The Vengeful Ghost

60. This Means War

Rhaenys nodded and looked down at Visenya, whom she had not seen since the funeral. She hadn't even gotten the chance to talk to her since Laenora's murder.

"Sweet girl, how are you?"

Visenya realized that all along, she had someone who knew her pain. Rhaenys, before today, had experienced the pain of losing two children. "Awful," She whispered. "I have lost myself to madness."

Rhaenys shook her head. "This is not madness, this is grief."

"I do not want to be alive without her," She said with trembling lips. "She wanted to be a big sister so bad, and what kind of mother am I if I prayed for this babe today?"

"You are in pain. What happened to you is a tragedy, and you will never move on or stop hurting. But you can heal. And if you want the people responsible for this to pay, then you must prioritize vengeance over all those other feelings. Because they will be forever. Ten years from now you might wake up and all you do is scream and stare at the wall. But right now is the time to act. Laeny is sending you her sibling to love and care for. Laenora loved this babe, and she would want you too as well."

Another contraction hit and her ears were ringing again. So many images flooded her mind. Laenora's first steps, her first word being 'Papa', the first time she said 'I love you' in Valyrian, her excitement, and persistence that her sibling was a girl, the way she smiled when she went riding ... the way she smiled. The way she made Aemond a softer man, a man who showed his love for his daughter.

"I can't," She whimpered. 

"You can, you are the strongest person I know, stronger than any battle-hardened warrior. You are my wife, you are my queen, and you are a goddess in human form," Aemond said softly.

"You don't have to do this alone, you have an entire family, a family that wants to help you," Laenor added.

In the brief moment of what felt like a little hand holding her own, a moment where she felt the presence of her daughter, she gave a strong push with her contraction, a push that took everything in her. 

"Oh my gods," Brella gasped. An infant's cries filled the room and Visenya winced. "It's a girl."

"No, no, get it away from me! All my daughters have died! All my girls have died! I can't kill another one, I can't lose another one, Aemond, please!" She sobbed.

"Place her on her chest," Rhaenys said softly. 

Visenya cried and shook her head until she felt the warm skin of her crying daughter on her chest and she looked down at her. The babe was of platinum hair, but strange eyes. Visenya could see a green eye and a purple eye. Just like her great-grandmother Alyssa. Her baby was unique. But she wasn't Laeny.

When the baby met Visenya's eyes, she stopped crying. She stared at her mother in wonder, her small body squirming against her skin. 

"Vharra," Visenya whispered. 

"Vharra?" Rhaenys asked.

Aemond's chest started to cave in on him and he couldn't catch his breath. Was this a panic attack? He was freaking out and his chest was closing around his heart. He drew Blackfyre and beat it into the wooden door over and over until he went through the other side. Then, he fell to his knees.

"It was the name Laeny picked out, she was obsessed with Vhagar," Aemond mumbled.

Laenor and Rhaenys' face fell. Laenor looked back at Visenya. "You can always pick a different name."

"No!" She immediately said. "Laeny knew, she told me from the first day it would be a girl, and I told her she was silly. She was right, Father, my baby girl was right. She is going to live. When Larys ordered the attack, I killed him. I cut him up and served him to my dragon. I am going to burn them alive, I promise that. I will take every single thing they love and I will kill it, and I won't touch them, not until they have felt what I felt. I will not kill my kid brothers, but there are more things than that to kill."