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10/ ADVENTURES IN SIBLING BONDING
"You are not convinced." was the first thing Aemond stated when he entered Maelora's chambers.
Sitting on her chair by the fireplace, Maelora kept staring at Helaena who preferred to sit on the carpet, holding her hands close to the fire. She had been sitting there, on the floor, ever since the servants came to clean the broken porcelain pieces from the corner.
"Are you?" Maelora shot back, her eyes never leaving the orange flames. She doubted whether she could feel the burning sensation if she were to extend a hand to the blazes, or the heat resting in the hollow of her breasts had already numbed her body to fire. Maelora sometimes wished that she could spread the flames like a fever and watch everyone and everything burn to the ground, turning into nothing but a handful of cinder.
Sylvina was taken to the dungeons — to the torture room to be exact. She was crying and screaming that she was innocent while she was dragged away from frozen Maelora. Otto wanted to keep things silent as Sylvina was known as Princess' close friend and the fact that the rumor was spread from her words would make the rumor sound more convincing.
The word trust had rotted inside her mouth, leaving a sour, unerasable taste behind. For someone who had massive trust issues, Maelora always managed to trust the wrong people. This story was old by now; Maelora befriended someone, then she thought they were different so she started to open up until she turned transparent for them, and then the person splashed salt into her wounds, even creating new scars in her heart and Maelora promised herself she would never trust anyone else again. And the same cycle started after some time.
Aemond waited for Aegon to come inside before he shut the doors and twirled the lock. "You know Lady Graceford better than any of us, sister." Aemond's nose was slightly scrunched up with concentration. "From what I observed, she seems to be rather...lacking of manners: blunt and thoughtless. She does not mask her emotions when she is around people. If she despises them, she makes them know that."
"She is not cunning." Maelora agreed with a nod. If Sylvina despised someone, her sarcasm-soaked words would slip from her tongue, her eyes would be dull with annoyance. Maelora wasn't stupid, she would have caught a slip-up, a tiny detail if her friend hated her. And letters... Sylvina was too lazy to do that, she would just wander around the castle, screaming the rumor without bothering to deal with writing seven letters.
Aegon's face lit up with a lazy grin on his lips. "Should I assign a different meaning to your intense interest in Lady Graceford, brother?" He mused, his voice disguised with fake innocence.
