Gael Targaryen
Gael Targaryen was the youngest of the thirteen children born to Jaehaerys I and Alysanne Targaryen, arriving at a point when few still expected the royal couple to have more.
Her name stayed attached to an official version of her death — summer fever — that the court upheld for years, until her parents' passing let a different story come out.
Chapter 1
A girl who was not meant to survive
80 ACBooks only
Alysanne was forty-four when she gave birth in King's Landing to this daughter, the last of thirteen. The name they gave her, the Winter Child, pointed both to the season of her birth and to the queen's own age.
She arrived tiny and pale, barely strong enough to hold on, and two of her brothers had already died as infants. Grand Maester Elysar was determined this time would be different, and with septa Lyra keeping watch at the cradle day and night the girl slowly gained a little strength.
She made it past her first name day still frail but alive, and the queen took it as a relief after so much loss.
Chapter 2
The queen's shadow
87 ACBooks only
Her sister Viserra's death in 87 AC left Alysanne looking for comfort among the daughters she had left. While septa Maegelle asked leave from her septry to be with their mother, it was Gael, shy and gentle-natured at only seven, who came to stay by the queen almost constantly.
The two even shared a bed at night, and the girl became Alysanne's closest support through that grief.
Chapter 3
The waters of Blackwater Bay
99 ACBooks only
In 99 AC Gael stopped appearing at court, and word went out that she had died of a summer fever. That was the story that held for years.
Only after both her parents were dead did the truth come out: a singer had seduced and then abandoned her, and Gael gave birth to a stillborn son. Overcome by grief, she walked into Blackwater Bay and let the water take her.