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(EM Vol. 2: A Wandering Melody) Chapter 16: No More
🕑 Added 2025-06-12 14:00:16 +0000 UTCChapter 16: No More
123 AC, Dragonstone
Alicent Hightower was the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, arguably the most powerful woman in Westeros, and yet, she rarely felt like it. She had always been overshadowed by Rhaenyra, formerly her childhood friend, and now the usurper to her son’s birthright by the rightful laws of succession.
She rarely felt in power. At first, she felt under the authority of her father, even when she became queen. There was a reprieve when he was sent back to Oldtown for arguing for her son’s birthright, and it was then that she realised just how alone she was. She spent years watching Rhaenyra commit one scandal after another, trying to put her obviously bastard children on the Iron Throne, pushing to reduce what little birthright Viserys had allowed their children. Alicent had been fighting for her life, her children’s lives, and their rights, and she grasped just how much her father had shielded her in her time as Hand of the King.
It didn’t help that Viserys was dismissive of their children and that he barely spent any time with them. He hadn’t spoken to Helaena for years, and Aegon kept rebelling to earn his attention, not that he got it. Aemond was supposed to be her perfect knight, and yet the Strong bastard had maimed him for claiming his birthright as a Targaryen, as the son of a king.
And Viserys had done nothing.
Their son had been maimed, and yet he hadn’t even punished Rhaenyra’s children in any way. And finally, when the King had become too ill, when her father returned as Hand and she started to gain some influence in King’s Landing, Rhaenyra came uninvited, looking slightly shaken, and spoke to the king of matters that he still refused to share with her. Over a decade of marriage and four children, her husband still kept secrets from her, ones that obviously impacted their children.
Of course, Rhaenyra had healed her father with some sort of vile magic. It was unnatural, the way that his flesh had grown, that his hair returned, that his disease disappeared in mere seconds. The Grandmaester couldn’t find anything, as if the disease never occurred, only the missing limbs as signs of injuries, a hand, and a few toes. That was it.
Maesters were coming from Oldtown at her father’s behest, specialists in healing, and they had found nothing. Of course, Viserys had proclaimed it as a miracle from the Gods, and soon, word would spread of the brave crown Princess doing what the entire might of the Citadel couldn’t by healing the King.
This was grave news for their side, both as it enhanced Rhaenyra’s reputation, something that they had spent years slowly tarnishing. Most people now thought of Dragonstone as the second coming of Lys, with Rhaenyra bedding any willing man and bearing their bastards.
Her father had been especially concerned with the idea that Viserys would live for too long. The Maesters had kept him apprised of the King’s condition, and they gave him a handful of years, a decade at most, until his death. He had planned around this, and now many of his plans were in ruins.
As he was trying to salvage their plans in King’s Landing, Viserys wished to go to Dragonstone and meet the sorcerer who had saved his life. So far, she hadn’t seen any sign or hide of him or his wife. Viserys had obviously sought them out during the welcome feast, and yet he couldn’t find them either.
In the end, he stood up alongside Rhaenyra and left the hall. She waited for an hour until she decided to go look for him. It didn’t take long to find him, near a balcony that was watching as the sea spun around. She motioned for the Kingsguard to leave them, which they did immediately, and took a longer look at Viserys’ face. He looked far more serious than she ever remembered him being, simply staring at the waves.
Immediately, she knew that something had changed and there was one thing that could have had such a drastic change, “You spoke to the sorcerer.”
“Aye. I did. You were wrong. He wasn’t a charlatan.”
Alicent had never thought that the man was a charlatan. She hoped he was a merchant who had given the healing draught to Rhaenyra to earn her favour, but that hope had been dashed from the look on her husband’s face.
“What did he say?”
“Something that I dearly needed to hear.”
She winced at the King’s tone. He looked tired, but there was something there, simmering in the background. He continued, “He told me why he arranged for me to be healed, why he gave Rhaenyra exactly what she needed, knowing that she would fly to King’s Landing to heal me. She’s making a spectacle of it now, the Princess who healed the King. I saw a few bards during the feast writing songs about it. I am healed because Harry Potter wished for me to live for as long as possible. It isn’t because I am a good king or a good man. It isn’t even because of some loyalty to the royal family, for he is a stranger to us and our ways. It is because my life is the only thing that is stopping a war between Dragonriders, which would decimate my family and the dynasty of the Conqueror. Imagine that. I only live because my death would be inconvenient. Truly, I have failed as a king.”
