( FOURTEEN FIRES )
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chapter 6: settling in.

JUST a day after the ceremony, Vaella held onto her mother as if her life depended on it. The salty wind that often battered Dragonstone tousled the prairie grass around them, chilly and unwelcoming. Daevara and Vaeron would soon be taking off on their dragons to return to the capital, and Vaella was unsure of the next time she would see them. The thought was debilitating.

Not even an whole day had passed since she and Gaemon had been bound to each other, both by law and flesh. Any time she was reminded of their coupling, her chest leaped with some strange exctiment. But it was not enough to stifle the grief of seeing her parents leave.

As much as she loved them dearly, their reluctance to stay on Dragonstone any longer than they were required stung. Her efforts in convincing them to stay any longer had been in vain. They were not pleased to be away from the warmth and clear skies of the capital, it seemed. 

Though her family and home was only a day's flight across the Narrow Sea, her place was now here, on this dreary island, with her husband and new house. A fact that would take her much time to get used to, and longer to accept.

Forcing herself to let of of her mother, Vaella turned and threw her arms around her father. He returned the embrace just as much as she did, planting a kiss atop her silver head while Daevara watched with brimming tears and a sad smile.

"We will write often," Vaeron promised Vaella as they broke apart enough for her to look up at him. "I swear by the gods. And if you are in need of anything from the capital, do not hesitate to ask, my dear."

Vaella nodded, the building tears in her eyes blurring her vision. Her throat ached something horrible as she fought the demanding emotion rising in her body and mind. She embraced him one more time before pulling finally away. Forcing herself to step a few paces back, she stood next to her husband.

"I hope to hear of Aelyx and Maelys's babe as soon as they are born," Vaella sniffled with an uneven voice. By Syrax, her throat ached with the need to weep.  "I will know then what to send as a birth-day gift."

Daevara nodded. "Of course, my love. News will be sent to you with haste."

"Take care of her," Vaeron half asked, half ordered Gaemon. His words were sincere and stern, his gaze even more so. "I will be most unpleased to make the journey back to Dragonstone if I am to hear otherwise."

Vaella silently promised herself she would see them again regardless of circumstance. Soon, if need be, as she would take to dragonback on her own and make her way to the capital. She did not hold all the disdain for her new house anymore, not after reaching an agreement on their circumstance with Gaemon, as well as realizing that Daenys was a kind and gentle girl who didn't deserve Vaella's disdain. It did not make it any easier to see her parents leaving.

With Vaeron as his superior lord in station and rank, Gaemon replied respectfully, "Of course, my lord. I could not think of another alternative."

"It was a pleasure to have you here, my lord," Aenar exclaims right after his son. He bowed slightly, at which Monterys, Daenys, Valaena, and Gaemon follow suit.

"Yes. A pleasure," Vaeron replied tightly as if trying to wrap things up. He looked to Vaella once more before dipping his head to her in farewell and turned away. Daevara gripped her hand momentarily, offering a sad smile, before following after her husband.

Vaella watched as her lifeline left her on the salty, windy, isolated island in the west.

Bermithryn and Gidrad, her parents great beasts, lowered themselves down as their riders made their way toward them. Vaeron's big blue dragon rumbled and hissed, excitedly anticipating flight.

The tears she'd been stifling began to flow as she watched her mother and father ascend to their saddles and take control of their mounts.

The wind that battered the gathered Targaryens was immense, the combination of Gidrad and Bermithryn's colossal, sail like wings easily catching the steady wind that flowed around Dragonstone.

The dragon climbed higher and higher. The urge to take to dragon back and follow them home was a challenge in itself to overcome. Aenar, Valaena, Daenys, and Monterys began to turn toward their own dragons to make the short trip back to the Dragonmont and the keep itself.

The feeling of Gaemon's hand slipping into hers was enough to draw her desperate gaze away from the sky. Looking to her right, he look down with a saddened but reassuring smile.

"Shall we return to the keep?" He asked gently.

With her parents now gone, there was nothing else for her to do but explore the new marriage she now found herself in. Whatever that may entail, she didn't know or care. She would perhaps accept Gaemon as a welcome distraction given his willingness to treat her kindly.

