The Lady Rhea was accompanying Princess Helaena on her daily walk around the gardens while her children took their nap, their long dresses flowing in the wind, their silver hair in the same braids. They walked with their arms linked and talked about many things. In the distance, they could see Rhaenyra's boat being loaded for the journey home to Dragonstone. The gardens were beautiful this time of year, the smell of flowers filled the warm air and the chatter of people walking by resonated.
"Have the children had nightmares from the ending of the tourney, Helaena?" Lady Rhea asked, genuinely concerned for the children.
The princess smiled.
" No, they haven't. They had a splendid day. I believe they might've been to young to understand what had just happened before their eyes."
Rhea nodded.
"Hm, I suppose", Rhea grunted.
Helaena smiled to herself.
"You must find other friends than my brother, dearest, you are starting to sound like him", the princess teased her friend. "He is the only person, besides you, who grunts this much and expects people to understand him."
Rhea shoved her playfully.
"I have other friends", she laughed. "There's you, and Rhaenyra, and-"
"Rhaenyra's leaving soon. I'm afraid next time we see her won't be so pleasant."
Rhea swallowed hard; many times, it was hard for people to understand Helaena fully. She often spoke in riddles and the common folk found her odd. Rhea chose not to pay attention to those times and loved her sister completely, quirks and all.
The girls heard giggles come from behind them and turned on their feet. Servant girls giggled at the sight of their handsome prince Aemond walking among them. He was using one of his father's walking sticks to help until his broken leg was fully healed.
" Sister, Lady Rhea, allow me to walk with you for a while, hm?"
Helaena turned to her friend with a cheeky grin when her brother grunted which resulted in her friend feigning to ignore her, smiling softly.
" How is your leg, Aemond?" Rhea asked, looking straight ahead.
"Much better, thank you. Your daily visits have helped improve their condition, I'm sure. I was sorry to see you stop them, I was beginning to get used to those", Aemond confessed with a devilish grin.
Rhea kept silent for a while, before bidding goodbye to the princess who was leaving them to wake her children.
" My lady, are you well? You haven't spoken a word since I arrived", the prince asked, worried.
Rhea nodded silently.
"Hm", she grunted, again.
Helaena was right, she did do that a lot.
"There...were matters that required my attention, Aemond. I'm sorry I couldn't see you more these past weeks."
" What matters? I might've helped."
Rhea smiled to herself.
" I doubt that. Your leg would have made it hard for you to ride out to Crackclaw Point and back to King's Landing."
"Crackclaw Point? What were you doing out there? It's quite a journey for a lady."
Rhea shoved Aemond.
" I'm joking, obviously. You can fend for yourself, I know that," Aemond added.
Silence fell between them again.
" What...matters did you have to attend to? You have not been to Craw Isle in years. Is everything-"
"My Cousin, Lord Celtigar, was here for the tourney held for my nameday, and we met several times after because-"
"Have you agreed to a betrothal, then? Why didn't you say?"
"Aemond, you ought to let me finish. I would have told you."
"Then why didn't you?"
His jaw was clenched and his pace was a bit faster than it had been.
"Aemond, for once in your life, will you let me finish?" She said through clenched teeth.
The prince snapped his gaze back to her with a glare that sent shivers down her spine. She was the only person to speak to him this way and finish the day with her tongue still in her mouth, anyone else would be rotting away by now. But she had always been the one friend he could count on to always put him back in his place, prince or not.
"I would have told you, had there been anything of the sort to tell", she said, gently laying her hand on his arm." I didn't wish to disturb you while your leg healed, but there has been some change in my life."
"Do tell", he said, his tone now calm.
"Your father has given me the most special gift."
"More special even than my participation in a tourney? Shall I add that it was the first tourney in which I took part for the entirety of my life? More special even than that?" Aemond teased her.
"No, a different kind of special, then."
Absent-mindedly, Rhea touched her necklace as she walked.
" I have been reinstated as Head of House Celtigar. I won't trouble you with the details but there were a great deal of matters that needed my urgent attention. The state in which my father, and then my cousin, left finances, I couldn't even begin to tell you..."
Aemond smiled wide.
"What is it?"
" You always had a liking for such matters. When Aegon and I didn't want to listen to the maesters, you would shush us and have us listen to them for hours on end about finances, about politics. I wouldn't be surprised if you took the ledgers in bed with you to study them."
Rhea faked annoyance at the prince's correct guess, which caused him to laugh out loud at his friend.
"And? Is the situation really as dire as you thought?"
