Ruin Me

Chapter Twenty One

The Red Keep hadn't been Daenyra's home since before her mother died. When her father remarried, it stopped feeling like a home. The happy corridors she used to run down as a girl stopped feeling happy when Alicent was queen. Now? Now it didn't even look as it had been years ago when she married her late lord husband. Now, Dragonstone was her home.

Even Rhaenyra and Daemon scarcely recognised the place that was now adorned with seven-pointed stars rather than the Targaryen crests that used to hang on every wall.

Daemon was also in a less-than-agreeable mood from the get-go. From the moment he stepped out of the carriage and reached a hand out behind him to help out his wife as they waited for their greeting, he was not pleased. It started with the fact that none of the royals that occupied the Red Keep deigned greet their family and it ended with the half-being that rested inside his brother's chambers.

It was eerie. It was so still and quiet as they walked into the King's chambers. It was the space between life and death, even more so as Rhaenyra approached the gossamer curtains that separated the bed and Viserys's stone creation of Old Valyria.

She glanced back at Daenyra before her fingers reached for the white material. "Father?" she called.

Rhaenyra passed through the curtains, seeming to enter an entirely new world as she moved to sit at her father's bedside. It was decidedly colder. He was utterly unrecognisable. He very much seemed to be in between life and death himself.

His previously thinned hair had almost completely fallen off. A thick white bandage was wrapped around his bald head and across half his face, whilst the other half was ridiculously pale and sunken. His teeth were yellow and blackened. The man was barely conscious, and his voice seemed forever tired. He was a mere shell of the great man the peaceful king he had been.

Daenyra passed through the curtains but before she stood at her twin's side, she stopped. Before she allowed herself to behold her father and mourn the quality of life that he lost, she turned to her husband. Daemon had not moved. He refused to pass through and Daenyra knew why. She was perhaps the only person in the entire realm who knew how much it would hurt him to see his older brother reduced to a husk.

Their gazes collided and she held out her hand. He did not hesitate to take it as he passed through the curtains. His grip on his wife tightened as he heard her inhale sharply as they neared him, able to see the degrading condition of his health in all its horrid glory.

The King whimpered, his breathing heavy. "Who goes there?"

"It's me, my king. Rhaenyra," she answered as their father gave a heavy sigh. "I'm here with Daenyra."

"Daenyra?" he breathed.

"Yes, Father. I am here," she spoke, taking a step closer to him, moving more into the light so he could see her. "Daemon is also here as well."

"Daemon? Daemon?" The first time Viserys spoke the name of his brother, it was almost as if he was reminding himself of who he was. The second time, Viserys was calling for his brother. "Daemon," he said with finality as his brother stepped into the light behind his wife. "Help me up."

Rhaenyra stood as Daemon helped his brother sit up whilst Daenyra fixed the pillows behind his back. He groaned as he moved, as if doing more than breathing hurt.

"Oh...it has been so long," Viserys said, near to tears as Daemon immediately shirked back, almost hiding behind his wife again.

"The Sea Snake has taken a grave wound in battle in the Stepstones. Laenor has already left this mortal coil," Daemon informed him.

"When?" Viserys panted. "We won that war years ago."

"No," Daemon answered, unable to look at him for long as he stood close to Daenyra but never touching her. "The Triarchy is resurgent. The fighting is anew. There's...there is a petition to decide upon the succession of Driftmark and the heir to the Driftwood Throne."