In the Empress's Ballroom, where countless candles cast flickering shadows, the hundred or so distinguished guests eligible to attend the banquet were not particularly shocked by the little prince's outburst. They were well aware of House Targaryen's tradition of marriage between siblings; the current king had married his own sister, and Aegon the Conqueror had wed both his sister Visenya and his sister Rhaenys. It was no wonder the befuddled little prince was mistaken—he was young, likely underdeveloped, and completely clueless about the differences between genders and the meaning of marriage.
Cersei didn't care that her status as the crown prince's fiancée had been usurped by the little prince. She lightly brushed back her hair, her pigeon-egg-sized emerald earrings tinkling. Her green eyes were fixed on Prince Rhaegar, her beloved, who was looking at the clueless Viserys with a gentle expression and shaking his head.
Oh, he's so good to his brother, Cersei thought. Then his brother will also be my brother in the future, and I can be friendly to Viserys. Although he was so silly, he couldn't even tell the difference between genders.
The other nobles present thought much the same, and some even chuckled.
Viserys pretended to be bewildered, wondering if he should burst into tears. Lady Steffon, standing at the foot of the stairs, smiled and explained to the little prince, "Your Grace, you are not a princess. Only a Targaryen princess can marry Prince Rhaegar."
Viserys, still pretending not to understand, frowned and turned to the Mad King. "Why can't I get married? Father?"
"Because you're a boy! A boy!" Aerys snapped impatiently, his plans disrupted by his son's sudden outburst. "You weren't born with the right gender!"
Viserys seized the opportunity to press on, "I understand! Then when I have a sister, she will marry Prince Rhaegar, right? I heard that Dragonblood should marry Dragonblood. I will have a sister, won't I?"
Tywin Lannister frowned inwardly. As a patriarch with a sharp mind, he had developed a certain instinct for observing things. His instinct told him that the young prince's words had a hidden meaning. At the very least, they were meant to please the Mad King.
The Mad King was indeed pleased by these words. Aerys had indeed planned for his heir, Prince Rhaegar, to marry a future princess. However, the Queen was... incapable—but seeing the healthy Viserys now, the Mad King was reminded. He thought, perhaps the next child would be a princess, his Dragonblood, the most ideal future queen for the crown prince. For this purpose, sleeping with the Queen a little more was not impossible.
After Viserys finished speaking, he stared at Aerys's reaction nervously, hoping he had gambled correctly.
Because he feared being poisoned, the King had not touched any of the food at the banquet. He stared at the large pigeon meat pie placed before the throne—under such a gaze, the pigeons wrapped in the pastry seemed to feel fear, flapping and screaming—Viserys also looked over. He thought it was the stupidest food ever.
Aerys ordered Duke Baratheon to use his sword to split the giant pie in two. A hundred white pigeons scrambled out, feathers, droppings, a mess, and injured, weak pigeons lay in the pie and didn't fly away—
"Burn it." The Mad King said. Viserys didn't speak. He looked at his brother, and found Rhaegar looking distressed. The young prince's eyes flickered, and he had another idea.
Aerys picked up the purple wine but didn't drink it. He sarcastically named Tywin, "Lord Lannister, what suggestions do you have regarding Rhaegar's marriage?"
Tywin's drooping eyelids lifted slightly, his blue pupils moved, and he answered the King without any emotional fluctuations, "I believe you will indeed have princes and princesses born in the future."
Aerys chuckled nervously. "Yes! Healthy! Beautiful! Perfect Targaryen blood!" He finished laughing, still sizing up Tywin, who was not yet caught in his trap, and not intending to let him off the hook so easily today.
Viserys breathed a small sigh of relief. He thought he had successfully postponed his brother's marriage. From the looks of it, the Mad King, who was now intent on waiting for the princess to be born, had no reason to send the Duke and his wife to sea—had he changed the future a little?
He looked at Rhaegar again; his brother was still so gloomy. Sigh, he had never seen him smile! But when he married Lyanna, surely he would smile then?
Viserys had no intention of letting his brother wait for Daenerys to be born and grow up, remaining single for over a decade. When the time came and Lyanna appeared, he would encourage his brother to act first and ask questions later. After communicating with the woman's father and brother, they would elope for love, find a place to get married, and then, with the rice already cooked, the Mad King would have no recourse.
Aerys on the throne continued to stare at Tywin's black velvet robe with gold threads in the crowd, and spoke again: "Rhaegar's marriage can be postponed for the time being, but Princess Elia of Dorne deserves a good marriage. She is mature, and marrying into the Lannister family would be a suitable match, wouldn't it?"
As soon as these words were spoken, a small commotion arose among the nobles. Everyone knew what had happened in the arena. Was the king trying to appease the Dornish by proxy of his youngest son?
Viserys didn't care who Elia married, as long as she didn't marry his brother. He naturally wouldn't come forward again.
Tywin's face was expressionless, and he bowed slightly. "The Lannister family accepts the marriage to Dorne. But before the marriage is concluded, please allow Jaime to serve as the prince's squire."
The Mad King's purple eyes narrowed, a sneer playing on his lips. "Of course."
The Dornish Queen seemed pleased with this sudden turn of events. Viserys looked at the impassive Tywin; he probably knew what the Duke was scheming. A clever game of words! It had to be said, though the King was paranoid and mad, this move could indeed enrage Dorne and drive a wedge between the two great lords.
Cersei nearly fainted when she heard her father's promise. No! No! She had just lost the most handsome Prince Rhaegar, and now her beautiful brother was to be given to a Dornish woman? No!!
