Darkheart

When Vira woke, Maekar was still sitting at her side, holding her hand. He was shirtless, and a bandage was wrapped around his chest, pressing a pad of linen against the newly sewn axe-wound on his back. His left leg was also bandaged, though blood had begun to seep through the white linen. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, and his eye was red and puffy, though he smiled tenderly when her eyes opened and Vira felt his lips press lightly on her knuckles.

"The Maester said it will be alright, though how he could know…" Maekar trailed off, in a voice that was choked and broken. "I am sorry that I failed you," he whispered in a tiny voice.

Maekar moved closer and kissed her gently on her cheek; the one that did not have stitches. The cut was small, and likely would not scar, compared to the wounds on her back and collarbone, which would always bear the marks of Muriel's knife. "I swore to protect you, and I failed. If I had revealed myself to them, they may have told us all we wanted to know in fear."

"You are a battle-angel now, all the fiercer for your scars," Maekar murmured in her ear, his grip on her hand tightening as he slid his fingers in between hers. "Even dragons bleed, and not even wounds such as mine could mar your beauty."

Maekar carefully climbed onto the bed beside Vira's, releasing her hand. He lay beside her, on his side propped up on one elbow, but careful not to touch her. "Sleep, and heal, love. Please. I will rest, I promise, but you need it more than I. I will not leave your side."

"I don't snore," Maekar whispered in a scandalized tone, laughing at Vira as he embraced her ever so carefully.

"And you're one to talk besides, kicking around like a horse even under the furs," he added, sounding increasingly drowsy.

Before long, Maekar was snoring quietly beside her.

Vira had been dozing, for she had spent the morning in a state of anxiety and needed rest. The sight of Maekar calmed her a little as she awoke. It was so pleasant to be awoken with a kiss, and the sight of him made her feel safe and reassured. "I've missed your arms about me," she said warmly, kissing him back as if she had longed to taste him again. "But we must talk first, my love. I have received word from my birds. You'll forgive me for spying, I know, but I was curious about your betrothed and mine. My people tracked them for days, but they are clever, those traitorspawn, and I could discover little."

Vira sat up slowly, propped by cushions. "Your Visenya has apparently been meeting with that loud, brazen fellow in secret - remember the man who was insulting me at Baelon Waters' wedding while I tried to speak to Prince Aegon? Your uncle, I believe - Aerion. Visenya has been meeting with him in secret. What do you make of that? And she's also been consorting with some Braavosi merchant fellow who is friendly with her mother and sister. Do you know who this is?"

"And as for Rhaegar, my dear intended one, he has been meeting some silk merchant in the city named Kern, and has some private plot afoot - my people could tell - but I don't know what it is. I'm worried. It's like flying in the dark, into a big yawning trap."

"Is your uncle Aerion powerful?" Vira asked, drawing Maekar to sit beside her on the bed. She slid her arm through his as she thought. "For a moment I was confused because Lord Commander Brandon Snow has a white dragon named Aerion, I must admit - does your uncle have a dragon? Incomes? What could he possibly give Visenya, besides a willing cock?"

Vira slowly sat straighter, anger slowly growing in her heart. Interfering, arrogant Maegor. She should not have been surprised, but this intrusion into what Vira saw as her private family life made her boil. Rationally, she knew that the child had an equal chance of being Maegor's or Maekar's, but she clung to the memories of her village midwife's lessons to convince herself that Maekar was truly the father. And they had believed it, in the forest - they had been in their free, happy bubble of love, without a care in the world except kissing and fucking on the forest floor, and dreaming together of the future afterwards. Since coming to Darkheart, the dream of their forest life was slowly being stripped away by reality, and it made Vira feel afraid.

"No," she said fiercely, taking Maekar's hand in her own. "Remember that my old village midwife said that an old man's seed is nothing compared to the virility of a younger man's? And she always said that one time wasn't enough to plant it either. We have embraced under the furs far more often than I have with him, I know it's yours Maekar, I know it. Don't let him claim it!" But her pragmatic mind warred with her heart. Vira had come to know what love and devotion felt like since falling for Maekar, but she was not a fool either. A part of her reasoned that there was little they could do.

Vira took in this news with a shocked expression. It upturned all their plans, and for a moment it worried her. But after she thought for a moment, she said lightly, "What is there to fear, my love? All that we could hope for may yet be ours. I have always seen you as a ruler, and my dream for you is coming true. And the Prince Regent can have his mistress as well as his wife, can he not?" She smiled. "And as the widow of Rhaegar, I would get some legitimacy. We can still be together." We just have to wait.

There was only one thing that worried her. "So instead of Visenya, your wife is to be Rhaena," she said lightly. "Was she not - your - love?"