The Winter Queen

Chapter 26

Alicent

How in all the Hells had that pampered little bitch done it? Surely she must be using the darkest of magiks in order to conceive and birth four heirs and for all five of them to survive. There was no other explanation. It had to be the reason why she, the rightful and lawful , divinely appointed pious Queen of the seven kingdoms had birthed a beast and now might never be able to truly do her duty and give the realm the pious Hightower King that it so desperately needed.

This was never supposed to happen! At worst, the girl was supposed to wind up alone and forgotten in the frigid North with children who stood to inherit nothing. The second wife of the future Lord Paramount or the North and end up a mere footnote in history. At best, the young teen was supposed to die birthing her handsome beast of a husband a new child and both she and the babe would perish. The King would then be so outraged by his daughter’s death that he would declare war on the North and wind up stripping all of those Northern heathens who refused to convert to the true Faith of their lands and titles, giving it to far worthier Andal Lords.

However, nothing had gone according to plan. Rhaenyra had successfully birthed four babies, three worthless girls and a son with Targaryen looks and had survived the ordeal. Now her Father had practically declared that his daughter was a divine figure blessed by the Gods and her husband was some wonderful and honorable man.

The only way, it seemed, to try to fix the situation, was to convince Viserys that he had to order Lord Cregan to breed the little bitch again immediately as surely, a second pregnancy so soon after the first would be very bad for the girl.

Otto

Where had things begun to go wrong? He had managed to weaken and get that useless Arryn woman killed, by her own husband’s order no less, gotten his daughter into the King’s bed, Prince Daemon disinherited and off to a war not supported but the Crown, his daughter had married the King and had gotten herself pregnant by him, then had gotten the worthless Princess married off to that Northern Lord and practically raped since the chit was “technically” a bit too young to be bedded but then everything started to fall apart.

His plots had begun to unravel the day the Princess was married off. He hadn’t been able to get the second in line to Winterfell killed, anything to manipulate things to look like the Northerners were committing treason or a war started between the North and the Vale. In fact, those two regions had become allies and Otto’s henchman had been executed by Lord Rickon. When his daughter gave birth after returning to the capital, she didn’t do what she was supposed to by birthing a Hightower King but rather birthed a beastly girl who the King had refused to even grant the title of Princess to. To make matters worse, it seemed like his daughter might never be able to birth another child. The King, in the months since Dracara had been born, had also taken up with some other noble girls and Otto knew at least a couple of them carried the King’s bastards in their bellies. He could only pray that none of those babes survived the birth nor their mother’s, which Otto might have to order the Grand Maester to help him with.

The absolute part about everything was the recently received news from Winterfell that had been sent out to every noble house in the realm. Princess Rhaenyra had successfully birthed three identical girl babes and a son and all five had survived. Now the realm had practically given that worthless girl, her husband and children divine status. It wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair.

Court

The Gods must truly favor Princess Rhaenyra as she had done something no other woman in recorded history had done and all five had lived as proof of it. As a girl of not even four and ten years, she had successfully birthed four healthy little babes and had secured her own succession. Nothing, save the Gods favor, could allow such a miracle from occurring especially with how the Gods clearly showed their lack of favor with her father and stepmother by the beast the Queen had provided the realm with.

It was well known by this point that since the birth of Lady Dracara that King Viserys had taken a few mistresses who now carried his bastards as their fathers and brothers hoped that, should their daughters and sisters successfully birth the King a son, he would set Queen Alicent and her monster aside and wed the girl who gave him a son, legitimizing the child and naming him heir. However, even these Lords, upon hearing the news of Princess Rhaenyra and her miraculous delivery, wound up reconsidering if it was truly wise to go against what had to be the decision of the Gods.

Perhaps Princess Rhaenyra was truly a Dragon Goddess made flesh.