ᴛʀɪɢɢᴇʀ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ: ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏꜰ ꜱᴀ

𝓐𝓮𝓶𝓸𝓷𝓭 𝓣𝓪𝓻𝓰𝓪𝓻𝔂𝓮𝓷
The walk to the black cells was a solemn one. After the afternoon we'd all shared in the sunshine the shadows had crept back in as they always had and I'd left the best pieces of me there in that courtyard.

But I wasn't the only one with shadows creeping at their subconscious. Helaena's lavender eyes were once so vibrant and wide, excited to take on the world as it came. Even Aegon had always noticed, calling our sister 'bug eyes' behind her back for years.

The truth was my sister had seen travesties beyond any of our wildest nightmares, and her tired eyes had only reflected that.

"I pray my sweet Jaehaerha won't suffer such a fate,"

She'd muttered to herself, and though I hadn't said it aloud I prayed the very same thing for my children. I'd cradled a weeping Elaena too many nights to count to wish that upon Aelyx.

My sweet Elaena had offered to join me but I knew my mother and grandsire would be even less forthcoming if she had. My nephew on the other hand wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Even Cregan thought you to be innocent, and he has most reason to dislike you don't you think?"

"I'll be sure to send him a gift basket, though I can't imagine why Lord Stark would dislike me," I smirk over my shoulder at him, knowing full well why the Stark lord might have reason to dislike me.

He wants what I have plain and simple but as long as he knew his place at the table he could remain seated there, be it at the opposite end of my wife.

"Your sister told me you and Baela made quite the team in the skies. Jacaerys would be proud, and your father. Well... all of them I suppose," I trail off so as to not be heard by anyone else but Luke sees my dig coming from a mile away.

"In quite the mood this afternoon are we, Uncle?"

I only hum in response, the lack of sleep creeping up at me from every angle.

Once Elaena had returned to our rooms I spent the better half of the night staring at the ceiling while my mind weaved through the many possibilities of our stay here in Kings Landing. I was beginning to realize why my sister had fled with the Strong boys when we were younger. Better to live in peace with those who mattered than in the dull torment of the capital and its small council chambers.

Elaena and I would have to plan our world adventures sooner rather than later if there was any hope of escape.

When we turn the corner, the familiar smell of the black cells hits us like a ton of stone, the lot of us coming to a full stop, uneager to continue.

Clearing my throat I take a deep breath.

"I'll go on from here. I won't be long," I assure my nephew. Frankly, I wasn't a man of many words and this afternoon would be no exception if I had any say in it.

Luke offers me a look of sympathy and I know just like his sister he wishes he could do more but my mother and grandsire dug their own graves. If ambition hadn't blinded them perhaps they would've realized their own grandchildren would inherit the throne one day.

But couldn't their children's happiness be enough as it was for Elaena and me?

It's heartbreaking to see my mother reduced to shambles in the black cells and somehow a part of me still wished I should've been able to prevent all this loss and pain.

If my mother hears me crouching in front of her she doesn't make a move to acknowledge me and it's a blow to the chest.

I want to hate her, scream at her for everything she'd allowed to happen but how can I when the very life is drained from her eyes? Her skin had already lost most color and I wondered if this downturn had been happening for months and I just hadn't been here to see it.

"Mother? It's me." I call out to her softly half expecting her to ignore me but she doesn't, lifting her head to look up at me through her knotted orange curls.

Her gaze finds my sapphire eye in the dim light, her lips tugging into a frown at the memory though it wasn't her that had to bear the scar.

"She's convinced you not to wear it has she?"

I can't decide whether her question is meant to be a dig at Elaena or not but I ignore it for now.

"I haven't worn it in front of her for quite some time. The aches have subsided without the pressure of the patch,"

For just a moment I'm vulnerable and it backfires on me, reminding me immediately of why my sky-high walls are there in the first place.

"You're quite formidable with your scar and sapphire." She says, "Perhaps she's right to have you not wear it. Her very own Rogue Prince," It may be dark but I can still hear the chuckle in her voice.

