Chapter 4

There was a certain poetic irony in this new life that she lived.

Having been groomed from an early age to be the best in everything she did and to take no prisoners as a result had left Daphne Greengrass with little empathy or compassion. She considered it a Herculean effort for anyone to be able to worm their way into her heart. Perhaps that was why she had taken it so hard that Seamus was one of the few that had and he had been taken from her as a result.

The only other friend she had garnered as a result of her time at Hogwarts was Tracey Davis. The other girls in Slytherin had annoyed her utterly and none more so than Pansy Parkinson. Perhaps that was why she trusted so little as Daphne Lannister.

Perhaps that was why her new magic was so strange.

She remembered the first time the spark of flame had landed in her hand as a babe and the spark had morphed into a flame going slowly up and down her fingers like they were water droplets. She found she could control it by concentrating hard enough and when she had wanted to extinguish it, all she had to do was think it.

As time had passed, she began to realize that her magic here was more….primordial than it had ever been.

She couldn't apparate which was annoying as there was an inherent convenience in being able to get anywhere one wanted by spinning on one's heel. She couldn't summon objects that she wanted anymore which made getting a book down off the top shelf of the library a nuisance. She couldn't use charms to lessen the weight of items which made carrying anything more than four pounds at her new age of four very aggravating.

All in all, it was an adjustment period. She could no longer hiss the curses that she wanted on people who deserved it. She could no longer speak the words to spells that were familiar and wait for those familiar things to happen and she could no longer wave a wand about like she had done for the better part of seven years like she had done at school.

Her magic was new, it was different and it was a little frightening. She could think about wanting more light when she was reading and all of a sudden the candle next to her would blaze with vivid brightness. She could think about being thirsty and wanting a glass of water and all of a sudden the pitcher next to her would fill.

And perhaps the most frightening piece of magic of all was her ability to move solid pieces of earth.

A few months ago Daphne had snuck down to the shoreline and had wanted to read atop one of the rocks but it was too far from the water and too close to the castle.

Her last thought before something extraordinary had happened was, I wish this rock would move ten feet forward.

And it had.

Before her disbelieving eyes, the massive boulder that had probably been there for hundreds of years had begun to shudder and then slowly but surely roll towards the shoreline.

Daphne had stared at it in utter astonishment for a moment before she had feared that someone would see had raised a hand and had cried out the one word she could think of.

"Stop!"

And it had.

And right then and there, she glanced down at her hands and wondered in a mix of terror and excitement, what am I capable of?

There had been legends in old books at Hogwarts about the Movers, those people who had the power of the natural elements at their fingertips. Apparently Merlin and Morgana had both had the gift. But somehow Daphne had learned that for all of Merlin's cunning and skill in the magical arts, he had only mastered the skill of Moving air and water.

Those two elements were seen as light magic and earth and fire were rejected and seen as evil.

It seemed only fitting that Morgana had chosen those two to practice as she and Merlin were polar opposites.

But Moving all four?

It was unheard of.

If only Malfoy could see me now, the blonde thought to herself with a cold smirk that day on the beach. I'm a Mover….I have a gift that hasn't been seen in centuries and now no one from Hogwarts will ever know. Seamus will never know….

At the memory of the freckleface smiling Gryffindor with his Irish brogue and his dancing blue eyes, Daphne pressed a fist to her chest as a sharp stabbing pain coursed through her.

She closed her eyes and forced herself to take a few deep breaths and gradually the ache subsided. It had come before and each time she had forced it to retreat and it had, gliding back behind a door in her heart until her memory would call for it again.

Pain and memory, those two things were becoming inseparable as she grew up as a Lannister.

"Come on Greengrass, I want to see that pretty smile. I know you have it, I've seen it before."

"I don't smile Finnegan and even if I did, it wouldn't be a happy smile. I don't have one of those."

"Really? So what sort of smile do you have then?"

"It's called a triumphant smile, Finnegan. A Greengrass only smiles when she or he achieves victory. There is no other reason to smile."

"Bloody Merlin, you Slytherin girls are really highstrung aren't you? That's it, you've challenged me."

"In what way?"

"I'm going to get you to smile. And if it's as pretty as I think it is….this whole castle will be full of sunshine."

And smile she had. She had smiled the most with him out of anyone else in that castle. Even Astoria.

Maybe that's why Daphne had felt an odd sense of disconnect when she had arrived here and was feeling one now as she and her siblings waited anxiously for news of their mother's delivery.

