DUSK'S RIDER!

⚔︎          ·              contd.  from  HERE  @untried.

 FLYING  ON  VERMITHOR  IS  one  of  the  greatest  joys  of  baelor’s  life.  after  losing  child  after  child,  after  holding  those  fragile,  little  pieces  of  himself  until  their  last  breaths,  until  they  went  cold  and  limp  [  .  .  .  ]  vermithor  had  been  there.  always  been  there.  after  his  last  babe  died,  taking  its  mother  with  it  into  the  dark,  baelor  had  been  taking  to  the  skies  on  vermithor  for  days,  almost  without  pause.  the  old  dragon  understands  him  without  words,  like  he’s  an  extension  of  baelor  himself.  they  were  meant  to  be  bonded  from  the  beginning,  he  knows.  how  ironic  that  the  boys  he  loves  like  his  own  sons  —  aegon  and  vaelor  —  have  bonded  with  dragons  who  are  direct  descendants  of  his  vermithor.  one  day,  he’ll  fly  beside  them,  watching  the  sun  set  over  king’s  landing.

" i over heard news of your arrival, " the young man admits. he did not know sleep there after, and could not help but find himself pacing in the hours leading up to vermithor's entrance above in dark skies. had he tried to return to his chambers, nothing would have lulled him, and thus ... at the dragon pits he had stayed, breeze in silver-gold hair having tousled hightower curls.

𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐍𝐎 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒, 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐔𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓. 𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐀 𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐄 as she had secured the departure of aemond to that cursed place. now all that was left was to get the men remaining here to lay down their swords, to open the gates, to make the entry of rhaenyra & her dragons as easy as possible. for this she would need helaena to do her part, for her request to ser luthor to be upheld---it was all falling into place, the promise she would uphold without failure. did alicent believe it would make up for the lack of aegon ? perhaps even if not completely. but, moreso, maybe it was a display of ... loyalty, of trying to gain rhaenyra's trust once more & to make up for what her misunderstanding set forth. ( her sons would call her a fool if they knew, they would mock her & the feelings they seem to confidently know their mother harbors for rhaenyra. alicent could deny them for image sake & to keep herself safe but it did not change the fact that on the inside she knew them to be undoubtably true. otherwise she would not be putting herself at such risk for the other woman. )

eyes turn to @untried as he tries to reason with her, to plead his case of staying in order to protect his mother & sister.

" i understand mother, but i worry— " for jaehaera, for helaena, for you. the young man does not say these words, for he has no need to. they bleed through the mulberry of his eyes, and search her face for a reason to stay behind. self sacrificing, it was something his father never knew, but that which he surely inherited from great leaders before viserys.

swallowing around the dry lump in his throat, the chain mail beneath his tunic suddenly feels as if it weighs ten tons and not the few pounds it did in all actuality. the choice before him is easy: live or die. vaelor did not wish to die, not yet, not while aemond was so far away fighting his own battles and certainly not while his mother and sister were in such dire need. but it was because of that dire need that he hesitates to leave— her sweet boy— he had a gentler heart than his twin, but no less fierce. he would take up blade and fight until he could not anymore.