Chapter Text
Shaena sat submerged in the steaming water of her bath, head reclined back against the rim of the wooden tub and eyes studying a magnificent tapestry of Alaric Stark and Alysanne Targaryen that had been hung on the wall. She wondered whose idea it was to put the tapestry in her room. She couldn’t imagine it being Lord Rickard, so perhaps it was Lady Stark. A way to show that despite the recent bad blood, House Stark had not forgotten the respect born between the two houses.
It truly was a work of art. The threads were still vibrant despite the tapestry's old age and you could still make out so much of the details. It depicted a scene that one might not have expected. It was of when Lord Alaric had taken Queen Alysanne hunting in the Wolfswood during her visit to Winterfell. The queen was holding a bow, notched and aimed at a grazing elk some feet in front of the two. In the sky above, over and beyond the treeline, there was the small, distant shape of a dragon made of silver thread in flight. Silverwing, the queen's dragon.
Queen Alysanne had managed to win over the Warden of the North through her charm and wit and Shaena was determined to do so as well. But she wondered if Queen Alysanne had felt any uncertainty or nervousness when she first met with the cold welcome of Lord Alaric as Shaena had when she stood before the current Lord Stark and his family. It brought Shaena some comfort to think she had.
Queen Alysanne had also grown close to Lord Alaric’s daughter, Alarra Stark during her stay to the point that Lady Alarra later came to Kings Landing to attend the tourney celebrating King Jaehaerys I's tenth coronation anniversary and became an official Lady-In-Waiting to Queen Alysanne. She was Lord Alaric's only daughter. Lord Rickard's only daughter had not been present to greet Shaena and her mother when they arrived.
Shaena nor her mother asked where the young woman was upon their immediate arrival, it did not seem appropriate at the time. But she was confident the topic of Lady Lyanna would come up during the feast if she did not make her appearance then. It would be strange to not ask at that point on her whereabouts and well-being.
“Are the egg whites ready, Marilda?” asked Prudence from her seat next to the tub where she was currently running a bar of soap up her arm and over her shoulder.
“Are the egg whites necessary, Pru?” Shaena couldn’t help but grimace as she asked looking over at Marilda who had the decency to look remorseful as she brought a bowl over to Prudence.
Prudence dipped a shaving brush into the bowl, mixing it around to make sure she got an even amount on.
“Yes, they are. You need to look your absolute best these coming days,” she answered before proceeding to smear the now frothy egg whites over her face, across her brow, over her nose and cheeks, and down her neck. She hated the gooey texture of it.
“Stop scrunching up your face!” she scolded her while applying another coat if only now to antagonize Shaena. “This is to help smooth your skin after all.”
She knew if she didn’t cooperate Prudence would only apply more, so Shaena did her best to relax her face.
“And now the yolks,” her companion ordered, placing one bowl down to accept another.
Shaena groaned. She hated some of these ridiculous beauty regimes that had become popular more recently.
Prudence stared her down, with hard, expectant eyes until Shaena sat up a little higher in the tub and leaned her neck back on the rim of the tub. Marilda placed a bucket under her head and pulled out the hairpin keeping her hair piled atop her head. Her hair fell in waves, the ends falling into the bucket. Marilda then grabbed a jug from the nearby table and began to pour the contents.
“It’s cold!”Shaena jumped, water splashing over the tub.
“I’m so sorry, princess. Prudence said it needed to be cold. That it is better for the hair than hot water.” she paused in her pouring to practically beg for her forgiveness.
“It is,” Prudence confirmed. “Now keep pouring, the hair needs to be damp before we rub in the egg yolk. Can we please continue?”
Shaena closed her eyes and took a breath before biting her lip and laying her head back over the edge.
“But,” poor Marilda, she hated being put in the middle of these situations.
“It’s fine, Mari, just do as she says for now,” she told the ginger-haired young woman. Her lady-in-waiting hesitated before she resumed her work, tilting the jug and pouring the cold water over her hair. Once it was suitably wet, Prudence took a cloth to it so that it was not overly soaked. Then she began to massage the egg yolks throughout her hair, from the roots to the end. Once that was done she used the hairpin to re-twist and pin it all back up again before she proceeded to cover her head with a silk scarf.
“I don’t care if she is to be our queen, I will not allow Cersei’s beauty to outshine yours.” Prudence said more so under her breath than to either of them. “especially on your wedding day,”
“Prudence,” Shaena signed. Prudence had never taken to Cersei after she came to Kings Landing. She believed it was in part to do with the other woman’s sense of loyalty to Shaena.
