Epilogue: Their Ways of Living

The Realm's Delight

Rhaenyra's opinion on Alicent changed drastically after Syrax ate her arm.

Before, Alicent had kept insisting that Rhaenyra was just a little girl, a girl unfit for the responsibilities her father gave her. Many of the rumours were untrue; the old Alicent hadn't said anything mean to her; ever so polite, acting like queen and mother outwardly. But behind Alicent's sweet words, Rhaenyra came to sense that she's treating her as a stupid child, one too pampered by her father and had to be taught her place.

Rhaenyra couldn't stand it. After all, she's the heir of the Iron Throne! She would never be undermined by a Hightower and the children she spawned.

After Aegon was born, it's clear that Alicent was aiming for Viserys to replace Rhaenyra with him. The implication that a babe could be more able than the Princess of Dragonstone made her blood boil.

Yet after Alicent came back with an invisible arm, she's completely different.

Childish. Straightforward. Messy, with nearly no regard for social norms. However, Rhaenyra started feeling comfortable talking to her. At first, Rhaenyra was taken back by Alicent's earnestness in befriending her. Alicent couldn't possibly be genuine... she must be planning something behind her back.

But she hadn't told Father a word of the Mushroom incident, despite her obvious anger. And most of all, she had risked her life to prove Syrax's innocence.

After that, Rhaenyra had to admit that her old nemesis was different. The new Alicent was not perfect, sometimes acting so embarrassingly foolish that Rhaenyra wondered why she even bothered to associate with Alicent at all.

Deep in her heart, she knew why. She liked Alicent because she treated her as an equal. Not bootlicking her like some of her ladies, nor looking down on her the old Alicent did.

She would suddenly stumble upon Alicent with a new box of games or little toys. Every time they had tea together, she would have a brand-new idea of activities. It's always fun to see what Alicent had in mind... that one time they sneaked into the kitchen to find out how a lemon cake was made was particularly memorable.

Even with her memory loss, Rhaenyra couldn't understand how she was a completely different person. But now it was clear.

"Amy! Open your eyes!" Her father kept saying, holding the hand of a girl she had never seen.

If the new Alicent was never Alicent at all, then it would explain everything.

The girl— Amy— barely managed to look at them, her eyes half-opened, "Vis... Viserys," She choked out every word, pain lacing her weak voice. "Rhae... Rhaenyra."

It's definitely her. Rhaenyra could see it from the missing right forearm, and— the light of her eyes.

Somehow, even when she was clearly in immense pain, Alicent... Amy still squeezed out a smile. "I... I love... you all…"

Then, with a satisfied smile on her face, her eyelids dropped once again.

"Amy—!" Her father screamed, shaking her body, "Go... someone, fetch a maester!"

He put a hand on her chest and froze. "Her heart has stopped beating..." At this point, the tears he had been holding back finally poured out like a small waterfall. "What's the point of all these... if neither she nor you could stay on my side?"

Rhaenyra just stood there. Unlike Viserys' sorrow and guilt, she felt... furious.

"How dare you!" She screamed. "How dare you lie to me and die before you can apologise!"

Ignoring everyone else, she knelt beside Amy and grabbed her head. "You taught me one should always apologise for their wrongdoings! But you have been lying to us all along. How dare you just die and abandon your duty right now! Wake up! WAKE UP!" She screamed into Alicent's - no, Amy's - ears, "If you don't wake up now, we're no longer friends! Do you hear me?"

Then—

"Argh... um..." Amy coughed, blood spilling out from her mouth, "Rhaenyra…"

She slowly opened an eye.

"You're a really noisy friend, do you know that?"

REAL Epilogue: Their Ways of Living & My Little Miracle

Amy

I was to take a nice, long sleep that day, but Rhaenyra just had to wake me up.

Well, I still wanted to be her friend. Now that the truth was out, I couldn't continue being Otto's daughter and Myles and Gwayne's sister, and with Viserys… it was complicated.

