Burn me • Aemond Targaryen

Dirty Laundry

Chapter Ninety-Five~ Dirty Laundry

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•

"Aegon has a problem with bad dinner habits, so even if you see him slouching or chewing with his mouth open, by the Gods do not copy him." Rhaella said to Baela.

"Why does he even want me here?" Baela questioned. "And little Aegon, why does he have to come?"

"I suspect he wishes to make a spectacle of you both." Rhaella said. "Only speak when your spoke to, and only take food when your offered it." They had reached two large doors and as Rhaella waited for the guard to open them, she knew something unpleasant would come from this dinner.

When she saw her mother, she knew she was right.

"Sister." Aegon greeted. "Lady Baela, Prince Aegon, please be seated." He said gesturing at the empty chairs.

"That is Aemonds seat." Rhaella bit when she saw where Alicent was seated.

"Rhaella."Alicent said, shocked that her daughter was here.

"That is Aemonds seat." She repeated.

This certain dining table had been used once before. Helaena had asked for everyone to enjoy a meal together for her nineteenth name day. Aegon had sat opposite his father, with Helaena to his left and Aemond to his right. Rhaella had been seated next to her husband and Aerys and Elaena had been next to her, opposite their twin cousins. The king, their father had sat on the opposite end, with Alicent and his hand on either side.
Rhaella remembered how silly they must have looked, muttering quiet passive conversation to one another as they passed around the potatoes. Because in truth none of them new much about each other, but it had been Helaena's day.

"Not that one either." When Alicent went for Helaena's chair. "You may sit where you sat when you were important mother." Rhaella sighed taking her seat. "Come, next to me." She said to Aegon and Baela.

"This is absurd!" Alicent said. "The boy and his sister should be hung, they are a threat to the crown!"

"Shut up mother." Aegon muttered. "Listening to you has never done me good in the past, in all honesty you're here out of courtesy."

Alicent seemed appalled at her sons words. "Aegon."
She said, a gasp laced through her words.

"Oh gods enough." Aegon said, reaching for his wine. "Now tell me Lady Baela, when is your seventeenth name day approaching?"

Baela looked to Rhaella and she gave her a slight nod. "Another moon yet."

"You address the king as his grace." Alicent scolded. "Did your parents teach you no manners?"

Baela was a Targaryen, clear as anything, and Rhaella's mother had not yet learned to not poke a dragon. "My mother died when I was very young, my father was too busy trying to save his new wife's throne from you, so I was passed onto ward with my Grandmother, who again was busy ensuring my Grandfather stayed alive long enough to defend the waters against a war you started, and then she died after escaping a cell you locked her in!"
Rhaella watched, amused as Baela spoke through her flame and fury. "So no, my lady the Kings mother, my parents did not have the time to teach me manners!"

Rhaella hid her smile behind her cup, Aegon didn't bother and just laughed outright. Their mother sat, shocked.

It was laughable, how now finally Aegon had basically won and was ruling, alicent didn't have a place in the mix anymore. Her dog Criston Cole was dead, and her puppet master her father was dead too.

"Borros is dead." Aegon mumbled as he picked at his beef and moved his vegetables away.

Rhaella turned her head to look at her brother. "Aegon I fear the consequences of that." She said. "He was your strength, and now with the north and the river men marching on us, I cannot say what will happen."

"There is still the matter of succession." Alicent said. "Aegon you will need to re marry, and Rhaella with my dear son gone, you too need a husband."
Rhaella clutched her knife hard in her grip, her pale skin turning even whiter against her knuckles. "With both of your children gone, I propose,"

Rhaella slammed her hand down, and the blade cursed its way through the mahogany wood. "You do not get to propose anymore." She bit. "There is a perfectly good heir sat right there." Rhaella gestured to young Aegon, who was cowering to the sudden outburst. "Your hand of power has slipped Mother, there is no place here for you now."

"I am your mother." Alicent replied. "And I have raised you with more respect than what you speak with now, imagine what your father would think!"

"Fuck you and Fuck him!" Rhaella laughed, then she lifted the knife from the table and pointed it to her mother. "Raised me with more respect?" She mocked.

"Rhaella." Aegon said, voice tired, but he closed his mouth when his sisters angry gaze turned toward him.

"You never raised me at all!" She shouted. "We had wet nurses raising us, I was calling my nursery maid mother and when I saw you I knew you as your grace, it wasn't until we were walking and eating normal foods that I knew who you really were! And my Father, Gods every time he looked at me and Daeron he had to think of our names, half the time Lionel Strong had to remind him and it was Strong who brought us birthday gifts, telling us that they were from father, but how was he to know that I liked reading about flowers, No it was because Elsie Strong was my playmate!"

Aegon gave the slight jerk of his head, silently telling Baela and her brother to retire, while his family's dirty laundry was finally aired.

"Like it or not I am your mother, and everything you had in life,  your husband, your children, your station, it was all because of me, you would have been married to a bastard bloody strong if it wasn't for me, all of your children being abominations in the eyes of the seven!" Alicent replied.

"What would it matter anyway?" Rhaella scoffed. "They are all gone, because of you and your jealousy, no wonder your beacon is green, you hightowers reach and reach as far as you can, climbed from the mud to get to where you are now, but no matter who your father made you marry at the ripe age of seventeen, you would never have that same freedom that Rhaynera had, she was fucking her way through the castle with no repercussions, but you had to bed a man over twice your age just to push out heirs that would be ignored until the time was right."

"You are a disgrace, Aemond ought to have beat you for your vile mouth." Alicent spat, granted she seemed shocked as soon as she heard her own words.

"I will pray every night that you outlive us, I pray that you won't remember our faces or the sounds of our voices." Rhaella said lowly. "So that you know deep down, your life was wasted on a power you would never be able to control." She stepped closer to Aegon. "You were sold like a brood mare to feed the greed of your father, and what waste it was." She spat before kissing Aegon on the cheek. "Good night brother." She said before leaving the room.

Rhaella pressed her back against the door as soon as she had slammed it shut, and she shut her eyes tightly to keep her tears at bay.

Her world was crumbling, and the only thing she could express to the people she was left with was anger or pain. But her mother did not deserve her tears.

"My word, I do not miss being on the receiving end of that temper."

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•