Shaena had never encouraged any sort of hostility towards Lady Cersei by her ladies-in-waiting or anyone else. She saw no point in it. Cersei was going to be their next queen, it was in everyone’s interest to show her respect and try to build good relations with her. But for others, it was more difficult to accept Lady Cersei. Something that Shaena’s mother was hoping to change with continued etiquette lessons with Cersei to improve her attitude and the way she behaved towards the other nobles. If Cersei could just pretend she tolerated other people better it would vastly improve her image.
“Princess, these things are important. You might not think they should be, but they are.” her friend said as she helped her stand from the tub. “Cersei is pompous and rude, and she gets away with a great deal with the lords because of her beauty.”
“Beauty is a power in and of itself.” continued Prudence. “It is not something to take for granted.”
Her ladies were not unattractive, but she knew they sometimes felt inadequate beside other young women such as herself and Lady Cersei. Marilda felt insecure about how very pale and freckled she was, and her face was thin making her full lips and high cheekbones more. There was a small bump on the bridge of her nose from when she tripped and broke it as a child.
Prudence was small breasted and her dark eyes were on the side of a little too large for her face and she had a square, masculine jaw she inherited from her father. She had a nice little button nose and a lovely smile. Both girls were called pretty at court, but many men would not consider them to be great beauties. Shallow fools, Shaena thought. All her ladies-in-waiting were beautiful, skillful, and intelligent women any man would be lucky to call wife.
“and because of her father's gold,” Marilda added, surprising Shaena. Marilda was always the one to give everyone a chance and focused on the good of a person over the bad. She did not so casually judge or hold grudges against people.
In truth, their animosity for Cersei was humorous, almost even heartwarming that they were so loyal to her. It was terrible to feel that way, especially about a woman who was now her sister. She was glad neither was looking at her, focusing on drying her off and helping her into her dressing gown. They didn’t see the hint of a smile that she couldn’t keep down.
“Enough, ladies,” she said softly rather than scoldingly. “Lady Cersei is my now my sister, I will hear no more comparing the two of us,”
Marilda and Prudence shared a look over her shoulder before both looked down. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Now, how long did you say I need to keep all this egg on me?”
She was made to keep the mask of egg whites on her face for a whole ten minutes before she was allowed to wash it off with milk. The milk would help moisturize her skin. Or so Prudence said.
Another ten minutes and Prudence took off the silk wrap from her hair and Shaena held her head back over the tub for her hair to be rinsed of the egg yolk. Again, with cold water. Once her hair was thoroughly cleansed of the egg residue, it was dried, combed, and braided and she was finally allowed to lay down.
She hadn’t realized how tired she was until her head hit the down-filled pillow, her eyes closing instantly, her breathing evening out as Marilda pulled the quilt and furs up to her chin. Prudence undid the knots of the bed curtains, pulling them shut and encasing Shaena in darkness. The sound of the crackling fire and her ladies quietly but diligently cleaning up from the bath lulled her until it all faded out to nothing.
***
Shaena's dreams were never terribly exciting. Up until recently, there were no dragons or fire or blood. Her dreams were usually of the same mundane things. Daeron taught her to fish or play games with her youngest brothers. Sometimes her dreams took her outside of Kings Landing, touring the lands nearby with her mother again, running in fields of flowers and tall grass. Peaceful, melancholy dreams. But not so much now.
After they left Kings Landing, during their journey to the North, she began to have nightmares of Rhaegar. Him sitting on the Iron Throne, Cersei standing beside him with a hand on his shoulder, and her and Lady Lyanna next to her, shackles around their ankles, bellies all big with child before a cowering court and each woman holding an egg.
All three women cried out as they in unison began to feel labor pains.
“The dragon will have three heads again!” Her older brother announced joyfully to the crowd. They lifted their hands and began to clap, but their eyes were void of cheer as the women doubled over. Shaena dropped her egg, it cracked open and a spongey, scaled creature with wings and a tail slipped out. It’s wings slapped against the stone, it squawked and floundered. Rhaegar stood from his throne, walked over to the thing, and gently scooped it up, cooing as he walked to a brazier and tossed it in the fire. Its soft body hardened and it began to grow, and grow, and grow until a dragon-filled the entire thrown room, crushing the court members under its clawed feet.
