Baptism | Cregan Stark

fifteen

(please don't ghostread)   

Despite being a bastard, Aelyna Targaryen was a vision of ethereal beauty. To the farthest corners of Westeros, past the narrow seas she was the very embodiment of Valyrian grace and beauty. Hair silver as the moon, shimmering like molten sunlight cascaded in loose waves down to her waist. Her eyes of green and lilac as the mother the king once had. Fringed with dark lashes, she carried herself with allure of which men would kill for her hand in a marriage pact. 

As a child, though her appearance was delicate, almost frail, there was a steely resolve within her, a fire that burned as fiercely as the dragons her house was famed for.

On the eve of her one and sixth name day, King Viserys had arranged a great tourney in his nieces name. From High Garden to Dorne, many lords saw this as the opportunity to arrange a marriage pact between the princes and their houses. 

But Aelyna knew of better, she had taken off on dragonback and never looked back. She knew all too well of what she was made for, motherhood and wedded bliss was not meant for her. She looked no further than the women in her life. Rhaenyra, Aemma, Laena even the queen Alicent, they're purpose was to serve the realms and their house by producing heirs. To ensure the Targaryen name will live on.

By one and six Aelyna was a famed traveller amongst the Free Cities. From Volantis to Lys, she enriched herself with cultures and knowledge. The lords were more than willing to have her as a guest in their homes, all to obtain the end to one goal.

Aelyna carried herself with both comfort and mystery. She enjoyed the luxuries befitting of a princess, and was widely known to share it with others. At a young age Aelyna realized the advantages of having friends. From her first breathe her life had always been a spectacle to others. The bastard of Daemon Targaryen, her mere existence was a tantalizing conversation amongst lords and ladies. This made her keep to herself, but there was a draw to it. Moving inside the Red Keep as though she were a tiny shadow. Her handmaiden Shayna had always called her a silver spider.

While living in the Free Cities to the highest of lords, Aelyna had favored her behavior she had as a child. For a creature of haunting beauty she favored the whispers of others. Gaining the loyalty and friendship of servant girls, her network of information only grew. Aelyna understood nor she or her dragon could stay as guests too long in others homes, eventually her hosts would grow impatient of no prospects being returned to them, and many attempts have been made to take her hand by force.

Attempts. Because the princess had become so beloved amongst of servants and guards, she was able to seamlessly escaped the cities unharmed.  

On her final travel to Braavos, she had met the one thing she had always ached for. A mother. She had heard the whispers of a woman with lilac eyes and hair as black as the nightsky. A familiar face amongst in a house of actors. Aelyna finally had a mother, even just brief. 

It was an unfortunate fate that she was nothing more than another pawn to her mother. A pig raised for slaughter. Her mother a Braavosi girl who found herself in the trenches of Kings Landings brothels, had had visions of the moon cracked open like an egg and thousands and thousands dragons poured out of it. She dreamed she suffered the pain of childbirth in return be rewarded with a dragon. But out of her labors came nothing but a babe, her dreams had faulted her. She escaped Kings Landing before she could be identified as the mother of the princess Aelyna.

A mother and daughter finally reunited, but there was no love lost. Aelyna had always found interest in the mystic arts, a grown interest in spells and potions. Her first kill would be at the hands of magic.