ALICENT
118 AC
Alicent relaxes in her hot bath, enjoying a rare moment of peace and solitude as the steam covers the entire room.
After the queen gave birth to a pair of twin daughters, life at court became more joyful.
The king was smiling way more than usual, and commemorations happened frequently.
Alicent was very happy for them.
Yet, the Princess of Dragonstone had to commit another one of her mistakes.
Last year, Rhaenyra gave birth to a third son.
Another boy of brown hair and brown eyes.
Alicent was shocked.
How could Rhaenyra keep getting away with this?
How could the heiress to the throne keep giving birth to bastards and keep passing them as trueborn children?
As a dutiful wife that only slept with one man her entire life, Alicent can only see that as a mockery of herself.
Against her role.
In the past, she used to see Rhaenyra as a cute and innocent girl that would one day become a beautiful and noble woman.
And now, she can only see a promiscuous wench that cares more about satisfying her lust than concluding her duties.
Alicent sighs.
She needs to relax.
She knows that.
She can’t be angry during such a special day.
King Viserys created a tourney and a feast today to celebrate the ten years of his marriage with Queen Laena Velaryon.
Ten years.
Alicent looks at the roof, thinking about how time passed so quickly.
Her eldest son is now eleven and a squire to the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.
Her only daughter is growing a lot, becoming such a beauty…
Her second son is still the stoic kid that often bursts when angered.
He turned eight and is already training with his father and Ser Criston.
Her sweet third boy is still a very young child.
He was too attached to his mother but craved the attention of his father whenever they met.
His smile could melt the sun, but not the heart of Daemon Targaryen.
Alicent hears the door of the room getting open and sighs when her husband walks in with his old smirk on his face and wearing simple clothes that were probably beneath his usual clothes.
Alicent sighs and frowns.
“What do you want, Daemon?” the brown-haired princess asks.
Her husband slowly walks to her, looking up and down at her body with his malicious purple eyes.
“I have to want something different than just looking at my wife taking a bath?” The Rogue Prince asks with an ironic tone.
Alicent rolls her eyes and lets her body rest deeper in the water, only letting her head out of it.
Luckily, her hair is tied.
She looks at her husband with a skeptical look.
“I beg your pardon, but I certainly doubt your intentions.
Tell me what you want already.” The princess asks, getting irritated.
Daemon snorts and gets closer to her.
“I just wanted to give you something.” The Rogue Prince says, pulling something out of his clothes and showing it to Alicent, who is taken aback.
A necklace of gold so bright that it shines even in the steamy room.
And, in the middle, a large ruby cut in the shape of a crystal, red as blood.
Alicent can’t even look away from it.
“That is…
the most beautiful necklace I have ever seen.” The princess says, being completely honest.
She touches the ruby with the tips of her fingers sometimes, half expecting it to fade away from her vision like a dream.
Daemon smirks.
“Good to know that you like it.
It is from Castamere.” The Rogue Prince says, playing with the necklace between his fingers.
Alicent frowns.
“Why do you have it?
I doubt that the Rogue Prince would bother to spend precious money to buy a jewel for his wife.” The princess mocks, going back to wash her body.
Daemon snorts.
“I find your lack of respect for me disheartening, dear.
But, answering your question, someone I know had a long debt with me that he paid with this ruby.
But, to give some credit to me, the rest of the necklace was an order from me,” the Rogue Prince says with honesty.
Alicent frowns, surprised.
“Daemon Targaryen can do nice things for people?
Or are you just expecting me to open my legs to you more often because of that?” The princess asks with an ironic tone.
Daemon smirks and laughs.
“Oh dear, I don’t need to give you anything to make you split your sweet legs for me at any time, and you know that.
Now, show me that neck of yours.” The Rogue Prince demands, losing a bit of his patience, clearly.
Alicent sighs and positions herself at the border of the tub.
Her husband bows and gently moves his hands around her neck to place the necklace.
A shiver goes down her spine when the cold ruby touches her collarbone area, and another shiver emerges when she feels the warm breath of her husband on her neck and goes up to her left ear.
“You know, it is hard to see you so vulnerable here and do nothing with you.
I am a man with needs, after all.” The Rogue Prince says it before landing a kiss on the top of her left ear, making Alicent bite her lip.
