Beginning of the End | House Of The Dragon

8.1

2 YEARS LATER

It had been two long years since Driftmark, two long years of waiting for Aemond to come of age so that they might marry. Aurelius, Alicent, and Aemond had wanted the wedding to take place immediately that same year but King Viserys deemed it wise to wait until Aemond was of a more mature age. So the boy was now three and ten, the same age Helaena had been when she'd been forced to marry Aegon. Aemond had also proved to be an early bloomer and had already hit puberty so they deemed that there was no more reason to wait. Aelthea was a woman grown now, at the age of seven and ten, and long overdue in the prospect of marriage.

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Aelthea and Helaena had been playing in one of the fountains, much to the septa's discouragements and cries, when her father had summoned her. So, she quickly left Helaena, handing Jahaerys off to a nurse and placing a kiss to Helaena's cheek. She liked the girl more than she'd thought she would and found conversation with her pleasant and easy; though if not sometimes hard to descifer. They were the best of friends now and Aelthea often ground herself hanging out in the gardens and the Godswood with her and Aemond.

She skipped all the way to the room and when she entered, gently closing the door behind her, her smile grew ten times wider at the sight of her betrothed. "Aemond!"

Her father patted the spot next to himself on the couch, interrupting any conversation before it could even start. Both parties took silent note of her bare feet and how she trailed water in behind her, but neither spoke up about it. Aurelius was beyond questioning her for trailing in anything and Aemond already knew where she had been and so it only proceeded to make his heart swell to know she'd been with Helaena, the sibling he loved the most.

"Oh, I see, this is one of my more serious talks. Is it about the us playing in the big fountain or... no, about the wedding?! I thought everything had been settled already?"

Aurelius let out a chuckled at his daughters sarcastic response to him wanting to talk, he enjoyed it even if it drove him half mad sometimes. "It has been my little dragoness, but Aemond and I had wished to give you a final wedding gift." She furrowed her brow and turned to look coyly at Aemond through golden lashes, wondering what they had in store for her, seeing as one rthe weeks she'd been gifted thousands of jewels and gowns and anything she mentioned even in passing; she didn't remember mentioning anything in passing recently.  "Lyrra come here." Aurelius beckoned the serving girl over. Lyrra had come back to Kings Landing at Jonquil's request, wanting her daughter to have someone at least close to being a mother to her; no one protested or brought up the fact that Faune should have filled that motherly role.

Lyrra cursied and addressed Lord Pendragon properly by his title as she made her way into the room. "As a wedding present to Aelthea, I am freeing you of your service to my family. You are now free to do as you choose. Whether that be to find a husband, to which I would gladly provide a dowry for, leave the Red Keep to form your own path, or to do only the Gods know what else." He saw the panic in her green eyes as the serving girls mind flooded with questions of what had she done wrong, what would she do now, or how she would survive. He smiled at her worry and took pleasure in reassuring her doubts. "But Prince Aemond is insistent that you would stay as a companion to my daughter in her new household. So that she might have a familiar face to help guide her in her duties as a wife and Princess...that is, if it is what you also desire."

The woman nodded her agreement to the Lord and Prince excitedly, feeling a wave of relief before her and Aelthea jumped into eachothers arms, beginning to jump around, still holding onto one another, in complete happiness. When they finally pulled apart Aelthea saw her father chuckling at their excitedness and Aemond's smirk; he was always pleased with himself when he made her happy, it was like a silent hit to his older brother, a victory you could say. She looked at her father in question, nodding her head over to Aemond for permission. Her father nodded, understanding what she was silently asking, and so she made her way over to Aemond, fighting to stop from physically bouncing with glee.