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Chapter Text

There are family trees which show the OCs relation to everyone on the Wattpad version of this story

Here is a basic summary of the family tree as well as I can describe it:

•Illias and Madellyn Ashryver are Crown Prince and Princess of Wendlyn, will one day rule
•Aedion and Aderyn are the current kings grandchildren.
•However due to old laws Aedion cannot inherit as he is illegitimate
•Aderyn was thought to be Queen of Terrasen when Aelin was presumed dead,

•Myana and Brandon are past King and Queen of Terrasen.
•Orlon is the eldest son, then Rhoe, then Adrien.
•Orlon was king before the fall of Terrasen
•Aedion and Aderyns mother is Aelins mother's cousin.
•Adrien was King for the few days between Orlon and Rhoe's death and the fall of Terrasen.

•The characters on the family tree who are deceased pre to the beginning of this story are:
- The mother and father of the current king of Wendlyn
-Matthias and Elinor Ashryver (Evalin Ashryvers parents, Aelin’s maternal grandparents)
-Myana and Brandon Galythynius

•If you have any questions about relation/inheritance/monarchs please feel free to ask in the comments!!

•This should be a series, I plan to have the first book follow events pre throne of glass, and then decide on whether the rest of the series will follow the same sort of pattern with the original series books!

•This story centres around an OC named Aderyn, Aedion half sister and Aelin's cousin (first cousin rather than the relationship between Aedion and Aelin, see family tree for more).

•At the time of Terrasen's fall Aedion is 14, Aelin is 8 (info from books) and the OC is 12!
•She is after Aelin in the line of succession for Terrasen and after Galan in the line of succession for Wendlyn (post her mother's death)! 

Chapter Text

Elara Ashryver

Elara Ashryver was sick.

The wasting sickness that plagued her body had been slowly draining her for months now. She could feel it, her life force slowly ebbing away even now as she sat and watched her very reasons for living.

Two young children splashing in the river that flowed around the edge of their manor. Golden hair and blue eyes ringed with gold. Her daughter had only recently turned seven and yet despite the youth that emanated from her, her mind had always seemed far more mature. She hadn't been able to tell her yet. How do you tell a child that their mother, a figure that they see as undefeatable, is being destroyed by an invisible force far beyond their understanding? By an illness that not even the greatest healers Wendlyn has to offer can truly understand.

The other child, a boy of age nine, was fiercely protective of his family and she thought he would do well serving his younger cousin in Terrasen when she became queen. His name was Aedion, her son, a boy who many would look at and remark on his likeness to his mother. Elara knew better. The boy was the spitting image of his father, a fae whom Elara had loved almost as much as she loved her children. She would never see him again and no one would know of the male she'd loved, of the male who her sweet boy took after.

"Are you alright" spoke a soft voice who'd come up behind her. She'd been so deep in contemplation that she hadn't noticed Adrien Galythynius walk up to come sit beside her.

Adrien Galythynius had been her closest friend and confidant since the years she had spent visiting the Royal Court of Terrasen as a child, and now he was her husband. They felt no deep romantic love for one another, Elara did not feel she could love another again after Aedion's father and yet a marriage had been arranged regardless. Her father, the king, had claimed it was to further strengthen the alliance with Terrasen through a marriage to another of its princes but she knew better. Their alliance with Terrasen was ancient and unbreakable, this marriage had been arranged to soothe the scandal of the daughter of the King of Wendlyn bearing a bastard son to a man that none had ever seen.

"Elara?" the voice came again, once again breaking through her thoughts.
"Hmm?"
"I asked if you were alright, is your head still hurting, what about your joints?" her husband questioned, poorly concealed concern lacing his tone.
Elara sighed, wishing that she'd never mentioned the aches and pains that came along with her slow death.
"I'm alright, tired that's all" she murmured.

In response an arm wrapped around her shoulder, pulling her to rest her head on his shoulder.

