Sworn Fate // Aegon Targaryen II

Chapter 9

After returning from Dragonstone, Aegon hardly left Aemond's side. In the aftermath of losing his eye, Aemond was guarded and on edge, constantly jumping when someone accidentally approached him on his newly blind side. Aegon still felt guilty for not protecting him, a failing on his part that his mother consistently brought up whenever she was in a bad mood, which was most of the time.

The short trip he'd taken to Oldtown with his siblings had been his only moment of peace. Originally, their mother had been supposed to accompany them by carriage while they flew on their respective dragons, but their father had taken a bad turn and she'd elected to stay behind to care for him.

For that entire week, Aegon had felt free and almost happy. Daeron had shown them around the most popular sites and his mother's family had been welcoming and happy throughout their entire visit. It was a starkly different atmosphere than the one that pervaded the Red Keep.

There had even been time for Aegon to convince Daeron to act as a liaison, so that Aegon could finally exchange letters with Aerion again. All he had to do was send a letter for Aerion to Daeron, who would then track down one of the countless maesters who had access to the ravens in Oldtown and have them send the letter on to Dragonstone. Aerion would send his reply back to Daeron and then Daeron would send it on to King's Landing as if the letter was coming from him.

Frankly, Aegon was highly impressed with his own cunning.

Aerion hadn't replied to the letter Aegon had sent from Oldtown, but the drawback to his plan was that sending letters this way would take double the time. Still, a delayed letter from Aerion was better than none at all.

Now that he was back in King's Landing, Aegon felt depressed. Aemond had slightly cheered up in Oldtown, but he'd quickly slipped back into his new untrusting and self conscious state the moment they were back at court. Helaena was having a particularly bad spate of dreams again, which left Aegon mostly to his own devices.

So, he drank a lot and pretended like he wasn't drowning in misery.

He should be happy. He was a prince and he had almost everything he could ask for. Money, great food, whatever kinds of wine he wanted, hells he even had an entire dragon. It was more than enough to make most people happy. Perhaps he was just particularly ungrateful.

He was lonely. Without his siblings to bother, Aegon didn't actually have any friends. His parents were either indifferent or outright disapproving of him and the guards and servants regarded him as a bit of a menace. They weren't wrong, but that reputation didn't help to foster many friendships with them.

He kept his eyes on the ceiling as he lay in bed, watching the shadows dance in the candlelight. Tomorrow, maybe he could sneak into one of the taverns in Flea Bottom. He liked listening to the music and people usually left him alone. None of them seemed to recognize that he was a prince or if they did, they hadn't cared to bring it up. It was nice to feel unknown.

Most importantly, there would be copious amounts of wine available for him to drink and dull the aching emptiness he consistently carried around in his chest. In the taverns when he was drunk, he could feel happy even if it was just for a fleeting moment.

He blew out the candle on his bedside table and closed his eyes, feeling calm now that he had a plan of action for the following day, when he was suddenly startled awake by a loud crash. His eyes flew open and he looked around the room wildly, mind already filled with images of assassins and bloodthirsty thieves. Without the candle, his room was shrouded in darkness, though he could barely make out what seemed to be a crumpled figure on the ground.

Just as he opened his mouth to scream, he heard a familiar voice groan in pain.

"Aerion?" he questioned anxiously, hand creeping towards the ornate silver candlestick on his bedside table.