Jaehaerys I

"A dragon," Jaehaerys shook his head in disbelief as he leaned back on his chair. "How in the Seven Hells do you have a dragon?"

His youngest daughter was seated opposite him, one hand tucked carefully in the lap of her blue skirt, the other grasped firmly in the hand of his glaring eldest granddaughter. Gael rubbed the back of Rhaenys' wrist with her thumb and slowly raised her chin high, and sent Jaehaerys an adoring smile.

"Her name is Tessa, Father," Gael corrected sweetly. "And I already told you… Rhae and I went to visit Meyles with Mother's permission and…"

"Enough!" Jaehaerys slammed his hand onto the top of his desk. "You!" he pointed to Rhaenys.

Aemon's daughter only raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Grandfather?"

"If you were fool enough to believe this farce that my daughter was fawning over hatchling before accidentally claiming a dragon you would be incapable of being Queen, Rhaenys!" Jaehaerys folded his hands together. "Gael put you up to this, did she not?"

"I did nothing of the sort, Father," Gael declared. "Claiming Tessarion was either chance or the will of the Gods, there is no need to assign blame to Rhaenys."

Rhaenys said nothing, and only looked him straight in the eye. "Gael only asked for a flight on Meyles, I…"

Jaehaerys held up his hand. "While I appreciate your sense of loyalty, granddaughter, I will not suffer for this ridiculous banter," he pointed at the door. "Your Grandmother spoke with my son, Aemon will decide your punishment. Leave me with your aunt."

Gael nodded at Rhaenys, who squeezed her hand before she stood up from her seat and exited the room. The door slammed behind her, leaving Jaehaerys alone with his youngest child.

"Dragons are beautiful creatures, Gael," Jaehaerys sighed. "Yet they are capable of such power. Fire made flesh, is what my Aunt Visenya used to say. Fire made flesh."

"You were but a babe when Vermithor hatched for you, Father," Gael's lips widened into a soft smile that did not reach her eyes. "Why is it that Rhaenys is to be disciplined yet Aunt Rhaena received no such punishment from Grandfather when she placed eggs in the cradles of both Mother and yourself?"

Jaehaerys drilled his hand on the wood of the desk, the taps echoing in the chamber and a grin stretched across his face. "You remind me of her. You have a similar way with words."

"Who?" Gael's mouth tightened and she flicked a silver bracelet on her wrist. "Aunt Rhaena?"

"No," Jaehaerys glanced down into Gael's purple eyes. "My sister was a free spirit, a true dragon. Rhaena also cherished her privilege as blood of the dragon as she rejected her obligations to House Targaryen. Saera was almost Rhaena again, truth be told, if you removed all of my sister's virtues and only the vices remained… Visenya though," Jaehaerys pointed a finger at Gael, "you have much of her fire in your eyes, daughter."

"Is this a criticism, Father? How is comparing my actions to the appearance of a woman you despised beneficial to this conversation whatsoever?"

"She never hated me, Gael," he leaned back in his chair and focused on the stone wall behind his daughter's head. "I was Aenys' son, and no matter what the maesters say Aunt Visenya loved him perhaps as much as my mother did for me…. Just not as much as she loved Maegor."

Gael hummed to herself and Jaehaerys met her stare. "You are afraid. You believe that I will compromise the safety of House Targaryen for the sake of my relationship with Rhaenys. As Visenya did for Maegor…." the usual dainty expression of the Winter Child curled into a cheeky smirk that Jaehaerys recalled frequently gracing the features of a different daughter. "Should I be pleased that a princess is considered important enough for Jaehaerys the Wise to notice? Or should I be fearful that I will soon end up like Viserra?"

"Serra died from her own recklessness, child! You somehow believe that you and Rhaenys did nothing wrong in claiming Tessa, as you call your dragon, yet it is a damn miracle that I am not burning you on a pyre as I did your sister!"

Gael banged her fist on the armrest. "Yes, I have claimed a mount of my own, I admit it. But it was not to spite you, or Mother, or House Targaryen, nor was it a quest for your attention. Did it never occur to you that perhaps I simply wished to keep my fate in my own hands? What could possibly be wrong with that?"

"Had Saera and Viserra merely listened to your mother and I they would still be with us!" Jaehaerys spat. "I have had thirteen children, girl, two of them I have not set eyes on in years and six have been reduced to ashes in urns!"

"Viserra is dead because you and mother tried to send her off to the bloody North to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather!" Gael pushed back her seat with a long screech as the legs scraped across the floor and she jumped to her feet. Her breaths were shaky as she braced herself against her wooden staff. "Serra may have been self absorbed and spoiled but had you tried even once to look past her vanity you would have realized what I knew. That she had a heart of gold! How dare you sit here and blame my sister for her own death!"

"You know nothing!" Jaehaerys spat. "You did not see Serra's broken body, waxen and lifeless like a marionette with cut strings, lying at the foot of Aegon's hill. Do you think I did not rage and sob and curse the Gods for taking another child from me? You are not a parent, Gael, you are a girl of ten, dragon or no dragon, you have no right to judge!"

"I have every right when you are the reason that she is gone!" Gael fumed, her knuckles turning white as she tightened her grip. "Did you honestly expect that a girl of fifteen years would quietly agree to be wed to an old man! How can you possibly believe that Viserra, or any girl for that matter, would wish to be all alone in a foreign land destined only to bear children that would inherit nothing!"

"Sit down," Jaehaerys spoke softly, a contrast to the sound of his hand slamming down on the table.

"If you were trying to punish her you could've just taken away her sweets! How can you be proclaimed a conciliator when your answer to a family squabble resulted in the only sibling who ever treated me as more than just a simpleton leaving me forever!"

"Sit down now!" Jaehaerys shouted. Gael huffed out a breath, her purple eyes glaring back at him before she bowed her head and slowly resumed her seat.

"You are not simple….Who are you?"

"A person?" Gael stated flatly.

Jaehaerys rolled his eyes. "What is your title?"

"Princess."

"Why do you have this title?"

"You are my father and you are a King," Gael closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again.

Jaehaerys wiped away sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. "Your Father is your King, and your King is your Father," he met her eyes. "Do you understand?"

Gael tugged on a piece of hair and bit her lip as she nodded once.

"Your mother wanted Viserra away from Baelon," he sighed, more to himself than to Gael. "She found a quick betrothal, to the Manderly Lord, we had been quarrelling for a while after Alyssa, Daella and your other sister, Saera," the name was still bitter on his tongue, "and I agreed. I assumed that old Lord Manderly would die within a few years and I would bring Viserra back."

"She was not stupid. She knew that Baelon would not make her Queen. Aemon is Prince of Dragonstone, Jocelyn is the next Queen," Gael locked her fingers together and stretched out her hands. "Despite her preaching about desiring a man who would treat her like a goddess, all Viserra wanted was to remain home, and she thought that if she seduced Baelon and became his wife, she could stay here… that's all I want…." her eyes grew cold. "You could have told Serra that you would bring her home in a few years, but you did not, she may have been your daughter but you never knew her as I did…" Jaehaerys' vision went red. "Your regrets mean nothing when…"

"Get out!" Jaehaerys demanded. "Get out of my sight!" Gael froze in mid sentence. She curtseyed before him.

"As you will…" her gaze burned violet. "Your Grace."

He clenched his hands so tightly that blood began to drip from the marks his nails left behind as he heard the taps of the wooden staff as his youngest child quietly escorted herself out of his chambers. A swish of blue skirts and the slam of a door and Gael was gone. Jaehaerys was left alone in the company of his thoughts. And his ghosts.