Hello everyone! Second chapter is done I hope you'll like it

I do not own anything but my OC's.

Cassandra

If ever there was a time when Cassandra Baratheon was eager to come back to King's Landing, it was during the celebration of her insupportable, spoiled, little brother Joffrey. But somehow everytime something during her journey didn't let her be there on time to leave for Casterly Rock, to attend the tourney in honor of the promising future King of Westeros.

Cassandra Baratheon was the eldest daughter of King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cercei Lannister who ruled Westeros from the mountains of Dorne in the South to the cold Wall in the North, where Cassie spent most of the year.

Yes, because Cassandra Baratheon wasn't only a princess but she was one of what was historically called a Keeper of Light. Or for the most superstitious, like her mother, a Black Eyed Witch, because of the color of their eyes, orbits and pupils, they got at the moment of their birth. Maester Pycelle, who was supposed to be the wiser man in the Capital, said that it was to show their very soul, black and empty.

The Keepers of Light had a terrible power which must have been taken under control constantly by handling their emotions. With just a touch they could subjugate the unfortunate who ends up as the Keeper's slave. And if this was not enough to scare off, if a Keeper didn't have her emotions, anger, fear, joy, love… under perfect control she would become a fury who could subjugate without the touch.

The Keepers of Light were only girls and it wasn't possible to predict their birth, it just happened, especially during the Summer. On Winter not even a Keeper was ever born.

After the Conquest the Targaryen decided to conduct an annual census to take every Keeper and send them to the Wall to help the Night's Watch to protect the realm. They said it was to have better protection, but Cassie knew that it was just to have them under control. Targaryens were cowards after all.

That's the reason why the princess didn't live in King's Landing. Not the she had ever complained about that. Her travelling forced her not to spend a lot of time with her family and she was praying that she wouldn't have to see her mother and Joff as well as all the other she can't stand in the Capital that time.

Although something was different in King's Landing and it wasn't because her mother wasn't around, but because Jon Arryn got seriously ill.

Jon Arryn was the Hand of the King and almost a father to Robert Baratheon. He was a just and kind man, probably the kindest in all the Capital and the only man in the South who got her father's trust.

Cassie arrived in King's Landing just that morning so she decided to go and give her respects to the ill old man.

She walked in the corridor made of red stones which didn't stop shining because of the sun, even too much to her liking. It was funny how a place so rotten could glow that much under the light.

In the corridor her footsteps were louder than usual and her wild black hair waved against her back, if her mother had been there she would have obligated her to fix it.

But she is not here, isn't she? Cassie thought with a big smile on her face.

Cercei Lannister wasn't a lovable woman, she never cared how her children behaved. Actually her children except for Cassie. She always did something wrong, it didn't matter how much she tried… not that Cassie ever tried hard anyway. But it was funny how her mother's face became all red everytime she was mad at her elder daughter.

When Cassandra arrived at Jon's door she knocked, hoping that his wife Lysa Arryn wasn't there. Lysa Arryn was a peculiar woman, creepy actually. Totally creepy. Something in that woman wasn't right and after the birth of her first child, Robyn Arryn, she was even worst, she saw enemies everywhere. Everytime Cassie came back to King's Landing she found her crazier more and more.

That's what happened when marriage was the last hope to get troupes!

In fact Jon Arryn had to marry Lysa, who was a Tully before her wedding, to have Riverrun's army.

Cassie was lucky in that manner… she couldn't get marry. Not only because Keepers of Light couldn't be Ladies of any castle, but because she would have subjected her lover. A Keeper of Light couldn't lie with a man, without making him her slave.

Indeed in Castel Black no man had ever came too close to one of them. Scared bastards.

But marriages weren't all bad, well… most of them were actually, like her parents'. But Eddard Stark and Catelyn Tully, Lysa's sister, had to marry before Cassie was born, and for what she knew they had something like the perfect life. The perfect family for the perfect marriage. And Cassie knew because she met the Starks often. In fact since her first travel to the North she spent three or four days in Winterfell and a lot more on her way back to the South. She also knew the Stark children and they were… different. But different was good for Cassie. No one was different in King's Landing.

Very often she thought that if she had had brothers like the Starks maybe she wouldn't have hated them.

It wasn't like she hated her brothers, except for Joffrey. Joffrey she hated.

But her youngest brothers Myrcella and Tommen she didn't but she didn't love them either. In her defense Cassie barely knew them, her mother wouldn't let her spend much time with them.

"Come in" Cassie gnashed her teeth hearing Maester Pycelle's voice. She always needed a lot of patience with that old man. Taking a breath she entered the room.

