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It happened in an instant.

Jace saw Aemond flail down clutching the side of his face as blood tumbled between his fingers and stained the ground below them.

“Cease this at once!”

Ser Harrold and other knights from the Kingsguard barreled through the passage, the Lord Commander was first to go to the injured boy.

Baela held onto Rhaena as they couldn’t truly believe what had happened.

He couldn’t get up. His elbows were propped up and he couldn’t move his body. He didn’t know what he was thinking. Jace looked to Luke who still held the dagger.

His dagger.

Gods he could still hear his brother’s yell as his arm flung to slice across Aemond’s face.

Jace pushed his muscles to move. This wasn’t the first time he overexerted his muscles, even when the aches felt as if they were melting through his skin.

“Luke, are you ok?”

Luke turned to face Jace, he himself was surprised to have dealt such a serious blow to their uncle.

“Are you?” He answered back. “He was gonna kill you.”

To be truthful, it did feel like that during the moment but now, after it was over, Jace knew Aemond wouldn’t have killed him. Maybe he would have hit him a few times with that stone, but murdering him?

No, Aemond wouldn’t do that.

The question prompted him to take a closer look at his brother. His chest has heaving, his hands were shaking, his knuckles were white as he still clutched the knife, and blood was running down his nose.

It was probably broken.

“Jace!” Baela hushed, she jerked her head to the knights as they were escorting Aemond to see the king. “C’mon, we have to go.”
He quickly turned to his brother, taking back the dagger and tucking it into his vest. It was the only evidence of what went down this night. The only evidence besides Aemond’s face.

“Stay close to me ok?”

Luke nods his head. It was time to face the king.

Rhaenys and Coryls ran down the stairs to Baela and Rhaena. There was a fire burning near where Aegon, Helaena, and Alicent were standing. The eldest still shaken from the strike he took from his mother.

But all Jace could do was watch Aemond. He was getting the left side of his face stitched, enduring it with no complaints other than wincing. He was comforted by his mother as the thin steel danced in and out of his skin, providing a sickening, jagged line.

He was just told he lost an eye.

Everything feels dizzy. His stomach feels empty as well as nauseous. Aemond has one eye. A part of him thinks he deserves it. He stole Vhagar from Jace’s cousins, punched Baela, broke Luke’s nose, and called him and Luke bastards. The other part of him believes, no, another part of him knows that the punishment for Aemond shouldn’t have been this immense.

“Jace!”

His mother storms through the room in a frenzy, whipping her head trying to find her children, and when she spots them, Jace catches a wave of pure anger overtake her as she sees them covered in blood.

“Luke!” The hand covering his nose lowers as Rhaenyra crouches down to examine the injury. It didn’t bother him that his mother’s attention went straight to Luke, he was glad in fact.

“Show me, show me.” She whispered, worry worn across her face, the worst feeling a parent could feel, as they see their child hurt and presenting the wound to them. “Who did this?”

The sudden change in Aemond’s demeanor was quick, he turned his head to defend himself before Luke could say anything.

“They attacked me!”

Which was true. They were the ones to throw the first punch but Jace hated how it sounded like it was all their fault, like all the accountability fell on them.

“He attacked Baela!” Jace yelled back. He shouldn’t have raised his voice, he shouldn’t have directed his glare to Aemond, he should’ve explained in a calm manner, he should’ve directed the explanation to the adults… but he didn’t. He argued with the boy who looked back at him in resentment.

Now everyone was yelling. Both sides wanting to be heard. Wanting to be believed as truthful. But division only causes hostility and deceit.

Division is what caused these events to unravel.

“Silence!”

The room goes quiet. The king cuts off what was about to leave Jace’s mouth. But that doesn’t stop him from voicing it.

“He called us bastards.” He whispers, hushed as the entire room could have heard him, Rhaenyra’s shocked expression faded into a blank one as she turned and stood up, sliding her hand down his arm for comfort.

“Aemond, I will have the truth of what happened. Now.” Grandfather’s voice commanded respect as the crowd is watching in anticipation.

