Silver Princess || House of the Dragon

Chapter XII ''The cold''

Valaerya did not try to convince Rhaenyra to stay in King's Landing. She had only been here a day and she had already heard some people gossiping about her sons. She deserved some rest, she and her family. But now they are far from each other again... It is true that they are no longer separated by a whole sea, but again each of them collides with a different everyday life.

She was sitting in a spacious chamber, moving in her hands a small, rectangular handkerchief on which she had embroidered a dragon with black thread and its circumference with the gold one. She made it with her father in mind, perhaps it will fit his model of Old Valyria somewhere. She can't carve a figurine like Daemon, but she could do at least that much.

Talking about Daemon, he was sitting on cushions on the floor with their daughter and playing dolls with her. She remembered the first time Visenya had asked him to play with her, when she had received some dolls from one of the nobles from Essos, with whom they were staying. He wasn't very happy at first, but he didn't want to upset her, so he agreed.
Over time, however, he began to like creating stories about princes and princesses, dragons, and knights... Everything his beloved daughter wanted.

"Plince came on a dlagon and..."

"And the dragon ate the princess." Daemon picked up the dragon figurine and brought it closer to the doll he already had in his other hand, imitating the dragon's sounds.

"No!" the girl laughed, stretching out her hand to the dragon figurine. "You still can't do anything right..." she muttered more than she said, and this time it was Daemon who laughed, but didn't hand over the figurine.

"So let me improve, darling." he wondered for a moment, looking from the figurine to the doll. "I know. The prince came on a dragon and ordered him to burn a certain nasty Lord who had locked the princess in a tower. Then they both flew away on the prince's dragon and lived happily ever after."

Val couldn't help but smile when she heard about 'burning the nasty Lord who locked the princess in a tower', because it was obvious that Daemon was referring to Otto Hightower when he said that.

The girl liked this ending much better and praised her dad, even clapping for him. Then she took the princess doll from him and started playing with it and the prince, already creating another story in her head to play with.

"Do you think they'll be back soon?" Val asked unexpectedly, finally stopping crumpling the scarf in her hands.

"No." he replied briefly and without even looking at her, just smiling at his daughter.

A quick and honest answer, probably closest to the truth. It wasn't what she wanted to hear, but she had to accept it. Apparently, they are destined to be close only from time to time... At least Dragonstone is close, they will be able to visit each other freely.

"She deserves this rest, but..." she stopped. She didn't want to say out loud that from a political point of view it was a stupid decision.

"But she's the heir and because of that she shouldn't leave." he finished for her and finally looked at her. He reached out with his free hand and took her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "We'll take care of the Hightowers, we won't let them roam around our home."

"They're already doing it." she sighed. "The vipers have infested this place for good when my father married Alicent Hightower."

"At least Otto isn't the Hand."

Good point, they've taken a bit of a break since Lyonel Strong became Hand of the King, though she wouldn't hold out much hope with it. Apparently he wanted to resign, but the king wouldn't let him, saying he could escort his son to Harrenhal, but he had to come back later. But since he wanted to give up once, he'll probably try again.