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[unapparent]

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@hightower

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[provoke]

[ hold. ]

To serve the realm and my king, and defend my birthright. The same as it ever has been.

Do you doubt my resolve here?

[unapparent]

I do not.
Are you certain there is nothing else you desire? At least while we remain trapped here?

[ a beat. ]

It is almost your nameday, after all.

[provoke]

Vhagar.

[ an easy answer. an expected answer. ]

This place will give her to me. Her tail alone would destroy most of the grounds, and what would she eat? The house would run out of guests in two turns of the moon, the amount she needs to eat her fill.

[ he's not doing his best to be difficult. it's just—— ]

I want to stop wearing the eyepatch.

[ not all of the time; the sapphire invites too many questions, if not thieving hands, and there are days when the flesh is tender under the numbed scar. but to not wear it for a day or two — to have the scar out in the open — it would leave him exposed. ]

[unapparent]

You will be reunited, Aemond.

[ one day, even if it kills him. ]

Then you should not wear it.
Or you should try not wearing it, with those you trust. You know I would not mind it, nor would Tim or Koby, Homelander or Daniel.

[provoke]

[ he knows the next time he rides, it will likely be his last. somehow it's a freeing thought, until he lets himself remember what it would mean in the eyes of history, and the people he would leave behind. ]

How can it not bother you? She used it to humiliate you.

[ no. enough. ]

Pierce Strickland. [ oh, context; ] You mentioned those I trust. He is among them.

[unapparent]

Because it is you, Aemond, and you are dearer to me than others. And that outweighs the shame of any slight.

Indeed, you are dearer to me than much I have known, in this life. I do not think I have made that clear to you before.

[ had she not cradled him and touched his scar, palm covering the wound to soothe a long-held ache? a different thing entirely than saying the words her boys long to hear, she knows it. ]

I shall look forward to meeting him properly, then.

[ dubious, when he displayed such cruelty, but perhaps he is like her aemond — and good to those he cares for most. ]

[provoke]

I'll make the introduction. He is not so terrible as he seems.

[ his friend, one at odds with his others, and even among allies. he can only hope his mother would consider him with slightly more grace, or tolerance.

as for the other parts of alicent's replies to him— ]

I've never doubted that you cared, Mother. I understand we have things we cannot say even if we want to.

You are a mother of dragons. Your blood does not weaken me, it never has.

[unapparent]

[ it is, perhaps, the kindest thing aemond could say to her — akin to helaena and alia uttering, i forgive you. a key difference, still, in that he does not believe the fault lies with her, or that the poison drips through her bloodline to him and his siblings. ]

Of course not. You are fire and blood, trēsy. You always will be, even in this place.

[ the hightower green only makes him sharper, smarter like his grandsire. or so she hopes. ]

Thank you, Aemond.
Will you sup with me tonight?

[ one last dinner, just the two of them, before their family of two becomes four again. ]

🎀 done!

[provoke]

[ she doesn't have to ask. she could command him and he would heed, he would heel, protests aside. that she asks — is it for fondness or for temperance that she does it?

aemond knows what he prefers. ]

Muña. I'll be with you.

[ he's even dress for the occasion. ]