CHAPTER NINE ─── plotting and plans
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𝖂hen Alaelanna had turned ten and one, she had bled for the first time. The girl had thought she'd been dying, running to find her mother in a mess of tears and sobs. It had taken her mother a couple of minutes to calm the girl down, to explain to her what was happening and then the tears at bleeding turned into tears of fear that she would be sent away to marry some lord of a castle.
Her mothed had laughed at the sentiment.
"My sweet dragon, you are not leaving me." She had promised, wiping her daughter's tears as she let the small girl sit on her lap. "I will not let you be married off, not at ten and one."
"So I will be married off?"
"Only to someone that you choose to be married off to." Rhaenyra had replied, pressing kisses to her soft hair. "You will get the same choice I did. You can decide who you wish to marry, whenever you so feel like. If you meet someone you love when you are ten and five, then I will be happy. If you wait until you are two and twenty, I will be happy."
"You will not be upset if I do not marry now?"
"I would much prefer you not to marry now." Alaelanna had been comforted at the thought, burying her head into her mother's arms. "I want for you and your brothers to be able to fall in love, just as I did with your father."
"But you walked into the back of him and threatened to burn him alive."
"Never listen to your father, he lies." Rhaenyra brought a laugh forth from the girl at that.
"How did you know, with father? That he was the one that you would marry?"
"Your father was my friend long before he became my husband. He made me feel safe, and heard, and he has always been very funny." Rhaenyra smiled, before kissing her daughter's head again. "Most importantly, your father held a lot of respect for me. So much so that he refused to marry me when I first asked him, and then made me wait three years so that I could truly decide whether I loved him or not."
"You loved him."
"I did." Rhaenyra nodded. "I still do, and now my love is multiplied for I have you, Jace, Luke and Camryn."
"I want a love like yours." Alaelanna mused, before smiling. "I will be as happy as you are."
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Alaelanna was not happy.
She had been kept in her chambers, the doors barred and guarded once more as she paced and waited for the call to see the Small Council that she was soon to get. She was dressed in blue, reminiscent of her house, and she had managed to find the tiara that had been gifted to her when she turned ten and six, a year and a half earlier, by her grandfather.
"The queen wishes to speak with you." Alaelanna did not have her family by her side now. She had no one, so she would have to do this on her own account as best she could.
The Small Council room was ever the more daunting now, but Alaelanna tilted her chin and kept her head high as she swept into the room. To all else, it was like watching the princess Rhaenyra when the lords had come to swear fealty to her, for Alaelanna's stare was just as dark and her form was just as proud.
"The Princess Alaelanna of House Thorne and House Targaryen." She was introduced, and she swept into the room coming upon a most terrible sight. Lord Beesbury, someone who had supported her mother, was dead on the table, Ser Criston stood behind him, his sword drawn as he faced Ser Harrold Westerling.
"I see that your coup is going well." Alaelanna snarked, staring around at the traitorous lords. "Dowager queen."
She remained polite, bowing her head, before looking around at the room. She would not bow her head to any traitorous lord who sought to place her useless uncle on the throne.
"Lady-"
"Princess." Alaelanna corrected, turning to glare at Lord Otto Hightower. "My mother is the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms now, should my memory serve correct. As my mother is not here, she has me to care for her position in the capital that you seem to believe you have a right over. For that reason alone, she will have you beheaded, along with every lord in here who so believes that your son, who is eighth in line, should sit on the throne."
She turned back to the front as the lords seemed to decide that she was infuriating them. They stood, more than ready to be rid of her.
"The people already know that their rightful queen will be returning to take her place on the Iron Throne, and my mother will be back."
"That is impossible. The king died mere hours earlier."
"And yet you have not told the court yourself?" Alaelanna tutted, brushing past the knights to sit at the end of the Small Council table as if she were made to sit there. Despite her hands trembling, clutching onto each other, Alaelanna remained strong. She needed to make them fear her, fear her mother and remind them that should they continue, they would be burned alive. "A break in royal protocol. It is already not off to a good beginning."
"Princess Alaelanna, the only reason you have been brought here as of this hour is to remind you of your betrothal to Prince Aemond. You are to be wed of the morrow, to secure our houses." Lord Otto did not rise to her bait, merely watching the young girl as if she were a speck of dust on his shoes. "That should quell your mother, and your family-"
"Then you know nothing of either." Alaelanna cut him off, taking some joy from the uncomfortable look on his face. "You may marry me to Aemond, but he will die before the year's end if you do."
"You deliver threats to the crown prince?"
"He is not the crown prince." Alaelanna shot back. "He is tenth in line, if I do my math correctly. There are five crown princes, that much is true. My twin, Jacaerys, and my other brothers, Lucerys, Camryn and Viserys."
"Princess, the crown should go to the firstborn son-"
"Tell me, Dowager Queen, why do you so desperately wish to start a war that you will not win?" Alaelanna ignored the other lords speaking to her, tilting her head up to watch her mother's once closest friend. "You and my mother were dear to one another, yet you scorn her so when you know that she is the true heir. Why?"
"I-"
"You will not win this war, that is a given." Alaelanna shook her head. "I pity your poor attempts to make the people see that your son is better for the role, especially when all know him for what he truly is."
"And what is that, Princess?"
"A drunkard. A rapist. An abusive prat." Alaelanna nodded, before she stood. "The list goes on."
"You have yet to be dismissed."
"I do not take orders from a dead man walking." Alaelanna chuckled, before she was met with the drawn sword of Ser Criston Cole. "You risk war. Do try to remember that the reason you have that scar, the reason that you limp and why you are missing some of your teeth is due to my father. He taught all he knows to me and I will gladly harm you in his name, should you ever raise a sword to me again."
She stepped around the sword, pushing the Small Council doors open and walking back to her chambers, as the panic and anxiety in her threatened to overwhelm her.
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She sat in her chambers, thinking of her next move for hours. She had insulted every single member of the Small Council, told them that they would die and then threatened a member of the King's Guard, which was most likely not her smartest move.
Panic was racing through her now.
Then, she recalled her conversation with her father and mother, when they had first learned of Otto's wish to betroth Aemond and Alaelanna. He had thought that if they could trick Aemond, make him fall in love with her, then they would have control of the largest dragon in Westeros and the prince.
Aemond had also told her not even two hours earlier, that he wished for them to be married and that was why he did not object to them. Plus, if she thought further, then being married to him would also offer some form of protection, keeping her and her dragon safe. She would not allow harm to come to Littlewing.
If he wished for her to be his wife, then she would oblige. But if the one eyed boy thought that he was ever able to make her fall in love with him, he was surely mistaken. Alaelanna was a Targaryen and a Thorne, she would rather kill him than love him.
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Hiya,
So Alaelanna is just like her father, and is down for the stirring the pot because she knows that they can't harm her unless they wish to start a war. Also, this girl thinks that she'll be able to manipulate Aemond into falling in love with her, but can she is the actual question?
Let me know what you think,
Love Li xx