But for Rhaenyra, it's me - 'Amicent' - from the last year and half that was her friend, not the Alicent from the past. It's a relationship I wished to cherish, so I had to wake up, no matter what.

Alys later told me that it was my 'giving up' that stopped my heartbeat for the briefest moment in time. I didn't understand her long-winded explanations. All I knew was that I shouldn't die as long as I maintained my will to live. That's what she said, but I was still pretty sure I would die if someone cut my head off.

My hand didn't grow back this time. After feeling Daemon cutting it into pieces, it was rather hard to convince myself it still existed. The loss of my hand was inconvenient in unexpected ways, one of which was that I kept losing my balance and falling down.

Which of course was what had just happened.

"Aww..." Third time this week. Maybe I should see if I could get a Jaime-style prosthesis, just to weigh my right side down.

I heard mute chuckling all around. Beside me, Viserys half-sighed and extended his hand. "Are you alright... Alicent?"

"Yeah... sorry." I took his hand and stood back up, sticking my tongue out as I apologised for my clumsiness.

That day, Myles and Gwayne had been surprised by my change in appearance, but it's me who was most surprised when Otto had finally arrived.

Viserys had attempted to stop him from seeing me— he wanted this trouble no more than myself— but how could anyone stand in Otto's way to see his little girl?

And when he saw me, he's completely stunned. "Who... who are—"

I didn't see the change myself, but I presumed it was this moment when my appearance changed back to Alicent's. He blinked. "I must be seeing things... growing old now… Alicent, what were you thinking?!"

Later, when I saw Alys again, she had laughed and reminded me my appearance was always an illusion of convenience.

Otto was the one who would always reject my identity as Amy. Failing his girl and having lost her in-between dimensions... he would never accept that. I knew this well, and I did not wish to push this matter further.

Perhaps I was more of a coward than I wanted to admit.

Myles and Gwayne caught up with me later, though. "You changed back?" Once we were alone, the first thing Gwayne did was to point this out.

"Yeah." They were on my side that whole day, so there was no point in trying to trick them. "I'm sorry for lying. And everything else."

They exchanged glances. "I know that something is up when father didn't appear to be mad," Myles replied, his brows knitted. "You owe us an explanation. Who are you?"

"You aren't going to kill me for being an evil witch who deceived all of you?"

Gwayne sighed. "I don't understand your motivation, but it's clear by this point that you meant no harm. Tell us who - or what - you are. Whether we'll tell the truth to father, or not, depends on your answer."

"Well. It's a long story..." Then I told them everything. Who I was, Why I was here. At the end of it, they had only one question.

"Where did Alicent go, then?"

I bowed my head. "Sorry, but I have no idea. Ask Alys, maybe she'll know something... but don't hold much hope."

I hadn't felt guilty for replacing Alicent before, because it wasn't my choice to do so. But now that I knew that it was my fault to a certain extent…

I wanted to help finding her if I could. And apologise to everyone I tricked.

"I see. We'll search for her... and hide this from father before we have our answer." Myles said, before doing something I would never have expected. He patted my shoulders. "It's not your fault. We'll take care of the rest... but of course, we expect you to help when we need you later."

"This isn't what you intended to do, replacing my sister... so I won't hold this against you," Gwayne promised. "As long as you act according to your role, you have our word that we won't expose your secret."

I was stunned for a moment. Then I smiled, "Thank you," I said, again and again. "Just... thank you." What I owed them, I would pay for it with the rest of my life.

"Alicent? Are you there?" Viserys' voice pulled me back into reality. I nodded embarrassingly. "Yeah, just daydreamed for a bit. Let's continue."

We're here to see Rhaenyra off to Driftmark.

Only a few hours after the battle with Daemon, Laenor Velaryon had come to King's Landing on the back of his dragon, with a letter from his father.

