9 9
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112 AC
Kingslanding
Daeron Nymeros Martell
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Riding up behind our 'escorts' I spot my mom and give her a smile and a wave, she sighs and palms her forehead. I hear Myriah giggle to my left and look over at her in confusion but she only shakes her head. Some kind of herald announces our names upon our arrival and a ton of people I don't know clap as if they are happy to see us.
I almost could be convinced these people like us by this display, but their scrunched noses as we dismount tell the truth. They don't like us, we have power over them and even potentially their King. The only reason we are here is because of that power and not because the rest of Westeros had a change of heart about the Dornish.
I tune back into reality hearing a drawn-out voice that carries a hint of condescension but is masked well enough not to be an outright insult.
"-nd so we welcome you on behalf of the King as he had other matters to deal with of great import to deal with." The badge clipped onto his chest showing a hand lets me know I am finally meeting the man himself.
Otto Hightower.
"Thank you for welcoming us, Lord Hand." I smile and look around at the gathered people as he starts speaking again.
My eyes meet with a set of purple eyes much like my own that are slightly narrowed.
The pair of eyes belong to a young woman around my sister's age who is standing beside my mom with some distance between them. She has her silver hair free-flowing but combed back, and a dress that matches her house colors.
I send a quick wink causing her eyebrows to raise with a twitch at her lips, seems she trained her 'face' at least a little. I can almost feel the scowl coming from my mom as she is no doubt watching me and I choose not to push my luck.
I look to the Targaryen Princesses side and spot another woman similar age, most likely Alicent Hightower if I had to guess. Brown hair that is a touch dark her eyes much more light but also brown. To be honest, I didn't think much about her, she is obviously important but I know what her 'role' is.
She would or will birth the line of Targaryens that will oppose Rhaenyra and likely me if I marry Rhaenyra. It might be sexist of me to say it but that's all I thought about her up to this point as I couldn't remember anything she actually did. She birthed kids and pushed the Faith of the seven heavily, that's about all I know.
Which makes her an interesting person to talk to now that she is here in front of me.
"Wake up." Myriah hisses as she walks forward and the people who came to greet us also move.
"Huh?" I mumble back and take my eyes away from the two future enemies who are acting like normal girls their age.
Almost disorientating to see them as friends with my own eyes with the knowledge I have.
"Stop checking out the pretty Ladies and let's head in before Mom or Myriah have to have a word with you." Lewyn jokes and I elbow his ribs as he walks past me.
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"Nice to meet you Princess Rhaenyra." A formal introduction with a bunch of people around feels awkward and cramped but I still press my lips on the back of her hand.
"It is nice to meet you as well Prince Daeron." Her eyes are very invasive making me fight back a laugh, she seems so curious.
I guess it makes sense, no one really knows about me as far as the whole world knows. There is a Prince Daeron but no one cared who or what I looked or acted like until I sat on Gaelithox. I imagine the information they have on me is little and unimportant, they likely only barely know I look more Targaryen than Martell.
That seems to be what she is looking at, for she has not even spared a second look at Lewyn or Myriah who also have dragons. That or she is already aware of a potential engagement and is trying to judge my 'worth' and temperament. With that thought now in my mind, I almost feel like a horse at auction and it makes me more uncomfortable as the room's silence builds.
"It is nice to meet you, Princess." My sister cuts in and mimics me kissing Rhaenyra's hand much to the Targaryen Princesses confusion.
"As well with me Princess, it is nice to meet you." Lewyn quickly follows after Myriah cutting the awkward tension Myriah was trying to build.
Rhaenyra blinks and looks at the two of them in confusion before remembering what is going on.
"It is nice to meet both of you, your mother was just telling me about some stories about you three." She smiles and starts a conversation.
We are gathered and awaiting the feast to start but can't actually go in to sit yet so we are kind of just standing around in a side room. My mom has her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed when I look at her those eyes tighten more. I grimace and give a small shrug, she needs to have some faith in her son.
My father seems to be holding a conversation with Otto and it seems neither is happy about it, must be tough being the only two older men in the room. They can't just talk to the young ladies unless it's their daughter and the young men here don't want to talk to them either. So they sit in silence or talk to each other, I am surprised my dad is actually putting in the effort. But I guess if you sail all this way you have committed enough to see it through.
My eyes flicker to the Kings guards who I do not know and I can't help but wonder how good they are with their blades. It is not every day I get to face a skilled opponent and the Kingsguard are supposed to be the best. I wonder if it would reflect poorly on me to ask them for a practice match when they are not on duty. I know they work ridiculous hours and rarely sleep but surely they have time for a match.
"Prince Daeron?" I hear a voice and turn away from the white-cloaked men.
