章 18: War Of Faith 1/2
The morning sun cast its first light over Dragonstone, the air seemed soft, carrying warmth rather than the chill and gloom that often lingered over the island.
Rhaenyra slipped from the messy bed, where Alicent remained soundly asleep, her peaceful expression a testament to the serenity and intimacy they had shared the night before.
Tying her disorderly hair back with a red ribbon, she snuck across the room like a cat, her caution almost unnecessary as her petite frame left her footsteps inaudible across the stone floor. Finding herself drawn to the balcony as she sought out her husbands whereabouts, she quickly found him in a state of blissful repose. He lay, wrapped only in a robe, his hair tousled and catching the morning light as it cascaded over his sleeping face. At his side were a quill, ink, and parchment clutched in his hand.
Intrigued, Rhaenyra gently retrieved the paper from his hand, her eyes skimming the delicate, impassioned lines he had inscribed during the night.
"There he sat, on beaches of golden light,
Where little voices rang with joy and delight.
Two queens by his side, each having known strife,
Their love steadfast, an anchor in life.
Dragons soared above, fierce yet kind,
Bound to his heart, in spirit and mind.
He knew his future shone strong and bright,
A flame he'd guard from fading into night."
A tender tear escaped her, a token of the emotions stirred by his heartfelt words. She had teased him about his poetic attempts before, calling them "stilted" or "too serious," but this... this was different. His vision of a joyful future where they, along with their children, ruled over a kingdom in an age of peace almost sixty years in the making, touched her deeply. Aegon, only one-and-seven, dreaming of a life so vast , where every moment of love and duty unfolded as he wished. None at their age should be burdened with such thoughts, but it was their reality.
Her breath was caught as she looked back at him, his stillness only interrupted by a small smile on his face, having sensed her reading his words, even with his eyes closed. Opening them slowly, he slowly stretched his toned and broad build across the couch he found himself on, unknowingly testing the length of his robe that neared the brink of betraying his decency. He immediately took note of the poem in her hand, knowing her too well to not see that it had affected her with feelings she attempted to temper.
"I didn't mean for anyone to see that," he murmured with a soft, sheepish grin as he rose, drawing close to her. "Just passing thoughts…"
Rhaenyra held his gaze, her eyes shimmering with an emotion that needed no words. "It's beautiful, Aegon. Sometimes... the future feels like it's stretching out before us endlessly, yet when I imagine it, all I see are shadows, blank spaces." She paused, gathering her thoughts, her hand gripping his tighter. "I know we talk often legacy, duty, struggles and all that bother often, maybe too often, but when they weigh on you the way they do, it makes you want to flee, to find a place where none of it exists."
Aegon took her into his arms, his embrace both protective and gentle. He held her, hoping his warmth could ease her heart. "It's a malady of the soul," he said, his voice low and comforting. "One that will subside, as they all do, I promise. We'll make this life the one we dream about, the one I foolishly took to parchment. Let's not talk of this now for a change, come on, let's go find some food, get some rest. And then, when we're ready, go home to our little dragons."
Rhaenyra took a steadying breath, her lips quirking into a smile. She reached up, wrapping her arms around his neck before pressing a long, soft kiss to it. "Good," she chuckled, her mood lifting. "Because gods, I already miss their chubby little faces."
Their laughter was genuine, light and bright against the morning, drifting across the stone walls of the castle and reaching Alicent, who stirred from her slumber. Blinking awake, she saw her husband and wife framed by the dawn, the love between them palpable, radiant as they shared a quiet moment together.
She watched them, her heart swelling with contentment, her own fears and guilt from the previous night melting away. The warmth they had given her, the certainty of their bond, made every hesitation and worry worth it. She once feared she would drive a wedge between them upon her request for such a life-changing decision, but such fears washed away like the morning tide. Rising, she slipped on a robe and padded over to the doorway, leaning against the frame as she took in the sight of the two she adored most.
Her movement drew their attention, and when they turned, they saw her standing there, bathed in the sunlight, her face soft with emotion.
"There she is," Aegon said, grinning as he held his hand out to her.
Alicent walked over, slipping her hand into his as Rhaenyra placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. They stood together in the golden morning light, three souls intertwined, basking in the quiet certainty of the love they shared.
"Ready for breakfast?" Rhaenyra asked, her tone playful. "I can practically hear your stomach from here."
"Oh, hush," Alicent laughed, giving her a gentle nudge. "It's been quite a night, no thanks to Aegon, I believe myself entitled to such hunger, with another being long since sated"
Together, they made their way back inside, laughter trailing after them, leaving the balcony and its view of the endless horizon. In that moment, their world was complete, each step taken in unison, like a heartbeat echoing the love that bound them.
