Shadows of the heart, like ravens

Another silence fell.

Viserys finally sighed and reached out to take Alicent's hand.

Her hand was soft and warm, with the weakness peculiar to a woman recovering from childbirth, yet it reassured him.

"You're right."

His voice was low. "It's just... I can't swallow this insult."

Alicent said nothing, merely squeezing his hand gently in return.

For something else entirely was on her mind.

Aegon went to sleep in Rhaenyra's room again today.

The thought circled in Alicent's mind like a raven that refused to land.

Ever since Aegon's birth-even as recently as two years ago, after they returned from the hunt in the Kingswood-she had naively believed that the siblings' closeness was a good thing.

After all, Rhaenyra was the girl she had helped raise, her dearest friend-at least, she once had been.

Perhaps Aegon could become a bridge between them, mending the fractures that had formed after she married Viserys.

Gradually, however, she discovered that she was not nearly so generous. Whenever she saw Aegon in Rhaenyra's arms, it hurt, as though Rhaenyra had stolen her treasure.

The year Helaena was born, she took her daughter to Rhaenyra, wanting her to meet her little sister.

Rhaenyra did look at her, hold her, and smile. But that smile was polite and distant, entirely unlike the smile she gave Aegon.

Back then, Alicent had told herself, It's all right. With Helaena here, Aegon will have a new playmate. He'll come back to me.

And Aegon was very good to Helaena, holding her, kissing her, making her laugh.

Then-

Then he went right back to seeking out Rhaenyra, sometimes even taking Helaena along in his arms!

Before Aemond's birth, Alicent told herself again, This time it's a boy. Surely Aegon will prefer a little brother. He'll want to stay where his brother is.

Today, Aegon had come to see Aemond. He took one look, said, "My little brother's born," and ran off to Rhaenyra again.

The second son she had so eagerly awaited did not even hold as much appeal for Aegon as Helaena did.

Aegon, her first boy, her most cherished treasure.

Now, at last, she understood how Rhaenyra must have felt when she became involved with Rhaenyra's father, Viserys, less than a year after Rhaenyra's mother, Queen Aemma, died.

Alicent leaned against Viserys's shoulder, gazing at the fire as her thoughts drifted back two years once more.

Not long after their return from the Kingswood hunt, her father, Otto, had come to see her.

She was still pregnant with Helaena then, her belly already large and movement difficult.

Her father entered her chamber and went straight to the point without any pleasantries.

"Alicent," he said, his gray eyes burning with the ambition she knew so well, "have you heard about Aegon?"

"About what?" she asked, though she already had a fair idea of the answer.

"The white hart." Otto lowered his voice. "Your son, my grandson Aegon, encountered a white stag in the Kingswood. That is a Kingly Omen, a revelation from the gods. Aegon is the true king, the future ruler of Westeros."

Alicent said nothing.

She looked at her father, at that face so unchanged from her memories-

Five years earlier, that same face had told her in much the same tone, "King Viserys needs comfort now. His wife is dead, and so is the son he longed for. He is lonely. You should go keep him company."

She had believed him then. She had gone. Later, she became pregnant with Aegon.

"Rhaenyra is a woman," Otto continued, his voice growing more urgent. "A woman cannot inherit the Iron Throne. That is the precedent established by the Great Council. By insisting on naming her heir, Viserys defied tradition, law, and the will of the gods. Aegon is the rightful heir. He is-"

"We swore allegiance." Alicent interrupted him, her voice colder than Otto had expected.

Otto froze.

"On the very day Viserys named Rhaenyra his heir," Alicent said, staring into her father's eyes, "every one of us swore allegiance.

"You, me, every noble present. We swore before the Seven to recognize Rhaenyra as Viserys's heir.

"Now you want me to persuade Viserys to name Aegon instead? You want me to encourage my son to fight his sister for the throne?"

"Not fight for it-reclaim it!" Otto raised his voice as well. "Aegon is the eldest son. The throne should have been his all along! Rhaenyra was merely a placeholder, a temporary expedient! Now Aegon has been born, and the white hart has appeared. The gods have made their will clear-"

"Enough."

Alicent stood. Supporting her belly, she stared at her father, looking at him that way for the first time-not with a daughter's respect for her father, but with a mother's vigilance toward a threat.

"Father, what did you say when you sent me to Viserys's bed?"

Her voice was calm but cutting. "You said it was for our family, for the realm, to bring House Hightower closer to the heart of power.

"I believed you. I went. I did it. And what came of it? I lost Rhaenyra's friendship. People at court called me 'the king's mistress' behind my back.

"After Aegon was born, everyone began talking about the succession. Is that what you meant by 'for our family'?"

Otto opened his mouth to defend himself.

"Now," Alicent went on, giving him no chance, "you want me to use the same means to persuade Viserys to make Aegon his heir? You want me to push my beloved son into the maelstrom of power with my own hands, turn him and his sister into enemies, and plunge this family into civil war?"

"This isn't-"

"Isn't what? Civil war?" Alicent sneered. "Father, I came to King's Landing with you as a child. I've spent years at court. I've read histories and heard stories. I know what a struggle over the succession brings.

