p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="a213fde4b5bb8d62daaecd8b4395d9b4"The Red Keep had always felt like home to Alicent. She hardly remembered Oldtown, she only had vague memories of the murder of ravens on the Hightower and the smell of her mother's perfume lingering on her blankets./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ea0f3bd7f6d77c74f19ecfa2cc6afffb"The Red Keep felt different. She had grown more into herself when she arrived with her father, she had been encouraged to explore the vast gardens and to read more books than ever before. She had even read stories for the Old King Jaehaerys and she had thrived with her newfound responsibility. The Old King kept mistaking her for his own lost daughter, and Alicent Hightower let it happen. Just to ease the dying king's pain for a little while./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="73f8499d7b0f40a476d52eb9a1ca1abc"She had married King Viserys out of duty, he needed a Queen, and he needed more heirs. She did not love him at first, but some kind of love had grown between style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She knew her father had been manipulating her for years, and she had let that happen too. His behavior mimicked the love she thought she deserved enough for her to accept it./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="251a998fec0d2656be1ef30cd16006ea"She finally realized what true love was supposed to feel like when her son was born. Aegon Targaryen was the love of her life, and when he grew into a man she had to stand by and watch as calamity after calamity descended on him and threatened to break him apart /In the following years after his birth, she was blessed with a daughter and two additional sons. And so, the Red Keep changed again. It was filled with laughing children and the occasional stubborn wail, yet it still felt like home to her. When her children grew, so did the feeling of terror deep inside her chest. The succession made her uneasy, the rules made her doubt herself more than ever. The throne should pass to a son, that much had already been established. The Queen knew that most of the Realm agreed./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c933ca19e78652416dfffc1deeb302fb"Suddenly the Red Keep became strangling. The walls moved in on her, the whispers followed her through the halls and into the night. Nightmares took away her sleep. Conspiracies took form and the only thing she did to stop all the chatter was to ignore it. The Keep abruptly morphed into her worst nightmare when as a child it had been her heaven./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bf287cd0d00af0a0ea3d689d2d49e727"Nineteen years later it was to be her coffin./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7a844e98a611d2fecf456de990971672"Alicent Hightower was counting. She started by counting seconds. She had wrapped her arms around her knees, trying to keep the chill from settling deep in her bones by slowly rocking back and forth. She counted to keep herself occupied. To forget the smell of waste and blood. To forget the sound of agonizing screams and to forget the feeling of her dress on her body. When she reached ten thousand, she had started counting cracks in the walls instead. It helped keep her eyes clear, to focus on something other than the darkness creeping in all around /There were far too many cracks. Cracks from people who had hit their head against the wall. Cracks from even more people who had punched the unrelenting stone walls repeatedly with their fists and filed down their own bones by doing so. Other bones littered the stone floor and piles of waste quickly became home for rats and mice./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="118b56b32d03ec2fc30a358fbf1b35f0"She had dragged her fingers over the crack in the wall behind her and flinched. Her thumb had met with something sharp and the sound of blood hitting the stone floor caught her style="box-sizing: border-box;" style="box-sizing: border-box;" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Drip./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="07fcf10d0d5b92a2592b087f1927da11"She dug her fingers into the crack and found a nail. An entire fingernail, embedded into the mortar. Someone had so desperately clawed at the wall they had lost a nail. Alicent picked the nail out of the wall and looked at it. There was a tiny sliver of flesh still attached to it, seemingly decaying more by the second. She thought about the person the nail had belonged to. A man by the size of it, and she caught herself half wondering if she was the one who put the sorry creature in here in the first place. She had sent many a man and a few women to the Black Cells to quell rebellions./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="812098ff07321751085f35dc0b606128"Alicent looked at her fingers. Her hands. She had grown thinner. Too thin. The dress she had worn when the guards came for her was slouching off her shoulders. The fabric dug into her elbows and her ribs, it had grown stiff with sweat, grime, and blood. She wanted nothing more than to rip it off, but the cold would settle deeper into her bones, and she needed the morsel of warmth it still provided. Her hair fell off in tangled clumps every time she ran a hand through it, the greying roots had made her panic, when an entire braid had fallen into her hands, she decided to leave it alone./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="35a07eeb8f7fc40ee91f1919805419f9"She looked at the colossal wooden door in front of her, trying to will it open. Begging for anyone to come rescue her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7bebdcff86f1764ea25c9761406452ca"She could still see the marks from her own nails on the splitting wood. She had tried to keep the guard from shoving her in here. He had only grunted and kicked her in the back, sending her flying into the cell face first./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bdbe80b1807e6ab98e579e63151d2e7b"She let go of the nail and curled up against the wall./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3c42e133c06bbe4c45ae490c15ffaa21"Maegor the Cruel they had called him. He had finished the Keep. He built the Black Cells. She cursed his name. She cursed his entire eradicated bloodline. The black cells were horrible. She could hear Tyland Lannister scream a few cells down the hall. Rhaenyra's torturers had taken their time. And they did not relent. Alicent had been forced to watch, chained at the neck. First, they took his eyes. One at a time. The newly appointed Commander of the City Watch, whom she had taken to calling the Rot, had gouged out Tyland's right eye and squashed it with his boot. The poor man was catatonic long before the Rot pierced his last eye with his dagger. Blood had flowed from him in streams, coating the once beautifully polished marble floor in the Throne Room crimson. Alicent could no longer see her reflection in it. She only saw blood, ash, scattered teeth and dirt./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="71e088113c97c08aec236437bd5aa329"Then he started with Tyland's fingers. Alicent still had to watch as the giant brute of a man broke every bone in Tyland's right hand./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ac18869ef92a4f0cd839bbd70e65c747" "Broken hand, no sword" he had mused, spitting Tyland in the face. Yet, the Lion of the Rock did not break./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1e0191e0ab05ec35a6dc8cc8e94c43ad"If she closed her eyes someone was immediately there to force her to open them. Strong, clammy hands wrapped around her face and pried her eyes open despite her every effort to keep them closed. She had complied when the Rot threatened her with the same treatment as Tyland./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6f58ac27337136273a80beb2116bd5c9" "Do you see what loyalty to the wrong people gets you, Tyland?" Rhaenyra had yelled over his screams of agony from her stolen seat high above them. "Do you see what happens to traitors?"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Tyland would never see again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="4606829d60fc9a49f3fc497a7f7aa6a3"Alicent would never again be rid of the sound of bone breaking. She heard the snaps every time she closed her eyes. Every time she counted a new crack. Fifty-two, em style="box-sizing: border-box;"snap,/em fifty-three, em style="box-sizing: border-box;"snap,/em fifty-/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7e186024f58ba3d033044d1aeb7cadb2"Her mind wandered. Backwards. To the pleasant, blessed past./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bfcb672ca7e409ff56d0275d9cd6c2be"She watched herself carry Helaena to the bed they slept in. Helaena had been fuzzy all day, and Alicent was at her wits end. She decided to try to calm her down by reading her a story. Finding that the books she usually read was nowhere to be found she'd have to make up a story on the spot. The squealing babe in her arms had her fingers so tightly wrapped in Alicent's auburn curls she struggled to free the little hands as she tried to sit down./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="20d2ce5fddb29a1acda855a0c7a69e12"Helaena had finally started talking. Most of the time she just babbled happily, she repeated what was said and laughed often. When she started to form her own sentences Alicent realized she could listen to her voice for the rest of her life. Her laugh was like tiny silver bells, it was the kind of laugh that bubbled over, and suddenly her little Helaena was wheezing on the floor, trying to control her breathing./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="29c686167e46fc83d35a170309438b57" "Mother?" Helaena asked when Alicent placed her daughter down on the bed beside / "Yes, my dearest?" Alicent replied and caressed her daughter's hair with a slender hand. Helaena's face changed. It changed so quickly that Alicent lost her footing and her head collided with the stone wall behind her. Her daughters