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Following her Fathers request her two youngest brothers had slept in her bed with her and Jace had slept on the chaise lounge at the foot of her bed. She's not sure why he told her to stay with them but even though Joffrey had kicked her all night and Jace snores like a dragon she had been glad of the company following the stress of the previous night.
The next morning she wakes to her mother hunched over her gently shaking her shoulders awake. She begins to ask "What is...'' before her mother puts her finger to her lips and quietly shushes her. Anne can see that she had already woken Jace up as she watches him sleepily stand from where he had slept. Anne attempts to get out of bed without waking either Lucerys or Joffrey but stills as Luke stirs and her mother whispers "Carefully," as she aids her daughter's way of her bed and then leads both of her children to a corner of Anne's room furthest from her bed and her two youngest, sleeping children.
Anne looks at her brother to see if he has a clearer idea as to why their mother has woken them but when she looks at him she's not sure he even knows that he is awake.
Rhaenyra holds the hands of her children firmly in her own as she looks at their confused faces and she thinks about how she is about to take a second father from her children. "My loves, I want you to hear this from me first, privately." She takes a deep breath before she says the rest "last night your father...your father has died."
"But how." Anne asks through a sob. "I saw him just this evening."
"Oh Annie." Rhaenyra says as she pulls her eldest daughter into her arms. Annerys is crying into her mothers chest as she suddenly feels Jace brush past her and leave the room. Her mother calls out to him. But he ignores her and continues his path. It takes Annes a second to act but as soon as the shock of it wears off she takes off after her brother she sees him turn down the corner of the long corridor and she begins to run after him when she spots him again he's halfway down a winding stairwell and she calls out "Jaecerys, wait. Please." he turns and looks up at her but does not stop his quick descent down the stairs so Anne runs after him.
Once he reaches the great hall of Driftmark she hears him shout "Where is he? Where is my Father? Somebody find me Laenor Velaryon." Panting and dishevelled Anne finally makes her way to where her brother is half shouting - half crying at distressed servants who clearly do not know what to say to the young Prince who is demanding the impossible from them.
"Jace, stop." Anne cries.
"It can't be happening, not again." As she holds her weeping brother in her arms she can't help but look at the servants who had witnessed Jace's breakdown and in his grief his open admitel of the fact that they have already lost a father. "Leave everyone out." She hears her mother order from the doorway as the servants begin to file out of the hall. Their Mother allows them their moment to grieve in peace as she stands guard at the door to allow them privacy from any hopeful onlookers and hopes that her presence may offer them some comfort.
Its not until late evening that she finds out that her Father had been murdered by who herself and Jace had apparently correctly assumed to have been his paramore, it shocks Anne upon hearing this how quick she is to wish a man dead. How quickly she had pictured ordering her dragon to burn him alive, her thoughts unsettle her and they do nothing to quell her misery.
The following day they send her Fathers body to the bottom of the sea and his soul to the heavens and then they return to Dragonstone with her mothers Uncle and two daughters in tow. Her Grandmother had refused to leave her rooms even for her Fathers funeral and certainly not to see them off like their Grandfather had done but she had requested to see Rhaena and Baela in her rooms before they left. Anne cannot deny that it had pained her but she knows in truth that she is not the Princesses grandchild and therefore should not expect to be treated as such by her.
Her life had completely changed in those four days she had spent at Driftmark, she had gained a future husband she did not want and lost the Father that she had very much wanted but one thing had remained constant Lucerys would always be queasy at sea so she stood in the wind and rain as she stroked her brothers back as he hurled over the side of the ship as her mother attempted to soothe a wailing Joffrey below deck. She watched as Jace stared daggers at Daemon's back as he stood with his daughters. She is at the opposite end of the boat to him but she can see him pointing out the different landmarks that could never be mistaken to be belonging to any keep other than Dragonstone. This brings a smile to her face as even at a distance she can see the joy of a father showing his ancestral home to his children for the first time even as Luke coughs and splutters into the sea. Her attention is split between comforting Luke and watching her Uncle and cousins therefore she doesn't notice Jaecerys approach her until he is speaking into her ear "Why is he here?"
"He's mothers uncle." she parrots back her mothers response to her to Jace because she honestly doesn't have it in her to have this conversation at this moment.