My mother had hated Daemon even more so than Rhaenyra. The Rogue Prince was half the reason my grandfather claimed she was unfit to rule and though I wielded Daemon's sword there were many of things I refused to mimic.

"For just a moment I thought you might've been complimenting me." I snort, turning on my heel to walk away but she calls out for me, her shrill voice making my skin crawl, "Wait!"

"W-what of your brother and sister? What have you done with my granddaughter?!" She cries, jumping to her feet to reach for me through the cell bars.

I flinch away from her, this erratic side of my mother is not only unfamiliar but unsettling to say the least, making my skin crawl.

"Elaena and I have seen to it they're safe. Aegon..."

Many things flash across my mother's dead eyes hope being one of them but I'm not sure what my sister would want me to divulge.

"Where would grandfather have sent him?" I ask her, keen on bringing Rhaenyra back something worthwhile.

"Mother, he's been the reason for all of this. How can't you see what all he's done?" I pleaded with her to see sense, it was still possible Rhaenyra could spare her.

But instead, she delivers her final blow like a punch to the gut.

"You mustn't blame your grandfather, all he wanted was to protect you, to protect this family. And the night of that girl's betrothal banquet went terribly wrong, I never intended for you to slaughter that poor boy-"

I freeze at her words, the very blood in my veins coming to a halt as the pieces begin to fit together.

"What? You mean grandfather sent that Northman after her?" My heart lurches itself into my throat and I see red, knowing in my gut that my grandsire had intended to do terrible harm to her long before I'd even realized it.

Otto had forced Elaena away and then found a young drunk to do his bidding he distracted me for as long as he possibly could so she was alone in that hallway.

"What HAD you intended Mother? That she be killed? Or perhaps made unfit for a betrothal to Stark? Or did you think I would see her ruined?"

"We knew we'd need the North when it came time for war but if Rhaenyra had managed to secure both the Velaryon fleet and the North in one fell swoop we'd have no chance-"

Cutting her off I can't bear to listen to her reasoning after everything my father had put her through as a young bride, "So you decided to have her daughter raped?"

When I put it so plainly my mother looks away, almost shameful but I don't hold my breath.

"Where is he? Rhaenyra may spare you if help us find him,"

At the mere mention of Rhaenyra my mother's frantic stare snaps to mine, "The rats play when the cat is gone, but your brother will come back for me, for Helaena and his daughter,"

"You mistake your sons, Mother. The one who'd come back for you stands on the other side of these bars,"

I watch her face fall as she comes to terms with the hard truth standing before her.

They were the rats, and the cats had let them play for far too long.

My mother refuses to say another word, retreating to the darkest corner of the cell to continue picking at the skin around her fingernails.

A part of me wanted to beg my mother to see sense. If I could save Helaena I could save her could I not? They'd just been powerful women crushed under the thumb of those who should've been the ones to protect them.

My grandsire's cell is one on its own but further away from that of my mother to keep them separated.

At first, he acts as if he doesn't notice me, his attention instead on something particularly interesting out the small window he'd been granted.

He didn't deserve a window, or light for that matter.

"Mother's living in filth and darkness while you have a bed and a view of the sunset, tell me how that's come to be?" I ask, crossing my arms across my chest in what I realize is another way of protecting myself from his double edge sword, "I'll see to it that you receive a cell that befits your station until you're to be executed," 

The old man chuckles under his breath, turning his body ever so slowly to cast his judgmental stare at me through the dark corner he resided in.

Keeping to the shadows like a rat, scurrying away from the flame.

"Executed? Do you suppose that'll bring the King home?" He smirks, unfazed by the threat of his life.

"Now, now, Grandfather, Aegon was never King. Besides, I don't believe my dear brother will be returning anytime soon. If he cared for you he wouldn't have left you and my Mother to begin with," 

"Perhaps he thinks your love for Helaena will extend toward your Mother. He spoke often of your... vulnerability toward women." He means it as an insult, but I see it being far from it.

Aegon had never understood my softness when dealing with my mother and Helaena. After all these years I'd finally begun to understand his jealousy. Growing up I'd had both my mother and Elaena's favoritism amongst all my siblings.

