The Wrong Prince.
Chapter One
"What about Arianne?" Of course, that was the first thing that she thought of, he could hardly expect any different from her and it only made him love her all the more and it made what he had to do all the harder. He knew that he had to have wed at some point but he had been happy to pretend otherwise for a while, that mayhaps his mother would change her mind and allow it.
But she never had, he still remembered when he had returned to Dorne from Essos and he had brought the beautiful and elegant foreign lady back to his homeland when he had still been young enough to think that love could overcome anything arduous in the world.
What a young fool he had been.
His mother had made it clear that a marriage between himself and Mellario was not going to happen, not while she could stop it.
And she had kept good to that promise.
Once, when he had grown desperate to marry Mellario and was willing to do anything to see it done, he had some of his friends contact in secret a wandering Septon who traveled the dunes of Dorne's dessert to bless marriages and the births of children to ask him to bless a wedding between himself and Mellario. He thought that he had been so clever, so subtle, and that his mother knew nothing about it and that soon he and Mel would have been wed and there was nothing that the Princess of Dorne would be able to do about it.
What a fool he had been, mother had known everything as she always did, she had eyes everywhere and she had been waiting for them when they had both arrived in the sept, dressed as a septa with her guards dressed as sworn brothers. They had taken the both of them, bound them, and brought them back to Sunspear where they were soon separated and locked in different chambers in the spear tower.
He had been left to his thoughts for three days, without the slightest idea what had been done to Mel when his mother had come to see him.
He had leapt down her throat, demanding that she tell him how she had known his plans and his mother told him with a shrug, like she was explaining something a foolish child would have been able to grasp.
"Someone told, someone always tells."
That had been a harsh lesson to learn, but he had learned it well. Another thing he had learned that day was that it did not matter how much time passed, it did not matter what he offered or how much he begged her. She would never allow him to marry Mellario, the fact that he loved her in a way that he had never loved anyone else made no matter to her.
"I will not ask you to send her away," Princess Loreza had said, his mother was shorter than him and had been for a good number of years by that point but her authority was clear in her voice. When Princess Loreza spoke, you listened.
"But let me be quite plain, I will burn Sunspear to the ground before I allow you to marry that woman," There was no venom in his mother's words when she spoke of Mel, but that meant nothing as she had been playing the game long enough to be able to keep her true feelings hidden. "You are my son and heir, your marriage is a coin for me to spend as I see fit."
"You cannot force me to wed!" He had replied then. Doran had never been as hot-headed or as forceful as Oberyn but he would fight his battles when he had to.
"No, I can't. But I can ensure you never marry that Norvosi girl. Keep her as a paramour, if it pleases you. But I swear to you this, the arm of Dorne will regrow itself before you ever call that woman wife."
And from that day on it had been a battle of wills, mother had to let the both of them out of their cells eventually but they had never been left alone again after his little scheme. He always had at least two guards following him around Sunspear, and they were always his mother's men to the core, Doran had not a single hope of being able to turn them to his side.
Mellario was much the same, though looking back on it now Doran wasn't sure what trouble his mother had thought Mel could have gotten into, almost all of Mel's time in Dorne had been spent with him, drinking wine and playing games, and attending each other in bed. Mel had no other friends in Dorne, none other than him but his mother would take no chances.
His mother had, at the very least, had not tried to send Mellario away from Dorne but she had also kept true to her word that she would never allow them to marry. The Princess of Dorne also brought him prospective brides from every single corner of the realm to try and tempt him into marriage but not one aroused his interest, she could not force him to wed and he had said no to every single one.
The awful truth was that he was simply waiting for his mother to die, he told himself that once she was gone he would simply marry Mellario then. It was not a thought that sat well with him, it was a thought that lead to many roads he did not wish to walk down, and yet it was not a thought that would leave his mind no matter how hard he tried to dismiss it.
But Princess Loreza had been in no hurry to go to her grave, even as she approached her dotage his mother seemed as healthy as a cart-horse, he hated her for that and the miserable stalemate carried on.
One night he even had a dream that he had snuck into his mother's chambers and smothered her with a pillow and awakened screaming, his body coated in a cold sweat and Mellario had needed half the night to calm him. He had spent the entire rest of the next day in the sept at the altar of the Mother, praying for forgiveness and more patience before praying at the feet of the Crone for more wisdom.
