Thanks to everyone who review and oh, the show agrees with me on the premise of this? WTF? The SHOW?

Sunset and Shadows

Radiance Dimmed

For a moment, Gillerd stared at his sister as she returned to her seat and closed her eyes, then turned to Loreza, preparing for the anger in her eyes. She loved him – or she had loved him, at least – despite his flaws, not through overlooking them. She would know what he meant, not try and reassure herself that he something kinder and more compassionate in mind and she had simply misunderstood.

Of course, his sister knew him as well. Without bothering to call a servant to clean up the mess on the floor, she stared at him as soon as she could keep her focus. "No," she said flatly. "You have never dabbled in dark sorcery before."

He shrugged. "And I won't do so now," he said. "Was it I who summoned the man to treat her? No, it was her own husband, the one she walked over corpses to get. I suggest that she addresses her grievances to him. I am curious to see what their prophesied children will look like," he added and smiled. "They say some of Maegor the Cruel's offspring were… interesting."

"You know that I hate the little pretended queen as much as you do," Lanore snapped. "But there are boundaries that I will never cross!"

"Well, you're lucky, then, that you have a brother who is willing to cross them for you. Or you can think of it as letting Rhaegar and Lyanna Targaryen proceed with their own plan which was trusting the man," Gillerd suggested, smiling sardonically. His sister's sensitivity on this particular issue irked him, not because of these unpleasant and completely misplaced pangs of conscience but because they revealed how raw the wounds from her first childless marriage still were.

"She is no Targaryen!" Lanore said angrily. "Really, even in Dorne we know the answer between a wife and a paramour… although paramours have more dignity than parading around insisting that they're wives. Still doesn't make it right."

"It absolutely does," Loreza cut in. "I am with Gillerd."

Now, two faces turned to her, their family relation obvious in their expression of astonishment but in Gillerd's case, it was soon followed by devil delight that had once infuriated her when other girls had found it charming.

"I can't believe it," Lanore finally whispered. "For any of you. You have never been this vengeful, Loreza, and you have always abhorred such things, Gillerd. And now, you're talking about subjecting a human being to dark magic."

"Not in our case, Lanore," Loreza insisted. "You're talking about subjecting a human being and dark magic… and I know why you're doing this. But these two are no humans. I don't know what they are but they are not not human. A human being can't use his own children as hostages, leaving them in the power of a madman who hates them. A human being can't walk over the corpses of her own father and brother to climb to a throne."

Lanore hesitated. Seeing this, Loreza pounced on her weakness. "And the Seven see that I am tired of us saving the woman - yes, she is a woman if we count by her years and it isn't our fault that her father did not do his duty by her and then released her on Westeros insisting that she was a lady already! Really, why does it always fall on us to tend her and save her from her own mistakes? At least Doran had a reason for forcing Aunt Ranna to save her life. What reason do we have to interfere with the plans of the man she wanted more than she wanted her family alive has for her? Do we have to save her from him as well? I don't think so!"

Lanore shook her head. "I don't care about her at all. But this is too much. There are things that one should not play with."

"Yes, like marriages," Gillerd put in. "Yet these two did not hesitate to break Elia's. If Rhaegar Targaryen is ready to leave one wife at the tender care of maesters after he saw the mistake they made with another one, it's his problem. My wife and child have suffered for having a reckless fool for husband and father and I see no reason why his little love and her children should be spared the consequences of his choice!"

Lanore's hesitation increased. She licked her lips and looked from one to the other. Loreza grabbed her hands. "One day, he will realize that the three heads of the dragon Elia told us about will never come from this girl's womb, Lanore. And he's already getting annoyed with her. What do you think is going to happen then? When all she has will be this child who doesn't even look like Targaryen? When her despair grows? There will be someone who will take the life of Elia's Aegon to curry favour with her, if not on her expressed order! And Rhaegar will have to pretend that it was not so, else his own position will become even more precarious because he has put a murderess on the throne! She didn't care about her own kin's lives – do you think she's going to care about Elia's children's? This is what is going to happen – why don't you believe me, by the Seven!"