Aegon however had never received such tenderness in turn never understanding how to give it. 

That is, not until Tessa and I'd taken her from him too.

"It's not my vulnerability that my mother's life depends on I'm afraid, it's our Queens. Your fate however is sealed with the steele of my blade." I grin, leaning against the bars where I feel the beam of sunlight hit my sapphire warming my face.

For half a moment my grandfather's curtain facade falls until he gathers himself, searching his mind for something to save himself.

"You'll be a liability to her reign, just as Daemon was for Rhaenyra. The whispers will never cease,"

"They will when I take your head from your shoulders for your crimes,"

"And what of your son? Is that the example you wish to set? He'll find it appropriate to be a kinslayer,"

"You won't have your head long enough to know him. Once he hears his grandsire tried to murder his mother and kidnap her, I'm sure he'll understand." I scoff, spitting into the matted dirt at his feet.

"You believe I was the mind behind that plan? Oh no, grandson, it was your own brother who intended that vile be poison. And if you think his son won't bear similar hatred when he's older you're mistaken,"

I'm taken aback by his confession but I don't flinch.

"Jaehaeryn loves Elaena, he clings to her."

"Will he still when he finds out the truth of his mother's death? How you ended her with a sword through the heart," His tone means to mock me, stoking the fire but I refused to carry blame for protecting my wife from the horrors my family inflicted.

I grip the bars so tight my knuckles turn white but it was his throat I wished to be wrapping my hands around. "You did that. You manipulated them both into madness! You knew that boy wasn't mine but you tore him from his mother's grasp! And for what? You only prolonged the inevitable,"

He chuckles to himself in his last effort to undermine me but I'm no longer a boy.

With a deep breath, I reel in my anger, my jaw ticking in a feral rage. His blood would be spilled that was certain, blanketing the doubtful whispers that taunted us from the shadows.

For years I'd been made to feel wild for my anger. I'd tamed what demons I could building my walls around them like a castle to contain the resentment that dwelled within but in doing so I hadn't made myself familiar with the monsters that lurked just beyond.

The monsters that had made me this way, to begin with.

"I was made to think I was the monster when truly we were all just your puppets, weren't we? And once Elaena and I couldn't be controlled you tried to have her and I killed-"

"You signed away your life the moment you married that foolish girl, you should've left her to die at the Stepstones," Shaking his head he taunts me, his laughter the very thing that seals his fate in the Seven Hells.

I tilt my head to the side, taking a step closer to the bars.

"Tell me again grandsire... which one of us will live out their last moments behind bars?" I ask, my voice a low whisper as I stare at the old man through the darkness.

Not expecting an answer I storm off, my destination clear.

"Hey, what is it?" Luke stands up straight from where he's leaning against the stone wall with the gold cloaks sent along with us but I ignore him, speaking to the knights instead.

"Where is the Queen? I need to speak with her, now." I tell them, pushing out the door and up the stairs.

"They're holding a meeting in the small council chambers I'm afraid. She asked there be no interruptions-"

"Hmph. My sister will understand,"

"Uncle? What's wrong?" Luke asks, worried along with the men who followed.

"My prince!" One of them shouts after me but there's no use, I'm furious and I would finish this.

He threatened her time and time again. He manipulated my brothers and mother to his will every step of the way but I couldn't save them from the true monster who orchestrated it all.

My grandsire would die and he'd lose the one thing that had gotten us all into this mess, his goddamn head.

The fool of a knight attempts to convince us all the way up to the small chamber doors until I barrel through them.

I'd expected to see the small council staring back at me but my sister's audience is quite the small gathering, consisting of only the women of our House.

Baela and Rhaena sat close to one another, their eyes bloodshot from the tears they'd shed.

However, my wife and Helaena sat opposite of them, their smiles falling at my interruption, worry instantly weighing down my song's features but I can't look at her for very long without my grandsire's words echoing in my mind.

"Aemond? What is it?" My sister asks, looking between her son and me in concern but Luke is more focused on his betrothed, going to comfort her.

I open my mouth to speak but Helaena and I lock eyes from across the room causing the words to lodge in my throat.

