20

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112 AC

Kingslanding

Daeron Nymeros Martell

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In the list of horrible ideas I have had, this is likely in the top five maybe the top three.

I had the Princess swap into one of my sister's dresses so I could actually touch her skin, without the skin touching the water the healing won't work. She is in one of Myriah's gold-colored dresses that at least covers most of the upper body and thigh. She is shifting like mad and seems to be more hesitant than she let on but we are both committed at this point.

"Just lay facing down if you are worried I am looking at places I shouldn't, I am going to focus on the calve and it will be short. I am just demonstrating how it will feel after the massage and you can recommend it to your mom for her pain if you think it's worth the effort." She bites her lips and checks the back of the dress in a standing mirror before sighing.

"My rear is going to be practically on display, you were right about this being a bad idea but I am both curious to see and concerned for my mom." She says no more and lays flat on her stomach on the lounger with a pillow under her chest she is hugging.

I decide to say no more and prevent any more awkwardness in this situation so I straddle the lounger. Her raised feet set down in my lap presenting the lower half of her legs directly to me and making my job easy. The part not making my job easy is the gold dress doing nothing to hide the curves of her ass so I lock my eyes on her legs.

She only looks back for a moment when I grab one of her calves and start massaging it without any bending. I need her to be looking away and not paying attention before I cover my hands in water and start adding the healing effect.

"Ahh!" She jerks her leg up when I press my thumb against her calve and run it along the back of it while applying a slight pressure.

The moment she looks away and has her face pressed into the cushion I bend water from a jug and apply the healing effect. The slight glow thankfully is not too noticeable but the awkward groan when she feels the healing means she is aware of something. I keep a careful eye on her head for any movement and am ready to hide the water from her sight.

I am not ready to show off to her that I have 'water magic' but after this, it might be harder, especially if she is noticing the 'wetness'. If she guesses or catches me I can come clean but I would rather keep it under wraps till we actually marry if that still happens. It is a risk to get involved with Aemma at all but I feel quite bad for her and Rhaenyra. I would regret it if I did nothing when I could at least try and I am not complaining about Rhaenyras legs.

"That feels..." She trails off as her voice goes weak with my expert manhandling of her sore leg.

"The pain is going away?" I know for a fact it will ease the soreness of fatigued muscles and cramps from pulling something.

"Yea it feels cooling, try the other one please." She mumbles into the pillow as she keeps her face planted into it.

I nod regardless of her not being able to see and swap to her neglected leg and run my hands over it with a slight glow. Her leg shakes and then goes stiff before relaxing under my working hands and turns weak after a few moments of the bending doing its work. I get rid of the water discreetly as the actual 'healing' is done but I keep up the act.

I give her an average massage as her legs go completely limp and almost unresponsive. The odd noises she makes into the pillows do their best to distract me but I am laser-focused on a goal. Hell if I achieve my goal I might just get to do what I want with these legs soon enough without needing to massage them.

"That's good, they feel fine now." I jump up onto my feet when she pulls her legs toward her chest and turns her body wrapping her arms around her knees.

She gives me a complicated look as I pat down my clothes and angle my leg to hide something that does not need to be seen at this point. Professionals should not get stiffy during work hours but I was not even expecting this visit. Now the Princess is in a Dornish dress of my house colors laying on a lounger after I manhandled her legs beneath the knee.

If the King knew he would call for my head.

"Should I expect you to tell your mom or are we going to forget this happened?" She shakes her head and sits up on the lounger and tries to stand before she wobbles and drops back onto her butt.

"I don't think I will be able to just 'forget' but I am going to tell my mom, I think if you can do what you did to me to her she will feel better. I don't know how she will feel about it and I only have an idea of what to say to get her approval. But I will send a servant back to get you later or maybe even in the morning." The Melee will be tomorrow but I think it is fine to miss, building trust with the Queen is important at this point if I intend to try to save her.

"Sounds good, I will have my mom bring you the clothes you came here in and I think it would be best to rest awhile before trying to leave. If you walk out of here on shaky knees I will have to make immediate escape plans for my family." She scrunches her nose before her eyes widen dramatically and she takes a quick gasp.

