⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ MAIDEN FAIR
alerie in kingslanding! everything is joy and lollipops! for now! warning…rhaenyra slander. i am sorry, alerie’s the hater, not me, never me, thank you. also misogyny, arranged marriage, an age gap (no surprise there). i also shifted the timeline around a little. don’t worry about it!
⋆. 113AC — 114AC
alerie’s arrival to the red keep was met with celebration from her sister. her belly was just beginning to swell, and her nails were picked raw— a ugly habit alerie had always chastised, and living proof of her unwavering anxiety. her father greeted her with a kiss to her cheek, seemingly pleased to be reunited with her. he had heard word of her blossoming, and he seemed to take pride in his youngest daughter’s worldliness, introducing her to the king and princess with a rare, earnest smile on his face.
the king took a liking to her immediately. it was interesting to see him in the flesh, alerie thought. his name and title alone demanded respect, but in front of her, he was just a meek, fat, slightly incompetent man. still, she swallowed her disappointment. perhaps it was a mercy, not to be wed to him.
she converses easily with him, laughing at his jests and taking an interest in his love of the histories, his fixation on old valyria and its much discussed stronghold. he had heard of her through alicent’s lips and stories, and found her to be even lovelier when making her acquaintance.
the princess was another story. alerie moved through her usual, agreeable routine, but princess rhaenyra seemed to see through it all. her smile was false, her niceities were forced- and that made alerie odious to her. alerie did not like her much either- she found the princess bratty, and irritating. otto attempted to push alerie as a companion for the princess, but rhaenyra seemed content in her self-imposed isolation. alerie was happy to keep her distance.
alerie had been right in her assumptions, of course. alicent was not made for queenhood. she shirked from her responsibilities, and trudged through her pregnancy, but her sister’s company seemed to improve her temper. as alicent’s foremost lady in waiting, alerie was more than happy to help her in hosting guests, and foreign embassies, always at her sister’s side, and running her household with an iron fist, putting her thorough education in finance and diplomacy to good use. she enjoys the responsibility, the knowledge that she is finally doing something worthy of note, instead of lingering in the quiet of old town.
she simply doesn’t understand alicent’s unwillingness to engage with her position. it does not even cross her mind that alicent never wanted it- how could someone be so ungrateful? she was the most powerful woman in the realm, and all she did was cry! still. alerie bites her tongue and is practically alicent’s only emotional confidante, the only one to hear about the heartache of loosing that whore, rhaenyra, and her doubt surrounding her abilities. despite her envy, alicent is still her sister. she’s gentle-hearted, her alicent, and alerie cannot fault her for something she was born with. alerie reassures her where she can, becoming a shoulder for her to cry on. at alicent’s most miserable, alerie even sleeps in her bed, like they’re children again.
her first nephew, aegon, is born in late 113AC, and alerie is nothing but an attentive aunt. she is unfortunately charmed by the babe, though she despises the way he spits and cries. she stifles her disgust, and carries him on her hip, anyway, attempting to get him to say her name whenever she can. much to her displeasure, he does not. perhaps babes were stupider than she initially believed. alicent is grateful for the help, and they are both young enough for it to seem as though they’re playing with a younger brother, rather than a son and a nephew.
she also became a favoured companion and friend of the king. the king had been impressed with her upon their first meeting, and as she settled into courtly life, she found the king keen to begin a friendship with her. she found him to be a fool, but a jolly fool at that, and actually came to enjoy his presence on occasion. he adored the girl, doting on her as though he were his own daughter, and alerie, when requested, sat with him as he crafted his model of valyria. alerie was happy to keep him from alicent, at least, for he had gotten her with child once more.
her first whole year at the keep coincides with aegon’s first nameday, and the festivities held in his honour was where alerie truly sparkled. the shallowness of the conversation grates at her, and in all honestly, the monotony of pleasantry exhausts her, but she performs it well- and the ladies redwyne, lannister, and tyrell all gush about the sweet sister of the queen. it now well known throughout the realm- alerie hightower is the very picture of loveliness and piety. it was a wonder she had not yet been betrothed.
her father had begun the search for a reasonable match, but alerie took little interest in it. it was something she dreaded, in fact. the thought of being married off to some obscure lord in the reach made her feel sick to her stomach, and a part of her wished to stay at court, with her sister, forever.
⋆. 115AC
the conflict in the stepstones had been hanging over the heads of everyone at court, for it was said prince daemon, the king’s wayward brother was losing. terribly. alerie had never encountered the man in her life, but she’d heard praises of his skill with a sword- and of his sordid presence in fleabottom. he seemed like the sort she ought to avoid, given the way her father talked of him. prince daemon was perhaps the man he hated the most in the world.
he had emerged from the war with a victory, however, and as a king, at that- and his return was marked with a day of celebration, after he laid his makeshift crown at the feet of his brother. alerie was introduced to him, briefly, and he seemed to regard her with very little interest. apparently he called her a sickeningly saccharine chit. word got around to alerie quickly, for it seemed she had more friends at court than he did. she did not pay much thought to it, only wishing, briefly, that he’d died in the bloody stepstones.
his return was also one marked with scandal.
alerie was called into the councilroom one evening by the king, and his new hand, lyonel strong, still dressed in her nightgown, and robe wrapped tightly around her. in between rubbing her eyes and attempting to remember courtesy in her hazy state of consciousness, she was informed a ‘delicate situation’ had unfolded. prince daemon was without limit, it seemed, and had done something so deserving of the king’s ire, that he thought it necessary daemon was married.
to her, of all people.
the king reasoned that alerie’s piety, and devotion to her duties, would straighten the prince out. it was the time he was settled, no? had children of his own. after all, he did not say it, but his first wife, aemma, had made a man of him. he believed the same would occur for his younger brother.
alerie did not think it would be so simple. the prince was indifferent towards her at best, and thought her sickening at worst- and the perpetual eye he seemed to have on his niece had not gone unnoticed, even if he had only been in kingslanding for a few days. alerie could possess double the beauty and intellect she already possessed, and still, prince daemon would not find her a suitable bride.
at least he was a prince.
it was also an unspoken punishment for her father, but alerie was not idiot. otto had also done something terrible, apparently, terrible enough to have his position revoked, and given to the foul and fat lord strong. anger bit at her. no one had a better mind for politics than her father, but she bit her tongue. otto would now have the man he loathed most as his good-son, and his grandchildren would have his blood. for a man so foolish, alerie thought it to be suitably wicked.
if only she had not been a pawn in it.