I'd watch and could not save them (the emotional torture, from the head of your high table) (джен)

A mother's duty is to love and protect her children.
That is what her septas always taught her.
When she was a little girl, before the King, before Rhaenyra, but after her mother. They talked about a woman's duty, about how her life would be like when she served her husband, how she would give him children and then her duty would be mainly to them, to nurture and protect them, to raise them to be dutiful and faithful.
Alicent knows she has failed in this duty already.
She doesn't love the children.
She never has.
She failed her duty the moment she discovered there was a life growing inside her body.
She failed to love them.
But it's not too late that she cannot protect them.