Terms of Endearment │Part I: The Princess and the Rogue

Chapter 1: Sunrise

THE ROGUE

It's quiet this time, he thinks. No snivelling midwives, no wailing... A good thing, surely.

Still. The silence, in all of its peculiarity, is unnerving. After the last occasion—the frenetic activity bustling up and down the halls, the yelling, the sound of Aemma's screams, the stench of blood thickening in his nostrils as he stepped forth to take his first and last view of the purple, unmoving babe in the cradle he would never outgrow—the absence of sound seems almost foreboding. Should he not hear the child cry? Should he not be within by now? He would venture to knock on the door, but he dare not risk disturbing this fragile peace—especially if it is not fated to remain so.

Thus, Daemon Targaryen, eighteen summers of age and the King's very own brother, waits in his seat opposite the entry to the Queen's chambers as he has done for hours. And, as he sits, he prays.

Well—not pray, exactly. He'd have to believe in gods to do that. But, should a higher power exist, it cannot hurt to lend his own voice to the masses that even now attempt to muster enough mercy to grant the survival of his cousin and the child she has worked so hard to bring forth these past moons. Let them live, he urges, pressing the thought out into the air around him, into the sky far above the Keep. Let them both live.

"Any news?"

Daemon snaps to attention, head tilting automatically to the intruder. He suppresses a sneer. Now is not the time.

"Nothing," he says, taking care to keep his tone even.

Otto Hightower sighs. "Well"—the Hand of the King moves closer, towering over Daemon with his hands clasped behind his back—"no news is good news, I hope."

"Hm." He'll not dignify that with a response.

Hightower's eyes narrow in on him. "There is no need to sound quite so downtrodden, Prince Daemon. I am sure the King will find some use for you... now that you are no longer his heir."

He knows what the man is after. A display of anger, perhaps—maybe even hot-headed insistence on his part that his position stands as it has since Viserys won the throne, that the child is dead, that the Lord has every reason to fear him still. He won't give him the satisfaction, though. If his brother ventures out to see Daemon once again railing at his most trusted advisor...

Daemon's desire to meet his nephew outweighs his need to put this upstart in his place.

"Never fear, Otto." He smiles, lips stretched wide with too much teeth, threatening more than welcoming. "I'll always have a place by Viserys's side. I am his brother. And you..." He looks the man up and down. Even now, the pin of the Hand is attached to the cunt's lapel like a sycophantic badge of honour, gleaming in the golden torchlight. "What are you, exactly?"

Hightower's jaw clenches. "I am the Hand of the Ki—"

"For now," Daemon says, a smug half-smirk playing at the very corners of his mouth. "Don't forget that. For now."

What he doesn't say is plain to read upon his face. One day, he'll understand. One day, he'll see you for what you really are. A leech, one who latches onto power and drains those who truly wield it dry.

The reminder makes Otto pale. "I—"

The door creaks open, the flushed face of one Viserys Targaryen appearing in the space between wood and frame. "Daemon."

Daemon rises. "Is—how is—" He cannot get the fucking words out.

His brother grins. "Aemma is well, and the babe is healthy."