#ghost!ulf is still pretending to play dead

[thevelaryons]

TUMBLETON QUARTET

Tumbleton was never to recover; though later Footlys would attempt to rebuild atop the ruins, their “new town” would never be a tenth the size of the old, for the smallfolk said the very ground was haunted.

[lya-dustin]

All is Bliss

Chapter 46

Cw:casual misogyny, slutshaming, doubke standards and poison

Gif by @alicentloyalist

Taglist:@mercedesdecorazon @darylandbethfanforever9 @sweethoneyblossom1 @alexandria-millie @ewanmitchellcrumbs @watercolorskyy

Aemma was seven moons along when word of Harrenhal being retaken and sightings of Caraxes near the Saltpans had been reported to Aemond.

Replenished with men and supplies the westerners and riverlords decided that instead of going home with their dead and infirm, they would fight on.

Apparently Aemond and Criston are butting heads over this, Criston wants to march and regain what the greens lost while Aemond would rather fortify what they still have in case Daemon includes Nettles and Addam in his next attack.

That was a month ago, Aemma had not heard from him and neither had anyone else. No raven has come since Harrenhal had gone back to green hands. Although Seasmoke had been spotted heading south, towards Tumbleton where the greens won the day thanks to the two betrayers.

A suicide mission, one worse than Aemond’s.

Why in seventh hell would sensible and loyal Addam do such a thing is beyond her. Addam had far too much sense to abscond with his half-sister with their dragons across the Narrow Sea and yet he is going into Tumbleton where it has literally descended into anarchy because apparently loving murder, raping and pillaging is something the greens have in common with Hugh Hammer and Ulf White.

“The way men think with their cocks never ceases to amaze me.” Jena said as they played a card game in her rooms.

Aemma’s confinement had begun a moon ago, most women only left public life in the last two moons, but given her mother died in her seventh moon it was better to be safe than sorry.

As much as she hated it, she understood the necessity of it and tried her best to be a model patient.

Even if the sight of the birthing stool unnerved her and the young queen demanded it be covered with linen so she could pretend it wasn’t there.

“They act as if they didn’t hide from my father until someone with a bigger dragon came.” Baela snorted. “By the way is my betrothed in that losing fight or the other one?”

“Robert Rowan was captured, and his father turned to Aegon’s side, he won’t be in any more losing fights except maybe the one with Prince Jacaerys’ ghost.” Jena answered with a chuckle.

She was their window to the outside world, thank the gods Ironrod trusted her with his life.

Robert was a good and strong looking man; his great aunt had been Harwin’s mama and gave him a resemblance to Jace. If Jace had been allowed to grow broader and had thick curly hair and could lift an ox cart with ease, that is.

A good replacement, Aegon had said when he shot down the suggestion Baela be wed to his widowed father instead.

“I wish I could know if he is worth marrying, Aegon seemed nice enough and look what you’re stuck with.” Baela said tossing her cards after getting a bad hand.

Speaking of Aegon and their marriage, it had improved now that his cock doesn’t work.

He is actually trying to know her as a person and not a bedmate he must breed out of duty.

And because it is the least Aemma could do, she has found he is not as terrible as initially thought.

He has committed his fair share of atrocities, but it seems to have stemmed from never having faced any real consequence in his life.

Until now that the gods cursed him with impotence and an indifferent wife that is.

Aemma never thought she might face the issue of actually liking her husband. Made her secret marriage to his younger brother all the more dangerous. Really, the world had fucking mad.

“Agreed, if only there was a way you could try it all first. Like getting to ride a horse before you purchase it.” the young queen said, taking a card from the deck. Her hand is quite modest, but even with a winning hand Jena would mop the floor with them.

“Only if you ride this horse, you get branded a whore and, in some lands, fucking stoned to death for it.” Jena points out reminding Baela not to get any ideas. “If you wish to know what sort of man he is, we weasel it out of his household and former paramours, lucky for you, I know just the slut.”

“Please tell me that slut is you.” Baela looks far too intrigued by Jena’s stories.

