As the Silent Sisters marched in a circle around the now cold body of Jon Arryn, two shadows stood in the wings, watching silently. One looked on with worry, the other in anger.
Valance Baratheon watched on as the man she had known as a father lay on top of a large ceremonial stone bed. Stones placed over his eyes painted the same brown his wise and kind eyes had once been. It was just three days ago she had been speaking with Lord Arryn in the gardens. It seemed that the Lord of the Vale had taken a sudden interest in King Robert's bastards as of late.
King Robert Baratheon was the oldest of the Baratheon siblings. Seventeen years ago, Robert had won the Iron Throne from the Mad King, though any child who had listened to the stories their Septa told knew it was Jaime Lannister that had killed the Mad King. Stabbed the Targaryen king in the back, like a coward, Valance thought to herself, clicking her tongue. Jaime had killed the Mad King, but it was her brother and Eddard Stark that fought at the Trident. Eddard Stark had been more than a brother to Robert since they had been wards under Jon Arryn.
When the war had finally ended, Lyanna Stark, Ned's younger sister, the women the whole war had started over, was declared dead and Robert was forced to marry Jaime Lannister's twin sister Cersei, simply for her father's gold. There was a constant struggle between Robert and Cersei, but Valance refused to take a side in it, like the other court members did.
Valance knew Robert was a horrible husband to the lioness, bringing in whores from the brothel nearly every night, only going to his wife's bed when he was drunk and fathering bastards from every realm in Westeros. Valance had seen it once, the love Cersei had had for Robert. Though it was quickly stomped out when she finally learned he would always prefer the ghost of Lyanna Stark to her. Truthfully, Valance remembered nothing of Lyanna seeing as Valance was still nothing more than a babe when the rebellion started and ended.
Cersei's side of this was no better. She thought it was a secret. What she did during her supposedly quiet nights and who she did it with, 'they' knew. 'They' being Petyr Baelish, Varys, and Valance Baratheon - Littlefinger the Master of Coin, The Spider the Master of Whisperers, and The Fox the Mistress of the Arcane.
The Fox had tried to speak reason to Lord Arryn, telling him that he was bringing attention to himself by searching out Robert's bastards in such a manner, but he would hear none of it. He kept going on about how 'the seed is strong,' as though he thought no one would be about to figure out the man's riddle.
Tearing her stormy gaze away from the body, she glanced over from her position behind the pillars to the women standing on the other side of the room.
The other women was the famous Lannister Lioness herself, Queen Cersei. Cersei looked at Jon Arryn in almost what seemed like worry, but her eyes softened as the Kingslayer himself came to her side. Though she was not close enough to hear their conversation, Valance had spent enough of her time learning how to read people to know they were speaking of Lord Arryn.
The Baratheon's jaw tightened as she watched the two share a smile. They thought they were untouchable, the Lannisters. In a way they were. Tywin Lannister was the head of House and richest man in the Kingdom, though it was arguable they were the most hated. As if sensing her, Cersei locked gazes with Valance. A green fire and a grey storm had met on a silent battlefield, challenging one another to look away. It wasn't unknown that the two nobles despised one another. Valance knew how manipulative the Lioness could be and refused to allow her brother to become a pawn to her.
They were both forced to stop when the doors to the small council chamber came open and marched out King Robert, followed by Renly Baratheon, Littlefinger, Maester Pycelle, and the Spider. Valance walked out from the shadow of the columns and went to stand beside Renly. Renly was the youngest of her elder brothers and by far her favorite. The two being only one year apart in age, they had often been misjudged as twins by those who looked on from afar. Up close, there were only a few subtle features that set the two apart. The eyes were what normally gave it away; Valance's eyes were a piercing storm grey that guarded her every thought, whilst Renly's eyes were a bright green that shined with charisma. Renly's height and strong body often reminded her of what Robert had once looked like. Now her oldest brother was overweight, due to his excessive feasting and drinking. She scarcely remembered the Robert that had reminded her of Renly, muscular and strong enough to cave a man's chest piece in with a single swing of his war hammer. Renly and Valance shared a quick look before turning to look at their brother.
