The sun was barely beginning to peer over the horizon and Cersei was already in her father's solar sipping at a glass of wine. She studied the old man, deep in concentration as he sifted through the various letters and maps laid out across his desk. Cold and discerning, she thought. And yet a coward in so many ways. People spoke of him as if he were the most powerful person in Westeros. But they're wrong. It's Joffrey that sits on the throne. Tywin Lannister may have won battles for the crown, but it would never rest upon his head. And that's what makes us different. My son sits on the Iron Throne. I have the power. I am not a little girl deigned to obey her father anymore.

Cersei took another sip of wine, continuing to watch her father over the rim of the cup. "Do you believe she is genuine in her efforts at friendship?" she implored after a moment. There was no need to specify about whom she was speaking. Aero Vysrane came into King's Landing like fierce storm that would no doubt cause a great deal of damage. Cersei had to remind herself that the young queen would be gone after Joffrey's wedding and with any luck, she would never need to come back to Westeros.

Tywin sat back in his chair and tried to see his only daughter without the bias of a father. Cersei was never stupid. But was vengeful. And emotional. And single-minded to the point of recklessness. "No," he answered simply.

"She gave Jaime his hand back."

Tywin scoffed. "Don't tell me you are so easily swayed."

Cersei narrowed her eyes at him. "Of course not. What is she playing at, asking for nothing?" She stood, her long dress trailing behind her as she began to pace.

"She hasn't asked for anything yet. Everyone has their own agenda. The time will come when she asks for something we cannot give. But before it does, I have a plan that will assure her allegiance. If it works." Going back to the scrolls on his desk, he settled on a map of the know lands. Eryatheia sat just across the Sunset Sea—barely and hand's width away from Lannisport on the elaborate map.

"And what plan is that?" Cersei asked, barely listening to her father when her own thoughts were running wild.

"Jaime will marry her."

Cersei halted mid stride and stared open-mouthed at her father. "Father. You can't." Her chest heaved and she suddenly felt as though she were trying to breathe underwater.

Stoic as ever, Tywin remained unfazed at her reaction. "I can and I will."

Pushing a stack of creased letters in her direction, he stared down his daughter until she sat down in the chair across from his desk once more. "Eryatheia is rich in gemstones, gold, and silk. They have been trading with Dorne for well over three hundred years, but after the Lannister assault on Cylix, the Vysrane family has refused to deal with Lannisport and King's Landing during the reign of the Mad King. It was only after Robert became king that Ixion Vysrane sought to extend a hesitant hand in friendship. And with Littlefinger's propensity to borrow money, the crown is in a great deal of debt to Eryatheia. It is in our best interest to pursue this match."

Cersei emptied her wine glass, the alcohol making her less fretful though her heart was still beating furiously. "And what of his vows to protect your king?" she inquired with a calmness she did not feel.

"I have already spoken to the High Septon. With a moderate amount of gold to ease his decision, he has agreed to release Jaime of his vows for the Kingsguard. Jaime will sit on the Lord's Chair at Casterly Rock and he will get Aero Vysrane to marry him." Quite pleased with himself, Tywin allowed a rare smirk to grace his otherwise passive expression. Cersei thought how odd it was to see the small smile on her father's face.

"She is queen of her own lands. What makes you think that she would give up her people to live at Casterly Rock under Joffrey's rule?"

"Women far older and wiser than she have done much more foolish things for love." Love. He scoffed at the word. He only believed in love when it was used to his advantage. "She falls in love with Jaime. They will be married here. She will be Lady of Casterly Rock and she will give the throne back to her father or her eldest brother, I don't particularly care which. The point is that we secure an alliance with Eryatheia and the lordship of Casterly Rock remains in Lannister hands. This is about strategy. And seizing an opportunity presented to us." He brought his finger down another map showing Lannisport and Casterly Rock as he spoke.

"And what if she tries to take him back to Eryatheia?" Cersei asked, having refilled her wine glass and emptied it again already. Her face was now flushed and her words angrier. "What then? I will not let my brother be taken away from us by some whore from across the sea!"

Tywin slammed his fist down on the desk making her jump in her seat. "He is the heir to Casterly Rock and she is a woman! She will do as he commands."

Now flushed with embarrassment at losing her temper as well as the effects of the alcohol, she asked calmly, "Does Jaime know of this plan?"

Leaning back in his chair without a modicum of concern, Tywin casually examined a fingernail. "I haven't found it necessary to tell him yet. They seem to have already formed a tentative friendship. And her giving Jaime back his hand will have only strengthened their bond. " His green eyes, the same color as hers looked up at her with a sharp glare that he used to use when she was a small girl. "And you will not tell him."

