Chapter Text
ON THE DAY VISENYA TARGARYEN WAS BORN King’s Landing was changed forever. The dragon was born through a raging storm that nearly tore apart the Red Keep. The screams of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen echoed through the halls for three days as she endured labor to bring her daughter forth. Many looked on and said the storm was the curse of the events that took place to bring the babe forth. A horrid rumor that the Princess had been defiled by her uncle in a pleasure house. When the babe was born, she was so small that many thought she would die.
Visenya proved to be as strong as her namesake.
Nine moons ago, when Princess Rhaenyra’s life was changed forever deep in the pleasure house of Flea Bottom, her father had the maester present her with tea, but she did not drink it. Together, the princess and her uncle went to plead their case to the King, but he would hear none of it. He exiled his brother from King’s Landing and swiftly married his daughter off to Laenor Velaryon. Knowing Laenor’s preferences for his chambers, Viserys knew that Rhaenyra could marry him and pass her coming child off as his.
But not everyone was so easily convinced.
Bastard was whispered about the princess before she was born. The rumors were started by Queen Alicent Hightower. She had just given birth to her third child, a son, Aemond Targaryen, a few moons before Rhaenyra’s labor started. No matter how quickly her husband married Rhaenyra off, she knew who the child’s true father was. She overheard her father, Otto Hightower, the former Hand of the King report to Viserys that he had been told Rhaenyra and her uncle, Daemon had been seen coupling with each other in a pleasure house.
When Otto brought this information to Viserys, he was immediately removed from his position, Lyonel Strong was promoted to Hand, while Otto was sent back to Oldtown. Three days later, Viserys announced Rhaenyra’s engagement to Laenor Velaryon. A few months after that, Rhaenyra’s belly started to swell with pregnancy, and everyone congratulated the “happy couple,'' while Alicent’s resentment grew. She didn’t understand how Rhaenyra was allowed to get away with this.
As the young Princess grew, she was rarely seen without her mother. Rhaenyra fed her from her own breast. She did not trust that the Queen wouldn’t try to poison her child by way of the wet nurses. Rhaenyra knew giving birth to the young princess immediately put her life in danger, but she couldn’t have imagined drinking the tea that night and not staring into the purple eyes of her beautiful child.
Laenor Velaryon claimed the child as his own, although Rhaenyra gave her the last name Targaryen instead of Velaryon. She told Laenor of Visenya’s true parentage, but since she has pure Valyrian features, she would be able to pass for his daughter. Her public reasoning for keeping her child’s last name Targaryen was that when she inherited the Iron Throne after her father, Visenya would be her heir as The Princess of Dragonstone, and she would inherit the Iron Throne as a Targaryen.
This burned Queen Alicent with more anger that the excuse seemed to win the people over.
Alicent Hightower did her best to keep Rhaenyra’s child away from her children, but the task seemed impossible. As they grew, Alicent noticed that her third child, Aemond Targaryen, had a certain affinity for his niece. He was always visiting Rhaenyra’s apartments to dote on the young princess and spend time with his sister. Aegon gave no care to the child while Helaena spent too much time being sent into dragon dreams to get to know her sister.
Rhaenyra always welcomed Aemond’s visits. She did not understand why Alicent wanted her children to hate her, but she was glad that Aemond didn’t. Although in the depths of her heart, she ached when she saw Aemond and Visenya together. In her mind flashed mirror images of herself and her uncle. He always doted on her the way Aemond doted on Visenya. Daemon Targaryen loved to tell Rhaenyra stories and shower her with gifts. The nights they shared dinners, the mornings they broke their fasts, the rides they would take together with Syrax and Caraxes, and the walks in the garden they shared, were all running through Rhaenyra’s mind whenever she saw Aemond and Visenya.
By the time Visenya was seven years old, she had two younger siblings, Jacaerys and Lucerys Velaryon, but like everyone else in King’s Landing, she also noticed the stark differences between her and her brothers. Where she had the Valyrian features of purple eyes and silver-blonde hair, her brothers had dark-brown hair with dark-brown eyes to match. The man they all knew as ‘Father,’ Laenor Velaryon, also had silver-blonde hair. Visenya knew it was not her place to question, and she loved her brothers, that was all that mattered.
She and her brothers learned their mother tongue of High Valyrian so that they could speak to each other freely without being overheard. It was like their secret language, where it was just them in an exclusive conversation that no one could be part of. She also frequently spoke high Valyrian with her uncle, Aemond Targaryen. They mainly switched to their mother tongue whenever his mother would find a reason to accompany them whenever they would spend time together.
Visenya heard the whispers. Bastard . These days she couldn’t tell if the word was directed at her or her brothers. She once overheard a conversation between her grandsire, Viserys Targaryen, and his wife, Alicent Hightower. She was speaking to him about Daemon Targaryen, her great-uncle. Visenya didn’t hear much of the conversation, but she heard Alicent ask Viserys if Daemon knew about her. It was the first time she heard Daemon Targaryen’s name, but when she tried to speak with her mother about it, she was met with resistance.
