The Realm's Delight

Chapter 2

Life was boring. As a baby the most I could do was stare, try to move around, feed and sleep. Controlling my limbs was a chore, and trying to speak with a heavy tongue was frustrating. My limbs did not feel like they were mine. My thoughts did not reach my body in good time either. It was frustrating how little I could do. But it gave me time to think about my current predicament.

It came to me as a shock when I realized that I was a babe once more and that too as a Princess. I couldn't understand how exactly that had happened. I was a man not too long ago, an adult that led an uneventful life. Or at least, I thought that was what I was before now.

I couldn't remember much of my past. Every time I tried to remember, I was reminded of a bright flash, my skin burning and then pain. It made me cry and I would be picked up by some woman who would coo at me and try to calm me down. It hardly worked, only the woman that was now my mother could calm me down.

Speaking of my mother, another revelation came to me as a bigger shock. Unless I was born into a family who was hardcore fans of George R.R. Martin's works, I was born into a family that should have been nothing more than fantasy.

House Targaryen, a once powerful house with dragons. That was the house I was born in. I had not realized that until I had seen the banners of the family, a three-headed dragon breathing flames, red on black.

My knowledge of the House and its history all came from the books I read and the shows I watched. Works of fiction did not exist in reality, nor should be possible to be born into. Then again, rebirth in itself was an impossible task, yet here I was. And I was a firm believer in the multiverse. I always had a theory that every book we read existed in a different world, a world untouchable by us humans. Had I somehow travelled through the barriers of the many worlds and ended up here? If I did then why did I arrive as a child? A bigger question to me though was who I was born as. The answer came to me the same day I realized the world I was reborn into.

That day I was presented to someone, a kind-looking older woman with honey-coloured hair and blue eyes.

"We have named her Rhaenyra, grandmother" spoke the man that was my father.

I was reborn as Rhaenyra Targaryen. To the extent of my knowledge, there was only one Rhaenyra in the Targaryen family tree, the Realm's Delight.

That meant that the man who was my father was named Viserys Targaryen, who would go on to become King. My mother was Aemma Arryn, who would die giving birth to my brother who would not live long either. The woman holding me was Alyssane Targaryen, easily my favourite of the lot of Targaryen Queens. And the one that took me from Alyssane had to be Jaehaerys Targaryen, the Conciliator.

Coming to terms with that had not been easy for me. Not only was I reborn, but I was also reborn as the woman who played an equal hand in what would be called The Dance of Dragons, a civil war that wiped out dragons in bulks and was probably responsible for the eventual fall of the Targaryens in general.

I knew Rhaenyra's fate well enough. She'd be crowned heir, fight for the right she was bestowed by her father and be killed for it too. Would that be something I was okay with? Would I do the same things that Rhaenyra did and die being eaten by Aegon's dragon Sunfyre?

I pondered every waking moment on that, whether I should follow the story how it was written or whether I should do things differently. It was a thought that ran through my head concurrently with the thought of who thrust me into a fantasy world. Was it God? If so, what was the reason behind it? The ink was set, there shouldn't be a reason for me being here at all.

So much thinking tired me out quickly, most of the time I would doze off thinking about all of it. It was not easy, being a baby while thinking like an adult.

Of the people that I met and go to know somewhat, I enjoyed the company of the man that was my grandfather the most.

Baelon Targaryen was a jolly man who doted on me and loved showering me with attention and gifts. He had wanted to take me for a ride on Vhagar but my mother had been very strict about what I could and could not do at my current age. That was a bummer for me, I really wanted to ride a dragon.

The other person whose company I loved was my great-grandmother. The Queen took time out of her daily activities to spend some time with me. She would tell me stories about her past, stories which I suspected she told me because some of them were very intimate in nature. My favourite story of them all was about little Daenerys, the Queen's first child that died from sickness. She would cry every time she told the story, and end it by telling me just how much I reminded her of the girl. My heart went out to the woman.

The King visited not so often, but when he did he did not stay for long.

I spent most of my time with my parents. I learned that before me there was another boy who died in childbirth. I remembered reading that Rhaenyra, which was me, was the only child of Aemma and Viserys that would live. If they had already lost a child, it explained why they were so protective of me.

Thinking about dead siblings made me realize that half the people I've met so far would be dead before I reached puberty. I knew for certain that my grandfather would be dead in a few years, following which a great council will be called to select a new heir. The Queen would die before that though, and the King after it. Two people whose company I had grown to adore would be gone, the realization made me wail non-stop for hours. Curse my childish emotions.

Half the people who I care about would be dead and then so would I when the fucking civil war would roll over. No, I refuse to just die away like Rhaenyra originally would have. As a fan of the shows and books, I had always thought about what could have gone differently in these circumstances. Death was not something I could stop, but I could extend the road leading to it. I wouldn't roll over so easily, I decided. Rhaenyra Targaryen was going to survive and thrive for many years. Maybe that's why I was sent here. Regardless of whether I was or not, things would be different.