"Let's," she murmured, wiping away tears away from her cheeks with her free hand. "I've need of a distraction."

Gaemon dipped his head, a smirk tugging at a corner of his lips. "As you wish."

♜

A few hours after her parents began their flight back to the capital, the ship carrying Vaella's companion could be seen arriving just off the coast of Dragonstone. Even from where she stood at the window of her chambers, tears brimming her eyes once again, Vaella could distinctly pick out the sail bearing the silver ice dragon of her maiden house, proudly displayed on a field of midnight blue.

Despite the ache she held for her home and the departure of her mother and father that throbbed like a stab wound, excitement overtook her. More than anything, she wanted to embrace her friend. Her last connection to her home.

With haste, Vaella made her way through the keep's many dark passages illuminated with the flames of sconces. She descended to the subterranean platform that stuck out into the largest cave accessible in the Dragonmont. She did not have to wait long for the dragon keepers to summon Opalia with their song, her beautiful dragon humming a growl in greeting.

Vaella paid no heed to the difficulties of flying in a dress. She left behind the stone platform and the dragon keepers, ascending up Opalia's offered wing and toward her saddle.

The two of them took off within the colossal cave, the wings of her dragon dodging the crags of rock around them until they burst into open air through the cave's mouth. The sky was dotted with patches of an overcast, the sunlight that shown glistening off her dragon's pearlescent wings and scales. Opalia emitted a cry that rung out over the sea and wind as Vaella's squinted eyes quickly caught site of the ship carrying Marlaena arriving on the shore.

Opalia descended toward the beach with swiftness, the characteristics of her selective breeding showing in her speed. Opalia was the swiftest of the Paethorys dragons with few that could rival her speed.

With a quick succession of earthy booms, Opalia landed on the dry sand of the beach that the ship had anchored off of. Sand sprayed with her impact and her tail made indentations in the soft substance as Vaella goaded her to walk closer to the edge of the lapping waves.

Soon enough, Vaella was slipping down the side of her mount with as much ease as she could manage in a dress. Once standing with both feet on the sand, she half ran, half walked toward the small row boat full of slaves and sea crew that Marlaena was beginning to climb out of.

Excitment shot through Vaella like lightning as she grasped the treses of her dress and made her best attempt at running over the uneven sand.

Marlaena's brown eyes lit up as she caught site of her running her way, the slave girl breaking off from the boat. The silver summer robes and woolen cloak she was garbed in caught in the wind like a sail as she ran.

They met each other with an embrace that told of Vaella's deep sorrow. She clung to her young friend as if she were a family member. Truthfully, she was, but life in the capital would have never allowed such an association.

"My lady, how have you faired here?" Marlaena aaid by way of greeting.

Luckily, Vaella's maid had been sent off ahead of her in anticipation of the wedding so that she would not be without her for too long. No ship could out pace a dragon.

"As well as I can," Vaella replied as they peeled apart. The wind around tossled their hair and Vaella made her best efforts to pull it away from her face. "Did the eggs do well on the voyage?"

Marlaena nodded. "Yes, my lady, they had remained well taken care of with the coals always burning."

Vaella nodded with relief. "Shall we go to the keep, then? And get away from this wind."

"Yes, I will meet you there as soon as the men have gathered yours belongings," Marlaena replied, looking passed Vaella to the land behind her. "I fear it may be a while. It appears the trek up the hills will take some time."

Vaella chuckled. "Come with me and leave the men to their work." She looped her arm with Marlaena's and began to pull her toward Opalia.

Marlaena resisted in complete confusion, saying, "You cannot mean to take me on your dragon?"

Vaella had never been allowed to offer such a thing while they still lived in the capital. Slaves were property and nothing else and treating one as a true companion was so taboo it was almost criminal. But here, on Dragonstone, Vaella was free to do as she pleased considering the Targaryen's did not harbor slaves of their own. Revolutionaries, as her father had said.

"I do," Vaella smirked. A thrill built inside of her in ancitipation of what she'd been planning since arriving to Dragonstone. "This is not the capital. We are a long ways off and I am free to treat you as I see fit. And that is why I am freeing you."

Marlaena was a statue as she looked to Vaella with a weary yet awestruck gaze. "What?"

