𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐀 𝐏𝐀𝐖𝐍
___________

Aelora was no longer the naive little girl she was, who believed she would one day find the man of her dreams and fall hopelessly in-love, to have her own happily ever after, just like in all the fairytales she constantly read as a child.When her mother ignored her desperate pleas and cries and shipped her off to the Stormlands anyways, Aelora realised she was nothing but a pawn in a game much bigger than her, a piece on a chessboard, as her grandsire and mother moved towards full control of the throne and realm.

She envied her half sisters children growing up, watching them receive endless affectionate and care from their parents, something which she could never imagine Alicent doing.But as Aelora got wrapped up in watching the happily family, she convinced herself that she had no right to complain, that many other less fortunate children in the realm surely endured far worse abuse and neglect than she ever could.

Aelora shook her head and forced herself to avert her gaze from the training yard, a strong gust of wind breaking her out of her envious thoughts as she watched the Velaryon brothers, playfully teasing and laughing with one another, despite being constantly followed by judgemental glares in the Red Keep.She felt a sense of regret, she and her siblings weren't indifferent to one another, but they certainly weren't close, not in the way her nephews were anyways.

She longed for the life she could've had, the life she'd never get.

Aleora was snapped out of her thoughts, whipping around when she heard the sound of her chamber door opening, followed by her son's familiar giggles.

"Ahhhh!" Daeron roared, as he carried his nephew into the chamber, pretending as though he were a dragon flying in the skies.

Aelora laughed and playfully rolled her eyes at the sight, the beaming smile painted across Robs face never failing to cheer her up and cause one to spread across her own lips.

"What in the name of gods are you doing?" Aelora couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

"Rob has apparently transformed into a dragon for the day" Daeron sighed in exhaustion, running a hand through his silver hair, after placing his very hyper nephew down.

"Oh gods" Aelora pretended to roll her eyes in annoyance at Daeron, despite the smile tugged my at the corner of her lips.

He was always feeding some sort of legend or fairytale to Rob, making the young boy believe he could be a great monster-slaying-warrior one week, and a dragon the next, even if he forever clung to his mothers side, for comfort and protection.Daeron would certainly be crowned the title of the "bad influence uncle" if it weren't for Aegon, for obvious reasons.Thankfully Rob was far too young to understand any of the crude and drunken comments that came out his uncle Aegons mouth, for now, that is.Aemond, on the other hand, showed little affectionate for the boy, as he did most, yet he couldn't be so cruel to shun the only child who didn't cry at the sight of his eye.Rob instead found it fascinating, clapping and giggling at every ridiculous and over-exaggerated story Aemond could come up with as to what had happened.Though Aelora didn't appreciate Robs refusal to go outside for nearly a week, after Aemond told him a hawk had swooped down and stolen his eye, convincing his nephew that they could come for his eye next.

"Mother says we are to be in the throne room soon, she said to leave Rob with the wet nurses" Daeron sighed, ruffling his nephews head of dark hair as Robs attention was quickly turned to his toys, forever scattered around Aeloras chamber no matter how often she cleaned them up after him.

Aelora sighed in return, having been dreading this apparent "meeting" since her mother first informed her of it.In all honesty, she didn't understand why she and her siblings even had to be there in the first place, and, quite frankly, it was the last place she wanted to be.What were they to do with the inheritance of Driftmark?it was none of her concern, as far as she convinced herself.Aside from that, she was forever exhausted from being a mother to such a hyper little boy, the last thing she needed was to waste her day suffering in the awkward tension between the two family's, waiting for someone to tip the knife's edge and a fight of some sort to break out.

And another reason, which she'd rather not think about, despite his makeshift necklace still often hanging around her neck after all these years.

"Why must we attend this?what concern is the inheritance of Driftmark to us?" Aelora sighed, brushing her dress as she sat down the edge of her bed.

Daeron crossed his arms, leaning against the wall as he muttered: "Because mother and grandsire would rather see Westeros burn then let those bastards inherit such a position" He only scoffed at Aeloras glare in response to his words, finding it rather frustrating she still somewhat defended their nephew after so many years, especially after what they did to Aemond.

