Chapter Text
Rhaenyra couldn't sleep.
Tomorrow, her father would announce his marriage to Laena Velaryon. It was practically guaranteed that he would take the poor girl to wife, despite him having not conveyed a single detail to his own daughter.
She wanted to scream. To cry. She longed to pound her fists into the wall until they turned bloody.
But most of all, she wanted her mother.
With a sigh, Rhaenyra rose from her bed and slipped on her robe. Alicent would know what to do. She always had some form of plan prepared. They could spend the day in King's Landing, shopping at one of the many jewelry shops Rhaenyra frequented. Let mighty King Viserys marry Laena, let them have all the heirs they wanted. So long as Alicent was by her side, Rhaenyra didn't care.
With the stealth of a cat, she slipped from her rooms in Maegor's Holdfast. Ser Cole, her sworn shield, had been dismissed for the night, leaving the Red Keep hers to explore.
Alicent's chambers were right across the hall from Rhaenyra's, a request the princess had made nearly six years ago, when Alicent had first come to court.
Slowly, she knocked.
Then again.
One more time.
Nothing.
"Alicent?" Rhaenyra said in a hushed voice as she slid the door open. Her friend's chambers were empty. The bed was still made, and the pretty blue dress she had worn that day lay abandoned on the floor.
Rhaenyra raced through the halls of the Red Keep, fear clenching her heart. She had to tell her father. The daughter of the Hand going missing from her rooms was surely cause for alarm. Otto Hightower, despite his general sleaziness, would be worried sick.
"Princess?" Ser Harold blinked as she came into view. "The hour is quite late."
Still panting from the long trek, she slipped past the man. "Apologies, ser, but I must speak with my father."
The Lord Commander suddenly went white. "Princess, I wouldn't-"
But it was too late.
"Father!" Rhaenyra cried as she flew into the room. "Come quick! Alicent..."
She froze.
Viserys Targaryen jumped up from his chair, red in the face and looking more frightened than Rhaenyra had ever seen him look before.
And sitting across from him was Alicent Hightower, in a gown of dark green that barely concealed her shoulders.
"Child, I can explain," the king said quickly. "Lady Alicent was just..." he trailed off. There were nothing he could say to improve the situation. "We were only...nothing happened!"
Alicent's big brown eyes grew even bigger as she rose. She looked as if she would cry. "Rhaenyra, please, I-I didn't do anything. We were just talking."
Rhaenyra could only stare. "You weren't in your rooms."
Her friend flinched. "Hi-His grace asked if I-I would read to him."
Indeed, a large volume from the castle's library sat undisturbed on her father's breakfast table.
Viserys closed his eyes. "Alicent, I think it best you leave the princess and I to speak alone."
Her eyes downcast, Alicent picked up the book and hurried out of the room. Rhaenyra could hear her friend's sobs even after the doors were sealed shut.
Her father opened his mouth to speak. "Rhaenyra, I-"
"What in the Seven Hells was that!" she screeched, unable to contain herself.
The king of Westeros visibly shuddered. "My dear girl, I only meant-"
"No."
He blinked. "Excuse me?"
Rhaenyra felt a sort of fire start to course through her. "Do not call me your dear girl. You have betrayed me, betrayed mother." When his face contorted in pain, she knew she had hit the mark. "How could you? Sneaking around with a girl you have known since she was but nine!"
"The Lady Alicent came to me offering me comfort!"
"Do not think to twist it around! You should have sent her back! You should have told her snake of a father to shove his ambition down his throat!"
Viserys paused. "Otto Hightower is a good and honorable man, Rhaenyra."
She scoffed. "Yet he did not hesitate to throw his daughter in your path." He began to shake his head, but she held up a hand. "Do not think to dismiss it, father. Alicent Hightower has shown no interest in you from the moment you met. What makes you think she would suddenly be so intent on being your new queen?"
Her words were getting through to him. "What would you have me do, Rhaenyra? I planned on marrying her."
Rhaenyra felt her very blood chill. "You what?"
Viserys backed up. "I planned on announcing my betrothal to the Lady Alicent tomorrow, at the Small Council meeting."
There was a ringing in her ears that wouldn't stop.
"Rhaenyra?"
"You...bastard!"
Silence descended upon them.
The king could only look at his daughter dumbly. "What did you just say?"
Rhaenyra wanted to throw something. She opted for one of her father's pathetic little dragons he had carved for his model set. The stone figure smashed against the floor with a loud crack.
Viserys merely stared at it. "I take it the news does not please you."
Hot tears began to pour from her eyes. "You are not marrying Alicent Hightower."
"It is decided."
"Then you will never see me again."
He sighed. "Child, do not play games."
Another dragon flew into the window. "You think I jest?" she challenged. "If you make it known that you intend to marry the daughter of the Hand, I will leave on Syrax and never return. Maybe she will give you your precious son."
His eyes softened. "You are my heir, Rhaenyra. My only heir."
"And when that child squeezes out a child of her own? If it is a boy? Otto Hightower will have his arse on the throne before he is even out of the womb."
Viserys clenched his jaw. "The Realm needs more heirs, child."
She wanted to strangle him. "Then marry Laena Velaryon! Why must you take my last happiness from me?"
"You and the Lady Alicent can still remain friends!"
"The moment she has a son, we shall be pitted against one another. The princess and the queen, forever meant to be rivals."
He scrubbed his face with a hand. "Marry Laena, that is it? If I do this, will you hate me forever?"
Rhaenyra raised her chin. "That depends. Will you do it?"
"You are my daughter. My only child. I would give up the throne if you asked me to."
Fuck. Now she felt bad.
Think rationally, she chided herself. Otto Hightower will not stop until he is victorious.
Preventing a match between the king and Alicent would not be the end of it. As much as Rhaenyra hated to admit it, she wouldn't put it past the Hand to try plant his daughter in Viserys's bed even after he was wed to Laena. A royal bastard would not inherit, but if it were a boy and the Lady Laena only had girls...
Rhaenyra knew what she had to do.
"One last thing."
Her father arched brow. "Oh?"
She tried to put on a convincing smile. "I have been thinking it over, and I believe myself old enough to wed."
That took him back a step. "Rhaenyra, you are but five-and-ten."
"So is Alicent, yet that didn't stop you from trying to take her to wife."
He gritted his teeth. "Go on."
She stepped forward. "As heir, I believe it my duty to provide the Realm with stability and security in the succession."
"Alright..."
"Which is why I have chosen Ser Gwayne Hightower as my Prince Consort."