The Maid - Aemond Targaryen

Thirty - The Prince She Ran After

When Aemond appeared once more in the Red Keep without a wife, Alicent was very confused. Yet one thing she had very clear in her mind. Aemond had done something to that girl, because who wouldn't want to be a princess? If she was not here, it was for good reason.

Aemond had sulked for days, brooding in his chambers alone. Any person who tried to visit him would run out of his personal quarters steadfastly after just one look from him. If he was ill tempered before, losing her only made him worse.

The new servant assigned to him let the Queen know how little he had been eating. And the new servant would barely visit his quarters because she was scared of being screamed at by him. Just the other day she had ran off crying after she accidentally made his bed in a way that was not to his liking.

He did not care to eat or sleep. Food was supposed to keep people alive, and he did not wish to be alive if Elyana was away from him and in the North. Aemond did not want to live if she was not near him, because he knew it would be a cruel existance.

He felt like he was going crazy. All he could do was stare at the fire and imagine she was here with him. Stare at the fire and remember her touch, her face, her voice, her hair, and her scent.

Every day he daydreamed of going back there and snatching her from her new home and bringing her back to his side where she truly belonged. Would he truly make her angry if he did that? Would she hate him if she just brought her back to King's Landing by force.

Every minute of the day he wondered what she was doing, or what she was thinking. The uncertainty of it all was eating away at his mind. And she haunted all of the 'what ifs' that dallied in his thoughts all day, every day. 

Did she miss him? Did she still love him? Did she think of him? Was the pregnancy easy on her? Had another man already caught her attention? The thought of her with another man made him want to die.

On the eighth day of Elyana living in the North, his mother finally came to him. Alicent did not care to knock on the chamber doors, and she did not care when he glared at her fiercely for the intrusion. She knew her son well, and she knew that something wicked must have driven that girl away. She knew it well.

"Why did Elyana not come back with you, Aemond?" His mother asked without a greeting. He looked over at her and then back at the fire he had been watching burn for hours.

Disappointment. He knew his mother well, and he could read her face like he could read a scroll. He gritted his teeth and took a deep shallowy breath.

He knew she would be disappointed. It was his biggest fear. "Because..." He said solemnly and slowly, and he dared not tell the truth of the matter. The truth of all he had done.

"She will be back soon. Elyana just needs her time to adjust and come to terms with her new reality." He answered, trying to sound as genuine as possible. He was lying of course. He was not sure she would ever come back to him, though the sheer thought of her not coming back haunted his existance.

If she didn't come back, he would surely go mad.

"Aemond... in a court full of vipers and liars; I have learned to identify a lie rather quickly. Pray tell me what has happened with her. What did you do to her?" Alicent asked as she approached the seat her son was in.

"I did nothing to Elyana, mother. I love her. I would do nothing to hurt her." He spoke the lie as if it was the most veridict statement he had ever spoken in his life.

Alicent stared at the back of his head angrily. Aemond barely lied to her, maybe once or twice when he was a child. But lately he grew so cold and distant that she was fearful he would turn into Aegon.