face had changed into her own. Gaunt, sallow, and full of grief. Her mouth had opened, and she / "You have to keep counting!" The voice was Helaena's but warped almost beyond recognition./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5358a68fa076ba6443a7356d51e3030e"Alicent opened her eyes. The darkness was never ending. She was completely alone. She had been alone for so long she forgot what felt like to speak. She had no idea how long she had been in the cell, but it must have been weeks. The food had stopped coming several days ago and her stomach ached for the stale bread she had been served before. Tyland's screams had stopped too, and the smell of fresh blood and urine again filled the halls. Alicent tried not to gag as the putrid smell of iron forced its way up her nose. Everything was quiet. Except the rats. They scurried away from their corners and because they were used to her presence, they kept coming closer. If she fell asleep, she was sure they would start nibbling at her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e5deaf550bd84d62f0af7c229ea7d05c"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-four./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6c60c5023cfd7589c20313a05ff276cb"Alicent kept counting. When she ran out of cracks, she started all over again. She counted the holes in the mortar, she counted the specks of dried blood on the floor and the rats. And soon, she too started clawing at the walls. She needed air, she needed food and she needed to get out. She panicked a day later and tore her green dress to shreds. Clawing at her own skin desperate to stop feeling, desperate for everything to just- Stop. She clawed at herself until she felt nothing but pain, and when sleep came for her, she welcomed it, half hoping to never wake again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1819c013da1fd969c1f72d6525a7afc9" "Get up!" A kick. em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Crack./em One of her ribs broke. She was no longer entirely sure that the crack came from her ribs, she thought she heard something in her mind crack too but-br / "Now!" He was here. She could smell his rotten breath near her face. She did not have time to move before she was dragged up off the floor by her hair. The tension on her scalp made her eyes water and the tried to claw at his hands to make him let go. Yet he only tightened his grip and / "The Queen needs a word"./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="f65f5b1faea308126e7831f4d62cfb29"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-five./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="62e71251d089e887869384f9887e5cc8"Alicent was dragged to the throne room. She could not stand on her own anymore. She was too weak to even lift her head properly. She just looked at the armored feet she was dragged past, and tried to ask for help, to give even she smallest, desperate signal. No help would ever come./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="fdb77a8757587c75c9be41f112b4d1b8"The Rot finally let go of her arm and her hair with it when he reached the stairs. She tried to brace herself when her shoulder hit the stony steps of the dais, but she couldn't move fast enough. Alicent looked up and found her stepdaughter's violet eyes already staring down at her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5f1c8efa314f50634c5b275c50fb2dbc" "Good of you to join us, Alicent" Rhaenyra said and tapped her fingers on the steel blade protruding up next to her hand./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="cac9727f554da48352250ac24b3eef45"So many years had passed since they had read together in the gardens. They had almost been friends once, before she gave birth to a son. Alicent wanted to scream. She wanted to force Rhaenyra's face down onto the blades and cackle as she bled to death. She did nothing./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e9750c465007b53df1eac5a039bc6ea1"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-six./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="315c362b388345037c6308c6096d16cd"Again, she was chained at the neck. Again, the crude steel was placed around her throat and fastened to the cuffs around her wrists. She was no threat. They all knew it. She had given up fighting a long time ago. Still, she was chained. Alicent knew it was a play for power. Rhaenyra wanted her to feel powerless and be completely at her mercy./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="fe1dae76c185069fa9dd8a624edda169" "The Tower glows green, your Grace" a voice said somewhere behind her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7d8699919d926fa6475eb2206effc32e"The voice was not speaking to her, Alicent had no more allies in the Keep. They were all dead or dying./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="204b059b3d568ff02ff0e519368e7162" "It does not matter. Daeron is dead. Aegon is dead. No one is coming for her, or us." Rhaenyra said and Alicent could feel her eyes on her neck./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8668acea5b9ceb798dd10df4a2517ba3"It did matter. The Hightower glowed green. There was still hope. The banners would come. The Hightower would only stop glowing for one reason, if Alicent died. She simply refused, if Aegon had somehow escaped, if he was still alive, he would know what the light meant. Aemond would too. Alicent had last heard of him wreaking havoc in the Riverlands looking for Daemon. She hoped he managed to find him. Daemon was to die. For everything and everyone he had ruined./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6bbc3a97267df57f4134fd8abb380df0"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-seven./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="b51856e45adeaf76c0ebb974497db1ce" "Helaena-" Alicent's voice was weak, her throat was raw, and she tried to / "She is not doing so good, is she, Commander?" Rhaenyra replied. Alicent kept her eyes on the floor. She feared she would scream if she looked at her and she had to keep Helaena alive. If she resisted Helaena's life would be forfeit. Aemond was coming for them. He had to come for / "She did not like her gift," the Commander laughed. The Rot lived up to his name. Alicent could feel the air fester around her, the heavy weight of it pushing her down to the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /What had she done to Helaena?br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She did not ask, there was no doubt in her mind that Rhaenyra would tell her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="802198769d5107214adfe12cd91822d5"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-eight./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6ebac84305210d13f7f8cc67d8bb465b"For the first time since her capture Alicent cried. She was back in her cell, the darkness now a welcome break from the crude light of the throne room. She had crawled over to the wall and started counting again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3d02fd860a1ce43af8a297cc688d44b4"Rhaenyra had delivered Maelor's severed head to Helaena that very morning. Alicent's youngest grandson had been torn to pieces in Flea Bottom, and then she had sent for the head to be brought to his mother. Alicent did not dare to think about that soft head of pale blond hair. The eyes that no longer saw, the tiny fingers that no longer would wrap around her finger./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="faf313c0928caddfa60d531b18cdf72e"Alicent grew angry. She could feel her face heating and she pounded at the walls. The still unrelenting walls. She could hear the cracks now, steadily creeping into her brain and cracking her apart. Piece by piece./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1a137112b63da2c6a2b1b42b94a7466b"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-nine./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="10c7b463e92cba707d0a1b3bedccf652" "Mother?" Aemond's voice rang out from behind her. The sheer desperation in it made her turn. She sighed when she saw him, covered in soot and style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Again?" She asked raising a brow at him. "How many times do I need to tell you-"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "They gave me a pig!" Aemond screamed. His voice cracked and he reached his arm out to style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "They said they found a dragon for me, but-"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Your obsession with those beasts goes beyond understanding!" Alicent broke him off. She was terrified. If he got hurt, if something happened to him, she did not know what she would do./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="97feea05b4d445940b237e520804f0d4"And yet, she had promised him a dragon. She had sat down with him and promised him he would have a dragon when he was older. She knew he would have one. She could feel it with every fiber of her style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "He'll have to close an eye" Helaena's dreamy voice cut through the air./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8d00ccf3b13577101518a146517bfa91"He had. A year later, Aemond had lost an eye, but he claimed Vhagar. His maiming had had no consequences for Rhaenyra's bastards, except a broken nose. Alicent knew right then and there that Rhaenyra's needs and wants would always be placed highest in her husband's mind, along with the blatant lies she told. Alicent had fought Viserys because of it, again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="431f577cff34e1fe6879bf5ab2ac9ec4"Hands closed around her face and her head was ripped to the side. Alicent style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Mother, you have to keep counting!" Aemond's sapphire eye dug its way into her brain. Blood was leaking from the socket and when she reached out to wipe it away, he was gone./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c90acf69339ec417df164083ad543890"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Sixty./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="0185b47e1a7f3f40be5d6cd56e4ecc56"Alicent was back in the throne room. Surrounded by people. Her Queensguard standing watch around her and her father to her style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Daemon did this! They said as much!" Otto Hightower style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Have every rat catcher in the city hanged. And let the one in the dungeons be tortured to such an extent that he confesses everything!"