"Princess!" the Maester exclaimed standing on his feet. There wasn't respect in his eyes, just fear. He had always looked at her like that. If only he had done his readings right he would have known that she was dangerous only if she wanted to be.

Cassie rolled her eyes "How is he?" she asked without looking at the old man.

"His fever is high, princess" Pycelle answered with a shaky whisper "I gave him the milk of the poppies"

Painkiller… great. It must have been worse that she thought.

"Cassandra?" his voice was so low, that even an answer from the Gods would have been more perceptible. But when he opened his eyes and he looked at her he started to stir.

"I have to tell you…" he said starting to sweating "I need to…"

Jon seemed desperate, he kept moving and he tried to get on his elbows but he was too weak for it. Cassie sat next to him trying to calm him down, or at least make him to stay still.

"… I need to tell you..." Cassie looked him in the eyes, she had always trusted him, so she nodded to let him know that she would have listened to him. But she would have been the only one.

Without taking her gaze away from the man next to her, she said:

"Get out"

Pycelle stared at her with wide eyes "My princess…"

"I like when you call me like that" Cassie answered turning to the Maester "But maybe it would be more pleasant to me if you say my mistress"

Pycelle's face was white as his long beard and Cassandra even saw him shake slightly. It was a funny view really. But it was soon gone, because the Maester nearly ran out of the room.

Now they could have talked in peace. Jon voice was too low to be heard by anyone, especially from Maester Pycelle. How old was he by the way? One hundred and fifty? Or something like that?

"Where were you?" the poor man lying next to her asked in a whisper.

"Lost on the King's Road" she said smiling "I will never learn the right way, right?" Jon coughed. He was suffering.

"You have to…" Cassandra frowned looking at the man who was trying to talk.

"… You need to hurry…" Hurry? Hurry to do what?

"Cassandra…" he said opening his eyes a little more "… Flea Bottom…"

Flea Bottom was the poorest part of the Capital. No noble ever went there. Well no noble except for Cassie.

Cassie always loved to walk, she knew every part of King's Landing. She mostly like Flea Bottom because she could have been alone there. Cassandra Baratheon always walked alone, not by choice at first. Indeed after her first time at the Wall her mother decided to give Cassie's guard escort to the poor little Joff.

"Joff is the future king after all" her mother said to her "He needs protection more than anyone. And you can protect yourself"

Of course she could. Cassie was trained by Sandor Clagane since she could hold a sword, but it was nice to know where her mother's priorities laid.

And with her escort even Sandor Clagane was sent completely to Joffrey. That was too bad, Sandor was the only one in King's Landing she wanted to spend time with. He was the only one who was different in that place.

"Flea Bottom, Cassandra!" he shouted taking her wrist "You have to go!"

His grip was tight, very tight, deadly tight. How could he have been so strong?

"You have to go…" but the door burst open and her father's thundering voice echoed in the room. It was so loud that probably he had been heard even in Flea Bottom.

"Cassandra!" Robert said.

"Hello Father" she replied still in Jon's hard grip.

Robert Baratheon was standing right in front of her. Whoever ever met Cassie said that she was the exact copy of the King. Same black hair, same blue eyes, same attitude and same perfect warrior figure. At least his former perfect warrior figure.

Robert Baratheon was a little different from when he was younger, well maybe a little more than a little. He used to be tall, handsome and fit. And he still was tall but what once was fit had now become fat. And if that was the mirror of her future, perhaps Cassie should have had to stop eating so many biscuits.

"Your mother is not here to bother me and you come back to take her place?" Cassie rolled her eyes, still trying to free herself .

"I am alright, Father. Thanks for asking" her father looked at her, he was not happy not even a bit. She should have known he would have been sober with Jon in that condition.

"Why did you send the old man away?" Pycelle entered the room without making a sound. Cassie glanced at her father. He couldn't stand Pycelle more than her, she was sure he would have sent the old man away too.

"Step away from him, Cassandra!" Jon was still struggling telling her to go to Flea Bottom and his grip was still around her wrist.

"You've got to be kidding me" Cassie mumbled turning to Jon.

"Alright, alright! I'll go and see" she said to the man who nodded losing his grip, giving Cassie the time to free herself.

Damn he could have been ill, but his grip was still pretty damn strong.

"You need to know that…" he muttered something but her father's voice covered Jon's low whisper.

"Why are you here anyway?" Robert voice was loud.

