-Chapter 170-
-POV Laena Targaryen-
It had been hours since Jeyne and I had been sitting, playing and watching over the little ones.
I didn't trust the palace nurses at all, unlike Aemon, who seemed more and more confident.
'He's even a little too confident for my taste,' I thought, watching Jeyne steal furtive glances at me.
'She wants to ask me something but doesn't dare start the conversation,' I quickly understood, noticing the way she kept opening her mouth only to close it again, hesitating to speak.
I rolled my eyes and finally broke the ice between us by asking:
"Why did you stay? You could have left with Aemon and Viserys."
Jeyne looked surprised that I was the one to break the silence, but she quickly composed herself and replied:
"I wasn't going to leave Aerys alone."
I was about to respond, but she didn't give me the chance and went on the defensive:
"You should have gone. Viserys is your son, I could've watched the girls, I see them as—"
I didn't let her finish her sentence. That wasn't the conversation I wanted to have.
I didn't want to argue with her. I wanted to talk, and to do that, I needed to make things clear between us right away.
"I know very well that you treat Rhaena and Baela as if they were your own daughters. I've never questioned that," I said, cutting her off because I didn't want her to misunderstand my intentions.
Jeyne said nothing for a moment, staring straight ahead with an impassive expression.
She eventually broke the silence and asked in a calmer tone:
"Then why didn't you go watch the tournament?"
"For the same reason as you," I replied, catching her slightly off guard judging by her surprised look, then added gently:
"I wanted to talk to you."
"About what?" Jeyne asked, her brows furrowed—not in anger, but curiosity, wanting to know what was so important that I chose to speak with her one-on-one when Aemon wasn't around.
"I wanted to talk to you about something that's been on my mind and worrying me greatly..." I began, pausing as I saw the tension on Jeyne's face. I was certain she was thinking the same thing I was.
So I finished my sentence: "...Aemon's succession."
Jeyne's jaw clenched briefly and she swallowed before saying:
"Aemon made that decision himself."
"I know that perfectly well," I replied, then added:
"I don't entirely agree with his idea, but I do recognize it's a good thing for our family."
"Then what is it you wanted to talk about?" Jeyne asked, still not seeing where I was going with this.
I sighed and said:
"Aemon is intelligent enough to plan decades ahead, digging into the very foundations of the realm to continue reinforcing his personal power. But sometimes, I wonder if he isn't too intelligent to think like common folk. Sometimes, people's actions defy all logic."
Jeyne frowned, but didn't interrupt. She let me speak, choosing to remain silent to see my point.
So I continued: "I believe our children will grow up to be fine young men. But like all normal people, they may end up feeling jealousy toward one another."
"In what way?" Jeyne asked, intrigued—though she seemed to already know where I was going. She was mostly testing how I'd respond, to understand my stance.
'She wants to know if I'm trying to push her son out of power,' I thought, recognizing the mother lion in her.
"Viserys might grow up resenting being excluded from his father's succession, and Aerys might remain nothing more than an heir his entire life, instead of inheriting my father's lands as a second son," I said, mentioning Viserys first so she'd understand I wasn't her enemy, but her ally, and that all I cared about was peace within our household.
"Only if your father dies before Aemon," Jeyne said, thinking aloud, instinctively defending her son.
I frowned at the poorly timed remark, and she quickly apologized:
"I meant no harm, but it's the truth. Who knows what the future holds?"
I kept my composure and replied, choosing to follow her 'logic' and said:
"I fully agree with you. But considering Aemon's health and my father's age, I believe Aemon might outlive him—my father is already in the final chapter of his life."
'Even though I hope they both live forever,' I thought silently.
"I agree," Jeyne said, acknowledging my point, then added:
"It's true Aemon tends to approach everything with cold logic... but some things simply defy logic."
I nodded, seeing that Jeyne was slowly unlocking the chains that kept her guarded, and now spoke to me with an open heart, not from a place of defensiveness.
"Exactly. And it's up to us to make sure our children don't end up like Aegon and Rhaenyra. They must grow up and learn to live as true siblings, regardless of the blood that runs in their veins."
Jeyne frowned again and said:
"But you'll always be the first wife, the main one... and I'm just the concubine."
I held myself back from rolling my eyes—neither of us had ever been officially labeled as such.
'It's just a chronological fact. I was Aemon's first wife, nothing more,' I thought, restraining myself from pointing it out to her.
"There's never been talk of concubinage where Aemon is concerned," I said sincerely, because it was the truth. Aemon had married me in the Faith of the Seven, and married her in the ancient Valyrian rite of the Fourteen Flames.
'Even if it should've been the other way around, in my opinion—unlike me, she didn't believe in the Fourteen Flames of Valyria.'
"Maybe not for Aemon," Jeyne said, her brows deepening into a genuine frown before continuing:
"But to the rest of the realm, I'm just a prize he won."
"And is that the truth?" I asked. Because no matter what people thought or whispered behind our backs, it wasn't the truth—and they could not twist it.
'That's the difference between us and them,' I thought as I looked at her, still too concerned about what others thought of her—even though she now held more power than ever since becoming Aemon's so-called 'concubine'.
'Our mindset is clearly above hers.'
'We are dragons—we do not care about the opinions of sheep.'
Jeyne didn't reply, but she didn't look convinced either, and I could understand her.
'As a woman.'
I paused for a moment, trying to find common ground, something that would help her understand we stood on the same level—and that others would come to see it too.
"Very well. From now on, whatever is granted to one of us shall be granted to the other. Otherwise, it shall be refused."
All I wanted was for my children to grow up far from the toxic family tensions House Targaryen was all too familiar with.
Jeyne looked at me, surprised by the 'concession' I had made, then nodded and said:
"Very well. From today, Aerys is no longer your stepson. He is your son."
Relieved to see that we were both willing to make the necessary effort for this to work, I replied:
"Likewise. From today, my children are yours. We are now both mothers of four children."
Jeyne nodded and seemed about to say something else when Gunthor burst into the room and said:
"The first part of the tournament is over. The qualifications ended less than half an hour ago."
"Aegon and Cregan qualified?" I asked, curious to know their ranking.
"With almost indecent ease," Gunthor said with a smile.
I raised a surprised eyebrow—I didn't think Aemon's training of the young boys would be enough to let them defeat grown men.
'Even though very few of them had proper weapons training, let alone with a master swordsman as skilled as Aemon.'
Gunthor snapped me out of my thoughts and added:
"Prince Aemon and Prince Viserys await you in the gardens, where the royal banquet will be held before the final round of the squire's tournament begins."