court of lies | robert's rebellion

ptiii | the unfinished business

"You don't like stars?", Willas asked in an offended way.

"I do love stars.", she leaned on him. "I just don't need to know every single one of them to enjoy them."

"But you are a star!", he declared with wide eyes and Atera fakely smiled, and turned to Leyton.

"He didn't say it as a compliment.", he wrinkled his nose and stood up, took Willas and sprung him around while the little boy giggled and then put him on Atera's lap. "He actually meant it."

"Grandpa, my book!", Willas demanded, reached with his hands and Leyton kneeled, took it and gave it to him. He changed the pages quickly until he found what he was looking for, Atera's hands gripped his waist so he wouldn't fall. He was sitting sideways with his back leaning to her arm and to the chair and his little legs were stretched out to the other side of the chair. He rose his head and pointed with pride. "Look!"

"What am I looking at?", she frowned slightly. "It's too complicated."

"This is daria!", he leaned on and frowned too. Alerie quickly fixed his pronunciation.

"It's dāria, sweetling.", she stopped the movements of her needle and smiled at her son. "It comes a bit from the throat."

"Dāria?", Willas tried to imitate her and succeed. "It's a constellation in Old Valyria. The Queen constellation.", Willas turned back to his aunt after Alerie nodded to him. "It has three stars, look!", he pointed out each and leaned to read them properly. "This is the pāletilla,", he pointed out the brightest one, trying to speak from his throat. "This is dēmalion and the little one is egros. They are... uhm, they are-", Willas scowled, trying to remember their meanings.

"Crown, throne and the sword.", Atera said, placing a kiss on the top of his head. Her eyes met with Rhaegar's suspicious ones.

"Yes!", Willas' smile took her attention back. "And this is you.", he pointed out the pāletilla. "The brightest one. And the name of this star is Atera!", he looked at her with excitement. "Your name means 'crown' in antique Valyrian and it is a star."

Atera raised her eyebrows and looked at her brother with narrowed eyes. "Is this a coincidence?"

Leyton scoffed. "Is it a coincidence that you are named after the brightest star in the eldest constellation known to men which appeared thousands years after for the first time the night you were born? Of course, it is a coincidence.", he snorted.

"Hmm.", she murmured, took the book from Willas' hands and opened the first page, smirked, and showed it to Leyton. "I believe it is a coincidence too, the fact that this book belonged to you once."

"It still belongs to me, Willas just borrowed it.", he explained nonchalantly.

"How come you never told me that you named me?", she asked with genuine curiosity. "Why would you hide such a thing?"

"I didn't hide it, you just never asked.", he rolled his eyes after seeing Atera's raised eyebrows. "When you were first born, nobody manage to decide on your name. Your mother wanted to call you Jeyne.", Atera grimaced unintentionally. It was a boring name. "Father swore up and down for seven moons that he was going to name you Alicent."

"It would suit me.", she smirked and Rhaegar rolled his eyes.

"Why seven moons?", Cerissa asked, eating an almond. "What did he think before that?"

"I was born two moons early.", she explained with a fake smile after sharing a look with Leyton. "My mother was in her seventh moon when I decided to arrive."

"Is that so?", she asked like it was a very weird thing to hear. "Then you are very lucky. Even babies who stayed in the womb for nine moons die most of the time."

"I was, uhm, I was a stubborn baby.", she grew her smile.

"Yes, and strong too.", Arvel agreed. "You would never guess she was born two moons early, she was extremely healthy.", he narrowed his eyes at her subtly, Atera didn't like it.

"And our grandmother,", Leyton spoke again with a bit louder voice. "wanted to name you Visenya."

"I would make a great Visenya.", she said, eyes focusing on the wall. "I would make a fucking terrific Visenya."

"Yes and father said that he was not going to name his only daughter after a Targaryen.", he shrugged. "Understandable. It hurt naming Baelor after a Targaryen.", he sent an apologetic look to Rhaegar. "Everybody had an opinion, truly. Arvel wanted to name you Aemma, Doric insisted on Alys, and Baelor and Alerie came up with Alysanne.", he sent a look to his youngest Crane daughter. "Which I ended up naming one of my daughters eventually. Our aunt declared that she was not going to have another child and since all three turned out to be boys, she had the right to name you. I mean you could very well be-", he smiled-grimaced, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and tilted his head, she was going to hate it. "-Rhea Hightower."

"Fuck off.", she made a disgusted face and Alerie yelled at her with surprise.

"Atera, there is a child in the room!"

"Oh, sorry.", she rolled her eyes and closed Willas' ears. "Fuck off!"

"Tell it to our aunt, not to me.", Leyton rose his hands and swallowed a laugh. It was a good thing he could mutter her name again. "Even our uncle offered to name you Joy."

"That's a boring name.", she turned to her uncle. "A terribly boring name. It is a good thing that you are not allowed to have children."

"I also said we could name you Dyanna.", he shrugged. "To honour my grandmother but my mother disagreed. She also disagreed with Rhea because it reminded her aunt Rhae."

"It sounds similar.", she grimaced. She remembered meeting that woman. She looked at her with violet eyes as if she was seeing her soul and muttered 'bastard', she never told about it to anyone but it did disturb her greatly. She would hate having a similar name as her. "Well, I guess I should thank you. Atera is a great name that suits me."