اوووه! هذه الصورة لا تتبع إرشادات المحتوى الخاصة بنا. لمتابعة النشر، يرجى إزالتها أو تحميل صورة أخرى.
THE DEFAMATING RUMOURS that would shroud Valaena's character like a dark cloud of smoke would begin a moon before her eighth namesday.
It couldn't have been earlier than three in the morning when Valaena was woken from her sleep, her tired lilac eyes peering around her unlit chambers for any sign of what might've awoken her. There was no storm, so it wasn't the rumble of thunder that woke her. And if there was no storm, Lucerys couldn't have woken her up either - as he often sought her comfort during the storms.
No, it was singing that awoke the princess. A beautiful, melodic voice lulling her out of her slumber.
Rising from her bed, a shiver passing through her body as her feet touched the cold floor, Valaena left her bedchamber, rubbing the tiredness from her eyes. The lack of guards outside of her door did not seem to cross her mind at all. Instead, she was solely focused on one of the many secret passageways in the Red Keep, feeling herself gravitate towards it. How she had heard this singing all the way from her room could not be answered, and it didn't seem to occur to her either. But she still stopped in front of one of the closest passageways to her room - the one leading out of the Red Keep onto the cliffs facing the sea. There was something within Valaena telling her to go back to her room, to go back to sleep and pretend she hadn't heard anything. But the voice was pulling at her, and all she could do was follow it. All reason seemed to have left her mind and body.
"Hello?" Valaena didn't know why she had spoken - there was no one in sight. And she felt like the voice was not close enough for her to see the owner. But as she stepped closer to the edge of the cliff, it grew near. And the insatiable curiosity that the voice instilled within her made her begin to climb down, her small hands clinging to the handholds, impossible to see from the ground, that were cut into the rock that led to a trail beside the Blackwater Rush. And when she reached the bottom, she let out a shaky breath, the cold and the fact she was only wearing a nightdress causing her to shiver. Still, she called out to the voice again. "Hello?"
There was a small cave at the bottom of the cliff, not deep but enough space for a few people to fit within. That's where Valaena found the owner of the voice, but by that point it was no longer melodic - it was shrill and unpleasant, and she would've turned and ran if her feet did not feel so planted to the ground.
There was a woman who looked no older than forty years of age, an old cloak covering her crouched figure. Her dark hair had a few streaks of grey, and her face was beautiful. But her aura was off, and even Valaena knew that at her young age. The woman was trouble.
Warming her hands by the fire, the woman grinned up at Valaena from her position on the ground.
"The Velaryon princess," the woman spoke, rubbing her hands together by the flames. "You heard me, I see. No wonder. My voice travels far to those that can hear it."
