Burn me • Aemond Targaryen

Deception

Chapter Ninety~ Deception

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Deception was an art form. There were certain brush strokes, certain keys and certain notes that all had to be perfected in order to receive the perfect outcome.
Liars were artists, the best of the best. Painters and musicians had no comparison.

Some were born with the cursed gift, like murderers were born with the ability to kill and poets were born with the ability to live a life of doomed dreams.

Rhaella had it, the gift.

She had mastered it and bent it to her will like a willow tree in the wind.
And she made it beautiful enough that those who knew, which was one person, and he was now dead, looked past it because she made the lie beautiful, like the stars above.

She was hells demon dressed as heavens deity. She was a divine doom and an entity of destruction dressed as a beautiful ignorance, she was armageddon.

Her white hair was an opposition to disguise her black soul, her pretty face a veil to conceal her ugly mind and her purple eyes a promise to shroud her lying tongue.

Court was Rhaella's perfect habitat, a place for predators. Rhaynera should've known to look for snakes before plucking a flower, if she wanted to rule it's throne.

But Rhaella was not even the snake, she was the thorn. And she was waiting for Rhaynera to grab onto her lie before she drew blood.

They rode in a carriage, young Aegon clung close to his mother and Rhaella watched with jealous eyes.

She ached for her children.
She ached for Aemond.

"I am sorry about Joffrey, and Syrax." Rhaella muttered. She could not imagine how it must feel to lose her bonded, and she could feel as Vermithor flapped his wings toward where she intended for him to go.

Right now she was the only Dragon rider in the Kingdom.

"How can I trust you?" Rhaynera said once Aegon slept at her side. Her voice was laced with exhaustion and grief.

Rhaella smiled, and looked out as they approched the bay. "You can't, Not trusting me is most likely the smartest thing you could do." Rhaella sighed. "You cannot trust anyone, whether it affects you or not people will only ever do what is best for themselves, no, The only person you can trust, Rhaynera is yourself." She looked into her sisters eyes, a purple mirror of her own. "And given the reputation of our family name, the trust you have with yourself is not always reliable."

Rhaynera listened to her words intently.
"Then why would I take you with me?"

Rhaella scoffed. "I saved your life for one, those commoners were calling for your head." Then she cleared her throat. "And I'm all you've got."

"Excuse me?" Rhaynera replied, she seemed shocked at Rhaella's nerve.

"If you want your crown you need a Dragon." Rhaella replied. "And I'm the only person with one."

Rhaynera watched as Vermithor's shadow passed over the moon. "Then I suppose I will have to trust you, you have gotten me to safety now and in your act of fleeing I suppose fleeing to your husband on the safety of your unborn child was not treason as high as fleeing to our usurper brother." She told her.

"On your head be it." Rhaella said.

The boat ride was a short one, and soon enough they found themselves pulling into the harbor.

"I want to apologize." Rhaynera said, turning to her. "For, well, everything." She sighed. "It was not on my command your children were murdered, the impulse of my husband was always one of his tainted flaws."
Rhaella frowned at her sisters words.
"I know the ache you must feel, that is something we share."

But Rhaella didn't agree. Rhaynera still had one of her children, and maybe Rhaella had hers. But she wasn't holding their hands like her sister was now.

"I also want to apologize for letting the feelings between your mother and I, be the cause of the neglect on our relationship. We share a father, and we are sisters before anything else." Rhaynera told her, a sad smile following.

Perhaps it was the sadness of loss that made her say this.

It didn't matter.

It changed nothing.

Rhaella smiled sadly too in return, a falsehood that masked the anger and terror she wished to unsheathe. "Thank you, I too am sorry for the result of my actions." She meant past, present and future. But she did not mean the sorry.

Their hoods covered their silver heads as they moved up toward the Targaryen crafted castle, and Rhaella struggled to remain focused as her eyes darted across the architecture.

She could feel the magic of her ancestors running through the stone that crafted fortress, although not as bright as it once was the sorcery still flickered through the blood of the Dragon. And to signify where their power came from there were Dragons sculpted into the brimstone.
It wasn't a pretty place, it was warning and dangerous.

Young Aegon almost slipped on the damp stone at the castles foot.

Rhaella grabbed his hand to stop him falling, though when she did she instantly regretted it.

She saw an image of her brother seated at the Dragon castle's helm, a broken dragon by his side. Then she felt her lungs tearing with screams of the word mother, while another heart in her place shattered as she watched through a sad kings eyes, flames bask against a body of the very person she stood by now.

The boy let go when her grip got too tight, but he smiled awkwardly at her. "Thank you." He said to her before following up after his mother.

Rhaella nodded her head, not replying to his gratitude.

She knew now what lay ahead.

She could have stopped it.

She could've told Rhaynera that her brother was waiting for her upstairs.
She could have said that she had brought her here for the sole reason, that Aegon would also be here.

But she didn't.

Instead she let Rhaynera figure that out for herself when the Guards sworn to her, grabbed and dragged her into their custody.

Rhaella walked around one of the men to stand in front of her sister, who was calling treason and murder till she met the devilish eyes of the princess.

"I told you, you should not have trusted me."

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