Rhaenyra knew that this farce of a funeral had been a bad idea.
Laena had been one of Rhaenyra's closest friends before she left for Pentos with the man that Rhaenyra loved, and was related to Rhaenyra both by blood and by marriage, for Rhaenyra was married to Laenor, Laena's brother. She felt some grief towards the girl who had been there for her at times, but all that grief was tempered down by the bitterness that Viserys had allowed Daemon to marry Laena, not Rhaenyra.
Even without past grudges, the way that Laena's uncle Vaemond Velaryon stared at her children made Rhaenyra's skin crawl. So did his High Valyrian eulogy, where he managed to insult both Rhaenyra's children and herself in a single sentence. She looked at her father then, to see if he would respond to what was an obvious insult to his own heir, but of course Viserys was too busy trying to reconnect with Daemon to listen.
She sighed. Viserys had never been a good father, but he had always harboured love towards her because of her mother. She could not say the same for her half-siblings, because it was as plain as day that Viserys neither spent time with them nor tried to get to know them. Rhaenyra had not spent time with them all that much, but it did not take a genius to figure them out. Aegon was a drunk, Helaena has a dragon dreamer who was unfit to make a comprehensible sentence, Aemond was Alicent's spawn through and through and Daeron... Rhaenyra did not know her youngest half-sibling that well, for he had been shipped off to Oldtown as a toddler and had stayed there. His Hightower blood was enough to make Rhaenyra dislike him.
In particular, she detested Aegon and Aemond. Aegon, because he was the heir that her father had wanted. He had been born with a cock. He did not work hard, nor was he talented in anything except whoring and getting others angry, but he had a cock, and that was sufficient proof for half the realm to back up his claim to the throne. She hated him because he was her challenge. Aemond was Alicent's child, her golden boy. He was good at swordfighting, good at his lessons and good at pretending. However, he was dragon less, a fact that she knew annoyed the boy to his wits' end. She hated him because he was rude to her boys, and he was a warrior in the making who did not have a shred of decency in his body.
Her hatred of them had increased a thousandfold when she saw their unworthy gazes falling on her Dany.
Dany was Rhaenyra's beloved girl. Daughter of her only love, her soulmate. The girl was the most beautiful woman to have ever lived, and Rhaenyra made sure that she knew it and acted like it. Sometimes Rhaenyra wondered who her daughter would marry, for she received at least a hundred letters about betrothals concerning her Dany daily. The truth was that Rhaenyra could not bear to part from Dany. Perhaps it was her daughter's beauty, perhaps it was her wits, perhaps it was the way she laughed and held a sword so like Daemon. In any case, Rhaenyra would be damned if she let her sweet girl go to King's Landing, that nest of vipers waiting to devour her whole.
Those Hightower brats could say whatever they liked about her, but she would not stand to see her children insulted.
Rhaenyra could not protect Jace or Luke or even baby Joffrey, for they were boys and were expected to be groomed into heirs. She could not protect them nearly as much as she would like, and it hurt her more than anything. That Jace knew that he was a bastard. That Luke would run to her crying, asking why Aegon and Aemond were laughing at him when he said he would go to see his father. That Joffrey, even as a baby, was the victim of hateful glares from both Alicent and Otto. She had tried to keep them in Dragonstone, but her father always required her presence as the Crown Princess. She sometimes wished that Dany was her heir, for she knew her daughter to be capable of shouldering heavy burders, but Jace was her heir. Viserys could make her Crown Princess, but she had sons, and sons must go before daughters, no matter how much Rhaenyra was against it. So Jace was the one to accompany her to King's Landing, and Luke hated to be parted from Jace. Joffrey, him, had been born in King's Landing, and Rhaenyra was loathe to part from her baby. Dany had always asked Rhaenyra if she could stay in Dragonstone whenever they left to King's Landing, and Rhaenyra had always responded to her the same thing. That Dany could go to High Tide.
Though Corlys and Rhaenys were not Dany's biological grandparents, and Rhaenyra had a feeling that both Dany and Rhaenys knew it, though Corlys was in denial of the blatant truth, the older couple had always loved Dany like their own. Rhaenys had warmed up to Dany in a way that the Queen Who Never Was had never warmed up to Jace or Luke. Rhaenyra suspected that it was because Dany was so like Rhaenys in some ways, what with their intelligence and their capability of thinking fast and well. Rhaenyra always believed that Rhaenys would have made a much better Queen than Viserys King, but Westeros was a man's world. However, Rhaenys had found a new purpose in running High Tide, for Driftmark was a cramped place that both Corlys and Rhaenys disliked, and the older woman had also enjoyed taking care of Dany whenever Rhaenyra had to go to King's Landing.
Everyone was happy with that arrangement, none more so than Rhaenyra, for she was secretly scared that Aegon and Aemond would fall in love with Dany the way Jace and Luke seemed to be. It was near impossible to part Jace from Dany when they were both near each other, and Luke was always clutching Dany's arm or leg, trying to steer her to some activity that he enjoyed. To Dany's credit, the girl had never complained, often indulging both her brothers and spending a lot of time with them. She was as kind as she was beautiful, Rhaenyra could not help thinking, looking at her perfect daughter right next to her.
The best of Rhaenyra and Daemon. Valyrian in both blood, appearance and heart, charming and intelligent, always devoted to her family and kind. Neither Rhaenyra nor Daemon had been particularly kind in their lives, though Rhaenyra had improved since becoming a mother. Dany was naturally kind, and had always smiled. The only disconcerting things about her daughter was that the girl sometimes seemed to know more than she should. Rhaenyra remembered an incident where Dany had been muttering in her sleep about a boy named Percy and death. She had made sure to tell her daughter that while boys were a normal part of life, she would prefer Dany to steer clear of them before she turned sixteen. To which Dany had smiled, and told her mother that Percy was an imaginary friend that did not exist. Rhaenyra was not entirely sure that Dany had been telling the truth, for the wistful smile on Dany's face screamed everything opposite to imaginary, but she had not pressed on.
Whatever the case, her daughter was hers and Daemon's. Not Laenor's, nor Viserys's, nor anyone else's.
And looking at Daemon's face, she could tell that he was thinking the same.
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