When mother saw the condition Joana was in she declared "We must wash him and his mother,"
looking at Joana fondly. "So they may receive visitors and well-wishes." Her face softens with rare warmth. "Do you wish to distribute silver with the announcements, my dear?"
But Aegon clicks his tongue, shaking his head. "My other two sons had gold distributed upon their birth," he declares. "Jaehaerys shall have the same. I'll pay for it myself."
The Mother nods, though her expression grows thoughtful. "If we use your dear children as an example, then something else should be distributed as well. Maekar had food and Daeron had wine. What shall Jaehaerys have, so the people may love him?"
They look at Joana for an answer.
It takes her only a moment. "healers" she says softly. "Send Healers into the city, Mother. Let them heal the people in Jaehaerys' name."
With the gift of coinage, the people could buy food and wine, but the poor suffered most from wounds and sickness that healers refused to treat without an overlord's command. This way, her son's name would be whispered in gratitude across the city.
Aegon smiles, pleased by her cleverness.
The maids return with jars of warm water, and the task of cleansing Joana and her newborn begins.
As the midwife carefully sponges Joana's pale body, Dalla, the eldest maid, moves quietly to change the soiled sheets beneath her. She had seen noblewomen give birth before, but Joana... the consort's endurance had left her in awe.
Dalla's hands trembled slightly as her hands worked around the area the child came from, her mind drifting back to the long hours of labor.
She had been there from the very beginning — from the moment Joana's water broke and she collapsed to her knees on the cold stone floor, her body wracked with pain. Dalla had witnessed her writhing, her thighs trembling as the babe pressed against her womb, forcing her body open.
She could still see the moment when Joana's legs had been spread wide on the bloodied sheets, her most sacred flesh stretched apart and torn as the babe's head came out.
She even wondered how could such a big thing came out of such a small opening.
But then she remembered her first time; she remembered watching that thick cock of a certain palace guard.
Dalla unconsciously touched her cunt, and remembered the pain she felt when that thick cock tore her small hole that was barely enough to fit a finger, but after getting fucked the whole night, she was able to take that thick rod easily.
So this time it must be the same...
She concluded that every woman's cunt could expand as much as needed when the situation arises.
Dalla remembered The midwife's hands, slick with blood and fluids, guided the child free as Joana screamed, her body arching off the bed in agony.
She remembered the moment the babe finally slipped free in a rush of blood and tissue.
How Joana's inner walls, once tight, had been forced apart to make way for the child. Even now, as Dalla carefully wiped the remnants of blood from her thighs and the area surrounding her pussy. She carefully switched the wiping cloth and cleaned the insides of her pussy, too.... at least what could be visible from outside. She was careful not to spread it apart more.
Joana's tender womanhood was swollen and, her opening gaping slightly from the trauma of childbirth.
Her muscles were twitching, and it made her open, close, and open slightly, in a continuous loop.
The midwife had stitched the small tear that occurred when Jaehaerys' shoulders passed through, but the damage to her flesh would take time to heal.
Dalla glanced at the small cloth tucked between Joana's legs to catch the steady trickle of blood still flowing from her womb.
It was a natural thing, the midwife said, as the body purged the remnants of afterbirth. But Dalla could not help but pity the young consort.
She would bleed for days. Perhaps weeks. And her body, stretched and changed, would never truly return to what it once was.
Joana bore it all in silence now, her face pale and sweat-dampened as her son fed at her breast. Her heavy, engorged breasts ached with milk, and her limbs trembled with the exhaustion of labor. Yet, she smiled as she looked upon her child, her fingers tracing the pale white hair on his tiny head.
Dalla wondered if Joana herself remembered the horror of those hours — the moment when her body tore open to bring forth the Emperor's son.
Jeyne, the youngest maid, stood nearby with wide, frightened eyes. She had never attended a birth before and had wept softly in the corner as Joana's screams filled the chamber.
"She nearly split in two," Jeyne whispered as Dalla handed her the bloodied linens to carry away. "I thought she'd die. Gods, I thought we'd lose her..."
Dalla only shook her head. "But we didn't. She's stronger than she looks."
She glanced back at Joana, now resting against the soft pillows, her head tilted slightly as she watched her baby nurse. The tenderness in her eyes softened the brutal reality of what her body had endured.
Jaehaerys was bathed in a small silver bowl, his pale skin cleaned of blood and fluids. His hair, now washed, revealed pale white locks that would surely turn silver as he grew. They dressed him in a white gown fit for a prince and placed him back in Joana's arms.
She fed him again after he was dressed, unable to stop smiling at the sight of him. His aquiline nose, his full lips — he looked like his father.
"He is handsome," Joana murmured, her voice thick with love. "Is he not?"
Aegon, who sat beside her on the bed, smiled and intertwined his fingers with hers. "He looks like you," he said, though Joana knew better. Jaehaerys bore the blood of dragons, and in time, he would grow to look just like his father.
"We have a son," she whispered, tears burning her eyes. "We're a family now."
Aegon leaned in, brushing his lips softly against hers.
"We're a family," he echoed.