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The Wave Ceremony was one of the most important traditions of house Velaryon. Every child, boy or girl, was to be bathed in the cold waters of Driftmark at the rise of the first full moon, counting thirty days after they were born.
Every resident of the Velaryon’s house island was to be present, and every family member too, including the extended one.
The Ceremony was created by the first Velaryon and said to maintain the rhythm of the tides and the safety of the waves.
Vaemond used to love the tradition, having barely held his tears at bay when his boys were bathed.
Now, however, he was not at all eager to be part of it.
“I find it preposterous that my older brother allows himself to be mocked in such a way for that little whore of a Princess.” He complained once again, looking at the mirror as his wife fixed his cufflinks.
He would need to buy new ones soon.
His sons were already waiting for him to be ready, sitting on twin chairs outside their parents' chambers.
“Perhaps be quieter, husband. The children are just outside.” Elia warned patiently. She was already completely dressed and as beautiful as the day they had married, but he could also see she was already exasperated by his complaints.
He knew he loudly lamented his fate of having to appear at the Wave Ceremony quite a few times over the last two weeks – which is when he first got the invite –, but it was ridiculous.
Corlys and the King could not be that foolish, it was clear as water for anyone with eyes that the Princess’ newborn son, Lucerys, was a bastard, just like his older brother.
“That boy is no Velaryon.” He said again and pointedly ignored his wife’s sigh. He needed to complain about it, or he would grow insane. “He has no Valyrian features, I simply can’t accept Corlys is allowing this, is ignoring this madness just for the sake of his post on the King’s council.”
“We’re all set.” Elia said, completely ignoring him and looking herself in the mirror, fixing a few things on her dress.
Vaemond sighed and walked to the doors, opening them. “All right, boys. I need you in your best behavior for this trial we must face.”
“What is the problem, father?” His youngest, Daeron, asked.
He stared at his boys, all well dressed and polite. His children should be the heirs of house Velaryon, not Princess Rhaenyra’ bastard son. If only he had been born first...
“Nothing, my son. I’m just excited for the feast!” His voice sounded false even to his own ears, but he grabbed hold of his wife’s hand and walked to the feast hall; it was time to play pretend.
Driftmark was filled with people he hadn’t see in almost two years – as the last Ceremony had been to celebrate Jacaerys’ birth, another of Rhaenyra’s bastard children. He smiled pleasantly and pretended he wouldn’t rather rip his own tongue off than have to stay and act as if he believed for even just a second that the dark-haired babe on his nephew’s arms was his kin.
Regardless, he had been summoned by the Lord of the Tides, and even with Corlys was his brother, Vaemond could not be absent. The consequences would be severe, as was written in the rules.
“Uncle, such a pleasant surprise to see you.” Laenor deadpanned and Vaemond made a point not to look at the little bastard as he spat his congratulations to his nephew. Neither of them had never been close, Corlys children were too much like Rhaenys for him to get along well with them, but they were his blood, part of him wanted to ask Laenor to stop this madness.
He understood why the boy was doing it, Laenor’s inclinations weren’t a secret for no one in Westeros, but to subject himself to such a shame... Vaemond felt bad for his nephew.
“He’s a beautiful babe.” He heard Elia say, merciful were the gods for her presence at his side, because he wouldn’t have been able to lie this way and nodded. “What is his name?”
“Thank you, Lady Elia. His name is Lucerys. Lucerys Velaryon.” Laenor smiled, adjusting the babe on his arms.
Velaryon. He felt his left eye twitch, but maintained his gritty smile, face tight as marble. “A beautiful name.”
Wasted on a bastard.
He turned around to grab a glass of wine for Elia and him when his wife started a real conversation with Laenor. When he came back, his firstborn’s index finger was being held in a tight babe grip by the newborn.
He downed both wines in his hand and went back to grab another.
“Look, father! His eyes are like the sea!” He hid his scowl when Daemion waved him in with his free hand, but when he looked down to see the babe for the first time, Vaemond felt as if he had been kicked right on the chest.