"Dragons will tear at one another, families will be ripped apart, and rivers of blood will flow through the realm. And you want my son to be the beginning of it all?"

Otto's expression shifted, but he quickly recovered. "You're making too much of this. Viserys is still young, the realm is stable, and we have several dragons-"

"The Old King had several dragons in his later years, too," Alicent interrupted. "Yet how many years did he spend settling the succession dispute? He convened the Great Council to establish an heir.

"How many people died during those years? How much blood was spilled? Father, you know better than I do."

Otto fell silent.

Alicent looked at him, at the father she had once admired and obeyed, the father she had believed did everything for her own good.

Suddenly, she realized that she hated him.

Not for sending her to Viserys's bed-she bore some responsibility for that herself. She had indeed been drawn to his royal status.

What she hated was that he now wanted to use her son in the same way.

"I refuse."

She spoke each word distinctly. "I will not persuade Viserys to change his heir.

"I will not let Aegon and Rhaenyra fight. Rhaenyra will be a good queen, and Aegon will be a good brother to her. That is all."

Otto stared at her, complicated emotions flickering in his gray eyes-

Disappointment, anger, and even a trace of... surprise?

Perhaps he had never expected his ever-obedient daughter to defy him like this.

"Alicent," he finally said, lowering his voice, "you don't understand. Even if you don't fight, others will.

"Even if Rhaenyra were Jaehaerys reborn, it would make no difference. She is a woman. Someone will always use that against her.

"Aegon is the king's eldest son. He is the one being deprived of his rights. Denying his claim to the Iron Throne is contempt for the gods and the laws of men. There will always be people who support him.

"By doing nothing, you merely surrender the initiative to others."

But that touched Alicent's sorest nerve.

The Old King, Jaehaerys, was the person she admired most. She had served as a personal attendant to him and his wife, Good Queen Alysanne, in their later years. Their every word and deed had profoundly influenced her, and she cherished their words as guiding principles.

And Rhaenyra was the dear friend she had helped raise. Alicent herself was a woman, and Aegon was her precious son.

Yet the man before her-the very culprit who had urged her into a union with someone she did not love and strained her friendship with Rhaenyra-now wanted to manipulate her just as he had before, urging her to coax her precious son into fighting his own sister.

"Then let others fight!" Alicent said. "My son will not become a pawn."

Otto looked at her for a long time, but in the end, he merely sighed.

"You'll regret this," he said, turning to leave.

That was the last time Alicent spoke calmly with her father.

A few months later, Otto overstepped so far on the matter of succession that Viserys dismissed him as Hand of the King ahead of the original story's timeline, replacing him with Lyonel Strong.

Some said it was because he had openly questioned Rhaenyra's position as heir at a meeting of the Small Council.

Some said it was because he had privately contacted nobles who supported Aegon, trying to build "public opinion."

Others said Viserys had finally tired of his meddling over the throne.

Alicent knew the truth-or at least part of it.

Viserys had complained to her, "Your father is becoming more and more outrageous.

"Whom I name as heir is my own affair. What right does he have to interfere?"

She had not defended her father, because she knew Viserys was right.

But she had never forgotten what her father said when he left King's Landing:

"You'll regret this."

At that thought, Alicent grew so angry she wanted to curse. "To hell with the Iron Throne! What kind of father are you? Damn that Kingswood hunt."

Would she? She did not know.

She only knew that whenever she watched Aegon run to Rhaenyra, whenever she saw her son laughing so happily in his sister's arms, a tangle of emotions rose within her-

Jealousy, loss, and a trace of... relief.

At least Aegon was happy.

At least the siblings had not become enemies.

At least, in this court full of schemes, they had each other.

That was enough, wasn't it?

But was she truly so "generous"? Her aching heart had long since given her the answer...

"Alicent?"

Viserys's voice brought her back to reality. Alicent blinked, realizing that she had been staring into the fire for far too long, and that her anger had inadvertently driven those words from her lips.

"What are you thinking about?" Viserys, who had also been lost in his own thoughts a moment earlier, had caught only something about the "Kingswood" and "hunting." Looking at his usually mild-tempered wife, he assumed she was changing the subject to comfort him.

Viserys thought his complaints had made his wife, who had given birth three times in four years, feel that he had been wronged. In comforting him, she had fallen into anger and distress herself.

As he asked, his hand quietly patted her shoulder, just as she had comforted him earlier.

"Nothing."

She shook her head, trying to smile. "I was just thinking... about what you said earlier."

Viserys sighed. Looking at Alicent, supposedly angry and distressed on his behalf, he felt guilty now and no longer dared to ask her to do anything for him.

Instead, he quietly poured himself another cup of mead. "Yes, it's all a tangled mess. Daemon, Corlys, the Triarchy, the Dornish... and those people who spend all day watching the succession to the Iron Throne."

He paused, remembering her mention of the Kingswood and hunting, then suddenly laughed-

His smile was somewhat bitter, but mostly helpless. "Do you know what I remembered today?

"How Rhaenyra and Aegon looked when they came back from the Kingswood hunt two years ago."