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c96945dd0afd83c25531036318f55f72"Alicent whirled. And there he was. Her eldest son. His face was sallow and pale. His eyes hard as stone. His own son was dead at the hands of his uncle. His wife was mad with grief, and he could not keep from drinking. When he didn't drink, he raged. Alicent's heart broke for him./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="089ddb6a03b8a4f304881918f47671c8"The next morning twenty-three rat catchers had met the hangman's noose. Aegon watched them all die. He stood in front of them and smiled as they struggled. He only turned away when their necks broke./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6ad473a543b7c66ca9fea5e875e8262a"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Snap./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="39b2526b4cce96df431e012db7a03c71"Alicent couldn't sleep. She kept turning over in bed. She needed to see Helaena. Now. She dressed in a hurry and aimed for the door. She walked up the stairs to the Tower of the Hand ten minutes later placing a hand on Helaena's door begging her daughter to let her in. It took half an hour to make her listen./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="dc0867b0661d7cfce90183e72e063465"Alicent stopped when she saw the floor. Piles and piles of long blonde hair littered the crude slabs of stone, Helaena had ripped it out at the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She was shaking, clawing at her lower stomach and style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "I did this! I did all of this! My poor children-"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Alicent moved across the floor and wrapped her arms around her daughter trying to make her understand that Daemon had done this. Only style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "My dearest, sweetest love-" her voice broke as Helaena stopped struggling and stilled. Alicent's arms wrapped around her knees again and she shook from the cold. She had stopped trying to keep herself warm. It did not matter; the cold did not matter./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="fde88d80f313ef0bf05494b9e99f558b"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Sixty-one./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="b82985b5c55864c434d0c06d37c16821" "Did you find them?" Rhaenyra's demanding voice broke the silence. Alicent moved her hands slowly, the cuffs on her wrists clanked together and the sound made her teeth style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Both dead."br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Who was dead? Alicent lifted her eyes and looked at Rhaenyra. Her mask of utter surety had style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Prince Daemon?" She asked, eyeing Alicent. She quickly looked tot he floor and the ever growing puddle of style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Dead"./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="57e92cc8f65e067b683e818fe4b6ecd1"Alicent did not believe it. Daemon was finally dead. She snarled. She had to keep protecting Helaena until Aemond came for them. Be quiet. No not react. Do not speak- Her voice betrayed style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Aemond will kill you all for this, for everything you have done to my family. You and your bastards are next!" Alicent's voice grew stronger with every word. By the end she was shouting. She rose to her feet. She refused to sit a moment longer./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="51fd6d218d7a7ad5d9fc0a92fa188732" "He is dead!" Rhaenyra spat and flung her arm forward. Alicent jolted as soft leather collided with her face. Her sons eye patch landed at her feet. She extended a shaking hand and picked it up. The jagged hole in the middle of it made her stomach turn. The leather was slick with blood, it coated her fingers. Think crimson drops ran down her wrist, and she heaved. A sword or a dagger must have been shoved through his blind eye. Alicent sank to the floor and tried to stay alive, she tried her best to keep her mind from breaking./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="19d237b87a918a34c121e675413b714a"The leather still smelled like him. It still held the shape of his face even with the hole in it. Alicent clenched her fingers around it. They would have to kill her to take it from her. She refused to let it go. She would keep it is a reminder, a string to keep her tied to the world as her family crumbled to dust around her. She would not give up. Not yet./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="aedf444d0bf06adacedae14f6076b70c"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Sixty-two,/em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7f19a8f47af76adccf7753d70f044424"When the Rot told her of Helaena's fate, Alicent stopped counting. She stopped thinking, feeling and breathing. The small light she had nursed inside her chest for the past moons flickered when she sank to the floor and wept. And to the south-west, all the ravens flew from the Hightower. It was an omen the small folk said. A bad one. They all watched with horror painted on their faces, they all looked on as the beacon on the Hightower flickered and went out. The Queen was dead./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="84d07c9acebaacb1d8f29741651cf2ea"The Rot smiled as he saw the heap on the floor the next morning. He stood outside the cell and waited for the bitch to move. She did not. He stared for a bit longer and whistled as he walked to Tyland Lannister's cell. If anything would wake her up it was his /He broke Tyland's left arm and hummed as his screams of pain reverberated off the walls. Still no sound or movement came from Alicent's cell. Very well then. She could rot in peace. He went to tell the Queen, still whistling his tune./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e10cb064fa25f2c72ec386cb1115c061"To the North things were different. Aegon Targaryen, Second of His Name was /A raven had arrived for him this morning. Telling him that the Beacon had finally gone out. He nearly beheaded the man who read him the style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "We leave now!"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3089567aa29557fd92d7baa975031787"Sunfyre was too wounded to fly for long, so he had to stop frequently but he had managed. Rhaenyra had fled. The Dragonpit was a ruin, and all his siblings were dead. Aegon snarled to the wind and flew east. She would never be safe again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3f2be2aee94749ba631361abc081d478"Alicent stirred. The cold floor slowly nursing her rising fever. She was going to die down here. Alone and forgotten. She had no idea how many moons had passed. She only knew the cell, the smell of blood and the squeaking of rats. They had grown brazen now, nipping at her feet. She kept staring at the leather in her hand. Carefully dragging her finger over the hole in it silently wishing everything was a lie. Wishing it to be a new kind of torture. She knew it wasn't./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="36528edaf6bee36675cf3444294f37f1"Aemond was dead. Helaena and Daeron were dead. Aegon was dead./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="18ec507d499d8ad8c3d508d98d8d003c"First, The Realm's Delight had beheaded her father for treason, Alicent had refused to obey the command to watch. She would never forget the sound of the axe. The Commander had to swing it on her father's neck three times. Three times before Otto Hightower stopped breathing. Then Rhaenyra had stated that she had decided to spare her because Viserys had loved her. Alicent knew she was lying; she wasn't sparing her. She was waiting her out. Waiting for her to beg for death./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="f9a86504cd3b9394da1ce742ec3852aa"Her father's head had been tossed in a corner of her cell during the night. When she woke up the next morning the first thing she saw was Otto Hightower's staring eyes. She had ripped off a sleeve to cover his face. A week later the rot had set in, and the putrid smell of decaying flesh now masked the smell of her own terror. She had failed everyone. Her entire family was dead./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3341f1af86b240f754f179e97d0049ce"Alicent looked up to the ceiling, her nostrils flared, and she cursed. She would not be broken by torture. If she was to die of starvation or a different kind of abuse, she welcomed it. She was so tired; her heart was empty and the cracks closed in on her still./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ec0e20a7e0252bd8af39c4218b90d36e"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Ten./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c998bd675e9aa332d5b2a2559c87a693"A while later she heard the cracking of exploding stone and the sounds of several dragons roaring in unison. Roaring in pain and desperation. She hoped it was Syrax. She hoped the beast plummeted to the ground with her rider. Alicent sank back to the floor, placing her cheek on the least bloody part of the stone and closed her eyes. Her dreams filled with small folk screaming as the flesh melted off their bones and engulfed them in flames./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="d639649a53d01a73c084c17ab0d3177a"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Nine./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="160e2062149aff7d35497e875abeb955"Aegon's pale head reached her chin now. He had grown so quickly. She placed her arms around her son and hugged him tightly. Breathing in the smell of him. Wishing he would stay her little boy style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She knew the danger that faced him. She had to make sure he got the throne. He needed the throne. That was the only way he would be safe from em style="box-sizing: border-box;"her./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="f8c4fb0771f4c9933ece5d60449c5660"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Eight./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="965dc1d2b39a72ff311419b1cccfa178" "Mother?"