"Your Grace, if I may? Though Lord Arryn's death is fresh in our minds, we must make haste in choosing a new Hand. Also, may I suggest-" Measter Pycelle spoke. Valance sighed remembering that a new Hand would have to be chosen. The Hand was in charge of everything that wasn't important enough for Robert to attend to, or matters that he was too drunk to see to, whichever one it was.
Robert scoffed, "Seven Hells, it's only been four days! I am the King and I will choose who I wish and when I wish!"
Cersei came to stand behind Robert. Looking around, Valance noticed the Kingslayer was nowhere to be seen. "My love, he is right. Perhaps it would be a wise choice to choose someone younger for this burden. Someone who is young, but also strong. Someone like Jaime."
Valance narrowed her eyes at the lioness. She had to deal with Cersei as a queen for seventeen years of her life. Since she was eight her years had been tainted with the Lannister's presence and she would be damned if she was going to let another Lannister take such power at King's Landing. "Seven Hells, Robert. Go on and send a raven to Winterfell. We both know he is the only one that can be trusted with this. Besides, it is not like you were not going to give the damned thing to Ned anyway," Valance spoke, motioning to the gold pin that signified the so called 'honor' as Hand of the King.
No one in the room looked shocked by the women's outburst. Anyone who came across the youngest Baratheon knew she stuck true to her family's motto, "Ours Is the Fury". While other women of King's Landing were quiet and chose to gossip, Valance Baratheon was outspoken and straight to her point. If it wasn't her status as sister of the King, she most likely would have gotten killed by men such as Gregor Clegane long ago. There was no doubt in her mind that the Mountain had been waiting for a chance to rip her in half ever since she had made a 'subtle' comment about his Lion master and what how she would enjoy seeing Clegane's head on a spike. The Queen glared at her and opened her mouth to speak, but Robert beat her to it.
"Quiet, all of you! I don't want to hear another damned thing about this Hand business until I am ready to decide! Baelish, send some of your finest to my chambers!" The King ordered marching off. Littlefinger nodded and went on his way. Valance watched warily as Baelish left with his average smirk. Baelish was the owner of the best brothels in King's Landing and was as well informed by his whores as Varys and Valance were by their spies. Apparently men had very loose lips when a women was opening her legs for him. Renly turned to leave as well, wrapping an arm familiarly around his sister's waist, leading Valance out of the room.
The two Baratheons walked in silence, both earning bows from the passing servants and guards. A few maids discreetly sized Renly up, some of the younger ones giggled quietly. Valance smirked to herself. If only they knew, they would probably throw themselves from the highest tower in grief, she thought, thinking of her brothers bedchamber preference. Walking through the gardens, the two took a seat on the bench, staring over the Blackwater. "Sister, I thought you were asked to keep silence in the presence of the council. You have enough enemies among the court already."
Valance scoffed at her brother, "Please, brother, enemy implies that I find one of them on a close enough intelligence level to be considered a threat and I do not. Besides, what would you expect me to do? Allow those gutless snakes to control Robert? He's drunk and unguided as it is."
Renly nodded his agreement. "His decisions are fueled by either rage or wine these days, the death of Lord Arryn only making it worse."
"Exactly my point. He is more of a puppet then a King these days." A hint of saddess came to her voice at this. There was a time when Robert would destroy any that threatened his control. That time was long gone. Now she wasn't sure whether he was oblivious to what was going on around him or simply chose to ignore it.
"All the more reason I should be King," Renly murmured almost to himself. Sighing, Valance turned and studied her brother, who was now looking over the Black, his fists clenched at his sides. She would never voice it due to her love for Renly, but he was wrong. A attentive and caring king, yes, he would be, but facing facts, Renly knew nothing about war. He was only a year older than herself when Robert's Rebellion began. Even more so her place would not change. She would still have to protect him from being exploited by a game her loving brother had no experience in playing.
She reached for his hand, unclenching it, "My love, it would be no different."
"No different? I am fully aware of what goes on around me unlike our drunken brother." He said seeming almost insulted.