Two months later
The cold had come sooner than most expected, a biting, early arrival of winter that crept into every corner of King's Landing, as though the North itself had encroached into the heart of the South. Snow fell in fine sheets over the city, blanketing it in a grayish white and casting a harsh stillness over them. Yet, beneath that silence lay a quiet hum of life, a rare vibrance taking root even in the bitter cold.
With successful agreements forged between Houses Stark and Tully, the first shipments of Northern supplies had arrived on the waves, borne by the proud ships of House Velaryon. Crates of dense ironwood, renowned for its intense heat and longevity, were unloaded alongside bundles of thick pelts, each crafted to withstand the Northern cold. To many smallfolk, they were lifesavers, literally as well as figuratively.
Aegon could be found in the streets daily, adorning his signature armro and cloak, ever unbothered by the elements. He watched over each supply drop and ensuring that everything reached the places where the need was most dire. Fires crackled at certain street corners, carefully monitored by volunteers and Gold Cloaks, each pile of wood a lifeline. He'd stationed checkpoints around the city for ease of access, where piles of mixed wood were stacked high, replenished as soon as they dwindled. Children, wide-eyed and red-nosed, huddled around the flames, with mothers holding them close. Older folk sat on crates near the fires, faces leaning toward the warmth, exchanging whispers of gratitude for the prince.
The kitchens of the Red Keep worked around the clock, preparing steaming vats of porridge and stew, with many acorss the city having joined in on the movement. With a silent sense of reverence, the Gold Cloaks carried out their new orders, moving through the streets with ladles and bowls, distributing food among the long lines of shivering figures. At first, there had been skepticism. Flea Bottom in particular was a place untouched by kindness, its people accustomed to surviving and dying with nothing. But in the prince's face, they had seen something real, something that made even the most hardened skeptics begin to believe.
Now, soft murmurs rose from the gathering crowds: prayers whispered in his name, hoping for strength and good health for the young Prince and his family. The Gold Cloaks, too, walked with a newfound sense of duty. Under Aegon's direction and Daemon's iron will, they had become not just keepers of order, but something closer to protectors, guardians of the city's very life.
Daemon watched all this with a rare, quiet pride. Standing beside his nephew as yet another line of people approached a large, steaming cauldron, he spoke under his breath, his voice a rough murmur against the wind.
"Many of these people live because of you, will have lives beyond this cold because of you," he remarked, his eyes taking in the lines of children and elderly gathered, each clutching a bowl with trembling hands. "And they are not soon to forget, nephew, for you will need all of it when the truth comes to light."
Aegon watched the flames flicker, his face thoughtful and distant. "Love, hate, it matters not to me when it does," he replied, his voice heavy with something almost mournful. "I would rather hear their opposition and hatred over silence..."
Daemon looked at him, struck for a moment. "You truly are unique," he murmured with a wry smile. "If we had more men of your conviction, perhaps there wouldn't be people whose lights are starved out"
Aegon didn't answer, his gaze trained on the people before him, the faces softened by the orange glow of the fires, the smell of stew rich in the crisp air. His heart swelled with the gravity of his work, a deep sense of purpose that drove him to push aside the dark thoughts that sometimes came unbidden in the quiet hours. This work, it's one of the few things that truly mattered.
As the day wore on, the sun breaking through for brief glimpses, he made his way toward one of the larger fires to speak with the common folk. An old woman, her face etched with lines that spoke of many winters and harder lives, approached him with a tentative step. Her voice was quiet but steady as she spoke.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day when a Prince walked these streets, seeing to us himself," she said, her thin frame wrapped tightly in one of the Northern pelts. "Not since your great grandsire, who kept his people fed. I remember those days. I pray for you, my prince, every night."
Touched, Aegon took her hand, rough and worn, in his own. "You've done more than enough by enduring, my lady," he said softly, his voice low and genuine. "And I intend for you to survive many more winters yet."
As the evening fell, the fires burned on, and Aegon walked through the streets, the people reaching and calling out to him in silent gratitude. It was then, as the lanterns began to be lit in the dimming streets, that he noticed Viserys's approach towards the square with four Kingsguard at his back, wrapped in a fur-lined robe of his own, his gaze hard to read.
The king approached, his face taut with a mixture of emotions as he took in the scene. He watched the Gold Cloaks distributing food, the people huddled close, and he finally turned to Aegon. "You have done well my son" Viserys said with a soft yet proud smile.
Aegon's gaze remained fixed on the people, something he had done all day outside of making himself useful in lighting fires himself. He held his subtle determination, but something else grew within him at his fathers presence, guilt.