Cersei looked down at her lap. There was a long pause where she heard more maps and letters being shuffled around as her lord father continued to plot and scheme as he always did. "She won't do it, you know," Cersei whispered. "She's too wild. You can smell it on her like a wild beast despite her pretty smiles and manners. Even if all your other plans come to fruition, she will never bend the knee. Not to us." She looked up at her father, defiant. But he remained as impassive as ever. He knew politics and battle strategies. But he knew nothing of the hearts of women. That is how she and Jaime had kept their secret for so long.

"You underestimate your brother, he responded coolly. "I've sent him out to escort her into the city today and busied the Tyrell whelp on the tourney grounds. I will hear no more of this."

Seething and having been thoroughly dismissed, Cersei stood and departed from the room allowing the door to close softly behind her.

Aero awoke that morning to the familiar sound of a whetstone being dragged down the edge of a blade. She opened her eyes to see that Evann had let himself into her room and was currently lounging next to her on the bed with his boots kicked off and his back against the headboard. She blinked again at the shrill sound of the blade and whetstone and rolled over, stretching her arms over her head.

"Why do you do this to me?" she yawned, stretching out her sore muscles

"Fun, mostly."

"I could make you swords that don't need to be sharpened, you know." It was an old argument that they had.

"You don't get to touch my swords. Father made me these swords." He paused for a moment, setting the whetstone down in his lap and pulled an apple from his pocket. She smiled and caught the apple when he lightly tossed it though they were barely two feet apart. It reminded her of Cylix. Evann was always an early riser whereas Aero liked to take her time getting out of bed. More often than not, he would get tired of waiting on her and go to her room to wake her up. It became a habit at some point over the years.

She sat up with her back against the headboard and kicked the heavy covers off of her without bothering to cover herself in her nightclothes. The simple cotton shirt came down to the middle of her thighs but she smoothed it out anyway as she lazily crossed her ankles. The light whorls on her skin stretched out from the hem and covered her legs disappearing just past her calf muscle. Evann had seen her in her nightshirt so often when he came to wake her up that she rarely bothered to put on her robe anymore.

"Did you go out drinking with some of the guys last night?" Aero asked, biting into the sweet red apple.

"I did," he responded with an over rehearsed air of nonchalance. He knew where this was leading.

"Did they find company to keep them happy?"

"Dev did, of course." Most of the men went back to the ship alone."

"And you? Did you find a lovely young lady to keep you company?" She hid her smile behind her apple. It worried her sometimes that Evann didn't seem particularly interested in pursuing romantic relationships. There had been girls that he would sneak around with when he was younger, but as he grew older, his affections for random women had lessened as he had become more infatuated with the idea of having a soulmate.

Evann sighed at her question. This is exactly where he suspected Aero was taking the conversation. "You know I don't pay for my company."

She knew he didn't. He never had. "How are you finding the ladies of King's Landing?"

"Boring," he replied without bothering to look up. He tested the edge of the sword and satisfied with the sharpness, he started on the other one. His hook swords were his most prized possession.

"No sparks? None of that love-at-first-sight feeling you're always going on about?"

He shook his head, continuing to drag the whetstone down the edge of the blade in his lap. "Absolutely nothing. The kind, educated ones seem to either have been already married off or they're too highborn for the likes of me."

She huffed, but let the highborn comment slide. When they were young, she didn't understand what it meant to be a highborn or lowborn. Now she did. Not that it mattered overly much to her. To be perfectly honest, there were many times that she would shirk her responsibilities when her father had important guests visit and she would have dinner with Evann's family rather than be subjected to smiling dutifully and wishing she were elsewhere.

"And you really believe that when you see the right person you'll just magically know?" she asked, using her shirt sleeve to wipe the apple juice from around her mouth.

The shriek of the whetstone down metal paused when he looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "You are the very last person that should dismiss the idea of magic. Love is magic."

"Magic is magic," she countered with her mouth full, having taken another bite of the apple. "Love is… I don't know what love is. Not real love. I love my family. I love my people. I love you. It feels deep and absolute, but it doesn't feel like magic." She crossed one arm over her body, underneath her breasts and brought her other hand to rest against the side of her mouth like she always did she was concentrating. After a moment, she turned to him and asked "What do you think?"

Evann shrugged, picking up his whetstone again. "I think it's more the idea of magic. I'm going to find that girl, and when I find her, that's it. I'm done."