She looks ready to retort but seems to think better of it, a stiff nod as she laces her fingers together is all she gives as a response. She looks between me and her lap where she placed her hands, a slight red burn on her cheeks as she gets lost in her thoughts.

I spin on my heels and head for the door to get my mom to deal with the clothes situation. She can't leave in a dress she did not come in here in or someone will ask questions. Namely, her Kingsguard and maybe an observant servant who is in the halls sees her state and informs someone else. It would be a nightmare if it spreads so I need my mother to bail me out at this point and I am sure she will have some prime words for me afterward.

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"What were you thinking?!" My mom hisses after she sees Rhaenyra off at the door with a kind smile.

Rhaenyra rested close to ten minutes before she stood on steady legs once more and made her great escape. She looked at me with a pout mixed with a glare as she headed for the door with her arm looping with my mom's arm. I might have upset her a bit at the end by taking a cautious step back but the last thing I need is to come off as too pushy. She will be over it soon enough and we can progress as if I did not molest her legs and then isolate myself.

"I want to help her mom, the pregnancy is causing her pains and I can use my abilities and healing knowledge to help her. Rhaenyra told me about the pain she is in and I can relieve her of it and I demonstrated my skill to Rhaenyra just then. Nothing crazy happened and she is fine, now she can talk to her mom about my massage and get her to seek me out." She rubs her forehead before pouring herself a glass of wine.

"Poor girl tried your hands out without any idea what they would do, she will be regretting that soon enough." I sigh at her dramatic lament and she shoots me a glare. "I am serious, she is a sweet little thing and you ran your hands over her and she will be feeling that all day. She likely won't even sleep tonight and will be up thinking about what you did..." She shakes her head and sighs as she looks toward the door Rhaenyra just left from.

"I think you're overreacting, I get foot massages all the time and they rub my calves and I sleep just fine." I shrug her off and put the thought out of my mind, knowing she might be right but I can unpack that later.

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112 AC

Kingslanding

Rhaenyra Targaryen

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"You came back." My mother groans as she tries to sit up, this time she is laying on the bed and looks covered in a layer of sweat.

I grimace seeing the pain she is in as she grits her teeth and leans forward as a servant stacks pillows behind her. I wonder if the massage would even do anything with how bad off she is, but then I actually think about the massage.

His hands are smooth and unlike how I expected, I thought they would be callused like I hear warriors have. He has told me he uses a spear before but I wonder how much if he does not have calluses. But his hands managed to rid me of any fatigue I had acquired being on my feet a large portion of the day. I believe he is telling the truth if I focus just on the 'treatment' and not on the other feelings I had going on.

"I came by to make a suggestion, I talked with Daeron and he said there is a massage they use on pregnant women to alleviate their aches and pain. I asked if it would help you and he said it should and I wanted to see if you were interested." I rip the arrow out so to speak and did not talk around the subject to give her any suspicion of what really happened.

I don't need her to know I was wearing something like that while alone with Daeron as he showed me just how good the massage was at alleviating aches and pain. Once her questions start they won't stop either so it's best if she is focused on the main point instead of what I want to conceal.

"A massage?" She asks skeptically and I shrug lightly and try to seem neutral about the whole thing.

She looks skeptical but her hand lands on her stomach softly as she closes her eyes and grits her teeth. The baby must have kicked her, little Visenya is a trouble maker it seems, and is out to cause pain.

"Might as well let him try and if it doesn't work you can just send him away, no harm no foul. He said he could make a tonic or something but he doubts anything consumable would be approved. So he is trying to help by doing something that doesn't require you to eat or drink anything." After she soothes the pain in her belly she starts to slowly nod.

"You are right, I would not eat or drink anything even if I wanted to, the baby could be at risk. But a massage might be nice even if it doesn't do much, if he is confident I will let him try." I smile and nod as hope builds up inside me.

This could also help my mom stop looking at Daeron like he is out to do something bad, even after talking a few times she seems on edge. If he can help ease some of her suffering she will surely warm up to the Prince.