Tywin Lannister had disappeared somewhere, no doubt to pace about or handle some political business to take his mind off the birth.

He might even be in with Joanna but somehow Daphne couldn't picture her grim and unsmiling father assisting in the birthing chamber.

Although I would think that Aunt Genna would be there. I don't think Father would trust anyone else.

Her father's boisterous and rather plump sister had arrived a few days before and had bustled about the keep, making sure Joanna didn't do much and bossing the servants around as she had no doubt done when she had been a girl here.

She had coaxed a smile out of Daphne a few times prompting the icy blonde to be somewhat warm to her.

"Do you think Mama's alright?" Jaime asked and his question disturbed the tense silence of the playroom where the three siblings were sequestered.

"Don't be such a baby, of course she's alright!" Cersei snapped from her place by the window.

"He's not being a baby," Daphne said calmly. "Having a baby is serious business. It's okay to be nervous."

"Father says that a Lannister fears nothing," Cersei said imperiously.

"Spoken like a man who has been afraid many times in his life," Daphne said looking at her severely. "A name doesn't stop you from being afraid. What you do stops you from being afraid."

Cersei's eyes widened and her lower lip curled. "I'm going to tell father you said that!"

Daphne smiled at her serenely. "No you won't…because you know I'm right. No one's name gets them anything in this world. If you want something…you have to go after it."

Then she turned and looked out the window and said no more. Cersei muttered something under her breath but the other blonde didn't near it, nor did she much care.

The amount of adversity she had faced already was something her supposed older sister couldn't even begin to comprehend. She would never know what it was like to lose the love of your life, the one person who knew how to make you smile on days you thought were so dark that they must have been born in a tunnel.

No one would ever understand….because no one would ever know.

Daphne Greengrass was now a bitter dream, a nightmare perhaps that only had to have been lived once to have been felt.

While Cersei fumed over in the corner, Daphne felt a cool shadow pass over her and looked up to find Jaime standing there.

He had his hands behind his back and he almost looked uncertain of himself.

"What is it Jaime?" she asked.

"Can I sit with you?" he asked quietly. "I don't like it when Cersei's mean, and she's mean right now."

The other blonde glanced over at their older sister who had stopped pacing and appeared to be watching them with narrowed eyes.

"Of course," Daphne said and patted the seat beside her.

Not only did she want to infuriate Cersei, her brother did have a point. The eldest of the twins was mean and spiteful and reminded Daphne a lot of Pansy Parkinson in her younger Hogwarts days. People like that needed to be reminded every once and a while that they didn't rule the roost. Cersei may have been the eldest, but Daphne was wickedly confident and far more powerful than she would ever be.

"Do you want it to be a boy or a girl?" she asked when Jaime had seated himself.

His face brightened. "I'd like a little brother. I already have two sisters. I think that's enough."

Daphne smiled slightly. "I think so too. Besides, we need to be even, two boys and two girls makes four and that's a good number."

There was the sudden sound of pounding feet outside the door to the nursery and all three of the children's heads snapped up at the noise.

"What's going on?" Jaime asked fearfully.

"I don't know," Daphne replied.

A cold feeling had settled in her stomach and she swallowed hard, remembering the feeling that something dreadful had happened. It was the same feeling she had had when Astoria came running into the dorm to tell her the news about Seamus

Something terrible had happened.

"Stay here," she snapped at Jaime and ran for the door before anyone could stop her.

Just as she wrenched it open, she saw servants running down the hall and a horrible mourning keening cry pierced the air causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end.

She closed her eyes having never heard such a sound before and then bolted from the room and down the hall.

She could hear the footsteps of Jaime and Cersei behind her but at the moment it didn't much matter. She kept running towards that horrible keening cry and the hallways continued to be eerily silent in between its punctuation of the air.

The blonde and her two older siblings skidded around the corner and came to a halt when they reached a hallway that was full of servants milling about. Some were standing in clumps muttering to each other, others were pacing back and forth wringing their hands with worried looks on their faces.

The one thing they all had in common however was the fact that they were standing outside of the Lady of Casterly Rock's chambers.

Daphne glimpsed her Uncle Kevan standing there as well and the sick feeling in her stomach intensified.

"What's happening?" she demanded.

At the sound of her small voice breaking the silence, all heads in the corridor swiveled towards her, even her father's brother.

