Eye of The Dragon, Aemond Targaryen

𝟐𝟖

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𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥.

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𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐃 as Aelora entered her father's chambers. She wasn't sure how to approach this, she wasn't scared of her father but she knew that his responses to particular things could end up in an internal explosion. But she needed to speak with him. She needed a reason.

"Father? Do you have a moment?" Daemon stood with his back to the door as he leaned against the wall on the other side of the room. His thoughts had gotten interrupted and he turned around to smile at his daughter. His oldest, his pride and joy.

He nodded, extending his hand to the table in the room. "For you always, sweet daughter." Aelora smiled in response as she took a seat on the chair. Her father sat across her, his hands folded on the table.

Daemon furrowed his brows as he saw the struggle in his daughter's eyes. "What is troubling you, Aelora?" The Princess wasn't one to question her father, since he always had a reason for everything. But, these last few days, something felt off. "Are you avoiding me, father?" Daemon looked down at his hands as he pursed his lips. He knew he could not lie to his little Princess, she sees all. But he wasn't entirely sure that being honest would help. "Avoiding you?" He simply asked in response.

The Princess reached for Daemon's hands across the table, placing hers over his. "Do not act dumb with me. You are many things, but you are not a fool." Daemon parted his lips to speak, but Aelora interrupted him. "You haven't spoken to me in days," she then spoke. Aelora saw it in his eyes, the way he was avoiding eye contact with his eldest. "I understand you're grieving, but so am I. But do not push me away, father. Please."

"You think I'm avoiding you because I am grieving?" Aelora nodded. "What other explanation is there? You act like I'm not even here, like I'm a ghost." Daemon pulled his hands back as he abruptly stood up, kicking the chair away with his foot. The sound of the chair hitting the wall startled the Princess, but it was nothing she wasn't used to. "I do not want, nor wish, to avoid you Aelora. But what other choice do you give me?" He knew it wasn't his daughter's fault that she shared too many similarities with Rhaenyra. But whenever he looked at her, he was reminded with the fact that he wasn't strong enough to protect the one person who had shown him the true meaning of having a family. 

Aelora stood up and slowly walked her father's direction. "You're hurting, and I apologize for that. I should have been quicker to protect her." But Daemon looked down at his daughter, frowning. "Don't you dare place the blame upon yourself, my sweet girl. I should have seen it, green snakes are poisonous after all. And Otto Hightower stood in front of that line." The Princess swallowed twice before answering. "Then why won't you look at me?"

The rogue Prince's head tilted, unsure how to react. "I can see you watching my every move, but you never actually see me," Aelora halted. Daemon narrowed his eyes on his daughter, "what do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I just said. It means you look right through me." Daemon took a step forward, grabbing his daughter's shoulders gently. "You think I don't see you?" Aelora immediately shook her head at her father, but before she could answer him he cut her off. "I see you, Aelora. I see how much you look like her, and how much you act like her. You are her. Every good that your beautiful mother had, she passed onto you. And it kills me every day a little bit more that I couldn't protect her."

Daemon turned around to face the window. "But I see it more clearly now," he said. "You share her blood as well as mine, the pure blood of the dragon." He chuckled, turning to his daughter. "You, my rogue Princess, will bring us the victory that we deserve. And you will do it with fire and blood." Daemon smiled as he walked back to Aelora, cupping her cheeks in his hands. "We will avenge your mother's death, but you - you will destroy them from the inside out." Aelora looked at her father with a certain fire ignited in her eyes. His words gave her the determination that she needed. The need to finally do something. The days of grieving her mother were over, it was time to act on that sadness and anger that the Targaryens held deep inside their veins. It was time to claim her rightful place. Daemon opened his arms to welcome his daughter. Aelora's soft smile didn't go unnoticed by him, and his lips pulled up in a smile in reflex.

A knock on the door made Aelora pull back, but Daemon pushed her back against his chest. "Leave us!" But the person on the other side did not care to listen. He knocked again. Daemon angrily grunted as he rushed to the door, opening it with a swing that could have pulled the door out of its frame. "What do you want?"

Ser Erryk saw the Princess behind Daemon and he sighed at the sight of her. "I need to speak to the Princess." Aelora frowned, what news could he possibly bring that she had not heard of yet. "Please follow me to painted table, your husband is waiting there for you." When Aelora heard of Aemond's name she immediately followed Ser Erryk. Daemon followed close behind her.

Aelora smiled when she saw Aemond, but the Prince did not return the favor. His expression was sad and that terrified Aelora. The one eyed Prince held his hand out for her, which she happily accepted. Daemon and Ser Erryk took their place on the other side of the room. Daemon had his hand on Dark Sister at all times.

Aemond guided Aelora to the fireplace. He turned her way, taking her hands in his. "Issa jorrāelagon," (my love) he started. He waited with talking further. "Aemond ao issi sȳngagon issa." (Aemond you are scaring me) His head was tilted forward, unable to look her in the eyes. But Aelora pushed his head up with her finger. "What is it?"

"It is about your brother, Aelora." The Princess' smile faded quickly. "What of my brother?" Her bottom lip had found itself between her teeth as she bit on it. "They found parts of Arrax's body beneath the cliffs below Storm's End, but Lucerys's body was never found."

Her heart sunk in the pits of her stomach. She could feel her mind being on the brink of explosion, and she had no desire to stop any of it. She turned around to her father who had heard the news from Ser Erryk. He, too, had felt all the stones beneath his feet shift. Lucerys wasn't his biological son, but he was still his. And they had murdered one of his children.

Aelora's knees buckled and she fell to the cold stones. Aemond immediately threw himself next to her, taking the Princess in his arms as he slowly stroked her hair. His wife's tears changed from grief that would consume a person, to pure, unimaginable anger. Aelora pushed her eyes closed, denying what Aemond had said. But then she remembered lord Corlys' words. He was right, Storm's End isn't that far a fly from here, Lucerys should've been back days ago. "I should've gone myself!" She shouted as she buried her face in Aemond's chest. "They denied me of going and now my brother is dead," she cried. Aemond whispered soothing words in her ear to calm her down, but there was no going back to being calm. They robbed her of her mother, and now they had taken her brother. Aemond helped her stand, keeping her weight on him. "Who mu-" She stopped herself, scared to speak the words. Her bloodshot eyes bore into Ser Erryk's. "Who murdered my brother?"

"They refuse to speak his name, Princess. But one of them did speak of a dragon with scales gifted by the sun."

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