Work Text:
Her head remained bowed in the presence of the guests her family welcomed, just as she always had when noble guests came. She knew what they all thought of her. It was obvious in their gazes. Never was there sympathy. They waited to see if she was as wicked as bastards were believed.
Despite their noble status, the words the men spoke in what she presumed was flirting, disgusted her. Their sons, no doubt, filled by their fathers’ words thought she would be a wonton fiend. As those of the Faith seem to expect all bastards to live in the cardinal sin which they are created. Lies. Her parents love one another. She was not born out of lust but love.
Her family cared not that she was a bastard. Why would they when her grandparents had not married under the Faith? The title ‘bastard’ mattered only to the Faith.
To her father, she was his princess and long-awaited child. It mattered not that she was not a son. To her mother, she was simply another of her beloved children. To her mother’s husband, she was a darling niece whom he cared for equally with his own children.
Her parents and uncle had pleaded with the king to legitimize her for years. The issue was the faith, not her birth. They were of a different religion and should not have had to bend to the whims of another faith. Alas, King Aegon wanted to keep the peace after the wars and deaths which he had united the realms.
Still, she grew with the lessons any princess would. Her grandmother, still the queen, taught her the sword and of their Valyrian heritage and ways.
“Visella, you and your siblings will have to carry on this knowledge. Our rites, our ways, our heritage. I warned Aegon that the Faith would be a war we should handle before they grew comfortable in how they believed we would bend, they bide their time waiting for their king to pass. They think Aenys weak because of the tours in his youth, but I raised your uncle alongside Rhaenys whilst your grandfather spent his time in training for a war he refused to start. Rhaenys and I will not allow any of you to be ill-prepared for what is to come. You all have your dragons, and you will each have swords.”