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@hightower

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@t.laughlin

[holyposition]

I messed up. I'm sorry.

[unapparent]

[ Alicent is stretched thinner by this round than the last, with Jacaerys and Rhaenyra returned (albeit not unharmed), Alina, Tim, and Matt attacked — Paul dead — she cannot be everywhere at once, though she’d like to remain by Tim’s bedside. She remembers what Alina said to her, you spent all that time hunting Jace’s killers and left me to find mine alone.

She will be more alone than ever now, so Alicent goes to her first. ]

For what, sweetling?
You have nothing to apologise for. You need only rest.

[holyposition]

[ Tim does not want for company - Hawk has only left his side for a few minutes at a time, to fetch things that might help him. He's had other visitors. That's not what he's worried about. ]

You sent Lady Baela to me to keep her safe, and she's dead.

[unapparent]

Aemond and I failed her just the same.
And you.

None of us are safe until we catch the wolves among us.

[ or kill them. ]

[holyposition]

It's not the same.

[unapparent]

How can it be different, when you were nearly taken?

[holyposition]

I might not have been, if I was where I was supposed to be.

[unapparent]

I say again, we are not ourselves. If you chosen as the victim, who’s to say you are as strong and clever as you would be otherwise? Alina wasn’t.

[holyposition]

You're not understanding me.

I need to tell you something. In strict confidence. Only Hawk knows. No one else can.

[unapparent]

[ a sudden chill. ]

Of course.
What is it?

[holyposition]

I was at your door last night. To protect you from an attack that never came.

I almost went to Baela. I chose wrong and now she's dead.

And now Hawk's been outed and they'll come for him next, and I don't think I'm brave enough to do the right thing.

[unapparent]

[ the nausea she feels overwhelms her to the point where she needs abandon her phone and lean her head out the window, breathing the clean air. had her panic swayed his otherwise clever mind? her selfishness?

why would he protect her at all, when hawk yet lives? no one has ever chosen her, not guard or child, husband or lover. ]

You’ve the role of the Doctor as well.

[ how many of them are there? ]

Would you have me ask you to?

[ to protect one whose role matters more to ending this, like alina or matt. ]

[holyposition]

[ Hawk had been keeping his head down, for the most part. Any heat on him was due to concealing what happened to Embry, making him a target for accusations maybe, but not for the wolves. Tim thought he was safe. And he was right, at least for the first two rounds.

He'd made promises to Alicent and her son both, that she would be safe, and he's ensured it at Baela's expense. Chosen with his heart and not his head. It was his own selfishness, his own cowardice that put that poor girl in the morgue. ]

What would you have me do?

If I choose wrong again, I might as well be killing them myself.

[unapparent]

[ she wants to say, protect aemond or save rhaenyra, guarding those she loves best.

but that will not serve them. ]

Protect Alina.
She will resurrect your Hawk, if you are correct and he is targeted. She alone has the chance to save more lives than any other and remains the greatest threat to the wolves for her willingness to accuse all, even those much loved by our fellow guests.

[ like Louis. ]

[holyposition]

Will she? She's got Paul to worry about.

Pierce can, too.

I don't know. I have to think. If we catch enough of them, they'll have to focus on their biggest threats. Maybe Hawk isn't as big of a priority. Or maybe by now, they know they'll be thwarted if they go for Alina and won't even try.

[unapparent]

Paul cannot be killed while he still lies dead.

Pierce has professed little interest in the game. Alina is who I would choose in your stead, not Rhaenyra or Aemond or myself. Your mind is your own, but Hawk is not the greatest threat to the wolves. Indeed, he defended the two with the greatest evidence against them — he may thus be viewed as an asset.

[ unsaid: he must have known about the man ash named embry’s killer, too. and tim? ]

I know he has your heart. I do not begrudge you for it.

[ thought she may judge it, when she sacrificed alia to the dungeon and asked for jacaerys, not her love. is there no one who would choose duty? who would consent to sacrifice? ]

[holyposition]

He's still playing it. He brought back Rhaenyra.

[ She's right. Hawk isn't their greatest threat. If anything, he's a good decoy, or would have been if he hadn't been forced to reveal himself for Tim. The right thing to do is to keep the witches safe. He'll just have to keep telling himself, it's the right thing, for the greater good, and scramble with all his might to hold everything together.

If he's brave enough to take the risk, now thst the danger to Hawk is tangible, and greater than most. ]

Myself, Bella, Shanks, and Hawk. Maybe we can coordinate something to protect the witches and Matt.

But i think the chance to dissuade Hawk from choosing me disappeared when I was attacked.

[unapparent]

It would certainly be wise not to waste your efforts with any doubling.

Bella appears to be playing logically, in saving Matt, even if others are not.

[holyposition]

She seems like she would listen. I don't know Shanks, but maybe Koby can help me.

I'll figure something out. But you're important too. You're holding a large group together.

[unapparent]

I hope that the group has the sense to hold strong, even if the worst comes to pass.

Let us think on what we must do now, first, rather than lose ourselves to morbidity: I have two names on my mind, if you would hear them.

[holyposition]

What are they?

[unapparent]

There is another I believe who has come to us in a dream. Someone gave Daemon the name David Collins. I know him not, but I know Daemon as well as if he were mine own wretched brother, for all my husband loved and resented him — he is a Targaryen, forged in blood and fire. He trusts dragon dreams above all. If he has not seen it, someone else has and informed him thusly.

I know it is not enough to damn him. I am endeavouring to learn more, but we’ve so little time.

I suppose if Daemon is felled by him, that will be something.

[ something…. sad….. ]

[holyposition]

David Collins. I don't know him.

Hawk might?

[unapparent]

Perhaps. I have no qualms with the name being shared between you two, though I do not trust all who will meet before the vote.

[ sorry quentin. ]

It isn’t a worthy case, I know it, but we may yet lose more lives, and I cannot bear the thought of it.

[holyposition]

It might not be nothing. But we'll need more than "someone told Daemon" - I don't know that he's seen by the guests at large as very trustworthy.

[ Tim wouldn't buy it. ]