It was true, the boy’s eyes were the same color as the sea.
The man walked closer to see it better, feeling himself bewitched. The babe stared at him attentively, unblinking.
Was he drunk already? With just two cups of wine?
He could see the boy’s irises moving, ever so slowly, like waves hitting the coast rocks.
“Yes, his eyes do that.” Laenor laughed nervously.
Returning to his senses, he scoffed and leaned back. “Nothing special about it, it’s just how babes eyes are.”
It wasn’t. He had never seen eyes like this before.
Laenor didn’t stay for long after that, excusing himself with a talk about clothes needing changing.
Elia did not find his behavior appealing and asked him to control himself better. She was right, of course, but thankfully he did not need to because he Laenor stayed away for the rest of the feast, showing the babe around to every guest, the stupid people acting as if the boy was something exquisite by the way they gasped.
Rhaenyra had shown up a while after with her firstborn on her arms, the boy sleeping on her shoulder despite it being only nine in the morning, letting Vaemond know she had no control over her children.
He could see Corlys talking with a small branch of their family, coming from his father’s younger brother’s side.
His brother was wearing the traditioned cloth for the ceremony, the blue Velaryon cloak of their ancestors.
His brother had grown to be shameless, laughing around carelessly while being made a fool off. The king was sitting by his side, having been invited as he was Lucerys’ grandsire and since he had married that Hightower girl, she was by his side too, surrounded by her children.
Rhaenys, as much as he despised the woman, was the only one with a bit of sense in that room. She stood by his niece’s side, showering Rhaena and Baela with her attentions, as she should. There was no reason for her to even look into Rhaenyra’s children, they weren’t exactly her blood.
§
He’d rather be anywhere but here.
As the sun came close to hitting the highest spot in the sky, everyone walked out of the feast hall and started to make the path towards the sea.
He was forced to stay by Laena, Laenor, Rhaenys’ side and their extended family, walking just a few steps behind Corlys as the man carried Lucerys. As the head of the family, his brother would be the one to lay the boy on the water while the rest of them made a circle around him and the babe. The rest of the guests would be behind them, forming circles too.
As they got closer to the sea, Vaemond didn’t bother lifting the seams of his trousers. They wouldn’t stop going deeper in the sea until the water hit their waist.
Corlys stopped at the line between the sand and the water – he would be the last one to go in – and fixed Lucerys’ face paint. Vaemond lifted Daemion in his arms so the boy wouldn’t drown, leaving their youngest and lighter son, Daeron, for Elia to carry. By his side, Laenor, Laena and Daemon did the same. If he looked back, Vaemond was sure most people would be doing the same with their children.
“I’ll take him.” He heard the Princess say tightly, and to his surprise, she was talking about Aemond to the queen.
The queen had stopped as soon as she got to the end of the sand, surrounded by her four children. She wasn’t kin, so she couldn’t stay with them at the first circle, but her children were. Even if she could, there was no way for her to carry four children at a time. They would need to be alongside the rest of the family, but were too small to go so deep; the water would cover their heads.
He didn’t have to be close to the Princess to know she was strangled from her paternal side of her family, but tradition was tradition; all of them needed to be there or the ritual wouldn’t happen.
Everyone stopped to watch the events unfold.
“I can carry Aegon. I’ll put him on my shoulders.” Laenor offered. The queen did not look happy about that, but she had no choice, it wouldn’t do to interfere with a big house as House Velaryon, it would only bring the Hightower’s problems. “You’d like that? This way you will be able to see everything.”
Aegon nodded hesitantly and let Laenor momentarily put him on his hip, alongside a barely awake Jacaerys.
Laena was pushing Daemon to help, the man letting out a long sigh of exasperation that Vaemond could certainly relate to and picked the King’s youngest daughter, Helaena.
The queen seemed even less willing to let the girl go, but again, she had no choice on the matter.
The King, despite his fragile health, held his youngest son, Daeron – the namesake to Vaemond’s own son – in his arms.
