I'm obsessed with all things ASoIaF. Aerea Targaryen is an interesting character in the lore of Valyria and Westeros:
Princess Aerea Targaryen was the eldest daughter of Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaena Targaryen. Aerea disappeared from Dragonstone towards the end of 54 AC, claiming and flying away on the dragon Balerion, who had made his lair on the island after the death of his previous rider, King Maegor I Targaryen.
Aerea and Balerion were missing for more than a year, but finally returned to King's Landing on the thirteenth day of the fourth moon of 56 AC, with a severely-ill Aerea clinging to the dragon's back. She was almost unrecognizable; she was stick thin, and whatever clothes she still wore were nothing more than tatters. Her hair was matted and a tangled mess, and her eyes were bloody. After speaking "I never", Aerea collapsed.
[Grand Maester] Benifer treated Aerea in his chambers with Septon Barth, who had been summoned to administer the rites for the dying. Only the two men witnessed her last hours; the maester forbade all others, including the king and queen, from entering. Benifer gave Aerea milk of the poppy and, to reduce her fever, immersed the princess in a tub of ice, but nothing helped. She had arrived at the Red Keep in the morning. By the hour of the bat, after sunset, Septon Barth announced that Aerea had died. She was cremated the next day at sunrise.[8]
It was announced that Aerea had died of a fever, which was only partially true. Ser Lucamore said that the princess's fever was so hot that he could feel it through his armor. She had blood in her eyes and her body had "something inside her, something moving", the knight said, until the king forbade him from speaking of the princess. Benifer left no account of Aerea's death, but according to an account in Barth's private papers, Aerea's fever was one unlike anything he had seen before. The septon described her as burning, with a red skin and having barely an ounce of flesh upon her bones, appearing gaunt and starved.
Barth reported that "swellings" moved underneath the princess's skin, possibly searching for a way to escape and causing a great pain. He wrote "I pray that I shall soon forget some of the things she whispered", and that she often begged for death. It seemed to Barth as if Aerea was cooking from within.
- A Wiki of Ice and Fire
Princess Aerea Targaryen was the eldest daughter of Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaena Targaryen. Aerea disappeared from Dragonstone towards the end of 54 AC, claiming and flying away on the dragon Balerion, who had made his lair on the island after the death of his previous rider, King Maegor I Targaryen.
Aerea and Balerion were missing for more than a year, but finally returned to King's Landing on the thirteenth day of the fourth moon of 56 AC, with a severely-ill Aerea clinging to the dragon's back. She was almost unrecognizable; she was stick thin, and whatever clothes she still wore were nothing more than tatters. Her hair was matted and a tangled mess, and her eyes were bloody. After speaking "I never", Aerea collapsed.
[Grand Maester] Benifer treated Aerea in his chambers with Septon Barth, who had been summoned to administer the rites for the dying. Only the two men witnessed her last hours; the maester forbade all others, including the king and queen, from entering. Benifer gave Aerea milk of the poppy and, to reduce her fever, immersed the princess in a tub of ice, but nothing helped. She had arrived at the Red Keep in the morning. By the hour of the bat, after sunset, Septon Barth announced that Aerea had died. She was cremated the next day at sunrise.[8]
It was announced that Aerea had died of a fever, which was only partially true. Ser Lucamore said that the princess's fever was so hot that he could feel it through his armor. She had blood in her eyes and her body had "something inside her, something moving", the knight said, until the king forbade him from speaking of the princess. Benifer left no account of Aerea's death, but according to an account in Barth's private papers, Aerea's fever was one unlike anything he had seen before. The septon described her as burning, with a red skin and having barely an ounce of flesh upon her bones, appearing gaunt and starved.
Barth reported that "swellings" moved underneath the princess's skin, possibly searching for a way to escape and causing a great pain. He wrote "I pray that I shall soon forget some of the things she whispered", and that she often begged for death. It seemed to Barth as if Aerea was cooking from within.
- A Wiki of Ice and Fire