The Dragons and Their Sun (aemond/oc)

aurora XX

Curse Helaena. Curse her ability to get me to do anything she wants. Curse me for not being able to say no to those I love. Aurora's mind grumbled. She felt horrible for making Jace go, but she needed to trust Helaena.

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"That's the worst idea I've ever heard," was all Aurora could say once Helaena was finished speaking.

"Jace would never let me go," Helaena tried to justify it.

"And you think I would?" Aurora asked, bewildered by her friend's thought process.

"You can distract my brother. Just tell them you'd rather Aemond stay with you. Jace hasn't let me out of his sights since you came back. He's too on edge," her best girl friend told her.

Aurora shook her head in disbelief, "Yes because he loves you. He doesn't want anything bad happening to you. And here you are, throwing yourself headfirst into danger."

She didn't understand why Helaena would want to do this. No one knows what he's surrounding himself with. He could have an army of supporters gathering around him. Why was Aurora the only one that seemed to worry about all of this?

"I'm not throwing myself into danger, Aurora. I saw it. This was meant to be," Helaena told her, gently grabbing her arms.

Aurora tried not to let Helaena's pleading eyes get to her, "Someone else can do it. You can stay here and let someone else take care of it."

"I want to do this," Helaena's voice softened as she fidgeted with Aurora's fingers.

Aurora was surprised by the revelation. Helaena was the most gentle and sweet person she's ever known. She's never heard Helaena even speak of her mother nor her grandfather, except when they were all together as a family and forced to speak of them. It was like they didn't even exist in her adopted sister's mind. Aurora was always jealous of Helaena's ability to brush it all off. She always felt like she wasn't progressing enough with her mental relationship with her father compared to those around her, especially Helaena. She admired Helaena so much for being able to not let things affect her like Aurora did. But she was evidently wrong.

"I didn't know you cared about it anymore," Aurora admitted in a soft voice. She didn't mean it in a mean way, just genuine confusion. Now it was Aurora fidgeting with Helaena's fingers as she spoke. It took some of the attention off of the gravity of the conversation happening. Aurora could place her focus on two things and not get overwhelmed.

"I know. I haven't exactly been open about it," Helaena admitted, slightly shrugging her shoulders.

"Are you certain?" Aurora asked, inhaling deeply as she prepared herself to have to lie to the ones she loves.

"Yes. That man is responsible for every bad thing that's happened in our lives. He poisoned our mother, and he tried to poison us. Then, he took you. He mustn't be allowed to live any longer," Helaena said confidently. There was a gleam of determination in her eyes that Aurora had seen only once before. It sent chills up her spine but not in a bad way.

"At least take someone with you. Aemond would go with you," Aurora pleaded with her best friend. If Helaena needed to do this, Aurora prayed she wouldn't be doing it alone.

Helaena laughed a bit, "As if my brother would let me go. He'd fly there and do it himself."

Aurora couldn't think of anyone else. She wasn't about to suggest Laenor or Aegon as they would need time to decompress. She was already preparing herself for the state Aegon was going to be in. She would need to put her own feelings aside and focus on him, not that she had a problem doing so. A thought suddenly came to her head. She would just need to make sure he took no offense to it.