to have spent my life holding my hands in tightly hidden fists. to try to understand what it would mean๏ผ now๏ผ to hold them open. i have always felt ashamed at being witnessed in the act of wanting something i could not have.
โit would be prudent would it not? โ to go where you could not follow?โ.
gleaming smile laced with a defiance all his own, โi could not bare it, to live denying you your challenge a moment longerโ.
aegonโs eagerness to dance as they once had, a bright and avaricious flame demanding oxygen. โi suppose, we are not lacking in disreputable establishments unsuited to a ladyโ.
even his most charming air did not conceal the ever eager anticipation of her retaliation, โ
โperhaps you are rightโ, his words ripe with a thickly exaggerated consideration. slender fingers caressing his sharp chin in contemplation. a drawn out moment of theatrical suspense. โ
so long under the burdensome weight of such a gleaming confinement. too long in skin hardened by battle. too long as the conqueror. too long with only the challenge of war to test him.
the commander and heir had seen too little rebellion. certainly none as welcomed as this. โ
basking in the delight of his sisterโs familiar defiance; his homecoming did not seem the grim affair of moments prior.
the heir of dragonstone realized with a sudden certainty, he had spent too long in the commanderโs armor. โ
"hard?"
her rebuff was met with a scoff and a roll of lilac eyes as arms folded over her chest, expectant pop of her hip visible only thanks to her riding pants.
"hard is claiming a dragon. chasing after you? a tedious thing at best."
in truth, being his keeper allotted โ
for every mark she had left etched in him, he had dealt a strike in return. it was the nature of war, as quiet as the battles between them, there were no sides left unscathed.
aegon could not remember who he had stolen from to add to the wardrobe of disguises fitted and tailored for the Heir.
so much of his youth was spent searching, cultivating his collection, and too many of the items had been worn long enough โ
denial aside, visenya did not mind aegon's absence. his presence, through no fault of his own, was, at times, suffocating... though, the same could be said about the void he left in the halls of dragon stone.
still, with the heir gone, the eldest child of aerion was permittedโ
"how hard it must have been, to learn to execute the task so flawlessly",
he wore the braggarts prideful grin while he stood to meet his sister's height, a spark in his appraising gaze. claiming credit for his own part in their father's masterful plot. โ
โTell me sister {@valyriansistcr, @legacyconquers }, has so much changed during my absence that you have taken on the chore of collecting wayward heirs? I would have expected you to be tasked with something more worthy of you.โ
The narrow inlet of the cove carried with it the whisper of the bay beyond; airs that carried with them the scent of saltwater and the memory of that whole world that lay beyond Dragonstone and the sanctuary of Blackwater. โ
He was no longer alone on the beach. The startling revelation a violent wave, the fluid tide pushing all of his pieces back into place before he found that familiar air of ease. The lilt of it bleeding into his languid welcome;
โ