Prince's Angel

A New Step, New Beginnings

The wedding grew closer.

Unbeknowst to anyone, tailors and seamstresses had not actually visited the future queen, Seraena was making her own gown and the rest of her trousseau.

Prince Rhaegar had been good on his word, and the very next morning Seraena, accompanied with Loi Han and two of the most renowned members of the kingsguard: Ser Barristan Selmy, called 'the Bold' and Ser Arthur Dayne, the 'Sword of the Morning' had come with them. 

Rhaegar had been courteous enough, but his eyes were searching, and Seraena supposed she could not blame him. He had yet to figure out what kind of consort she would be for a future king and a prince, and what kind of wife he would get. Seraena wanted a husband she could trust who would never harm her or cause her to be harmed. Who would not treat her as subservient to him, and merely there for his purposes.

She wanted to tell him about her secret. But how would he react?

But he had been gentle and kind the whole way through.

"Over there is the Street of the Sisters," Rhaegar pointed. "It's the road to the Great Sept of Baelor and the Dragonpit."

"The Dragonpit," Seraena mused. But she frowned. Charlie, Fleur's brother-in-law would never approve of such things, and neither would other dragon-keepers. Dragons did not belong chained in a pit.

"Shall we see the Great Sept first?" Rhaegar smiled. "Or would you prefer somewhere else?"

"I think the Great Sept is as good a place as any to start," Seraena agreed, nodding. The two of them made their way, hand in arm, towards the sept where they would be married. 

"Wasn't it built by Baelor the Blessed?" Seraena asked. "The king so devoted to his faith they consider him holy?"

"Yes, though he was the most beloved king to the smallfolk, some call him mad," Rhaegar admitted. "He did not have his brother's strength, nor his uncle's prudence and diligent management, but neither did he have his cousin's vices."

Seraena nodded grimly. She heard all about Baelor the Blessed. Some said he was mad, though it was true, he was certainly the most devout king the Seven Kingdoms ever had. Baelor wore a crown of flowers and emptied out the treasury on a large scale, almost regularly, in order to feed the poor. But as good as his intentions might be, he was not prudent. With such little money, the poor would only starve again. They remained poor, even though Baelor might have bread for them daily. He appointed a child as a High Septon based on some ramblings, walked to Dorne- then unconquered- unguarded and unarmed, risking his life not merely from enemies but from starvation, heat, snake-bites and thirst. Seraena had read somewhere that he had died of starvation, during one of his many fasts. He also refused to consummate his marriage and his wife bore the bastard Daemon Blackfyre who along with his descendants would terrorise the Seven Kingdoms and endanger the Targaryen crown for generations to come.

The Great Sept was seen even from a distance, and it had been one of the first sights she had seen. "It's..." She blinked. "Massive. I've never seen a temple of this like, although I admit the Red Temple of Volantis is three times its size." That was true. She had never been inside the Red Temple though.

Rhaegar's eyebrow arched. "Truly? I have yet to see it and unfortunately I likely never will. It is rare that a future king and a prince should leave Westeros." Such a pity, what was the point of being king if you could not see the sights and learn from the world at large?

Well, then perhaps I should introduce you to my powers, though she wasn't so foolish. Nor was she impulsive.

She just wanted, no, needed to know if she could trust him.