"Everything is sorted for the trip to Terrasen come the start of next month, and they've begun to clean out Riverside for us"

Riverside was the constituency in Terrasen that Adrien presided over, and their home when they stayed there. Soon, it would be her children's primary home, and they would no longer split their time equally between Wendlyn and Terrasen. She'd already made her husband swear to still bring her children back to the small coastal town that she was the Lady of. It would after all become her only legitimate child with her husband's after she passed. Glancing back to the girl splashing in the river, she felt an ache in her chest. Her daughter Aderyn was far too young to inherit that title, even if it was in name only until she came of age.

"Evalin sent a message, she said she can't wait to see you, she wants to know if you'd be alright with her coming to visit Riverside with Aelin", her husband continued oblivious to her inner turmoil.

Personally, Elara didn't believe she'd make it to the end of the month to travel to Terrasen. She'd practically come to terms with it in the months since the healer said that there was nothing more that they could do, her only fear was leaving her children without a mother. She knew they'd be looked after and grow up with love and comfort surrounding them, with a family the size of theirs how could they not? And Adrien loved them both dearly, anyone who didn't already know the truth would assume Aedion was his son, he certainly loved him like it. Deep in her heart she knew they would still thrive without her, after all no force could ever be strong enough to tear Adrien Galythynius from his children. She doubted that he would even allow the sickness that plagued her to take him, stubborn as he was.

"Elara are you listening?"
"Yes, Terrasen is all planned, Evalin wants to visit" she replied.

Aderyn and Aedion were racing now, though she was fairly sure that Aedion was deliberately going slower than he could to give Addie a chance.

Gods, how could she leave them behind.

Desperately pushing back the sudden overflow of emotions she nestled closer into Adrien. In return he tightened his arm around her.

He'd been in denial for far longer than she had, he'd sent for healers from everywhere at first, from Adarlan, Eyllwe , Terrasen, Wendlyn, Fenharrow, Melisandre. He'd even sent word to the famed Torre Cesme in the Eastern Continent until she had all but begged him to stop. The constant cycle of hope and disappointment had felt rather like being on a ship in the middle of a storm, wave after wave of emotions knocking her around and it had been more than she could take.

She would die, and she would do so peacefully, it was the will of the gods and she could only hope that they would be kind to her children once she was no longer at their side.

Adrien Galythynius

The funeral was long. The type of event that Elara would have hated. Long, formal and public. And yet nothing else could be expected for the funeral of the King's daughter. It had been a grand affair, with prayers and speeches and choirs that ended with Elara Ashryver being lowered into the Ashryver Crypts to be laid to rest.

Adrien tried not to think of her in there. The thought of a soul as bright as Elara's trapped in suffocating darkness made him feel sick. Frankly he was trying not to think about Elara at all. His closest friend, the mother to his children was dead. Gone. It was better to be numb, he'd decided, than to face the tsunami of emotions that threatened to wash over him whenever he thought of her.

He couldn't afford to drown in his emotions, not when there were two young children waiting for him in the courtyard to begin their journey to Terrasen.

Making his way outside, Adrien felt a small smile form on his face as he saw his children. They were dressed in black and saying goodbye to members of their household currently, which to his daughter Aderyn, also meant the horses.

Aedion was stood at her side and spotted him first.

"Dad!" He called, which in turn drew his daughter's attention, she ran to him and Adrien scooped her up and held her close.

"Hello sweetheart, are you ready to go?"

"Yes, we are coming back for a bit of the summer though aren't we?"
Adrien nodded in reply as he held her.

She was the double of her mother when she had been little.

He pushed back the tears. Swallowed the emotions. He would not drown. They needed him.

Aedion reached him and leant into his side, releasing a shaky breath that made Adrien's heart hurt. Shifting Aderyn so that he was holding her with one mk arm he used his other arm to pull his son in closer.

They would be okay. It would be okay. He would watch his children grow up and thrive and everything would be okay.