𝗘𝗬𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗬𝗘, hotd ✓

six ─ 𝗀𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗇 𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗋𝗂𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗒

006.
𝗀𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗇 𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗋𝗂𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗒

Aemond couldn't think. When he had brought back Lucenys in his arms, he had seen the look of horror on his mother's face.

( "What have you done?" She had whispered quietly, looking at him like he was another person. Like he wasn't the son he loved most. Like he was a monster.

Aemond kept silent and tightened his hold on Lucenys, ignoring the blood running from her wounds. He looked to the ground and whispered, "What's done is done. Call for the maester mother, we need to place her into a room." )

He saw it in her eyes. In everyone's eyes. Even Aegon, drunk in his mind, had understood the situation Aemond had brought them in. Rhaenyra would not let this go. And even if she would, Daemon wouldn't. If they didn't want to risk war for the Iron Throne, then they certainly would for their daughter.

His grandfather had shouted at him. Calling him blind and asking if he had understood the risk he had taken by going after her.

He certainly did now.

He never meant to harm her. He cursed himself silently while gripping his goblet tightly. He had wanted to take her eye, and he had expected her to deny him. He had only wanted to scare her, to make her understand what she had done when she had taken his eye. What she had made him.

Aemond had sworn himself never to be like Aegon. Yet the night with Lucenys was still in his mind. He had acted dishonorably. Even though she had taken his eye and even if she was a bastard, she was the daughter of Rhaenyra Targaryen. He would allow to call himself a monster for that. He could only hope Lucenys would wake up so that people wouldn't have to whisper kinslayer behind his back.

He could see the way they looked at him with disgust in their eyes. This time not for his eye— but for harming his niece, his blood.

He closed his eye, feeling a headache coming. He whispered faintly, "Live Lucenys. Please."

"She has made no process yet," Maester Orwyle said, as the tension was clear inside the small council. Rhaenyra had not acted and there was no word from Dragsonstone. "I doubt she will survive at all, my lord."

Aegon suddenly laughed, drunk out of his mind. Otto looked at him sternly. His mother sent him a glare as well. He looked at Aemond, raising his cup in a jesting manner, "Good job brother. Now it's not me that mother hates the most. Your actions have caused a war,"

"What a king you are to sit there, drunk out of your mind, being useless," Aemond hissed back. He could see their mother shake her head tiredly. He could sense she had not slept, he would have to speak to her but he knew she had no wish to speak with him after what he had done.

Aegon threw his cup at the ground causing his mother to jump. He stared at Aemond with a cruel smile. "Well it's not only me who is useless now is it?" The council went quiet, staring at each other with weariness, not wanting to anger the drunk king. "You were supposed to give us Lord Baratheon's support. And now, he won't write if he gives it! He and along with the rest of the seven kingdoms has heard what you have done to Luce and now he doesn't want to marry his daughter to a fucking kinslayer!"

Aemond stared at him, not giving Aegon the satisfaction of a reaction. He merely said nothing. He clenched his fist underneath the table to try and contain his anger. Aegon wanted this, he tried to remind himself. He wanted him to get angry to show everyone inside the small council what they already thought of him as.

"It matters not," came the harsh words from his grandsire. "We will have to make sure the princess survives. If not, it may cause us problems. The realm adores princess Lucenys. And the princess Rhaenyra loves her daughter, and can still bend the knee to the rightful king for her safe return."

Aegon threw his hands on the table and stood up causing his chair to fall back behind him. He glared at the lord hand. "What safe fucking return? She is half dead!" Shouted Aegon, wobbling a bit to the side. Aemond looked at him and scoffed. A pathetic excuse for a king. "Rhaenyra will kill us and if not her then Daemon."

His mother raised from her seat and tried to let a comforting hand on Aegon's shoulder, but was brushed off harshly. "Daemon is a problem. He will be needed to be dealt with, father. He is a threat to us all. Even if Rhaenyra does bend the knee, and Daemon indeed follows, we will have no idea if one of us might drop dead of any assassins or by poison. That was always Daemon's specialty, after all," Otto nodded at his mother, agreeing with her words.

He then stared at Maester Orwyle. "Make sure she lives. We all depend on it."

Yes, Aemond thought. He would go to her after the council meeting. He did not think of the feeling he had buried in his gut if she did in fact die.

Lucenys looked almost peaceful as she lay on the bed, her blood-soaked clothes had been changed to that of a modest nightgown. Aemond could note her weak breaths coming out from her nose and the way her chest moved. She laid completely still otherwise. Aemond stared at her— taking in all of her. Her eyes are closed, her lashes dull against her pale cheeks, whereas her dark hair was rowdy as ever, falling into her eyes and over the bed sheets. He feels the guilt stab him in his chest.

Wake up, he pleaded quietly, then cursed himself. He ought to end her life now, put an end to all this bother, and be done with it. Then he can finally be the monster his mother already considered him to be. Aemond moved a chair closer to Lucenys, the sound of the wooden legs scraping against the floor, echoing loudly. He then sat down and stared at her. He traced her nose and followed the light as it rested upon her cheeks. She looked so small, so delicate, and so—

Innocent.

Gods. What had he done, he thought oh so desperately and tore his gaze away from her. It was too late for him. He did what he did there was nothing he could do to make a difference. Rhaenyra knows what the greens have done and she is coming for all of them. Sometimes he cursed the wretched Hightower family he was born into. It was too much.

But alas— what's done is done. He had harmed Lucenys and the deed is done and finished. He could not continue visiting her. No, it was only a weakness he would not allow himself to bear. Not when war had started.

No, he would not. He walked towards the door and walked himself out.

"Her condition, maester. Why is she not awake yet?" The had questioned with a grin expression on his face.

"Her condition is very serious, my lord," maester Orwyle responded. "I have a small doubt that she may never wake up again and if she does, her mind might not be able to function at full capacity."

"Meaning?" Aemond didn't realize it was his voice that uttered the question and chose to ignore the stares he got.

Orwyle stared at him, serious. "I am saying that if she were to wake, my prince, that her memory might be lost— or in other words she might be-"

"Simple-minded is the word you mean, is it not?"

It comes out harsh but Aemond doesn't care he just wants to know the truth and be done with it. Maester Orwyle confirmed his question with a nod causing his grandsire to let out a disappointed sigh and his mother a gasp she covered with her hand.

"Gods be good,"

Aemond watched his mother carefully and noticed how her jaw tightened and her eyes tightly shut. Aemond could hear the phrase, again and again. Your fault, his mind whispered. Your fault.