The Crimson Dragon |ASOIAF|

The Truth, Part 1

Numb was all Alicent felt as she laid in bed, still reeling from the death of her child.

It had only been a few days since she held her daughter in her arms, since the midwives had come to take her precious little girl to the silent sisters so that she could be prepared for the funeral.

My little Elaera...

The name was chosen if the child turned out to be a girl, Helaena had suggested the name one day as she and her siblings had decided to come up with baby names.

Alicent was happy then that her children were so excited for the arrival of their new sibling and had gladly accepted the name.

Now all the Queen felt was anguish as she thought about how her children had received the news of their sibling's premature death. She knew that she should see them herself, but Alicent could not muster the courage to, she did not want her children to see her in such a state, to see how broken she was.

The only people she had seen in the last three days were her servants who would quickly left food that she did not eat, and Rhaenyra.

Rhaenyra would show up almost every hour to check in on her, trying to get her to eat or to leave her chambers, but she refused each time. The princess never said anything outside of this, only sitting next to her in silence before leaving again.

In contrast, Alicent had seen and heard nothing from her husband during this time.

She did not understand the way she felt about this blatant avoidance from Viserys, she should be upset that once again her husband did not care about how she was feeling or doing, not even bothering to see if she was physically healthy, but she did not.

Instead, Alicent felt relieved that she did have to deal with Viserys' presence, the Queen knew that Viserys would not be able to comfort her, that he would be more focused on himself and his own grief. Then there was the deep dark part of her heart that she kept buried far within herself, where she believed that Viserys may not care at all.

He barely cares for the other children I have given him, why should this one be any different? Does my husband grieve, or has he not shed a single tear for the daughter that will never live?

Alicent's thoughts continued to darken even when the sound someone knocking on the door rang throughout the room.

Alicent ignored this, believing it to be one of the maids. She knew it could not be Rhaenyra because the princess would not knock, she would have entered her bedchamber, not caring for decorum and propriety. After a few more knocks, the door slowly opened and Alicent could hear someone enter, but she continued to ignore them as she stared at the wall.

"Mother?" Alicent turned her head and met the amethyst eyes of Lilyanna.

Alicent saw the nervous expression on her daughter's face as she stood before her, holding a plate of lemon cakes in her hands.

"I brought you lemon cakes..." Lilyanna awkwardly trailed off, not knowing how to further proceed.

"Thank you, Lily." Alicent said plainly, still wondering why her daughter was here, why she was acting so strangely and so differently than she usually did.

"Rhaenyra said that you needed time to yourself after..." Lilyanna trailed off again as she struggled to find the words to say. "But I wanted to see you... I'm sorry."

Alicent sat up, taking the plate of food from Lilyanna, placing it on her nightstand and then gently cupping the side of her daughter's face. "You do not need to apologize; I have missed you too and your siblings as well. I should be the one apologizing, for ignoring you all."