Beginning of the End | House Of The Dragon

5.1

Aurelius wanted to come up to us and I saw him take half a step before mumbling something about a walk and leaving the room with no further comment, the door slamming behind him and his heavy footsteps slowly fading. 

AURELIUS POV

I walked around the halls of the Red Keep and was going to pass through the Godswood when I spotted Alicent standing infront of the Weirwood tree by herself. I smirked and snuck up behind her.

I got closer and closer before wrapping my arms around her waist, pulling her against me and lifting her slightly up into the air. "Being a traitor to your Gods and worshiping my own?" I jested. She let out a squeal and turned in my arms, laughing in relief when she saw it was only me. I offered her a smile and let her go.

"Lord Aurelius. You mustn't- you can't- if anyone had seen such impropriety they might suspect...something unseemly."

"Who would see?" I looked around the empty space. "There's no one here."

"Still." She scolded.

"Apologies, your Grace." I bowed deeply and looked up at her through my lashes. Then an idea came in my mind and I got on my knees, taking her hands in my own. "Please forgive me Queen Alicent, the shame, the shame, I cannot bear it. The audacity of me to even gaze upon your royal figure." I jested and she burst out into uncontrollable laughter and found difficulty in speaking as she told me to stand.

"Not until you forgive me, your holy highness."

"Forgiven, you're fogiven." She struggled to get out through continued laughter.

I finally stood and smiled cockily. "Well that was all I wanted. Now if her Grace would honor me so with her presence on my walk I might forever be grateful." She smacked my arm playfully before looping her own arm though mine, letting me lead her from the courtyard.

"An outsider among the natives." A new voice said. I looked to my right and saw the Clubfoot looking at some flowers.

"Lord Larys." Alicent said as way the greeting, always so polite, it made me want to roll my eyes.

"Malvales." He motion towards the flowers he was talking about, they were Jonquil's favorite. "Rare bloom. Indigenous to Braavos. By all rights they shouldn't be thriving here. Nature, such mystery." I scoffed, knowing that he was talking about the young Queen and not the flowers at all.

She commented on the weather as explanation for their growth and he agreed before bringing up her father's dismissal. I was really starting to get annoyed at stopping everytime we went to leave but I wouldn't leave her alone with him, not him.

"Your father was a good man." I held back a scoff for her sake. Otto Hightower was a snake, always scheming and ploting, trying to stretch himself and weasel his blood into places where it didn't belong; like the throne, I'd heard.

"As is yours who took his place." Alicent responded politely, turning to face him.

Clubfoot told her how it felt injust for his manner of departure. I didn't see how, what did you expect to happen when you spy on the named heir and spin webs for your own ambition? Seemed Larys was yet another weasel, but why was the important  question.

"What do you know of the manner of his leaving?" There was an edge to her voice now, something that caught me off-guard.

"When one is never invited to speak, one learns instead to, um, observe." Spy.

He asked if she needed an ally, to which see said she had no shortage of. "Me for example, Lord Larys."

He smiled tightly and bowed his head to me for a moment. "Of course, Lord Aurelius. She has you and your wife, and Princess Rhaenyra for example."