"Why are you here anyway?" she said back "Isn't your son's birthday? Or something…"

Cassie almost laugh. Her father never seemed to notice her brother's birthday, she didn't know about the others, she was never at King's Landing. For her birthday though she always received a crow when she was at the Wall, but maybe it wasn't even her father who wrote the message for her. Not that it said a lot, the words where always the same:

"Happy name's day.

Father".

At least it was more than what her mother had ever wished to her.

Cassie's messages for her brothers were exactly like his. She never remembered which date was for who but of something she was sure, they weren't for Joffrey, never for Joffrey.

"You can go, Cassandra" her father said ignoring her last question.

Cassie looked the broken king sitting next to his friend. He never looked at his children with so much care or love. She often thought that Robert Baratheon didn't have the life that he dreamt to have when he was just a boy. Still she couldn't know for sure, nobody talked about her parents' life before her father became King of the Seven Kingdoms. Cercei Lannister didn't like to talk about it, there were too much irrelevant details in that story. Not that her parents have ever told the bedtime story. But to get an education the only thing they needed to know was that the Baratheons and the Starks fought against the Targaryens and won. But everytime the Queen quickly told them the story, and only after Joff loud request, she always forgot to mention Lyanna Stark. The girl that Robert and Eddard had come to rescue from Rhaegar Targaryen.

And her father, everytime someone asked him to tell that story of the war, he always just got up to go in his chambers.

Everyone in the Seven Kingdoms were happy, but her father never seemed so happy. Well she couldn't blame him, he has a hyena for wife.

Cassie left the room after have looked at her father and his ill friend for the last time.

She spent all the day alone, like always. In that period the Red Keep was so peaceful that she could barely recognize it. There weren't so many people around and not as many spies as she was used to.

King's Landing wasn't a place where it was possible to live safely. There was always someone ready to use, betray and kill someone else. The only people who could live in the Capitol were people who had spent a lot of time there and mostly not honorable or honest men.

The next morning she was woke up by loud knocks on her door. She looked at her window, the sun was barely up. What was happening?

"My princess!" a servant run in the room, she was breathing heavy like she had run all the way there "It's Lord Arryn" Cassie got up from the bed already knowing what she wanted to tell her "He died tonight, my princess"

Cassandra looked down, she couldn't believe how death always surprised her. It didn't matter how great a warrior or how noble he has been, the death had come and took him away with a simple fever.

"The King wants to see you" She nodded at the servant who bowing her head left the room in silence.

Cassie started to get dressed. She was used to death, a lot of Keepers of Light and Nights Watchers died every day behind the Wall, but still Jon was good. Probably the only good man left in all King's Landing and death had to choose him before others.

Gods like to make fun of us, she thought leaving her room to go to her father. He probably already knew what had happened and she wanted to see him before he would got drunk.

"Father" she said once she entered his chambers. There he was, the King of the Seven Kingdoms sitting on a chair looking at the sea below the Red Keep. Cassie wondered for a minute how he could feel in that moment. He lost the man he trusted the most in the Capital and now he was alone against lots of hypocrites. Cassie really didn't envy her father at all.

"You heard, I presume" the man spoke still looking ahead of him.

"I heard" she said without getting closer. Her father nodded "Why did you want to see me?" she asked after a moment of silent. She was sure her father didn't call her to talk about what an amazing man Jon Arryn was or how much they all would have missed him. He have never talked about his feelings, not with her and not with anyone else.

"For how long you'll be staying here, Cassandra?" she rolled her eyes at his question. What? He wanted to send her already away? But strangely she wouldn't have been surprised by that.

"I'll stay for other…" her mother and Joff would have come back in a couple of weeks so she was safe. Still the travel to the Wall took a month and she wanted to spend some days with the Starks before came back to her duties "Ten days, I think"

"No, you'll stay more" her father's words shocked her, something like that had never happened in ten years of traveling. He stood up from his chair and looked at her.

"You'll attend Jon Arryn's funeral and wait for your mother to return" Cassie agreed with the first part but the second made her laugh.

"She will be here in a month" she exclaimed looking straight in her father's eyes "I can't stay that long" and not only because she didn't want to meet her mother.

"She will be here sooner" Cassie puffed, she didn't know her mother had learnt how to fly during her absence "I wrote her about Jon's conditions before your arrival" the King said pouring some wine in a goblet "And I commanded her to come back earlier, they are on their way here" Cassie could picture Joff's face spending his birthday on a carriage crying because he wanted to celebrate with a tourney in his honor "And once they'll arrive we all leave for the North. We are heading to Winterfell"

She stared at her father with wide eyes for a moment.

"I'm sorry, what?!"