

Another source, the court jester Mushroom, holds that Rhaenyra loved Ser Criston and kept her virginity for him, but otherwise learned how to please a man from Daemon and from trips to brothels over a period of months. One, Septon Eustace, claims that a knight named Arryk Cargyll caught Rhaenyra and Daemon in bed together, and that the pair were in love and wanted to marry, but the king forbade it as Daemon already had a wife: Lady Rhea Royce. The show's version is a hybrid of two possible sources from the book. Mysaria sends word to Otto that Daemon and Rhaenyra were seen "coupling," and Daemon offers to marry Rhaenyra, though the king doesn't consent. A sexually awakened Rhaenyra runs home and practically orders Ser Criston Cole to go to bed with her. They end up at a pleasure house where Daemon tries to teach her that marriage is only a political contract and that people can do whatever they want in places such as these. Case in point: In the show's version of Rhaenyra's scandalous youth, the princess is escorted out of the castle and through the Street of Silk by her uncle Daemon.
