- Red Keep Inner Courtyard -
Alicent, who had been tormented by her thoughts, overlooked from a balcony as the King and his group of people who had traveled to Driftmark finally returned. As she watched Viserys descend the royal carriage, he suddenly fainted and dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Alicent jumped in fright as she watched from a distance how the people quickly tended to her husband.
"Fetch the Maester!" Harrold Westerling yelled. Lyonel shouted at the unnecessary people trying to meddle, "Get back."
"Get Mellos!" Harrold yelled again.
As Grand Maester Mellos appeared, he looked at the King and called out to his assistants, "Prepare the crucible. We'll need leeches."
Alicent's expression morphed a few times in this quick span from one of worry to an impassive one that became filled with determination. She already understood what she needed to do... for her... for her family... for her children.
Her husband's health was quickly deteriorating, and she feared for it—and for her uncertain future and her children's. Holding her chin high, with her determination hardened, she left the place decisively while taking a meaningful look at the man beside Rhaenyra.
...
- A while later -
"Ser Criston..." A man stopped Criston Cole as he moved through the castle. "You've been summoned."
Criston's brow furrowed in displeasure. "I left the Princess just minutes ago." He didn't want to see her again too soon. Not after barely being able to hold back from escorting her to her bedchambers.
"Not the Princess, ser," the servant said to him. "The Queen."
Criston's eyes glistened in understanding—and something more. "Alright," he said as he followed after the servant.
Soon, they were before a room. From outside, the cries of a baby echoed inside, and a servant received them.
The cries of baby Helaena resounded through the room as Alicent tended to her.
"Ser Criston, Your Grace," the servant said, notifying Alicent that he was outside.
"That will be all," Alicent said as she passed her daughter to a milkmaid.
Criston Cole entered the room with the queen's permission as the milkmaid and the rest of the servants left. He looked at Alicent with doubt about her summons.
Alicent looked at him. "I fear I must question you on a... on a delicate matter, Ser Criston," she said before walking to sit on a couch.
"I am your servant as always, my Queen."
"It concerns our dear Princess Rhaenyra." She looked at him standing by the wall and gestured to her side on the couch to come and sit. "Please."
Criston Cole hesitated for a moment as he looked at her before walking and sitting beside her.
"You are her sworn protector and rightly loyal to her."
Criston was silent for a moment before spitting out with gritted teeth, "I am."
Alicent raised an eyebrow, noting the anger in Criston's reply. Nonetheless, she continued. "The night of Daemon's return... there's been a rumor... or rather, my father received an accounting of... a lapse of morals that may have occurred between—"
Criston Cole, as he heard the queen, started breathing heavily, as if suddenly enlightened.
She hesitated and looked at him. "It is, of course, unthinkable for me to question the virtue of the Princess, whom I hold in the highest regard, but, I—I, I did, however, wonder if... I'm not unaware that in the flush of youth... there may be errors made... breaches in resolve, breaches, or rather lapses—"
He was already flushed red in embarrassment, anger at Rhaenyra, at himself... for making such a fool of himself... he was a joke all this time.
Cole felt so resentful toward his princess that he spoke of what he had heard that night. "It happened, Your Grace. The sin you allude to."
"That night, I didn't hear noise in the bedchamber of the princess... but at late hours, I heard a harsh noise inside the room. As I knocked on her door, worried for her security, the noise ceased, as quiet murmurs sounded inside, and I believed I... imagined things... but now... I'm sure of it... it was Prince Daemon's voice and the princess..."
Alicent, hearing him say that, pursed her lips. It only further confirmed what was happening, and her resolve was further strengthened. She needed to stand for herself and her children.
"Thank you for your honesty, Ser Criston," she said, looking at him with a face that was different from before. "You may go."
Criston Cole stood up and hesitated for a while, neither leaving nor speaking.
"What is it, Ser Criston?" she asked, seeing him standing there silently, neither speaking nor leaving.
He hesitated for a moment before biting his teeth. "I have attempted to break my oath... At her instigation, or what I thought was her instigation... Being led astray with something I thought..."
"It is no excuse," Criston said as he looked at her. "For having such thoughts... and now seeing that I was just a mere amusement when the reality was such a different thing."
"I feel myself dishonored and unable to continue serving the princess... And I deserve no consideration for having even thought of such impure thoughts against her."
"But now, I only feel like being far away from her, my queen."
"As a clement queen, if you are inclined to pity my foolish self... I would ask only this... rather than being given up in dishonor for having such thoughts... could you take me away from the princess service and instead make me under your service as your personal guard, my queen?"
Alicent looked at the man as he opened up to her and hesitated for a long while before extending her hand forward, the one with her ring that represented her marriage to the king.
Criston Cole looked at her extended hand and silently knelt before her, kissing her ring and swearing fealty to her.
"Arise, Ser Criston. Now, you are my personal guard—the queen's guard," Alicent said, her chin held high and her eyes shining. "I will send a servant with the notification of a change in your duties to the princess. You shall not suffer seeing her anymore from her side."
"Thank you, my queen," he gratefully said while kneeling, before standing and looking at her with a smile.
.....
- Days later -
In the following days since the return of the King to the Red Keep and his failing health, nobles and people of certain importance from all over the kingdom were gathering in King's Landing for the ceremony of matrimony between Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Laenor Velaryon.
The tension between Rhaenyra and Alicent escalated after the princess received the letter announcing that Criston Cole was now serving the queen and that he wished to no longer serve her as her personal guard. From there, the relationship between the two—once as close as sisters—began to break, little by little, with the shift in Alicent's attitude toward Rhaenyra. A change that Rhaenyra didn't understand, as Alicent no longer spoke to her like before.