Pre-Chapter A/N: For the next few weeks, you might only get chapters on Tuesdays. Real life stuff is getting in the way. I will of course maintain my commitment to at least one upload per day on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (some days there might be two like there used to be but I won't commit to that many for now). While the above statement is still more or less true, there is a real chance we might return to our regular upload schedule to kick May off. We just have to see how the next few days go. Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
When the vows were complete, there was a sound like a cannon going off and from the ceiling above came a rain of rose petals. Where had they even gotten so many flowers, she wondered. They alone must have cost a pretty penny. Not to mention the logistics of shipping them all the way here without dealing with spoilage. When she had worked as a cupbearer for her father, she had seen the effort that went into obtaining a fresh set of flowers on the dining table for every meal. This many flowers, this far from the Reach? Must have been a nightmare.
Now Lord and Lady-wife, Laenor Velaryon and his sister began to descend the stairs. She rose along with the rest of the crowd, but did not applaud as vigorously as they did. This was all theatre, and she was beginning to tire of the show.
The itinerary had been distributed in small slips of parchment with words written so neatly that she was tempted to try to poach the scribe into her service. Hundreds of slips, and each one had been perfectly written. The space between the words, the handwriting, all of it remarkably consistent. That was beside the point, though. The next event of the day was the horse racing. They were to watch horse races from a venue called the coliseum before proceeding back to Bloodstone for the feast.
She watched as the couple were ushered out of the building. Through the double doors, she got a glimpse of both Igneel and Vhagar waiting and almost gasped. No dragon had any right to grow that quickly. Igneel looked of a size with what Silverwing had been the last time she had seen the she-dragon. Vhagar was still larger, of course. She could not imagine any dragon reaching the size of the Queen of all Dragons. But Igneel still came closer than he had any right to. The difference between them was still in orders of magnitude, but it was no longer comical. Husband and wife kissed before separating to their dragons and taking off into the skies.
She heard the roars as they began a circuit around the island. A porter began to call for the guests to proceed to the arena.
"Might I impose my presence upon you, Princess?" a voice asked from her side. She turned to see Jason Lannister's blonde locks. He was tall, and had a strong frame. Those things she noticed first. His face was next. He was quite handsome, she thought to herself. Perhaps too handsome. Criston always said never to trust men who cared overmuch about their looks. A thought she had found amusing, as he himself was a handsome man. Of course, his beauty was more of the rugged variety, rather than the near-feminine face Lannister sported.
"Princess?" he asked again, and she realised she'd spent too long in her own head. She felt a hand on her other arm. Alicent telling her not to with the same signal they had used when she was a child. She scoffed internally. If Alicent wanted to be listened to, then perhaps she should not have married her father.
"It would be my pleasure to be escorted by you, my Lord," she said, making sure to wrench her arm out of Alicent's light grip. They were not friends. They would never be friends again. That ship had sailed, and the sooner she realised it, the better for her. Rhaenyra would not be made a fool of once more.
She accepted the Lannister Lord's outstretched arm and walked side by side with him towards the long procession of carriages that would take them to this coliseum that the parchment spoke of.
"You really do look lovely, Princess. Quite a sight you make," he said first. She nodded. Men had been calling her beautiful all her life. Someone like Lord Lannister saying it did nothing for her.
"Thank you, my Lord. You do cut quite a dashing figure yourself," she responded. While she might not have cared all that much for it, she was still capable of playing the game just as well as anyone else.
"High praise, Princess. I was surprised to find you seated at the King's seat. I thought it a coup when I had been placed right behind him. Of course, imagine my surprise to find that I had been given an even greater gift," he said.
"I am his heir, am I not? When the King is indisposed, his heir shall act in his place," she said.
"Some would say that is what the Hand exists for," he said with a barked laugh. She remained silent. As if that snake, Hightower, could ever act in her father's place. He was not the blood of the dragon.
"I apologise for the joke, Princess. It was in poor taste," he said. At least he knew when he had offended. Some modicum of self-awareness was enough to make him better than a lot of the men who had bothered her with their attention.
"Apology accepted, my Lord," she said.
"Princess, the royal carriage is this way," Cargyll spoke from his position behind the two of them. She looked towards where he was pointing and could see Alicent and the older of her sprogs being ushered into the carriage. Another long silent ride was not what she wanted to deal with now, and so she did the logical thing.