They finally got into the sea.
The sun was peaking in the sky, shining strong and warm, but the cold waters gave Vaemond and the others a reprieve from the heat.
He grabbed Elia’s and Rhaenys’ hand, and they went grabbing the people on their side until the circle was complete. Behind him, the rest were doing the same.
At the shore, Corlys began to walk into the water and the people began unlinking their hands, creating a path for his brother to walk through until he was the center of the first circle.
“May the old gods and the new bless the future Lord of the High Tides!” Corlys’s voice boomed. Laenor was the first one to repeat, as it was demanded by the customs, and after him everyone chanted the words back.
“May Driftmark and the Velaryon flag stand strong!” Daeron messed up his words on Elia’s hip and Vaemond exchanged an amused glance with her.
“May Lucerys Velaryon rule over my seat, once mine and his father’s lives are past.” This time, he repeated the words with barely hidden distaste.
Slowly, Corlys moved the boy in his arms until he was lying on the water, head carefully held on the surface.
Usually, babes cried when put into such cold waters, but the little bastard didn’t. The boy simply opened his green, reverberant eyes and for a moment his eyes bleed gold.
He blinked as a few people gasped. Elia jumped at his side, letting out a squeal. “Did you see that?”
A trick of light, he was sure. It was the only explanation.
But it wasn’t, because the boy’s eyes continued flicking between this impossible shade of green into a golden so hot it hurt to see.
A screak and then the sound of water being thrown around came from behind him and Vaemond looked back to see people on the fourth and third circle jumping and unclasping their hands, starting a comotion on the water.
Immediately, he was on high alert. “Careful with the children!”
Elia put Daeron on her shoulders and Vaemond scrambled to find something, anything he could do to defend his family when something made his family on the second circle shout in fear.
Whatever it was, it was coming in their direction.
He took out his dagger – as if it would help in anything –, Daemon and Laenor doing the same thing at his sides, but what he felt go past between and beside his legs was just a bunch of small, slippery creatures.
He turned to look at Corlys, who was now holding Lucerys high on top of his head to protect the newborn. Around his brother, on the clear green, transparent water, was a herd of different sizes of seahorses.
A round of gasps resonated around him, Corlys, Laenor and Laena letting out disbelieving laughs.
Vaemond could barely believe his eyes – all his life and he had only seen their house’s animals once, and yet there they were. He idly extended a hand as another seahorse passed around him and the red animal paid him no mind, swimming right over his hand to his brother’s proximity.
Corlys as holding Lucerys with awe now, and even Vaemond couldn’t help but stare in admiration as his brother put Lucerys on the water once again and the herd moved along with his movements, surrounding the boy in a circles rainbow of seahorses that only seemed to grow bigger, making it clear even for him who they were here to see.
“Papa! Seahorses!” His son shouted from his place on his shoulders and squirmed to be let down. “I want to touch!”
At Daemion’s words, every child around them began to ask for the same and as one, the parents and family alike began to put them on their hips and let them touch the animals that were known for being skittish but were being extremely sociable at the moment.
Vaemond felt as if this was a feverish dream and held tight onto his wife’s hand as she beamed at him, looking around with awe. They were absolutely surrounded, surrounded by seahorses and they simply didn’t stop coming.
It was the most magnificent moment he’d ever been part of, apart from his children’s birth, and something he knew no one present would ever forget.
When he followed the new seahorses making their way into the boy floating on the water, Vaemond felt ashamed by his assumption that Lucerys was anything but a Velaryon. The boy may not have his family’s coloring, but his grandmother was half Baratheon and he knew how small changes on the family tree could bring differences on appearance. He let jealousy get into his head and badmouthed a child that he now was certain could only be legitimate.
And, oh. His family led happy lives, yes, but he had never, ever seen them as astounded as now and Elia... Elia may not have been a Velaryon by birth, but she had never looked more set on her own skin than now, staring at him with that beautiful face of hers and surrounded by colorful seahorses.