Sun and Fire ~ Aemond Targaryen

22. What They Do Not See.

Princess Alyssa Targaryen was known as a woman of great character, the fifth daughter of King Jaehaerys and his sister-wife, the generous Queen Alysanne.

She was said to be so rebellious that, from a young age, she would get into trouble and eagerly seek to join the knights' training or her own brothers' training when they were in the arena. As a woman, she was denied the right to learn to fight, but she refused to accept this and, somehow, managed to learn despite her parents' orders.

Even when King Jaehaerys forbade his daughters from claiming a dragon, Alyssa did not hesitate to defy his command and she would become the rider of the beautiful dragon Meleys.

Even when she was struck by a wooden sword at the age of six, twisting her nose permanently, she never gave up or allowed the accident to make her fearful. On the contrary, her reckless actions only escalated, and it was no surprise that her second son, Prince Daemon, inherited that restless and chaotic nature from her. The elders who knew her often commented that the young Daemon had the same boldness as his mother.

When Alyssa gave birth to her children, she did not wait for them to reach even one moon before chaining them to her lap and flying them on Meleys. The princess said that Viserys laughed the entire way, while Daemon gazed at the landscape with an unusual expression for a baby.

However, when she gave birth to her third child, Princess Alyssa left this world. She barely managed to breathe for a few days after the difficult childbirth. In her final breaths, she promised she would fly with Aegon, just as she did with her older brothers, once she recovered.

But she never did. The princess, as fierce as she was, died in the worst battle any woman could face: childbirth.

Viserys and Daemon were still young children when this tragedy occurred. They saw their father crumble and heard him curse Aegon, venting his anger over losing his beloved wife, his sister, his best friend, his reason for living. For several moons, the prince refused to hold his third son until King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne managed to convince him to recover and stop blaming an innocent child, to stop blaming his son for what the Gods had willed.

Prince Baelon loved Alyssa so much that he never took another woman and took refuge in his children, especially in Viserys and Daemon. Aegon, however, was kept at a distance, as every time Baelon looked at him, he relived his loss. So Aegon was mainly cared for by his grandparents, King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne, who gave him the love his father felt unable to offer.

Alyssa had said she would give birth to an entire army, she would have twenty children... but those words became nothing more than an empty promise.

Aegon grew up feeling the distance from his father. He heard people refer to him as "the son who took his mother's life." Being the child who survived while the woman who gave him life perished was a painful burden that always accompanied him like a curse. Fortunately, his brothers never blamed him or showed resentment. Viserys always loved his little brother, and Daemon did too, though in his own way.

Aegon was the only one of his siblings to hatch a dragon egg, one that Daemon had chosen for him when he was born. At that time, Viserys wanted a Meleys egg, but for some reason, the Red Queen never succeeded in producing offspring, and those that were born did not survive. So Daemon chose one from the dragon Silverwing, tied to his grandmother the queen.

And it worked.

When Aegon turned ten, he finally named his silver-scaled beast: Boasher. The dragons of the conquest were named after the Valyrian gods, and Aegon did the same, naming it in honor of the god Boash, also known as the Blind God from the customs of the Freehold of Valyria. His family accepted this decision.