Chapter 17: The Wedding

[Doran Martell’s Journal]

 

In the last month of 279 AC, my mother and I waited at the port of Sunspear, waiting for my brothers to come with their ship. Mother was worried, after all, the ship was new, and it had never been tested in full combat before. Fortunately, the worst hadn’t come, and they arrived, with their ship relatively unscathed. Mother had a big smile on her face when she saw the ship docked. She was proud of Morian, so young, yet so talented, it is shameful that mother wouldn’t allow me to abdicate, otherwise, after mother lay for her eternal rest, he would be the ruling prince instead of me.

 

We then loaded the ship with our things, gifts, gold, and food in preparation for the journey and wedding. Some of the cannons were unloaded from the ship to make room, and the crew had to be lessened, so me and mother could have more space. Morian and Oberyn hugged their mother once they got out of the ship, they told that the test was a success, and the pirate ships were sunk.

 

We didn’t sail immediately, as Oberyn and Morian needed rest, but it was all but a short break, a day later, they were ready to sail again. Morian told the crew to make a room specifically for mother and me, and they did, Morian then carried the frail body of our mother to her room in the ship, making sure that she was comfortable. And so we sailed toward King’s landing, passing the Sea of Dorne and the Stormlands. The journey passing through the Stormlands, as always, is rough. The ship can hold off the storm however, but it needs a lot of work. A month we were on the sea, mother was starting to get sick, she started to get nightmares and hallucination, screaming about her ‘granddaughter’ and swearing revenge on a man called ‘the mountain’, we were worried about her, and about those nightmares, perhaps it wasn’t a dream? Or perhaps it was just that, a hallucination.

 

When we arrived at King’s Landing, mother was getting better, she didn’t have nightmares anymore, but she was still weak. When we docked, people were looking at us, our ship was eye-catching to them perhaps, so small folks gathered around the dock to see us. We Dornish rarely travel to the north, for good reason, people there distrust us, our ways are different from them, some of our skin are different from them, top it all off with our bloody history with the targaryens. We then presented ourselves to the king, but the king didn't want to see us, seeing us as ‘not important’, an insult to our pride. Oberyn was so angry, I can see it in his face, but he acted calm, as mother was with him. We were instead greeted by queen Rhaella, who mother served as lady-in-waiting for a while, that is why she was able to get Elia marry Rhaegar, through her.

 

We also met the small council of King Aerys, nothing particularly interesting about them, except that Gerold, the lord commander of the kingsguard, commented to Oberyn about his recent mockery of his family, calling one of his relative as ‘Baelor Breakwind’, he just laughed it off, but I admit, it was funny, we also thanked him for saving Elia when she was attacked by bandits, he said that it was his duty to the crown to protect the princess. Our uncle Lewyn is there, he greeted mother, hugged her, and when she was in King’s Landing, he took care of her. We also noted the absence of lord Tywin Lannister, the hand of the king, it is ironic that when mother come to Casterly Rock offering Oberyn’s and Elia’s hand to him, he refused, saying that his daughter will marry the crown prince, and instead offered Tyrion, an abomination of a human, to her, it was an insult to us, so we refused, look where he got now, Elia was now marrying the crown prince, not his daughter.

 

There was also the master of Whisperers, Varys, Morian says that the man is dangerous, and his ‘brothers’, which I’m assuming that it’s the cloaked men that are always in his shadows, said that Varys have ears everywhere, little children roaming around Dorne as his spy, he told me that those children have been dealt with, to which I frown, my little brother killing children? I ask why he did it, he said that Varys was a threat, and so the children were a threat, a threat is a threat, whether or not he or she was only a child is another matter.

 

And so we went back to the tavern in King’s landing, Oberyn, as always, ran off to the brothel nearby, but strangely, Morian was also gone, nowhere to be seen.