"Why do you defend them?"

"I do not, I simply find that language unnecessary, especially around a young child" She huffed, gesturing to Rob, who, oblivious to the conversation, continued to play with his favourite wooden dragon toy.

Daeron rolled his eyes and shook his head in response. "It is necessary if it is what they are, sister" He turned and exited the chamber, before Aelora could retort.

Aelora let out a prolonged sigh, already dreading the fights and endless bickering that was surely to come in the days ahead, it'd be a miracle if it didn't end with another one of the boys body parts being mauled.She shook of her worry, deciding that she simply wouldn't get involved, and that it was not her problem as long as she stayed out of it...Which also meant, she was already plotting a fake sickness or some other excuse so her mother would take pity and not force her to attend.

She turned her attention to Rob, running a hand over his dark head of hair with a small smile, as she bitterly mumbled under her breath: "You'd think with all the education they have access too, men would have the wits about them to not solve everything with violence"

God knows she would not let her own sweet boy turn out anything like the usual arrogant noble men she came across.

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"Oh poor dear, do you think you shall need to rest today?" Alicent frowned, as she pushed a few loose, dark red locks away from Aeloras face.

"Perhaps, yes" Aelora hummed and nodded, purposefully forcing her features to look more drained and tired than usual.

Daeron stud beside Aelora, eye thinned as he eyed his sister up and down suspiciously, watching in amusement as she used the exact tricks he'd taught her, when they were children, to wriggle out of situations.It was a miracle, that their mother hadn't yet caught onto the fact they both had the very same symptoms every-time, yet was miraculously better the next morning.

"That's funny, you seemed perfectly fine this morn-..." Daeron was cut off by a quick, swift elbow in the ribs, Alicent was, as often, oblivious to this.

Alicent tusked as she gently cupped Aelora cheek. "Daeron, dear, go fetch your brothers and make sure they are ready, and check they have not also caught this sudden sickness"

"Yes, mother" Daeron forced a polite smile as he nodded, but Aelora caught his annoyed eye roll as he turned his back from the corner of her eye, which she had to fight back an amused grin after seeing.

Thankfully, Alicent fell for the same trick everytime and Aelora sat alone in her chamber, whilst an argument of some kind surely erupted in the throne room.But, she did not intend to waste this hour in bed, oh no.

Aelora couldn't help how the riddled words of Larys Strong spin around and echo in the head, even if she had hoped to forget the awkward encounter, a strange feeling in her gut told her she shouldn't.As she sat alone in her chamber, in complete silence, she couldn't help but begin to question and try and figure out what Lary Strong could've possibly meant.

"...-like they do not belong...they certainly don't look it..."

"...-they don't have the answers to know where it is they truly belong..."

They don't look like they belong, but yet they don't have the answers to know where they truly do?...Aelora was stumped, huffing out a sigh of defeat as her eyes wandered around the room, until they landed on something that caused a light bulb to go off in her head.

The makeshift dragon figurine Daeron had (admittedly poorly) hand crafted her when they were younger, after one of the many conversations they had, in which Aelora sulked about not having a dragon off her own.But that wasn't the part of the conversations Aelora was focused on recalling.Her lack of dragon and silver hair caused Aelora to doubt she was even a Targaryen at all.

"...-like they do not belong...they certainly don't look it..."

Aelora certainly didn't look like a Targaryens, and Rhaenyra children were assumed to be bastards for the same reason...

She hadn't thought such a thing in years, especially with her mothers never ending shame towards Rhaenyra for supposedly having "bastards", but Larys Strong was known to be handy in gathering information, secrets to be specific, and the more Aelora thought about it, the more his words begun to make perfect (yet horrifying) sense.

"...-they don't have the answers to know where it is they truly belong..."

Aelora needed answers.

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Aelora creaked her chamber door open as quietly as possible, glancing both ways to check the halls were truly empty, before scurrying down the stone corridor towards her mother's chamber.

Perhaps she was completely insane, bored and paranoid, and spawned this theory up from nothing but the words of a strange man, but Aelora had a twisting feeling in her gut that certainly wouldn't go away anytime soon unless she got clarity, answers.