"You despise this game as much as Robert. You are as vulnerable as he is, but by different standards."
Renly took his hand from hers, "He is vulnerable because he chooses to be. After the war he stopped caring about the Realm. He had the throne and he had proven his strength, he had no reason to continue fighting."
"Careful, brother, it's beginning to sound like treason. It was never about the that chair to Robert and you know it."
Renly looked off as if in remembrance, "Oh, yes. He risked his life and ours for Lady Lyanna. All of this for a women that he had only met twice."
"I will admit I haven't always agreed with his decisions. There are many others much more suited for the throne rather than Robert in his current state. Ned being one of the few, but seeing as he didn't take the position when it was available, being the Hand is close enough to do some good. Besides, I'm doing the realm a favor keeping that oath-breaking Lannister from becoming Hand, only terrible things would come from that. Though what is to come I fear is no better."
All Renly could do was sigh at his younger sister. There was truly no arguing with her. "No better? How is it no better allowing Lord Stark to become Hand?"
"Ned is strong and honorable. That is his downfall, the Red Keep is home to snakes, Ned's honor would swallow him here. Either allow a good man to get hurt or give a dangerous on power to stab us in the back. It is the lesser of two evils."
Renly watched at the sun bleed across the Blackwater, a question sitting on the tip of his tongue though he was unsure how it should be asked, "Valance…. Have you… 'seen' anything of importance lately?" Finally he looked at his sister.
The Fox nodded, standing and smoothing out her gold and black skirt, "I have seen what I have been seeing for months now - a direwolf and a stag both dead… it seems they were the cause of the other's death." As she finished, she turned back to Renly, her dearest brother, the only one who was aware of her so called 'gift', "But pay me no mind, dearest brother, my dreams should be none of your concern. I shall see you in the morning" Before Renly could reply, Valance took her leave in long strides.
Since the day Valance was born, she had been cursed. At the tender age of six, she had woken up screaming in her chambers at Storm's End. She had dreamt that she was drowning, a raging storm making the waves too strong for her to stay afloat. Later that afternoon, she and Renly were informed by Ser Fell that their parents had perished in a storm returning from a wedding in the Free Cities.
The Fox's arcane sight was a bigger advantage than many would ever know, but it still scared her. She had little control of when it happened. They were forced upon her by something higher in power.
She soon reached her destination, in front of the door of the Hand's chambers. She nodded to the two guards on either side. Bowing to her, one of the guards gave a hard knock. "Lady Baratheon, sister of the King, wishes entrance." He spoke strongly waiting for response.
Hesitantly a voice replied, "She may enter." As the door was opened to her, Valance stepped through.
Her gaze soon found the slender form of Lysa Arryn sitting next to the fire, her son Robert in her lap, or Robin, as Lysa preferred to call him, seeing as she did not want her son to be associated with that raging alcoholic. "Lady Baratheon, what do I owe this visit?" she questioned sharply, glaring at the Baratheon.
Valance didn't pay her a glance as she looked upon young Robin. He looked so much like Lord Arryn, yet he was so much like Lysa in spirit it nearly disgusted her to look at him. She knew she must help him… for the sake of the Arryn line.
Finally looking toward Lysa, Valance felt almost sorry for the Tully girl. When Lysa was just younger than Valance was now, she was forced to marry Lord Arryn side-by-side with her sister who was luckier to have been given to Eddard Stark the same day. The years had not been as kind to Lysa as they had to Catelyn. While Catelyn aged as fine wine and had been able to give the Warden of the North three fine boys and two girls, Lysa looked twice as old as her elder sister and had only been able to produce one son who, as Valance understood, was far from healthy.
"Lady Arryn, as much as I hate to admit you, are not as unintelligent as I believed," the Fox stated, walking around the room glancing at what was left of Lord Arryn's items. As Lysa opened her mouth to reproach, Valance raised her hand in a quieting motion. "You know as well as I do what happened to Lord Arryn. I will be truthful with you Lady Arryn, I harbor no care for your safety, but I owe it to Jon to help protect the heir to the Vale. If you stay in the Captial you will be killed."