"Daphne, Jaime, Cersei," he said his eyes widening at the sight of them. "I thought your instructions were to remain in the nursery. Why are you here?"

Daphne folded her arms across her chest. "My apologies Uncle, I didn't realize that upon hearing screaming you were to remain in one place, especially when the screaming may be that of your mother's."

Kevan Lannister wanted to flinch at that cold tone. It was almost as if Tywin's words were coming out of the mouth of a four year old.

She was just like the Lord of Casterly Rock but in miniature and it frightened him at times. From what his brother had told him, Daphne was wickedly smart and progressing leaps and bounds past Jaime and Cersei in almost every respect. She was more of a lady than Cersei who simply demanded that things be done for her because she was a Lannister and she was far more manipulative and cunning than Jaime who had never had the patience for anything other than pure unadulterated action. He didn't take to his numbers and letters like she did and she was already reading normal letters.

She was an anomaly but his brother talked about her with a certain pride in his voice that Kevan rarely heard. He knew his brother was a tad disappointed to have more girls than boys as he wanted as many male Lannisters as possible however that dismay had quickly morphed into tentative surprise and then pride as she surpassed her siblings in every way possible.

Daphne even had a way of speaking that was cold but determined enough to make her uncle think that she would be convincing enough to lead an army out to battle.

It was a ludicrous thought but one that he couldn't seem to shake.

"Be that as it may niece," he said once he had gathered his wits once more. "Your lord father would not be pleased to see you here as it would – "

He was cut off when the cry sounded in the corridor again but this time it was different. It was softer and more mewling than before and Kevan's breath caught as that noise meant that the babe had come.

"You there," he barked at one of the servants standing near them. "Please take my nieces and nephew back to the nursery and remain there with them until they are called for. This is no place for children."

The words had no sooner left his mouth before Daphne decided she was going to get no more information out of him. Her uncle was a fair man but he deferred to her father in almost every detail, something the small blonde couldn't abide by.

So she waited until the servant neared them and then ducked under her arm before darting forward and racing down the hall once more.

Daphne heard Kevan calling her name after her but she didn't stop and she didn't look back. The lack of footsteps behind her made it apparent that Jaime and Cersei had been caught by either her uncle or the servant.

No matter, they were of no consequence anyway.

She finally reached the doorway of her mother's chambers and pushed it inward only to be confronted with a startling sight.

There were only a few people in the room, two servants and her mother the former of which were standing by the bed. One of them was holding a bowl of water and a cloth in one hand and wiping down the forehead of the Lady of Casterly Rock gently.

The other servant was standing with her back to the door by the window holding a bundle in her arms.

Right away, Daphne knew that her new sibling had already been born. She also knew that the situation was serious as the room was completely quiet.

"Mother?" she said softly and her quiet speech seemed to crack through the room like a whip. Both servants started slightly and swiveled towards her like they had been shocked.

The one by the bed put the bowl down on the bedside table with a thump nearly spilling water everywhere. "My lady, you shouldn't be here."

"Save the admonitions Detria," Daphne said coolly causing the servant to reel back in surprise. "I've heard that thrice before. I'm here and I wish to see my mother."

Detria sighed in a long suffering manner. "Pera, please call for Lord Kevan. It's not proper for Lady Daphne to be here."

"Wait."

At the sound of the quiet voice coming from the bed, all other parties in the room froze and swiveled towards it.

"My lady don't try and talk," Detria commanded. "You're still very weak and you need to rest."

"I'll rest when I am in the grave," the blonde snapped sounding instantly like her old self. "I need to speak to my daughter. Daphne come here."

The servants hesitated but after a few seconds Detria swallowed hard and then nodded. "Come here then my lady, your mother wishes to speak to you."

Really? I didn't know that. It's not as if she said that a few minutes ago!

Daphne immediately approached the bed and tried to contain her distaste when Detria lifted her up and set her on the side of it next to her mother.

But her distaste quickly faded to one of unnerved surprise when she saw the deathly pallor of Joanna. She looked like a ghost against the sheets and her blue eyes stuck out like two pools of water in her face.

When Daphne looked down however at the lower half of the bed she was confronted with another color, one as startling a contrast to the sheets as her mother's pallor.

Oh no….

This society was primitive compared to the one she had come from. There were no such things as hospitals or healers or medi-witches or doctors. One simply had to get pregnant, boil water, have servants and hope for the best.

