Stranger - hotd

16

Lucerys Velaryon spent the next morning clinging to his sisters skirts. He wasn't a small child anymore, yet he still felt like he ought to be. His mother took him north on Syrax, much to Jacaerys' amusement, who pestered him about it as they went to bed at night. It made him feel small. It had always been his older sister Valaena who had made him feel less insignificant. She would tell their brother Jacaerys off.

As a young boy, Lucerys had always been glued to Jacaerys, and his brother often to Aegon. After Valaena was ordered to move to the capital alone, he felt deep regret at not clinging to her sooner. So he did now whenever she visited.

He had hated the idea of her marrying their uncle, Prince Aemond. Not only shame, but also a slight of anger prevented him from wanting to accept it. So he was glad that she was to marry another, still it irked him that Valaena would be so far from home. Her mount Sapphire would only take her home so fast. When she resided in Kingslanding she would atleast be home within less than hours.

He asked her to walk the grounds with him, and perhaps the godswood, (which she had refused as it was the location of where she would be married tonight, and to Lucerys, only Lucerys she confessed that she felt incredibly ill just thinking of it and so they strayed far away from the bit of lushness that could be found within the keep)  eventually they ended up in the library, accompanied by a Maester named Keltan.

There the three of them looked at texts, left to them by their ancestor, the Good Queen Alysanne and King Jahaerys, who had visited the North in their younger years.

Valaena tried to focus on the Valyrian texts, however her mind kept shifting back to her wedding. Which to Northern customs would be held at night before a crying heart tree.

Followed by a feast, and then by their custom a bedding ceremony. Noblehouses followed these traditions, but it was quite unbecoming for royals, especially Princesses to partake in this tradition, and so Valaena wondered what would happen.

Maester Keltan had put the Northern Wedding traditions on paper. It didn't require a sept, nor a lot of prayer. She wanted to throw up as the thought of it. Only days ago had she imagined she and Aemond to be wed in the grand sept. With all of her family present and atleast a week worth of festivities to follow. Now there was only a dark night, a cloaking in front of a crying tree, and then a feast filled with smoked meats, potatoes and stale wine. She hated it.

Not to mention how she loathed the dress that the Maidservants had brought into her room. It made her rather miserable to think about how she was to be wed in boots instead of her usual, more dainty footwear. Wearing thick cotton with shimmering beading sewn into the high neckline.

By lunch Valaena had toyed with her food instead of eating it. Valaena had then chewed on her lip, rather than her food. Dreaming about last night's dinner again. Cregan was kind to her, and besides genuine he seemed like an not only interested but also interesting figure. Still, a friend at court had warned her that once married, men could change like spring weather. She had hoped he would not. So far it seemed like it would be not to hard a task, to try and like him. But love him? No the throbbing heartache that Aemond had caused her still seeped through her body like slow poison. Cregan asking her about her favorite flowers and archery didn't so anything but make her more afraid of betraying her true love.

Valaena feared she would cry at her own wedding tonight, in fact she had pushed away welling tears a handfull of times throughout the day.

There were so many thoughts to consider, and so many moments to have, or have had. That in truth, all she cared about for now was that her family would leave shortly after the festivities had started. Aegon the younger, Rhaenyra and Daemon's first son had fallen ill, and they wanted to be be back home as soon as possible, and thus they would leave right after the ceremony. Jacaerys had proposed to stay behind, to stay atleast untill the morning. To her distaste he had left her to visit Vermax, just like her betrothed had left her to join a hunt with his men.