Beginning of the End | House Of The Dragon

9.2

AELTHEA POV

I saw my mother's waiting reflection in the mirror. "That will be all Ismene."

"But-"

"I have it from here, Ismene." My mother stepped forward, holding out her hand for the brush. "It's been so long since I've gotten to brush her hair that I've actually grown to miss it, believe it or not." I smiled at her chuckle. Ismene quickly lefts with a cursty and a bow of her head.

"How hard has that been to get used to?" I laughed rather loudly at my mother's words.

"I still don't think I'm completely used to it to be honest with you." It was her turn to laugh.

"Yeah, I bet. Princess." I chuckled, closing my eyes and enjoying the brush running through my wild waves knowing that it was my mother's hands doing the work, I imagined myself a girl once more, happily in our family apartments before she left. I hated the small sliver of bitterness that rose up in me as I remembered that she left me. With him.

I loved my father and we were more similar than I liked to admit, but it was because of how similar we were and yet how different at the same time that had created a need for my mother as a buffer to create a peace and understanding between us and help us see one anothers side. Without her...well it was like riding a wild horse that was constantly trying to buck you off; just up and down, up and down. Sometimes we were so close that you would think it impossible for us to ever fight, but when we did it was all claws and fangs and fire.

"So what's happened between you and your father this time?"

I turned around completely shocked, I wondered for a horror struck moment if I'd been speaking aloud but I was sure I hadn't been. I realized she must have seen the tension between the two of us earlier. I thought that I'd gotten away with it and wouldn't be forced to answer any awkward questions. I should have know, Mother always seemed to know everything. "You saw that, huh?" I asked stiffly turning back to the mirror as she began twisting my hair up into a bun. I didn't have the heart to tell her it would be unbound mere moments after she left.

She shrugged her shoulders as if it was such a simple matter. "Saw it, felt it, tasted it in the air as soon as he entered the room, you name it."

It took me a moment, I felt a fear crawling up my spin, wondering if she'd take his side as I stared at uer reflection. I gulped down the thought and I swear I could actually feel kt as it sold down to instead rest in my stomach...that was worse. "Father was very disappointed when I only had girls. He was happy at first when it was just Raejendra, but when Valaerea also proved to be a girl, well..." I stood from the seat and made my way from the bathroom unable to even attempt to meet her gaze, the fear of disappointment being in them was too much to take; so I walked a way, but not before covering the mirror with the plain white sheet once more.

I noticed my mother's odd look at my actions and was thankful when she made no comment or question on it or any of the other mirrors covered with the same. Aemond wasn't very...fond of them. He rarely looked in them, save for sometimes when he got one of his phantom pains or gets a random itch to look, and when he did he would get a distant look in his eyes or they would fill with tears. 

I made my way past the mantle with a fire currently roaring in its stone home, a large shelve of book to one side and on the other a beautiful wooden chest crowned with a beautiful vase holding wildflowers, other beautiful pieces of foreign pottery, and ornate candle holder for navigating in the dark or late night reading, and a small bowl of a salve for either his eye whenever it would flare up and bother him or any other injuries he might equire from the training yard, but what never ceased to bring a smile to my face was the needlework of the golden four legged targaryen dragon on a green feild that I had given to him when we were children proudly on display.