Kingdom Fall : Aegon II Targaryen

In Hot Water.

"Lean your head back." Rhaenyra says as she fills the jug with bath water, Anne tips her head back as her mother pours the water onto her hair.

Rhaenyra smiles to herself as she fists her daughter's long, dark curls and pulls her other hand down the ponytail she had created as she cleans her hair. "I have always loved your hair."

"That's not true. Our hair makes your life harder, it's why they all call you names when they think we can not hear." Annerys says.

"You were born from love, I have never regretted that, Annerys. Both the love that I have for Ser Harwin and the love I have for your father. I have only ever tried to shield you from the stares and the names that they call you perhaps i did not try hard enough or perhaps the fact i had to try at all means that i have failed you and your brothers and i will carry that with me until the end of my days but one should never have to lie back and think of something else whilst somebody takes what they want from you. I would not have done that to your father or myself and...I will not have that done to you." Rhaenyra decides that there's no better time to have this conversation with her daughter than now so she continues. "Do you understand me? Maegor's secret passageways can be entered through a hidden door in my chambers and it leads out to the city. I will leave instructions with you. If Aegon ever harms you, you follow them into the city and find your way to the dragonpit and fly to Dragonstone. I won't let them hurt you." Rhaenyra implores her daughter.

Annerys feels as though the wind has been knocked out of her at the implication as well as the intensity in which she had spoken to her  "Mother...Aegon is...he's a fool but he would not...harm me."

Rhaenyra moves to the side of Annerys and falls to her knees beside Anne so that she can look her daughter in the eyes as beg her to fear what lies ahead so that she might meet it with strength or at the least just an understanding of the misery that can befall a woman so that she does not find herself caught unawares. "My sweet girl never underestimate what a person might be capable of and most certainly not that of a man. I once had the most loyal and trusted companion and all it took was for me to disappoint him once and now they would do anything to see my ruin. They have even brought harm to innocent others to see this happen. You must not trust Aegon. Love him all you want. But you must never trust him, not with you. Misplaced trust is the most ruiness thing for a woman." Rhaenyra then uses one of the hands holding onto Anne's face to push a wet curl behind her ear and the other to fry the tears that fall down Anne's cheeks.

Once Annerys was out of the bath, dried and into her nightgown Rhaenyra had tucked her into bed as she had when she was young and dependent on her mothers presence to find sleep. Once she had pulled the cover up to Anne's neck and placed a kiss on her brow she begins to move away from her bedside to leave her chambers when Anne suddenly reaches out and holds onto her mothers wrist "Will you stay with me?" Annerys asks.

Rhaenyra smiles to herself before she says "of course."

Anne pulls back the covers and makes room for her mother to lie by her side.

"I'm not in love with him. I...I don't want you to think of me as some silly, infatuated little girl." Anne says.

"I could never think you to be silly." Rhaenyra says playfully.

"Mother." Anne almost whines like a young child.

"Aegon is growing to be quite a handsome young man. Even when you were a little girl you would blush when you would speak of him. Whenever you would come to me to tell tales..." Rhaenyra says before she's interupted by Annerys

"I did not tell tales. I don't know why you and Jace always say this." Annerys complains.

"Of course you did Anne, it was your most favourite pastime." Rhaenyra laughs. "You would always come running ready to tell me all about Aegon and your brother's wrong doings. But you would have this sweet little blush along your cheeks." Rhaenyra tells her through a smirk as she swipes her finger across the apples of Anne's cheeks. "Once you ran into my solar so quickly to tell me that he had knocked you down in the dragonpit but it was fine because he had helped you back up and whispered sorry in your ear. I think you floated through the halls for weeks on that memory alone." Rhaenyra laughs fondly thinking of her only daughter when she was small and so very cheerful. Rhaenyra remembers dressing her up like a doll, Anne had always seemed so small and pretty to her mother. So much so that no dress had been too fine and no jewel too expensive for her little girl. Alicent had tutted and sneered and claimed that it was too extravagant for a babe that Rhaenyra lacked any decorum or sense of propriety. But Annerys was her perfect little girl and a Targaryen Princess and she was determined that the entire realm knew of it.