You had always remained single, one of their younger brothers. From time to time you went to brothels, and some men and women came to your chambers, but over the years you had never formed a bond with anyone that could be called “love.” Baelor and Maekar had both told you that you needed to start a family. But you were influenced by Shiera, one of Aegon IV’s many illegitimate children. You had always been bound to your blood and the idea of preserving a pure lineage, and for that reason you saw your brothers differently… a kind of fixation on their masculinity, and for that and many other reasons. They already had families, but you couldn’t stop thinking about breaking something between Baelor and Maekar… You wanted them only for yourself.

“You can’t go on like this,” Baelor told you one night, in that gentle voice he used when he wanted to persuade, not command. “We’re not boys anymore. You need a marriage. A purpose.”

Baelor sighed, weary, as if he had been having the same conversation for years. “Our lineage matters. More than you think.”

Maekar, on the other hand, was not so diplomatic. “What you lack is discipline,” he said, leaning against the doorframe. “Or new blood to get those ideas out of your head. Center your thoughts on a man or a woman since you have peculiar tastes...”

Shiera had planted in you the obsession with pure blood, with what ran beneath the skin, with bonds that could not be broken even by marriage. And so, while they spoke of wives, you thought only of them.