Does anybody know how to post on Ao3 on mobile? Bc I was getting crazy frustrated trying to do that.
_
For much of the past year Alyssa had little to be happy about. After all, her brother had been stolen away from her.
That wasn't supposed to happen. Brothers and sisters are supposed to always be together. Especially twins, and everyone said that Baelon and Alyssa would never be separated for long.
Mother had attempted to explain to Alyssa why Baelon had to remain in King's Landing but Alyssa hadn't wanted to listen. She may have gone a bit crazy when she learned that Baelon wasn't allowed to visit but that was a perfectly reasonable reaction to having her brother stolen if Alyssa might say so herself.
Mother certainly hadn't agreed. When Alyssa had set some of her nicer dresses on fire Mother had responded by locking Alyssa in a room without any torches or candles for her to make use of. She had tried to write Baelon and ask him to come save her but Mother had refused to send the letters.
Eventually Alyssa had been let out of her little prison and she'd admit that maybe she had overreacted a tad. Still, Baelon was hers, it was completely unfair that Rhaenyra got to have him for nearly a whole year and all Alyssa could get was a couple letters. She's a Princess too isn't she?
But none of that mattered now because Baelon was coming home.
Two weeks ago Alyssa had received a letter from her twin saying that he would be home for their name day and she couldn't remember the last time she was so happy.
Alyssa wondered how Baelon would look after so long apart. Would he be big and strong like Father? Probably not. Without Alyssa there to drag him outside how was he ever to get any exercise? No doubt Baelon had spent his days in the Red Keep reading books and crying for being separated from his sister. Alyssa wouldn't judge him too much for that, without Baelon around she had hardly anybody to talk to and she had cried just as much as he doubtlessly had.
So Alyssa would make sure he was completely comfortable when he arrived. She ordered the servants to move his old things into her room as Baelon would of course wish to spend as much time as possible with her.
For a moment Alyssa felt another spark of rage at the thought of how long her and Baelon were apart. But it didn't matter, Father had always said that once Alyssa was seven or eight name days old she'd get a dragon of her own and in three weeks she'd turn eight.
She had thought that with her brother having a dragon it would be enough for the two of them to never be split up but clearly Baelon wasn't strong enough to leverage Vhagar into getting the things that mattered most. No matter.
Once she and Baelon both had dragons of their own they'd never be separated again. She'd make sure of it.
A roar woke Alyssa from her sleep. It wasn't a high pitched screech like Father's Caraxes but a low and resounding rumble that seemed to shake the very foundations of Runestone. Of course being awoken in such a way did little to scare Alyssa, a sound like this one could only mean one thing. Baelon had returned.
The moon was still high in the sky but there were no candles to light up Alyssa's room due to her mother's reluctance to let her around any kind of flame so when she went to rush out of her bed she found herself tripping over her sheets and onto the cold stone floor. She let out a sharp gasp of pain but still she was undeterred.
Her brother was home and she was determined to be the first to greet him. So she quickly slipped a more substantial dress over her nightgown and rushed out of her room, stumbling a bit from the burning of her scraped knees.
Her usual guards weren't there, no doubt they had raced to receive Baelon with a greeting fit for a Prince like him. Alyssa found herself giggling at the thought. Her brother being treated as though he were a dashing Prince returning from war was a funny idea to her. After all he most likely spent all his days cooped up in the Red Keep doing nothing but reading! It was truly a shame that she wasn't there at Bael's side while he was in King's Landing, Alyssa thought. She would've gotten him up and out of his room and helped him make friends and gone riding with him. She was always the only one who could do those things, it was a perk of being a twin, she thought.
But now what must Baelon be like? No doubt he had turned even more timid and bookish than before without Alyssa's careful guidance. But it didn't matter. Bookish or not Bael was her brother, she'd get him out of his shell in no time and he'd never fall back into it once she was at his side again, just as twins are meant to be.
So Alyssa rushed through the dimly lit halls and out into the courtyard where her brother would no doubt be waiting for her. There'd be a crowd gathered around to see Baelon's return but he'd be too nervous to step from Vhagar's back and meet with the crowd. Alyssa imagined herself being there for him, helping him out of his saddle and introducing him as her twin and the Prince of the Seven Kingdoms to the awestruck crowd. It was a nice thought.
The first thing Alyssa noticed when she entered the courtyard and felt the pleasant chill of the summer night, perhaps unsurprisingly, was Vhagar. The she-dragon was just as massive and beautiful as Alyssa remembered it. Her brother's mount looked more dark green than bronze this time of night but that fact did little to detract from her beauty in Alyssa's eyes. Upon recognizing the dragon as Vhagar, for what other dragon could it be? Alyssa felt a surge of delight. This was real, her brother was really back.
There was a small crowd gathered a safe distance away from Vhagar, and while Alyssa was a bit put out she didn't have the chance to help her brother off his dragon she was more focused on actually managing to see Baelon. She attempted to push her way through the crowd and the people cleared the way for her as they recognized her as the Princess. And then suddenly, after a path had been made big enough for her to slip through she was standing in front of her brother.
He looked like she remembered him, perhaps just a bit older. He still had the same pale lavender eyes and long smooth silver-gold hair pulled back out of his face by a black and red silk strand.