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="4ea253197e8ee9f38a22b5303d70e99d"Alicent didn't listen. She didn't care. She could only see the darkness. She only saw the slight shine through one of the cracks in the door. The dull light shone in on the last few scraps of green silk on her arms. She had started to hate the color itself. It made her sick to her stomach. She reached her arms out and wrapped them around her knees, trying to keep the creeping panic at style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She could feel her heart slowing down, and then panic again. Her heart was giving out. It was time. Mother save her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e2e5dc7036e51b9845cdacc93324b4c7"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Seven./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="79bd3ecdfc196271314482a936fc5794"Alicent was lifted off the floor and carried out of the Black Cells. Carried. Not dragged. She did not recognize the hands holding her. She did not care./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="79b46b27d45e583d3480af5a69cf9548"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Six./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="34670025b864f0772b2540cb89c8e70f"She sat still as warm water was poured over her and gentle hands scrubbed at her skin. A voice spoke soothing words to her, kept telling her to stay alive. Alicent did not reply and kept her eyes on the floor. She had been helped out of her rags. The green dress was just a pile of fabric now, torn, ripped and cracked. Just like style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Strips of linen were carefully wrapped around her arms and fingers, the dirt finally thrown out with the murky bath water./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="dfa886ede7f03fe9b88a18ca3e6c81ee" "Be still, my Queen"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ef8a3c32a6a5652c4673091ceaca47bf"Alicent squirmed. If the Queen found out-/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="2f83b0a78ee0730dbf1d23938fd98bca"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Five./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8ea0d707d54e4543b185df416e900056" "Mother?"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="f4b64ead8802362d29078e71b61d6285"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Four./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="cf47e15bacf974a127ab1342dbb02e9a"The voice. She knew the voice. She sat in a chair next to her own fireplace when her son knelt in front of her. It caused him pain, she could see it on his face. Half his body was burned and had healed wrong. The jagged welts of flesh made him look like his uncle. She tried to keep her eyes open. Aegon. It was a trick, she knew Aegon to be dead. She had finally lost her mind. Alicent laughed./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bab22fac44b67c66f19955d944d4878a"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Three./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5e0a2e5a4e4bf1a42e20e5f07e291e73"Alicent cried. Tears flowed down her cheeks as the grief set in. She had lost all her children. Everyone was dead. She was all alone./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="fdb02803abc46fba06ce1cc96d6399c5"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Two./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="448b378268bd4a2d1761e68792002dce"Arms wrapped around her. Strong arms. She nestled her head into Aegon's neck and cried. He kept holding her as her shivering sobs shook her body. The smell-/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="2f23ca3e13548e56e94e666a6383fd7b" "You came for me?"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "I said I would come for you, mother," he whispered into her hair as her mind slowly style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "I am never leaving you again."br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /He had come for her. He was here./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="900019fa233e608091ba641d50d69b81"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"One./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1726ef965d9b01e7d64889df0f3f1707"Alicent Hightower never spoke or smiled again. She never grinned and she never laughed. She was clad in black for the rest of her style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The weight she lost never returned, and she did not look anyone in the eye. She was but a shadow, a sad broken shadow haunting the halls of the Keep. She had begun her healing in the small at first. Walking the Keep during the day. Forcing herself to walk down to the Black Cells to make sure she got out. She absentmindedly ran her finger over one of the cracks in the wall. She got out. She was free./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="dcdce1dbfe35692743f423b7329833f6"She didn't have to count anymore. She got out./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="00e6b416a754858d97d0406c2de8d724"Alicent never cried again, not even when the stranger came and claimed King Aegon II Targaryen two years style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Her last living granddaughter Jaehaera was married off to the Usurpers child and the Blood of the Dragon lived style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Her granddaughter took care of her from day to day, Jaehaera refused to have anyone else tending to her grandmother. New faces scared her. Unfamiliar voices made her flinch. The horrors haunting her at night made her erratic./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="707acf8d3c062afac0550152f7300254"It did not matter. It did not matter that Jaehaera was not Helaena. The moment she walked through the doors to Alicent's tower all she could see was her daughter. Helaena's smile, Helaena's hair and Helaena's voice./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6fed348df6a94cc2cad822770064c6ee"When Jaehaera had children of her own she only saw her dead sons. Alicent had almost spoken when she realized the small bundles placed in her arms were twin boys./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="a42b235aea61ee762399c50114a24c95"She had named them Aegon and Aemond. Alicent stopped living in the same world as them. She kept retreating into herself and she kept reliving her precious memories. She did not resist when the winter fever came for her. She did not resist when her lungs gave out, and she did not fear when the last breath escaped style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The Dowager Queen, Alicent Hightower was found the next morning. Her body was prepared for the funeral by the Silent Sisters and taken to the Sept. Jaehaera had her ashes interred with that of her son and daughter, so that they would enter the next life together. Queen Jaehaera Targaryen then closed off the western tower, her grandmothers lingering fears and panic had made the tower unbearable to enter. It would never be used again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="2ab08f6a77c0f996e1dd88680088cffe"A ghost story began to spread through the Red Keep twenty years after Alicent's death. It was only whispered at first, in the dark corners of the servant's hallway. The whispers said to keep away from the Tower of the Hand when the moon was full. There was a wailing lady there they said. Clad in a ripped green dress./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3409874a157cb1c55218d0f8f9697366"The years passed. The century turned and the wailing lady never left./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c38b4363eb3a5cd115c2044339fe212e"When Aerys Targaryen walked his sister Rhaella through the Keep when they were children the maids had told her to stay away from the east tower. When she asked why, the Prince had told her it was haunted. Some said it was the old Hightower Queen, still looking for her dead children. Rhaella had soon understood that if she sat down at the bottom of the stairs at precisely the right time the old Queens dress would brush her arm when she floated up the stairs. Rhaella was filled with such sadness and anger that she never walked up the stairs again, and with the passing of the years the tower fell into disrepair. Cobwebs streamed from the ceilings and all kinds of rodents took up residence in the stairwell. The myth of the wailing queen was soon forgotten, and life returned to normal, still, the tower's eerie feeling persisted, and no one ever went near it if it could be avoided./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e9221ad38e5bb0a01d9e9e933e1bda4c"The Hightower Queen still haunts the Red Keep to this day when the moon is high in the sky. If you pay attention, you will see her. She walks from the Black Cells and up every level until she reaches the east tower. The maids have seen her walk through the solid wall and back out a minute later, then she simply continues her walk back down to the lower levels and disappears in the middle of the third black cell on the right, her shape flickers out of existence near an old skull left in one of the corners, partially covered by a piece of tattered green /The Hightower Queen is still looking for her children, and she will not rest or know peace until she finds them. Out west, it is said that