HOTD SI: The Bloody Prince (OC x Rhaenyra)(OC x Alicent)

Part 2

Chapter 2

RHEA ROYCE

In the mountainous land of Vale, few castles and lineages boast a history richer than that of the infamous Royces. House Royce with their Bronze Armor and unbroken First Men lineage were the only major House in the Vale that yet followed the Old Gods.

The prestigious and stories House of the Vale had hosted many a King, and Queen in their time over the years. Though once the Halls of Runestone were filled with gaudy songs and frequent merriment, those times had long come to pass and now the castle boasted only a dwindling remain of the power that was House Royce.

Runestone, their ancient seat, was now under the rule of a woman, Rhea Royce. The daughter of the late Lord Yorbert Royce, who had passed away many years ago while serving as Hand to their liege, the Lady Jeyne Arryn of House Arryn. Rhea was not just any woman, she was wed into the Royal family, a match orchestrated by the good Queen herself, between the young heiress and the Prince Daemon, the infamous Rogue Prince.

An unhappy marriage, one that had lasted barely a few moons until it would break down completely, even the fruit of their solitary marital union unable to save the match.

The Gods had been merciful to Lady Rhea, that their one union with the infamous Prince would result in a pregnancy. And nine months later, Lady Rhea of House Royce would give birth to a son, and she would name him Aegon in defiance of her lord husband, who had chosen the name of his own sire for the child.

They would fight again over this, the Prine feeling the slight would mount his dragon and leave Runestone, abandoning both his lady wife and the child of their union, whose brown hair he called a blemish on his pure Dragonborn lineage.

A blemish, that had grown up into a young man feared all over the Vale.

And it was a missive concerning that very Prince that now sat in the Hands of the Lady of the Vale as she stood in the yard of Runestone, her mount ready beside her, prepared for her hunt when she had been stopped by the Maester of the Castle.

"The letter came late into the night, but I did not wish to disturb you, so I waited until the morning to give it to you, my lady," the master explained. However, his words meant little to Rhea. Helliweg had been their master for decades. The old man had taught her her letters and had later gone on to teach her own son the same, though Aegon was much younger when he had begun his lessons.

The letter was from the King himself, and was not the first of its kind received by Runestone or even the Eyrie for that matter, similar missives had come in the past as well beckoning House Royce to send its Prince to the capital, yet they had always found an excuse.

His ailing health had been the first one followed by her son's fostering under her own father at the Eyrie, and then had come the rebellion by Arnold Arryn, and the subsequent victory of Lady Jeyne, who would name her son as replacement for the position once held by his own grandfather, and there were a slew of other excuses they had relied on to keep him away from the capital, with each of them doing so for their own reasons.

Yet it seems there would be no excuse this time. The King's letter was stern and final, containing an implied threat, one that she did not wish to see materialized.

So, she grunted, and the missive crumped in her hands as she turned towards the Maester.

"It seems that the King has made his decision," she said tiredly as she jumped down from her horse, abandoning her plan for hunting for the day. Her mood soured at the letter.

"It was inevitable, my lady. Prince Aegon is the King's nephew, and it is no surprise that the Royal would wish to meet and get a measure of one of their own," he added as the servants came and took away her horse as she walked back into the castle.