His kisses start going down her neck, and his hand slowly goes down on the water, stroking her body like a gentle snake.
Gathering will, Alicent gets up, her naked body emerging from the hot water as she turns to Daemon with an intense glance.
“If we are doing that, you need to get rid of your clothes, dear.” She demands, hiding her own lust behind her words.
Daemon smirks and quickly gets rid of his clothes.
As the Rogue Prince joins the hot water, he grabs her by the waist and the two of them start their intense kissing session that could only lead to more and more lust.
Sometimes, Alicent wonders if their marriage is pure lust.
If it is, she can very well take a good hold of it.
Alicent pushes Daemon to sit on the tub before sitting on his lap and letting her hair be free.
She starts moving her waist around, making her husband grunt, his purple eyes taken by desire.
As their kisses start again, Alicent lets herself enjoy the pleasures of the flesh.
At least, she does that with the right person.
Her husband.
The father of her children.
The man that she promised to stand for.
Alicent faces the mirror in contemplation as the maids help her properly wear her new dress.
The dress is a long one but still tied well around her figure, showing her slim body that she is so proud of possessing after giving birth four times.
The color of the dress could not be other than blood red, both to match with the new necklace she is using and because it is also a color that she got very used to wearing over the years.
It was way more remarkable than black while still being a Targaryen color.
As the maids are done with her dress, she looks around to see her children, all also getting ready with the help of maids.
Little Daeron is sitting on his chair, patiently observing the maids and obeying their guidance.
Even at age four, the boy already has a special place in the heart of his mother from his good behavior.
The boy has perfectly cut hair.
Short and aligned.
On the other hand, Aemond is also obeying the guidance of the maids while they get him ready, yet he does that without a smile, only a permanent irritated expression.
Alicent sighs.
Aemond does not like to be touched or even to talk much.
He likes to be left in his place, and his lack of a dragon has turned him more and more bitter.
Alicent can only hope that he does not follow the paths of his father.
Aemond’s hair hits his shoulders, similarly to his father’s, but lets it wave more freely.
Helaena, her sweet princess, like Aemond, is not a person of many words.
She spends most of her time watching insects in the garden or simply walking around the castle.
Sometimes it is difficult to keep her clean and beautiful like a princess should be.
Especially her hair.
Because of her behavior being considered a bit out of place when compared to other children, she is constantly called boring, especially by her older brother.
Aegon is…
tough.
After three years of training with his father, he failed to live up to the expectations of his father in regard to skills with a sword.
Daemon said that he was not bad, or even mediocre, but he was certainly not good enough.
He lacked will, her husband said.
Her eldest son inherited the sarcastic humor of his father, looking down on people to make comments that could only be said freely by someone with a prestigious position, like him.
Aegon is slender, growing to be a pretty man in the future.
Yet, his lack of motivation to do things makes Alicent question herself about what might happen to her son in the near future, especially when the boy has Daemon Targaryen as his father.
Aegon has long hair that is very similar to Aemond’s.
All of the children use clothes with red as the main color, although with different tones, all of them darker than the shade of red of Alicent’s dress.
The brown-haired princess takes a deep breath before walking towards Helaena, who is holding a frown as one maid keeps roughly trying to make her golden-silver hair more straight with a brush.
“Please, let me do that.” Alicent demands with a gentle tone.
The maid nods and gives the brush to her before walking away.
Alicent sits on a chair and gently pulls Helaena to sit on her lap as she gently starts stroking her daughter’s hair.
Helaena’s expression quickly changes to a relaxed one.
Alicent smiles. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
“They don’t have the same skill as me to deal with your hair, right, sweety?” The mother asks with a smile.
Helaena nods and smiles back to her mother.
“Only muña doesn’t hurt me when using the brush.” The princess says with her common low tone of voice.
Alicent smiles and then she hears Aegon letting out a snort.
“She is just too much of a child to deal with some minor AUH!” The prince screams shortly when one of the maids passes a brush a bit too strong in his hair.
Alicent and Helaena laugh at his misery.
“You are all children, Egg.
Being two years older than her will not make you an adult that quickly.” The princess proclaims while brushing the hair of her daughter.
Aegon snorts once again and remains in silence.
Alicent looks to Aemond, who is just looking at a wall with a blank expression.