when the Queen haunts the tower, the Beacon on the Hightower flickers a sorrowful green and the now murky waters of the Gods Eye boil./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ea0f3bd7f6d77c74f19ecfa2cc6afffb"The Red Keep felt different. She had grown more into herself when she arrived with her father, she had been encouraged to explore the vast gardens and to read more books than ever before. She had even read stories for the Old King Jaehaerys and she had thrived with her newfound responsibility. The Old King kept mistaking her for his own lost daughter, and Alicent Hightower let it happen. Just to ease the dying king's pain for a little while./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="73f8499d7b0f40a476d52eb9a1ca1abc"She had married King Viserys out of duty, he needed a Queen, and he needed more heirs. She did not love him at first, but some kind of love had grown between style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She knew her father had been manipulating her for years, and she had let that happen too. His behavior mimicked the love she thought she deserved enough for her to accept it./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="251a998fec0d2656be1ef30cd16006ea"She finally realized what true love was supposed to feel like when her son was born. Aegon Targaryen was the love of her life, and when he grew into a man she had to stand by and watch as calamity after calamity descended on him and threatened to break him apart /In the following years after his birth, she was blessed with a daughter and two additional sons. And so, the Red Keep changed again. It was filled with laughing children and the occasional stubborn wail, yet it still felt like home to her. When her children grew, so did the feeling of terror deep inside her chest. The succession made her uneasy, the rules made her doubt herself more than ever. The throne should pass to a son, that much had already been established. The Queen knew that most of the Realm agreed./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c933ca19e78652416dfffc1deeb302fb"Suddenly the Red Keep became strangling. The walls moved in on her, the whispers followed her through the halls and into the night. Nightmares took away her sleep. Conspiracies took form and the only thing she did to stop all the chatter was to ignore it. The Keep abruptly morphed into her worst nightmare when as a child it had been her heaven./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bf287cd0d00af0a0ea3d689d2d49e727"Nineteen years later it was to be her coffin./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7a844e98a611d2fecf456de990971672"Alicent Hightower was counting. She started by counting seconds. She had wrapped her arms around her knees, trying to keep the chill from settling deep in her bones by slowly rocking back and forth. She counted to keep herself occupied. To forget the smell of waste and blood. To forget the sound of agonizing screams and to forget the feeling of her dress on her body. When she reached ten thousand, she had started counting cracks in the walls instead. It helped keep her eyes clear, to focus on something other than the darkness creeping in all around /There were far too many cracks. Cracks from people who had hit their head against the wall. Cracks from even more people who had punched the unrelenting stone walls repeatedly with their fists and filed down their own bones by doing so. Other bones littered the stone floor and piles of waste quickly became home for rats and mice./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="118b56b32d03ec2fc30a358fbf1b35f0"She had dragged her fingers over the crack in the wall behind her and flinched. Her thumb had met with something sharp and the sound of blood hitting the stone floor caught her style="box-sizing: border-box;" style="box-sizing: border-box;" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Drip./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="07fcf10d0d5b92a2592b087f1927da11"She dug her fingers into the crack and found a nail. An entire fingernail, embedded into the mortar. Someone had so desperately clawed at the wall they had lost a nail. Alicent picked the nail out of the wall and looked at it. There was a tiny sliver of flesh still attached to it, seemingly decaying more by the second. She thought about the person the nail had belonged to. A man by the size of it, and she caught herself half wondering if she was the one who put the sorry creature in here in the first place. She had sent many a man and a few women to the Black Cells to quell rebellions./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="812098ff07321751085f35dc0b606128"Alicent looked at her fingers. Her hands. She had grown thinner. Too thin. The dress she had worn when the guards came for her was slouching off her shoulders. The fabric dug into her elbows and her ribs, it had grown stiff with sweat, grime, and blood. She wanted nothing more than to rip it off, but the cold would settle deeper into her bones, and she needed the morsel of warmth it still provided. Her hair fell off in tangled clumps every time she ran a hand through it, the greying roots had made her panic, when an entire braid had fallen into her hands, she decided to leave it alone./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="35a07eeb8f7fc40ee91f1919805419f9"She looked at the colossal wooden door in front of her, trying to will it open. Begging for anyone to come rescue her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7bebdcff86f1764ea25c9761406452ca"She could still see the marks from her own nails on the splitting wood. She had tried to keep the guard from shoving her in here. He had only grunted and kicked her in the back, sending her flying into the cell face first./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bdbe80b1807e6ab98e579e63151d2e7b"She let go of the nail and curled up against the wall./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3c42e133c06bbe4c45ae490c15ffaa21"Maegor the Cruel they had called him. He had finished the Keep. He built the Black Cells. She cursed his name. She cursed his entire eradicated bloodline. The black cells were horrible. She could hear Tyland Lannister scream a few cells down the hall. Rhaenyra's torturers had taken their time. And they did not relent. Alicent had been forced to watch, chained at the neck. First, they took his eyes. One at a time. The newly appointed Commander of the City Watch, whom she had taken to calling the Rot, had gouged out Tyland's right eye and squashed it with his boot. The poor man was catatonic long before the Rot pierced his last eye with his dagger. Blood had flowed from him in streams, coating the once beautifully polished marble floor in the Throne Room crimson. Alicent could no longer see her reflection in it. She only saw blood, ash, scattered teeth and dirt./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="71e088113c97c08aec236437bd5aa329"Then he started with Tyland's fingers. Alicent still had to watch as the giant brute of a man broke every bone in Tyland's right hand./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ac18869ef92a4f0cd839bbd70e65c747" "Broken hand, no sword" he had mused, spitting Tyland in the face. Yet, the Lion of the Rock did not break./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1e0191e0ab05ec35a6dc8cc8e94c43ad"If she closed her eyes someone was immediately there to force her to open them. Strong, clammy hands wrapped around her face and pried her eyes open despite her every effort to keep them closed. She had complied when the Rot threatened her with the same treatment as Tyland./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6f58ac27337136273a80beb2116bd5c9" "Do you see what loyalty to the wrong people gets you, Tyland?" Rhaenyra had yelled over his screams of agony from her stolen seat high above them. "Do you see what happens to traitors?"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Tyland would never see again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="4606829d60fc9a49f3fc497a7f7aa6a3"Alicent would never again be rid of the sound of bone breaking. She heard the snaps every time she closed her eyes. Every time she counted a new crack. Fifty-two, em style="box-sizing: border-box;"snap,/em fifty-three, em style="box-sizing: border-box;"snap,/em fifty-/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7e186024f58ba3d033044d1aeb7cadb2"Her mind wandered. Backwards. To the pleasant, blessed past./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bfcb672ca7e409ff56d0275d9cd6c2be"She watched herself carry Helaena to the bed they slept in. Helaena had been fuzzy all day, and Alicent was at her wits end. She decided to try to calm her down by reading her a story. Finding that the books she usually read was nowhere to be found she'd have to make up a story on the spot. The squealing babe in her arms had her fingers so tightly wrapped in Alicent's auburn curls she struggled to free the little hands as she tried to sit down./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="20d2ce5fddb29a1acda855a0c7a69e12"Helaena had finally started talking. Most of the time she just babbled happily, she repeated what was said and laughed often. When she started to form her own sentences Alicent realized she could listen to her voice for the rest of her life. Her laugh was like tiny silver bells, it was the kind of laugh that bubbled over, and suddenly her little Helaena was wheezing on the floor, trying to control her breathing./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="29c686167e46fc83d35a170309438b57" "Mother?" Helaena asked when Alicent placed her daughter down on the bed beside / "Yes, my dearest?" Alicent replied and caressed her daughter's hair with a slender hand. Helaena's face changed. It changed so quickly that Alicent lost her footing and her head collided with the stone wall behind her. Her daughters face had changed into her own. Gaunt, sallow, and full of grief. Her mouth had opened, and she / "You have to keep counting!" The voice was Helaena's but warped almost