𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟 𝐶𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑 // 𝐽𝑎𝑐𝑎𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑠 𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛

~IV~

Daela was crying while walking towards her chamber. At least she thought she was. Her feet were taking her elsewhere. Without much of a thought she was walking down the corridors of the castle without knowing where they would lead her. The tears in her eyes were blurring her vision and keeping her from understanding where she was.

"Daela, are you lost?", the voice of the princess rung in the girl's ears leading her to feel even guiltier.

Daela saw Rhaenyra Targaryen as a role model. She loved her mother but there was no way she wanted to be like her. Alicent was always inside the castle and concerned, while Rhaenyra was around her son's, enjoyed flying Syrax to dragonstone and back, she loved being happy and free. Daela was always feeling that the princess was happy. Growing up their father used to tell her stories about her. How at the age of fourteen she wanted to fight in the Stepstones or how she flew to dragonstone to take back a dragon egg, stolen by their uncle, Daemon, or how she had killed a boar all by herself when Aegon had just turned two, and many other stories. Stories that she shouldn't probably know because her mother never wanted her to listen to them, for a reason the girl couldn't quite understand.

"Why are you crying, did something happen?"

Daela shook her head negatively. She couldn't tell her. She couldn't tell her about Aemond, or the prank, or the oath she took, or the fact that she wasn't allowed being around her dragon.

"Oh... Come on.", The woman caressed the child's hair and smiled down at her, "if I hadn't just given birth I would take you on a flight with Syrax..."

Daela wiped away her tears and looked at her sister. "Did it hurt a lot?"

Rhaenyra tried no to laugh with the question, after all the girl couldn't know, "Well, you're getting kind of used to it after two times."

She nodded and sniffed her nose, "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Another boy. I think Luke and Jace really hoped it would be a he."

"What will his name be?"

At that, the princess took a breath trying to remain calm. It didn't fall to the girl's attention not that she would understand much if it did but still. "He's named Joffrey. Do you want to meet him?"

She smiled widely. The Heir to the throne took the little princess by her hand and lead her to her chamber.

"I have a visitor with me."

The guard stepped aside and let them enter the room. The little girl ran towards the bed where the baby was lying asleep and standing in her tiptoes she tried to look at him. As soon as she got a glimpse of Joffrey she smiled widely and turned her gaze back to Rhaenyra.

The Heir smiled at the happy girl. She adored her with all of her heart despite the hate Alicent had against her. She would never be bitter at someone's children just because he had wronged her. And she stood by that. And there was one more thing. Daela was Alicent's daughter. She was and she looked like her daughter. In Daela, Rhaenyra had found her old friend, her first and only true friend back then. She had found the part of Alicent that was missing terribly ever since she married Laenor, ever since their last civil conversation ten years ago about Daemon.

"She's Alicent's daughter. You cannot love that child who grows up learning to hate you.", Laenor had said her own day, after she had returned from taking Daela to dragonstone on her dragon, thanks to Viserys permission.

"No... She's the part of Alicent you never got to meet. A part of her that you'd love as well." That was what she had replied back then and she still believed it.

"He looks like Luke."

"Yes, I think so as well."

"Now, come here. Tell me what's on your mind. Why were you crying, sweet girl?"

She looked elsewhere but eventually gave in. She sat next to the older princess and stared at her hands. Around her nails there was blood from messing with her hangnails. Rhaenyra took them inside her palm. It was always something she would do for her mother, now it was the least she could to for Alicent's daughter.

"There are... Lots of things that I shouldn't have done. But I did them only because I don't have anything to do. I don't like reading history and I can't be trained yet to ride Fireys."

"We all make mistakes, Daela. I've as well; terrible mistakes, that unfortunately ended up determining the rest of my life. And yes I did them because I top thought that they would fill me. They didn't. They only put me in trouble."

"Did your mistakes hurt others?"

"Yes. Because of them I lost my best friend. Now as for your dragon, you may not be ready to ride him but, well, you can always be around him. I think Jace is currently being taught how to control Vermax. When he learns he can take you to visit Fireys."

"Can I ask you something?"

Rhaenyra nodded and rested her back on the recline.

"Could I, just because I look like my mother, not be able to ride a dragon? I mean I don't look like a Targaryen. What if the dragon doesn't follow my orders?"

"You're a Targaryen, Daela. My mother wasnya targaryyas well, still I have Syrax. Luke and Jace are half Velarions, still they have Arrax and Vermax. Aegon, Daeron, Helaena, all of them have a dragon as well and they are as much a Hightower as you are. You will have your dragon obeying, Daela. Don't you ever question that."

The door opened and Laenor entered the room. Rhaenyra smiled at him and then turned to her sister. "Daela if you don't mind, can you please leave us for a while?"

"Hello princess." He greeted.

The girl smiled and bowed at him, "Thank you. I wish one day I'll be like you."

When the girl exited Laenor looked at his wife. "What was that about."

She sighed, "She is so much like her, it's a shame Alicent never got rid of her anxieties, now she doesn't know how to help her own daughter out of hers."

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And yes, this is me showing the maternal side Rhaenyra had for every child.