Blood, everywhere. There would be fire, he vowed. As the maester spoke, tripping over his own words in places, Jaehaerys' fury grew. Trauma, forced, brutalized... His stomach hurt and his brain felt as if it was trying to crawl out of his skull and away from the Maester's voice.
"Why?" it was a bare whisper, directed more at the air around him than the others in the room. "Why?" His resolve broke and he touched her hair, half praying it would break the spell. But no one woke up from those wounds. Tears threatened, but he would not shed them here. Dragons did not weep, even if their hearts were being torn from them.
"Lia, forgive me. I failed you..." His hand shot away from hers and caught a shelf full of vials, which went flying. The sounds of glass shattering on stone was not loud enough to drown the screams inside his head.
He turned to William, his eyes blazing. "I will speak with my cousin. You, find what clues you may. This--" Jaehaerys took a steadying breath, "this is not some pale assassin. This monster will be found, and when he is I will devise such torments as this realm will never see again. Anyone who helped him, anyone who knows him- they will burn for it." And they would scream as they died.
"I leave her to you, Allyns." He blinked, the fury of a moment ago somewhat clearing from his features, but only a just. "William, I trust you. Between yourself and my uncle, this must be solved. I ask you to follow this trail as if it were Elixabet upon that table." There was always a chance it might be, if Stark failed him in this.
"Come, there is much to do. I will find Aenyris, and I will ride out to meet you later. Leave word where you are going."