I'm super sorry about the long wait on this and my other stories! I'm trying to get back into the writing groove!
Cersei looked at the people next to her. They were the second heirs to the kingdoms and she was making mental notes on all of them.
The boys were simple. Maron Greyjoy was a little boy with a snotty nose who had attached himself to Eddard Stark, who was trying to engage Stannis Baratheon in conversation and Denys Arryn apparently found something amusing about it. They were nothing of importance, and Cersei didn't care much about them anyway.
The girls were a different matter. Every girl here was a girl the prince could fall in love with, a girl that could make him pass over Cersei and want to marry them instead. Catelyn Tully, Elia Martell, Mina Tyrell, they were making polite conversation and anyone of them could all the Queen one day when Cersei knows it should be her. That's what her father had told her and Cersei believed him.
They were standing outside of the throne room, ready to meet the king as soon as he finished with what other business he was doing in there. Eddard Stark had asked her what he was like, but Cersei had been forced to admit that she had never met the king. In fact, she had never been to King's Landing. Still, her father was Hand and that meant the only person with more power in the Seven Kingdoms was the king himself, and she made sure to tell him that. Eddard Stark had just looked at her with a smile on his face and told her that she reminded him of his sister. Cersei had told him that he was nothing like her brother.
Denys Arryn had laughed at that and Cersei wondered if her father could do anything to him.
Prince Rhaegar was in the throne room too, she knew. Her father had told her to make a good impression on him, to have him fall in love with her. Cersei did not intend to disappoint her father. One day she would be Queen and one day her son would be King. Of course, she wouldn't just have a son, she would have a daughter that would become Queen after her.
Cersei would do that for Prince Rhaegar.
She would do that for herself.
She would do that for her father.
As if she had called him, her father walked out of the throne room, casting a critical eye on them all, except for Cersei herself of course. Her mother had specially instructed her on what to do today, on how not to say a thing in front of the king but to watch everything.
Cersei took a deep breath as they slowly waited to meet the royal family. Her family was counting on her to make them proud. She stood up straight and waited.
The doors opened after a few minutes and her father walked through them. His sharp eyes looked over them all as the other children situated themselves and stopped talking. Except for Cersei. She had been perfect since the moment she arrived and she saw that her father appreciated it.
"The King is ready to see you," her father began. "I am sure that all of you will bring honor to your families and your regions." Tywin Lannister looked at Cersei when he said that.
"You are ready to see him, no matter how you look. You cannot keep the king waiting, or you will regret it." Cersei didn't know why, but Eddard Stark paled.