After the banquet, she followed her father into the Tower of the Hand, the King's Hand's residence in King's Landing. Her heart was breaking; tears welled in her emerald eyes, about to spill over. "How could you let Jaime marry a Dornish woman?"
Tywin felt a surge of annoyance. His daughter had not inherited a shred of his intelligence, and even—he looked at the face that so resembled his beloved wife, Joanna, and held back, saying patiently, "Jaime will be the greatest knight, and he cannot marry a weak Dornish princess. Don't forget, you still have a brother."
Cersei made a sound of understanding, blinking at her father.
"Are you about to ask why I didn't mention your marriage to Prince Rhaegar to the King?"
Cersei nodded silently.
Tywin sneered. "You should be grateful that I've protected you and your brother. If you'd spoken today, I guarantee the Lannisters would have become a laughingstock for being rejected. Rumors of mortals presuming to compare themselves to the demigod Dragonblood would have spread throughout King's Landing, fueled by those with ulterior motives. Heh, the moment the King considered an unborn infant as a potential Crown Princess, I knew he was waiting for me to humiliate myself. To use Dragonblood to demean the Lannisters – I wouldn't speak."
With a wave of his hand towards his daughter, he continued, "But this is also my delaying tactic. Avoiding the King's mad words for now doesn't mean I've lost. In fact, you still have a great opportunity."
Cersei's eyes suddenly lit up again at this, and she clutched her handkerchief, not missing a single word from her father.
"Listen, the Queen and the King's relationship is terrible because the Queen has only managed to raise Prince Viserys in over a decade, and now the King will pressure the Queen because he desperately wants a daughter – the poor woman. In reality, Rhaegar is unlikely to wait until the princess is born. Just see, as long as the Queen gives birth to a stillborn or has a miscarriage, this matter will be brought up again. This mad King will realize the absurdity – though he still might not be willing to form a marriage with the Lannisters. Your opportunity doesn't lie with the King, but with the Crown Prince."
"The reason I let you stay in King's Landing is to have more contact with Prince Rhaegar. As long as he feels your charm and is willing to marry you – the Crown Prince's gentle and obedient facade conceals a stubborn and obstinate side. He has gathered many outstanding young knights around him, and then –" Tywin didn't finish what would happen then. But his prediction was actually consistent with Viserys's. They were both waiting for the Crown Prince, whose wings were now full, to grasp his own marriage, and even hoped he would crown himself King.
Cersei was again excited by the beautiful prospect – she imagined herself as the most beautiful Crown Princess, ruling the Seven Kingdoms alongside the Queen and her god-like handsome husband, and she would bear him a large family of beautiful children – such a wonderful prospect that she didn't pay attention to Tywin's final warning, just brushed it off.
– Tywin, word by word, stared at her and said, "I don't agree at all that siblings should be in a marriage relationship, and they shouldn't even kiss each other on the lips. It's a disgrace to the family and will be condemned by the gods."
Cersei responded vaguely.
After the feast, Viserys followed his brother, clinging to his robes like a koala. Rhaegar had no choice but to take him back to the prince's suite in Maegor's Holdfast, intending to put his younger brother to bed before leaving.
Once the guards had bowed and withdrawn, Viserys sat up in bed, reaching out to gently tug at his brother's hair. He leaned in close, whispering, "Why aren't you happy, brother? Is it because you can't get married yet?"
Rhaegar sighed deeply. There were things he couldn't tell Viserys, and none of it was his fault. He worried about his mother, Queen Rhaella—what would happen in her bedchamber with his father, the king? He would never forget the screams he had heard—the ruler of the kingdom, abusing his own wife, the Queen, in the bedroom. And then, declaring her guilty, imprisoning her in the Maidenvault, sending nuns to live with her and cleanse her of sin.
The Queen was forced to wear ragged robes, walk barefoot, and her hair was disheveled.
He hoped his father would release his mother, but the King showed no mercy—and now Viserys was suggesting that siblings should marry to preserve the Dragonblood, ha… His own parents were siblings, and they were a terrible example. Although, to have more children, his father was very likely to release his mother, and her treatment would improve—
But he thought of the screams and sobs behind the closed bedroom door, and he was in genuine pain, unable to express it.
Viserys stared at him, gently touching his brow and eyes, "Everything will be solved, brother. We, we can solve anything. We are brothers, and I will grow up, and be your right-hand man—"
The little prince stammered as he comforted his brother, forgetting that he was only five years old.
"It's okay that you can't get married for now—someday, brother, you'll meet someone you love and marry her—it doesn't have to be a Targaryen. Look how awful our parents' marriage is; it's just an unfortunate result of the duty to maintain pure blood."
Rhaegar stared at his brother, who was suddenly speaking clearly and not like a child. He instantly realized that sometimes the little prince might be deliberately acting childish and throwing tantrums.
Viserys chattered on, unwilling to let go of him, "There's nothing I can't share with you. Really. Please, don't worry and be sad alone. Oh! Right, brother, look!"
The little prince ran off the bed and retrieved a birdcage from behind a trunk. Inside was an injured white dove, which he held up like a treasure. "This is the one the father ordered to be roasted, but I stopped it. Brother, this was also one of your wishes, wasn't it?"
Rhaegar couldn't describe how he felt at that moment. He was filled with mixed emotions. Finally, he ruffled his brother's hair and sighed, "You're a good child, Viserys. Don't worry, everything can indeed be resolved."