“What do you plan to do all the time during the feast and the tourney, Aemond?” The mother asks, curious to hear what the boy might have to say.
Aemond frowns and looks at her.
“Eat the food and watch the jousts.” The boy says with a direct tone.
Alicent sighs and Aegon laughs.
“I know, my child.
I want you to tell me exactly what you want to see,” the princess explains.
Aemond frowns, looking back at the wall.
“Ser Criston said that he would fight in your name in the tourney.
I want to see him win.” The second son says with an honest tone.
Seeing that she will not get much more from him, Alicent looks to Daeron.
“And you, my boy?
Are you looking after what?” The princess asks.
Daeron opens one of his bright smiles to her.
“I want to see Uncle Gwayne in the jousts!
He said he would dedicate a victory to me!” The boy proclaims, joyfully moving his legs around.
Alicent smiles.
“Your uncle is a very nice man.
I am happy that you are so close to him,” the princess says.
Aemond moves his gaze to her.
“Father will participate in their tourney?” The boy asks directly.
Alicent frowns.
“No.
Your father doesn’t want to fight in a tourney against the champion of his wife.
There is no point in doing so, and the glories of winning tourneys are not much for him anymore,” the princess explains.
Aemond snorts.
“What a shame.” The boy says it before looking back at the nothing.
Aegon smirks as the door of the room opens.
“He is probably scared of getting beaten by Ser Criston, like all these years ago.” The boy says with a laugh before his smile fades away when he sees his father entering the room with an annoyed expression.
“You should hold your tongue when talking about the skills of your father, boy.
I am not afraid of Cole or anyone in this world.
Never think otherwise.” The Rogue Prince proclaims with a serious tone.
Aegon quickly nods in agreement.
Daemon then looks at his wife with a neutral expression.
“It’s getting late.
We need to go.
People are already moving to the entrance of the Dragonpit,” the Rogue Prince proclaims.
Alicent nods, moving Helaena to the ground and then getting up.
“Yes.
We need to go now.
We can’t wait for His Grace.
What about the princess?” Alicent asks.
Daemon snorts.
“You know how dramatic she can be.
I did not see her.
She is probably waiting to appear on Dragonback.” The Rogue Prince says with a smirk.
Alicent sighs and frowns before looking at her children.
“Don’t go too far from me, my children.
And Aegon, don’t you dare get closer to the wine.
I will give you some if you want, but I will not allow you to repeat what happened on the last family feast.” The princess points out.
The revered prince looks away, ashamed.
Sadly, Aegon got too much of a preference for wine, and his lack of maturity led to him getting a little drunk in front of his family—a shame for a boy.
And what did his father do?
Mocked him with the same smile he is doing right now.
“You should control yourself, boy.
I might let you kiss the wall this time.
Maybe the shame will get attached to you.” The Rogue Prince mocks with a laugh.
Aegon’s face goes red, but he keeps himself in silence.
With a sigh, Alicent takes Helaena in one hand and Daeron in the other before leaving the room, with the rest following her soon after.
Arriving at the entrance of the Dragonpit, where people are gathering and getting served, Alicent first meets with her father.
Like a good wine, age did nothing against the sharp mind of Sir Otto Hightower.
Besides the white hair on his head, the hand was still as smart and graceful as ever.
He is using his long green clothes, representing House Hightower, something Alicent abdicated in order to fully serve the house of her husband.
Her father receives her with a gentle smile.
“You are looking wonderful, my child.
More than a fitting look for a princess.” The Hand says, kissing the back of her hand.
Alicent smiles at her father.
“I can say the same to you, Father.
You are as elegant as always.” The princess says, being honest.
Otto smiles, but it quickly fades away when he looks at Daemon.
“My prince.
You look well,” the hand says with a nod.
Daemon snorts.
“I know.
Where is my brother?” The Rogue Prince asks, clearly not interested in talking to Otto.
The hand frowns.
“I will take you all to him.
But first, I want to see my grandchildren.” The hand says before smiling to the four children.
He hugs every one of them, stopping at Aegon in the end.
“Aegon, my boy, you know how much you represent your family?” The Hand asks, serious.
The young prince smirks.
“Me?
The first son of a second son?
Honestly, I don’t think I am very important, Grandpa,” the prince mocks.