She entered her mother's eery chambers, closing the door behind her and deciding to head straight for her desk, moving as quick and quiet as the Red Keeps mice.

Aelora didn't even know what she was looking for, a hand written confession?unlikely, a piece of her evidence?but what on earth could be used as evidence in a situation such as this one, aside from peoples honest words and truth.And Aelora knew her mother would rather burn in the seven hells then sin, or, at least, admit to it.

She scanned through the top draws of the desk, knowing there was nothing worthy of her time or interesting contained in them, only beginning to search with her hands (as well as her eyes) when she reached the bottom draws, one of which was filled to the brim with loose parchment, assumably for the many letters her mother seemed to spend night and day writing.But as Aelora dug further, she found the loose parchment was covering crumpled up balls of parchment, that were clearly stained with ink, having been written on.

With furrowed brows, she fished out a few and begun to unfold them, eyes squinted as she tried to make out the smudged writing on the pages.The letters were clearly old, as the ink was fading and Aelora could only make out a few sentences.

Do not contact me, if these letters were to fall into someone's else hands...

We must come to some sort of agreement...

You cannot ignore what we have done...

Mistake...

Heartless...

Stay away...

The letters did nothing but confuse (and slightly worry) Aelora more, she may not be right about her theory, but these letters certainly showed her mother was hiding something.Whoever her mother had written these too, but possibly never sent, was a complete mystery to Aelora, but she was determined she would soon figure out the identity of this "heartless" person her mother had been so furiously writing too.

Aelora stuffed the letters into her brazier, and quickly pushed the desk draws shut, as she heard distant, familiar chatter coming down the corridor.

"Aelora!" She heard Aemond, furiously, yell.

"Aemond, would you calm down, please, allow me to tell your sister-..." Alicents pleading, clearly stressed, voice followed her sons as they neared the Queesn chamber.

Aelora immediately grew concerned, already jumping to conclusions, like perhaps something was wrong with Rob.As she stud and opened the door, she was met with the furious face of Aemond, just as he had reached to open the door himself.He looked near to imploding, face all red and contorted in anger, steam might as-well have been coming out of his ears.

"What is it?is something wrong?" Aelora asked concerned, searching in her brothers hard eye for answers, before turning to her mothers...guilty looking ones.

Aeloras heart dropped, there was very few moments her mother had given her that look, one, when she was a young girl and had cried to her mother about not being worthy of having a dragon, and two...when Alicent had told her she was to be married and sent to Stormsend.Aelora had kicked and screamed and cried, begged and pleaded not to go, and she'd only received Alicents guilty and "sympathetic" eyes in return.

"Tell.her" Aemond grumbled through gritted teeth, now standing behind Aelora as Alicent froze in the doorway, looking like she could almost shrink under her son's furious gaze. "Tell her, mother!tell your precious daughter how you have once again sold her off to the highest bidder!"

"It was not my choice, I-..." Alicent gulped back, guilty eyes locked on Aeloras frightful ones as she took a step forward, shakily taking her daughter's hands in her own.

"You could've stopped it, you've chosen not to" Aemond hissed.

Aelora looked back and forth between the two, panic in her eyes, as they fell silence for a dreadfully long anticipating moment, before she snapped. "Will someone just tell me what is it that is going on?!"

Alicent hesitantly parted her lips, hardly able to look her daughter in the eyes, as she delivered her horrifying news in nothing but a shaky murmur: "You are...to take a second husband..."

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(A/N)
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Kinda short this one but I wanted to leave you all on a cliffhanger and let you all suffer (never letting my ocs and readers now a day of peace) butttt, on the bright side, Aelora and Jaehaerys will actually interact next chapter, I swear🤞

Anyways, guesss whoooo...i promise, no sibling on sibling betrothal stuff going on, she ain't marrying her brothers or anyone like that, I'm not that evil.But I wanna see ur guesses lol.

I'm so impatient to write the plot twist (even if I already know what's happening) so next chapter should be out soon 🤞

Hope u all enjoyed, ty for being patient with my VERY slow updates this last year, I'm trying to be better, but hope u all enjoy reading the stories and about the characters (as much as I do writing them) either way 🫶

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