.
He watched the product of his absence.
She had him as her last hope all this time, waiting for her protector until the last moment before her fateful day.
He knew it was so, he knew because her eyes screamed that and nothing else.
Did she wear it the whole time he was gone?
He was afraid of a positive answer.
She felt very embarrassed for this theft.
Only now did she realize how ridiculous it was.
She quickly put the ring down, ready to give it back to him.
"Put it back where it belongs." he whispered a moment later with empathy as true and pure as her self being was.
Daella's hand stood still, refusing to do so.
Only a gentle touch of her uncle brought her back to present, noticing him take her hand and place the ring back where it had been without a break for weeks before she took it off infront of him.
His touch was softer than the fabric of her dress.
Yet softness was the first quality to leave both of them.
Roughness and grief shared a moment when Daemon connected their bodies and souls with his lips without a single innocence.
Their lips vied with each other just like Daella with her head and heart.
Her morals were gone long before they were able to reach her brain.
It was so unexpected.
Daemon left the passionate kiss, studying the porcelain face of his niece.
Daella furrowed her brows, hungry for his saliva that tasted better than any food.
The barrier closed between them again as Daella stood on her tiptoes to reach his face.
Her uncle did not protest, he let himself be carried away by her honey-tasting lips, whose taste could be felt the whole time he was in the brightest of heavens.
He grabbed her by her thin waist, trying to bury her in his arms.
She was only marginally aware of the situation, but the situation meant nothing compared to the feelings that finally gave her an answer.
The answer to the question that she didn't ask even once through his absence.
Did he own her most passionate feelings a woman is capable of feeling for a man?
Or was it just grief forcing her to act like this?
Daemon left the kiss again, this time looking surprised into her eyes which sparkled with something new.
After blinking three times, he turned away from her, trying to control himself.
What just happened?
Her face and honey-tasting lips were alluring, yet he took another step back, changing with it the look in Daella's eyes.
The Princess took a step forward hoping to be fed again.
Without a word, Daemon tore away from her and healed the wounds caused by the knives she attacked him with.
With knifes that were filled with the poison of true desire.
But wounds have scars that are permanent on human body as did Daella's actions towards him.
Her wild feral stare that she gave him drew him to her more than anything else, but his conscience was stronger in that second.
She, pale and hungry for him, did nothing.
It was as if her soul had left her body and was already miles away from her chambers.
He walked wordlessly to the entrance to Maegor the Cruel's tunnels, leaving his niece behind like she didn't mattered to him at all.
Daella went after him, dragging her white dress that was made to bring crazy her betrothed, not him.
Daemon stopped her heart that was chasing his, with words that hurt more than anything else.
"I am not the feeder of your desires."