Familiarity ||| Jacaerys Velaryon

fourteen

Viserys had gone downhill very extremely. That was clear from the very first moment Alyssa saw him.

He wasn't bedbound but he might as well have been. Besides being ill, weak and wheezy and in pain, Viserys was physically deteriorating. He wore a gilded mask that covered one-half of his face, and the hair on his head had been reduced to wisps.

But he wasn't in bed. Viserys was sitting up in one of his chairs relaxing. It seemed that he still tried to participate in all of the duties he could. Many of them had been relegated to his hand and his wife, however.

Alyssa walked into his chambers quietly, glancing around, eyes stuck on the model of Old Valyria for a long moment before she saw him. She didn't let the shock show, nor her discomfort.

"Uncle," Alyssa said kindly, a smile on her face as she made her presence known and approached the man.

The sudden noise seemed to rouse him from whatever delirium he'd been in moments early. A wheezing cough came out of him, breathing laboured. But he turned his head, his only remaining eye finding Alyssa as she approached and sat next to him.

"Alyssa," Viserys wheezed, reaching out with his hand to take her arm, to pull her closer. To study her face.

And gods was it like staring into the face of his mother. After the fight in Driftmark, Alyssa's nose had remained crooked. Just like her namesake. The only thing out of place was the scar on her right side.

"You have grown... so much," Viserys added, his hand going from her arm to her face. Alyssa allowed it. She knew she was only there because she reminded him of a dead woman. "I regret that I have not been able to know you these past years. But we mustn't take things for granted. And I wish to make up some of that time."

It did sting. Just a little bit. That Alyssa's only purpose there was to rid her uncle of his guilt. But it did give her leverage, let her get a leg up in court. When she so clearly had his favour.

So Alyssa played her part. Sat with her uncle and spoke to him, told stories of her younger youth. And she even read to him when he requested it; a theme for old and sick kings. Having young women read for them.

Eventually, Viserys tired and the Maester came to put him to bed with more milk of the poppy. Alyssa knew she'd be writing home straight away to tell Daemon and Rhaenyra how ill he was.

But first, she needed to get herself settled. Alyssa went to her chambers, where she'd be staying while at court. And she was pleasantly surprised to find that they were the ones Daemon had often inhabited.

Just the flash of a memory popped into Alyssa's head. Of laying in bed with her father and getting her breakfast all over the linens.

While she had privacy, Alyssa took out her map of the Red Keep and Daemons map. She scanned it, looking for the chambers she was in, and found that there was a secret passageway near her. It's why Daemon chose that room.

Alyssa would tuck that information away for later. Maybe for a late-night excursion.

She knew she couldn't indulge herself in the Holdfast. Alyssa might've been a whore, she might not have cared about rules or tradition. But being caught in the Holdfast was much more dangerous than being caught on Dragonstone.