would've could've should've | the dance of the dragons

the red lion

"Do you think she is truly someone like that? Someone who forgets her children just because she has new ones?"

"How can I know? I don't know anything about her. I wasn't there remember?", Daeron slightly turned to him. "She sent me."

"She didn't send you.", Aemond's voice was stern now and he got up from his chair, and approached to his brother. "Father sent you and she begged for him to change his mind."

"She was the queen!", Daeron opened his arms and turned to Aemond completely this time. "And now you are telling me that she could take the king's dagger and assault the crown princess with no consequences, that she can be the first female judge in history without any objections, that she was that powerful. But she couldn't make her baby boy be returned back to her? And what?", he laughed. "Should I believe that? She didn't know what to do with me as much as father didn't and probably thought one headache less and let me stay there."

"She wrote to our uncle and grandfather every day, begged to them to send you back."

"She was the 'queen'.", he whispered the last word. "All she had to do was to command and they would have to obey."

"And her husband was the king.", Aemond tried to touch his brother's arm but Daeron pulled himself back.

"What is this weird thing with you and her?", he pointed out the window while saying 'her'.

"What weird thing?"

"Why are you two always trying to hug or touch the people you are talking to.", Daeron asked rather angrily. "Because she never liked that. I remember that I used to go to her after a nightmare for cuddles and she would send me right back to my chambers. And her oh-so-honourable knight, the one you all love, her new husband, wouldn't even look at me.", he huffed. "Well, it seems it had changed to thanks to her new little family."

"Do not take out your resentments of father from her.", Aemond warned. "She doesn't deserve it. She had been through a lot."

"And we haven't?", Daeron questioned again. "She was a victim yes, but not the only victim. She is the reason why Aegon is so fucked up. She used to hit him remember? 'Cause I do.", Daeron laughed. "That's called abuse, brother. And it had nothing to do with father."

Aemond grimaced. "She's been trying to protect him."

"By hitting him?", Daeron asked with a raised eyebrow. "She is also the reason Helaena is an introvert."

"Our sister-"

"Our sister never got any attention from her because she used to ignore her. Because of her resemblances to Rhaenyra, I guess.", he shrugged. "She used to try to talk with her and she would do what, remember? She would just walk away and Helaena, little Helaena would look at her with tears in her eyes."

"She never liked to be around people."

"But she wasn't any ordinary person, wasn't she? She was her mother and the only person Helaena wanted to be around. And now she walks away from her touches too."

"She doesn't like physical content but loves our mother."

"I am not talking about love. I love our mother too but this doesn't change the fact she was a horrible mother to us because she never liked our father. She punished four little children for the sins of her husband and her father."

"She never did that.", Aemond shook his head. "You have valid points, yes. She failed from time to time as a mother but you must feel empathy with her. She was a child too."

"It's not an excuse.", Daeron deadpanned. "I understand she never wanted us, but she had to have us, yes and it's terrible. But hitting Aegon and ingoring Helaena? This wasn't her being a child this was her punishing them. There can never be an excuse for these. She resented us."