𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐄 ~ aemond targaryen (discontinued)

14 ~ A Toast ~ 14

I was late. Shocker.

After all of the commotion this afternoon, I had decided to take a long bath, to wash away the blood and lingering sheen of death that clinged to my soul. The act of taking a life always seemed to hover and tether itself to me for a good while after, burrowing down deep into the roots of my spirit and portraying itself through jittery fingers. A constant chill blanketing my flesh. A heartbeat that never steadied till hours later. Foreign hands. Disbelief. Sometimes bathing the death away worked, most times it didn't. But no matter how evil or innocent the life I had taken was, once the adrenaline and bloodthirst had tided, I always grieved the conclusion of life. I didn't want to. Half of my victims were murderers themselves and the cruel thieves of women's virtues. But still, I grieved. Mostly for myself and that tiny splinter of my soul I had destroyed in the act of stealing another life. I was well aware of the approaching day, when eventually, there would be nothing of me left to give.

Stupidly, I had fallen asleep in the bath, awoken by icy water flooding my lungs as I slid beneath the depths. The black beyond my windows told me I had been there for hours.

I didn't know if it was the warm, blanket of water or the comfort of childhood nostalgia that sent me into a deep slumber inside the tub of my old bathroom, which extended ftom my chambers.

Stepping into the quarters I had grown up in, finding my spare key in that same crack in the stone just by the bottom corner of the door, I had slid into the room expecting it to be a tomb. Yet my room had remained polished and tidied all these years still, as if I had only stepped out to take a stroll and returned hours later, in the evening rather than six entire years. There wasn't a single speck of dust touching any surface. Not one.

I easily assumed it was Viserys who had made the effort and arrangements to keep my room neat and clean should I return to stay or visit. Even my bed linens were crisp and fresh, smelling of that familiar lavender scented soap the servants used to soak the fabrics. But there was a weak yet ever present breath of smoke and cedarwood, clinging to the fibres of the sheets, embracing itself within them permanently.

A second discrepancy: There were two extra pillows on my bed. Whilst I only tended to sleep with one on each side, two more had been added. Strange since there would be no use in adding more pillows to a bed no one slept on anymore.

There was also a pile of tattered, used books atop the side table by the armchair at the window. Picking through them, they were of histories and philosophy, topics I hadn't owned the time to dabble in since joining the war. Instead, I read books of battle strategies and combat, though I knew the art of the sword could not be taught through reading it.

I might've thoughts they were books left behind my younger-self, but like the rest of the room, not an inch of dust touched the covers and I hadn't yet began my studies of philosophy before I left.

It pointed to one answer. Someone other than the maids, had been in my room. Perhaps sleeping there too.

Splashing out from the tub in panic once realising the time, wrapped in a towel, I scooped the top layer of my hair back and into a long, navy ribbon, leaving the rest to fall in their natural waves to dry. A couple of stray strands fell to frame my face. Unlike Helaena, I was hopeless at decorating my hair with pretty braids and styles. I would need to ask her to teach me some of her tricks before I left.

Shoving a short, navy tunic over my head- it wasn't the fanciest attire, but it was the best I could find in my bag- I tied a leather strap around my waist so the fabric wouldn't drown me, then slid a pair of black trousers and boots on and was out the door.

My legs brought me to the dining hall by memory, possessing my body with instinct of what turns and twists to take through the Keep. If I actively tried to remind my brain of the directions it would have been hopeless, I would have gotten lost. But second nature carried me there instead.