Dance with her ghosts

“— Please, kepa, marry muna's mistress.”

- Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen to King Viserys I months before Queen Aemma's death

Rhaenyra liked Lady Alicent.

She was a pretty lady, she had really long hair, really nice eyes, she was also muna's friend and she made mama laugh a lot - and muna never laughed - she was always in on the made up jokes, being the monster or the knight, but never the kidnapped princess.

She also dressed like pirates from the old stories in the books Lady Alicent always took the time to read to her, and she had beautiful, flowing silk dresses that made the court men and mama pull a funny face.

Lady Ali - a nice nickname Rhaenyra had made up - was affectionate as Em to muna and Rhae to her - had also taught muna how to ride a horse and Rhaenyra a colt, and given them a few brief sword lessons and she'd even gotten a small dagger for her. Lady Ali saud "it's not a toy, and if you must, stick them with the pointy end" .

She taught her things that no one else thought was important to know, like those red berries from the forest will give you a stomach ache if you eat them, but if you ever get lost, eat the blue ones, they're blueberries, the smallfolk eat them when they find them and they won't hurt you.

Or when she gave her a necklace of beads and said that if one day she was kidnapped, it was only by tearing the string and leaving the beads behind that she would find her, even if it was at the end of the world.

Or that cheese went really well with strawberry jam, and that you had to eat broccoli because it had proteins essential for development, even through the maesters didn't know what protein was and Lady Alicent got a very faraway look in her eyes when Rhae asked. 

Lady Alicent also teaches her how to light a fire with stones, how to track a deer, and how to make her own arrows and when Rhae asks she says you are the only daughter of King Viserys, one day, if you get lost, or if you are kidnapped, you need to know what to do, and she should always sleep on the trees if she stays in the forest because it's harder for predators to find her.

She teaches sailor knots, how to throw a punch without breaking a finger and that she should always aim for the knees when fighting someone taller and stronger and Lady Alicent teaches her many things that other people don't seem to know.

And she likes muna, she likes her like a Lord likes Lady, or like grandfather liked grandmother, it's cute, because Lady Ali brings flowers and trinkets from the smallfolk and muna wears those round earrings for days and the shell necklace and her furry stockings and smile, beautiful as a goddess.

Father doesn't make mother smile like Lady Ali does, which is a little weird, Father is funny, he tells stories of Old Valyria and Daenys and Aegon and Maegor - in hushed whispers - all in funny voices for each character, and he is funny to Rhaenyra, but not to mother.

And anyway, muna likes Lady Ali best, but muna likes kepa too, she's seen her look at him with delighted eyes, but she never laughs with him like she laughs with Lady Ali.

And…

— Honey, are you paying attention? — father asks, stopping the story he's telling and Rhaenyra feels her cheeks grow hot.

— No, but now I am kepa. — she says, and father laughs, that loud laugh he gets when he's with her, the loud, slightly ugly laugh muna says is the King's private laugh.

— All good. — he says, starting the story over. — Visenya and Rhaenys were Aegon's sister wives and… — Rhaenyra jumps up from the bed.

— Aegon had two wives? — she asks, almost shouting, father blinks, a little bewildered by the question.

— Yes, Nyra, we've been through this part of history a thousand times. — he replies, looking tired.

Rhaenyra would feel a little embarrassed to tell her father that she doesn't particularly like his stories, she hears them every day in her lessons with the maesters, hearing it from her father is just a way to spend time with her kepa and not the King Viserys.

Dad starts the story again, he tells her how Aegon ascended to heaven with Balerion and conquered the seven kingdoms and how Rhaenys and Meraxes died and all she can think of is that Aegon had two wives.

Rhaenyra can barely sleep at night, tossing and turning, thinking about how to ask the King for something so very important.

Then the next morning comes, and her maids are there to help her do her hair and choose her dress for her lessons, and then she gets the idea, nobody is smarter than Maesters and she goes to lessons with one after breakfast. 

Rhaenyra skips her steps to get to Maester Mellos' chambers, almost knocking over one of her rushing guards, which is not at all common for the princess who always runs away from her studies.

