"Mal did you hear-?" I asked delicately, coming closer towards him. I feared the worst. Does he hate me after what Nikolai had said he wanted to do to me. That I wanted Nikolai's love. The clapping ceased a long while and slowly I got my calm Mal back.

"I did. Do you like him?"

"Y-yeah, he's a good man."

"No Alina. Like-like him?"
He was referring to my emotions about Nikolai. I felt something completely different when I'm with Nikolai. But I have only ever seen him as Sturmhond. He was kind and accepting but I don't know what the actual Nikolai looks like.

"Answer Me!" Mal demanded, grabbing onto my shoulders, scaring me out of my thoughts. His grip started to tighten and I got a whiff of his scent. He's drunk.

I need to get him back to his room before he causes a scene. Or becomes violent with me. The thought scared me, If he grabbed my hair and swung me down on the floor. I held him by his arm and behind his back, supporting him as he walked. He continued to say some condescending things to me on the way back up to his room.

I took the back way up into his room. I nodded gently, smiled politely as people walked past us. I don't care what they were thinking. The Sun Summoner, now betrothed, is taking another man, who's not her future husband. To bed.

They wouldn't understand the dilemma I'm in.

"I should have married you when I had the chance." Mal started to murmur rather loudly. No one was around to hear anything he said. His words surprised me. "N-not Drogo, not Nikolai. Me. I should have married you after the fold. I'm sorry."

We slowly entered the room as I set him down on his bed. I caressed the side of his face and sat beside him. "Don't be. I would have loved to be your wife. The first marriage In which I want to be someone's wife. But you know, sacrifices must be made. My feelings don't matter." As Nikolai said they didn't. This is just a political marriage. Open relationship on both sides. It wasn't that bad to think about but then I wouldn't be able to marry Mal and there are marriage based rituals we have to abide by that will not make it easier. Just a constant reminder, I was married to another. Again.

"Why does it always have to be you Alina? Why do you have to make that sacrifice?"

I looked down at the floor for a second then looked up at Mal, building up my answer.

"Because I'm the Sun Summoner. I don't get to be truly happy. I don't get to wed the person I love the most in this world. I don't get to have a marriage In which there aren't benefits for an entire country, not myself. I don't get to have a blissful life afterwards because our lives aren't normal. Mal." I cupped his face.

"Happiness is the one thing we Queens can never have."

I acknowledged that I am a Queen or a Khaleesi. And I will be Ravka's Queen soon enough as well. I wiped the tears that fell from Mal face and whipped my own tears as well.

I poured a glass of water and gave it to Mal. Hopefully it would wash down the drinks he had. "Your drunk Mal. You should sleep the alcohol off."

I laid him down on his bed and unlaced his boots, placing them aside his bed. I pulled up the covers over him and was about to leave, to go to my room. But Mal held on my hand which forced me to turn around.

"S-stay." He begged. I nodded and slipped his hand out of mine. I went around the bed and slipped under the covers. I watched as Mal slept this heart wrenching night away. I knew It couldn't have been easy for him, but he was so strong and so forgiving. Maybe tomorrow I should do a little something for him. I'll ask Genya to help and maybe ask Zoya for advice. She wasn't with us for the night. Maybe she was out partying. The thought made me smile. She could take anyone under, with alcohol.

***
The next day I was with Genya,  reading in the library. I finally managed to catch up with the book I was engrossed with the night the Darkling brought me back here.

The book was about the Mad King. I asked Genya about the Mad King and It seems as though she knows more about the Mad King's daughter.

I went through the rest of the volumes in the series. They based around the family houses in Westeros. House Targaryen is where the Mad King came from, the Queen line. House Lannister. House Baratheon. House Stark. House Tyrell consisted of a Lady Olenna.

"Hey look at this." Genya said, grabbing a big, old, crested with the Targaryen seal book on the table. "This book is about the royal family."

"The Mad Kings ancestry and descendants?"

"Yeah."

I felt the designs of the Targaryen crest on the book cover. It was a red dragon. "House of the Dragon."

I saw the names of everyone in the family tree but there was a certain blank under the Mad King. One was Viserys, someone I met in the Dothraki. Maybe that's why I wanted to learn more about the Mad King, because Viserys was his son. The other one was partially blank. It started of with Al... Then lost the rest of its name. It didn't look scratched out but I guess whoever wrote the book, didn't write the full name of the Princess.

I saw the birth patterns and charts that signified the record of the Princesses birthday. It was the same as mine. Nice to know she was the same age as me.

'Part Shu, Part Ravkan.'

Wait. They had to have gotten it wrong, right? The Princess was born in Dragonstone, Westeros. She was then sent away as a baby. One of the books mentioned she's part Ravkan. So the Princess is in Ravka. And she must have been alive if the books know so and very little about her. Nothing was recorded about the princess, aside from the fact she was submitted into an Orphanage in

"Keramzin!"

***
Published: 20:26pm 04/1/2022