House of the Dragon. Another story.

The southern night was warm and bright as usual, but the Runestone, to everyone's surprise, did not plunge into darkness, but was only illuminated by the moonlight as the sun set behind the horizon, thereby giving the gray colors of the palace color and beauty. And the reflections of the candle flame illuminated the walls of the palace inside. However, the pregnant hated wife of Daemon Targaryen - Rhea Royce, whom he affectionately calls «Bronze Bitch», could not enjoy this beauty, for the time had come for her child to be born, in whose upbringing she would never allow her hated husband to take part. The woman knew perfectly well that her husband was incapable of love, and even more so he would not be able to raise her child as a noble lord or noble lady. So she would never let Daemon near her child. Although, let's be honest, the Corrupt Prince wouldn't go near the child without her prohibition, because he couldn't care less about the child of his hated wife. And for Rhea, this was very good, because she wouldn't have to share the child with her hated husband. Another scream escaped Rhea's lips and she no longer felt the sweat pouring down her face and her lungs burning from lack of oxygen. Only pain remained, burning like a ring of fire. Midwives surrounded her on all sides, endlessly repeating one word: "push", but Rhea didn't hear them, trying to concentrate on what the maester, who had been called here by her cousin, Gerold Royce, was telling her. She was doing the latter poorly. And what's surprising about that, because this was her first birth, but the desire to see her child helped the Lady of the Runestone stay conscious. The pain was getting worse and worse, and it seemed to Reya that it would never end, but after a few seconds, the child was born with an unpleasant wet sound. The room was filled with the crying of a newborn, and the pain finally retreated and the woman leaned back on the pillows, exhausted. — It's a girl, my lady! — One of the midwives joyfully exclaimed, wrapping the newborn in swaddling clothes, —A beautiful girl who looks like you, my lady, in everything except her eyes. — Give her to me quickly! — Reya ordered The midwife immediately carried out the order of the Lady of the Rune Stone, who smiled as soon as the newborn was in her arms. This girl really did look like her: the same dark hair, nose and eyebrows. The only thing that distinguished the newborn from her was the sapphire eyes she got from her father and the freckles she got from her late grandfather. Rhea knows her family tree very well, so she easily determined that her daughter got her freckles from the late Allard Royce, her grandfather. But the eyes reminded the woman of her daughter's father, but she didn't care, because her newborn daughter and she knows that Damon will not even come to look at the child, much less come near her, because he doesn't care about this child. The girl was born from an unloved woman and Rhea is happy about this. She will be able to raise her daughter herself - as she sees fit, and not in the disgusting Targaryen traditions of copulating with close relatives. Let Damon do whatever he wants. Let him fuck whoever he wants. She doesn't care. She will be raising her daughter. She will raise a real lady out of her, and not a dragon, which the Targaryens are used to seeing their children as. She will raise a true ruler of the Rune Stone. She will raise a true Royce, not a Targaryen. Let the blood of Royce and Targaryen flow in her daughter’s veins, but she will forget about the latter and will raise her daughter in the traditions of House Royce, not House Targaryen. — What will you name your daughter, Lady Rhea? —The brunette was brought out of her thoughts by the voice of her cousin, Gerold, who appeared in the doorway. Rhea thought, scrolling through the options of names in her thoughts, but none, as she believed, suited this beautiful woman. Yes, the ruler of the Rune Stone knew that a child born from a Targaryen should be called a Valyrian name, but she did not want to indulge the vanity of her hated husband by naming her daughter in honor of one of the representatives of the Targaryens, so she scrolled through in her thoughts only not Valyrian names, but, I repeat, none of the names suited the newborn, in the opinion of the brunette. And she had already despaired of choosing a name, but as soon as she looked out the window, the name burst out of her lips:       — Eilia. — She smiled, — Her name will be Eilia, because she was born on a bright night. — A beautiful name for the heir of the Rune Stone, cousin. — Gerold smiled, to which Rhea only nodded.

***

However, Rhea did not manage to forget about the dragon origin of her daughter, because the news of Eilia's birth reached the Red Keep the next day, from where Daemon sent a golden chest containing a beautiful garnet-red dragon egg, and a letter saying that he hoped that this egg would never hatch from this offspring of the Royces. Rhea chuckled at these words, understanding her husband's incorrigibility, and placed the egg in her daughter's cradle, where it hatched a few months later. So Royce just wanted to see the angry expression on her husband's face when he saw that his hope had been shattered.