 

—

 

[Varys’s Journal]

 

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Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, the words of house Martell. In a way, those three words embodied the three princes, Prince Doran, Prince Oberyn, and Prince Morian. If what my birds told me were true, Prince Doran was a cautious and calculating man, he’d rather watch as men fight between themselves and strike afterwards than fight them head on. Prince Oberyn was the opposite, he was reckless, rash, unpredictable, but he had the skills and wit to back it up. The last of the princes, Prince Morian, was the most dangerous one. He was still young, but he was like his two brothers, he was calculating and cautious, yet he was also unpredictable. Lately, my birds in Dorne haven't returned, I suspect that they’re dead. If that were true, then the Dornish are more ruthless than I had anticipated.

 

While the information of Prince Oberyn and Prince Doran are plenty, information about Prince Morian is rare. Aside from knowing that he was fostered at Starfall, home of the Daynes, and he had gone missing for a year, I know nothing about him, Dorne has always been hard to spy on, their isolationist policies prevented me from establishing a strong network, coupled by the recent deaths of my birds there, I am blind in Dorne. There have been whispers about Prince Morian’s deeds in the sea recently, sailors from Dorne talked about the prince’s new invention called ‘cannons’ that create thundering sounds, but I have no information at all about that, we even tortured some of the sailors but found nothing more. I had asked Pycelle about the invention, yet he didn’t know what the sailors were talking about, he even sent a raven to the Citadel to confirm it, and yet there was no answer. It feels like everywhere I searched, there was no information, it is like they are teasing me with little information, but never giving me the whole package.

 

My guts are telling me that they are planning something, a rebellion maybe? The king must know. But evidence needs to be gathered first, while the king’s paranoia haunts him, if I told the king without evidence of rebellion and he judged the Dornish too early, half of Westeros would rebel. But then again, a rebellion could be a good excuse to dethrone the mad king.

 

—

 

[Oberyn’s Journal]

 

As time went on in this shit hole of a city, we have finally reached the day when Elia was getting married. I admit, I was not pleased about the wedding, but if Elia is happy about it, then it was enough. We were walking to the Sept of Baelor, our uncle Lewyn helped push mother’s wheelchair, and I pushed Doran’s wheelchair. We entered the sept, and almost all the lords of Westeros were there. But there was one person that was missing, the king himself. It was a mockery, the king didn’t want to attend his own son’s wedding, was it because the bride was Dornish? Of course it is, the king is mad as it can be.

 

My mother, who was getting weaker and weaker by the day, was talking to the lords and ladies, I had heard that they were offering their daughters hands to be betrothed to me or Morian, mother said that she would think about it for me, but for Morian, she said that he was already betrothed. I was confused, since when? How have I not heard of it? So I asked Morian about it, but he also didn’t know, so, we both confronted our mother, and she said that Morian was already betrothed to Lady Ashara of Starfall, if you saw the look on his face there, you would have burst out laughing, his olive skin was pale that day, it’s a good thing that Ashara didn’t come to the wedding, but her brother, Arthur Dayne, was there, and mother encourage him to talk to him, though he avoided it by saying to my mother that he will do it later, he didn’t.

 

I was chosen to be the one who will remove Elia’s Martell cloak, our father had died years after Morian was born, mother and Doran were sitting on a wheelchair, so it was up to me. I was not pleased with it, but it was for Elia, and so the ceremony started, songs were sung, prayers were spoken, and cheers were thrown. Prince Rhaegar and my sister Elia walked under Targaryen swords and Martell’s spears to the sept. They then stood in front of the high septim with their cloaks, and so the real ceremony began.

 

I removed her Martell’s cloak from her shoulder, revealing her weak and frail body that is covered by a beautiful white wedding dress. She was smiling at me, she was happy at least, then Rhaegar cloaked her with his black and red cloak, signifying his protection. And with the vows spoken and a kiss, the ceremony ended, and Elia was officially married.

 

I saw that my mother was crying, she was happy, happy that she got to see Elia get married, it was almost time for her, and she was grateful that she’s able to see her only daughter get married. Little did we know that it was the last time that Elia saw her alive, and it was the last tears she had ever shed.

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