For the second time within the last hour, I reel in my rage but this time for the sake of my sister.

"That night of the betrothal banquet, do you remember sister? You'd told me the north winds howled at our doors,"

Elaena becomes visually uncomfortable recalling that night but Helaena nods knowingly, moving to take Elaena's hand beneath the table.

"That man hadn't followed you on your accord... he was sent."

"What are you saying, brother?" Rhaenyra asks but as her stare hardens I believe she knows exactly what I'm saying.

"I'm saying my grandsire's head belongs on a spike at the front gates, and I want to take it from his shoulders myself."

"Aemond-"

"Girls, why don't we take a breather, hm? We'll convene for dinner in a short while." My sister sends them from the room but Elaena doesn't move, her stare unwavering from the table before her.

"Come sister," Baela reaches out her hand but Elaena shakes her head, declining to go with them.

With my attention on Elaena's rigid posture, I don't notice Helaena approach me, giving my hands a comforting squeeze just as she had my wife, "You will do what's right, brother. You always do,"

Her reassuring words settle in my heart and I find it in me to smile thankfully at her as we watched the three of them leave through the double doors.

Once we're alone my sister takes a deep breath glancing between us, unsure.

"What of Aegon's whereabouts?" She asks.

Shaking my head it was safe to say my Mother knew nothing of my brother's whereabouts for the sake of her own sanity but I was well aware my grandfather pulled my puppet brothers strings.

"He'd lead me to believe that Aegon took Sunfyre and fled across the Narrow Sea, but I have my doubts."

"It's impossible, Sunfyre was too badly injured to carry him that far and if Cole helped him he wouldn't be alone," Luke finishes my thought and the small council chambers go silent, the three of us watching Elaena for a reaction but she's thousands of miles away.

I should've ended this long ago.

I would put a blade to all the puppet master's strings that lingered among the shadows.

"My Queen, allow me the honor to publicly execute Otto Hightower before the city and the Green prisoners. Any hope they have will be extinguished with the swing of Dark Sister just as it was with Vaemond Velaryon."

I cross my arms behind my back, finally catching Elaena's widening lavender eyes from across the table, my name softly falling from her lips.

"Aemond, you don't have-"

"It's a good idea. It's a perfect idea quite frankly," Rhaenyra interrupts her but I don't look away from my troubled wife, a frown tugging at her lips.

"I want to, Elaena. And if you'll grant it, I'll take my leave to bring Aegon back myself," I continue, watching my beloved's face fall even further.

She doesn't want me to go.

And seven hells, I didn't want to leave her either but our life together would always be threatened.

"That Lord wouldn't have much to complain about now would he?" I chuckle in my attempt to lift her spirits but she rolls her eyes, far from happy with me, "Lord Lothston is hardly a reason for you to leave on this wild goose chase, Aemond."

"No of course not, but being a liability to you and your mother's reign is plenty of reason."

Realizing I use my grandfather's words I cringe inwardly, pieces of him forever lingering in my blood.

At the mention of the other Lord, Luke perks up as if he's just remembered something, "Lothston? I saw him leaving the black cells. He left just after you'd gone to speak with your mother."

"He'd asked for a guard to escort him earlier this morning." My sister enlightens us as she stands from her seat at the head of the table, avoiding our looks of shock but I'm the first to question her.

"And you allowed it?"

"He'd been tasked to recover the funds the Greens have stolen from the Royal treasury. Whether that was all they spoke of I can't be sure,"

"We should have those guards questioned, I'll go," Luke senses the tension rising in the small council chambers finding his opportunity to escape and taking it.

Not that I could blame him.

The silence that follows Luke's departure leads me to believe he's left me in the dragon's den with the two most ferocious she-dragons alive.

"I do believe your father would have wanted his blade to be the one to take off the snake's head,"

Rhaenyra must notice her daughter's stillness but Elaena still doesn't react, only pushing back her chair to take her leave.

"Are we done here?" She asks, her violet eyes glancing between the both of us impatiently.