"There is no need. I will be accompanying Lord Lannister on his carriage. The destination is the same, is it not?" she asked.
"Princess?" He sounded unsure.
"The Princess has made her intention known, good ser. House Lannister has protection and resources aplenty to see her safely ferried across this quiet city, I assure you, my good man," Lannister said, stepping into the conversation with no hesitation. He did not even seem bothered by the fact that she had invited herself onto his carriage without so much as a by your leave.
Of course, why would he be. She would be stupid not to know what Jason Lannister wanted. There was only one reason why the Lord to the richest (or second richest) house in the realm was unmarried at five and twenty. He hoped to gain a royal match, and she was of half a mind to give it to him. She just had to make sure that he understood what his place would be in any arrangement between them, and that he would be ready to back her claim when the time came.
A strong husband was not the be all and end all of protecting a claim to the iron throne, but it would help. Rhaenys was still known as the Queen Who Never Was, despite the fact that she had married a man like Corlys Velaryon who was well known for his ambition and determination. A man who had gold aplenty, the grandest fleet in the realm, and the will to see her crowned. Yet, the crown had gone to Rhaenyra's father. A cock was a powerful thing, and in a matter of years she might need to defeat one.
"Then I will escort you, Princess," Cargyll said.
"That is satisfactory to me," she said to him, and then she returned her attention to Lannister.
"I trust neither my Knight nor I would be an imposition?" she said more than asked.
"Nothing of the sort. We have carriages aplenty for my siblings and cousins. You both will ride in my carriage," he said, leading them forwards to one that was painted in the Lannister red and gold. Interesting. The Royal carriages were painted red and black. The Baratheon carriages, yellow and black, and now the Lannister carriages. Looking around, she could see only two other contingents that had received similar treatments.
"I did not know you were close friends with House Velaryon," she commented as she accepted his hand as she stepped onto the wooden block that had been placed to facilitate entrance to the carriage.
"Laenor Velaryon and I are close business partners in a way. He is a builder, and I am one of the few with the taste and means to appreciate what it is he builds," he said with a self-satisfied smile.
"And that has led to a close friendship?" she pushed.
"A friendship of a sort. In truth, he is far closer to my younger brother, who more often visits these isles. With me, it is more a mutual understanding between peers," he said. She scoffed internally but said nothing of her doubts that Laenor Velaryon considered this man a peer. The Blood of the Dragon did not make peers of Andals, no matter how much gold their mountains could spawn.
"But that is enough of our host and my relationship with him. I would much rather we spoke about a subject far more interesting: you," he said, beginning a tactic that she knew all too well.
Lordlings and Knights knew that the way to get a woman's attention was to get her to talk about herself, but she was a Princess and not a mere lady of the realm. Flattery and feigned interest were things she had been subject to since she was a child. She could see both coming from a distance and would ordinarily have ignored them, but in this case this was a man she wanted something from. So she allowed the questions to flow uninterrupted.
To his credit, Jason Lannister was better at this than most. He asked not a single question about what her favourite colour was or which snack she most preferred at feasts or which type of silk she thought looked best. He sidestepped the standard questions and asked about her. Not her as a Princess, but her as a person. What did she like doing when the burdens of her position were pressing down on her from all directions? What part of flying made it such a good escape? Did she enjoy flying in and of itself, or did she only like it as an escape?
What was the farthest she had ever flown? How did it feel to be Queen of the skies for a time? The questions kept coming, but there was no tedium in answering them. These were things she genuinely enjoyed talking about, and he had somehow managed to guide them towards them with ease.
She did not even notice when she had begun laughing easily at the quips he slipped in at the end of her responses, or when she began making said responses to get the rare compliments that he bestowed every few answers — "That is well reasoned, Princess," "I never thought of it that way, Princess" — things that hit home far more meaningfully than a million comments about how she was more lovely and radiant than the sun itself.
When they reached the so-called Coliseum, she was more disappointed than she would admit to have to leave his company, and that was a dangerous thing. A very dangerous thing was brewing here. Because even if a match favoured her and made sense, it had to be a relationship created on her terms. Not born from something as prone to misdirection as the heart and the love it created so easily, but born from logic and good reason. She had to go into this with her eyes opened, and even as she allowed Lord Lannister to kiss her fingers in goodbye, she decided that when they met again, she would be the one asking the questions. Whether he would be a good match would be her sole subject of inquiry, and she would not be leaving this island before she had her answer.
