"Second." Rhaenys seemed not to notice the queen's breakdown. Still calm, she continued laying out her terms.
"I want the younger generation to learn to live together, to understand what family, responsibility, and honor mean."
Her gaze settled on the indifferent figure among the Greens.
"I ask that Prince Aegon remain on Tidepool Island, serving as a page to my husband, Lord Corlys, for two years."
"Aegon will grow up alongside Jae and Lucerys, so they can understand one another and learn to respect each other."
"That way, there will be no more cruel words or bloodshed in the future..."
GOOGLE SEARCH TWKAN
Prince Aegon, who had been hiding behind the crowd and secretly congratulating himself that the trouble seemed to have passed him by for now, heard this and instantly went pale.
Everything that had erupted in the hall tonight: accusations, arguments, bloodshed, oaths, and a betrothal.
Even Aegon, slow as he was, understood the danger.
The Blacks and the Greens were already at each other's throats. If something happened in the future, he could be held hostage...
"No! I don't want to! Father! Mother! Grandfather!"
Aegon shrieked like a cat with its tail stepped on, completely losing the dignity expected of an eldest son.
"They'll kill me!"
"They'll take the chance to murder me!"
"I won't go! Not even if I die!"
"Silence, Aegon! Don't talk nonsense." Viserys scolded him, though his brow furrowed as well.
This demand was clearly too much.
"No! Viserys! How can you be so biased, so heartless!" Queen Alicent cried out, as if the last straw had broken her. "I've already lost one daughter!"
"Are you going to take my eldest son from me too, and send him into their hands?!"
"Are you even a father?!"
Consumed by grief and fury, the queen had lost all reason.
Without warning, she shoved away the maid supporting her and, arms outstretched, rushed at Rhaenyra like a moth flying into a flame!
She would strangle this woman!
This woman who had threatened to gouge out her second son's eye, taken her daughter from her, wanted to take her eldest son too, and now acted as though she were mercifully granting her a favor!
"Alicent!!" Viserys rose in shock and fury.
Everyone was stunned by the queen's sudden, utterly undignified outburst.
Rhaenyra reacted quickly. Just as Alicent reached her, her hands about to close around Rhaenyra's throat, she raised her own and seized Alicent's wrists.
The two women, once the closest of friends and now bitter enemies, stood face-to-face, close enough to hear each other breathe, their eyes full of venom.
"Have you had enough, Alicent?" Rhaenyra gritted out, gripping the trembling wrists in her hands.
"Me?! I'm the one who's gone too far?!" Tears and fury mingled on Alicent's face as she spoke through her heartbreak.
"My whole life! I've spent it trying to live up to everyone's expectations of me!"
"Playing the obedient, dutiful daughter! Playing the virtuous, sensible queen!"
"Always defending this so-called stability of the realm, family harmony, and those damned laws and traditions!"
She leaned closer, nearly touching Rhaenyra's nose. Her eyes were filled with a bone-deep hatred. "And you, Rhaenyra Targaryen!
"You've always done whatever you pleased, acting with total abandon!"
"You disregard tradition! You trample the laws of the realm!"
"You make all of Westeros pay for your selfishness!"
"Yet you always put on the face of someone persecuted and wronged!"
"Let her go, Alicent!" Viserys stumbled down from the throne.
But Alicent's words poured out like a dam breaking, unstoppable now.
"Responsibility?! Sacrifice?! Family?!"
"All those pretty words you use to lecture others—have you ever lived up to them yourself?!"
"All your responsibility and sacrifice have ever served is your own desires!"
"You hide behind your father's protection, enjoying every privilege, yet never paying the price that comes with them!"
"And now you've taken my Helaena from me, and you want to take my Aegon too!"
"And even after all that, you put on that compassionate, merciful face, as if you're granting me forgiveness!"
"Rhaenyra... is your heart made of iron?!"
Rhaenyra held tight to Alicent's wrists, facing these accusations, a mixture of truth and prejudice.
At last, a trace of shame and pain she could not hide crossed her pale face.
It was the agony of having her disguise ripped away, exposing what was ugly underneath.
She looked at the beautiful face before her, once so close to her own, with whom she had shared countless girlish secrets, now twisted by hatred and tears.
A jumble of resentment and an emotion she was unwilling to admit even to herself surged through her.
She shoved Alicent back so hard that she staggered.
"Put away that false performance of yours, Alicent Hightower!"
She shook her head, tears in her eyes. "You're exhausted too, aren't you?"
"Beneath that mask of so-called righteousness and putting the greater good first?"
"You've always, always looked at me with that judgmental, motherly gaze!"
"But I only have one mother, and that's Emma Arryn..."
"You accuse me of refusing to follow the path tradition sets out for a good woman and princess!"
"Your Hightower family has been quietly fanning the flames of those rumors about my bastards all along..."
"Do you think I don't know?!"
She drew a deep breath, her chest heaving. "Now that we've come this far, are your hands any cleaner than mine?"
"Are you really any better than me?"
The maids hurried forward and held Alicent up. She could barely stand, still trembling with anger and grief.
"Alicent..." Viserys put a hand on his wife's slender shoulder.
He wanted to say something, to comfort her or defend himself, but every word seemed feeble in that moment.
Alicent looked up at him, eyes brimming with tears, and slowly shook her head.
Her voice was soft, yet it pained Viserys more than any shout could have:
"I hate you, Viserys..."
"I hate how biased you are."
"I hate how... useless you are."
King Viserys staggered as if struck by lightning.
Perhaps... perhaps marrying Alicent had been a mistake from the very beginning.
He had yearned for her youth, beauty, and gentle comfort, but had turned his daughter's closest friend into his wife, making the two young women into sworn enemies...
"Take the queen..." He turned away, unable to bear the despair in his wife's eyes, and waved helplessly. "Take her to rest. Make sure she's well cared for."
The maids took Queen Alicent away. She no longer resisted, as though her soul had been drained from her, and they left the hall in silence.
Viserys stood there, dejected, watching the direction in which his wife had disappeared. A fierce wave of self-loathing surged through him.
He hated his own indecisiveness, hated his inability to quell the conflict, hated being a king pushed and forced into making decisions.
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