Alys
The court had become utterly abuzz in the morning when Alys had taken her walk to the godswood before breaking her fast with Elia. She passed several groups of closely talking people, from servants, to knights, to lords and ladies. Everyone was entirely absorbed by the return of the prince. Though Alys hadn't even realized that was what it was all about until she walked her way to the small little garden terrace where she and Elia had taken to having meals together and spots the Prince himself stood by his wife talking rather tensely together.
She hadn't seen the prince in over a year. The last time had been at the godswood in Harrenhal while her sister and her travelled towards Riverrun with a small group of guards. Rhaegar had been handsome as always then, his eyes soft towards Lya in a way that at the time seemed so sweet and inviting. His eyes now, as they flicked over to her as she hesitantly made her presence known, seemed less inviting, more melancholic and far away in a way that seemed almost otherworldly.
Though that was the thing about Targaryens, Alys supposes, they hold themselves up to a state of otherworldly-ness. Even generations after the last dragons were alive to cement their position as something more than normal, they hold themselves to that status. Alys had seen it with the queen, ever regal in the face of her husbands cruelty. She'd seen it even in the king himself, his madness uplifted to an otherworldly and terrifying thing while the green flames illuminated his hunched frame upon a throne of swords.
Rhaegar had looked otherworldly all the other times Alys had seen him; plucking the strings of a harp in a song that brought her sister to tears, at the tourney with a wreath of winter roses in his hands, and under the setting light of the sun in Harrenhal's godswood inviting her sister for a walk.
He still holds that essence about him as he glances to Alys only a second while she excuses herself away to sit and play with Rhaenys. She wishes partially to give the couple, who'd seemed in tense conversation a second before, privacy. But mostly she pulls herself away because the man before her, no matter how beautiful and otherworldly he was, was the man who had ran off with her sister.
Her sister who hadn't yet returned, despite him returning now.
As Alys settles with Rhaenys who sits feeding the small black kitten pieces of fish, she thinks further of her sister. If Lyanna had returned with Rhaegar she's certain that she is the first her sister would have sought out. Thus, with Lya nowhere to be seen that meant she's still wherever she's been this time. Likely in Dorne, if that is where the Prince traveled from.
Not dead. Lya couldn't be dead. Surely Alys would know if she were, they were twins after all. That had to count for something.
If anything it could count to give her hope.
She smiles as encouragingly as she can muster at the princess as she talks fervently about a lesson she'd had with her septa the other afternoon. She pays little attention to the prince and Elia behind her save a few space glances. The husband and wife in some deep conversation that left a tight look to Elia's face as she held the little prince Aegon in her arms. She held him tightly, his small form turned away slightly from Rhaegar.
When Rhaegar leaves he doesn't acknowledge her more than a passing nod and a torn look to his eyes. Elia calls her over after a few moments pass and Alys ruffles Rhaenys's dark hair before joining Elia at the table and reaching for the simplest thing upon the table to eat.
Elia settles Aegon into the little bassinet nearby, letting the little prince lie peacefully with a mobile of dragons spinning with the wind from the sea above him as though they were flying. Her eyes are downcast in thought as Alys sits, but her face gives no other indications to where her thoughts have gone. Alys wonders if she should have listened in if only to know what runs through Elia's mind now, but feels guilt pull at her with the thought of spying on anyone let alone her own friend.
"He's leaving tomorrow," Elia says after a few moments of the two ladies eating in quietness. "Taking his men and heading northwards."
"Oh," Alys remarks, "that's very soon." She picks at the piece of fruit she held in her hands as she thinks. "I would have thought he'd stay a bit, after traveling."
"I would too," Elia sounds annoyed, but Alys knows it isn't directed at her. Her voice is also tired, she'd been unwell the day before, and had spent the day inside alone with her son. It seems she is still recovering from the dip in her health. "If not to rest than to clean up some of the mess here."
She didn't say Aerys, not outright. But the words were laced with her implications.
Alys knew that was the hope of many at court, that Rhaegar would swoop into the Red Keep and make everything suddenly right. Alys hadn't been able to help but hope that as well, hope that he'd do something, anything to make things better.
She would have been happy if that thing had been her sister's return.
She was missing her more now in this moment with the princes return than she had in months.
She was worrying for her more now as well.
"Lewyn will be going as well," Elia adds a sad tilt to her voice, "I tried to get Rhaegar to agree to keep him here. If only for my peace of mind." Alys hums along as Elia sighs, "especially considering Hightower did not return."
