Chapter Text
Having a soulmate was not something Targaryen princes and princesses were expected to have. After all, the Seven-faced God was of Andal origin, and Targaryens were not Andal; they were Valyrian.
But then they arrived in Westeros and everything changed.
It took time, but slowly, and a few at a time, even they started to be under the influence of the Seven. One in a generation, then two, until now, when having a soulmate was as expected as breathing.
The story goes something like this… when God first created the Andals, they were monstrous beings with four legs and arms, who, although they loved each part of them fiercely, were unable to survive on their own without the help of the Gods. So they had separated them into two beings, and as they grew and thrived, they noticed that they would spend their lives searching for that other half. Sometimes they were able to find it, and their lives seemed complete and full of joy and love… most of the time they were unable to, and their lives were spent in the search for the other half of their own being.
It was why, when the Gods arrived in Westeros with the first Andals, they gave them a gift for this new and immense space. A blessing so they could find their other half, the one being in the whole continent that could complete what was inside of them… their soulmate.
Since God had seven faces, seven different blessings existed.
Some were blessed by the mother, which meant they could feel everything their mate did, helping them when needed and sharing joys and pain.
Some others were blessed by the Maiden, who allowed them to guide each other through tough times, as a voice in their head helping them take the best actions so they could eventually find each other.
Some were blessed by the Smith, where they could share knowledge. If one of them learned a labor, their mate could replicate it with ease, even if they had not learned it before.
Some were blessed by the Warrior, where they could share strength in moments of dire need.
Some were blessed by the Crone, who could share dreams when both mates slept simultaneously, unable to interact but being mere observers through the eyes of their mates.
The last two, though, some people heretically didn’t consider them a blessing, although they were.
Those blessed by the Father found themselves sharing each other's pain, as a way to share the burden among one soul… and those blessed by the Stranger? Those had the privilege of leaving this plane together with their soulmate, since if one of them perished, the other would follow shortly.
And how would the Andals know if they had met their soulmates? Well, a mark would appear on their skin, in the first place where the soulmates touched each other. A mark for everyone to see, for everyone to recognize the miracle it was that one soul in two bodies was complete once again.
When Baelor was young, really young, he had mixed feelings about soulmates. Once he was old enough to understand what people were talking about, his little inquisitive mind tried to make sense of the tale he was being told.
Aerys would talk about hearing someone telling him to stop doing naughty things when the two of them were up to no good, a little voice in the back of his head that made him feel safe but at the same time reminded him to do good. They were told it meant Aerys was blessed by the Maiden, or so they were told.
Raeghal recounted dreams of things and places the boy had never been, so the Maester said he was sharing his dreams with his soulmate. This meant he was blessed by the Crone to share dreams with his other half, lightening their burden through life. To Baelor, it sounded crazy, like a lot of what his brother usually said, but he still wondered. If Raeghal had a soulmate, that meant he probably did as well, right?
Even little Maekar has a soulmate. Sometimes the baby would have a bump on the head, or a bruise somewhere in this pale little body no one had seen him get. They had recognized that those bruises came from Maekar’s soulmate when one had appeared right in front of their parents, as baby Maekar slept the night away. His baby brother was blessed by the Father, news that made even their grandfather rejoice.
Later on, he learned how his father, Daeron, had actually shared knowledge with his soulmate. Knowledge that had helped him uncover some of his father’s schemes before they came to pass.
His beloved Uncle Dragonkight, he had had a soulmate as well. His soulmate, he would tell Baelor, was someone up north, whom he shared dreams with and who was too far from his grasp to ever think of finding.
His grandmother Nerys had actually gotten to meet her soulmate when she was barely a babe, but she had been lost to a fever when both were barely older than Baelor’s own age.
He had never asked about his grand sire; he dreaded to hear about the poor soul that was mated to him. But Aegon the Fourth had asked Baelor about his, yet another motive for his grand sire to hate him. Too Dornish to have a soulmate, too inadequate for even that.
Even at his young age, he knew what was being told about him, about them. Whereas Aerys and Maekar looked like Targaryen Princes of old, Raeghal and he were too Dornish, not Valyrian enough.
His father used to tell him how his great-great-grand Sire, King Viserys, would sometimes sneak into his nursery just to gaze at him. ‘He looks so much like my older brother, Jace,’ his father told him he would whisper as he ran a hand softly over his dark curls. ‘He will be a good king, just like my brother would have been.' He would have been dead before Baelor could remember him. Viserys had been blessed by the Mother, losing his mate when he was still young during the time the dragons danced.
By the time his grand Sire passed and they had to return to King’s Landing, Baelor had convinced himself he did not care. He did not care that he was the only Targaryen without a soulmate, that even Aegor was sharing a blessing with someone, and he wasn’t. For him, it meant he was more Valyrian than the rest of them; at least that’s what he would say publicly to those who asked. The answer was in jest, with the truth hiding right behind it.
That was until the morning of his eighteenth birthday, when he woke up with a bruise over his abdomen and feeling like he could eat a whole ox on his own. His soulmate had just been born.