"I do believe you," Lanore breathed, her mouth dry. "I just… I've been longing for a child for so long. I can't imagine knowing that I am the reason my child is damaged."

"Rhaegar Targaryen dealt with this knowledge pretty well," Gillerd said casually. "When he left his children here to use them against Dorne. But sure, keep taking care of him and his wolf wife. After all, nothing this bad can happen to Elia and her children. She even survived the Mad King. You seem to trust her abilities about as much as Rhaegar did. I am sure she's going to be flattered…"

The mocking in his voice was meant to cut deep under the skin. Lanore knew it, knew that letting Lyanna Stark give birth to a severely malformed baby, the way Lanore's own mother had, was wrong and still their words got to her. Why should Dorne protect this selfish, cruel girl from the fate she and Rhaegar Targaryen kept bringing upon themselves? Everyone knew about the girl's displays of anger each time he as much as asked in a letter how Elia's children were – why should Lanore show any compassion to someone devoid of all compassion?

Dark sorcery. Did the girl know? Lanore had almost decided to seek it herself, more than once. She could not imagine having done it – and ending up with a child who suffered because of her choice.

Like Elia's children who were too young to understand how monstrously their father had dealt with them. He had already known that he was going to discard them when he had left them in his father's hands as hostages against Dorne.

"Let's… let's talk again tomorrow," she said.

There was a flash of triumph in her brother's eyes but it quickly went away. He looked at Loreza. "Can we talk?"

"No," she said coldly and his face fell. "Don't think that I have become like you, Gillerd. This is a single case of accord with your… not so attractive part. You promised me that you'd never use your hands before your head again, never again once we said the vows. And you reneged on it, and look where it got us. I am not going to forget just because we happen to agree in this instance."

She kissed Lanore's cheek and went out without deigning to look at Gillerd. For a while, he watched at her and then back at his sister with his cheeky smile that felt somewhat hollow. "Tomorrow," he said. "Perhaps I'll have a better luck tomorrow."

"With dark sorcery?" Lanore asked bitingly. "Are you going to employ this Qyburn to assist you win Loreza back and do you know at all what future you have in mind?"

But the next day, Loreza was no more willing to talk to him about them more than before. And Maester Qyburn was nowhere to be found.

"We and Tywin Lannister had scared him away!" Loreza groaned. "Now, he'll be free to do his evil thing to who know how many unsuspecting people!"

Now, even Lanore wished that the disgraced maester had just gone along with Gillerd's plan. But of course, it was too late. Qyburn was now away of anyone's eye. And it was partly their fault.

"Are you going to wed him?"

Elia looked at Jason Mallister, who had been watching her watch Arthur, and frowned. "Why, are you going to wed Naeryn?"

"I can't," he said. "There are too many obstacles… at least sixteen highborn families in Seagard will be offended that I chose Naeryn instead of their daughters. My wife's family is in position to make it hard for any sons that she might give me since they will be displacing Daena. The septon is extremely devout. He believes that everything we suffer is kind of punishment and Naeryn will be publicly humiliated when he forbids her to enter the sept. I…"

He stopped when he saw Elia's smile. "You knew I couldn't wed her," he said.

"I wanted to know if you have thought about this at all," Elia replied.

They were now seated near the private pools meant only for the Prince of Dorne and his family. Elia was still breathing a little heavily after a long swimming and her dark hair dripped, a pool forming around her. Jason had long ago learned not to pay attention to the breastbands and the piece of cloth covering the women's hips, although at the beginning, he had wondered where he should look to escape them. Still in the water, Arthur held little Aegon at the surface as the child splashed about. Jason had heard that he was trying to teach the little one swim. His success was limited this time but it had not stopped him from trying and Elia smiled as she watched them, yet whenever she turned to Jason, her eyes were serious. "There aren't many powerful lords in their own right who wish to wed Naeryn," she said. "They worship her and are happy to be with her but that's it."

