the thing about dragons

chapter two (III)

in which tragedy strikes and Lyra meets the devil.

part III

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warnings: canon-compliant violence, gore, Daemon Targaryen as a POV character, blood, death in childbirth (Aemma)

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There's a tourney. Daemon asks for Alicent's favour to insult Otto, which admittedly is funny, then proceeds to unhorse Hightower Junior—whichever, if Lyra's counting right Otto has four sons and she really doesn't feel like remembering their names, let alone remembering which one is this in particular—and then gets his ass handed to him by Criston Cole who then crowns Rhaenyra. Lyra smiles fondly as Daemon stomps off in a huff, predictably furious that he didn't win anyway, but at least he doesn't pick more of a fight. Lyra's pretty sure he'd have won easily if he was sober.

Or maybe Viserys leaving just as he was about to fight knocked him off his game. Either or.

Probably both.

Lyra wished she was drunk, too. That way, maybe the cold dread pooling in her stomach wouldn't have been as bad when she saw Viserys leave to finish murdering his wife.

Instead, she turned back to Laena to continue their conversation and tried very hard to not think about it. It's almost easy; Laena is a delight. She's fifteen, and Lyra's lizard-child seven-year-old brain thinks that's really cool, and she's reasonable, quite mature, and has that feral little glint in her eye and sharpness in her words that endears her to Lyra in no time.

Laena also catches that Lyra's upset for whatever reason and instead of wheedling it out of her, simply diverts her attention elsewhere. Trash-talking knights and their armour is pretty fun, when done with someone who knows what they're talking about.

She also recently claimed Vhagar, the great beast Lyra saw all of once at her grandfather's funeral two years ago, which makes Laena even cooler.

It's a weird but a little fun situation once they start talking about it; Laena's mother, Rhaenys, now rides Daemon's mother's dragon, while Daemon rides Rhaenys' father's dragon, and now Laena swooped in and took Daemon's father's dragon. Thinking and talking about it—because Lyra is, at heart, a dragon nerd, how could she not be?—helps a lot.

And then they're given the news of Aemma's death and nothing matters anymore.

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She holds Rhaenyra with Alicent as she wails, and the sound the princess makes rattles her very bones.

A brat she may be, but now she's just a little girl of not even twelve who just lost her mother, and least Lyra can do is be there, because though her heart feels like someone stabbed it with an icicle, she knows for a fact she can't compare to what Rhaenyra feels.

But she's also seven, and has the emotional control to match, and soon enough everyone in that pile is crying.

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Baelon dies too; he doesn't even reach the twenty-four-hour mark. Lyra seethes when she sees how haunted Viserys looks.

It's his fault. He did it. He insisted Aemma keep trying to birth him a son, he ordered her cut open.

Lyra wants to scream it in his face. She almost does, but Daemon resurfaces from wherever he was and sweeps her up and grabs Rhaenyra by the hand and drags them both to his chambers. They have a sleepover and talk and reminisce about the good days, but throughout it all Lyra can't help but wonder one thing; where the fuck is Viserys and why isn't he comforting his own daughter?