The Green Flame

Chapter 18. Return to King's Landing

It had been six years since the Driftmark Incident, which everyone had called the taking of Aemond's eye, Alicent's outburst, and Ser Harwin's return.

Ser Harwin explained that he had smelled smoke, and breaking the door, he ran out to get his father, who told him to save himself, which Harwin did and would later regret as his father died in the burning of Harrenhal. He spent days riding his horse from the Riverlands to the Crownlands, then stowed away on the royal boat, posing as a deckhand and keeping his distance from the King. Upon arriving at Driftmark for the funeral of Queen Laena, Harwin got off the ship and waited until he could find Princess Rhaenyra and tell her his tale.

Viserys had grown weaker, barely getting out of bed, and half of his face had turned to that of a decomposing skull, so the maesters put a golden mask to cover the skull-like side of the King, but still, Viserys deteriorated.

In Dragonstone, Alicent smiled as she and Daemon oversaw their growing children. They had married Aegon to Aelinor for the Valyrian blood purity argument that past Targaryens have done to remain solely silver-haired and purple-eyed.

The siblings had been married since Aelinor had begun her cycles. They hadn't done anything remotely sexual, with Aegon and Aelinor agreeing to wait for her and Alyssa's eighteenth name day to consummate their marriage. As far as their parents were concerned, the newlyweds didn't conceive because they wished to enjoy each other's company and grow together as man and wife.

Aegon's silver hair was up to his shoulders, while Aelinor's was long, her tips ending under the outline of her bosoms, but she kept her hair in braids when she trained with their father or Ser Criston, who had become somewhat of an uncle to them. Aelinor would also rotate between wearing dresses and her beloved breeches with a tunic.

Daeron occupied himself with books on knights and watching Ser Criston and Daemon. He had been scared when Aemond's scar was still fresh until his mother comforted him and reminded him that Aemond was a brave knight, and sometimes those courageous knights the littlest Targaryen admired had suffered severe wounds. Daeron got used to Aemond's scarred eye, even bragging that his brother was a brave fighter like Ser Criston and their Father. Along with him, Tessarion grew more prominent, becoming a teenage dragon

Aemond's hair had grown long, much like his father's had in his early years before the end of the War of the Stepstones. Aemond looked like Daemon did in his youth. During his recovery, he trained himself to use his uncut eye, learning philosophy, history, law, politics, everything Aegon had also learned but never considered important enough.

He remembered his thirteenth name day when he and Aegon snuck out and into a brothel, and Aegon offered the whore he had come to learn of sex years earlier. Aemond refused, wishing to save himself for Alyssa on their wedding night. On his sixteenth name day, Aemond had read of a legend named Symeon Star-Eyes, a blind man who placed two sapphires in his empty eye sockets and lived during the Age of Heroes, a time that happened before the arrival of the Andals and Aegon's Conquest. Feeling inspired by the legend of Star-Eyes, Aemond had looked in his family's treasury for a sapphire. After finding the perfect one, he dug out his ruined eye and placed the sapphire in the empty eye socket, marking his favourite colour as blue and his preferred gem being sapphires.

Alyssa was the first one he told about his new eye, and wanting to show her never-ending support for her older brother, Alyssa decided to add blue to her wardrobe, dresses, tunics, breeches, and handkerchiefs. Alyssa made making a black leather eyepatch for Aemond and gave it to him so he'd feel less insecure about his injury, although telling him. "I think you're handsome with the scar. It shows you fought and survived. It shows people you're a strong fighter and a real dragon."

Aemond kept the eyepatch on around people, but when he was alone, he sometimes removed the patch.

Alyssa had grown into a beauty, her long silver hair appearing more like moonlight and her orchid-purple eyes sparkling. However, underneath the feminine and petite exterior lay a formidable beast breathing blue fire.