Born in Flames || Game of Thrones

Chapter XXXVI ''We can't win''

The storm was still going on and there was no sign that it would end anytime soon. It was raging all night and Visenya couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned and stood up to pace around the room until she finally gave up. She never had trouble falling asleep during a storm. Maybe today was different... She had the impression that she managed to fall asleep for a short while and then woke up because she saw something terrible.

Past? Future? She had no idea, no memory of the images that cut through her mind like a sword's blade. She didn't remember fragments of the screams of burning people or her own screams, she didn't remember feeling like she was dying.

It should be dawn in about two hours, and the storm wasn't letting up. Visenya, on the other hand, had already given up trying to sleep, got dressed and left her room. The castle wasn't noisy even during the day, but now the silence was almost deafening, especially combined with the unexpected booms of thunder.
She went to the dungeons because she knew no one would look for her there. She leaned against the wall and slumped down, finally sitting on the ground. The rain and thunder were even fainter here...

It was perhaps the only place in the castle where the weight on her shoulders seemed to become lighter. She occupied the chambers where her father and all the other heirs had once lived, and thoughts of them haunted her there almost all the time. In the throne room she also thought about them, even when she walked through the corridors they did not leave her alone.

But here? In the dungeons? She didn't think anyone in her family before her just came to sit here, looking like a rebuked child. Here she did not feel the burden of the name, 'the greatest dynasty this world has ever seen'. She didn't have to be strong, she didn't have to think, she could just close her eyes and relax from everything. After all, who would look for the Queen in the dungeons? If someone was even looking for her at this hour...

Only now did she feel the weight of what she had committed to and wanted someone to take the burden off her shoulders. To wake her up when it's all over, when the war is over and this whole chapter is closed. In Essos it was simpler, she wasn't connected with those lands, they didn't know her there, the people were different.

She didn't know how long she sat by that wall, but when she got out and looked out the window, the sun was shining through the storm clouds. It looked like the rain would soon end and the beautiful weather would return. May the clouds disappear from her thoughts at the same time...

"Your Grace?" walking through the corridor leading to her chambers, she came across Tyrion. "It's very early for you."

"The thunder woke me up, I needed to take a walk." she replied quickly, partly lying. He could see it, her coat not fully buttoned, her hair pulled back in a lazier way, more of a Meereen style, where most of it was down. "I don't associate you with being a morning person either."

"It happens to me sometimes, especially when things require it." she nodded and there was silence for a moment as they walked confidently towards her room. "Do you want to continue meeting in the morning, or would you rather wait until breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry." she replied immediately, entering the room. Tyrion entered right behind her and closed the door.

He was worried if she was okay. He didn't miss the fact that she had slightly dark circles under her eyes - as if she hadn't slept at all - and, of course, her clothes were sloppier than usual, which she was now fixing. She stood in front of the mirror and buttoned the buttons up to her neck, then reached into her hair to gather the loose strands into one four-strand braid.

"You know we can trust each other?" he addressed her directly. Her hands near her hair stopped for a moment, but she quickly continued her work. "We only exchanged a few words, but I see you're acting different. What is it?"