"He has always been mothers uncle and yet we have never met him not once in fifteen years. So what is he doing now returning with us to our home?" Jace says and she can tell he's angry and that although he's phrased it like a question he's certainly going to be the one with an answer.
"He's just lost his wife and his children, a mother and he's a Targaryen. Is it really such a surprise that he wishes to see Dragonstone? Perhaps he just wants the comforts of home." She says with little interest.
"You're doing it again." he says, his tone still laced with anger.
"What?" Anne sighs as she passes the goblet of water she had been holding to Luke who was having a momentary reprieve from his bouts of sickness.
"Being willfully naive, Annerys." he tells her firmly.
Anne scoffs at him before turning away from him and rubs Luke's back as a form of distraction and as a silent way of telling Jace that they will talk of this no further. Which Jace ignores and continues angered by Annerys' refusal to join him in his anger so he says "And it's for that very reason that you now have to marry Aegon."
"Don't be mean Jace just because life is not going your way." Anne says curtly now upset with the way Jace has chosen to lash out at her.
This only further angers Jace as he gets louder even with the wind, the waves and the rain Jace is heard across the deck of the boat "You do not think of consequences just like mother and look at us all because of it."
The bustle upon the boats silence as they await the Prince's next actions but Anne only has to look at her brother to know that he's ready to question their legitimacy for all to hear.
"Jace be quiet." She spits out at him as Luke stares up at the two, still too young to fully understand why his two elder siblings are fighting but old enough to know that it is nothing good.
"What do you think he is doing here, hmm? Have you never heard the rumours."
"Jace I mean it, shut up!" She attempts to command him.
"Father is dead and he is here." He says with venom.
Anne is about to once again try and get her brother to see reason and calm down in front of all of the men sailing their ship and the man he's so enraged over before she hears a man's voice bellow "You will say no more!" and its not that he shouts it especially loudly but it's said with a sense of finality that leaves no room for negotiations. She feels Luke curl into her side at the sound unused to the anger of a man. Anne watches as clarity washes across her brother's eyes as his sanity returns to him once more he turns to look at Anne in search of comfort from his twin but she turns away from him and places all of her attention onto Luke instead. Which is how she stays until she hears him storm below deck most probably even after all he has said to their Mother where she will offer him love and comfort.
It seems that Jace was not incorrect as they find out two weeks after their arrival on Dragonstone that their mother and Daemon are to be married. They had been told one evening as they all dined together.
She sits there in silence stunned at the news even if it had become increasingly expected as she watches Baela stand up and leave with Jaecerys not far behind her. Her mother looks crestfallen as she watches her eldest child leave her table upset because of her actions regardless of whether that was her intention or not.
"Why tell us now?" She hears Rhaena question speaking to no one exactly and it shocks Annerys that Rhaena is the first to speak as she does not know her cousin well but what she has learnt of her is that she's quiet and usually a keeper of the peace and here she sits preparing for battle. "You will have to wait a full year until you can be wed. Why tell us now when our mother has just died. Could you have not waited before you told us."
"We will be wed before the moon turns Rhaena." Daemon tells his daughter simply but with a kinder tone than she had expected from him.
Rhaenyra is becoming visibly upset by her remaining children's silence "Anne. Luke. Do you have any questions?" she asks softly and hopefully.
It seems as though Luke is going to say something before he too stands from his seat and leaves as well. Shocking both his mother and sister as how unlike him it is to be angry with their mother. Her mother looks as if she has taken a wound from a longsword as she watches Lucerys leave the dining room.
"Annie say something." Her mother says.
Annerys waits a moment before she finally says "There is nothing to be said." She says calmly as what can she say does she feel as though her father is owed more respect than his wife marrying so shortly after his murder, of course but what good will voicing it do. Not whilst her mother is visibly upset with how her announcement has been received. They all continue their meal in silence, their table half as full as it was when they had begun.