Though his clothes were where the differences started. He wore an expensive looking set of riding leathers with a red dragon emblazoned on the front and he was covered in extravagant looking silver jewelry decorated in rubies. Alyssa suddenly found herself stuck fiddling with her gown and wishing she had brushed her hair or cleaned herself off after falling on the floor at least before coming to see her brother. Her scraped knees burned against her rough gown and she was mortified to think that perhaps Baelon might see her bleeding through it when he was dressed so well.
She just missed whatever Baelon had been saying but it must have been funny because the crowd erupted into laughs. His smile was fixed in place, Alyssa supposed it might have been charming but it didn't reach his eyes and he was hiding his teeth.
When Baelon saw her though his eyes seemed to sparkle with joy, and Alyssa felt herself flush as she took him in. He looks very beautiful, she thought, "Alys, it's good to see you," He said brightly and walked, perhaps a bit faster than a Prince should, towards her for a hug. Alyssa accepted it readily, she found that she was taller than him and a mischievous smile slid onto her face. She'd be teasing him over that later, when there were less prying eyes.
She opened her mouth to speak to him but for some reason her smile was gone and all she felt was a lump in her throat. Despite Baelon still being dressed in his riding leathers and the fact it wasn't proper she pressed herself further against him and dug her face into his neck, her shaky hands grasped his back as though he'd try to run and her breath came out in short sharp bursts. He was wearing some kind of perfume, she could vaguely smell the flowers, but he mostly smelt like sweat and dragons. It was a nice scent, Alyssa thought.
He wrapped his arms around her back, holding her tight and running his fingers through her raven hair, trying to get out the knots as he did when they were younger while her mind was filled with memories of all the times they spent together.
Had those times only been a year ago? It had felt longer and in that moment Alyssa knew that she never wanted to be away from her brother again. They had come into the world together, it was only proper they walked it together as well. And if anyone tried to deny them that right then Fire and Blood would see them correcting their mistake. She wondered if Baelon could feel the way her heart was hammering against her chest or if he knew that the pain she felt had nothing to do with the scrapes on her knees.
She wanted to tell him those things, to say something witty or smart sounding but somehow all that came out was a choked sounding, "I missed you so much," She didn't know how long she stayed holding him like that but when she pulled away there were wet spots where her eyes had been and despite the fact Baelon's ruby rings made it hard for him to brush through her hair she felt more proud of the knots he had left than the times her hair was silky smooth from hours of brushing.
AN
So that was my shortest chapter since the first two, but still that felt like a good place to end it.
In case it wasn't clear this chapter is set before the events at the end of chapter 8 so currently Aemma is still pregnant.
Okay so this was meant to be another Daemon chapter, then it was a Steffon chapter, then a Baelon chapter, then a Rhaenyra chapter, and I only decided it was an Alyssa chapter like last week when I decided I wanted to take the story a bit slower and not just rush off into the next big incident.
At the end of the day this isn't purely a story about the Dance. I want to take it a bit slower from here on because I feel like I've been rushing it a bit. Though that was partly to let half of the principal characters grow up a bit. Anyway I think we'll spend a couple chapters in Runestone before going to Dragonstone or wherever else.
I can't lie, Alyssa's in a bit of a weird place right now. Some people correctly made the assumption when I introduced Alyssa and Baelon that the plan was for the two of them to claim Silverwing and Vermithor. It would make a lot of thematic sense and I thought it'd be cute so I decided to give Baelon a twin sister.
Obviously Baelon didn't end up claiming Vermithor and Alyssa didn't end up claiming Silverwing because Rhaenys and Baelon both decided they'd snatch up the good dragons early.
This has left Alyssa in a bit of a weird spot because there's no real story reason for her to be there. But she's there and I'm not just gonna write her out or something like that. The plan for her from here is to try and make her feel like a real character and not some kind of Mary Sue.
So let me know, what do you guys think of Alyssa and Rhaenyra so far in this story? Why did I ask about those two in particular? Probably a totally random reason.
Anyway it turns out being around babies is really calming for me. I know, me. Who'd have thought?
But seriously all the little guy has to do is smile and giggle at me and all my anxiety and stress is melted away. So if you want to thank anybody for this chapter, thank him.
I won't promise any specific days for new chapters going forward, I think we can all see I'm not very good at keeping those. But I will promise that I still have no plans of abandoning the story and I will not go silent for months like that again. I'll start interacting with the people reading my story a lot more going forward and I promise I won't go silent like that for months.
The way I see it I have an obligation to finish this story now that I've started it and disappearing like that was totally unacceptable. I'll do my best to be better in the future.
Also just because there's no longer a set update schedule doesn't mean to suddenly be afraid to continue pestering me about the next chapter. It honestly does help with my motivation a lot and my chapters are short, there's no reason it should take me weeks or months to write them.
As a side note I'm kinda interested in getting a beta reader or two. There won't be any pay but if you'd like to read my chapters as I write them(and inevitably change them dozens of times), have me bounce ideas off you, and get me to listen to your ideas for the story then hit me up.
Anyway this AN is practically as long as the chapter but there were a lot of things to talk about. If you made it this far then thank you for reading and I hope my story continues to retain your interest.