Disclaimer: I do not own Game of Thrones or A Song of Ice and Fire. Any similarities in storyline or dialogue originated with the show or books.
Impetus
Seated in the great hall of the twins, Cassana remained sober and watchful of her host and his men. She had been reminded of her dream when she first entered the room where the Freys were holding the feast in celebration of Lord Edmure and Lady Rosalin's wedding. As she looked at the sparsely decorated walls and the stone floor, segments of her dream distracted her. She could not refrain herself from staring at the spot where she had found Robb lying dead and the place where Lord Frey and Lord Bolton had fallen after she killed them. Cassana was no longer certain that her dream was just that.
Robb had been assertive in his attempt to convince her that they would be safe, especially after Lord Frey invoked the guest rights. Most people knew that breaking the guest right would be to break a sacred covenant that was believed to invoke the wrath of the gods both old and new. Robb was confident that Lord Frey was fearful enough of the gods to prevent him from breaking his vow, but Cassana knew that Lord Frey would not give a damn about the gods' wrath if his pockets were filled with gold.
The young Baratheon decided to tell Robb that she was no longer worried about attending the wedding, but she did not tell him about the daggers she hid beneath her dress. The two weapons would not do much to protect her or Robb from the whole Frey army; Cassana was only trying to give them a fighting chance—if it came to a fight. She knew there was no way to predict what could happen at the wedding, but she decided it was safer to be wary of the Freys than trustful of them. She had also decided to inform Willem, Waldron, and Davos of her dream and her worries. They were as convinced as Robb, but they obeyed her commands with their natural loyalty. The three knights agreed to remain sober the entire night and to hide additional weapons under their cloaks. Cassana was glad she had insisted that Sansa remain at Riverrun while they ventured north to the Twins. If the Freys did attack Cassana and her army and did so successfully, at least she knew the last known living Stark would be safe. She owed Robb's family that much.
It was a lively affair, Cassana noted. The music that filled the hall was meant to lift the spirits of those within and that it did. Cassana pursed her pink lips together when she looked around and saw that her men were enjoying the generosity of Lord Frey by attempting to drink themselves into a stupor. She looked back at Lord Walder when the music ceased unexpectedly. The elderly man sat up in his chair once everyone's attention was focused on him. He delved into a short yet somewhat improper speech before getting Robb's approval that it was indeed time for the bedding ceremony. Cassana watched from her seat as Lord Edmure and Lady Rosalin were whisked away by giggling women and eager men. The young Baratheon suddenly felt very assured in her decision to skip the ceremony after her own wedding.
Cassana took a deep breath as she sat back in her seat, a wave of nausea washing over her suddenly. She hurriedly took a bite of the food on her plate when she realized her nerves had prevented her from eating anything all day. She forced a smile as Robb looked over his shoulder at her. She bit her lip nervously when she saw that her husband was in the midst of a conversation with his mother and Lord Bolton. The young Baratheon had always been slightly frightened of the older man, but she did everything she could to leave it unseen. Lord Bolton was dangerous and she knew that before she had the dream. After the dreams began, her caution escalated to a point where she avoided him at all costs. The wedding was the first time she had been in the same room as him in over a week.
Another heavy sigh escaped from her mouth and she screwed her eyes shut for a moment. She could feel the threat of vomiting in the depths of her stomach, but she managed to keep it there. Cassana pressed a hand against her temple, placing her elbow on the armrest of her seat. She opened her eyes when she heard a chair skid against the floor nearby. She smiled warmly when she saw Catelyn Stark seated closely beside her. While the older woman was wary of Robb's new wife, she had been nothing but kind to her and Cassana was grateful for it.
"Are you feeling ill, Your Grace?" Catelyn wondered with a look of sympathy in her Tully eyes.
"Please, call me Cassana," she offered with a small smile. "And I am only a little nauseous. It will pass."
Lady Stark's gaze dropped to the floor for a moment, her lips spreading into a small tight smile. "When was the last time you bled?"
Cassana hesitated. She knew what Catelyn was thinking, but she had to ask herself if it would even be possible. She and Robb had been sharing their bed for a few weeks now and she had felt his seed inside her each time. She swallowed before looking Lady Stark in the eye. "It has been longer than a month, I believe."
"You may be with child, Cassana," Catelyn Stark insisted, a smirk pulling her lips across her face. Cassana gave a quiet laugh of delight. Seeing the boy in her dream had made her yearn for a child, but she thought it would take months for her womb to be filled with one. Lady Stark took her hand and gave it a small squeeze. "You should tell Robb."
The young Baratheon sighed as she looked over her shoulder at her husband. He was still speaking with Roose Bolton, but now several other people she recognized as northerners had joined them and they had succumbed to a fit of heavy laughter. She placed a hand over her stomach and smiled weakly before turning back to Catelyn. "I may wait until I am certain I am carrying his child. He needs not to lose focus at a time like this."