"But how do you know? How do you have that kind of certainty that this person is the person you want to be with for the rest of your life instead of the person you're settling for?" Everything was all too uncertain for her. How was she meant to choose a husband to love for the rest of her life when she didn't know what love is?

"Have you ever just watched people in love? How they look at each other?" Aero shook her head so Evann continued. "I sometimes notice the way my father looks at my mother. When she's concentrating on something and not paying attention. He looks at her like she's the only thing he sees—like she's the only thing that matters. Like she's magic." She had been too young to notice things like that when her mother was alive. But she liked to think that they would still be madly in love. And now that he had pointed it out, Aero remembered subtle things about how the Vicaris interacted with each other—how Ilando would watch Melaena hang clothes up to dry or caress her hair when he thought no one was watching. "And I know you are magic," Evann reasoned. "I know that. But knowing you has made me believe that magic can mean different things."

"Like what?" she asked.

Evann shifted himself so that he was facing her on the bed, his swords across his lap. "Like when you're explaining to me how you make things like the swords that never need sharpening or the necklace you made for the Stark girl. There's nothing written down. It's not like there's a spellbook. You feel it."

Aero crinkled her nose—another habit she had when she was concentrating. "I think of what I want to accomplish and put my emotions and my heart into it. Then I feel this sort of warmth inside of me that lets me know the magic worked."

"Exactly. Emotions. Heart. Warmth. All that. Love is magic." He shrugged with the finality of winning the argument. Aero leaned forward to stretch her arms out toward her toes as Evann sheathed his swords in the baldrick that he carried on his back before adding "But the deal is off if she can't cook."

Aero laughed and made an attempt to punch him playfully. She was thwarted by his quick reflexes. He caught her hand easily and pulled her under his arm, her temple resting against his cheekbone. "You are hopeless," she chided him still chuckling under her breath.

Evann drummed his fingers against his chin. "And obviously if you don't like her, I'm not going to marry her."

She pulled away slightly to look up at him. "Really?" she asks, suspiciously.

He shrugged again and sighed. "You're one of those annoying people that likes to find the good in everyone. If you don't like her or she doesn't like you, she's not worth my time." He frowned realized what he had just said. "…I'm never getting married am I?"

Aero grimaced and leaned back against him. "Well that will make both of us, then. Father said when I get back, he wants me to meet the son of Lord Enton from the Fire Fields. 'You have been queen for seven years now,' she lectured in a deep voice imitating her father. "And in that time, you should have found a husband. Any self respecting queen would be married with heirs by now.'"

Evann laughed at Aero's perfect impersonation of King Ixion. "You know he only wants what's best for you. And probably grandchildren since your brothers also seem to be taking their time finding suitable marriages."

She visibly shuddered. "Could you see me having children with any of the suitors he's brought to Cylix?"

Evann smirked remembering the lords that King Ixion had brought to Cylix to meet Aero. She had refused all of them. And rightly so, he thought. "I liked that one… what was his name? The guy with the huge arms and chest but he had really small legs? Oh! Or the one that kept confusing the word falconry with fornication. And let's not forget the one that insisted on taking every meal in his room because he didn't like to eat in front of people."

"But there were others that were nice!" she exclaimed. "Lord Telmin was very… He was very intelligent."

"Oh, yeah. Very intelligent. And also a pompous asshole that started every sentence with 'Did you know…?' Is that what you want to hear when he's on top you?" Evann made a face of disgust at the mere thought. "And then there was that one guy that I had to help pull out of his bathing tub because he had gotten himself suctioned to the bottom somehow. You would have made a great pair."

"You would never let me settle, would you?"

"Nope" he replied taking what was left her apple and finishing it off. "I'd carry you out of the Great Temple on my shoulder in your wedding dress if I had to."

She smiled to herself and smoothed her night shirt down her legs again. "I love you."

He easily tossed the apple across the room into the unused chamber pot next to the fireplace. "You don't want to marry me, do you?"

They laughed together. It was another old joke. The people that knew them assumed that somehow, someday they would end up together. But they knew better. "Gods, no. But someone like you, definitely."

Evann's laugh broke off into bitterness as he pulled his arm from around her and leaned forward, chin in his hand. "Yeah. Someone like me."

"What?" she sniffed, put off by his sudden change in temperament. "You have a problem with me wanting to marry someone like you?"

"I don't. But others…" He trailed off and shook his head. "Everyone in Cylix knows you're my best friend and it's easy to forget what I am when I live in a castle and I watch you wear fancy dresses and staff that brings us cold water when we're in the sparring yard. It's easy to forget that I'm a lowborn. Everywhere I look here, it reminds me."

