Free to Dream

Baela had just decided to take Moondancer for a flight, and now she was looking for Jace to ask if he wanted to join her.

She found him just outside the door to his chambers.

“Hey, you!” she called, reaching out to touch his arm.

He turned around.

“My lady…” he said with a playful bow and a smile.

She nudged him lightly.

“I’m taking Moondancer for a ride. Want to come?”

Jace smiled before letting out a quiet sigh.

“I can’t. Mother asked me to help Joffrey with his lessons. She said he wasn’t exactly cooperative with the maester today.”

“Well, I’ll find you later then,” Baela said. She pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before turning away.

As she walked off, she didn’t see the soft smile that spread across Jace’s face, nor the way his heart quickened at the simple gesture.

⸻

A few hours later, Baela returned. After grabbing something to eat, she made her way through the halls in search of Jace.

She found him surrounded by books, his back turned to the entrance. She would have recognized that dark, unruly hair from a mile away.

As she sat beside him, she let her hands brush over his shoulders.

“Where’s Joffrey?”

Jace chuckled and looked at her.

“I let him go a while ago. He wasn’t going to learn anything today.” He closed the book in front of him. “How was the flight?”

“Good. But Moondancer kept looking for Vermax.”

Jace leaned a little closer.

“You smell like a dragon.”

Baela looked up at him through her lashes.

“Does that bother you, my Prince?” she whispered.

“No… it does not,” he whispered back, leaning in as he brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Baela’s lips parted ever so slightly, inviting him closer.

He held her gaze until they were too close to keep looking into each other’s eyes.

His lips brushed against hers, featherlight, and Baela let out a shaky breath.

Jace closed the remaining distance between them, kissing her softly as his hand came up to cradle the side of her neck.

They heard voices echoing through the halls and quickly pulled away from each other.

Jace reopened the book, while Baela straightened in her seat and fixed her eyes on its pages.

“Jace? Where’s Joffrey?”

Rhaenyra’s voice was unmistakable as she approached.

Jace looked up at his mother.

“I let him go. He wasn’t concentrating today,” he explained.

Rhaenyra’s gaze shifted from her son to Baela.

When Baela met her gaze, Rhaenyra gave her a knowing smile.

“Well… I suppose it was worth the effort.” Her lips curved into a faint smile. “But that’s not why I’m here. We’re about to hold a small council meeting, Jace. I’ve been told there’s news of the Greens’ movements.”

She turned to Baela.

“You’re welcome to join us.”

⸻

As Baela walked toward Moondancer with Jace by her side, she could almost feel the frustration radiating from him.

She stopped before climbing onto her dragon to adjust her riding gloves, then turned to face him.

“You’re not even trying to hide how angry you are, Jace.”

“Should I?” he asked. “She sends you to scout, yet she doesn’t even consider sending me. I’m the heir to the Iron Throne. I shouldn’t just be waiting for things to happen.” He let out a quiet sigh. “I thought I’d already proven my worth with the alliances I secured.”

Baela stepped closer and cupped his cheek.

His expression softened beneath her touch.

“You have proven your worth, Jace. She knows exactly how valuable you are. That’s why she isn’t sending you on a simple scouting mission.”

He rolled his eyes.

“You’re right. As always.”

He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

“Be careful. Come home safe.”

His thumb brushed over her cheek.

“I’ll be waiting.”

They rested their foreheads together for a brief moment before Baela climbed onto Moondancer’s saddle.

Moments later, the young dragon launched into the sky, carrying her toward the horizon.

⸻

Baela looked toward the horizon. The sight of Moondancer flying alone made her heart ache. She had never flown alone before; Vermax had always been at her side.

A single tear slipped down her cheek.

How long had it been?

One day? Two? Five?

She no longer knew. Time had become meaningless.

Turning away, she stepped back into the halls of Dragonstone. The ancient stone walls seemed to close in around her, swallowing her whole.

She knew every corner of the castle. She no longer needed to think about where she was going; she could have found her way with her eyes closed.

When she stopped before the door to the bedchamber, a lump rose in her throat.

She pushed the door open and stepped inside before lowering herself onto the edge of the bed.

It was supposed to have been their bed after they were married.

They had chosen this chamber not because it was the largest or the grandest, but because its window overlooked the stretch of sky where Moondancer and Vermax had always flown together, weaving through the clouds as if they, too, knew what it meant to love.

The door opened, and Baela looked up as a servant stepped inside.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Lady Baela. I wasn’t aware you were using this bedchamber.”

Baela offered her a gentle smile.

“I’m not. But could you give me just one more minute?”

The servant returned a sad smile and nodded before quietly leaving the room.

Baela rose from the bed and walked toward the wardrobe. She ran her fingers across the wooden doors as she made her way to the far end, stopping in front of the last one.

Taking a deep breath, she opened it.

Their wedding clothes hung inside, untouched.

Jace had placed his there first because she had insisted he must not see her dress before their wedding day. Still, they had wanted to keep both of their outfits together, a silent promise of the future they would share.

Tears streamed down her face as she carefully took out her dress, folding it neatly and placing it on the bed. Then she reached for his.

She lifted the garment to her face.