"Yes?" I see it is Alicent who spoke as I meet her eyes and she folds one hand over the other and keeps it at her midriff.
She seems nervous or scared of me, I wonder what she has been told about me?
"Is there something wrong with the Kingsguard?" She practically whispers as she looks over my shoulder and I give a small grin.
"I was just wondering if they are allowed to fight people if challenged, I heard they are the best and wanted to see for myself." I speak with my volume raised a bit and manage to get the reaction I wanted as Rhaenyra looks over from Myriah to me.
"I don't think that is allo-." Alicent speaks up hesitantly but gets cut off.
"I think that a match can be arranged for you Prince Daeron." Rhaenyra's voice is laced with interest as she looks over at the Kingsguard.
Before anything interesting can happen the door opens and Otto steps forward seeing the servant girl. Seems we won't be having a chance for me to try out their metal just yet.
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112 AC
Kingslanding
Rhaenyra Targaryen
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He certainly doesn't look like a snake or a Dornish man, he looks all dragon to me.
While we all ate together it was pretty quiet, I was hoping someone would bring something up but everyone was silent. The young Martells whispered and sent one another looks that only they understood. Other than that it was a dull affair other than my dad's occasional questions about random things.
They traveled today and only just arrived so I didn't expect much conversation from them but I would have enjoyed asking a few questions. I wanted to know how they managed to claim their dragons, each one having its own personality that made it hard to claim. 'Shrykos' is a shy dragon who runs from people and has never been claimed. 'Tyraxes' does not like people close and will burn them if they try, Father said that a bunch of sheep was reported missing. My uncle Daemon thinks they baited the dragon with the sheep and managed to claim it while it was eating.
'Gaelithox' the Cannibal who would kill anything that came after it be that thing man or dragon.
How did he manage to claim a dragon that will even kill other dragons, it is a massive and frightening-looking dragon. The rumor I heard said that magic was involved, something about a bunch of ice and the ocean pulling the dragon into the depths. Alicent and I looked up anything we could about magic and water along with ice and only found some old stories with the Maester's help.
Rhoynar water magic was said to be able to knock a dragon out of the sky or even protect a castle with water. The 'Spice wars' were where the Valyrians fought the Rhoynar and used their dragons to burn them. The Rhoynar called upon the River Rhoyne to slay the dragons and their riders and managed to kill some.
The book History of the Rhoynish Wars said the Rhoynar were winning multiple battles and kept pressing toward Valyria. This forced the hand of Valyria to send three hundred dragons to burn their army and caused the rest of the Rhoynar to flee Essos. They eventually settled in Dorne and now Daeron has their blood and power.
He even carries the name 'Nymeros' meaning from Nymeria's bloodline as she married into the Martells and burned their fleet so they couldn't leave. They made it and were going to stay and make it work no matter what, and they were safe from dragons for many years. Then House Targaryen showed up and now we are at the point we are at.
If he truly does have the Rhoynar water magic and used it to claim cannibal he is quite the odd man. Two ancient enemies' blood meets inside of him and he can wield both their powers if what I suspect is right.
But I won't know unless I ask him how he claimed the dragon.
"What did you think of the Martells?" I ask Alicent as I close the book I once again was skimming through.
"They don't seem to be as savage and hostile as I was lead to believe they were." I nod at that as I was also told of Dorne and its people in a similar way.
"But what did you think 'of' them?" She looks at me pointedly before smiling.
"What did I think 'of' them?" I nod and her smile widens. "I think Prince Daeron favor's his mother and not his father if that is what you are asking." I sigh and roll my eyes at her.
"I didn't mean it like that." She chuckles dryly.
"What did you mean then, Princess?" I open my mouth before I find myself closing it not knowing what to say. "See." I look away from her as she is trying to annoy me.
"I was thinking about asking them to go flying tomorrow." I manage to finally clear my head and put forward something I want her opinion on.
"Do you think that it's wise? Prince Daerons dragon is known to eat other dragons and is big enough to bite Syrax in half." I don't think it would do that.
"I doubt it would, if they wanted to kill us then they would have attacked as soon as they claimed the dragons. They would have had a perfect surprise attack and could have burned everything to ash before we even knew what was going on. I also think Gaelithox is tamer than people will give him credit for, he didn't seem out of place next to the other two dragons. I will invite them and see what they think about it, if they say it's dangerous then I won't go." She sighs and shakes her head.
"Your dad won't like this." I shrug and take a sip of my drink.
"He wanted me to make friends with them and dragon riders make friends best in the sky." Not that I would actually know.
But I do get excited thinking about it, flying with three other people and enjoying the sky with company.