Aero's mouth turned downward into a frown and reached out to touch his shoulder. "I never thought of you as lowborn. I never really cared. I think because we became friends when we were young and it's only when we grow up that we learn prejudice and hate. Have I ever treated you differently?"

Evann shook his head again. "No. That's what I mean. I don't think about it when we're at home. The staff always set a place for me at your family's table. Always. It's always been Evann and Aero. Aero and Evann. When Pyrus found out that I kissed you, he wasn't even mad. He thought it was gross and told me 'Eww. You kissed our sister.' He said 'our sister' like it was the most ordinary thing in the world." He turned to look at her over his shoulder, but didn't lean back and allow her to comfort him.

"They've always thought of you as a younger brother," she assured him, her hand still resting on his back. "And you've always been one of the people that I care about most. I don't follow this love-at-first-sight philosophy like you do, but I'd like to think that when I find the person I should be with, I'll know it. What should it matter if he was born in a castle or a shack if he makes me happy?"

She felt a low rumble in his chest where he was chuckling under his breath. "You think Ixion will let you marry a lowborn?" Evann rolled his eyes and turned away from her again. "You know all the men he's brought to Cylix have been lords."

She didn't respond, but then, she didn't have to. She had never considered the possibility that her father would be upset with her if she married someone below her class.

"You're so stupid sometimes, Aer," he scolded. "Ixion's not going to let his grandchild have base blood. So he let you be friends with me. So what? But I'm pretty sure he'd change his mind if he thought I was sticking my penis inside of you."

Before she really realized what she was doing, Aero had already cocked her arm back and punched Evann as hard as she could. The blow caught him on the shoulder and knocked him off of the bed and onto the floor with a dull thud. She peered over the side to find him somewhat dazed and rubbing furiously at the spot she had hit.

"What in the name of the gods did you do that for?" he howled, standing up and glaring at her. They had been in fights before—knockdown, dragout fights that left both of them with plenty of bruises.

He towered over her as he stood at the edge of the bed and looked down at her where she was still sitting. She raised up on her knees where she was still shorter than him, but less so. It didn't matter. She was angry. She balled her fists up at her side and prepared to hit him again.

"Don't you ever think that I won't kick your ass for even thinking that I would let something so insignificant dictate who I love. If you were the love of my life instead of just a pain in my ass, I would tell my father that I could give a shit about who he expects me to marry. You, who knows me better than anyone in this world, you should know that."

Despite the pain, Evann couldn't help but be charmed by his best friend. He should have known. She would fight with him and for him until the very end. It was only he that let his own bitterness get the better of himself. With a silly, lopsided grin on his face that only seemed to upset her more, he made a deft move and tackled her to the bed, pulling her against his chest. "I love you, too," he retorted over her squeal of surprise.

She fought him, of course, cursing and biting all the while. He eventually relented and let her pull away from him with her hair disheveled and her nightshirt scrunched up to her hips. He pulls her into an embrace and she fights against him.

"You complete, unmitigated ass!" she yelled, grabbing the nearest pillow and hitting him in the head with it.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, taking the pillow away from her. "Only my mother is allowed to call me that."

It was then that one of the servants entered the room. What a sight they must have been. Aero was straddling Evann and laughing maniacally while repeatedly trying to hit him with a pillow. The other pillows and half of the coverings were thrown onto the floor.

They looked up at the intrusion, Aero with a look of determination in her face and Evann was still laughing and trying to subdue her by holding onto her wrists. Aero noticed that the serving woman that entered her room was carrying a steaming pail of water and looked quite surprised to find the foreign queen sitting on top of a young man in only a nightshirt.

The woman, gathering her composure, quickly began apologizing and backing out of the room. "Forgive me, Your Grace! I'll come back later!"

"It's fine!" Aero called after her, beckoning for the girl to come in. "Of course it's fine. Please come back."

With one last blow to Evann's head with the pillow, Aero dismounted him where she was sitting on his stomach. She pulled the tossed covers up to her lap to cover her bare legs and sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed while Evann casually propped himself up on one elbow to observe.

The woman looked back and forth from Evann to the young queen, still hesitant.

"Lady Margaery bid us to bring you warm bathwater this morning, Your Grace," the woman said quietly casting her eyes to the floor. "And to help you with your dressing and hair if you request."

