Not later than when Prince Aemond lost his eye, King Viserys wished for the conflict between his oldest daughter Rhaenyra and his second wife Alicent to end. Betrothing Rhaenyra's only daughter Viserra to Alicent's oldest son Aegon seemed like the b...
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KING'S LANDING, 132 AC
Viserra's room had never been that flooded with people. Grand Maester Orwyle, Queen Alicent and Ser Otto stood at one side of the bed while Lady Maerie, Ser Armond and Prince Aegon stood at the other. The princess herself sat on the bed, a blanket wrapped around her fragile body to keep the invisible ants from crawling beneath her skin.
Anyone who believed that the inquiry had ended back in the hallways of the Red Keep could not be further away from the truth. The incident had left people split into two groups, one that thought Viserra had gone to the brothel to pleasure herself off a man and one that was convinced the princess went to a brothel, unknowing of the terrors inside.
"Viserra, tell us what happened again," Queen Alicent asked calmly while stroking the princess' arm. Despite her kindness, she was just curious about whether the girl was as naive as she imagined.
Aegon was ready to interrupt his wife the moment she would open her mouth. Not being able to stand another of her pathetic lies, he wanted everyone to hear the truth.
No surprise to Maerie, the only thing that happened with Viserra was that her lips trembled. All the princess could do was stare at a point in front of her and pace back and forth. She expected the man to appear from under her bed at any moment, praying to the gods he would not. The man waslong gone, but maybe he had followed her and was still here.
"Your Grace, she is in distress.Perhaps you could continue your inquiry later," Maerie tried to reason with the Queen. The handmaiden recognised her friend's behaviour, assuming that Viserra did not even hear the words spoken around her, let alone register the people that stood at her bedside.
"Later, she might have forgotten what happened," Ser Otto quickly contradicted the lady.
"It's obvious what happened! She broke her oath of faithfulness!" Aegon shouted. Had his grandsire not glared at him, he would have accused his wife of even worse things.
"We have heard enough from you already," the Hand spoke, his undertone threatening. If the prince continued insulting his wife, the girl would close herself off completely and keep everything to herself. This had to be avoided at all costs, for the princess held knowledge the Hand and the Queen desperately wished to have for themselves.
"I don't want to—" Viserra muttered, her words louder than the previous mumbles. But just as her thought had formed, it vanished again, cutting off her sentence as soon as she had taken it into her mouth. The Serene Princess looked up at her husband, silently pleading for help as though he knew what she had meant to say.
"Just Aegon," she mumbled even quieter than before, her eyes still resting on Aegon. Why was he not helping her? All he did was stare in disgust, resulting in her eyes wandering down to look at the sheets again. The ants returned, continuing to torture the kind girl who had prayed for hope and yet been denied it.
