#tidesao3

Lucerys Velaryon

“She had never fallen for beauty: it was Rhaena who liked lace and jewels, whereas Baela liked sweat and muscle pain, and therefore Lucerys’ looks were lost on her, even if his face made any person who looked at him ache. There had always been a visible distinction between the Velaryon boys—both Jacaerys and Joffrey were Strongs: reasonable, human, easy to adore, but Lucerys… Lucerys was a Targaryen: wild, rebellious, restless.

He wasn’t delicate or kind, every angle of him too perfect to be considered real. It made Baela think that weapons could be beautiful, too. Until they cut too deep for it to be possible to mend the wound.”

Sl-Slowly?

Friends, I wrote over 635k words in 3,5 years (and that’s just for one story). That’s like a book per year, and not a short book.

And mind you, this is fanfiction. I am not getting paid for this, this isn’t my source of income or my obligation.

It’s just my passion, something that I love to do and choose to share with you.

Chapter 45: Second Sons

Out now.

Sweet Mother and Maiden.

Alicent was forced to watch her son drool over the bastard for what felt like a century, but she knew how that tale ended. She had witnessed it before.

There were times when she thought she could sacrifice everything for Rhaenyra, but those thoughts got swallowed down and sealed in the furthest corner of her mind, because that had never been possible. It was a smart choice. Alicent believed that Aemond would make the same one when the time would come.

Instead, he chose differently.

“I can’t believe you did such a thing,” she said when Aemond still hadn’t responded, or moved, or assured her that it was all a part of a great plan, “how could you put your… desires above the fate of this land? How could you be so selfish?”

“Because I am!” Snapped back Aemond, losing his composure at last, “I am selfish, mother, and I don’t need you to lecture me on this, because I don’t regret my decision for one. Moment,” he breathed through his teeth, “and I will choose him over this bloody land again and again if I have to!”

❧ excerpt from “Tides”

Hatred and revenge.

He knew now that there was only one thing more powerful than those two. And it was hope.

In Otto’s view of the world, hope was useless. He didn’t believe in it, but used it to his advantage because other people did. His mother, in contrast, thought that hoping was enough to tilt the axis of the world.

And Aemond, raised by both of them, got stuck somewhere in the middle.

He wondered whether Daemon had hoped for anything in his life or simply twisted and turned the world to take it. Their tale wasn’t the one of Maegor and Aegon the Uncrowned: Daemon didn’t usurp the throne and Aemond wasn’t the one leading an army against him—still, it had been the nephew of the tyrant king who died in that battle, which later had been written into history books as the Battle Beneath the God’s Eye.

Life had a good sense of humor when it came to House Targaryen. ❞