The Emancipation of Rhaegar

Chapter 50

Summerhall

Kingslanding

"I'll be back before you give birth to Visenya, I just want to calm my mind a little," Rhaegar smiled, playing with her hair as they lay in his bed the morning he was set to leave.

"What will you do there?" Arianne asked him, looking into his eyes.

Rhaegar shrugged back, "I like to look at it. It's a reminder of what could have been."

"What could have been?"

"My great grandfather, Aegon, tried to hatch seven dragon's eggs on the day I was born. He failed, obviously, but ...," he hesitated, wondering if sharing his ideas with Arianne would cause her to accuse him of insanity, "I believe that I was born on the very day for a reason. The gods don't do anything for nothing."

"You believe you were born-,"

"While our family burnt yes, I know it's an odd phrase. I was born," he took her hand in his and traced it, his pale ones contrasting with her lightly tanned one, "as a rebirth of our family. A dragon is born in fire, and I was born in fire."

Arianne looked at the hand he held in his own, unsure of how to respond. "When will you be back?"

"I'll be back soon," Rhaegar smiled, taking her hand to his lips and kissing it.

"Who will go with you?"

"Now you're sounding like my mother," he laughed at her concern. "No one."

Arianne propped herself from her pillow and sent him a quizzical look. "But what if you are hurt!? Or ... or ..."

He ignored her question, he'd be fine alone. "I'll take you one day, it's very soothing to sleep under the stars in the halls of what was. But for now, I'll make up for my absence with a song. I have already written a few about twilight's, tears and the death of kings."

"You are very ..."

"Born in grief? Melancholic? Attached to the past? Too believing of tales of dragons. You are not the first to think that of me," Rhaegar sighed, freeing his hand from hers as he got up from the bed.

As he dressed, Arianne sat up from the bed fully now. "I want to come with you."

"You are with child, our first child. You aren't going anywhere."

"Well then, I want to go to Dorne, is it not right I rest my mind as well?" She asked him.

Rhaegar had noticed she had gotten exceptionally good at manipulating him, often getting her way. It took him back to their conversation on her very first day in the Keep, when he had told her that a wife must obey a husband. Well, that seemingly came back to bite him. "You aren't going anywhere. Especially not Dorne," Rhaegar responded, pulling his trousers up and tying them at their front.

"You visit your birthplace, but you have not even bothered to take me back to mine," Arianne reminded him.

"You have not asked."

"I'm asking now."

"When Visenya is born, ask then."

"So, I must ask before I do anything?" Arianne asked him, watching as he rolled his eyes.

"That's not what I said, and you know it," he stopped dressing and leant over the bed to kiss her.

She dodged his kiss, holding her hand out in front of her face. "If you care so much about me being with child, you'd also care to know that I also need a break from Kingslanding."