Chapter One

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chatoyer || having changeable reflections depending of the play of light

129 AC

Father,

I write to you with news of the birth of our first daughter, named Visenya, and I can only hope she will be as headstrong and determined as her namesake. She was born in the late hours last night. It is in secrecy that I write to you that she is in poor health. I think only of her well-being in the coming days but I wished for you to know that she has come into the world.

Love,

Your Rhaenyra


__________

My dearest child,

I hope you are well and recover swiftly from your labors. I will think of nothing but your health and the health of my newest and most beloved granddaughter until I am assured of her recovery. I know you have longed for a daughter of your own for many years, so it is my greatest wish that she will have a long and happy life.

When she is recovered, I must insist on a betrothal. Keeping our family ties strong is the only way to ensure the vitality and longevity of our House. Visenya is of the blood of the dragon, and it will not do to have her wed anything lesser. Maelor is closest to her in age and is not yet promised. I will see to it that the arrangements are made for their union once they both come of age.

All my love,

Father

_________________________________

149 AC

Visenya

Visenya watched from her window as the massive dragon landed on the grassy cliffs at Dragonstone. She knew what awaited her that day. It was her twentieth name day and in the weeks leading up to it she had done nothing but shut herself in her room and wallow in misery. She had never left Dragonstone, had remained cooped up on the island and hidden away from the rest of the world and would continue to do so unless she agreed to wed a man she had never laid eyes on. Though she would only be trading one prison for another it seemed, if he were to cart her off with him to King's Landing.

It was a sentence women must bear, or so she had been told, to be sent off to become someone's bride. She had no doubt she would be shut in the Keep, made to perform her duty to the realm by warming her husband's bed when he called for her and giving him as many children as he wished. Her grandfather meant well with his arrangements, she understood. To anyone else, perhaps of lesser birth, the match would have seemed most advantageous. But Visenya did not care for such matters, she only longed for freedom and adventure after a life spent only on a dreary, isolated rock in the middle of the ocean.

As a young girl, her health had been nothing short of worrisome. Several of her years had been spent bedridden, her body too thin and weak to support her own weight. Prince Daemon and Princess Rhaenyra had remained by her side every day for years, never leaving her for more than a few hours. She knew now that they were worried she would close her eyes and take her last breath and they would not be there to hold her as she left this world.

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