"There is something I must tell you, father. It will break the trust, the rapport we have made, for despite your warnings, I have yet again gone against it in secret" Aegon turned to face him, a growing expression of concern subtly spreading across the King's expression, one born of parental love and reluctant anticipation, wondering what his son could have done that he would admit wrongdoing.
"If nature and fate both allowed it, I would wait until this winter was behind us to inform you, but all I can say is this, it will bring both conflict to us and the realm, but also love, for that is my soul reasoning for having committed it.
"Well speak it" He replied, turning fully towards him.
"In the keep, in private. It will be for the best" Aegon replied.
Viserys looked over to Daemon, whose typical smirk was absent to his face. A stillness in the air formed between them from across the courtyard. If he knew the truth Aegon illuded to, it was of a dire magnitude the king would need to prepare himself for.
Later that night.
Aegon sat across from Viserys and Aemma, the hearth warming embracing the room in warmth that would soon drown before the truth being set free. All remained quite, until the heir broke the silence like an intruder into a loving home.
"The first night of mine and Rhaenyra's name day hunt, we snuck from our tents, bringing Alicent into the forest. We found a secluded spring, were Alicent confessed her fathers will to marry her off, with the impossible request that followed. She asked me to defy this tradition she knew would condemn her to a loveless existence, by not only giving her a child, but to marry her in secret as a second wife.
I granted the first part of her wish that night, the life the midwives who saw to her two nights ago confirmed themselves. The ladder aspect we saw to on Dragonstone two moons ago, were the Dragonkeepers preformed the ceremony that has bound me, Rhaenyra and Alicnet as husband and wives..."
The room grew heavy with silence as Aegon's words settled over them for many silent, long minutes. Viserys sat back in his chair, the grip on the armrest tightening as he processed what his son had confessed. His eyes, once filled with the warmth of paternal pride, hardened, revealing a mix of anger and heartbreak.
"Warnings, commands...all meaning nothing to you...I find myself surprised, though ponder if I should. My son...my heir, has led his house into the depths of strife, cleaving it open to the possibility of an uprising, faith and houses both. Instead of thinking first to your family, or even the realm, YOU DECIDED TO INDULGE ONLY FOR YOURSELF, BELIVING YOURSELF WISE WHEN BRANDISHING LUST YOU CLAIM TO BE LOVE!!..I am revealed to be the true fool, however, to believe one under my brothers influence for so long, could be a man of integrity, one who doesn't even think to the future of his own children, born and otherwise...I should disinherit you, and be done with it!" His father condemned him, a confliction of confusion, love and scorn in his voice as he loomed over his son for a moment before exiting the room.
Queen Aemma, usually so composed and gentle, looked deeply shaken. Her face softened with a hint of sorrow before twisting into confusion, and then, like the King, anger. "Aegon," she began, voice tight as she took his hands into hers. "Why? Why would you hide something so monumental from us? Alicent…she was like a daughter to us, a girl I watched grow, and yet you…you kept this hidden." Her voice caught, trembling as she fought her emotions. "Did you not think of the realm? Of how they'd see this, the whispers that will spread? You could be torn apart by the Faith itself if this reaches the wrong ears. And with a child…Gods, Aegon, what have you done?...Was this love? Or the manipulation of a girl who knew no better, who has trusted you since you were children, a twisted attempt to fill the void in her heart from the family she has already lost..."
Aegon remained still, his expressionless face locked with the flame in the hearth that betrayed his thoughts, roaring one moment before almost flickering out into nothing, a rapid cycle that symbolized his confliction.
"Disinherit...you know...I have thought of it many times. To be free like any other" He said, tears welling in his eyes as he leaned forward, locking eyes with his mother. "When I was a boy, I looked at the children who played in the streets, no concerns beyond what they may have for supper that night...I have always envied that...to at long last...be free"
"So you would run out on your life? Fly free while leaving a hole to never be filled? Is this who you truly want to be? Who you really are? One who plays with the hearts of others, one who pretends to care, only to abandon it all when the dark truth of the world finally turns it's head? Because I know with all my being, that is not the little boy I fell in love with that day I brought him into the world!" She stated as she knelt before her son, tears streaking down her face while her voice remained steady.
"All I know is I never wanted any of this, this strife, this division. I wanted only happiness for the ones I loved in a world that seemed indifferent to it. Am I that person, mother? The fool? Because for what feels like the first time in my life, I don't know..."
クリエイターの想い 
Ilikefords44445555
Ilikefords44445555 Apologies for the shorter chapter. I'm just in a weird headspace of stress and uncertainty that is coming from what feels like nowhere. The next chapter won't be below 5000 words, but won't be out until late tommorow or even until Tuesday. I sincerly thank everyone for reading, and have a good day!
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