𝑮𝒖𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕// Alicent Hightower

I

The crow cawed as they removed the small paper scroll that was at its foot. It was passed to the mistress of Driftmark, Rhaenys Targaryen, the queen who never was. As long as her husband Corlys Velaryon had business in the capital, she looked after the children and the castle.

A pair of violet eyes flitted over the words written down in ink on the fine parchment. The words were clear. It was an invitation from her cousin King Viserys.

"A tournament in honor of his heir..."

She merely laughed once in amusement and shook her head. It was absurd, she thought. Not even the best maester of the citadel could guess the gender of an unborn child, and yet the king was holding a tournament as if the child was already in the world and a healthy boy

Rhaenys thought of her cousin's disappointment, should Queen Aemma give birth to a girl after all. It would be a nice tournament, because then the throne would go to Visery's brother Daemon.

She handed the parchment to one of her servants and stepped to the window to look out over the stormy sea.

"Inform Laenor, Laena, and Daena of the tournament and that I wish to depart as soon as possible. It would be rude not to accept my cousin's invitation." The birth of a child was, after all, something to attend and all preparations seemed to be in progress already. So they had to act quickly.

But Rhaenys saw in the reflection of the window that uncertain looks were exchanged among the servants. Most of them held their hands guiltily behind their backs and their gazes were lowered. None of them said a word, but they didn't have to, because Rhaenys already knew something was wrong.

"What's going on? Is there a problem?"

When it came to her children, the Targaryen could imagine all too well what the problem was, and her suspicions seemed to be confirmed when a young woman cleared her throat and began to explain the situation.

"Well, the thing is... We haven't seen your daughter Daena since this morning after breakfast together with you, and we can't locate her anywhere in the castle."

Of course, it was Daena who was missing. Rhaenys' eldest daughter liked to disappear every now and then without letting anyone know where exactly she was going. By now, Rhaenys knew all too well the places her daughter hid, so she just sighed softly and moved away from the window again.

"Alright then, just let Laenor and Laena know. I'll take care of Daena."

The servants immediately nodded and bowed one last time to their princess .

"Of course, Princess Rhaenys."

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The smell of fresh salt water was in the air and the sound of the steady waves was music to Daena's ears.

She sat away from the sea in the soft sand and had her eyes on the horizon. The wind was strong and blew some of her silver hair into her face, but it didn't bother her at all. Daena had always enjoyed the fresh wind. It reminded her of the feeling of freedom. A feeling she felt whenever she was on the back of her beloved dragon Wildfire.

Her ancestors had named him because of his poisonous green scales, which reminded them of the mystical green fire that had tremendous explosive power and could even destroy entire fleets. Many frightened mouths even rumored that this dragon would indeed breathe sea fire instead of normal fire.

Of course, this was not the case, her dragon did not breathe glowing green fire, but she liked the respect the others gave her dragon whenever she flew through the air with it. In truth, wildfire was nothing more than a myth that had its beginnings hundreds of years ago. No one knew if wildfire actually existed.