The Grey Wolf & The Golden Dragon | Aegon Targaryen II

The Broken Queen

Aemond

Aemond Targaryen had always considered himself strong, impenetrable, even. Nothing had ever hurt him until the moment he saw Alysanne holding her son's body. He couldn't have imagined anything could feel worse, until Alysanne told him about Elin being attacked and losing her baby.

The moment Aemond reached his room, gripping the bronze pin so hard his hand began to bleed, he lost all composure. He dropped the metal piece onto the floor, and sagged against the door, burying his head in his hands as thick sobs filled the room.

Elin has lost a child. Another child. His child...

Give me a home to come back to... Elin had told him. But what was that home, what was he worth after all the pain he had brought her?

Wave after wave of grief rolled over him, swallowing him whole until nothing else remained. Aemond had begged Elin for a child, if only to be married to her sooner; she must have stopped taking the moon tea for him. She'd given him exactly what he'd asked for and lost everything because of it.

It was his fault. He killed Lucerys. Aelys had been killed because of him. Elin had been sent north because of him. He'd ruined the lives of everyone around him because of his temper, exactly as El and Lys had always warned...

Aemond cried until his lungs seemed to shrivel in his chest and his head ached; until he had no tears left. Even then, he remained crumpled against the door, sorrow weighing heavy on his blackened heart. When exhaustion finally claimed him, Aemond dreamed of chasing Elin through the hedge maze, a tiny, curly-haired toddler at her side...

Alysanne

It surely hadn't been his intent, but the conversation Aegon had started in the throne room sent Alysanne spiraling once again. Days blended into weeks and Alysanne walked the halls of the keep like a ghost, thin and pale and clad the color of mourning. For the first time since she arrived, Torlyn was making full use of herself, bathing and dressing her lady while Alysanne sat in a daze, a blank look of sorrow on her face.

For days at a time, she and Aegon did not see each other. In fact, she avoided people in their entirety as Crimson became her sole companion.

It was early one evening when she waved Torlyn away and headed to her rooms, the one's she had abandoned her marriage chambers for, wringing her hands together. Suddenly, she paused, realizing she was standing in front of the last door she wanted to be.

With trembling limbs she stepped forward, her body moving despite her mind screaming at her to turn and go back to her quarters. The door creaked as she pushed it open; the sight of the vacant nursery making the pain inside her flare. This was where it all happened, where she was nearly raped and killed, where Aelys was taken from her forever...

Aelys... My baby... They took my fucking baby!

Alysanne hated it. She hated that she could still feel Blood's hand wrapped around her throat, but she couldn't remember what Aelys looked like any longer. Often, she tried to remind herself that he looked like Aegon but looking at her husband had, once again, become too much to bear. And now, when she pictured her son, all she could think of was the lifeless, headless bundle she had clutched to her chest.

Her legs gave out beside the cradle, the one Helaena had hand painted. Hel had spent so long adorning it with dragons and insects and flowers... And all the while she knew... Alysanne couldn't bear it, the pieces of her broken heart shattering further as she shoved it over as hard as she could, hearing the wood crack and splinter, just as she had.