beyond recognition./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5358a68fa076ba6443a7356d51e3030e"Alicent opened her eyes. The darkness was never ending. She was completely alone. She had been alone for so long she forgot what felt like to speak. She had no idea how long she had been in the cell, but it must have been weeks. The food had stopped coming several days ago and her stomach ached for the stale bread she had been served before. Tyland's screams had stopped too, and the smell of fresh blood and urine again filled the halls. Alicent tried not to gag as the putrid smell of iron forced its way up her nose. Everything was quiet. Except the rats. They scurried away from their corners and because they were used to her presence, they kept coming closer. If she fell asleep, she was sure they would start nibbling at her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e5deaf550bd84d62f0af7c229ea7d05c"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-four./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6c60c5023cfd7589c20313a05ff276cb"Alicent kept counting. When she ran out of cracks, she started all over again. She counted the holes in the mortar, she counted the specks of dried blood on the floor and the rats. And soon, she too started clawing at the walls. She needed air, she needed food and she needed to get out. She panicked a day later and tore her green dress to shreds. Clawing at her own skin desperate to stop feeling, desperate for everything to just- Stop. She clawed at herself until she felt nothing but pain, and when sleep came for her, she welcomed it, half hoping to never wake again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1819c013da1fd969c1f72d6525a7afc9" "Get up!" A kick. em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Crack./em One of her ribs broke. She was no longer entirely sure that the crack came from her ribs, she thought she heard something in her mind crack too but-br / "Now!" He was here. She could smell his rotten breath near her face. She did not have time to move before she was dragged up off the floor by her hair. The tension on her scalp made her eyes water and the tried to claw at his hands to make him let go. Yet he only tightened his grip and / "The Queen needs a word"./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="f65f5b1faea308126e7831f4d62cfb29"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-five./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="62e71251d089e887869384f9887e5cc8"Alicent was dragged to the throne room. She could not stand on her own anymore. She was too weak to even lift her head properly. She just looked at the armored feet she was dragged past, and tried to ask for help, to give even she smallest, desperate signal. No help would ever come./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="fdb77a8757587c75c9be41f112b4d1b8"The Rot finally let go of her arm and her hair with it when he reached the stairs. She tried to brace herself when her shoulder hit the stony steps of the dais, but she couldn't move fast enough. Alicent looked up and found her stepdaughter's violet eyes already staring down at her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5f1c8efa314f50634c5b275c50fb2dbc" "Good of you to join us, Alicent" Rhaenyra said and tapped her fingers on the steel blade protruding up next to her hand./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="cac9727f554da48352250ac24b3eef45"So many years had passed since they had read together in the gardens. They had almost been friends once, before she gave birth to a son. Alicent wanted to scream. She wanted to force Rhaenyra's face down onto the blades and cackle as she bled to death. She did nothing./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e9750c465007b53df1eac5a039bc6ea1"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-six./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="315c362b388345037c6308c6096d16cd"Again, she was chained at the neck. Again, the crude steel was placed around her throat and fastened to the cuffs around her wrists. She was no threat. They all knew it. She had given up fighting a long time ago. Still, she was chained. Alicent knew it was a play for power. Rhaenyra wanted her to feel powerless and be completely at her mercy./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="fe1dae76c185069fa9dd8a624edda169" "The Tower glows green, your Grace" a voice said somewhere behind her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7d8699919d926fa6475eb2206effc32e"The voice was not speaking to her, Alicent had no more allies in the Keep. They were all dead or dying./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="204b059b3d568ff02ff0e519368e7162" "It does not matter. Daeron is dead. Aegon is dead. No one is coming for her, or us." Rhaenyra said and Alicent could feel her eyes on her neck./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8668acea5b9ceb798dd10df4a2517ba3"It did matter. The Hightower glowed green. There was still hope. The banners would come. The Hightower would only stop glowing for one reason, if Alicent died. She simply refused, if Aegon had somehow escaped, if he was still alive, he would know what the light meant. Aemond would too. Alicent had last heard of him wreaking havoc in the Riverlands looking for Daemon. She hoped he managed to find him. Daemon was to die. For everything and everyone he had ruined./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6bbc3a97267df57f4134fd8abb380df0"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-seven./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="b51856e45adeaf76c0ebb974497db1ce" "Helaena-" Alicent's voice was weak, her throat was raw, and she tried to / "She is not doing so good, is she, Commander?" Rhaenyra replied. Alicent kept her eyes on the floor. She feared she would scream if she looked at her and she had to keep Helaena alive. If she resisted Helaena's life would be forfeit. Aemond was coming for them. He had to come for / "She did not like her gift," the Commander laughed. The Rot lived up to his name. Alicent could feel the air fester around her, the heavy weight of it pushing her down to the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /What had she done to Helaena?br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She did not ask, there was no doubt in her mind that Rhaenyra would tell her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="802198769d5107214adfe12cd91822d5"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-eight./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6ebac84305210d13f7f8cc67d8bb465b"For the first time since her capture Alicent cried. She was back in her cell, the darkness now a welcome break from the crude light of the throne room. She had crawled over to the wall and started counting again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3d02fd860a1ce43af8a297cc688d44b4"Rhaenyra had delivered Maelor's severed head to Helaena that very morning. Alicent's youngest grandson had been torn to pieces in Flea Bottom, and then she had sent for the head to be brought to his mother. Alicent did not dare to think about that soft head of pale blond hair. The eyes that no longer saw, the tiny fingers that no longer would wrap around her finger./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="faf313c0928caddfa60d531b18cdf72e"Alicent grew angry. She could feel her face heating and she pounded at the walls. The still unrelenting walls. She could hear the cracks now, steadily creeping into her brain and cracking her apart. Piece by piece./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1a137112b63da2c6a2b1b42b94a7466b"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Fifty-nine./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="10c7b463e92cba707d0a1b3bedccf652" "Mother?" Aemond's voice rang out from behind her. The sheer desperation in it made her turn. She sighed when she saw him, covered in soot and style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Again?" She asked raising a brow at him. "How many times do I need to tell you-"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "They gave me a pig!" Aemond screamed. His voice cracked and he reached his arm out to style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "They said they found a dragon for me, but-"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Your obsession with those beasts goes beyond understanding!" Alicent broke him off. She was terrified. If he got hurt, if something happened to him, she did not know what she would do./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="97feea05b4d445940b237e520804f0d4"And yet, she had promised him a dragon. She had sat down with him and promised him he would have a dragon when he was older. She knew he would have one. She could feel it with every fiber of her style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "He'll have to close an eye" Helaena's dreamy voice cut through the air./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8d00ccf3b13577101518a146517bfa91"He had. A year later, Aemond had lost an eye, but he claimed Vhagar. His maiming had had no consequences for Rhaenyra's bastards, except a broken nose. Alicent knew right then and there that Rhaenyra's needs and wants would always be placed highest in her husband's mind, along with the blatant lies she told. Alicent had fought Viserys because of it, again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="431f577cff34e1fe6879bf5ab2ac9ec4"Hands closed around her face and her head was ripped to the side. Alicent style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Mother, you have to keep counting!" Aemond's sapphire eye dug its way into her brain. Blood was leaking from the socket and when she reached out to wipe it away, he was gone./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c90acf69339ec417df164083ad543890"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Sixty./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="0185b47e1a7f3f40be5d6cd56e4ecc56"Alicent was back in the throne room. Surrounded by people. Her Queensguard standing watch around her and her father to her style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Daemon did this! They said as much!" Otto Hightower style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Have every rat catcher in the city hanged. And let the one in the dungeons be tortured to such an extent that he confesses everything!"