Chapter Text
The entire realm mourned the late Queen Aemma and her son Prince Baelon who both died within the same day.
But Otto Hightower mourned an entirely different loss. Namely, his only daughter who could have been a queen before the year’s end. Instead she had eloped.
Eloped! His daughter had eloped just after the tourney with some blasted hedge knight from the Dornish border with nothing to his name aside from unseating the Rogue Prince in a joust! The man might have made a decent guard or perhaps even a good taunt against the prince. But a good-son?!
The whole matter was made even worse by none other than the Prince of the City himself who had gone and no doubt celebrated his raise with his whores and their bastards in the depths of Flea Bottom. Due to Alicent’s disappearance and the king’s insistence of commiseration upon their poor misfortunes, Otto had not been able to bribe his spies and get anything specific to accuse the prince with.
He could, of course, always make something up, but it was always better to have some evidence just in case.
In this case it would have been invaluable, because the next day when the king finally agreed to hold court again, Daemon gave his condolence to his brother in front of the entire court and promised his support to him and the princess.
The princess who though grief-striken started to beam at the topic of her former lady-in-waiting’s elopement with the Dornish knight. She only seemed displeased by her friend’s absence from her side and the announcement of Alicent’s leaving of her service.
And then the strangest thing happened in the following days that Otto spent with looking for a suitable replacement for his daughter in his schemes. – He had asked after a distant cousin who might do. – For suddenly Viserys became untypically meddlesome.
It started with some coins given to a maid, so she could wed the stable boy she fancied. It was said the girl had been found by the king, while crying about the impossibility of the match and her poor lot in life. And in an act of generosity and kindness the king had helped the two servants.
Truly a nice fairy tale for the smallfolk, but nothing more.
Until the daughter of some minor lord who had been sent to court in hopes of finding a rich husband and perhaps a position close to the princess – not entirely unlike Otto’s own wayward daughter had once been. The girl in question had apparently had a dalliance with one of the knight during the tourney. But now she was with child and unwed, the knight having left before she knew of the babe in her womb.
The king called the knight back to court and even negotiated a marriage between the two. So the child was not born a bastard and the mother brought no shame to her family – the knight she married was the cousin of a Northern lord who was yet childless.
The foolish girl could have made a far worse match.
And so it went on and on. There was a pair seemingly unable to make the love-match that they sought. So the king himself stepped in and helped the two lovers.
In memory of my beloved Aemma. Viserys would always claim. She and I were a love-match too. It would have brought her joy to see them as happy as we were.
Otto was sure the king had become delusional after his wife’s death, yet it was impossible for him to completely take over the ruling of the kingdom.
Why?
Because of Daemon Targaryen, bane of his live.
The Prince had all but been affirmed as Prince of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne. So now he constantly showed up to council meetings with the sole purpose of opposing any and all decisions Otto tried to make. Even insisting Princess Rhaenyra state her opinion on some matters. To mock him and the other council members by asking a girl to speak her mind!
The prince needed to be banished again. And soon too.
Unfortunately, Prince Daemon was gathering allies at court. After Alicent’s elopement and her leaving of the princess’s service due to that, he had insisted his niece invite herself new ladies to serve her as was her due as princess of the realm. And her very first pick had been her cousin Laena Velaryon, leading to House Velaryon staying at court.
In the Small Council Prince Daemon supported Lord Corlys concern for the Stepstones, outside of council Corlys’ son and heir Laenor Velaryon was often seen trailing after the prince with awe and fascination in his gaze. Upon a request from his favourite cousin Princess Rhaenys the Rogue Prince even took on the boy as his new squire. And of course, the blooming friendship between the princess and Lady Laena who had squealed most unladylike upon the princess’s invitation to fly with her upon her golden dragon as the beast could carry two now.
All things considered, Otto thought he might murder his good-son for ruining his carefully crafted political plot. All for some maiden’s dream of love and a lowly hedge knight from the Dornish border.
To make matters significantly worse, the king had just announced his decision not to remarry to honour his beloved late wife Aemma. Instead he had pledged to see many marriages as happy as theirs flourish within his court.
That, Otto could at least work with. He had, after all, a son of age to wed the princess. Then Daemon would need to get disinherited and the way to the throne was clear.
It shouldn’t be that hard to achieve. Otto had thought at first.
But, oh, how it was!
Not a full moon after the king’s declaration of dedication to love-matches and happy marriages, Prince Daemon had come to once again ask for an annulment of his very unhappy marriage to a certain lady from the Vale.
“You promised every member of your court, from the kitchen maids to the high lords of your realm, your support to secure a marriage of their choosing to the one they love. I ask the same of you, brother.” The Rogue Prince had said earnestly. “Everybody knows of my dislike for my wife in the Vale. So grant me an annulment from the marriage and allow me to find a wife of my choosing instead.”