She doesn't ask right away, of course not, that would be suspicious and Maester Mellos would speak to her parents and Rhaenyra has to be discreet because she doesn't know of anyone else in the seven kingdoms who has two wives.

And then, finally, the moment that Rhaenyra has been waiting for since the day before.

— Maester, when I want to make a very important request to the King, what do I do? — Rhaenyra asks the next morning, interrupting the Maester's rant about the houses of the North.

— You write a petition, of course. — Maester Mellos replies and Rhaenyra wants to roll her eyes, of course it's a petitionpetition, if Rhaenyra knew how to write a petition, she wouldn't be asking Maester Mellos for help.

— And how I do it? — she asks, the Maester's face takes on a weary tone, and he looks about to protest, Rhaenyra crosses her arms in irritation and says what her father always says when he is irritated. — Your princess commands.

And it works, Maester Mellos heaves a sigh, and then teaches Rhaenyra how to formally petition the King, and wow, there are many, many very formal ways to call father King.

After classes are over, Rhaenyra takes a piece of parchment, a quill, and writes a formal petition with very long words that she can't spell properly.

That night, Rhaenyra is so excited about her father's visit that she doesn't even let him talk when she walks into their rooms for story time.

— I have a petition, kepa. — Rhaenyra says, brightly, when Dad arrives to tell her stories of old Valyria and the Targaryens before her.

— And what could the king's only daughter ask for? — father says, making a serious face, and Rhaenyra wants to laugh, that's a really bad imitation of King Viserys's face.

— Please, kepa, marry muna's mistress. — Her father's face turns so white Rhaenyra thinks he's going to be sick.

— Your mother's lover? Who? He answers me seriously. — Father puts his hands on her shoulders and squeezes, hard, and Rhaenyra shudders, crushing the carefully crafted petition in her hands.

— Lady Ali. — she replies, afraid now because father looks angry, very angry.

And then father lets go of her shoulders, getting very quiet and with a funny look that makes your eyes go a little cross-eyed.

— I petitioned, look. — she says, handing the half-crumpled parchment to her father, it has been carefully written, with Rhaenyra double-checking the words, just to make sure there are no mistakes.

— I'll think about it, honey. — Father finally responds, walking to the door and leaving, Rhaenyra's petition in hand.

But he never thinks about his petition, two weeks later, muna is pregnant and Rhaenyra doesn't think Lady Alicent can get muna pregnant, and then, nine moons later, Rhaenyra tells dracarys to burn her mother's body.

And she is a girl like those hungry children who live in the flea bottom, an orphan without a mother.

And kepa isn't there, he doesn't even let Rhaenyra into his rooms and all she sees of him is that he cries and that sometimes Ser Steffon looks disapproving and very, very tired, these days he doesn't let Rhaenyra into his rooms even if she screams, cries and orders him to obey.

So Lady Ali is there, a few days after muna has gone, she looks tired and wears some strange dresses in green and gold and when Rhaenyra asks why, Lady Ali's face takes on such a tired tone and she just says Rhae, my father is a conniving bastard, he will do bad things if given the opportunity, and won't get caught, and if you can, avoid being alone anywhere with him. You should always stay very, very far away from Otto Hightower.

With 9 name days to her, Rhaenyra won't know this, but the Lord Hand has burned all of the future Queen Alicent's clothes, all of them, her riding breeches, her blue and black silk dresses, her white shirts and her leather boots, Lord Otto burned them all and left Lady Ali only the dresses of her late mother, Lady Olenna.

“The talk at court was that Lord Otto made sure the future Queen Alicent slept with King Viserys I shortly after Queen Aemma died, Lord Hand burned her clothes, starved her, locked her in her rooms, and threatened to take away the things she loved best, and yet the Lady Alicent never yielded to her father, the idea of marrying his Lord Hand's daughter came entirely from King Viserys, courtiers said it was the only idea the King had himself. 

And yet, King Viserys I's second marriage was to take place when Princess Rhaenyra was eleven years old, nearly two and a half years after Queen Aemma's death.

- Excerpt from the book “The Life and Death of Alicent Hightower” written by Prince Aemond Targaryen III in 876 AC.”