flashback: the trouble with dragons Who: Elia, Jaehaerys and various npc's, including Aeria. When: 15 years earlier, just after the beginning of the rebellion. Where: The Red Keep Rating: PG Status: Closed
There was a war somewhere and everyone had to go fight in it, but children had to stay home. Except some of them had to just stay where they were which wasn’t home and didn’t look a thing like home and smelled funny. They couldn’t even go back to Lys, which was home except that they weren’t supposed to say that out loud because it would upset the adults. This was how things were explained to Elia Nymera Martell. She was pretty sure things had been explained very badly, but the only person to ask about that was Uncle Sandro and he was already warring. She had tried asking for mother but that just made people cry. It was very bad when they did that.
Her sister seemed nice at least, and she was a queen. Aeria was her name, like mother had said. She had recognized the other ones, her brothers. They were bigger than she remembered or maybe just bigger than the portrait mother had in Lys. Father wasn’t bad either, but he just looked sad all the time. Myrwin was kind of scary, but he didn't mean anything by it Aeria said. Henry had a lot of books. And anyway they were at the war. Aeria was here, but she was a queen.
And all of this was important because Elia was wondering who she could ask about why she was being drug through the halls of the big stone ugly place when she wanted to be sleeping. They came to a set of larger doors and she dug her heels in. “I am not to be going there.”