ELLIPSISM, aemond targaryen

[012] aemond and aemma try to commit suicide

AEMMA FELT LIKE dinner that day wasn't so much a dinner as it was a show. It certainly wasn't that something special was happening at the table, no, but Aemma found just the looks that her family members exchanged fascinating and hilarious.

With so many people, it was even hard to pay attention to everything, and Aemma would need to experience the same moment several times to get it right. However, she was able to catch a few glances and finally concluded that most of them were taking place between Rhaenyra, Alicent, Viserys, Otto and Rhaenys.

Although Daemon was looking at Rhaenyra most of the time and he surely knew that Viserys and Alicent were looking at him coldly as if they were inviting him to fight, Daemon decided to ignore the invitation as it was much more fun to watch the drama than to be a part of it.

Aemma had the same opinion and even wanted to stay longer for a while to enjoy the situation better, but she knew that she had other plans for the evening and it was time to get it in action.

She came over to her mother, who was just intently slicing meat on her plate to stop herself from staring at Daemon, and bent down to her level. "Mother, I would like to go to sleep."

Rhaenyra looked up, surprised. "Isn't it too early? You usually go to bed later."

"Helaena and I ran around the beach all day, it exhausted me," Aemma lied.

Rhaenyra nodded. "In that case, rest. And take your brothers with you."

"I will," Aemma kissed her mother's cheek.

She returned to her place next to Jace and Luke and nudged Jace who was playing with his food.

The boy looked at her. "What's the matter?"

"We're going to sleep," Aemma replied, stroking Luke's hair gently to wake him up.

Jace raised an eyebrow. "Already?"

Aemma ignored him, still trying to wake Luke up.

Luke finally opened his eyes and blinked at her in confusion. "What's going on?"

"We will go to our room. Tomorrow is the funeral, we should go to bed early," she told him, grabbing his hand.

Luke slowly got off his chair and Jace didn't complain either and simply followed his sister.

Aemma looked around the room and saw that no one noticed if they were there or not (Laenor didn't come to dinner and Helaena went to bed early) so she felt safe until she saw Ben.

Even though Ben did not want to attend the family dinner, Rhaenys insisted that he should meet Viserys and Alicent as one day he would be an important representative of House Stark. So Ben ate as little as possible and talked even less and spent the evening pacing around room like Otto Hightower and watching people (his favorite object of interest was Daemon and Rhaenyra who he looked at curiously.)

Despite the fact that Aemma did not know him and did not know what he was like, his suspicious look was unpleasant, as she remembered how easily he could tell that she was mourning someone else just by looking at her.

Aemma didn't like people like Otto Hightower who looked like they knew everything and were capable of using anything to destroy the enemy. And that's exactly how she felt about Benjen.

Even so, she couldn't help but think his intelligence (especially at such a young age) was fascinating (maybe that's why she looked at him more than she should have during dinner.)

Determined to show him that she wasn't afraid of him, she didn't look away, but stared straight into his eyes until Ben (as Aemma assumed) looked away.