"You are free," Vaella stated again as she finally cracked a smile. She'd seen off her parents that day but this interaction with her companion was proving to be uplifting. As had been the interaction she'd had with Gaemon earlier. "I will not keep you here in Dragonstone if you do not choose so. You may go and carve your own path as you see fit. But if you wish you stay within my service, you will be given a wage and a place at my table."

The silent emotion that was apparent in Marlaena's gaze felt as if it were melting Vaella's heart. As if she were trying to find the words. But the girl answered nonetheless. "I choose to remain at your table."

Heart warm with her companioms decision, Vaella gestured to her dragon. "Then let us take to dragon back, then?"

Marlaena nodded with delight.

♜

NEARLY a moon and a half passed on Dragonstone before Vaella recieved word of the birth of her nephew. In the weeks she found herself adjusting to her new life and family, Vaella found her days spent in the company of Daenys and Marlaena when she was not otherwise abed with Gaemon.

Their interactions typically only took place within the sheets and the dinner table, but it did not upset her. She was content with the arrangement they had for the time being. Gaemon, with his training, studying, and time on dragon back, and Vaella, with her companions Marlaena and Daenys, time spent with her pretty silver cat, and flying as well.

A contentedness had settled over her with the arrival of Marlaena. Enough so that she would not suffer the ache of being truly and utterly alone. Something she'd never thought possible while being married woman. Nevertheless, she and Gaemon's current arrangement was working well enough for her.

"An heir, robust and lively. Sure to see the future glory of our house," Marlaena finished up reading Vaeron's script from a small scroll to Vaella and Daenys as the three women sat in the warm chamber where the dragon eggs were kept by the keepers to incubate. "He has been named Maegar, in honor of Maegon."

Aelyx and Maelys' tribute to their late brother was touching. Enough for Vaella to force herself to focus more on the Paethorys eggs she was looking over inside their simmering cauldron rather than the ugly grief that still haunted her.

Not drawing her gaze away from the egg that was the color of berry wine and accented with gold at the tips of the scales, Vaella murmured, "It appears a gift is in order for my nephew."

"I can arrange that, my lady," Marlaena offered, to which Vaella nodded.

"I saw his birth," Daenys remarked with a slight smile as she took a sip of her wine. As if she felt some sort of satisfaction to seeing her dream come to fruition.

Vaella's gaze finally broke from her focus on the three Paethorys eggs as she looked to Daenys with a lifted brow. "Whatever could you mean you 'saw' his birth?"

"I foresaw that he would be a he," Daenys enlightened them both, Marlaena now just as intrigued as Vaella. "I saw an ice dragon burst through a wall of fire. Shrieking and declaring his kingly pride. He declared himself the Enduring." She looked between the unsettled gazes of Marlaena and Vaella and seemingly grimaced at strangeness of her own words. "At least, that is how I interpreted it."

Vaella, unsure of what to think of Daenys's dream, bit her lip. The silence hung thick between the three of them until Vaella recalled exactly why the Targaryen's had chosen to settle on Dragonstone. All based on a dream Daenys had dreamt as a child.

"You have prophetic dreams, don't you?" Vaella asked. "That is why your father chose to move here. Abandoning the capital."

Daenys shrugged, not meeting eye contact. "Many of my dreams have come true throughout my life. Some of little consequence, some of great." She fiddled with the tresses of her dress before ultimately meeting Vaella's gaze. "But it was my dream of a fiery doom that drove my father to move us here. He had seen my visions come true in the past, and chose not to run the risk. It has been a little over nine years since we left."

Whatever she meant by 'fiery doom', Vaella was unsure. She'd heard of some people being able to see happenings of the future, mostly sacred fire mages and those that devoted their lives to the worship of the gods. The thought that  Daenys had perhaps seen something as catastrophic as a fiery end was unsettling, to say the least. Yet, Vaella took into account that it had indeed been nine years and nothing to show for it.

"Then we shall see this dream of yours as a magnificent breakthrough for my maiden house as it climbs toward prosperous times," Vaella forced a grin on her lips, still uneasy by the ceyptic dream. "And the future that Maegar will bring to it."