Even after ten years, the events were a bit muddled in Oberyn's brain. He vaguely remembered Ashara Dayne sending him and his brother a missive whilst they were fighting against his decision to call the banners in order to intervene when the fair maid had contacted them concerning a matter of great importance.
The Red Viper, still young and hot-blooded had wanted to dismiss her words: after all, she was supposed to protect his own sister in the Red Keep, so why had she fled? He vaguely remembered her brief dalliance with some Stark from the freezing barren land that was the North and he had winced, remembering the news that had reached them concerning the crude execution of a Lord Paramount and his heir.
Seeing the little bundle in her arms had puzzled him, until she had given him a handwritten letter by his sister, his sweet Elia who had managed to hold off on the announcement of her children's birth as long as she possibly could in order to hide the existence of a perfect Valyrian born babe. She had the coloring of the Dornish, even though it wasn't as accentuated as in her older sister Rhaenys, but she still looked positively Targaryen in his eyes, aside from her face who was a stark copy of the woman who gave birth to her.
He had long thought she would call her Visenya, after the Warrior Queen who had helped shape their Kingdom in what it currently was - and was pleasantly surprised by the name she had chosen.
Rhaenyra Targaryen.
A strong name - fit for a Queen.
For a few months, he had thought she was to be hidden for a while under the guise of his baseborn daughter with Ashara, even though he made sure to keep her hidden from people within Starfall.
When he received the news of the Sack of King's Landing, he understood his sister's wishes: it was her legacy. If something was to happen to Rhaenys and Aegon, Rhaenyra would have to reclaim their family seat from the Usurpers and butchers with Dorne at her back. Or mayhaps she had seen herself in her daughter and had wanted a happier ending for her?
He cared for naught - when death had also claimed Ashara after she jumped from her own balcony, he had made sure to falsify as many documents as possible in order to fool the Kingdoms to think they had been married in secret and they had been gifted a daughter. Doran had actively helped him in his endeavors, even though he had been too shaken by the fate of their sister to do much else.
Since the Daynes were known for their silver hair and purple eyes, no one could doubt anything about her and the circumstances of her birth. Elia had insisted on giving birth with the help of a few handmaidens without informing Pycelle, taking care of promptly assassinating them with well placed poison so no one would dare claim her existence until the time was right.
Oberyn had been sceptical of how he could raise royalty, but it seemed like Rhaenyra had been ready to care for herself after all, assuaging some of his fears. Her visions of the future had worried him most of all, especially when she had woken up in the middle of the night, begging him not to fight the Mountain in King's Landing during a tourney since he would end up losing her life. He had shamefully doubted a few of her words, until she had promptly guessed the names of the future royal children, Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen - even going as far as telling him how they would look. She had done the same with the Tyrells, and the Starks, and every other House where they could procure such information about them after the fact.
With proof of her words, him and Doran could do nothing but shield her from other aspects of her life. If she would become Queen, it would mean she needed an education fit for it - it was a good thing she was close of age with Arianne and other noble children who spent their childhood at Sunspear, being the fourth heir to the Martell house.
Everything had gone well, until today.
"I need you to arrange a marriage for me," she informed him, looking stressed for some reason.
He had named her Elia, in memory of her mother who she had never been able to meet and the sister who he would one day avenge. Just like his other nephews and his own children, he had never been able to refuse her - which was why he was surprised by how perturbed she was. "Of course, little dāria, but are you sure...?", he asked her.
When she had been younger, she had sworn never to marry - she would never be treated by a man like her grandmother had been treated by the Mad King nor would she be put aside like her mother had been by Rhaegar. She had no love for her father and she had never deigned to tell them why.
"We are going to pit the Starks and the Baratheons against each other, kepa," she informed him mischievously. "Inform the Quiet Wolf that they have the opportunity to mend the bridges between us by getting an esteemed Princess of Dorne."
He would never admit it, but he would never forget how he shuddered under her piercing purple gaze when she had uttered those words.