And Viserys had agreed! The annulment was granted in front of the assembled court, before Otto could utter a single word against it.
But none of the ladies the king tried to set his brother up with lasted longer than the length of an afternoon – Princess Rhaenyra ensured such with her pointed remarks and hushed whispers to her uncle in the language of their ancestors, High Valyrian.
The only one even remotely standing a chance, was Laena Velaryon. But the girl was too young even for Lord Flea Bottom. And even if not, Otto would have known to prevent an alliance between Daemon Targaryen and his scorned cousin Rhaenys.
Had Alicent not eloped with that Dornish bastard, this new development could have held much potential. Otto would only have had to convince the king of the love between his daughter and the prince for them to be wed and their son to be in direct line for the throne.
Of course, it would not have been easy to arrange – Daemon would have insured that. Otto doubted the man was even capable of loving anyone but himself.
But the prince doted on his niece nigh constantly and the princess had always been fond of Alicent. He might have been able to get some courtiers to report seeing them in each others company quite often and then talk the king into supporting the match.
Otto had tried to locate his wayward daughter without much success. For as much as the court had gossiped about her very romantic – and scandalous – elopement, no one seemed to actually know all that much about the couples current whereabouts. – Though many speculated they might have returned to Ser Criston Cole’s place of origin in the southern Stormlands.
If Alicent returned to court the widow of a lowly hedge knight from the Dornish border, it would doubtlessly bring shame upon her if not the entire family. But she would be there and she could be wed to the heir to the Iron Throne.
Instead Alicent had abandoned her family and her duty for some fantasy.
Which only left Otto with a potential match between Princess Rhaenyra and his son Gwayne.
One would have thought the spoiled little princess would be easy to woo and prone to manipulation by powerful men.
One would have been wrong.
For although Viserys was very encouraging of the idea of his cherished daughter finding love, he did not want her to leave the Red Keep and him behind.
Prince Daemon had jested that Princess Rhaenyra need only marry him and the furthest she would ever stay from her father’s seat in the capital would be their ancestral seat within the Blackwater Bay. Although perhaps he had not been jesting when he suggested it at all.
Otto insisted on presenting Rhaenyra with many suitors from all corners of the Seven Kingdoms, while still pressing for Gwayne to get closer to the princess. A rather difficult pursuit given the princess’s talent to disappear with her uncle and go on long flights on dragonback where no one could follow them.
The girl was four and ten and a princess! She should know better than to spent so much time alone with a now unmarried man – her despicable uncle no less! It was truly a miracle her reputation was not in shambles yet.
As for the Rogue Prince himself – Daemon Targaryen was not at all subtle in his blatant favouritism. In fact, he to great care to insure everyone at court knew that no one would ever compare to him in the eyes of his niece.
He brought her all sorts of gifts – jewels, books of poetry – very crude and explicit poetry in High Valyrian – as well as gowns and dress solely in black and red and with cuts more fitting for a whore than any respectable lady.
It was clear to everyone that the prince was courting the princess with such lavish gifts befitting a devoted lover.
Well, almost everyone. For King Viserys appeared to be utterly blind to the dalliance between his brother and his daughter.
That is until when Otto finally convinces him to publicly betroth the princess and his own son, Princess Rhaenyra and her uncle disappear from the keep, their dragons racing over Blackwater Bay towards the East.
Otto can’t believe it! The brat is barely fife and ten years old! How dare she disrupt his meticulously crafted plans so?!
Seven hells!
He spent almost an entire year beseeching the king and sitting through endless discussions and planning meetings for the weddings of servants and minor lords that the king assisted as the new self-appointed “Master of Matches”! Just for Daemon Targaryen to swoop in and steal the bride!
To his own and everyone else’s surprise the king is … surprised by the turn of events. As if he really had not seen it coming at all. Yet is is not enraged either – much to Otto’s dismay. It would have been such a spectacular way to get Daemon disinherited and that brat of a niece of his too.
But no, instead Viserys summons them back to court, asking for answers and wanting to see his family again. And they do come back to court … almost an entire moon later and proudly referring to each other as husband and wife.
There is no way to avoid the scandal. Even if the did not so openly admit to their ridiculous elopement, nobody would have any doubt just what the two of them had been doing alone on Dragonstone for the last moon.
Viserys refuses to banish his brother from court for defiling his daughter. He does order a grand royal wedding to be held within the next two moons and sends ravens with announcements of it to every keep of from the Dorne to the Wall.
And not three weeks later Alicent Hightower and her husband Ser Criston Cole return to King’s Landing for yet another tourney. This one would be celebrating a royal wedding.