Switching back to what Evann liked to call her very formal 'queen personality,' Aero nodded at the woman. "I would like a hot bath very much. Please tell your lady that she is very thoughtful. And if it's not too much trouble, I would like a handful of rosemary sprigs to add to my bath."

"No trouble at all, Your Grace." The woman curtsied and moved to the round soaking tub made from stone that rose up from the floor with curved steps on one side that sloped gracefully into a shelf on the other half.

Other women attendants moved fluidly in and out of the room filling the bath with steaming water. It seemed they had been warned to take no notice of the blond man in the queen's bed as they kept their eyes downcast.

Evann made no move to leave when Aero slipped from the bed and told him to close his eyes so she could pull the cotton nightshirt over her head. He did as he was told, not peeking as he would have done in his adolescent years. When they were younger, he was fascinated with the markings on Aero's skin. He was still, truth be told, but now they had become less of an oddity to be stared at and more of just another interesting thing that made Aero who she is—as absolute as her laugh or her heart.

The women were gone and it was just the two of them again. It sometimes amazed Evann how effortlessly Aero could slip back and forth between being the formal queen to being the Aero he knew—the one that cursed and spit and laughed easily. If was difficult for her to be herself here, he knew, when she was walking amongst the lions and barbed roses. She wore her queen personality like armor in the strange land. He knew very few people of Westeros would ever meet his Aero.

Aero sighed as she sank into the steaming water. One of the women had taken it upon themselves to crush up the rosemary before adding it to her bath and it smelled wonderful. Adding rosemary to a bath was one of her healers old remedies for muscle pain and weakness. She felt the soreness gradually melt away from her muscles. A variety of soaps were laid out for her on the ledge of the tub. She chose the least perfumed from among them, but she still ended up smelling like Alyssum.

She pulled a long cloth from the shelf, using it to dry off and wrap around her body. Evann had moved to the table near the door and was humming an old Eryatheian song that she remembered her mother used to sing to her. The trunks with her dresses in them were littered about the room, and though Evann was far from fashion savvy, Aero asked him to bring her a simple dress as she ducked behind a partition to dress. She heard him shuffling through her things for a moment before he found something suitable. He tossed it over the top of the partition for her to catch and she heard his footsteps and the soft creak of the chair as he sat back down at the table.

"What are your plans for today?" he asked casually. He worried about her. Especially here. Especially when he had other obligations and couldn't be with her to protect her if she needed it. He smirked to himself thinking how ridiculous the idea was. There wasn't a soul he could name that was less in need of his protection than Aero. She had bested him at every weapon since they were younglings in the sparring yard with wooden swords. But that still didn't keep him from worrying. He didn't know these people. He didn't trust these people.

"Nothing more than meeting Tobho Mott at his forge, I suppose. But perhaps Ser Loras will show me more of the city." Aero stepped out from behind the partition in a simple one-shoulder black silk dress. With it only covering one shoulder and leaving her arms bare, she could only imagine the nasty looks she was likely to get from Cersei if she had the misfortune to run into her. She untwisted the knot of hair on the op of her head and let it fall down her back.

"I think I'd like to see the dragon pit," Evann threw in, once again examining his swords. He was now looking down the length of them for slight scratches and imperfections in the flat of the blade. "Perhaps your Ser Loras would be kind enough to save that particular adventure for another day when I can come with you."

"He's not my anything," she scowled and retrieved her circlet crown from where she had put it on the table last night.

"But he could be," Evann sang, knowing that it would annoy her.

She only cocked an eyebrow at him. "I think he was looking at you more than he was looking at me."

Evann perked up in his chair with a slightly confused expression. "You think?"

Aero nodded.

"Huh. He leaned back in his chair and scratched his chin for a bit. "No. He was definitely looking at you, too." Evann shrugged and leaned back with his hands behind his head. "He seems like the type that would lead someone on and take them to bed and then realize he has too much dignity to court them."

"Someone like men or women?"

"Either… Both," Evann decided. "I'm betting on both."

Aero found her sword still in its scabbard lying in the chair across from Evann.

"If you found a Valyrian steel master here, will we stay longer?" he asked and picked up his other sword to examine for scratches.

Aero belted her sword at her waist and twisted it so that it rested in a comfortable spot on her left hip.

"I don't know." She looked down at the only pair of black shoes that she liked because they wedged at the heel like her boots, but unlike her boots, they were easy to slip on. She shook her head. "One thing at a time right now, okay? How do I look?"

Evann's answer was cut off by a knock at the door where Jaime Lannister had entered the room.

"Ser Jaime," Aero greeted him with a smile. "I'm surprised at seeing you."