She blinked, startled, “You’ve kept the realm at peace for over twenty years…”
“Peace built on silence, on avoidance,” he interrupted, finally turning to face her. His violet eyes, once dulled by sickness and age, now burned with something she hadn’t seen in years: clarity. “I closed my eyes to the schemes around me, trusting the loyalty of my subject to the crown above all else. I let my family drift apart, Dragonriders who hate one another with a passion, not just feeling a spat between family members. No more.”
Alicent couldn’t help but gulp while wondering what this damnable Harry Potter had said to her husband. Given his fury, the way he glared at her, the man had obviously said something against her own family. Rhaenyra’s plan suddenly unfolded before her eyes. This was always the plan, wasn’t it?
Viserys could be extremely stubborn whenever he needed to face something that he did not like. He refused to admit the parentage of the Strong bastards. He refused to deal with Daemon beyond a slap on the wrist, and he refused to see that Rhaenyra was not fit to be a queen. Her father had exploited this stubbornness to maintain his grip on power.
Even Rhaenyra had suffered from his stubbornness and had learned to work around it, letting a man, someone who knew something that Viserys obviously cared about, something that he refused to share with her, do the talking for her.
It was very clever from Rhaenyra’s part, something that she had never expected. Using some abominable sorcery, likely steeped in blood sacrifices, to heal her father, trying to paint herself as being chosen by the Gods to succeed the King, while also using this feat to convince Viserys that Alicent and her father were traitors of some sort.
She needed to get everything under control and quickly before Viserys did anything drastic. “Are you insinuating that I have been disloyal to you, your grace? Because I assure you that I have been nothing but a loyal and dutiful wife. I do not know what Rhaenyra convinced that man to say, but this is a severe escalation of our strained relationship, to say the least. I have given you three sons and a daughter. My father has served as your Hand for years, and the realm prospered for it. Is your trust in us too weak that you would believe the words of a stranger over ours?”
Normally, this would have made Viserys start to doubt the sorcerer’s words, even if it was a marginal doubt at best. Instead, the king scoffed, “It’s very curious. I did not mention you or your father.”
Seeing the error, Alicent quickly explained her claim, “What else could it be? You spoke to a man, obviously Rhaenyra’s creature. She would not have invited you to speak with him if it didn’t suit her purpose. I would not be surprised if he said that if he said that Aegon plotted to kill her children in their cradles,” she finished, biting the words like they tasted foul. “That we whispered poison in your ears, that we dream of crowns and thrones stolen in the night. It’s what she always accuses us of, isn’t it? Lies spun to turn you against your own blood.”
She expected Viserys to jump to defend his daughter or even the foul sorcerer, and yet, all he did was look at her. His face held no anger, no grief, no warmth either, just tired disappointment. “Believe me, he was as critical of Rhaenyra as he was of you and Otto. All Harry Potter did was open my eyes to what I didn’t wish to see, that I am not a good king. My grandfather would have never let Rhaenyra’s behaviour go unpunished. He would have never let your father build a faction in my court, not for the realm, but for his grandchildren. He would have never let this divide between our families happen in the first place. He was a far better king than I ever was, than I ever would be. I live because a sorcerer from strange lands found my death to be inconvenient during his visit. Do you understand how maddening this feels? And yet, I cannot deny that I feel as if the gods themselves have brought him to our shores, to force me to accept the truth.”
“What truth?” Alicent asked, not knowing what else to say.
“I thought I could choose peace, and it would be enough. But peace is not born of silence. It is forged, with fire and truth and hard choices. And I’ve made none of them. I am going to change that, starting by making the very difficult decision of removing your father as my Hand.”
“What?” she yelled back at him, “My father has done nothing but serve you faithfully. You can’t dismiss him on the words of a sorcerer, Viserys.”
“I am the King. It is my prerogative to choose my Hand, and I am dismissing your father because it is what’s best for the realm. This rift between you and Rhaenyra needs to heal, Alicent, and it will never happen with your father staying as my Hand. My court is divided, and I will not have it, not anymore. And this is nothing but the start.”
Alicent thought that Viserys’ ambition was foolish. The court was divided. It had been divided for over a decade, since the moment Aegon was born, truly. Nothing, not even her father’s dismissal, would change that. And yet, a chill ran down her spine at what he could have been planning next. Would he send their children away as well? Would he send Gwayne away as well?
She would need to send him a raven quickly. He would know what to do and arrange things so that her children’s birthright would not be usurped, and perhaps tell her how to deal with the situation. She bit back a sharper retort. Viserys was too resolute tonight. Better to wait, watch, and let her father react.
“And who are you planning on replacing him with? Is it Daemon?” Alicent asked with trepidation, “Please tell me it isn’t the sorcerer.”
