Contact with family, part 2

Author note: I know that this chapter is waited for, and it is a little delayed in posting because I will take part of a theme week in another fandom of mine at the end of March and happens to be writing a couple of one-shots for that. Thank you for understanding and being patient while waiting! / Rogercat

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Sitting down at one of the campfires, Elia noticed that the letters were marked with the dates to help her find the order in which they had been written. All the three first letters from her brothers and father had the same date written in a corner, likely to ensure that hopefully one letter might reach her at least.

My sweetest daughter of the sun, dearest Elia, Ihsan had started his letter by using the nickname he had given her after surviving her premature birth, it is a such joy to finally get word from you despite that many months have passed since you wrote the letter, hearing that you and both the children are alright. In my nightmares, I feared a situation of that I would need to tell your mother in the afterlife that I had no idea whatever you three were alive or not. Now that worry can be put down, at least.

Elia smiled a little sadly at that, understanding her father. It would be every caring parent's worst nightmare to not know what had happened to a child, whatever adult or still a minor. As a mother herself, she understood that horror even more than before. The letter from Doran, gave her a little information of what had happened in Westeros during those months she had been away:

Dear sister, what a calming feeling I felt at learning that Rhaenys, Aegon and yourself had been saved from a most horrible fate. As you likely have not managed to get the latest news from Westeros, let me tell you instead: House Targaryen have been dethroned as the royal family of Westeros, as Aerys was slain by Jaime Lannister in the Sack of King's Landing around the same time as you three vanished from there. With Aegon officially missing with his sister and yourself, that left young Viserys as the only male Targaryen left, but as a child and with the actions of his father and brother which led to the Rebellion, he will not have much support. Robert Baratheon was crowned as the new King of Westeros a few months afterwards, and his marriage to Cersei Lannister is already going to bear fruit in a royal prince or princess soon. Dear Elia, I regret to tell you that not many days before we got your letter, Rhaella lost her life in childbirth on Dragonstone, after giving life to a daughter named Daenerys during a horrible storm that destroyed the remaining fleet of House Targaryen. The last two Targaryen children have escaped into exile in Essos, while no one outside us Martells know what have happened to you three.

Elia felt cold inside at the news of Rhaella's horrible fate. At the age of 38 years, her goodmother really should not have needed to become pregnant again, after so many failures of having children. That Rhaella had been only fourteen years old at giving birth to Rhaegar, had damaged her fertility by being too young at that first childbirth, according to what Royne had told Elia when her uncle's paramour had answered all the questions the then adolescent Elia had asked her about pregnancy and childbirth. In fact, at reading that her final child was a daughter, Elia did not doubt for a moment that if little Daenerys survived childhood, she would be wed to Viserys like their parents once her moon blood had started and undoubtedly risk to die in childbirth like Rhaella because she would be too young for it.

"Damn the Targaryens for marrying their daughters off at a dangerously low age and not realizing that being pregnant at that young age, is a invitation for them to die in childbirth…!"

This only proved further arguments to why Elia would refuse to let Rhaenys marry before the age of seventeen at the youngest. In fact, all this time that she had spent in Rohan so far, made her agree that eighteen was a very good age for coming of age. Unlike Westeros, it allowed the young men and women two added years of maturing both in body and mind, and gave them the chance to prove themselves able of become respectable adults without having to worry about marriage and having children at a young age.

Dear Elia, as Father and Doran likely have told you in their letters, I will let you know something far more pleasant directly tied to the family: I have found myself a paramour in Ellaria Sand, with our first child already growing in her womb as I writes this. I know, it would be a lot more politically useful if I actually marries some lucky lady from the noble houses of Dorne, but Doran and Mellario are still able to have more children, and if you three returns home once the most danger have passed, that means yourself, Rhaenys and Aegon would be ahead of me to become the next ruling Prince or Princess of Dorne. No, if my use will be to add into the family numbers by having little Sands, I can do that at least.

Of course the short letter from Mellario, which also sent her best well-wishes and hope of their return to Dorne soon, confirmed an old joke that the Martell siblings had started between them once it turned out that all of Oberyn's children born on the wrong side of the blankets had been daughters so far.

"Poor Oberyn, he is going to find himself with a deep hole in his annual income if all five of his daughters chose to marry in the future!"

Her laugh at the mental image of her younger brother making a sorrowful face at seeing the cost about a fifth wedding, caught some attention from her fellow travellers.

"Good news, I hope?"

While she still was sad over how Rhaella had ended her life, Elia hoped that the last Targaryen queen had been greeted in the afterlife by the children that originally would be the royal siblings born between Rhaegar and Viserys, but lost early in miscarriage, stillbirths or dying in the cradle.

As the adults talked near the campfire, the two younger sibling duos was enjoying some free time together before it was time for Rhaenys and Aegon to go to bed. Éomer and Éowyn recalled from their own childhood that the best way was to tire out the younger children by some form of playing, so they got tired.

"Ai! You got me, Rhaenys! And all thanks to your brother helping out!"