Merlin how did we survive before doctors?

Looking at the sheer amount of blood on the sheets made Daphne realize then that lots of people hadn't.

Good Lord….is this it then?

She'd only known Joanna for three years and hadn't really developed a sort of bond with her at all. She hadn't chosen this life for herself, it had come upon her by accident. Reincarnation wasn't a completely abstract concept on magical circles it just didn't happen anymore. And if it did, no one ever talked about it, after all what proof would there be?

She knew that Joanna knew that she was different. She still remembered the expression on her new mother's face when the flame from the fire had danced up and down her fingers the day she was born.

And she also knew that her mother knew why.

She needed to know why too and if this was the last time she was ever going to get to ask that question, than she needed to know…now.

"Don't be afraid," Joanna said as she must have seen the grim look on Daphne's face. "I know it looks bad."

"It does look bad," Daphne said softly. She wasn't feeling sad per se at the knowledge that her mother's death was probably imminent, but the loss was reminding her of all that she had lost before this and she could feel a tightening in her chest.

Enough of that. You're not just a Lannister, you're a Slytherin too. A Slytherin queen, you ruled that house for the better part of seven years and made Pansy Parkinson grovel for a little bit of favor. Queens don't cry.

"That's why I wanted you to stay," Joanna said softly. She turned to the servant standing by the window. "Pera would you please bring my son here?"

A son….so it was a boy.

The servant exchanged glances with the other but none the less came over to the bed and lowered her arms so Daphne could get a look.

Her first impression was that he was quite small. He didn't look exactly like a newborn infant should. His legs were smaller than she would have expected and when he opened his eyes and looked at her she was startled to see one green eye and one blue. He had curly blonde hair just like Jaime and she smiled slightly at the sight.

"Why is he so small?" she asked.

"He's different," Joanna said and her tone took on a hard note. "He's a special Lannister, my little lion."

He looked somewhat stunted to Daphne and she wondered if there was anything physically wrong with him.

"Listen to me Daphne," Joanna said and she glared at the servant. "Place him on the bed and then leave us."

"But my lady – "

"Do as I said."

Pera gave a fearful look at the door before slowly placing the babe down beside them. "I'll be just outside the door."

As soon as she was gone, the hard look on Joanna's face faded and one of urgency replaced it. "This is very important Daphne. I need you to promise me that you will do exactly as I say. I don't have much time."

Already her voice was growing weaker and the realization alarmed the small blonde. Death was truly upon them then.

"What is it?" she asked with some uncertainty.

"I need you to promise me that you will look after Tyrion. That's his name. His father is a hard man, sometimes too hard and he will not like the fact that Tyrion is different. And I won't be here to protect him. So you must."

Daphne blinked as her mind processed Joanna's words. So his name would be Tyrion, a unique name to say the least.

"What makes you think I can protect him?" she asked evasively.

Even in her state of weakness Joanna adopted an expression that said don't test me. "I know that you're different. You've been different ever since I gave birth to you. You're smarter than Jaime and Cersei, I could never have a conversation like this with them because they wouldn't understand it. But your differences go even beyond that. You are special in a way that no one else is. You and I are the only ones that know the true extent of what you can do."

Daphne flinched slightly and was surprised when she felt her mother reach out and weakly take her hand. She looked up and was shocked to see Joanna's eyes blazing with a green fire that she had never seen before.

"Do not be ashamed of it," she whispered fiercely. "You have an incredible gift…something that no living soul has ever seen before and likely never will again. I will never see the full extent of what you can do….but I can imagine it. And it is remarkable. I wish I had more time with you to explain everything."

"Do you know why I'm like this?" Daphne asked quietly. She felt a burning in her veins as she was so close to the truth.

"I do," Joanna whispered. "You were blessed before you were born, before I ever carried you. There was a man here in Casterly Rock….a Red Priest. I know that you know who they are."

Daphne did.

In the last year since she had begun reading, she had come across extensive research about the different religions of both Westeros and Essos and the religion of R'hllor or the Lord of Light was by far the most mysterious and the most sinister. But it was also whispered about to have great power.

"What did he do to me?" she asked.

"It was what he did for me," Joanna said. "Quickly now, we don't much time."

Her voice was getting fainter and fainter and Daphne swallowed hard knowing that it wouldn't be long now.

