@thygraves sent: ❛ for so long i’ve tried to shield you from the world. ❜ aemond + helaena!
“From the world,” she repeated under her breath, needle sinking into linen before pulling the thread. A pair of hungry-eyed spiders filled the fabric, their fangs dripping with blood. The web underneath them was sewn in gleaming silver, and at its very heart lay a lifeless moth, wrapped tightly in its deadly silk, the violet wings all chewed and faded. There was despair in the scene, like you could feel the agony that preceded the creature’s demise. The artwork was intricate and far more articulate than its composer had ever been, yet Helaena would seldom know how to respond if anyone asked what her project was.
In truth, her mind seldom registered it. Deep in her intuition, Helaena knew exactly what it meant, but she couldn’t bear to look at it. Her hands moved as though they had a will of their own. There was no conscience guiding her, no plan, no deliberation. A piece with such level of detail would take weeks to conclude, sometimes months. Helaena did this one within days. Her fingers had never worked so fast before, unable to contain their restlessness, like the image they created had emerged from the depths of her nightmares and demanded to be registered on the fabric. The tremor disrupted her work, making her flinch when the needle pricked her thumb. Not once did she look at Aemond, nor anywhere else in particular: her gaze was distant, catatonic, barely alive.
Everything was winter around her.
Grief poured into the embroidered cloth on her lap, endless, though Helaena shed no tears. One must be alive to weep, and there was seldom any life left within her. Whatever form of existence had remained to her since they took Jaehaerys away, it could hardly be called living.
“The world-” she tried to speak, closing her eyes as though the very effort gave her pain. “Was never the threat.” Her voice was low, quiet, coming out through gritted teeth.
All those years, she had followed their lead. Mother told her to wed Aegon because it was safest to stay within the family’s grasp, then the court began to ask after a child and Helaena gave them two, at the cost of hours of pain and months of discomfort, yet it wasn’t enough. They had to crown Aegon, to make her his queen, for that was the only way to survive.
How quickly those lies had crumbled, gone in the stroke of a blade.
At last, her eyes rose to look at her brother.
“This family is”, she added through a clenched jaw, her stare wounded and accusing.
This conflict had started before him, she knew, and it had been brewing for years and years. Still, that eagerness he had, the way the boy’s wounds had become the man’s rage and drove him so swiftly towards violence had all but placed the target upon their backs.
“Where were you, Aemond?” Helaena asked softly, voice faltering mid-sentence, “the night they killed my boy?”
Though her gaze remained affixed to his, she did not look at him as though expecting an answer. She knew her brother well. More likely than not, he would be doing exactly the thing that Helaena feared the most.
Preparing.