"You say you want to save my son, yet you threaten me."
"I'm not threatening you Lady Arryn. I am simply making you aware of your situation." She hoped the women would be able to see some kind of sense. Before her head ended up on a spike courtesy of the Lannisters. "In a matter of eight days, you and Robin will leave the Red Keep and head straight for the Eyrie. You will not stop or attempt to make contact with anyone on the road. I have personally chosen your escort."
Lysa continued to at the Baratheon beauty. She had already lost her husband to the Baratheons, what if they meant to take her son as well? Getting caught leaving the capital by a Lannister guard would signal suspicion, and could have easily meant death for her and Robin.
"Why would I trust you in the first place? You said yourself, my life means nothing. Do you plan to kill me off as well, like Jon?" Lysa spat. Before she could continue her rant, Valance was standing over her. Taking Lysa's chin into her hand, Valance leaned down to look into Lysa's nearly mad eyes. You could accuse Valance of many things, but insinuating she had a part in the murder of the man that had raised her as his own, that was dangerous.
"Watch yourself, Tully. I think you are forgetting just who you can and can not disrespect. I'm not asking you to trust me, I'm ordering you listen to me." Valance said with a deep growl pressing her nails into Lysa's chin, ignoring the scared whining coming from Robin.
If looks could truly kill Valance would be at the bottom of Blackwater by now, "You can not order me, Baratheon. I am Lady of the Vale and you are an unmarried snake-"
Valance was quick to stop her with the digging of her nails into Lysa's flesh. "You are the Lady to the dead Lord of the Vale. That poor excuse for an Arryn is soon to be Lord of the Vale, gods help them," Valance spat looking at Robin. "You have no power in the Red Keep. I am still sister of the King and sister of the Lords of Storm's End and the Dragonstone. I do have the power to order you and if you care for the life of your son you will listen to me. In eight days' time, you will meet your escort in the courtyard in the night, you will follow them and they will lead you out of the keep. Do you understand?"
Lysa nodded and gave a gasp of relief as Valance released her chin and stood back up to her full height towering over Lysa, "I'm happy you agreed, have a nice night, Lady Arryn."
Valance walked out the door and headed back toward her chambers. She was met with the bow of her handmaiden, Vera. Vera was far from the average highborn girl the noble lady's normally took as a handmaiden. Vera was in reality a slave girl from Braavos. Braavos was the true Free City, it kept no slaves and rarely does business with the slaver cities. Despite this Vera's case was special. Growing up the girl had the appearance of a Black Pearl with her long silky black hair, equally dark eyes and copper skin. Traveling with her mother in Volantis a slave trader was captivated with her beauty and kidnapped the young Braavosi. From that point she was sold in Essos having several different masters, each seeming to be worse than the other. Vera's beautiful copper skin was marred with the traces of past abuse by her masters. Scars were evident on her arms, legs and back, of which could be easily seen by the Braavosi garments she still wore. It wasn't until Vera was fully a women that Valance met her while traveling Essos. Valance bought Vera's freedom for her and offered Vera a chance to return to Braavos with her. Many things changed for Vera while she journeyed with the Fox. For returning her freedom to her Vera was grateful to Valance, and loyal.
The two women were polar opposites in a way, while Valance was mentally capable, able to bend people's will with words, Vera was physically hardened and could handle much more in that aspect that Valance could ever.
As Vera prepared her lady's bath, Valance sat at her desk near the window carefully constructing a coded letter before attaching it to her raven's leg and sending it out. She watched as it began to fly east. "Your bath is ready," Vera stated, walking over to help Valance undress and into her bath. It was rare for Vera to call Valance titles such as 'my lady' the two had long passed that stage of formalities.
Valance sank deep into the rose water, moaning at the calming warmth. As she came back up, Vera stationed herself on a seat behind the tub and began combing through her lady's long brown hair. "You seem rather pleased with yourself. I trust everything has gone as you planned?"