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c96945dd0afd83c25531036318f55f72"Alicent whirled. And there he was. Her eldest son. His face was sallow and pale. His eyes hard as stone. His own son was dead at the hands of his uncle. His wife was mad with grief, and he could not keep from drinking. When he didn't drink, he raged. Alicent's heart broke for him./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="089ddb6a03b8a4f304881918f47671c8"The next morning twenty-three rat catchers had met the hangman's noose. Aegon watched them all die. He stood in front of them and smiled as they struggled. He only turned away when their necks broke./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6ad473a543b7c66ca9fea5e875e8262a"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Snap./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="39b2526b4cce96df431e012db7a03c71"Alicent couldn't sleep. She kept turning over in bed. She needed to see Helaena. Now. She dressed in a hurry and aimed for the door. She walked up the stairs to the Tower of the Hand ten minutes later placing a hand on Helaena's door begging her daughter to let her in. It took half an hour to make her listen./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="dc0867b0661d7cfce90183e72e063465"Alicent stopped when she saw the floor. Piles and piles of long blonde hair littered the crude slabs of stone, Helaena had ripped it out at the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She was shaking, clawing at her lower stomach and style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "I did this! I did all of this! My poor children-"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Alicent moved across the floor and wrapped her arms around her daughter trying to make her understand that Daemon had done this. Only style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "My dearest, sweetest love-" her voice broke as Helaena stopped struggling and stilled. Alicent's arms wrapped around her knees again and she shook from the cold. She had stopped trying to keep herself warm. It did not matter; the cold did not matter./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="fde88d80f313ef0bf05494b9e99f558b"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Sixty-one./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="b82985b5c55864c434d0c06d37c16821" "Did you find them?" Rhaenyra's demanding voice broke the silence. Alicent moved her hands slowly, the cuffs on her wrists clanked together and the sound made her teeth style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Both dead."br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Who was dead? Alicent lifted her eyes and looked at Rhaenyra. Her mask of utter surety had style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Prince Daemon?" She asked, eyeing Alicent. She quickly looked tot he floor and the ever growing puddle of style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Dead"./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="57e92cc8f65e067b683e818fe4b6ecd1"Alicent did not believe it. Daemon was finally dead. She snarled. She had to keep protecting Helaena until Aemond came for them. Be quiet. No not react. Do not speak- Her voice betrayed style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "Aemond will kill you all for this, for everything you have done to my family. You and your bastards are next!" Alicent's voice grew stronger with every word. By the end she was shouting. She rose to her feet. She refused to sit a moment longer./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="51fd6d218d7a7ad5d9fc0a92fa188732" "He is dead!" Rhaenyra spat and flung her arm forward. Alicent jolted as soft leather collided with her face. Her sons eye patch landed at her feet. She extended a shaking hand and picked it up. The jagged hole in the middle of it made her stomach turn. The leather was slick with blood, it coated her fingers. Think crimson drops ran down her wrist, and she heaved. A sword or a dagger must have been shoved through his blind eye. Alicent sank to the floor and tried to stay alive, she tried her best to keep her mind from breaking./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="19d237b87a918a34c121e675413b714a"The leather still smelled like him. It still held the shape of his face even with the hole in it. Alicent clenched her fingers around it. They would have to kill her to take it from her. She refused to let it go. She would keep it is a reminder, a string to keep her tied to the world as her family crumbled to dust around her. She would not give up. Not yet./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="aedf444d0bf06adacedae14f6076b70c"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Sixty-two,/em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="7f19a8f47af76adccf7753d70f044424"When the Rot told her of Helaena's fate, Alicent stopped counting. She stopped thinking, feeling and breathing. The small light she had nursed inside her chest for the past moons flickered when she sank to the floor and wept. And to the south-west, all the ravens flew from the Hightower. It was an omen the small folk said. A bad one. They all watched with horror painted on their faces, they all looked on as the beacon on the Hightower flickered and went out. The Queen was dead./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="84d07c9acebaacb1d8f29741651cf2ea"The Rot smiled as he saw the heap on the floor the next morning. He stood outside the cell and waited for the bitch to move. She did not. He stared for a bit longer and whistled as he walked to Tyland Lannister's cell. If anything would wake her up it was his /He broke Tyland's left arm and hummed as his screams of pain reverberated off the walls. Still no sound or movement came from Alicent's cell. Very well then. She could rot in peace. He went to tell the Queen, still whistling his tune./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e10cb064fa25f2c72ec386cb1115c061"To the North things were different. Aegon Targaryen, Second of His Name was /A raven had arrived for him this morning. Telling him that the Beacon had finally gone out. He nearly beheaded the man who read him the style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "We leave now!"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3089567aa29557fd92d7baa975031787"Sunfyre was too wounded to fly for long, so he had to stop frequently but he had managed. Rhaenyra had fled. The Dragonpit was a ruin, and all his siblings were dead. Aegon snarled to the wind and flew east. She would never be safe again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3f2be2aee94749ba631361abc081d478"Alicent stirred. The cold floor slowly nursing her rising fever. She was going to die down here. Alone and forgotten. She had no idea how many moons had passed. She only knew the cell, the smell of blood and the squeaking of rats. They had grown brazen now, nipping at her feet. She kept staring at the leather in her hand. Carefully dragging her finger over the hole in it silently wishing everything was a lie. Wishing it to be a new kind of torture. She knew it wasn't./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="36528edaf6bee36675cf3444294f37f1"Aemond was dead. Helaena and Daeron were dead. Aegon was dead./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="18ec507d499d8ad8c3d508d98d8d003c"First, The Realm's Delight had beheaded her father for treason, Alicent had refused to obey the command to watch. She would never forget the sound of the axe. The Commander had to swing it on her father's neck three times. Three times before Otto Hightower stopped breathing. Then Rhaenyra had stated that she had decided to spare her because Viserys had loved her. Alicent knew she was lying; she wasn't sparing her. She was waiting her out. Waiting for her to beg for death./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="f9a86504cd3b9394da1ce742ec3852aa"Her father's head had been tossed in a corner of her cell during the night. When she woke up the next morning the first thing she saw was Otto Hightower's staring eyes. She had ripped off a sleeve to cover his face. A week later the rot had set in, and the putrid smell of decaying flesh now masked the smell of her own terror. She had failed everyone. Her entire family was dead./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3341f1af86b240f754f179e97d0049ce"Alicent looked up to the ceiling, her nostrils flared, and she cursed. She would not be broken by torture. If she was to die of starvation or a different kind of abuse, she welcomed it. She was so tired; her heart was empty and the cracks closed in on her still./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ec0e20a7e0252bd8af39c4218b90d36e"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Ten./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c998bd675e9aa332d5b2a2559c87a693"A while later she heard the cracking of exploding stone and the sounds of several dragons roaring in unison. Roaring in pain and desperation. She hoped it was Syrax. She hoped the beast plummeted to the ground with her rider. Alicent sank back to the floor, placing her cheek on the least bloody part of the stone and closed her eyes. Her dreams filled with small folk screaming as the flesh melted off their bones and engulfed them in flames./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="d639649a53d01a73c084c17ab0d3177a"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Nine./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="160e2062149aff7d35497e875abeb955"Aegon's pale head reached her chin now. He had grown so quickly. She placed her arms around her son and hugged him tightly. Breathing in the smell of him. Wishing he would stay her little boy style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She knew the danger that faced him. She had to make sure he got the throne. He needed the throne. That was the only way he would be safe from em style="box-sizing: border-box;"her./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="f8c4fb0771f4c9933ece5d60449c5660"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Eight./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="965dc1d2b39a72ff311419b1cccfa178" "Mother?"