❝ There was a feeling of inevitability when I met you. And our lives were fated to converge like some cosmic dance. And I think I had to break your heart and you had to break mine. ❞
As Cressida Black's lungs ceased to draw breath, Aurelia Martell's...
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"Oh, Your Highness, she is so beautiful....you and Lord Adrian have been blessed by the gods, no doubt. What else could we call two children in less than one year?"
When the brunette opened her eyes again, she was surprised to find that she was basked in a strong light.
Where am I? She wondered. Where did Apollo send me?
When her eyes finally focused, she realized she was staring up into the face of a beautiful woman with dark hair, a few shades darker than her own, and tanned skin. She had amber eyes and a clear unlined face that was slightly sweaty as if she had just gone through a rigorous physical activity.
"She certainly is," said the unknown woman who was looming above her. "Go and tell my husband we have a daughter."
Cressida heard the sound of a door shutting and suddenly she felt herself being picked up and turned slightly so the woman who she took to be her caretaker was only partially in her view. The rest of her view was consumed by a desert and some mismatched buildings built on top of it.
"Welcome, my daughter," the woman murmured. "Look at all of that. This is Dorne, and though your brothers will inherit before you, it is all yours."
I hope I still have my magic here, Cressida thought anxiously. It would be very difficult to live without it.
She felt an odd tingling in her veins and then remembered Apollo pressing his finger to her forehead and the horrible sensations that had followed after.
A parting gift, he had said it was. And what a parting gift it was.
━━ ⋅𖥔⋅ ━━✶━━ ⋅𖥔⋅ ━━
"What's her name, Amma?" A little boy asked in a babyish voice.
"Her name is Aurelia, Morgan," Ilaria replied. "But you can call her Aura or Leah for now. Aurelia might be too complicated for you at the moment."
"Aura," Morgan said thoughtfully as if he were testing how the word sounded. "I like it."
"I do, too," Ilaria replied with amusement. "So does your father. And do you remember our house words?"
"Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken," the little boy replied proudly. even if he butchered all of the words in some way or another.
"That's right," Ilaria replied as she sat next to the her children on the bed. She appeared pleased. "And as you grow up, those words will mean more to you as it comes along. You'll need to teach them to Aura too. She's going to need to know them and to memorize them and to keep them in her heart. Never forget that we are stronger together, my son. We can only be unbowed, unbent and unbroken if we stand together and don't forget our blood."
Aurelia was listening carefully to the words of her new mother and unknown to her, some of the tension in her heart had eased at hearing those words.
Ilaria Martell was a little worried however as she sat there in her bed watching her young son look down at his younger sister.