Annerys goes to Jace that night and asks him to come fly with her which eagerly does.. They had flown around the coast Anne had always said that Merax reminded her of the sea at night with her black horns and scales a midnight blue much darker than Dreamfyre but no less beautiful. Anne had always been better at flying than Jace although she's not sure whether in truth it was due to her own skill or whether her dragon Merax was just more agile than Vermax. So Annerys was winning the race the two were taking part in around the coast of the Island. As this was not the first time the two had sneaked out to fly in the middle of the night Annerys had figured out that if she flies close to the ocean it makes it near impossible for Jace to see where she is which is a plan that works until Jace spots her and commands his dragon to breathe fire above them which Anne has to careen out of the way to avoid being singged. But in her avoidance of the dragonfire Jace has taken the lead. She flies higher so that even though she is now behind him they are level and shouts "Cheat!" at him. Their agreed upon marker of where the race ends comes into sight so Anne takes Merax even higher to prepare for her hail mary move before she commands "Sir, Merax." (Now, Merax.) On his riders orders Merax suddenly dips their head forward and plunges down, they tuck their wings against their body and push their legs backwards which adds speed that cannot be replicated through flying to their descent. Anne's decision to fall in style allows her to push ahead and beat Jace.
Once their dragons have landed on the sand dunes that surround the shore they make their way down to the beach. As they both carefully make their way down the uneven and steep sand dunes Jace says "You know what Mother says that you're not allowed to do that so i'm pretty sure I actually won."
Annerys laughs before saying "Well mother has never actually said you're not allowed to burn all of my hair off but i'm not sure she would approve of your attempt."
Jace says "Oh shut up." and playfully pushes her which causes her to lose her footing and lets out a high pitched yelp as she tumbles down the rest of way.
"Jace! You big idiot. You could have killed me." Anne shouts at him more embarrassed because she clearly had not been harmed.
Jace simply laughs as he walks past her and mimics the sound she made as she fell.
"It's not funny I have sand in my hair." She replies, she attempts to sound haughty but she can't control the laugh that escapes her lips as she moves to follow Jace across the beach.
They had neither spoken of his outburst that evening or of the one he had weeks ago on the boat until they were resting on the shores of Dragonstone "What you said on the boat. What did you mean? What rumours?"
"Nothing Anne just gossip from our time at Kingslanding."
"Yes that much is obvious the walls at Dragonstone do not seem to whisper the way that they did in Kinglanding. What I am asking you is what they said."
"That when mother was young she was fond of him. It...They were slanders. Vile and lurid and I dishonour mother in repeating them." Jace said as even in his anger when it comes to it he won't say anything against their mother
"If you know it then I should too." Annerys argues.
Jace looks conflicted before he says "They said that was why he was exiled once more that he...that he took...he..." Jace struggles to finish his sentence "I will not repeat it." Jace says with a finality. "I will apologise to mother in the morning, I will wish her happiness and we will say no more about it." He tells her clearly guilty.
"She says she is marrying him for strength. Mother says he will fight for her for you if the time comes. When the time comes. Mother said that we need allies and we need strength and he will give us both." Anne tells him.
"It angers you too doesn't it." Jace asks his sister looking for an ally in his anger so that he feels a little less lonely in it and in his grief.
"I think that you are not angry with mother Jace. I think that you are angry at father for not fighting harder and for dying, for not defeating Ser Quarl and for not escaping the fire at Harrenhal."
"Anne." Jace sighs sadly.
She rubs his arm before she leans in to embrace him"You're allowed to be upset." She tells him as they lean the sides of their heads together. "I might even let you cry." She says to lighten the thick atmosphere which she knows she has been successful at when she hears him snort out a laugh into her ear.
Jace is quite mad and maybe a little unlikeable in this chapter as he's acting rashly and saying pretty harsh things but he's a teenage boy and he's been through a lot so i thought it made sense for him to be openly hostile about Daemons prescence because both him and Annerys are old enough now to figure things out and jump to conclusions but not old enough to control their emotions.
Anne definitely has feelings about things but in true eldest daughter fashion she keeps them to herself and is more passive about her displeasure thats not to say that she won't say anything in the future.
I also thought that it would be entirely possible that Jace might have heard that rumour because its the Kingsguard that bring Daemon to the king and stand guard so theres every chance they overheard and as Jace is a boy he will have trained around them and heard more gossip from them which is why Annerys doesn't know this rumour but he does.
I think that because the children are older in this as well they were all most likely not very happy about their parents sudden marriage.