Kings and Queens, and Breath of Death

Alysanne & Aerea

The sky went dark all of a sudden. In her solar, Aerea Velaryon smiled and the young girl who had just come with her sewing basket drew back, startled. She had recognized the edge in this sharp revealing of teeth. But the lady recovered immediately and looked at her with her usual serenity. "Thank you, Cora," she said nicely. "You may go."

The girl left, thinking of how much the old lady resembled her son, the dashing and dangerous Lord Corlys. She had never realized it before.

In the bailey, the dark shadow over the earth had expanded. Cora looked up and barely contained a cry of awe and fear. She was born at Driftmark, so she had seen many dragons flying over the island but she had never seen one actually come down and her mother had to tug at her sleeve forcefully to get her to move. She saw the huge lamps that were the beast's eyes, the mouth opened in a pant that shook the branches of the trees in the gardens, the scales that surely no axe could break. The dragon was so majestic that she actually forgot to sink into a curtsey when the woman descended from his back. She only remembered when their eyes were at one level, the regal-looking lady and the gawky, awkward young girl who had yet to grow into her limbs. She curtsied, mortified and scared, but the lady did not seem to mind. She only nodded in recognition of the gesture.

"What does the Queen want?" Cora's mother asked in murmur. "She hasn't come here in years."

Only now did Cora recognize how great the offense she had inadvertently given was. But by the way Alysanne Targaryen walked, she had greater things on her mind than caring about an awestruck young servant. And then, the second dragon came, with the girl who was just a few years older than Cora and so pale and dreamlike in movements that the servant felt a sudden stab of pity.

Aerea's curtsy was as respectful as ever, her manners – perfect. Her eyes – cold. Alysanne had gotten used to all those things long ago but now they pierced her with a sudden pang. Am I growing old, she wondered. Is that it? Or is it this new loss that made me ever so sensitive?

She seated herself on the sofa that Aerea vacated for her and remembered how both of them had laughed, the so young Queen and the even younger Princess, with Aerea playing antics of ever so great veneration. Those had been good days and she wondered when they had ended. Too busy with her own life and budding happiness, she had failed to notice Aerea's dissatisfaction and slow sinking into misery.

"You've heard?" she asked.

"Yes." In the late afternoon sun the wrinkles on Aerea's face were not this visible. She looked younger and calm. Always calm. Never revealing her joys and sorrows. Alysanne wondered what it was this time. "I am sorry," Aerea added. "I was fond of Aemon."

Unbidden tears came to Alysanne's eyes but she blinked them away. She had been thinking about Jaehaerys' decision, the hurt that it had caused her, the injustice of it all. She had never thought that Aerea might have actually known Aemon closely or even associated with him more than strictly necessary.

"And now he's deprived Rhaenys of what should be hers," she whispered. "I didn't believe that he would."

As if summoned by the very speaking of her name, the girl appeared at the door, looking far more exhausted than the ride alone could have made her. Since her father's death, sleep had avoided her and she had avoided food. Alysanne had had to resort to threats of force-feeding if Rhaenys wouldn't do it herself.

Aerea's expression softened. She went to the girl and opened her arms and to Alysanne's surprise, Rhaenys went willingly.

"Here, here," Aerea murmured. "You know your mother and father would have been horrified to see you this dejected, won't you?"

Did they know each other this well?

"They would have been mortified if they knew what took place!" Rhaenys' voice was fierce despite her tears. "You warned me. You told me that Grandfather would never choose me but I hoped and believed…"

"Stop here," Aerea said firmly. "It wasn't wrong of you to put your hope and trust in your grandfather's hands. I also hoped he'd choose you."

I bet you did, Alysanne thought. The moment Aemon had offered the match between his infant daughter and Aerea's widowed son, she had been eager and more willing than Corlys himself.

"But he chose Uncle Baelon," Rhaenys exclaimed. "Uncle Baelon, and Viserys after him. Viserys who is so eager to please everyone that he'd bed Aemma as soon as they wed!"

Alysanne saw the moment Aerea's body stiffened. She hadn't known. Not about the impeding wedding. We didn't do anything wrong, she thought fiercely. We didn't give her up to a monster. We gave her to the heir of Driftmark. And I was fourteen myself when I wed! Yet she knewthather niece had been seeing things differently ever since she had become mature enough to make sound reasoning.

"Well, that is very unfortunate for poor Aemma," Aerea said. "But as you know, one person's happiness and wellbeing had never played supreme part in a king's decisions and it shouldn't. I expect that Viserys will indeed try and father an heir on her as soon as possible but many will see that as a sign that he'll be a good king, concerned about his succession. But that is no concern of yours right now."

Alysanne tried not to hear that cold logical reasoning. Her heart was breaking for her granddaughter, yet she couldn't help but imagine what Aerea's own wedding night must have been like. She, too, had been eleven – the price for the Velaryon support, the certainty that she'd never wed a man who was as powerful as a Velaryon but willing to raise a claim on her behalf. Aerea's father had been their older brother, much like Alysanne's Aemon had been Baelon's.

"Are you going to break the betrothal?"

Rhaenys' voice was so faint that at first, Alysanne couldn't make out any sense of the words or even believe that her granddaughter had said them. By the Seven, child! Is this fear what you had been living with as well, besides the fear that Jaehaerys would decide against you? Alysanne wished that Rhaenys had come to her. She would have soothed her premonitions, assured her that Corlys and Aerea would never reject her, that it would be unwise… or would it? Alysanne no longer knew any answers. She had truly never expected that Jaehaerys would overlook an accomplished young woman like Rhaenys for no better reason than her being female.

"You'll have to ask Corlys." Aerea's voice was gentle but firm. "But I don't think he has ever thought about such a thing. You aren't nobody, Rhaenys. You're Prince Aemon's daughter. The King's granddaughter. A dragonrider…"

Aerea had never had a dragon herself. In their flight from Maegor, when the twins had been babies, their dragon eggs had been lost. And Rhaena had thrown away the ones Maegor had given them, although perhaps she had regretted it. Somehow, they had never been given others. Alysanne had never given that much thought in her childhood and youth but later, she had wondered if that hadn't been another step in her mother and Lord Baratheon's program of enforcing stability on the realm.

"I'll ask him." Rhaenys' chin was held up high. "I'll find him and ask him now."

She strode out with the swiftness of a purpose discovered. Alysanne shook her head. This girl was direct like a man and while Alysanne could appreciate that, many wouldn't. Aerea stared after Rhaenys with a fond smile and Alysanne again wondered how well they knew each other.

"So, what are you doing here?" Aerea asked when the girl left.

"Rhaenys wanted to come and talk to the two of you before she goes to Storm's End. She wants to spend some time with her mother's family."

In other words, she refuses to stay in the Red Keep and she no longer has a home at Dragonstone. Alysanne felt as if she had said it aloud. Aerea, of course, would know.

"Did you truly know that he'd choose against her?" the Queen finally asked.

"Of course I did."

Else, he would have given way to the doubts about his own line's legitimacy over me. Like Alysanne, Aerea didn't say it. And like Aerea, Alysanne knew. She knew and prayed that Corlys didn't refuse the match, that old wounds could be closed, that healthy children would be born, and many of them. Because Alysanne feared that this might not be the case for Viserys and poor little Aemma. After all, Corlys who had been born a little after his mother's twelfth nameday, had stayed her only child.

A.N. In this headcanon, Corlys' nephews aren't actually his siblings' children but more distant relatives.