FIRE AND BLOOD ( CHAPTER TWELVE ) "I SWEAR TO GOD YOU DON'T WANT TO TEST ME"
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291, THE RED KEEP
"I'LL KILL THEM ALL," Aerea fumed as she paced back and forth throughout the room, "Every last Hightower, every last Morrigen, every last Glover, every last Stokeworth and every last fucking Sarsfield."
"Aerea-" Willas began and Aerea just gave him an angry look before continuing.
"I wasn't even going to kill the fucking Usurper, I'm not that stupid. Now, these stupid fucking lords have put me in the shittiest position because they decided to conspire and succeed to help him escape," Aerea hissed, tugging harshly at her hair, tears of frustration pricking at her eyes. Fuck why does everything have to go to shit? The past two months had been a constant struggle for her and it didn't seem to be getting any easier.
Only a few days ago, Tywin Lannister and Oberyn Martell had found out who was behind the escape of the Usurper and while they didn't find any evidence to condemn Baelish, they found more than enough to condemn the Hightowers, the Glovers and Sarsfields.
She truly wasn't surprised that those were the five houses that decided to make a stand against her: the Hightowers were always looking for ways to undermine the Tyrells, trying to reclaim the place they held when the Gardeners still ruled the Reach before the Aegon's Conquest, the Glovers had been adamantly against the Targaryens during the Rebellion having lost two heirs--one when Lord Rickard Stark and Brandon Stark confronted her father in the Red Keep and another at the Tower of Joy, the Morrigens had been treated like a joke by Aerea's father and no doubt never wanted to see a Targaryen on the throne again and the Stokeworths were in the same boat (Aerea honestly hated her father because even after death the problems he was causing her were tremendous), and the Sarsfields had been one of the biggest proponents of the Sack of King's Landing so they probably feared that Aerea would come after them next. A little manipulation from Baelish and they all banded together to free the Usurper and weaken her rule.
She felt her hands shaking and she tried and failed to still them. She felt two thin hands grab her own and looked up as Astara gave her a small smile, "Come with me," she said quietly and Aerea let out a shuddered breath as Astara and Theodor led her out of the room and into another away from everyone else.
Astara sat her down on a chair and kneeled in front of her, "Aerea, you have every right to be angry but you must remember that not everybody in those houses were part of the conspiracy--some of them are children, Alerie Hightower is Willas's mother. You can be angry, you cannot be irrational right now, you're the Queen, Aerea, every single word you say has consequences. You're so lucky that it was just Theo, Willas, Oberyn, your Queensguard and us in there," Astara said, voice soft but firm as she held Aerea's trembling hands. "You know that Theo and I will always support you but we're also going to help you, okay?"
