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“Aegon.”
His name. A small whisper, soft and sweet as if it was a lullaby for babes and infants made by their mothers. As if whispered by a temptress. It was warm to his ears, wonderful. And it startled him, also.
“Gods! Helaena you cannot keep-” But the King only sighed, the look of his wife silencing him. Somehow. She had said nothing, done nothing besides look at him and he was drawn to silence as if he had known that was what she desired of him in this very moment.
“I… What,” Aegon swallowed. As if asking her what was wrong was a hard thing to ask. “What is it?” The hour was late, it was dark out. The middle of the night and he was fast asleep before he had been woken by Helaena, Helaena who seemed not to care that he needed sleep or wanted sleep. Who seemed not to care about anything yet he could tell she had been woken by something and now she sought to rob him, as she was robbed.
“They will kill you. The servants,” Helaena said, saddened by this yet she said it as fact. Not a comment or a threat or even a question. It was simply a fact.
“I do not…”
“Do not trust them,” The Queen whispered. A secret. A terrible, dark secret. One he should not know and yet now… now he did. “Why are you holding a candle,” He questioned, his voice suddenly scared. Like a little boy, not a King.
Helaena blinked, confused. The candle was burning fast, quickly. More fast than a candle should perhaps. “Helaena-” Aegon blinked and suddenly her… hand was on fire? The Queen cried out, shaking her hand as if it would make the flames die out yet the fire simply rose further on her body. Aegon jumped out of his bed. Scared now, fully. “What in the seven-? Help! Someone help!” He cried out.
A guard rushed into his chambers; His sword out the scabbard, ready to defend Aegon. “What is it, your grace?”
Next His grace knew: Helaena was not there. “I… fuck. N-Nothing.” He swallowed; harder this time. Embarrassed, ashamed. Helaena was dead, and Helaena had been dead. And he saw her still, and she would not go away. She would not leave him fucking alone.
“Your Grace,” The guard bowed, leaving him alone. Leaving him all alone with Helaena’s words ringing into and out his ears.
Trust no one.
**
The small council meeting was a blur. He could not recall a single thing said by his advisers, or himself even if he wanted to. Nothing accept… what he had questioned about the wine. His cupbearer came to his side and filled up his goblet. His eyebrows perked up as he held the goblet, sloshing the liquid in it. “What was this,” His Grace asked, looking at the red wine as if he hadn’t a clue what it was.
“W…Wine, your grace?” The cupbearer said, his tone confused.
“Hm.” Aegon put the goblet down.
He did not drink the wine, not even after he saw the other lords drink.
**
“You sit alone when they plot. They will kill you when you are alone as well.”
Helaena waited outside the small council chamber for Aegon, just standing there. Her arms folded behind her back. Aegon flinched back, hesitantly. He would show no sign of fear, not when his Kingsguard was right behind him. And he walked on, ignoring her. Yet she felt her eyes on him, watching him as he walked. “They did not poison you with that goblet of wine, you know. They would be fools, and I do not think anyone in that council would want you dead,” Her voice was loud, loud enough so that he heard; So that he rolled his eyes.
“No one besides yourself.”
Aegon halted. He stopped as if that was to be the most absurd thing he heard all day, mayhaps even all his life. “What?” He grew uncomfortable suddenly— in his position. His voice, loud enough that it made the maids in the halls pause. “Is something the matter, your grace,” a member of his kingsguard asked.
“…No,” Aegon replied before he moved on, and Helaena disappeared.
**
“I do not know what to do,” He called out. He wanted Helaena, here. Back. With him. She would tell him when he would die, she had told him now but she never said by who and what time.
The king had only grown paranoid in days since their last conversation in the halls. He fired servants, he never sat alone. He never ate or drank without hesitation. He could not even sleep without fear. A part of him was hungry, desperate for Helaena.
But she did not wish to come to him, no matter how much he called out.
“Aegon,” Alicent sighed. exasperated. “There is nothing you can do, You must simply rule. You have won the war, and it is you who is triumphant.”
“Mother-”
“The people look to you now as they once did Rhaenyra and before her, your father. You must… must rule. And rule as well as you can.” She said, sweetly. Her hand caressing his face, his scars. She kissed his forehead and he was reminded that he loved her, that she was his mother and that she would cause him no harm.
Aegon watched her walk away and pour two goblets of wine, her back his only view of her now. He played with his fingers and nodded his head as if to reassure himself all was well. Everything would be well, his mother was here. And she loved him...
Alicent played the goblet in front of him and sat aside him. Her eyes, glassy and filled with tears as if she were about to cry. And then she was crying. Aegon wanted to ask what was wrong and he looked at her. His mouth moved, once. Twice. No words escaped him.
“It is nothing.” She sniffled and wiped her tears. Drinking the wine. He was not hesitant this time. He drank. With his mother he felt peace, he felt safe and loved. The war was over, and no one would harm him.
**
“Aegon,” Alicent whispered. Holding a lamp as she walked toward him slowly. She whispered as if she were a timid lamb. Scared and uncomfortable, afraid in the chambers of the fox.
“Aegon.”
Louder this time. She walked up to his bed, already her face ridden with tears before she could confirm or deny whether the bad thing she had done was true or not. She placed her hand to his heart,
It was not beating.
And automatically the Queen dowager broke down in tears, she dropped the lamp softly upon the ground and covered her mouth. The poison was slow acting, everything she was told had been true. Aegon would die in his sleep, and he would go in no pain. None at all.
She wiped her tears quickly, trying to wipe them away before more came unbidden. She kissed his forehead and held his hand.
“I’m sorry,” She whispered.