For almost her entire life, Daella Targaryen has lived as Mellara Rivers, the bastard daughter of Arnold Arryn and cupbearer of Lady Jeyne Arryn. First and trueborn daughter of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Daella had but slight contact with her fami...
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T H I R T Y - E I G H T
Always the fool with the slowest heart ─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Daella folded her hands together, taking in the gloomy and moist walls of Dragonstone as she was being led to her mother's room and suppressing the chills that ran down her spine. It was not as much the dark atmosphere which seemed to swallow the entire island as the actual temperature that made Daella shiver. Not to mention the anxiety that rushed through her veins at the knowledge that she was finally seeing the Princess Rhaenyra again, no longer solely as her daughter, but as a married woman as well.
She was flanked by four guards, all of them wearing the black and red colours of House Targaryen, who guided her down many narrow corridors until at last, they ended up at her mother's solar. Two of the knights threw the heavy doors open and Daella stepped through them confidently, straightening her spine and holding her head high.
"My Queen, it is your daughter," one of the guards announced unnecessarily, before closing the doors again.
Daella observed her mother for a moment, trying to recollect her thoughts. She knew instantly something was wrong, from the way her mother remained standing with her back towards her daughter to the golden crown of late King Viserys resting on top of her head despite no people being present in the room. Daella felt a distance to the woman she had always longed to be close with, a tension that made her skin prickle and her throat dry.
"Mother," she said after a while, breaking the awful silence. She folded her hands together again and took a hesitant step forward, the act of confidence slowly but surely melting from her frame. "I came immediately once I read Lucerys' note. What is the matter of urgency?"
"Your brother didn't write you a letter, sweet child," Rhaenyra said, turning around slowly. There was a measured expression on her face, a hint of regret in her eyes. "But it was the only way to get you here. Had I or Jacaerys written you, the letters would have been opened and the plan ruined."
Daella swallowed the lump in her throat and feigned an expression of ignorant curiosity on her face, the nails of her fingers digging into her skin and creating red crescents. "What plan, mother?" she asked, raising her eyebrows high. Rhaenyra simply continued to stare at her only daughter, offering neither consultation nor explanation. Daella forced the corners of her mouth upwards. "The crown agrees with you, as does your pregnancy."
Rhaenyra swallowed audibly, taking a step closer to Daella. She was wearing a black dress, fastened with silver dragon heads and accentuating the swollen belly that indicated another brother or sister. "Do you still support me, my beloved daughter?"