Some people might call it cheating by that Aegon clung his little arms around Éomer's leg to slow him down, but since he was the youngest one, Éowyn had insisted that the toddler hardly could be accosted of cheating and her own brother did agree. Anyway, Aegon had helped his own sister win the game of tag they had played for the past half hour and it was getting late with the sun setting for the night.

"Gone?" Aegon asked in confusion at seeing how Éowyn's hair had loosened so much from her earlier braid that the leather sting now was on the ground. As he pointed towards her hair, the niece of Théoden realized what he meant when feeling after if she had gotten something in her hair which should not be there in the first place. Then, both Aegon and Rhaenys yawned.

"Right, time for bed, or the adults will be unhappy with our attempt of babysitting."

Rhaenys was very happy over getting to sit on Éomer's shoulders on the way back to the tent they would share with Elia, while Aegon pulled on Éowyn's dress skirt to keep her from walking too fast.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Late in the night in the wee hours before dawn, however, Théoden was woken up by one of the guards on night duty.

"Sire, orcs are nearby."

Not good. This was hardly the first time orcs had crossed over the Entwash river, but it was alarming that they had came so deep into the Folde region of Rohan, especially as it was the center of the kingdom and homeland of the royal family with Aldburg being the original capital before Edoras had been built.

"Théodred, get up!"

His son groaned over being woken up, but hurried to dress himself in armour with some help of the servants who also helped their King.

"Éomer! Éoywn! Stay with Elia and her children, I do not want you to leave the camp to risk injury because I can not keep a eye on you!"

The two royal cousins looked a little disappointed about the order, until that Théodred made a fair point of that surely their late parents would not be happy to have them join the afterlife already because of pride? Besides, as the heir of Rohan hurried to add, sometimes defending innocents was at least as important as combat.

"Forth Eorlingas!" Théoden called to the guards, and a war horn were sound as he led them in the ride. From the distance, a response was heard. They were not the only ones who had seen the orcs tonight.

As the warriors rode off, a few remaining behind to guard the camp and those there in case some of the orcs managed to get closer, Elia tried to calm down her children, who were scared of what was going on.

"Elia...does Dorne have orcs or anything similar sometimes attacking the borders?" Éomer wondered over his shoulder, seeing how pale she was in terror while trying to make Rhaenys stop crying, doing her best to hold Aegon in her other arm too. Had the sound of battle triggered the memories of what Théodred saved her from?

"No...we are surrounded by the sea for most of the borders, and I seriously doubt that anyone would be able to sneak into the pass of the Boneway and the gateway of Prince's Pass in the Red mountains without being been by the guards who are on guard duty there...!"

Instinctively, she managed to grab hold of a spear Éoywn offered, likely to offer the adult woman some mental calmness by the feeling of a weapon in hand. But as Elia did so, something else happened:

Because her palm was covered by the spear, no one could see that for a moment, a glowing image of a spear revealed itself for a brief moment before vanishing again.

But in the far away lands of Rhûn, something had been triggered: The ruins of a ancient palace, in a city nearly buried in sand as time had passed alongside changes in the climate. A pillar of golden light, almost as bright as the sun in the sky, suddenly became visible as a long-forgotten magic from the distant past was awakened.

And somewhere in the fortress of Dol Guldur, the Nazgûl once known under the name of Khamûl let out a haunting scream of pain as one ancient scar, still there on his chest despite him no longer having a physical form anymore, reminded him of a injury he once had suffered not long after accepting the Ring of Power Sauron had given him.

"Martell...!" he growled, trying to not kneel from the overwhelmingly pain he had not felt for nearly 4 189 years. Had he been having a mortal body in that moment, a glowing scar in the shape of a golden spear would have been visible.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author note: In my ASOIAF stories save for my modern AU story called How behavior affects relationships, I have Rhaella be born in 145 A.C, making her fourteen at the birth of Rhaegar, if only to give her one more year to have her physically mature slightly to avoid that she got pregnant only a few months after getting her first period and also avoid dying in that first childbirth because she honestly got pregnant far too young for her own health and future ability to have children

As for Elia believing that Daenerys will not have the same luck as Rhaella and surviving her first childbirth, think of the different situation between them: in the books Daenerys is wed to Drogo at age 13 and already pregnant by the time she realizes that it is her 14th birthday in the GOT book. Being only in her early teenage years, Daenerys would likely be small for her age, and unlike Rhaella who have been living as royalty her whole life, which would mean regular meals without thinking of when you might get it next time, a warm home without needing to sleep outdoors on the cold ground during different weathers, servants for her needs and comforts and the care of maesters for illnesses, Daenerys have been in exile her whole life and her childbirth would have happened out in the wildness far away from the nearest city with people that could help her in case of complications during the birth, with only the help from Dothraki midwives

Folde is an ancient and historic region of Rohan, close to the King's courts in Edoras, which indeed originally held the King's seat at the town of Aldburg. Being the homeland of the royal family, the Folde was the centre of the kingdom.

The Nazgûls were first observed around year 2251 of the Second Age, and soon became Sauron's primary servants. Despite their great power and position as instruments of Sauron's will, not much is known of their activities during the Second Age. They were temporarily dispersed after Sauron's downfall in SA 3434 during the war of Last Alliance of Elves and Men.