Septa Leanne - The Bookish Princess
No one had told Septa Leanne that bringing up a Princess of the Iron Throne would be this difficult.
Princess Rhaenys was not a spoilt, petulant child, far from of it. Most of the times, she was a sweet thing, even if a touch too melancholic.
She simply wasn't interested in the womanly arts.
Rhaenys' stitches were big and uneven. Her curtsies were always a little wooden and she was a passable dancer at best. Her only ladylike accomplishments were her singing and her mastery of the harp. The Princess could play so beautifully than tears came to the eyes of the most battle-hardened of warriors.
Rhaenys was also bright and eager to learn anything the Maesters were willing to teach her. To Leanne's dismay, she often carried around large, dusty tomes. She read curled up in the Maidenvault, she read in the gardens, she read in her bed by candlelight.
The court laughed and called her the Bookish Princess. Rhaenys wasn't supposed to be anything else but an afterthought, the destined sister-wife of the future Crown Prince.
But years passed and Princess Rhaenys remained a single child. The heir to the throne was technically Lord Steffon Baratheon, the King's cousin. But it did not prevent any ambitious lords for imagining Rhaenys wrapped in their House colors and their son sitting the Iron Throne.
Leanne was pained to see that her young charge was already a pawn in the Game of Thrones. Thankfully, however bookish and dreamy Rhaenys was, she was far from unaware of the web of intrigues around her.
"You should smile more often, my Princess," said Leanne as they were sewing together one day. For once, they were alone.
Rhaenys looked up from her stitching. She had the loveliest dark lilac eyes that Leanne had ever seen and a mouth like a rosebud. Her student had to be the fairest maiden of the Seven Kingdoms, yet her soft silver hair was slightly unkempt and her dress had an ink-stain on it.
"Why should I?" simply said the Princess.
"Half the Seven Kingdoms would fall in love with you if you did."
"I have read all about the Dance of the Dragons, Septa Leanne. I know a woman will never sit the Iron Throne. Even if I become the greatest lady of the Seven Kingdoms, even if my beauty is likened with Shiera Seastar's, I will never be anything more than a glorified broodmare."
Leanne was shocked to hear such a cynical opinion from a maid of twelve. Yet she knew a lady wife's duties could be unrewarding. There was a reason she became a Septa, after all.
"My Princess..."
"Do not fret, Leanne. I shall do my duty. I just don't have to like it."
It truly was a pity that Rhaenys would never rule.
However, when the Princess turned thirteen, Leanne's hopes to see her charge on the throne one day rose. Tywin Lannister hosted a tourney at Casterly Rock in honor of King Aerys. His true purpose – betrothing the Princess to his son Jaime – was transparent.
"Wouldn't it be good if you married the Lion Cub?" whispered Leanne to the Princess. "He doesn't have any Targaryen blood so you would be the Queen-Regnant and he your consort."
"My father will never allow such a match."
Unfortunately, Leanne's wise Princess was right, as Aerys rudely refused to betroth his daughter to a "servant's son".
To distract the Princess from her grief, Leanne suggested to Rhaenys to get her fortune told by a woodswitch from Lannisport. She knew of her fondness for prophecies and surely, no harm would come from an old woman's ramblings.
When Rhaenys came back, her mouth was set in a determined line and there was a light in her violet eyes that Leanne had never seen before.
"I need your help, Leanne."
"Anything you require, my Princess."
"I have to learn all you can teach me. It seems I must be a lady."
