the air at dragonstone always tasted of salt and ancient stone, a heavy dampness that clung to the tapestries and dampened the loose strands of hair escaping your braid. you sat in the window nook of the library, the glow of a single candle flickering against the yellowed parchment of a map you weren't really reading. you were listening to the silence of the castle, a silence that was always broken by the same rhythmic, haunting melody of a silver-stringed harp.

when the music stopped, the quiet felt twice as heavy.

"you should be at the feast, my lord," you said, your voice barely a whisper against the rustle of the leaves outside the high window. "the realm expects its prince to be radiant."

rhaegar stepped out from the shadows of the arched doorway, the moonlight catching the pale shimmer of his valyrian hair until it looked like spun glass.

the years marked by a refined sharpness in his jaw and the broad, muscular set of his shoulders, yet his violet eyes still held that same melancholic depth that had drawn you in years ago at harrenhal. he moved with the grace of a warrior who had long ago traded his books for a sword, yet never quite lost the soul of the scholar.

"the realm expects a mask," rhaegar replied, his voice low and resonant in the small space. he stepped closer, the scent of rain and old incense trailing with him. "i find that in your company, i am permitted to take it off."

you looked down at your hands, resting against the curve of your lap. you had always felt like a soft, quiet footnote in the grand, violent history of his house. the shadow of the bold lyanna stark, a woman of steady presence rather than fire.

"i am merely a shadow," you replied, though your heart hammered against your ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage of bone.

rhaegar stepped into the small circle of candlelight, his height looming over the desk, lean and imposing. he reached out, his hand hovering just inches from yours but not touching, the heat radiating from his skin.

"no," he said, his gaze fixed on yours with a terrifying intensity. "shadows are dark. you are the only thing in this castle that isn't trying to hide."