In Desperation

[Pontifex Maximus]

Aurelia paced the solar of her quarters in the capitol. A small wooden box of vials lay open on her desk. The King is weak, he cannot provide any sort of protection. This entire venture is for naught. I tried too quickly, too greedily for power. The path leads nowhere. Empty promises, betrayal, half measures. Nothing truly changes.

It was not a decision made in ignorance of the potential consequences. The vial could contain salvation or death. Death in its own way could be salvation. She thought back to her conversation with the maester...

"This will do it? This will turn me barren?" She had a sort of manic desperation in her voice.

"..yes your grace...though whhy you should want to do something like this to yourself...the risks..."

She hadn't even heard him past the first word. What en empty title. 'Your Grace'

"You could die."

Now that got her attention. "The risk of death...yes...I am willing to take the risk. I must be made a virgin, maester." The fate of the Westerlands depends on it.

Now she stood in her study, night was descending, and she had a decision to make. Surely none would miss her in the capitol. They all despised her. Herpower had grown too dangerous even for her. She had enemies everywhere. She only had one way out, and it was a long shot. Her last great plot would begin now, the plot to unmake herself a Queen. With no furrther delay she tipped the vial back and drank the contents in one quick motion. She felt immediately ill. She fell to the floor convulsing. Ryker entered, completely unaware of what had just taken place.

Poison. He thought. He looked for an assassin before Aurelia gasped "It is...nothing..." How could this be so paralyzing? This isn't right... "Get me in a carriage...back to the Rock..."

Ryker sprung into action makign the necessary arrangements, still perplexed. Had he been a more free thinking man he may not have done as ordered. The Queen was alone once again in her room, attempting to survive.

ooc: essentially I need rolls to determine whether Aurelia takes a lethal dose of a concoction to make her infertile and the chance of success of becoming barren as a result of drinking it.

[Honors Bastion]

Reroll of Aurelia’s Infertility/Poison Attempt:

Set at 12/20 roll with 1-12 being she succeeds and makes her barren and 13-20 meaning she perishes. With +3 to survival the roll becomes 15/20 with 1-15 being success, 16-20 she dies.

Rolled a 7 so Aurelia lives and she succeeds in making herself barren.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Aurelia had never felt so sick in her life. Whatever it was she drank ate through her like an acid. She soon lost control of herself, vomiting uncontrollably. Her heart increased, but she knew that if the toxins would prove fatal, she would be dead already - at least that is what the maester had said. She pulled herself up into a chair, slumping heavily. At least she hadn't lost the power of speech. At length Ryker returned with several guards.

"...To the Rock. Quickly..." She vomited once again and began shivering. Slowly the poison worked its way downwards, causing a trembling in the stomach. That is when the bleeding began. It began as a trickle but began to flow more freely. She attempted to staunch it as much as possible before the guard brought in a litter. She was vulnerable, ill and on death's door, but this was not a time for modesty. This was a time for saving herself.

Clegane burst back into the room, visibly disgusted. "We must go now, I've cleared a path." Nobody could see this, even Ryker knew. A carriage with drawn curtains awaited the Queen at the bottom of the tower. Soon to be Queen no more, gods willing. She was carried down and helped into the carriage. Slowly Lannister men had gathered around the carriage, the entire garrison joining the escort.

The convoy began to lurch forward, Aurelia being tended to in the carriage by two trusted women, a septa and a handmaiden. At intervals, the Queen could be heard groaning in pain as the convoy made its way through the Red Keep and King's Landing, she was loud enough to be heard by spectators.

A simple message is left to explain the Queen's absence:

"Queen Aurelia has fallen ill with a dangerous summer fever. She travels swiftly to Casterly Rock in order to be tended to by the only maester she fully trusts to heal her."

[Pontifex Maximus]

The journey back to the Rock had taken three days. Three days of agony. Three days of wishing to die. By the time the party had arrived, Aurelia was half dead, pale, and had suffered from substantial blood loss. Three days without a maester had nearly cost her her life. Now she was being rushed to her chambers in the castle. Maester Giorgio was already prepared to go to work. When Aurelia arrived, he began clicking his tongue. "Moon tea, but hardly tea. Moon extract, more like it. Lyseni traders likely brought it, sometimes it is better for business in brothels when the workers cannot conceive at all..." The Maester examined Aurelia's abdomen "The swelling is quite severe, it will have to be relieved." He began making small incisions, and soon Aurelia was laying open, as it were, on the table. "More milk of the poppy, my Lady?"

Aurelia hated this. It was completely undignified, and the sedatives only clouded her judgment beyond anything she could trust. She had put her trust in Giorgio. He began the treatment immediately and under his care, she began to mend. As Aurelia recovered, it had become obvious that her reproductive capacities had been completely destroyed. Her flower had withered from the internal hemorrhaging brought about by the elixir. The next several months would prove the diagnosis, if her moon blood stopped flowing. Only time would tell.

In the meantime, she would need to recover. Surely she would not be as active in the next few months as Queen, she had decided to inform the King.