CELTIGAR - House of The Dragon

Deeds, not Words

Each of them standing on one side of the room, Rhea and Rhaenyra stared at each other. Swiftly, the Black Queen strode towards her adopted sister, and the latter laid her eyes on one of the men walking beside her, her cousin Orys Celtigar. The man had a sad expression about his face as him and his Queen stopped right before his cousin. Rhaenyra's hand slapped Rhea's face twice in a row with force. Then, in a truly contradictory motion, she took the silver-haired woman in her arms and held her tight, overcome with emotion. Rhea stood there, not knowing how to behave. Rhaenyra let her go and stepped back, mixed emotions strewn on her face.

Rhea bowed her head, looking truly defeated.

"Rhaenyra, if you plan to have me killed, I would urge you to do it sooner than later, before I get taken by my previous wounds. It would be less satisfactory," Rhea spoke in a manner which surprised everyone in the room.

Rhaenyra reached for her hands and noticed the fresh scars she had on them.

"Sister, have you truly given up?" Rhaenyra asked, her voice breaking at the sight of her beloved friend so broken.

Rhea looked away from her, she looked crushed yet would not admit to it, she felt like she had no fight left in her and it terrified her.

"What have they done to you?" Rhaenyra asked again as she saw the woman's bloodied hands.

"Otto Hightower has tried to kill me twice now," Rhea admitted, ashamed.

Rhaenyra cupped her cheek and nodded at the woman's cousin. Orys sat by his cousin and took her hand in his, patting it.

"But it is nothing compared to what they have done to you, Rhaenyra," Rhea spoke softly, a sorry look on her face. "I wish there was something I could do."

Rhea turned to look in her cousin's eyes and they shared a longing look.

"There is something, Rhea," Rhaenyra spoke again and the whole room waited for her to speak again. "You could deliver a message to them."

"You would have her go back to King's Landing freely?" Daemon asked angrily. "While your son lies at the bottom of one of their dragon's stomach?"

Rhaenyra stared daggers at her husband and placed a hand on her stomach, grounding herself. She refused to hurt the woman who had come all this way to see her, she refused to harm the girl she had always seen as a sister, as a daughter even. She was sorry she had even suggested she and her half-brother to marry. As a Queen, she was urged not to show mercy, and, had it been anyone else, their head would already be mounted on a spike, but she could not bring herself to give the order this time. The amount of pain she had felt the last month alone was more than enough for her whole lifetime and she would not cause herself even more by murdering her father's ward. This she would not forgive herself. She wanted to make the Greens pay, not her. And while she had chosen to remain in the Red Keep with them, she was not one of them. The fact she had sent her whole House as reinforcement was proof enough.

Walking around the room, Rhaenyra picked up Rhea's dagger and placed it in her hands, her eyes peering in hers. She watched as the woman secured it back on her hip, looking smaller than ever.

"Promise me this, sister," the Black Queen began to speak. "You will not let this war reduce you to ashes, you will not let Otto Hightower win, and you will not let yourself fall into despair. Swear it."

Rhea looked taken aback by her sister's words, shaken by the insight she had shown.

"Swear it," she insisted. "You will go back there, and you will thrive."

"I-I will, sister."

"Good. My message is this. Let us all agree to end this senseless war and let Lucerys' death be the last one. No more bloodshed."