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="4ea253197e8ee9f38a22b5303d70e99d"Alicent didn't listen. She didn't care. She could only see the darkness. She only saw the slight shine through one of the cracks in the door. The dull light shone in on the last few scraps of green silk on her arms. She had started to hate the color itself. It made her sick to her stomach. She reached her arms out and wrapped them around her knees, trying to keep the creeping panic at style="box-sizing: border-box;" /She could feel her heart slowing down, and then panic again. Her heart was giving out. It was time. Mother save her./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e2e5dc7036e51b9845cdacc93324b4c7"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Seven./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="79bd3ecdfc196271314482a936fc5794"Alicent was lifted off the floor and carried out of the Black Cells. Carried. Not dragged. She did not recognize the hands holding her. She did not care./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="79b46b27d45e583d3480af5a69cf9548"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Six./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="34670025b864f0772b2540cb89c8e70f"She sat still as warm water was poured over her and gentle hands scrubbed at her skin. A voice spoke soothing words to her, kept telling her to stay alive. Alicent did not reply and kept her eyes on the floor. She had been helped out of her rags. The green dress was just a pile of fabric now, torn, ripped and cracked. Just like style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Strips of linen were carefully wrapped around her arms and fingers, the dirt finally thrown out with the murky bath water./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="dfa886ede7f03fe9b88a18ca3e6c81ee" "Be still, my Queen"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="ef8a3c32a6a5652c4673091ceaca47bf"Alicent squirmed. If the Queen found out-/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="2f83b0a78ee0730dbf1d23938fd98bca"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Five./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8ea0d707d54e4543b185df416e900056" "Mother?"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="f4b64ead8802362d29078e71b61d6285"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Four./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="cf47e15bacf974a127ab1342dbb02e9a"The voice. She knew the voice. She sat in a chair next to her own fireplace when her son knelt in front of her. It caused him pain, she could see it on his face. Half his body was burned and had healed wrong. The jagged welts of flesh made him look like his uncle. She tried to keep her eyes open. Aegon. It was a trick, she knew Aegon to be dead. She had finally lost her mind. Alicent laughed./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bab22fac44b67c66f19955d944d4878a"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Three./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5e0a2e5a4e4bf1a42e20e5f07e291e73"Alicent cried. Tears flowed down her cheeks as the grief set in. She had lost all her children. Everyone was dead. She was all alone./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="fdb02803abc46fba06ce1cc96d6399c5"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Two./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="448b378268bd4a2d1761e68792002dce"Arms wrapped around her. Strong arms. She nestled her head into Aegon's neck and cried. He kept holding her as her shivering sobs shook her body. The smell-/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="2f23ca3e13548e56e94e666a6383fd7b" "You came for me?"br style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "I said I would come for you, mother," he whispered into her hair as her mind slowly style="box-sizing: border-box;" / "I am never leaving you again."br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /He had come for her. He was here./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="900019fa233e608091ba641d50d69b81"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"One./em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1726ef965d9b01e7d64889df0f3f1707"Alicent Hightower never spoke or smiled again. She never grinned and she never laughed. She was clad in black for the rest of her style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The weight she lost never returned, and she did not look anyone in the eye. She was but a shadow, a sad broken shadow haunting the halls of the Keep. She had begun her healing in the small at first. Walking the Keep during the day. Forcing herself to walk down to the Black Cells to make sure she got out. She absentmindedly ran her finger over one of the cracks in the wall. She got out. She was free./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="dcdce1dbfe35692743f423b7329833f6"She didn't have to count anymore. She got out./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="00e6b416a754858d97d0406c2de8d724"Alicent never cried again, not even when the stranger came and claimed King Aegon II Targaryen two years style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Her last living granddaughter Jaehaera was married off to the Usurpers child and the Blood of the Dragon lived style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Her granddaughter took care of her from day to day, Jaehaera refused to have anyone else tending to her grandmother. New faces scared her. Unfamiliar voices made her flinch. The horrors haunting her at night made her erratic./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="707acf8d3c062afac0550152f7300254"It did not matter. It did not matter that Jaehaera was not Helaena. The moment she walked through the doors to Alicent's tower all she could see was her daughter. Helaena's smile, Helaena's hair and Helaena's voice./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="6fed348df6a94cc2cad822770064c6ee"When Jaehaera had children of her own she only saw her dead sons. Alicent had almost spoken when she realized the small bundles placed in her arms were twin boys./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="a42b235aea61ee762399c50114a24c95"She had named them Aegon and Aemond. Alicent stopped living in the same world as them. She kept retreating into herself and she kept reliving her precious memories. She did not resist when the winter fever came for her. She did not resist when her lungs gave out, and she did not fear when the last breath escaped style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The Dowager Queen, Alicent Hightower was found the next morning. Her body was prepared for the funeral by the Silent Sisters and taken to the Sept. Jaehaera had her ashes interred with that of her son and daughter, so that they would enter the next life together. Queen Jaehaera Targaryen then closed off the western tower, her grandmothers lingering fears and panic had made the tower unbearable to enter. It would never be used again./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="2ab08f6a77c0f996e1dd88680088cffe"A ghost story began to spread through the Red Keep twenty years after Alicent's death. It was only whispered at first, in the dark corners of the servant's hallway. The whispers said to keep away from the Tower of the Hand when the moon was full. There was a wailing lady there they said. Clad in a ripped green dress./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3409874a157cb1c55218d0f8f9697366"The years passed. The century turned and the wailing lady never left./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c38b4363eb3a5cd115c2044339fe212e"When Aerys Targaryen walked his sister Rhaella through the Keep when they were children the maids had told her to stay away from the east tower. When she asked why, the Prince had told her it was haunted. Some said it was the old Hightower Queen, still looking for her dead children. Rhaella had soon understood that if she sat down at the bottom of the stairs at precisely the right time the old Queens dress would brush her arm when she floated up the stairs. Rhaella was filled with such sadness and anger that she never walked up the stairs again, and with the passing of the years the tower fell into disrepair. Cobwebs streamed from the ceilings and all kinds of rodents took up residence in the stairwell. The myth of the wailing queen was soon forgotten, and life returned to normal, still, the tower's eerie feeling persisted, and no one ever went near it if it could be avoided./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e9221ad38e5bb0a01d9e9e933e1bda4c"The Hightower Queen still haunts the Red Keep to this day when the moon is high in the sky. If you pay attention, you will see her. She walks from the Black Cells and up every level until she reaches the east tower. The maids have seen her walk through the solid wall and back out a minute later, then she simply continues her walk back down to the lower levels and disappears in the middle of the third black cell on the right, her shape flickers out of existence near an old skull left in one of the corners, partially covered by a piece of tattered green /The Hightower Queen is still looking for her children, and she will not rest or know peace until she finds them. Out west, it is said that when the Queen haunts the tower, the Beacon on the Hightower flickers a sorrowful green and the now murky waters of the Gods Eye boil./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" /p