“ Do not ever speak that name again, my girl, do you hear me ?” Rhaenyra had said to her. Visenya didn’t understand. The wall that went up around her mother at the mention of Daemon Targaryen left the young dragon even more curious. Rhaenyra was not ready for the day that Visenya would find out Daemon is her father and not Laenor, but until that day came, she did not want to relive the humiliation of what happened after the pleasure house. How her father did not let them marry in the custom of their house but instead made her marry a man they both knew would never be able to give her legitimate heirs.
There was a target on her back and on the backs of her children. She knew it was her fault, but she would not take back anything. She would not change the moments she shared to bring her children into this world. Visenya, Jacaerys, and Lucerys meant everything to the Princess, and she would endure the same humiliations a thousand times over if they were the results, each and every time.
As she grew, Rhaenyra could see the dragon inside of her daughter starting to come forth. It was flowing through her blood from both parents. An egg had been put in her cradle and three days after Visenya was born, her egg hatched a beautiful lavender baby dragon, nearly the same color as Visenya’s eyes. When Visenya grew up, she named her dragon Rhaegon to honor her ancestors Rhaenys Targaryen and Aegon the Conqueror since she was named in honor of their sister-wife Visenya.
Though she was not raised by her true father, Rhaenyra saw many elements of Daemon in her child. Visenya often complained of having to stay indoors with her septa, claiming she would much rather be out training in the yard with her brothers and uncles or taking to the skies on Rhaegon. Rhaenyra had to remind the young princess that as the future heir to the Iron Throne, there were many responsibilities she had to learn, and the sooner she started, the better.
Rhaenyra felt her father had named her heir on a whim. He had never formally prepared her for it because she was never supposed to be his heir. He was expected to have a son with Queen Aemma and when that did not happen and Viserys deemed Daemon unsuitable for the Iron Throne, the inheritance fell to his only living child at the time, Rhaenyra Targaryen. Much like everyone else in King’s Landing, including the King’s own small council, Rhaenyra also believed the birth of her half-brother Aegon would bring about her disinheritance.
She thought the night in the pleasure house with Daemon would surely make her father disinherit her; which he almost did; but he reminded Rhaenyra that he did not name her heir just to spite Daemon, he named her heir because he believed in Aegon the Conqueror's Dream and that the dream would come to pass through his eldest child. When Rhaenyra found out she was pregnant, she knew that no matter whether the child was a son or daughter, they would be her heir, and she knew that she had to keep them prepared for what it meant to inherit the Throne.
She knew that Visenya didn’t understand now, but she would later understand the hardships and what it means for a woman to potentially take the throne. The council did not allow for Rhaenys’ to take the Iron Throne over Viserys, even though she had a stronger claim as the first-born grandchild of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne, daughter to their first living-born son, Aemon Targaryen, but she was a woman, which to the lords of Westeros meant she could not be Queen.
Rhaenyra heard the whispers, she knew what people said about her and about her children. She tried to protect them as best she could, but she knew that it was impossible to tame a dragon; because she had once been the same kind of dragon her children were, but when she became a mother, she became a different kind of dragon. A fiercely protective dragon over her younger ones, willing to burn anyone who would cross them.
Rhaenyra often thought about whether or not her uncle would be brought back from exile if he would ever know his daughter. Rhaenyra sent him a raven when Visenya was born, he knew of her existence, but he did not risk pushing the wrath of the King. The night of Flea Bottom was the angriest both Daemon and Rhaenyra had ever seen Viserys; to the point where Daemon knew this would not be the time to push back. The Princess frequently sent letters to her Uncle when he was first exiled. She kept him regularly updated on Visenya, although she did not extend the same courtesy to her child, but she did not want Daemon to be surprised whenever he was allowed to return to King’s Landing. However, she could not bring herself to destroy her daughter’s life by telling her that she shares no blood with the man she calls ‘Father.’
Bastard . Rhaenyra heard the whispers, about all three of her children. The fire within her burned every time someone dared to whisper it. As she was now pregnant with her fourth child, she continued to hear the whispers that this child would also be bastards like their siblings. Viserys had made note that anyone who questioned the parentage of his grandchildren would lose their tongues, but he did not know that it was his own wife spreading the rumors.
Bastard . Visenya once asked her mother if she was a bastard. She didn’t understand why people whispered the word about her when she looked just as Valyrian as the rest of their family did. Rhaenyra simply answered, ‘ you are a Targaryen, and that is all that matters .’ That answer was not satisfying enough for the young dragon. She did not understand why she did not bear the same last name as the man she called, ‘Father,’ but her brothers did, even though she looked more like him with the Valyrian features than her brothers did.
Strong . Visenya heard the rumors that her brothers were fathered by her mother’s sworn shield, Harwin Strong. It was plausible, but Princess Rhaenys Targaryen was also known as the ‘dark-haired princess,’ for her mother was Jocelyn Baratheon. Many speculated that it was because of Rhaenys’ half of Baratheon that Rhaenyra’s boys had dark hair. Others were not so accepting. The boys had notably curly dark hair, whereas Princess Rhaenys’ dark hair was straight . There was much speculation, but no one had any proof.
Princess. Dragon. Bastard . Visenya Targaryen was three-in-one.