The Sapphire Blade II Aemond Targaryen x OC

A Great Greeting

Words: 1438

Warnings: None

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Saevys

It has been a week since we received the invitation to the infamous Red Keep. We have been travelling for half of that and are now resting in a Lavish Inn just outside of Hayford. Even though the ball is not for another 6 days, my mother insisted on us arriving at least 5 days early so she can reacquaint herself with her childhood home. So, by the time we get back to the Eyrie, it will be two days until my own nameday. 

I walk through the halls towards my parent's chambers. I have had this question on my mind for months, but I believe that to tell them now, while they are in good spirits, is the best course of action. For if they are to say no, they will have a distraction soon enough and forget about their anger at my suggestion. I pace back and forth in front of their door while the two guard's stares pierce my back. I finally gain the courage to knock on their door. my heart beats faster in chest as I hear my mother's footsteps come closer and closer to the door.

"Who is i-" My mother starts with an angry tone before her sentence drops off. "Oh, my jorraelza, why are you here at this dark hour?" she asks in a softer tone. 

"I-I have a pr-prop-p-position for both you a-and father." I say in a monotone, hoping I did not give away the insane pounding of my heart. 

"Okay, come in. Let us hear your proposition, as you called it." She says gently guiding me in the room and locking the door behind us.

"Oh, my dear little one, what have you come to tell us?" My father asks while lounging at the rooms desk, a cup of wine in hand.

"I-I know you m-might disa-agree, but I-I would l-like t-to train i-in the arts of s-swordsm-manship, a-archery, spear throw-owing, lancing, and f-fencing. I-I wa-ant to be tr-trained in the w-ways of a warrior, as my a-ancestor, Queen Visenya, a-and my distant c-cousin, Rhea Royce. I-I wa-ant to learn t-to protect m-myself and family a-as is my d-duty as a f-firstborn ch-ch-child." I stutter out confidently. I was looking directly at them the whole time and saw how their faces changed, thought to their credit, they let me finish talking and did not interrupt. My father had a look of disgust and rage written across his face while my mother had one of sorrow and disappointment.

"How, how can you even ask something like that!" My father says with a barely restrained scream. "You are a woman, no, a girl, a young and misled girl whose brain is nothing more sophisticated than the rest of your inferior sex. Maybe the state of it is even worse, you stuttering fool! Your only job, your only purpose for existing is to give your husband a son to fight! So's are born to the battlefield! Daughters are born to the birthing bed! That CANNOT. BE. CHANGED!" 

With every word my father says his volume gets louder and stands up getting closer, until he is screaming in my face and I can smell the stale wine on his breath. Each word hurts like the slash of knife, each digging deeper than the last. Till I feel like I am bled out, like I have nothing left, like I am an empty shell. I search my mother's eyes and see her apprehension at my father's words, but I can also see she believes them to be true. I do not cry, I do not talk back, I just walk over to the desk on my way out and grab the letter opener. My parents are silently arguing with each other as I leave and don't notice I have taken the blade-like object.

I walk slowly back to my room contemplating what I am going to do next. I have always wanted to train, as long as I can remember. I have always wanted a dragon, I have always wanted to speak well, I have always wanted to be free from the confines of being a daughter. If I was raised at the Red Keep instead of the Eyrie, I could have had a dragon. But I was born to the Eyrie, and I am to be the most docile and marriageable lady in House Arryn. The thought makes me want to throw someone from the Moon Door.

I sit on my bed and take out the letter opener, and feel its blunt blade run over my fingers before chucking it at the wall. It embeds itself deep in the wood pillar I was aiming for, causing a long crack to run up and down the column of wood. I retrieve the blade like thing from the wood and hide it in a secret pocket within my boot. Sewing lessons can come in handy sometimes, no matter how boring.

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Today is the final stretch of our journey towards the Red Keep and I am forced to sit in the wheelhouse with my mother and baby Daella. I wanted to go to Jeyne's wheelhouse if I were to be forced into one, but my father threw into the one with our family, literally. I don't know what changed over the years, but this is no longer the man who took me on hunts and horse rides, this is not the father I thought I had.

From this distance I look out the window and can see the cylindrical towers rising high above the rest of the city. I had barely a wink of sleep last night, so I decided to pass this tortuous ride by laying down on the seat and going to sleep.

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I feel someone gently wiggling my shoulder in an attempt to wake me. I slowly raise from my sleeping position, that of a contortionist or a court fools. I look out the window while stretching and see we are mere blocks away from the gates to the Red Keep. From the palace in which my mother grew up with all her siblings and in which her nephew rules the Seven Kingdoms. Sometimes it's weird thinking about that, that this cousin of mine that I have never met rules over the Seven Kingdoms with a peaceful hand.

As we roll through the gates and into the first courtyard, I can tell that this is nothing like the free and open Eyrie, high in the sky. This place is a castle for the Targaryen's during times of peace, a Dungeon for those who cross the ruling family and a fortress for times of war. This large building is a maze in which anyone can get lost in, but in which everyone is trapped.

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As we exit the wheelhouse, I see the crowned family standing at the top of the steps, seemingly here to greet the fairly large group of valemen. On one side of the sickly king is a young woman for whom I recognize as Princess Rhaenyra, with her two children by her side and one in her arms. Behind her seemingly trying to hide in the shadows is a burly brown-haired guard. While next to the second youngest is her husband, Ser Laenor, I believe.

On the other side of the king is his current wife, Queen Alicent. I have heard many stories about her and her insane love for the Faith of the Seven. While she is standing pin straight, her eldest son is slouching over like he just woke up from the dead, and he looks like it two. While her other son is standing just as straight as her but looking right through us. Beside the pin straight boy, is a younger one who looks anxious and like he wants to be off doing something. With so many boys, my eyes travel to the only girl. She is standing alone away from everyone else and seems to be admiring a bug crawling on her hand. A peculiar girl, I might say. I want to be friends.

Though, as I look back at the wide array of people composing the royal family, there is one great distinction to me made. Rhaenyra and her family, on the king's right are all wearing black and red while Alicent and hers are wearing green and gold. Black and Green, Green and Black, two very different colors, both staring down at Blue.