FIRE, DRAGON AND SUN
When Elia Martell sat her children down to teach them her House words, she compared Rhaenys to fire, Aegon to dragon and Visenya to the sun.
RHAENYS IS LIKE FIRE
Even as a newborn she had been fiery, they say. Crying and thrashing till she had woken the whole of Dragonstone or perhaps the Seven Kingdoms. With a skin the colour of russet and hair as black as a raven, they said fire dwelt within the child and they hadn't been wrong.
Even when Rhaenys was a child, she would calm down if you would let her stare into a fire. Nobody knew what the girl child saw in the flames but they would say that the flames sang to her and lulled her into a dreamless sleep. She would often wonder too close to the flames but it seemed that the flames would never hurt her. The flames would bend and break to the child's desire and as the years changed, nobody feared for Rhaenys when she wondered too close to the flames. Not when her father claimed that a dragon like her would never burn.
Rhaenys's temper was like fire, quick to start and even quicker to spread. One wrong rumour from the courts would serve as fuel and Rhaenys's anger could burn people to the ground and destroy them for eternity. Ashes, that was all you became when Rhaenys's anger was directed at you. So the people knew not to upset the firstborn Princess. There was only one who could match her temper and that was her Uncle Oberyn.
Rhaenys's words were sweet and pleasant when desired but scalding when needed. They would burn the tip of one's tongue like hot tea and the people would shrink in fear. It took bravery to listen to the barrage of Rhaenys's fiery words and still have the courage to repeat your mistake again. Nobody possessed that bravery save her mother, even though her mother was rarely, if ever, spoken to with such anger.
Rhaenys's love was combustible and her brother and sister were at the end of such combustion. She fought Aegon on a regular basis, only a single match needed to start the fire and when she fought Visenya it was the most ugly fight people could ever witness, an explosion was the way to describe it. But come morrow, it would be like the words spoken had burnt away leaving behind ashes from which Rhaenys's love would rise for her siblings. Come morrow, it would be like a fight never happened.
Rhaenys's kisses are like fire but she needs oxygen to continue to simmer, Jon Baratheon finds out when he weds the girl. The kisses she trails across his skin leave a fire burning in their wake and when he drags her mouth to his, she separates only when they need to breathe the air. Her kisses are never wet for water is a foe to her fire. At one point, Jon is almost certain that somehow Rhaenys breathes fire.
Rhaenys's spirit is that of fire - undaunted, ever-burning and radiating in waves. Her spirit is all fire - too wilful, not easily controlled and flaming. Her spirit is all fire and people bask in the light, drawing heat and warmth from her as Rhaenys burns and burns but never dies.
AEGON IS LIKE A DRAGON
Aegon is born a dragon, they comment, as the child is born all Targaryen with no Martell likeness in his features. Aegon is a dragon like the Targaryens have always been with his pale skin, silvery hair and indigo eyes. A child with the blood of Old Valyria, the blood of a dragon like his father.
Even before Aegon was two, he would cry and cry until his Uncle Viserys would swoop in like a saviour and tell him stories about dragon as his cries would quieten down. Then he would be taken to visit the dragon heads and as a little boy, growing up, he would often hide in the skull of Balerion when it was time for his lessons with the Maester. The dragons he can connect to and he had gone so far as to demand a dragon for his name-day.
Aegon has a skin as thick as a dragon's. So much so that any ill remark spoken about him never bothers him. When the people whisper of his Dornish blood like it is a disgusting thing, it doesn't bother him though it bothers his mother. It is on those nights that the dragon inside him seeks a Queen, his mother, and not a Princess to rub his back and sing him to sleep.
Aegon is an aggressive warrior, an animal on the field. He can cut his opponents down with just one strike of his blade. The people whisper his blade has been kissed by a dragon when they see him laying a kiss on the tip of his sword before a joust. They say he breathes fire to burn his opponents down as he flies above them. Some fools go so far as to whisper that he turns into a dragon at night and his father laughs it off by simply saying, "Well he is a dragon."
Aegon is a dragon and yet he cannot gel with the fire called his sister, not for too long at a time. He fights her and then he fights for her like Rhaenys is precious gold. The first time comes against the son or grandson of Walder Frey. The boy makes a dirty remark about Rhaenys and Aegon sees red. He attacks the boy for trying to even vie for the dragon's belonging and he defeats the boy easily. A dragon's blood flows through Aegon and that makes him warm-blooded and hot-heated. Unfortunate for the men who vie for a dragon's gold.
Aegon is wild and passionate in bed, like a dragon, Visenya discovers when she first lays with him, moons after their marriage. He is wild as he bites her, leaving behind marks which claim her as his. He is demanding when he switches their positions and makes her ride atop him, without putting much effort. He looks like a majestic dragon and she finds herself to be the only girl to have ever tamed the dragon as Aegon watches her in awe.
Aegon's spirit is that of a dragon - powerful, dominating and potentially dangerous. His spirit is all dragon - sharp, mystical, imposing. His spirit is all dragon and so people revere him as their King or fear the beast that he can be, if he ever is like his grandsire.
VISENYA IS LIKE THE SUN
She is born in tragedy, in the darkest of times, they say, as her father rebels against her grandsire in open war. Yet, the day following her birth sees the death of her grandsire, a madman, and they say she is the light who brought the end of the darkness. She was glowing upon her birth, they will say even though none had been there to see the birth that day.
Even when Visenya was a child, she was the ruler. A girl child who made people bend to her will and they whispered that even a mighty beast, wolf or lion, bows down to the sun. She proves herself to be not just any sun but a Dornish sun as she runs free and wins people with her charms but is never conquered when men so desire of her, just as Dorne remained unconquered.
Visenya smiles and laughs as the Targaryen beauty of hers ensnares one and all and people whisper that her shine can put even the sun to shame. She is polite and courteous but she can make you uncomfortable if she gazes at you long enough and they say it is her heat in the eyes which becomes unbearable and you look down to be safe. Yet people never stop to gaze upon her for capturing the sun is a mighty feat. However, her father hides his smirks behind his hands because she has been taught well by her mother, a mother who taught her to be the untouchable sun.
She herself burns when she stays in the sun too long and it is her mother who reminds her that she needs no sun's light to bask in for she is the sun herself. And she is a blazing beauty as they slide upon her head wreaths of sunflowers at tourneys claiming her as the Queen of Beauty and Love. She burns you though if you try to get too close and discover her secrets. She is meant to be looked at from far and admired, nothing more.
Her sister is fire to her sun and so they get along well easily. They can stand too close and not burn from the other's heat. They can stand side-by-side and shine together for they are that way. And poor is the man who becomes a common foe for them for what chance can any have when the sun burns with more fire by her side. Though when the sun faces against the fire, they burn and burn together till the Queen interferes and they remember that you cannot fight your own self. For fire is a part of the sun.
Visenya glows, Aegon discovers one day when they lie together after a coupling, as the sun outside casts its golden rays upon his bride. She glows of gold and yellow and red and Aegon sees the whole world on Visenya's pale skin. She glows as he traces his lips across her collar bone and he understands now why in his mother's stories the dragons could never conquer the sun, why it was only a union between a dragon and a sun that made the Kingdoms seven and not six. Even a mighty dragon was mesmerised by the sun's glow.
Visenya's spirit is that of the sun - scorching, harsh, bright. Visenya's spirit is all sun - distant, precious, ever present. Her spirit is all sun and so Visenya remains the true Queen for her people, the sun of her Seven Kingdoms and people bend to her wishes at just a single command from her.