Blood of Dragons

A moon has passed since the honor of Queen Naerys was upheld, and the life of Daena Targaryen ended in the bloody bed. Much was made, in the days that followed these events, of the court’s attempts at piety and charity in honor of queen and princess alike Wagons were seen leaving the Red Keep for a motherhouse on the Street of Sisters, heavy with garments to be given out among the poor, and later Princess Rhaena herself encouraged almsgiving at the docks, where ladies of the court gave loaves and coppers while knights and officers helped load provisions bound for the Kingswood. It was there that the _Golden Wind_, a merchant ship carrying flour out of Gulltown, burst into fire and ruin beside the Sea Watch ship _Mummer’s Dagger_. Wood, flame, smoke, stampeding horses, and frightened smallfolk did the rest: by the end, more than a hundred souls had gone to the Stranger, with the _Mummer’s Dagger_ also lost, alms sunk, docks damaged, and rumors already asking whether flour milled in the Vale could truly be trusted.

But in the days after—and indeed, some might say, in the days before—Princess Rhaena had been withdrawn from the court, and many believed her grief at the loss of her beloved sister had cut so deeply that the sadness could be seen even when she smiled to those in need during her almsgivings. Those near the royal sept spoke of Most Devout and septas having regularly attended her in the last weeks, consoling her with prayers over her grief. Queen Naerys and Princess Elaena, too, spent a deal of time trying to comfort her. Servants whispered that she sobbed aloud in the night, at times, and others said they sometimes glimpsed her in the sept, praying ceaselessly rather than sleeping in the watches of the night. With so many royal ladies and holy women about the princess, every servant with a bucket soon had a version of the matter. Some said Rhaena had found only temporary solace in prayer and was losing her faith. Others said she had found an answer for her pain, but struggled with it—or feared some other would struggle with it.

And then all became revealed, quite suddenly, after rumors began to spread that the princess was making preparations to leave the city. To a motherhouse, perhaps the one in Oldtown, or Lannisport, or mayhaps the Motherhouse of Maris.

Why?

Because she had taken the vows of a septa not long before the news of her eminent departure, after finally winning the king’s consent.

It transpired that this followed what appears to have been a private campaign—one allegedly waged by the High Septon, Queen Naerys, and (finally and convincingly, it’s said) by Princess Elaena on Rhaena’s behalf. The news of the vows and her preparations to depart were both intended to be kept quiet until she set to leave, in fact. However, there had been whispers soon after Daena’s death that the king had notions of disposing of Rhaena’s hand, with one companion recounting that one evening the king had remarked that the grieving Rhaena would find more solace with a husband between her maiden thighs than any amount of prayer on her knees… and those whispers, it seem, had sown seeds that began to bear fruit as various courtiers and lords had begun to propose suitors for her hand. This made that campaign all the more urgent, as it was in no wise the princess’s wish, and it seemed the Faith, the queen, and her own sister supported her in this.

And, though grudgingly, so did the king at last.