Otto frowns at him.
“But you are.
A lot.
You are the blood of House Targaryen and Hightower.
Being from the main lines or not does not matter.
The blood of your namesake, Aegon the Conqueror, and Garth Gardener runs through your veins.
Powerful.
Ancient.
You ride a formidable dragon.
You are more than valuable to all of us.
You need to learn this.
Give more value to what you do.
Do you understand?” The Hand asks, very seriously, holding his shoulders.
Aegon, very taken aback, nods his head.
His father snorts with a frown.
“I am the one that deals with my children, Otto.
They are my legacy first, not yours.” The Rogue Prince proclaims with a serious tone.
Ser Otto snorts and ignores him, proceeding to guide them.
After walking through the crowd of nobles, they finally meet the people they wanted to meet.
King Viserys and Queen Laena are sitting on a pair of chairs with one of their daughters in each of their laps, laughing happily.
The scene melts Alicent’s heart.
She can see how happy the king is about finally getting the stable family he wanted.
To finally conclude the main objective of his wife.
As they get closer, the king notices them and opens a large smile to his brother as he gets up, still holding his older twin daughter, Princess Baela.
“Daemon!
It is so good to see you with your whole family for once! This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
You certainly work with your family in pieces.” The King jokes with a laugh.
Daemon snorts.
“You can say that, brother, but I prefer to say that I know how to use my time with them.
How are your daughters going?” The Rogue Prince asks, not really curious.
The King smiles.
“They are doing very well!
Baela here is a troublemaker, but Rhaena is a very sweet girl.
I could not be happier with how things are turning out with them.” The king says with pure honesty.
Alicent smiles at the King and the Queen.
“It makes me very happy to hear that, your grace.
I hope that motherhood is going well for you, my queen.” The princess says with a gentle tone.
Laena smiles back at her, radiant.
“It has been a wonderful experience for sure.
It is an enormous benefit to watch these two grow with each day,” the Queen proclaims, clearly very happy.
Alicent smiles and nods.
Daemon frowns.
“The pink egg did not hatch yet?” The Rogue Prince asks, curious.
Alicent gazes at him for being insensible.
The queen sighs.
“Sadly, only the green one that was given to Baela was hatched.
The pink one is warm, but not enough, I am afraid.
But Rhaena here does not seem to care.
She sleeps with her egg every night.
Right, my child?” The queen asks the girl in her lap, receiving an anxious nod from the girl, making the mother laugh.
And then, the attention of everyone around was taken by the roars of three dragons emerging in the sky.
Red.
Gray.
Yellow.
Rhaenyra has arrived.
As the three dragons land on the opposite side of the Dragonpit, Viserys laughs.
“Looks like my daughter, her husband, and my cousin have decided to show their faces here.
I was starting to wonder what happened to them to take so long!” The king proclaims with an intense laugh.
Daemon smirks.
“Better later than ever.
And when talking about Rhaenyra, dramatic is the only option for an entrance,” the Rogue Prince mocks.
The king holds his laugh but nods in agreement.
After some time of waiting, the crowd leaves enough space for the Princess of Dragonstone to walk towards them, with Laenor Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen at each side of her.
Alicent can’t deny the beauty of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen.
The weight she gained with her first two pregnancies was long gone after she changed her diet, as Alicent heard.
Her figure is slim, but certainly not weak.
And while she is not fat, she also has more meat in her bones than Alicent, creating a more curvy figure that attracts the eyes of many men, especially with her larger hips and breasts.
Her black dress shows some of her cleavage and makes room to show a lot of her immaculate pale skin and her bright golden-silver hair.
Her eyes are filled with intensity, and her smile could seduce even the most chaste of septons.
Rhaenyra was beauty in flesh, but that would never take a toll on someone like Alicent.
Not when that same beauty only serves to hide the corrupted soul of a woman that gave up all her dignity to satisfy her needs.
And that corruption walked with Rhaenyra as well.
By each of her sides, she has her two older sons.
Jacaerys and Lucerys.
The boys look well mannered and respectful, but they certainly look nothing like their supposed father.
And in her arms, Rhaenyra is holding her youngest son.
Joffrey Velaryon.
Not satisfied in committing this mistake, she chose to make it thrice.