"After the birth of the twins the maester told me that I wouldn't be able to have anymore children and I was desperate for more. So when I saw this Red Priest in the city, my servant Meriva told me about how they were people of power and I wondered if he could help me. So I sent for him and he told me that R'hllor had blessed me and that I would conceive a child of great power….and that I was to name her Daphne. So I did."

"That's it?" Daphne. "That's why I am the way I am? That's why I can hold fire in my bare hands and pull water from the ocean as if it were a fish? That's why I can create whirlwinds of air just by thinking about it and cause mountains to come out of the ground just by raising my hands?"

"Yes," Joanna whispered so quietly that Daphne barely heard it. "He claimed that you would be a weapon for R'hllor."

Daphne was torn, it was almost as if a gong had gone off inside of her. She had been so confused and so afraid when she had first come here, so bitter and jaded that she had had no clue how to handle all of this.

She couldn't even enjoy this new power because it didn't make sense to her why she had it.

All of a sudden her mother's hand tightened on her own and she looked up to find that Joanna had risen half off her pillow, her eyes boring into Daphne's with so much intensity it alarmed her.

"Listen to me," she said. "You are no one's tool. You are no one's weapon and I will not let you be used. Your father must never know. Your siblings must never know. No one must know. I did not want to leave you with so many questions and I can't answer all of them as there is not enough time. But if you ever approached by a Red Priest or Priestess…do whatever you need to do to get away, to protect yourself. You are special Daphne, in a way that no one will ever be able to understand or even guess at. Don't be afraid of it. You are a Lannister and a Lannister bows to no one, not even a god. Don't ever forget that."

Feeling a little overwhelmed, Daphne glanced down at the baby on the bed who had been suspiciously quiet beside them. Tentatively she reached down a hand and fingered one of the curls on his head.

His eyes widened as he followed her movements and she smiled slightly. He was just a baby, he hadn't hurt anyone yet.

"I won't," she whispered back.

"Good," Joanna whispered. "If you have any other questions when you are older…go to Meriva. She knows it all. Promise that you will. And promise me that you will look after Tyrion."

"Why me?" Daphne whispered.

"Because there is a strength in you that the twins don't have. You are so much stronger than you know. You will be stronger than your father knows. There will come a time when you will be the pillar of this family. And not just because of this magic…because of who you are. Promise that you won't be afraid."

"I promise," Daphne whispered back.

"Good," Joanna whispered back. "Will you call for the servant now. I don't want you to be alone."

"I'm won't be alone," Daphne whispered back tightening her grip on her mother's hand and feeling a spike of loss. Her throat was beginning to close up and she swallowed hard. "My little brother is here."

Ω

And that was how they found her.

She was sitting on the bed holding Tyrion in her arms singing to him softly. Her mother's hand had slowly gone slack on hers and when it had loosened altogether, Daphne had reached over and closed her eyes.

"Goodbye," she whispered. "Even though I didn't know you for that long…thank you for everything you did. Thank you for the truth."

All of a sudden the door burst open to reveal Tywin Lannister.

His sharp green eyes took in the situation, his daughter sitting on the bed with a bundle in her arms and the still form of Joanna lying in the bed, the bloody sheets and the silence of the chamber and his face almost seemed to crumple.

Daphne looked up at him then and her eyes held his without fear. She knew she would have a battle to fight.

"His name is Tyrion," she said in a strong voice far beyond her years. "And he is a Lannister."

Ω

So I seriously considered the idea of not having Joanna die, but I realized if I did that it would take away a lot of conflict in the story. Cersei's hatres for Tyrion wouldn't be nearly as great and her death is going to drive Daphne in a way that has yet to be seen. She's very protective of those she loves and Tyrion is going to be one of those people. Daphne and Cersei are going to really clash in this story and the death of Joanna needs to be there to facilitate that. Not only is Cersei going to hate Tyrion for causing the death of Joanna, but she is also going to hate Daphne for being the one to be with her at the end and hearing her last words because she is the youngest. Daphne and Tyrion are going to become a team and he will learn about her powers at some point. So on the matter of Joanna's death, the official reason is that R'hllor gives and R'hllor takes. That's how it's going to be explain. He repaired her womb and then damaged it again with the birth of Tyrion. In the next chapter, Daphne learns more about her powers, she protects Tyrion from her father and Cersei and the Martells make their first appearance. I promise the story will begin to pick up then as its been sort of slow thus far. Don't forget to review!