Of Duty and Love

The ladies of Dorne

Lady Meriah of Dorne was welcomed with fine feasts and entertainment, but she did not come alone. With her traveled other 50 people at least, including servants, guards, maids, valleys, ladies in waiting, her father, brother and cousin, and some artists from the dornnish lands. It was indeed the sight of a princess. Meriah was beautiful, only two years younger than Aemond, she was everything a maid needed to be. Her family had relations with Baratheons and Hightowers as well, so she also was in favor of the gods, which pleased Alicent a lot. Meriah was sweet, loving, caring, and with an extroverted nature that made everyone love her. Her skin was very tanned, as was almost everyone from Dorne, and her curly hair was plastered in luxurious braids, her clothes were of fine materials, just like her jewels. When she met Aemond he was truly anxious of her reception, but also intrigued by that foreign figure, she was very polite with him, and told him how much she had listened to how great of a prince he was. "Your words please me my lady, I hope I can show you my qualities while you're here" he said calmly, but deeply insecure. Her brother and father, certainly also knew the true meaning of that invitation, otherwise Aemond's qualities, and face, would not be of reference in the letters exchanged. They also entertained the idea, but wanted to see more of the family and kings landing in general prior to taking any serious proposal into hands.

The first impact proved marvelous for Alicent and all the realm, she thought it was the perfect match, but after a few days she feared for the different nature of them both. Meriah didn't seem interested in any of the subjects Aemond was interested in regarding culture, history, literature, even regarding the fine arts they had such a different taste. Meriah was a joy in court but she was not fond of any outside activities, which were of great pleasure to Aemond. She also had a loud and euphoric nature that contrasted with Aemond’s coldness and low profile, in the beginning Alicent saw it as something good, maybe she could explore the diplomatic qualities of her son (if they existed) but then feared her nature was too overwhelming to him. Nevertheless, both of them prioritized duty above all and seemed to put all that aside when they were together, to perform the best they could. In that they were very much alike, both of them would agree on what their families believed was the best choice, despite their differences they didn’t really find that bad to end up with one another.

Ten days after her arrival, and after another training with Cole, Aemond invited Meriah to ride with him in the royal horses across the beautiful landscapes outside the city, the idea was of his own mother of course, trying to find common ground between them, Prince Aemond lacked the touch of courtship and talking to women in general. However, Meriah denied claiming she already had settled affairs with the ladies in court (what was actually true) however, she made a different proposal. She told Orya, her bastard cousin, to be a companion to his grace.

- Pardon my lady, I do not think that would be much appreciated, I don't think the prince would be interested in such plan - Orya spoke calmly, but nervous about the outcome.
- Nonsense! - said Meriah - Your grace, could you please have Orya as company for today? Orya is amazing you'll see, she's a great fighter herself, and the best rider among all men that traveled with me. You don't believe it I suppose, but trust me, Orya will protect me better than most of my guards. I'm sure she will love to ride in these foreign lands and could be of good company to you, I do think she shares a lot of similar interests with you, your Grace, you see, dornish women are given freedoms yours do not, I promise you'll be pleased on her company.
- It sounds good to me...lady Orya, by no means I think it would not be appropriate. I'm glad I'll be able to talk about things that might be found for both of us, since I don't have the same luck with lady Meriah. - Aemond said confidentiality, but actually was a little skeptical of what he heard. In fact, he invited Meriah to please his mother, already expecting her refusal, he wanted to go alone. But now it would be too rude to say no to the other lady company, so he agreed.