She was led to her seat and took her position to her Father's right, given pride of place in what was to come. The only people that would have better seats would be the Husband and Wife of the day. The couple yet to complete their flight around the island.
She waited, watching the stands fill up while her ears caught the distant roars of the dragons every so often before they were finally beginning to get closer. This coliseum was close to the middle of the city that Laenor Velaryon had built on this island that had once been little more than a port for pirates, slavers, and sellsails of all sorts and persuasions, so it did take a bit for the dragons to arrive from the city's edge.
Enough time that most of the seats had been filled and all got to witness the creatures land in their terrifying glory. First had been Vhagar, the Queen of all Dragons, more reminiscent of a mountain than a living creature at her size. Despite that size, though, she seemed spritely and quick. Igneel had come next, landing to an uproarious applause from the crowd of natives.
From the back of his dragon, Laenor Targaryen looked like a King. She hated that she used that comparison over and over again, but it was impossible not to see it. Even when he had been next to her Father in the Sept, it had been clear. One man wore the crown, but it was the one who did not that had the regal bearing. He and his sister-wife dismounted their dragons and both creatures took off into the air once more. Now alone at the centre of the field, they walked to each other before beginning to kiss. It was a kiss that drew even more applause from the crowd.
They were still clapping, hooting, and hollering by the time the couple had retired to their seats.
"Thank you all for coming today. Thank you for coming to celebrate what is now the happiest day of my life. My wife and I thank you and celebrate you, proud people of Bloodstone, the wider Stepstones, Westeros, Dorne, and Essos. Please relax, make merry, maybe make a friend or two, and most importantly, enjoy the show," he said, before returning to his seat. The horn that amplified his voice was placed on his lap and seemingly forgotten as his attention turned to whispering to his newly wedded wife.
The field then saw movement for the first time since they had vacated it as several riders began to lead their horses out.
XXXXXX——
"What did you think of the races, Princess?" Lord Lannister was the first to speak to her once the feast began. He was seated a few places away but seemed to have manoeuvred his way opposite her on the table.
"I found them to be lacking in excitement," she lied easily. In truth, the races had proven to be a surprisingly good show. The commentator had done a good job of making the audience care about and understand what was happening on the field, and when the horse race had finished and the so-called Chariot races had begun, it was all she could do to keep herself glued to her seat and not join those who rose enthralled with the spectacle.
"Truly? I myself found them singularly exciting. The horse races were somewhat lacking, I suppose. But those chariots. Oh, I must applaud Lord Velaryon for his latest invention," he said.
"Thank you, Lord Lannister. Princess, perhaps you will be better pleased with the next few days of entertainment. We should have some events more suited to your tastes. If I remember correctly, you did always enjoy a good joust," Laenor Velaryon cut into their conversation with all the grace of a dragon in a barnyard, as he did not even pretend not to have been listening in on their conversation from a few places away.
"Shall you yourself be participating in the joust, my Lord?" Lannister asked their host.
"Unfortunately not. I am the host, you see. It would simply not be proper," he said with a shake of his head.
"What a shame. I would have enjoyed to break lances against the one who unhorsed Borros Baratheon himself," Lannister replied.
"I am sure the chance will come," he said, and then turned as his wife pulled on his sleeve. He left their conversation and turned to another.
"Tell me, Lord Lannister, about Casterly Rock. I hear it is the grandest castle in all of Westeros," she began the first phase of her interrogation.
She would ask the more important questions, the ones that would make or mar any potential match, when they had more privacy and were not subject to a dozen rogue ears. Now, she would just settle for getting to know the man.
"Few Great Lords will cede that any castle is grander than theirs, so perhaps my words ought to be taken with some caution, but I have not seen a castle that compares to Casterly Rock. Neither has my brother, and he has seen Storm's End, Harrenhal, the Hightower, and even Winterfell in his travels. None of them can match the Rock when it comes to grandeur nor splendour," he said.
"Then you have not seen the view from the King's tower in the middle of a storm at Storm's End then. Few things can make a man believe in the gods like that view," Boremund Baratheon cut in from two places away with a scoff.
"Winterfell in the middle of winter makes for a sight that can take your breath away," Brandon Stark, a cousin to the Stark of Winterfell, cut in next. And then what she had hoped to be a conversation to get to know her suitor turned into a debate between the men about whose castle was grander.
A/N: Finally we are married. It just took us eighty chapters to get there. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.