Alys glances up at that, curiosity rising in her ever so slightly, "why wouldn't Hightower return with him?"
Elia meets Alys's eyes and studies her for a moment before shaking her head, "I don't know." Her voice was tense and Alys knew there was more to it as the princess distracted herself with a bit of food.
"He left him with Lyanna?" Alys says the words gently, as though she were stepping on fragile ground between them. "And the kingsguard that had been with Rhaegar all this time, are they still gone or did they return?"
Elia pauses before nodding, "still gone. He wouldn't tell me where." The words were silent between them, but they both knew where.
With Lyanna.
What evaded Alys most was the reasoning for why the prince would leave three kingsguard with her sister?
Jaime
Jaime had been allowed the whole day off to himself. He knew the reason for it. The prince had been sequestered in the small council room all day with many differing people, preparing for a battle that Jaime knew many hoped would end this war. Jaime knew the other kingsguard, save Darry who guarded the king, were in there.
Jaime knew he'd be left behind again. Left to guard the king alone.
He couldn't help the bitterness that sat in his stomach all day. He channelled it all in his swings against the poor gold cloak that had agreed to spar with him. Hitting down and down again and again until the man shouted yield and Jaime was left to swing against another.
And another.
And another.
Until his arms were sore and the sun was near its time to set.
He changed his clothes and wiped some of the sweat from himself before wandering towards the godswood to meet Alys for some chess.
Perhaps that would be some good distraction, or at least a new location in which to vent his bitter frustration upon.
It seemed his frustration was not well hidden as he sat upon the bench beside Alys, her eyes studying him with concerned scrutiny as she set up the pieces before them. "Are you okay?" She finally asks after she finishes.
"Perfectly well, thank you." He knows the words sound utterly fake, a bitter bite to each syllable but he can't bring himself to care if his words sound harsh. Thankfully Alys took it surprisingly in stride as she shook her head at him and motioned for him to take the first move.
"I saw the prince this morning," she remarks after a few silent moments with them going back and forth on the board. "When I met Elia for breakfast."
Jaime huffs and stares far too intensely at the pieces before deciding upon a pawn. "So its that then." She states, her voice lightly prodding with teasing.
"So what's what then?" he looks at her with far too much exasperation to himself.
"Your source of foul mood…" She doesn't meet his eyes, instead keeping her own upon the board and her pieces. "Did something happen? Or are you just not a fan of the prince?"
"Nothing happened," he mumbles. "Nothing will happen either I'm certain."
"Are you traveling with him tomorrow?" She speaks the words hesitantly, a bit of worry traced through her voice and he feels her eyes rest on him now.
"No." He lets the words fall like a hammer. "Though I'd rather be out there, fighting and bloody than in here."
Alys holds no reply, simply moving her piece and letting his words fall away to the wind. They move back and forth in silence, and Jaime nearly wins before she calls check. When he looks for her to either boast her win or congratulate his improvement in skill he finds neither, instead her eyes are sallow with lost thoughts and her looking away from him. Her eyes studying the large heart tree while her hands fiddle with her skirts in the way Jaime recognizes as her anxious action of choice.
She doesn't ask for a second game, and Jaime feels the air shift between them in a tense way. He shouldn't be worried as she excuses herself. He shouldn't worry about her at all. But he does and he moves with her as she stands, collecting the chess set for her and carrying it as an excuse to walk her back to her rooms.
They walk in still silence through the winding paths of the godswood, and are nearly clear of it when a figure crosses their paths. "Lady Alys, Ser Jaime." The princes musical voice rings between them practically shattering the thin silence that had enveloped them, Jaime almost swears Alys jumps but she simply bows before Rhaegar, and Jaime follows her lead.
"I was hoping I could have a word with you, my lady." Jaime watches as Alys pales, more than she naturally is, but she doesn't let it show too harshly by nodding and taking his arm.
Jaime hesitates while Alys glances to him before worrying at her bottom lip. "I'll leave this in your room then," Jaime remarks, motioning at the chess set and bowing once more to the prince who nods. As he leaves he feels the dark violet eyes follow him a moment, studying him closely in a way that makes Jaime only slightly unsettled.
He shouldn't worry over Alys, especially with the Prince. Rhaegar is the best of his family. A fine example of what a prince, a king, should be. And a man of sound mind and reason, unlike his father. He wouldn't harm her.