Corlys admitted that Daemon visited Driftmark after his escape from King's Landing, but denied offering him bread and salt, and claimed that they chased him off the island. He once again bent the knee to Viserys... and of course, his rightful heir, Rhaenyra.

I could see where this was going.

The back-and-forth negotiations with the Velaryons led to Rhaenyra spending much time at Driftmark. The two fathers had high hopes for their budding 'romance', but privately Rhaenyra confessed to me she didn't want to marry him... for, well, obvious reasons.

I highly doubt that this vacation of hers would turn out to be anything else but a vacation.

Interestingly, Rhea Royce sent both of us an invitation to Runestone, to thank us for getting rid of Daemon. I was highly amused by her letter, but unfortunately we'd have to decline for now.

"Father! Alicent!" Rhaenyra called, "I'm afraid you won't make it! What's delaying you?"

"Sorry Rhaenyra, it's me. I fell on my way here again." Because Syrax hadn't completely recovered yet, Rhaenyra wouldn't be traveling to Driftmark on dragon-back, but we'd unchain her so she could follow Rhaenyra if she wanted. I wished this wouldn't turn disastrous.

"Should know it was you." She grinned. "Do be careful, I'll be sad if you survived Daemon but died because you're being your clumsy self."

"Hey! This isn't fair! I only fell because of my hand!" We continued to bicker for a while before Rhaenyra pulled me aside and whispered. "Do try to sort it out with my father while I'm away. It's exhausting to see you two."

"Uhh, okay, I'll try..." It's nice that she's being supportive and all, but with Viserys…

"Don't say that! Just do it!" She ordered, then lamely added, "You know I'd rather have you than Alicent."

"Yeah," I muttered, but I knew he wouldn't. "I'll try my best."

We sent her away together with Cole (who was way too pleased with Rhaenyra's disinterest in Laenor) and others.

I just really hoped nothing would go wrong.

"It'll be fine," Viserys said, noticing my frown. "She knows what to do."

"Um, yeah, you're right." I nodded. "It's just, I…"

"Can't believe that everything will go smoothly?" He smiled warmly. "You worry even more than I do. let's go back."

"Yeah." Sometimes it's hard to look at him in the eye.

Viserys had been stunned by my transformation back to Alicent. "You really came back?" He had asked, with such a joyful tone that I found it hard to tell him the truth again.

But I did anyway.

"No... it's still Amy. I just... turned back…"

"Oh." The disappointment on his face was apparent, yet he still forced out a smile, "I'm glad that you're alright. Did you turn back because of Otto?"

"Yeah. At least, I think it is."

"It's better this way. It'll be hard to explain to others what happened to Alicent, and who you are... will you continue to be my queen, at least in public?"

"Of course. It's the least I could do... and I'll do my best to find Alicent too. I... I didn't mean to... trick you."

"I know. You did so much for all of us, and I know you didn't want to replace her."

He had accepted me, my situation, and my identity. Yet he still loved Alicent... and I didn't want to change that, not by replacing her in his heart.

Viserys must have sensed that too. He still maintained a distance from me, just like when I was first self-inserted. But I did promise I would try my best.

"Viserys!" Gathering up all my energy, I nervously suggested, "How about we play together for a while after we go back? I have a new game I'd love to test before showing the kids."

He blinked in confusion, not expecting me to ask him about that. Then he nodded. "Of course!"

He smiled, more genuinely happy now that I finally wasn't avoiding him, like I did in the past month.

I couldn't help but smile too. One small step forward…

Even if he wouldn't love me the way he had for Alicent, I wanted to remain by his side. Maybe one day we could find Alicent, and maybe I would return to my old life, finding myself on a hospital bed, rescued from the sea…

Or maybe she wouldn't return, and eventually I would…

No, I shook my head, it wasn't right to hope for that.

But no matter how the future goes—

"I'm grateful," I told him. "For everything."

And experiencing this moment was a little miracle for me.