THE 7TH MOON [Aemond Targaryen]

Six - Succession.

SIX - SUCCESSION.

"Tis okay Laenora!"

"My father! He is dead! He's dead!"

"Laenora my sweet love..."

Rhaenyra Targaryen's heart shattered inside her chest at the sight of her eldest child. The girl was inconsolable, screaming, sobbing into her sleeves covered by sand, gripping at the bars of her windows to keep herself upright. If Rhaenyra had ever felt pain, she knew in that moment her daughter was the physical embodiment of it. She so desperately wanted to reach out to her, to touch her, to cradle her, but she was terrified she'd bite her head off if she tried. Her poor Laenora.

"Do not feed me your pity mother! He was not my blood but yet he is still mine to mourn!"

"Daughter you must listen to me."

"I wish to be left alone mother! Can't you see?"

"Laenora Velaryon! It was not I who passed this news onto you! They are false tidings!"

"False tidings?"

"False." Daemon's voice beckoned as he stepped into his soon to be step daughter's chambers. "You are the eldest and you are heir... She deserves to know."

"Your father's death does not reign true." The mother whispered, finally clutching her daughter's cheek. "He felt he had let us down, it was his true right of passage to leave us. He and Ser Qarl have travelled across the narrow sea. He will reside there until he chooses a new path."

"My father has abandoned me?"

"And one day he shall return for you."

"B-But I saw his corpse!" The Velaryon denied, "He was truly dead!"

"But a servant my dear."

"What about my grandparents? They must know! They mourn for him mother."

"And they must continue to."

"Why? Why must we be so cruel?"

"Come my sweet love. You shall see."

"But I didn't get to say goodbye..."

Dragon fire shone a flame in the sky and Laenora Velaryon stood ablaze beneath it, clutching both Luke and Jace's arms in her own, Rhaena and Baela huddled either side of them as they bared witness to their parents remarrying unto one another.