" Then, there are many powerful lords who are fools," Jason replied, shamefully happy about this fact. The very thought that another man had touched Naeryn made him see red; to think that she might have wed anyone else, thus becoming unavailable for him, was too much.

Elia was still smiling. "You are quite something, are you not?" she said. "I don't think Naeryn had ever been as infatuated as anyone as she is with you. She has never been with anyone in the Water Gardens."

The truth was that Jason was at the Water Gardens because he was kin to the Martells but it still made him inordinately pleased to hear that Naeryn had never brought anyone over here. Still, what use was there to pore over something that could not be? He stared at Naeryn's lithe form sprawled on the surface of the water, her silver hair flowing like a cloud around her, and felt a surge of desire that made him feel pleased that Elia was not looking at him. But when Daena called over, Naeryn swam back to the edge and emerged to go to her, like a mother would have. I have to leave quickly, Jason thought and looked around for his sister. Amabel was about to become Stannis Baratheon's bride and Jason was becoming increasingly concerned about the way she seemed to have adopted to the Dornish style of life. Who could say that she would not decide to take it a step further with Morgan Sand, Elia's bastard cousin? Just Elia who assured him that Morgan was not interested. What if he became interested?

Elia's serene expression disappeared as she stared at the children and Jason recognized her worry. While Daena had recovered from the fever from about a month ago extremely well, Rhaenys had started to behave like a much younger child and it was obvious to everyone who knew her. She no longer ran and had some trouble keeping her balance. Compared to Daena who was hopping around and trying to go into the water, she looked alarmingly listless.

Elia rose and headed for the children. Instead of running towards her, Rhaenys only extended her arms, signaling that her mother should take her. Elia obliged and carried her towards the white building. Jason shook his head and wished that the child recovered her health soon enough.

In her chambers, Elia quickly threw a robe on and crossed the jade courtyard. As she left the private wing for the public parts, she saw Oberyn who immediately realized what she was doing. He approached her and nodded at Rhaenys but she only shook her head wildly and clung to her mother. "I think it'll be better if I carry her," Elia said, although just two months ago, her daughter had been happy to ride the shoulders of every man willing to take her there.

Maester Caleotte sighed when he saw her enter his study. He could hardly tell her more than he already had. They needed to wait. He did all the things he was expected to – examined Rhaenys, checked her reflexes – now uncoordinated – tried to make her follow the direction of his finger but he did it more for Princess Elia's benefit, rather than any real expectation that something, anything would come out of it.

"So she's still hiding her eyes the moment she comes out into the sun?" he asked, wondering if the damage could be a lasting one. He had never heard of a fever affecting the eyes but who knew. It was an insidious thing. For someone as dark-skinned as the little princess, the sun should not be a problem, yet she acted as if it now burned her terribly. And she had lost the progress with reading that she had been making.

"Yes," Elia replied. "Are you telling me that nothing can be done?"

"We must keep her as comfortable as possible," Maester Caleotte replied because it was somehow better than saying yes.

"Thank you, Maester Caleotte," Elia said in a perfectly level voice, with a gracious smile, a lady to the marrow of her bones. She headed for the door and the old maester was painfully reminded that nothing remained changed forever. For how many years had he been sitting here, listening to Elia's mother's concerns about her little girl? Now, Elia had become her mother and Maester Caleotte hoped that the miracle would come for her, like it had come for the Princess of Dorne.

Ser Arthur came to her as soon as she opened the door. Without his white cloak, his fair hair still shining in the shadows, he was as different from Alric Gargalen as possible, yet the movement that he reached for the child was also reminiscent of times long gone. Rhaenys went to him and snuggled without protest and Princess Elia closed the door, hiding the three of them from the Maester's view.