Shaena and Lyanna screamed in horror at the brutal deaths they were witnessing as the dragon continued to take up space, tail, and wings whipping people into walls, claws impaling now-prone bodies. If not before, the nightmare would always end there and she would wake up in a cold sweat, the taste of blood and bile on her tongue.
She never told her mother about her nightmares. She didn’t want to add to her burdens. Her mother was already under enough stress. She was burdened with the blame of Rhaegar’s actions by the king, who believed she should have been able to predict what Rhaegar was thinking. It was laughable how the king tried to put the blame on everyone else but himself, as if he did not have a hand in overseeing and raising his heir himself. Rhaegar was with them for years in Kingslanding. Multiple maesters, knights, and lords oversaw his upbringing, and all of them let him do as he pleased because he never caused trouble. He was good and quiet, and studios so what did they have to fear? They spoiled him and gave him freedom because he had never given anyone a reason to not trust him to do the right thing. There was no one person to blame for what happened other than Rhaegar himself and perhaps Maester Aemon for having shared the prophecy of the Prince who was Promised with Rhaegar.
So Shaena kept her burdens to herself. She was strong enough to bear them alone. She had to be. So as she had many nights before, Shaena woke quietly from her nightmare and said nothing about it as her ladies began to attend her and prepare her for the feast.
It was a less formal and more intimate event, only House Stark and their closest bannerman would be present at the feast. There would be more to follow with many of the wedding guests from the south, but for now it was just family and the Northman. Shaena kept that in mind when she chose her attire for the evening.
She wore a red silk dress. The fitted bodice and the skirt hem were trimmed in ermine and the wide collar sat just above the shoulders.
“Perhaps we should push my breast in more than up?” she suggested as she looked down at her exposed cleavage.
“It is an easy fix, Your Highness,” Marilda said as she began to pull at the lace collar of her chemise so that it was now raised over above the neckline of her gown, hiding her cleavage some.
Marilda finished smoothing it out before she opened a box on the table. Laid out on velvet was a necklace of pearls with gold-toned Quatrefoil Medallions spaced out between the string of pearls. Each medallion had a pearl in a triangle frame and was surrounded by four small diamonds. Each medallion also had a pear-shaped pearl hanging from it. In the middle of the necklace was a set of matching pearl earrings.
Lastly, her hair was braided and arranged and her face touched up with a little rouge. Satisfied with her appearance, she was ready to face the wolves.
A knock sounded at the door, and her mother was announced before Prudence opened the door for her.
Her mother was dressed exquisitely in a brocaded, blue velvet gown, featuring long sleeves and a train. Her hair was braided high and decked in jewel-ended hairpins. She wore a heavy necklace of opals with matching earrings.
Shaena curtsied to her mother alongside her ladies. Rhaella twisted her wrist, making a motion with her fingers for them all to rise.
“You look divine, my dear,” said her mother, and like any child, Shaena could not help but stand a little taller under her praise.
Her mother's eyes turned more serious as she stepped forward, touching her fingers under Shaena’s chin so that it was tilted up more. “Are you ready?”
Shaena nodded.
She was ready. This feast was nothing she had not traversed a hundred times before, it was though, the first time she was doing so with those who would be her family by marriage. It added to the pressure of needing to be perfect. She didn’t need the Starks to love her, though that would make things a great deal more bearable, she at least wanted them to like her. Even just a little so that her presence among their family was more than just a reminder of their daughter's defilement and the death of their son.
Yet, she had no intention of pretending to be someone she was not to make them more comfortable. She could be humble, but she would not kowtow to Lord Stark or his Bannerman. She was a princess of the realm, the only princess thus far, and a Targaryen. Shaena was not ashamed of being a Targaryen. But she was ashamed to be Rhaegar’s sister.
She was not allowed to give away that she felt such a thing. He was to be their king, and loyalty and respect were due to him for that alone. Not even among the family, were they allowed to speak their doubts about Rhaegar out loud. If the wrong person found out that they had uncertainties about Rhaegar it would be just enough of an excuse to find a way to displace him as current heir and put one of her younger brothers in his place.
Rhaegar was well loved by the people, but it was mostly the common people. Many of the great lords of Westers had concerns about how serious Rhaegar was about being king. His return and wedding to Cersei helped to alleviate some of those worries, but until he threw himself into his duties as heir again there would always be a pocket at court that whispered about Daeron being the better choice. Treasonous, but not unfounded. Especially now.
Shaena could only hope that Rhaegar would do what was right. But she could only spend so much of her own energy worrying about him when she needed to worry about herself.
“Let us go then,”