Alicent froze, clearly realizing that Viserys had heard her distracted outburst.

"Those two little rascals were filthy, covered in that great boar's blood, with the boar hauled along on an attendant's horse behind them."

Viserys shook his head with a chuckle. "That boar was several times Aegon's size, and his sister killed it with her own hands.

"I still remember how everyone in camp looked at them-

"Shock, admiration, and... awe."

He tipped his head back to drink, his laughter muffled by the cup. "My daughter and my son-one killed a boar herself, and the other rode a white hart. Meanwhile, their father hunted nothing but a black stag. What would you call that? The younger generation overtaking the old?"

As Alicent listened, the corners of her mouth rose despite herself.

She remembered that day-

When Rhaenyra and Aegon returned to camp, they were covered in blood, but their eyes shone astonishingly bright.

Holding Aegon, Rhaenyra told the nobles gathering around them, "Aegon and I are both fine. The blood is the boar's."

In her arms, Aegon wrapped his little hands around her neck and smiled at everyone.

His smile was innocent, utterly unlike that of a child who had just faced mortal danger.

The story of the white hart spread afterward through the attendants. Ser Harrold Westerling personally reported to Viserys that he had seen the white stag bow its head before Aegon, that it was a Kingly Omen, and that the prince was favored by the gods.

When Otto heard the news, his eyes shone frighteningly bright. Alicent knew what he was thinking-Wonderful. One more reason.

But she did not see it that way.

She could even picture it in her dreams: Aegon riding the white hart, glancing back at her.

That gaze did not belong to a one-year-old child. It was calm and lucid, as though saying, Don't worry. I know what I'm doing.

That was her son. That look frightened her, and it made her proud.

"Alicent?" Viserys spoke again. "Why are you staring into space again?"

Alicent returned to herself and found Viserys watching her, confusion on his face.

She hastily composed her expression and smiled. "Nothing. I was remembering that day. The boar, the white hart, and... all those astonished faces."

Viserys laughed heartily. "Yes! Those faces!

"That fellow Borros Baratheon opened his mouth wide enough to fit a fist inside, while Jason Lannister actually dropped to his knees-he thought the white hart might appear a second time so he could bask in some of its glory!"

Alicent laughed too. At first, her smile was merely polite, meant to ease her earlier embarrassment, but as she laughed, it became genuine.

She remembered Jason's foolish figure kneeling in the clearing and looking around, the disbelief on Borros's broad face, and the mingled awe and longing on Garlan Tyrell's young face.

She remembered Ser Harrold Westerling's solemn manner as he reported to Viserys, Lyonel Strong's thoughtful gaze, and...

Her father.

Her father had not been in camp that day. He had returned to King's Landing early and missed the white hart's appearance.

When he later heard the news, he wrote that very night to ask for details.

She kept her reply simple: "Aegon is unharmed. The white hart did indeed appear, but Rhaenyra was there as well."

She had deliberately added that last sentence.

To let him know that his "Kingly Omen" did not belong to Aegon alone.

Viserys's laughter echoed through the chamber. Clearly believing his joke had amused his wife, he looked rather pleased with himself.

He poured another cup of wine and raised it toward Alicent. "Come, a toast to our children.

"To Aegon, to Rhaenyra, to Helaena, and to newborn Aemond. And-to that great boar!"

Smiling, Alicent raised her own cup, which held warm water. She had given birth only a fortnight earlier, and the maester said that because the delivery had been premature, she could not drink wine for the rest of the month.

The two cups touched gently with a clear clink.

The flames danced in the hearth, illuminating their faces. Most of the anger had faded from Viserys's face, replaced by a wine-flushed glow and an easy smile. Alicent wore a smile, but lingering thoughts still clouded her eyes.

"I'll summon Lyonel tomorrow," Viserys said, his tone turning more serious. "Have him draft the orders for reinforcements.

"As for whom to send... let's send Earl Cameron Tarth first. He has old ties with House Velaryon, and Tarth's fleet happens to be nearby."

Alicent nodded. "All right."

"And one more thing," Viserys added after a pause. "Write Daemon a letter.

Tell him... tell him his brother is willing to help him, but if he ever dares crown himself again without my leave, I'll send my children on their dragons to take that crown off his head myself."

Alicent couldn't help laughing. "Would you really write that?"

"I would." Viserys nodded earnestly. "Then tell the raven to fly a little slower, so he has time to digest it."

They looked at each other and smiled. Their laughter echoed through the study, dispelling the heaviness that had hung over them.

Outside the window, the night was deep and dark. The waves of Blackwater Bay lapped gently against the city walls, and the faint light of a lighthouse flickered in the distance.

On the other side of the Red Keep, in Rhaenyra's room, the siblings were still fast asleep. Aegon rolled over in his sleep, rubbed his little face against Rhaenyra's shoulder, and mumbled something indistinct. Rhaenyra instinctively tightened her arms, drawing him closer.

Sunfyre opened his eyes for a look, made sure all was well, then closed them and went back to dozing.

The fire was nearly out, leaving only dark red embers.

The night was still long.

And tomorrow would be another day.