" Worse", she groaned. "I have not had a day to myself, not a day when I did not add, subtract numbers or had to write letters to every one of the members of my House. I cannot believe how terrible my forebears have been at all this. Our family had made its wealth on sapphires in Old Valyria, they were dragonriders whose names were feared across all of Essos, they fled the Doom with your family's ancestors and yet...They let our name, our customs be forgotten, forsaken even. That is something I cannot forgive. Your father has taught me all about the old glory that was once associated with my name, I wish for it to come back. I will have glory back upon my House or I will have no rest. My House is an ancient one, but I will not let it fall into Oblivion. Not while I live."
Aemond listened to her closely, drinking in her every word. He had seen her become a passionate woman, yet was always amazed when she chose to show this side of her. In truth, he found her to be a little terrifying sometimes. She could have Kings succumb to her will if she truly wished it, yet she chose to be kind and loving to the people around her. When he sees her with his nephews, he forgets how fierce she truly is.
"My first decision was to rid Claw Isle of the parasites who roamed its halls. Any man, woman who lived there freely without a real reason to was sent away, to find a home of their own. 'Tis a small castle, but a lofty one. I cannot afford to keep strangers to my House there."
Aemond nodded. Her jaw was clenched, her eyes fixed on the horizons and her cheeks had a lovely tint of red from the passion with which she spoke about such matters.
"I have decided to take residence there, as well."
Aemond's face turned to hers, distraught.
" And leave the Red Keep?" He asked, trying to conceal his wounded tone.
"I have to. And I would have had to, eventually, once I married. 'Tis only a little while shorter than I thought I would have to. The Red Keep was never meant to be my home, always."
"But it has been, hasn't it?"
Rhea smiled.
" I have been made very welcome, Aemond. But I have no future here, I cannot live in Princes and Princesses' shadows my whole life. I am already seven and ten, and I have no husband, as your mother the Queen often reminds me. Your sisters were married long before they reached my age. I have no title, yet I dine with the King and his trusted advisors, as well as his family. I am expected to make a great match, one that would be approved of by the King, yet I cannot attract any suitor because I am always in the company of princes. I have to leave, if I want to fulfil my true purpose."
The prince scoffed.
" And you wish for me to feel sorry for you? You were raised among royalty, Rhea. Your standards have been raised, in suitors, much like in anything else. I will not feel sorry for the daughter of a Lord, who knows what it is truly like in the world. Unlike any Lady out there in the world, you have a say in your future husband. You should not hurry in the picking of him."
" I am not asking that you feel sorry for me, Aemond. Never. I was merely telling my friend what my heart needed to be rid of, which is something I will not be able to do once I left. Which I will do, truly. Might as well get used to the idea, dear friend."
Aemond turned away from her.
"Fine, it doesn't matter to me. You can leave today and never come back if it suits you, he spat coldly."
Of course, that was a lie, it would shatter him if he knew he would never see her again, but the thought only angered him more. Rhea scoffed, shocked at her friend's words and their vehemence. She turned her heels and began walking away, fast. Aemond kept her back to her and his piercing gaze to the sea. Rhea, all dressed in red again, picked up the pace and went to her chambers to gather her things. She slammed the doors and had her handmaidens bring her chests into her room and fill them with dresses. She walked over to Rhaenyra's quarters and grabbed her sister's hands, a knot on her forehead.
" Are you alright, good sister?" The princess asked with concern.
" Yes. Better than ever, actually. I have just realized the amount of time I have lost trying to be a friend to people who do not deserve my time."
Rhaenyra sat the girl down next to her.
" What has happened?"
"Tsk...I was confiding in your brother, Aemond, when he-"
Daemon sat next to them.
"Ah, so that is what's disturbing you", he said knowingly.
Rhea shot Daemon a confused look, the meaning of his words escaping her mind.
" Yes, it is. He cannot understand the pressure I feel to leave this place and guide my house back to its former glory, and when I tried telling him how I felt, he...cast me down and made a mockery of my emotions. Which, I will say, are very valid."
Daemon smiled at his wife and stroke her belly lovingly.
"Give it time, girl. Why don't you come to Dragonstone with us for a while, let him realize his mistake, uh?" He offered.
"I will need to make several trips to Claw Isle, more than once a month", Rhea stated.
"You could go on dragonback. I know it has been a while since you flew, but your dragon will be grateful", I'm sure, Rhaenyra suggested.
"Alright, perhaps I will go to Dragonstone with you. Spend some times with your sons and daughters."
"So it's settled then", Daemon concluded.