Prologue Part 2: Plans Put Into Motion
For the Princess, her first goal was easy to meet. Her father was too busy with his precious new son to care much about her (other than to get mad about how much time she spent with her dragon, how she always smelled of dragon, how she wasn't acting enough like a lady, etc) so requests to spend time with her mother's family were more often than not approved (likely also so she was out of sight and mind and not able to cause him "problems"). Even after her first visit though, she found that she really did enjoy spending time in the Vale as it was a refreshing change of pace and she genuinely liked her aunts and cousin Jayne. They really made her feel at home there and treated her more like family than her own father did.
Goal 3 was also not too hard to start working towards. All she had to do was spend her time at the Red Keep acting frivolous. This included spending long days on Syrax in the skies, lounging in the Godswood daydreaming to a bard's songs while snacking, sleeping until midday and insisting on multiple baths per day and full clothing and hair changes. She knew Otto was reporting it all to her father and that it made her look lazy and vain. However, she did spend her nights studying politics, finance, geography, history and other relevant information.
It was just Goal 2 that she was really struggling with. She knew even disinherited and if Lady Rhea was dead, that her father would not let her marry Daemon (and he didn't have the resources she needed). Of houses that she knew were a Hell No for her were House Tyrell and all of the Reach (as that's where House Hightower hailed from), House Baratheon and all of the Stormlands (as in her dream it was near there that her first son was killed and they turned against her), House Lannister and the Westerlands (she absolutely loathed those damn lions)and the Crownlands (the Crownlands were far too close.)
This left her with the Riverlands where House Strong hailed from, and while she was not opposed to wedding Harwin, she also knew his father was too close to hers, she didn't want to be haunted by the sons they only had in a dream, and she knew about Harren's Curse (plus House Strong wasn't a powerful enough house). She also was unsure if any of the houses of the Riverlands was truly powerful enough. She wanted to include the Veil but her cousin had no sons, and none of her cousin's bannermen were powerful enough. Lack of power also made her exclude the Iron Islands. This left her with only two possible Kingdoms in Westeros or else she'd have to really look farther afield: The North and Dorne and she was unsure about both.
Rhaenyra knew both had strong military forces, that neither followed the Faith of the Seven and that both were far enough away from KingsLanding for her to stay away but what she didnt know is if either had unwed young male heirs or how to get more information without it looking suspicious. Then one day while she was visiting the Eyrie she got lucky.
Lady Leonna Stark had sent her 14 year old son Cregan to attempt to secure an alliance with the Vale as her husband, Lord Rickon Stark had recently passed and her good brother was trying to usurp the North from her son. Lady Leonna Stark had been born a Corbray so she did feel comfortable requesting aid from the East.
Upon meeting the young Lord, Rhaenyra was instantly charmed and while he didn't have any trace of the familiar Valeryian looks, she did find him rather attractive. When she heard about his plight, she decided that she needed to help as she knew the pain of being usurped. Lady Jayne, who was constantly having to fight for her seat, also agreed to help. Once Jayne had gathered enough forces, Rhaenyra flew to the North and together they put an end to Cregan's Uncle's uprising.
This is also when Rhaenyra first met Cregan's mother, Lady Leonna, and his bastard, ten year old half sister Sara. Maybe it was the lack of having a mother but Rhaenyra really took a liking to Lady Leonna during the few days she spent at Winterfell and she also started bonding with young Sara and Rhaenyra felt as though Sara could easily become the sister she'd always dreamt of.
Both Lady Leonna and Lady Sara quickly took a liking to the Princess and when she left, she was told that she needed to keep in touch with them. Lord Cregan was also not left unaffected. He found the Princess to be very pretty, witty and smart and he honestly began to wonder if she might make a good Lady for the North.
Over the coming months, the three Northerners and the Princess corresponded frequently with the Princess having them send their messages to Dragonstone to avoid Otto learning of them. Meanwhile in the capital, Rhaenyra kept working on discretely nudging herself towards disinheritance.
Author Note: So yes, we have a meet cute. Yes, I know they are very young but this is a very different time. Also, I have 16 being the age of majority for boys and 15 for girls (thinking on how in the show HOD Laena said to Viserys that her mother told her she wouldn't have to bed him before she turned 14) so yeah, its young but at least is not like poor Aemma who was wedded at 11. Also, yes, I had to create a way for the two to meet so Cregan having a mother from the Veil and for her to send him to seek aid from her own kin made sense. Plus its something else they can bond over, their mother's were both Veil women.