Her eyes widened.

His scent.

How could it still carry his scent? He had never worn it. Perhaps it had absorbed it from hanging beside the rest of his clothes.

Her knees gave way beneath her.

She collapsed onto the floor, clutching the fabric to her chest as sobs tore through her.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally managed to stand. She picked up her dress from the bed and quietly made her way back to her own chambers.

⸻

Flashback

“I think this is the one,” Jace said, looking at Baela, who was standing by the window, watching Moondancer and Vermax soar through the sky.

“Yes. Definitely,” she replied, turning to him with a smile.

Jace glanced around the bedchamber as Baela watched him.

“We should get married now,” Baela said as she walked over to him, resting a hand against his chest.

Jace looked down at her, a slight frown crossing his face.

“I don’t want us to marry in haste, in the middle of a war,” he said, taking her free hand in his.

“I know you don’t… but what if—”

“Don’t say that.” His voice was gentle but firm. “This war will end. My mother will sit the Iron Throne, and we’ll marry in a celebration where we won’t have to keep looking over our shoulders, fearing our enemies’ next move.”

He lowered his forehead until it rested against hers.

Baela closed her eyes and nodded.

“I have an idea,” he whispered.

She opened her eyes and met his gaze.

“What?” she whispered back.

Instead of answering, he leaned forward and kissed her.

The kiss was gentle, slow, and full of quiet promise. His hand slipped from hers to cradle her face.

When they finally pulled apart, he smiled softly.

“Let’s leave our wedding clothes here… as a promise of the future we’ll share together.”

She smiled back, still slightly breathless, unable to look away from his warm brown eyes.

⸻

“Mother?”

Baela blinked, tearing her gaze away from the horizon, where her husband—the father of her daughter—sailed away aboard his ship.

“Yes?”

“May I go play now?” Laena asked with a smile.

“Yes. But don’t forget we’re supposed to pack tonight before we leave to visit your aunt.”

Laena nodded before running off.

Baela made her way back inside and into her bedchamber to begin packing. Knowing her daughter, she would almost certainly need help gathering her belongings later that evening.

As she searched through her things for something to pack them in, she came across something she hadn’t touched in a very long time.

Her heart skipped a beat as she pulled a small wooden chest from the back of her wardrobe.

As she opened it, she felt the same weight she had carried so many times over the years.

People said time healed everything.

In Baela’s experience, it healed nothing.

If anything, it only made it harder. Every passing day, every month, every year carried her farther away from the time when Jace had still been alive.

She could no longer remember the details of his face.

She struggled to recall the sound of his voice.

Or his laughter.

She lifted his wedding garment to her face, just as she had done countless times before.

This time, there was no trace of his scent.

Only the faint smell of fabric that had been tucked away for far too many years.

A sudden noise made Baela startle, and she quickly turned around.

How long had she been standing there?

Laena had stopped in her tracks, looking slightly concerned.

“Mother… why are you crying?” she asked softly as she walked toward Baela.

Her eyes fell to the garment her mother was holding tightly against her chest.

Baela knelt before her daughter, wiping away her tears with one hand while still clutching the fabric with the other.

“I just found something from a long time ago,” Baela said with a reassuring smile as she carefully folded the garment. “It brought back a lot of memories.”

Laena sat beside her, watching quietly.

“Who did it belong to?”

Baela finished folding the garment and placed it back inside the chest. Her hand lingered on the fabric for a moment before she looked at her daughter.

“These were supposed to be my wedding clothes… and Prince Jacaerys’s.”

Laena’s eyes widened.

“Really? Why do you still keep them?”

Baela closed the wooden chest before sitting down in front of her daughter.

“I don’t really know,” she admitted with a faint smile. “Perhaps because some things are harder to let go of than others.”

She lowered her gaze for a moment.

“Prince Jacaerys and I were promised to one another when we were very young. His life was taken before we ever had the chance to build one together. All we knew was war.”

Her fingers brushed lightly over the lid of the chest.

“These clothes… they were a promise of a future.”

She looked back at Laena before rising to her feet and offering her hand.

Laena took it, and as soon as she was standing, she wrapped her arms around her mother.

“I’m so sorry for everything that happened to you, Mother.”

Baela closed her eyes as she breathed in the scent of her daughter’s hair, finding comfort in it.

“It hasn’t been easy,” she whispered. “But I have you. And for that, I’ll always be grateful.”

She smiled gently.

“Now go to your chambers. I’ll meet you there in a minute.”

Laena nodded and quietly left the room.

Baela carried the chest back to its place inside the wardrobe.

After closing the doors, she rested her forehead against the worn wood and took a slow, steady breath.

She knew she would open that chest again someday.

Just as she had so many times over the years.

When the war began, she had refused to leave Dragonstone.

She had refused to leave his side.

She had promised she would stay.

That she would fight beside him.

After he died, she found herself angry.

Because he had gone to the one place she could not follow.

Not yet.

It had been an eternity since she had last held him close.

Yet, somewhere deep within her heart, she chose to believe that such a place existed.

A place beyond grief.

Beyond war.

Beyond loss.

And when her own time came, she hoped she would find him there.