A small smirk pulled at Valance's lips as she looked back over to where the raven had flown from her window. "It will. As I told you before, Vera, this game we play will soon escalate to a new danger and I plan on surviving it." How her lady had explained this 'game' the high lords play had always confused Vera to no end.
"This 'game', will you win?" Vera asked genuinely curious.
It was quiet for what seemed like hours after that. Vera moved to help Valance out of the tube. Then it was Valance that stood to her full height in the tub looking Vera in the eyes with an indescribable expression, "No, Vera, I will not win. You do not win the game of thrones. You die or you survive. No winning and no middle ground." Vera nodded, helping Valance into her night gown and bowed her way out of the room leaving Valance to her own thoughts.
As the Fox moved to lie in her bed, she was interrupted as a raven squawked, landing on her desk. The bird was quick to drop the contents from its mouth and flew back out the window as quickly as it had come. Valance moved back toward her desk, picking up the carefully folded letter. As she began to unfold it a coin fell from one of the folds falling onto the desk.
Picking it up, she held the coin between her thumb and index finger examining it and nodding her approval before continuing to open the letter. Looking at the letter, she noticed it was not written in the common tongue as she expected, though she could make out the simple two words written.
We accept.
A satisfied smirk appeared on her face. Finally at peace with her work for the day, she moved back to her bed and settled into her mass of pillows, falling asleep rather quickly.
It was the next morning that one of Robert's squire, Lancel Lannister appeared at her door with the message that the small council had been called to a meeting, for once, by Robert himself and she had been ordered to attend. The only information she had gotten was that it had to do with the choosing of a new Hand.
Vera was quick to appear at Valance's chambers, nearly pushing Lancel out of her way to reach her lady before slamming the door in her face keeping him from keeping staring lustfully at her lady. After Vera helped Valance dress, she walked to the small council room. As she approached the small council table, two servants appeared carrying a chair for her, which they set at the right end of the table, in-between Renly and Varys.
Valance chatted quietly with Varys as they waited. While Valance couldn't stand the sight of Littlefinger, and Pycelle had never interested her in a conversation, the Spider and Fox had always maintained a mutual respect, but respect and trust were never the same thing. It wasn't long until Robert came stomping into the Small Council chamber, with Cersei close behind, taking his seat at the middle of the table. It was rather strange for her brother to ever join the Small Council. Robert never cared for Small Council meetings. While he was the face of the Realms, it was the Small Council that stayed in the shadows, handling all matters from the debts of the crown to the King's justice. The three younger Baratheon siblings sat on the Council together, well it was just Renly and Valance now that Stannis had sailed for the Dragonstone.
Stannis had been the Master of Ships, chief naval officer, but it would be soon Valance would have to bring forth new candidates for the job in her brothers absence. Renly being Master of Laws supervised law enforcement throughout the Realms. Valance was the Mistress of the Arcane. Handling and attending to all matters that were mysterious or unknown to the common, mundane folk.
"Well, I hope you are all happy. I will be traveling to Winterfell in seven days. Pycelle, send a raven ahead to Ned and tell him I'm coming." Cersei glared at Robert with each word, her plan of having Jaime be named Hand had crumbled and now all Valance had to do was keep the Kingslayer out of the position of Warden of the East, the title Jon Arryn once held.
"My love, Lord Stark is the Warden of the North. Giving him two positions may be-"
"The best idea you have had in years." Valance cut in to her brother. "Ned has three fine sons, one of them is already at age to have his own keep. I'm sure Robb is more than able to keep Winterfell safe while Ned takes responsibility as Hand," Valance inquired, meeting Cersei's glare with a sly smile of her own.
"It's settled then! Valance, you will accompany us to Winterfell. It will be good to have at least one intelligent person on the King's Road, even if it is you." Robert said standing. Valance stood as well, choosing to ignore her brother's insult. Walking back to her chambers, she and Vera began to pack her things for the trip, carefully a small black box was rapped inside one of Valance's thicker gowns and tucked into the chest. Vera knew it was crucial the box did not slip open, for its contents were far too valuable.
Valance reached into her sleeve pulling out the coin she had received last night and looked over it again with a smirk. It's all about survival, she reminded herself.