But he ran off with her sister, and she knows that.
He shouldn't worry, he tells himself again as he enters her rooms and sets the chess set upon the small desk of hers.
He shouldn't worry, and yet he decides to take a seat in her room and wait for her despite his internal protestations.
Alys
The godswood seemed colder as they walked. Or perhaps it was simply her. It was fear, small and curled within her that chilled her.
He won't hurt me. No. He won't, he can't. She's too valuable a hostage and he's of more sound mind than his father. She tries to settle the fear, tries to assure herself.
She wishes Jaime had accompanied them, wishes he were beside her if only to make her feel ever so slightly safer.
When he speaks she has to keep herself still and settled. But she knows her arm tightened slightly and he would have felt it against his. Thankfully he makes no vocal note on it, instead asking, "Have you been faring well these last several months in the capital?"
His words were meant to express concern, they held it in the tone. But Alys was unsure how true his tone was to his true feelings. "Well enough." She replies, her voice tight and sounding too shrill. She wishes she were better at keeping herself collected. Elia was skilled at it, she could choose whether her feelings came through in her voice or not. Alerie was good as well, but more because she was skilled at always sounding so carefree no matter her true thoughts and feelings.
"Good," his voice doesn't convey the relief she imagines he'd meant for it, instead it sounds tense as well. She sneaks a glance to his face, and finds it lost in deep thought and worry. She wonders whether it was worry for her sake or for her sisters.
She feels the fear tighten further within her. Along with some other feeling, a feeling of boldness at the thought of her sister. "My apologies, your grace," she finds the words escaping with little choice, "is my sister well?" His eyes glance down to meet hers. He was tall, taller than Brandon had been. But he was lithe as well. He all at once took up less space and more space than one would imagine.
He contemplates for several moments, so long that she nearly thinks he won't reply at all. But finally, a small sigh that was drenched in conflict escaped and he nodded. "Quite well, and quite safe so you have no need to worry."
No need to worry… she felt the fear loosen and an anger tighten instead. She wasn't often angry, it wasn't an emotion that came to her readily but she felt it at those words. "It's hard not to," her voice is tight once more, but harsh instead of meek. "She is my sister and I've had no word of her since the night she left me near a year and a half ago." The words were pointed, and far more bold than Alys has ever previously been. But she meant the harshness beneath them fully. He had no right to decide it wasn't for her to worry over Lyanna, no more than he had the right to take her in the first place.
She looks away then, not wanting her anger to be so readily seen in her eyes when he glanced to her. She focuses instead on the plants around them. She doesn't want to push too far, even in her anger she knew she was walking on dangerous grounds at all moments here.
"Of course." His voice was melodic naturally and but now it sounded flat. Looking from the corner of her eye, Alys notices the torn look to his features. She was unsure how far it was from his usual solemn look he held, but she feels her anger falter only slightly at the possibility that he truly hadn't meant for all the hardship that had come from his choice to run off with Lyanna. "But I wanted to convey to you that she is well, as well as she can be." She nodded tightly and they continued onwards.
The two walked through the paths in quiet for a short bit longer, and after he escorted her back to her room in the Maiden Vault. He didn't say any more on Lyanna, and she didn't ask though her heart yearned to hear anything more. He didn't mention her father and brother, didn't even allude to their deaths and his fault in it. She felt the anger burn in her core as his silence on it all rang like a bell around them.
He didn't speak until they were outside her door. "I hope you understand," He starts, his violet eyes boring into her grey. A flash of something like conflict passes through them and Alys wonders how much of Lyanna he sees when he looks to her. "This wasn't all for nothing. Everything will be made right soon enough. I swear that." She stares at him, the words floating through her head and settling as he bows his goodbye. She waits, watching him disappear around the corner before she releases a shallow breath and pushes through her door.
Alys startles slightly at Jaimes figure sat all too leisurely on her chair before the fireplace. "What are you doing?" She asks, her voice still tense from her walk with Rhaegar.
"Waiting for you." He tells her, his eyes studying her in a way that makes her feel all too fragile in that moment. She recalls their own tight silence before the prince entered the scene and looks away from Jaime to walk towards her desk, settling her cloak on the chair and moving the chess set where she likes it kept.
"Why?" she asks after a beat.
She glances just in time to see him shrug, "what did the prince want?" She moves across the room to the chair by him, settling into its cushions and sighing.