“No,” Viserys answered, his face souring, “I need someone who will help me mend this rift, someone that I can trust to see the realm’s need before their own. I have decided that my new hand will be Rhaenys Velaryon. I have sent a raven to the Driftmark. They should arrive tomorrow at the latest. Now, I believe it’s time that I return to the feast.”
The King turned and left, leaving his wife looking pensive, as she stared towards the sea as he did just minutes prior.
Rhaenys Velaryon…
That wasn’t the name that Alicent expected. If she was honest, while Daemon was her worst fear, she expected Lyman Beesbury, the current master of coin, to be appointed in her father’s stead. He had always been steadfast in his loyalty to Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne, despite her father’s many attempts to change his mind.
This wasn’t as bad as she expected. Of course, there were the coming issues of a woman being the Hand of the King, but Rhaenyra had all but alienated the Velaryon when she married Daemon so soon after Laenor’s suspicious death. She didn’t expect Rhaenys to support Rhaenyra as blindly as Viserys, at the very least. She could be swayed, but not easily.
Her father’s dismissal was a blow, but perhaps it would be salvaged. She had to admit that it was a smart decision on Viserys’ part, one that would take most of the court off guard.
She turned and saw Ser Criston staying behind, waiting for her. He was such a dutiful knight, one who had seen Rhaenyra’s true nature in her betrayal of him. “What did the sorcerer say to him?”
“I do not know. We found the sorcerer was entertaining the children. The King asked for them to be alone. Even the princess was not allowed in. They were alone for a few minutes in the Chamber of the Painted Table before the sorcerer left. The King was shaken. The Princess demanded that he tell her of the conversation, but he yelled at everyone to leave him alone to think. He has stayed here until your arrival.”
Alicent nodded. She wished to find some fault in Ser Criston’s actions, or anyone’s really, but he really couldn’t have refused her husband’s commands. It was curious that Viserys had also been angry at Rhaenyra. He hadn’t been lying then.
It was extremely concerning that a sorcerer, after a small conversation with Viserys, had gained so much influence over the king as to get him to act like this. Things were changing, and she would need to keep an eye on the sorcerer, or even his wife.
She spoke up to Ser Criston, “Do you know where the sorcerer went after his conversation with the King?”
“I cannot be certain, but I would guess that they went back to entertaining the children, given the direction they left in.”
Alicent nodded and made her way to the room in question. They walked in silence, but before she could enter, the Kingsguard spoke up, sounding hesitant, “Your grace, if I may… This man, Harry Potter, is odd. He is disrespectful, foreign, and unknowing of his customs. He doesn’t have the look of a warrior, but he does not fear the Kingsguard, and according to Rhaenyra, he does not fear the dragons. By all accounts, he looks harmless, but I do not know how to explain it; there's something in his eyes that unsettles me. I would advise caution should you interact with him.”
Alicent paused at the threshold, surprised. Ser Criston rarely gave her counsel beyond matters of blades and discipline. He knew his place, loyal to a fault, and his hesitation now only made his words feel heavier. She turned to face him fully, watching the tension in his jaw, the discomfort etched into the sharp lines of his face.
“Thank you,” she said sincerely, her voice softening. “I value your counsel, Ser Criston. I know you would give your life for me, and for that I am grateful.”
The knight inclined his head in a bow but said nothing more. Together, they stepped through the arched doorway.
The warmth of the hearth and the soft laughter of children met them as they entered the room, and for a moment, everything seemed peaceful. Lady Daphne sat near the children, smiling as a young boy kept regaled her of the history of some legendary knight.
But then Alicent turned, and the sight made the blood freeze in her veins. The sorcerer sat at ease, speaking softly. And across from him, her daughter, sweet and strange Helaena, laughed like she’d known him forever.
AN: I know this is a bit of a slow chapter, but I needed a transition for what came next, and Alicent’s POV felt suitable for that. The idea was to show Viserys’ change, Alicent being worried for her children, while also being terrified of any potential magic. I’m not sure I pulled it off, but I don’t mind rewriting it depending on your feedback. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
Comments
Lord Feywild
Looking forward to the next chapter with eagerness.
Marius Petrauskas
nice
Garri Sarkisov
Factions within families always fight and feud
SweetKat21
I do feel bad for Alicent until a certain point. Once all my kids had dragons, I'd would have dip.
TypistTyphon
Fantastic chapter!
DoodleBopCheese
You did good conveying her fear of “the sorcerer” himself, but not his magic. I don’t think you should change anything though. Her wariness of his magic should come next chapter while seeing him in person. Still, I think you did very well.
Monzter E
Nice reactions!