Even if he had wanted to go down that route, which he had to tell himself a thousand times over that he did not, he would never have the chance to do so as her guards were always watching him and so he simply had to wait.
He didn't have to wait too long as soon enough his mother began to tire, according to her maids it took days to rouse her from her bed and she was often struggling to stay awake during her court. The Maester told them that it was a poison of the blood, a condition that haunted House Martell since their founding, before Nymeria had landed on the dunes of her new home, it had been the same condition that killed Mors in his cradle.
When his mother had finally gone to her rest he had thought that there might be some relief, but there had just been an emptiness in his heart. There had been so much to do, so much to plan in the days after she had died that he didn't have the time to feel much of anything.
But when all was said and done his mother had the last laugh in the end, when Dorne had finally agreed to join with the Iron Throne it was with the understanding that Dornish law would always rule in Dorne and part of ensuring that was a legal code which had been written in Dorne with certain laws enshrined in it, no prince or princess could change a law when it was added but they could add a law so long as it did not contradict a law that had been written before.
And his mother had written into the code that while a Prince of Dorne could marry any woman from any corner of the realm, they had to be born in the realm which meant that Mellario, a woman from across the Narrow Sea, could never be his wife.
He had tried everything, everything, to get the law stricken but he was told over and over again that there was simply nothing he could do about it, no prince could change the law of another prince. Dornish law must rule in Dorne.
And that was how they got to where they were now, Mellario as his paramour when she should have been his wife, their daughter as naught more than his bastard when she should have been his trueborn heir and him in need of taking a wife of his own to have trueborn heirs.
He would not have chosen the Lannister girl, he knew that joining Casterly Rock and Sunspear was one of his mother's ambitions and it seemed to him that his mother had enough victories over him both in life and in death. He had planned to take a girl from Dorne to wed, someone who would understand his position and would respect his love for Mellario.
But, it seemed that the gods enjoyed him as their fool for it was then when King Aerys decided to make his opinion known of the matter.
House Martell and Targaryen had been joined when his sister had wed Prince Rhaegar in Baelor's great sept but it seemed that was not enough to sate the madman who sat atop the Iron Throne as soon enough he was commanded to wed Cersei Lannister.
It was easy enough to see Aerys's game, the man was hardly subtle. He means to ensnare Lord Tywin in a bind, a net forged by our houses being bound together as one family. What worried Doran the most was that Tywin Lannister was clever enough to see the trap as well, so why had he walked into it when he agreed to send his daughter to Dorne to wed him?
Perhaps Lord Tywin agreed for the same reason that Doran had, he did not wish to see the Realm split asunder. Aerys had no right to command Doran, after all, but if Dorne defied him then it would be war and it would be the children that suffered the most for it. Doran would not have it, so he had bent his head and bite his tongue and would marry Cersei Lannister.
"Arianne is my heart," The prince finally answered her, reaching out to take Mel's hand. His heart was glad when Mellario did not pull away and linked their fingers together, Doran ran his thumber over her knuckles. "I shall never turn her out, she will be raised with as much love and care and attention as any trueborn daughter of mine would be. You have my word my love, I promise you."
Mellario nodded at his words, there were tears at the corner of her eyes but she did not let them fall. She is so brave.
"And what of me, of us?" Mellario whispered. "I doubt your northern bride would approve of me, she may suffer me for a little while but I doubt that she will want me here once she births you a child."
"She will suffer you for as long as I wish her to, you are going nowhere," Doran rose to his feet as he spoke, Mellario was an inch taller than him so he had to tilt his hands upward slightly to cup her cheeks. "I love you, you are already my wife in my heart and you always shall be. I shall not let you go, am I understood."
Mel nodded and it seemed she couldn't stop the tears anymore and as each one rolled down her cheeks Doran wiped them away before he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Go and see Arianne, all will be well."
As soon as Mellario was gone, Doran sat down and sighed heavily. His heart was heavy.
And Cersei Lannister was on her way.
End of Chapter One
So, originally I planned for the next chapter to be a chapter from Oberyn's perspective where he meets Cersei as she comes into Dorne and escorts her to Sunspear but I thought it would be a pretty short chapter for the most part, plus I wanted the next chapter to be a chapter from Mellario's perspective as she is as important a character in this story as Doran and Cersei to me.
So the next chapter will be from her perspective and it will take place during the wedding.
Hope you're looking forward to it!
With much love and warmest regards,
DiscordantSymphony