“What else is there to hear? Your son has been maimed. Her son is responsible.” Jace knows which son Alicent referring to. His mouth is dry, it wasn’t Luke’s fault, not in the slightest.

“It was a regrettable accident.” Claimed his mother. Utterly no one believes her, Jace is sure even she doesn’t. How can his knife “accidentally” graze Aemond’s left eye? No, it wasn’t an accident as much as he wishes it was.

“Accident? The prince Lucerys brought a blade to the ambush. He meant to kill my son.”

Guilt fills Jace completely. It wasn’t Luke’s.

“It was my-”

Cut off by his mother, he trusts her decisions so he doesn’t speak up. “It was my sons who were attacked and forced to defend themselves. Vile insults were levied against them.”

“What insults?” Viserys turns to Rhaenrya, his anger is mixed with confusion.

“The legitimacy of my sons’ births was put loudly to question.”

“What?” It seemed the King was calming down from his initial anger by just talking to his daughter. It gave Jace just enough courage to open his mouth.

“He called us bastards.”

“My sons are in line to inherit the Iron Throne, Your Grace. This is the highest of treasons. Prince Aemond must be sharply questioned so we might learn where he heard such slanders.”

“Over an insult?” Alicent faces Rhaenyra with disbelief as her veiled threat was spoken regarding Aemond. “My son has lost an eye.”

She turns to her husband with newfound vigor, “Aemond has been damaged permanently, My King.”

“I know Alicent but I cannot restore his eye.”

“No, because it has been taken.”

“What would you have me do?”

“There is a debt to be paid. I shall have one of her son’s eyes in return. Sir Criston bring me the eye of Lucerys Velaryon.”

No, no, no, no, no, no. This cannot be happening. There was no way his brother is going to lose an eye just because he was protecting him. Jace’s heart pounds so loudly he can hear it. The color drains his face as he looks at his grandfather taking a pause, truly contemplating what Alicent is demanding. He can barely hear Luke calling for their mother as he grips her arm in fear.

“Your Gra-”

It was his turn to interrupt his peers around him.

“Take mine.”

All eyes turn toward him as he steps in front of his mother. She looks at him with fear he has never seen before, and that's when he knows she saw it too, her father’s face.

It is inevitable

“Jace stop this at once.” She tries to reason with him, maybe, just maybe she can talk their way out of this but Jace needs to be held responsible.

“Your Grace take mine. I was the one who had brought the blade.”
Alicent’s blame shifts to him. Viserys is watching with sadness, and disappointment written across.

Even with all eyes on him, Jace only cares about one.

One singular eye.

He risks a glance at Aemond. He meets his gaze, wide-eyed. Jace can’t tell if he’s just shocked or if he’s feeling something else, nonetheless, he persists.

“Luke may have dealt the final blow, but it was I who blinded Aemond with gravel for him to be caught by surprise. I saw Luke hold the blade when I fell to the ground. He was only trying to protect me, Your Grace.”

Jace inhales a shaky breath, he feels the tension aimed at him, rightfully so.

“I am the next heir to the Iron Throne, my eye is more valuable than my brother’s.” He lifts his chin to truly face his King head-on, “So take my eye instead. I will pay the debt before you, at this very moment. I Jacaerys Velaryon, first of his name, give my eye as repayment to Aemond Targaryen, for it was my dagger that took his eye.”

He doesn’t have to look back to know his mother’s cheeks are wet with tears, he doesn’t have to look to see Luke’s pleading eyes, telling him to stop talking, and he doesn’t have to look to his left to see Aemond standing, staring at him with an unreadable expression.

Jace knows if he cries it will sting more, but he doesn’t care, salty water rolls down his face as Sir Criston walks slowly to him. The whole world is muted when the following slash occurs.

Jace doesn’t hear his mother’s sobs, Luke’s screams, he doesn’t hear the pained sound of his grandfather, or the gasp from Aemond, all he feels is pain.

The left side of his face is throbbing with agonizing heat.

From this night forward he and Aemond are the product of their mothers’ resentment of one another. From this night forward he and Aemond will be two sides of the same coin. From this night forward he and Aemond will never be the same.

From this night forward Jace and Aemond are one.