It is not.

Aemma should not be surprised she means Alys Rivers.

“You summoned me, your grace.” The witch comes just as Aegon goes to have lunch with his mother to go after her taking over court duties while she is in confinement.

Once Alicent would have been overjoyed at the prospect of Aegon and Aemma getting along. Back when everything hinged on them being happy and in love so they could take Rhaenyra’s claim through her only trueborn child.

“Did you know she gets a rash from dandelions like I do?” Aegon mentions as he eats enough macaroni for two. Just as Laenor did, he shares the cravings with his wife even if the child is clearly not his, a small consolation.

“Yes, I remember from the instructions sent by the maester for the wedding feast.” Alicent answered, hoping her tone was enough to get him to stop talking about his wife.

He is besotted with her, the traitorous whore who took two sons from her and killed the third.

To think she had once felt sorry for her, that she had seen herself reflected in her and wished her success only to have her kindness thrown back at her with her defiance.

Gods, she should have just given her dandelion tea the moment Criston brought her here. Aemond was Aegon’s heir anyways, there was no true need for Aemma to live when Criston’s strategy failed.

“Have there been any ravens from your brother?” she asks knowing the answer to it.

Her sullen little boy was dead already, she could feel it in her bones.

Dead because of Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra was not content with all that she had taken from her and lived to torment her through her daughter.

“No, none. We have sent some riders, but there has been no ravens nor news since they arrived at the Crossroads.” Aegon’s face turned serious, defeat was tasted in the air and would come soon. He had cut back on his drinking and yet this news had him return to his old habits. “The Blacks are closing in on the God’s Eye, the North is marching south with Lord Stark, who’s uncle tried to usurp him as you had me usurp my sister, by the way. Oh, and the Arryns hired a fucking fleet from Braavos because Jeyne Arryn had her cousins and uncles try to usurp her as well, and even if she hates Daemon, she hates us more for killing her fucking cousins.”

Alicent never thought he would have the audacity to blame her for this.

“I have done everything for you, do not dare be ungrateful to your mother.” Alicent warned her son and yet he did not stop.

Didn’t stop drinking nor speaking these things that told her he would send her away the moment the whore gave birth to the blasted son she made happen.

“For me?!” he laughed incredulously, tossing his fork on the plate and getting his cane to leave, “For me?! Oh, mama, you wanted this crown, not me.”

“I only wanted to protect you, to keep you safe from your sister and her beast of a husband. I could only save you if I gave you the crown that was yours by rights.” The queen argued with him.

Why were they so blind? Why did they think her the monster when she killed those monsters for them?

She made deals with the Stranger and sold her soul for him; how could he be so blind to all she sacrificed for him?

“I was fucking fine with Rhaenyra being queen and Aemma after her. I know damn well I was not meant to be king; father knew that. We were safe from her because she’d never hurt her own child nor her grandchildren nor her own brothers and sister even after Driftmark, that is why father wed me to Aemma, to protect us after his death.” He idolizes Viserys now, pretends his father loved him and cared for him when the man stopped paying attention to him the moment Rhaenyra became with child. “The ones who put us in danger were you and grandfather. Now Daeron and Aemond are probably fucking dead, your father rots in hell as he deserved, and I am a fucking eunuch who needs his brother to fornicate with my wife so you could keep the power you envied Rhaenyra for having.

The least you can do now, is stop pretending you did all this for us.”

She lost him, she’s lost her son to someone worse than Rhaenyra’s whore daughter.

Alicent lost Aegon to the ghost of the man who took her innocence and her youth and her joy of living.

And it breaks her heart.

“Get out.” The queen turns away and bit back her tears as her golden son hobbles away. “You think me the monster in this story, and I suppose I am no longer your mother.”

And yet when her son vomits the wine in the hall, Alicent, in her mother’s worry, is the first to come to his aid.

“Mother’s here, sweetling. Mama’s here.” She says as he continues to spew the wine until he loses consciousness.

Poison.

Someone poisoned her son.