𝐍𝐨 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐞 ~ A. Hightower

Prologue

"You are not with your wife?" King Jaehaerys asked his grandson, the Prince Viserys, who paced outside of his wife's birthing chambers, his brother, Prince Daemon, watching him.

"I am not wanted at her side," Viserys muttered, as the screams of Moira Dondarrion filled the air once more. This had been her twenty eighth hour of labour.

"She did call him a cunt," Daemon piped in with a humorous smile, but neither his brother or the King gave him so much as a glare. They knew something must've been wrong.

"Is everything all right?" King Jaehaerys asked his sister-wife, Queen Alysanne, who had exited the birthing chambers, her hands caked in blood. Viserys had noticed the screaming of his wife had stopped, and his grandmother wore a glum frown.

"A daughter, Viserys," Queen Alysanne told him. "And twin boys..." she added solemnly.

"Well? That's good news isn't it?" Viserys asked, a wide smile on his face as he looked between both of his grandparents and his brother. When none of them shared his excitement, he frowned. "What is it?"

"Moira and one of the boys died, sweetheart," Queen Alysanne said softly, trying to stop her own tears from falling. She had loved Moira Dondarrion if she was her own, and now the Gods had punished her. "Your daughter is perfectly healthy."

"What of my other boy?" Viserys asked.

"The Maesters think he won't survive the night," Queen Alysanne sniffed.

"I-I-" Viserys heart had fallen to the pit in his stomach and shattered into a tiny million pieces. He and his wife married out of duty, not love, but he had cared for her all the same. And his sons, his unnamed boys, stripped away from him before they had even met.

"I am sorry, brother," Daemon had said in a solemn tone. Truly, Daemon had never felt sorry for his brother before, but now it was different.

"Can I see them?" Viserys asked, his grandmother nodding through her silent tears. The midwives and the Maester bowed their heads when Viserys entered the birthing chamber.

One look at the baby boy who laid in his mother's arms sent him into a bawling mess. His legs gave way from underneath him and he fell at his wife's side, desperately clutching her hand and at her bloodied bed sheets as he cried. He cried and he cried until he fell silent, his throat dry and his eyes sore.

It was the cry's of another babe that broke Viserys from his trance. Standing on shaky legs, he walked towards a crib in the corner of the room covered in drapes of Targaryen colours. There, his son and his daughter laid, crying desperately for their father.

"Shush now, I have you," Viserys whispered as he rocked the babe gently in his arms, placing a tender kiss to her temple.

The babes had shown no qualities of a Dondarrion, but that of a true Targaryen. Silverly blonde locks, pale skin and Viserys almost gasped aloud when the babies opened their eyes to show those violet eyes thru shared with her other family members.

"Princess Visenya Targaryen," Viserys declared, staring down at his daughter with a smile. He placed her down and picked up his son. Viserys smiled, cradling the babes head with his large hand as warmth spread through him. He knew the babe would live. "Prince Maekar Targaryen."

—————

Maekar's and Visenya's fifth nameday celebrations had come and gone, as had their father's wedding to Aemma Arryn and his coronation as King after the late King Jaehaerys had passed a year prior, and things couldn't of gone worse.

Maekar hadn't been able to get on with his father's new wife, and his hatred for the new Queen only worsened when they announced to her that Aemma was pregnant again after several miscarriages and stillborn births, and although it seemed horrible, Maekar no longer cared if his half-brother of half-sister had died, as his tears for them dried up long ago.