Dreams, Dragons, and Deceit || Aemond & Aegon Targaryen

White Noise

Sometime, just before midday, Rhaena joined them, falling to pieces as Baela conveyed the news. When the rest of Rhaenyra's council joined them, the entirety of Dragonstone joined them in their grief...

"Your Grace, a raven!" Maester Gerardys hurried into the room, holding the scroll. Neither Rhaenyra nor Daemon was in a state to read it so Baela plucked it from his fingers and broke open the wax seal stamped with a stag.

"Your Grace,

Your daughter's visit to Storm's End was quite unexpected and I apologize that I was not able to properly prepare and welcome her, as I already spent the afternoon attending to Prince Aemond Targaryen. The message was well received and I look forward to joining our houses. I do hope the seas were not rough as the princess sailed for home; the storm was quite awful.

I await your command, my queen.

Lord Borros Baratheon."

The entire room had remained silent long after Baela finished reading the missive.

"Aemond was in Storm's End?" Daemon asked softly, already rising from his chair and leaning against the Painted Table. "My one-eyed cunt of a nephew was in Storm's End?" he snarled, swinging his arm and knocking the wine from the table with a clatter. No one else in the room dared to breathe as the prince let out a shout of rage and beat his fists against the tabletop.

"Fucking Hightowers!" And then Daemon grew silent, terrifyingly so, as the wheels in his head began to turn. Baela and Rhaena shared a look of concern as they watched Daemon's expression change and whatever tiny idea he had quickly grew into a plan in his head.

Daemon Targaryen crossed the room, knelt down in front of his wife, and lifted her chin until she finally looked him in the eye. "They will pay for this, my love. An eye for an eye and a life for a life. Our daughter will be avenged." Then he planted a soft kiss on her lips and strode from the room, his entire body burning with a fury he had never known before...

** ** **

Once Visaera realized that Helaena had been attacked by men sent from her family, she had gone deathly still, the guilt eating at her insides, but Aemond wasn't currently focused on that. The princess was tucked away, safe with Aegon at the moment, and he was glaring at his mother, who sat picking her nails as he shouted at her. Her cheek was still bleeding and Aemond couldn't help but think she deserved it.

"How could you do it?" he seethed, pacing back and forth across the room. "All my life I've done every fucking thing you've requested of me, and you couldn't do the one thing I asked of you. You refused to keep her safe! You assured me that if we took the throne, she would be my wife, that we could convince her, and yet you didn't even try! You purposefully alienated her with the hopes that she would try to escape! Who did you tell, mother? Who did you send after her with orders to dispatch her when she was found?" Alicent merely stared at her raw fingers, reminding the prince of Visaera and making his stomach churn, "Who, mother?" he shouted, watching her jump at the anger in his voice.

"Ser Criston and Ser Arryk," she breathed out, looking across the room, away from him.

"I didn't argue when you agreed to support Ser Vaemond, I didn't argue when you informed me Aegon would be put on the throne, even though he's the last person in the kingdoms to fucking deserve it... The only thing I've asked for, the only thing I ever wanted was her... And instead of helping me, you tried to have her killed, more than once!"

"She's a spoiled, vindictive little bastard," Alicent hissed, finally looking up at him. "Her brothers took your eye and she would only bring you pain and misery, as her mother did to Laenor and Harwin and every other fucking soul she's sucked dry! I did it for you, Aemond! I did it to save you, and your brother!"

"Save us?"

"Do you think Lord Larys doesn't know about everything that happens in the keep? Do you think he wouldn't tell me how that little whore has her claws sunk into both of you? How can you want that, Aemond?" The prince said nothing, gritting his teeth as he remembered the way Visaera looked at his brother; she rarely looked at him that way. "Aemond, she is just like her mother, can't you see that?" Alicent pleaded, "She will give you nothing but pain and silver-haired bastards." The prince slammed his hand down on the table, the dishes falling to the floor.

"If you utter one more fucking word about her, I will have you thrown in the black cells." He hissed, stepping toward her, "You can sleep on that piss-stained cot where you tried to leave her, do you understand me?" Allicent let out a terrified squeak and nodded. Without another word, Aemond stormed from the room, slamming the door closed behind him.

The prince strode through the keep, hardly casting a glance at anyone he passed. He was looking for one person and one person only, Larys Strong...

The spymaster looked up from his plate as Aemond stepped into the room and sat at the table, not bothering to ask for permission to sit. Dropping his sword belt on the table, and crossing one leg over the other, the prince stared at Larys.

"What can I do for you, Prince Aemond?" Larys finally asked.

"You can tell me what the fuck you were doing helping my mother kill my intended," he replied, propping his feet up on the table. The look in the spymaster's eyes became guarded, making Aemond smirk. He was glad that Larys understood the danger he was currently in.

"Your mother assured me that you would understand—"

"My mother sent me to negotiations in fucking Highgarden!" Aemond snapped, his mouth curling back into a sneer. "Certainly, as spymaster, you had to have known that."

"I merely do as my Queen bids me, Prince Aemond." Larys replied.

"Except my mother is no longer the Queen, Lord Larys. You serve King Aegon now"

"Is it not better for our King, my prince, if the bastard girl dies? She is, after all, Rhaenyra's heir."

"You overstep, Lord Larys," Aemond hissed, rising and leaning over the table. "Princess Visaera is not to be harmed, under any circumstances. Do you understand?"

"Of course, my prince," he relented, with a bow of his head. The prince shoved off from the table and left the room, almost certain that Lord Larys would continue to serve Alicent, and the day would come when he would have to kill him...