After all that disrespect to her own house, Alicent simply cannot take Rhaenyra Targaryen as a decent woman.
Gods be good, because she has no idea what kind of ruler Rhaenyra will turn out to be.
“Father!
You have no idea how much I missed you!
People are so uninterested in life in Driftmark and Dragonstone.
Nobody seems to be able to laugh like you do.” The Princess of Dragonstone proclaims with a bright smile before hugging her father, who hugs her back and laughs.
“I am glad to hear that, dear.
Here, look at your sister here.
She is growing so fast!” The king proclaims while Baela looks at Rhaenyra with curious eyes.
The Princess of Dragonstone smiles at her sister.
“Indeed.
She is growing quite fast.
Both she and Rhaena will certainly become two outstanding beauties just like their mother,” Rhaenyra proclaims with an honest smile.
The king laughs and then looks at the babe on his eldest daughter’s arms.
“So, this is little Joffrey.
He seems very robust to me.
You might have another good candidate for a knight in your hands, Nyra,” the king says with a large smile.
Rhaenyra laughs.
“I certainly hope so, Father.
Actually, I want to talk to you about my children.
Or rather, their future.” The Princess of Dragonstone says with conviction.
The king frowns and nods.
“Of course.
But it will have to wait for now.
We are here to celebrate my marriage, and that is what we will do.
It is about time we start this tourney!” The king proclaims in the end, and the crowd around cheers.
Rhaenyra sighs and nods in agreement.
Viserys smiles and then moves towards the Dragonpit with his wife and twin daughters.
Remaining mostly in silence, Alicent and her family enter the Dragonpit, hoping that everything will turn out well.
The feast was a distant one, in practice.
Rhaenyra’s side of the family was on one side of the king while Alicent’s side was on the other one.
No words were shared between the two sides, which caught the attention of the people around, some of them whispering theories about what could be happening inside the Targaryen family.
With the feast done, everyone was positioned in the right place to watch the jousts inside the Dragonpit.
And soon, the blood bath began.
Alicent was never fond of jousts.
They were too violent for her taste.
At least, there were some sweet moments this time, including her brother Gwayne winning a match and dedicating it to Daeron, as he promised.
Yet, in his next match Rhaenyra’s lover, Harwin Strong, took that moment away from them when he defeated her brother in combat, breaking some of his bones and sending him into recovery.
And then, for the first time, Alicent was able to enjoy some of that violence when Ser Criston got to fight Ser Harwin once again.
And the result was very similar to the last one.
The white knight defeated and broke Ser Harwin with no waste of time, clearly enjoying his violent assaults with his spear and enjoying hurting the man that kept bringing dishonor to House Targaryen over the years.
With a final tilt, Ser Harwin fell to the ground, utterly defeated.
The crowd cheered as Ser Harwin was bleeding on the ground.
Rhaenyra was shocked and went to see her champion, with her husband following right after.
As Rhaenyra was holding back her tears and calling for someone to help her lover, Ser Criston ignored her, and his horse moved towards the corner of the battlefield.
A servant lays the crown of flowers on the point of his lance, which the white knight offers to Alicent with a bow.
Alicent takes the crown of flowers with a smile as the crowd cheers.
She then proceeds to look at the flowers.
Red roses.
Such a beauty.
From her higher position, Alicent looks down on Rhaenyra, who has a bitter frown.
The Princess of Dragonstone gets up with a serious expression, and everyone goes quiet.
“That was extremely unnecessary.
There was nothing honorable about it.
Ser Criston was clearly trying to hurt my champion, and he succeeded.
Is that fair?!” The princess asks in a high tone of voice.
Before the king could say something, Alicent stood on her feet.
“All jousts are violent, princess.
If your champion was so badly hurt by Ser Criston, maybe he is not good enough for you.
Maybe you should try to find a champion that can satisfy you more than Ser Harwin.” The princess in red proclaims, letting her secondary intentions be clear with her speech.
Rhaenyra’s gaze was one of bitterness.
The pair of angry purple eyes was clear: any type of kindness between the two women was gone.
And soon, as the crowd kept talking about it, the colors of their dresses were something that was often mentioned by then.
With that final straw, the two sides were divided.
The Blacks and the Reds were formed, and nothing good can emerge when they meet.