Clearing her throat Rhaenyra looks to me, "The execution will be in a week's time. When you plan to leave... will be up to you,"

Without another word on the matter Elaena and I are dismissed.

The short walk to our chambers is nearly unbearable with the droning silence between us and I realize much too late that I should've consulted with my wife first before offering my services.

The small guard is my only saving grace sparing me from Elaena's wrath but the moment our chamber door shuts behind us and we're alone my wife turns, pushing her palms against my chest.

"What were you thinking!" She asks, her cute little face scrunched up in anger but both of us had the right to be angry.

"I was thinking I want that man dead before he can scheme his way out of the cracks of his cell, I want that sick son of a bitch DEAD for thinking he could take your maidenhood as if it was his to take," I shout back, the rage made fresh as I say the words aloud.

"Because it was yours to take is that it?!" Her violet eyes were swirling with a million different emotions but I recognized them all.

Passion, rage, confusion, frustration I'd always managed to make her feel everything at once.

I saw her and I'd always see her.

Taking her hands from my chest I interlock our fingers to stop her from hitting me.

"It was yours to give, nuha vaedar. The choice was always yours. It's that he wished to take that choice from you," gently brushing my fingertips down her cheek she scoffs, yanking away from me.

"Choice? Is that what you were thinking when you offered to go on some crazed adventure to find your brother?"

I bite at my lip, her narrowed eyes challenging me stirring my stiff cock in my trousers now that I'm thinking of our very first time together.

I'd been so nervous, trembling like an inexperienced boy.

Pushing away those thoughts I shake my head, "I'm sorry, Elaena I wasn't thinking. I only wanted to help-"

"By leaving?" She frowns, her pout a dagger through the heart.

"Come with me," I say before thinking, but she shakes her head looking up at me in disbelief.

"And leave our children to be raised by my sisters and handmaidens? Not in a hundred years," She replies, crossing her arms over her chest and bringing her breasts to attention in the low-cut dress she'd been wearing.

"Of course not, I never intended...fuck," I take a deep breath, looking away for the moment I can bear before our eyes draw back to one another.

My songs vulnerable gaze peers up at me and I can almost forget what we'd been arguing about.

Grazing my fingertips down the frame of her face the shift in the air between us is immediate.

At some point we must've drifted back together, her chest grazing mine with each sharp breath she takes.

"I'll only leave for days at a time if that's what you desire." I begin, pressing a quick but tender kiss beneath her ear, the tension she holds evaporating beneath my lips, "I am at your beck and call,"

Another kiss.

"I always have been," I tell her, this being far from a confession. Elaena was more than aware of the effect she had on me.

"Aemond," she breathes, my name rolling off her sweet tongue like a melody.

"Hm?" I hum against her neck, nibbling at the sensitive flesh of her throat.

"We don't have the first idea of where he's gone," Elaena yanks at my collar forcing my attention elsewhere and I groan in annoyance, "Not yet, love, no, but we will. I won't stop until he's found," I promise hoping to reassure her but I seem to do the opposite.

My wife searches my gaze, her lips sinking into an unconvinced frown, worry etched across her Valyrian features.

In an effort to distract her, I press a kiss to her temple, "Now will you tell me what your meeting was about earlier? What had Rhaena so upset?" I ask, her fog lifted as a small shy smile stretches across her face.

There she is.

"Now that is ladies' business, my prince. Though you will find out in due time,"

Pulling back to look at her I try to read her expression, read her mind even but she gives nothing away keeping her pink lips sealed tight.

"Oh, keeping secrets are we?" I smirk, snaking my arms around her waist as I lean in for the kiss I'd been pinning for.

"Never, husband. It's simply a surprise," she giggles beneath my kiss resigning to my motives.

Her mouth tasted of the sweetest of wines, one that was quickly becoming my favorite now that Elaena had begun to indulge more frequently with an empty womb.

We'd have to change that soon, this very evening in fact.

"You know very well how much I despise surprises, Princess."

"Not all things are about you, Aemond Targaryen," she grins up at me.

Fucking minx, my pretty little wife was.

"Thank the gods for that," I reply, guiding her smart mouth back to mine.

***