"I… I don't know." She purses her lips and looks to her hands upon her lap, "I suppose to see how I fared, and tell me that… well it was almost like an apology I suppose."
"Almost?"
"He didn't say any apologies. Just that it wasn't for nothing, and that things will be made right."
"Did he mention your sister." She looks to Jaime, his eyes held tight upon her in cautious study and she nods.
"I asked, he answered. Rather vaguely."
"You don't look satisfied." Jaime tries to play the words as jest, but he was all to close to the truth for it to feel joking.
"How could I be?" She lets out a breath that was far shakier than she'd like. "He told me that I had no reason to worry for my sister." She shakes her head, "if your sister, your twin, was missing and the man who was primarily responsible told you not to worry, how would you feel?"
Jaime looks away, to the unlit fire before them and his eyes seem to darken as he contemplates that. "I'd hate it." He looks back to her, his face utterly serious and his voice dark with it, "and I'd likely kill the man responsible."
Like Brandon had, she thinks. "I'll kill him, I don't care that he's the prince, I'll kill him." Brandon had been raving when Lyanna hadn't turned up, raving when the prince was mentioned in the area. Alys hadn't known what to do, she didn't know whether she should say what she knew. She doubted even now that it would have helped anything, it may have made things worse for all she knows. Brandon had sat atop his horse outside the red keep, his men and her around him, with his sword drawn and calling for Rhaegar to fight him. He'd been ready to kill or be killed for Lyanna.
He was killed for what Rhaegar and Lyanna had done.
"He didn't even mention my father or brother." Her voice is quieter as she lets the thought ring out loud. "I don't know if I would have felt better or worse if he had. But in the end he apologized for nothing in truth. Not for running away with Lyanna, and not for what it caused."
Jaime meets her eyes and they soften into the look that makes her feel far too fragile once more. She was angry again she supposed, still a foreign and strange feeling to her that burned inside her. But a feeling that must have been building for a while. How long could someone go with injustices around them before they felt anger, felt hatred. She supposes having one of the primary reasons for all that had gone wrong before her had been the tipping point.
"He said it wasn't for nothing. But it feels like it was for nothing. My father and Brandon died for nothing more than the prince and my sisters silly whims." Her voice is harsh once more, dipped in a anger and sounding foreign to her own ears with the tone of it.
"Alys," Jaime's voice was both comforting and warning, his hand moving to grab her own bunched upon her lap.
"Do you think Lyanna knows?" She asks, "knows what happened because of the choices she made?" She feels guilt mingle with the anger at her harshness towards her own sister. But the anger was there, directed towards her twin who'd run off.
"I don't know." Jaime responds.
"I can't imagine how she'd stay away if she did." Alys shakes her head, "she wouldn't.." She wanted to believe it, believe that if Lyanna knew what befell her family she'd run home as fast as she could, she'd fight if she had to.
"People can do strange things for love." Jaime's words fall upon her and she feels strange conflict at the words.
Did Lyanna love Rhaegar? She hardly knew him when she ran away. She'd met him three times perhaps, at least that was what Alys knew. But she'd lamented to her that she'd rather marry him than Robert. She'd said as much only a few days before she'd left.
"Does that mean she loved him more than her family?" the words escape without thought, "she left with him. That means she either cared more for him and herself than for us. Or she didn't think about the consequences for us. Either way…" either way her father and brother died. Either way Alys was still with anger that mingled with the reminder of her grief.
She hates the feeling of anger.
Nearly as much as she hates the feeling of grief.
"I didn't think about the consequences of joining the kingsguard." Jaime breaks her silence. "I had reasons for it. Reasons I thought were good and worth any consequence they'd bring." She meets his eyes and find them lost in thought. She feels so deeply a want to know what runs behind them in that moment. "Then I joined, and the consequences I hadn't seen unraveled around me and it was no longer worth what I thought it would be."
"So you regret it?" Alys asks.
"Yes." His voice is blunt, and he doesn't look at her as he says it. "Perhaps your sister does as well."
He looks to meet her eyes and they just sit in each others stares for a moment. Alys feels her anger lessen, or perhaps it simply moves away for some other time. Regardless she welcomes the calm that Jaime brings, and she settles in the friendlier silence that encapsulates them now.
Thank you all for reading! Let me know what you thought, I love seeing all of the comments.
I've been doing an OC Halloween challenge for October on tumblr that has been loads of fun if you want to see some more content from me at
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