Dany was woken up by loud shouts.
Tiredly, she rubbed sleep away from her heavy eyelids. What now? To say that the funeral hadn't been frighteningly tense would be lying. Between the two sides of the families, it was almost war.
So what else had happened to make someone scream so much?
She hastily pulled on some loose fitting white dress, since her sleeping clothes were still considered childish and indecent for a young woman. The part of her that had been Annabeth Chase detested revealing clothes, like so many Westerosi in this life. But Daenerys Targaryen was supposed to shock people.
If she didn't shock them, how else would her beauty remain in their minds?
She almost ran outside and followed the screams and arguments. In the distance, she heard a roar of a dragon. Which one? No one could know, for so many Targaryens were present at the funeral that it could be any dragon, really.
Finally, she reached the room where the screams were coming from, and pushed open the door.
Looking back, she didn't really know what to expect. What had happened to make all of them argue so. What had happened to have made someone scream so loud. Perhaps she'd expected a broken leg or Rhaenyra and Alicent to have engaged in a particularly violent argument over who was to be Viserys's heir.
But she had certainly not expected this.
Aemond was sitting on an armchair, half of his face covered in blood. His mother was sobbing by his side, while Aegon and Helaena were both standing there, the former seemingly unsure of what to do, the latter muttering some incomprehensible riddles.
On the opposite side of the room, Lucerys was sporting a broken nose and Jace seemed to have some minor cuts here and there. Rhaena was sobbing in her father's arms, and Baela was shooting death glares at Aemond.
Perhaps the least surprising thing in the room was Rhaenyra and Alicent arguing, Viserys as usual playing the middle man.
"Your son has crippled my boy!" Alicent roared.
"Your son has levied false accusations against my children!" Rhaenyra bellowed back.
Both seemed to be positively fuming, and Dany had to bite back a chuckle. But the words replayed in her head, uninvited.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXdHalFpeOx
Crippled.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ12ZlE1SH2v
How? How is he crippled? It's only blood-12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEy7POZVmsp
Dany looked at Aemond again, more closely this time, and realised to her horror that his right eye was not to be seen. It had been cut by a dagger, and was most probably lost.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡajPUtf9LjT
False accusations. 12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwfsg8JA65q
What false accusations? Surely-12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiMdgAON0X9
"ENOUGH!" Viserys roared.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrcRNr6r5SC
Alicent and Rhaenyra stopped arguing. Everyone stopped crying or screaming or whatnot, except Aemond, who still had some rogue tears falling from his only remaining eye.
"I will have the truth of this. What happened?" Viserys demanded angrily.
"He stole Mother's dragon!" Rhaena sobbed in her father's arms. Daemon tried to console her by patting her shoulders.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfSLNsjGkHt
"He called us bastards." Jace said calmly to Viserys, trying to remain calm for them all.
Viserys wheeled to Aemond, his own son. Dany could not help but feel a pang of pain for Aemond. Having a father who, time and again, chose another child over him must be horrible.
"And you, boy. Where did you learn these calumnies? In the training yard, perhaps?" He almost roared.
Aemond flinched, and Alicent came back to her second son's side, putting a protective arm over his shoulders. He was almost trembling with fear, but remained strong.
He's quite brave, Dany had to admit.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDsZOyEsZZM
"Aegon." The boy managed to say, putting all the blame onto his older brother's shoulders.
Aegon seemed shocked at Aemond's words, and Viserys turned to him angrily. Rhaenyra sent a death glare Aegon's way.
"Everyone knows. Just look at them, Father." Aegon murmured, shooting a look Jace and Luke's way.
The familiar feeling of anger and injustice bubbled up inside Dany's heart. It was true. False accusations? She could not believe her mother was still hoping that people were holding on to that lie. Ser Harwin had been kind, but it had been obvious he had been Jace and Luke's father. The resemblance was undeniable.
To Dany's surprise, she realised no member of her family had seen her. She had remained well hidden underneath the tapestries, and for once she was glad of Annabeth's intelligence. It would have done no good to be next to her mother and brothers. Aegon would have only sent a look her way too, making Rhaenyra and her siblings terribly angry.
"Enough! I am tired of my own family fighting amongst themselves! This must end now. Aemond, apologise to your nephews for those vile accusations. Maesters, tend to my son's eye. The rest of you, go to sleep!" he roared, before exiting, Alicent hot on his heels.
The maesters helped to support Aemond out, but to his credit Aegon helped too, murmuring comforting words in his younger brother's ear. Helaena followed, still as weird as ever.
This was a terrible evening, Dany thought.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsSTukoo96f
She came out from her hiding spot, and rushed to her mother and brothers. Luke, albeit still shell-shocked from the events, grinned and wrapped his arms around her. She didn't care that his nosebleed made her dress dirty and red in the centre. All she cared about was that it hadn't been him to be blinded.
But he had been the one to blind Aemond.
"I didn't mean it." Luke started to sob again. She realised he meant crippling Aemond. "I only wanted to make him move away from Jace and Baela, and Rhaena was sobbing so-"
"It's okay, Luke. You didn't mean it," she reassured her little brother.
Jace came and wrapped his arms around both of them. Despite Dany being the oldest, Jace had always acted like the protector of the family. It was an honour firstborn sons had that Dany could not.
"We're going to be okay. Grandpa took our side, didn't he?" Jace murmured, sounding almost as if he was trying to convince himself whilst trying to convince them.
"He did." Rhaenyra came and hugged all of her present children close to her. "And he will again. Luke, I'm sure you didn't mean it. They're leaving tomorrow for King's Landing, after this dreadful event. You'll write an apology letter to Aemond. We're returning to Dragonstone in the morning, too." She kissed Jace and Luke's heads first, before turning to Dany.
"My sweet girl. Where were you?" Dany accepted her mother's warm embrace willingly.
"Sleeping. I only woke because of Aemond's screams," she admitted.
Rhaenyra sighed, and gently stroked her hair as Jace and Luke left to their chambers, saying they wanted to go see their father. In truth, Dany knew both of them wanted to sleep and forget all about this.
She wouldn't, though.
"It's horrid. Aemond will never see again, will he? And yet he was so rude to Jace and Luke... even to Baela and Rhaena! But Vhagar wasn't Laena's dragon, not her possession, wasn't she? She simply let Laena ride her..." Dany rubbed her eyes, trying to see every possible option.
Her mother gently pulled away, if only to look at Dany in the eye.
"My darling girl. All you say is true, but you must remember that we are supposed to be on Baela and Rhaena's side. In fact... I was wondering if me and Daemon should marry." Rhaenyra sighed.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXrd3eXtIJ
Dany blinked, once, twice. Rhaenyra and Daemon? Her biological parents? Finally married?12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxg66d3WIKX
"I know that he's my father." Dany admitted.
"I know, darling. You were always quite perceptive. I think you got that from Daemon. He always analysed people far too quickly. But do you agree? Do you object?" Her mother asked.
Dany thought for a moment. On one hand, she didn't know a thing about Daemon. He seemed kind towards those he loved, and then cruel and uncaring towards the rest of the world. On the other hand, he was her father. She deserved to know him, didn't she?12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGbqMZjCGWt
"I don't object," she finally settled on saying.
Rhaenyra could not help the grin that spread over her face, even after the troubling events of that night.
"Thank you, my baby girl. We will marry, then. And you will no longer face those horrid whispers of 'bastard' that your brothers have," the older woman said.
No, I won't. But Jace and Luke still will.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7TF5x5MNqk