"What do you mean?" Catelyn queried, furrowing her brows.
"We may have more important things to worry about in the near future," Cassana admitted. Catelyn looked perplexed by her words, but she nodded anyway.
Both women turned to look at the back of the hall when they heard a roar of laughter; the last of the people participating in the bedding were leaving the room. Cassana's face fell when she saw Black Walder close and bar the doors.
"The doors," Catelyn murmured and Cassana knew she took the action for what it was.
At the same moment, the hall filled with music once again. Cassana recognized this song as the Rains of Castamere. She pressed her lips into a taught line as she reached down to her ankle. She pulled up the hem of her dress and pulled out the dagger strapped to her leg. Cassana held it close to her as she raised it up just enough for Catelyn to see. The older woman gave her a concerned look, but Cassana took her hand and placed the weapon into it.
"Please," Cassana implored. "For your safety."
"Cassana," Catelyn warned.
"You said it yourself once; Walder Frey is dangerous. Please, take it," she insisted, closing Catelyn's fingers around the handle and pushing it towards her. Lady Stark did not respond, but gave a small nod of her head. The music ceased abruptly, causing both of the southerners to look at the front of the hall. Cassana swallowed hard when she saw Lord Frey had been the one to call an end to the music and chatter.
"I should return to my seat," Catelyn said as she scooted back her chair. She stood slowly, but paused to place a soft kiss on top of Cassana's head. "Be safe, my daughter."
Cassana looked up at Lady Stark and nodded. "And you."
While everyone was stumbling their way back to their seats Cassana called out to Robb as quietly as she could manage. He looked at her and smiled, but before he could start towards her Lord Frey addressed them both.
"Your Grace," the elderly man grumbled as he stood from his seat, "I feel I have been remise in my duties. I've given you all meats and wine and music, but I haven't shown you the hospitality you deserve. The Prince of the North has married our future queen regent and I owe you a wedding gift."
"Robb!" Catelyn's voice rang through the hall and Cassana turned to look at the woman.
A pain unlike anything Cassana had ever experienced spread through her stomach suddenly, making her scream in agony. She watched as the knife was pulled out to slice through her again when it suddenly fell away from her. Cassana grit her teeth as another pain-fueled cry escaped her lips. She pressed her hand over the bloodied wound as her gaze landed on Robb. She sobbed when she saw he had arrows sticking out of him just like in the dream. Robb fell to his knees as the arrows kept flying at him and Cassana tried to get to her feet, but she could not lift herself from the chair.
"Cassana!"
She turned to see Davos, Willem, and Waldron fighting a large group of men right behind her. She knew they were to thank for preventing her murder.
"Under the table!" Davos shouted and Cassana fell from her chair voluntarily. She whimpered in pain as she dragged herself under the long table.
The pain searing through her should have been crippling, but when she looked at her wounded husband she forced herself to try to do something—anything to help him. Cassana grimaced as she pulled the dagger from her other ankle and held it close to her chest. She began to move from her spot under the table, but she had to stop because of the pain. She tightened her grip on the dagger as she pounded her fist against the floor, groaning tearfully.
Cassana pursed her lips tightly and looked out from beneath the table only to see that the massacre was still ongoing. She placed a hand over her mouth as a heavy sob rocked her body. The men she had led here—the men who had trusted her to lead them were being slaughtered before her very eyes and she was the only one to blame.
I could have stopped this, she thought angrily.
She turned her attention back to Robb, who was already looking at her. She could see that his wounds would kill him if he did not receive help. The young Baratheon began pulling herself towards her husband, ignoring the intensified pain. Cassana knew she would die sooner if she exposed herself to the traitors, but she needed to be by Robb's side when he died.
"I am right here," she cried as she leaned over Robb. She grabbed his face softly with her bloodied hands, caressing his cheek. He smiled at her, placing one of his hands over hers and giving it a loving squeeze.
"I love you," he declared softly and Cassana nodded fervently.
"And I you, my young wolf," she sobbed.
Cassana screamed when someone grabbed a chunk of her hair and yanked her to her feet. She struggled against her captor best she could, but with every movement she could feel her strength flooding from her. Her knees buckled slightly as a knife was pressed to her neck.
"The King of the North arises," Lord Frey snickered. Cassana looked to where Robb was just lying. She smiled sadly and a small sob tumbled from her mouth when she saw him struggling to get to his feet. When he tried to step towards her, she felt the dagger press against her neck until it cut her shallowly.
"Lord Walder, enough!" Catelyn thundered. Cassana turned to see Robb's mother holding the dagger she had given to her to the neck of the young Lady Frey. "Let it end! Please! He is my son—my first son! Let them go and I swear we will forget this! I swear this by the old gods and the new; we will take no vengeance."
"You already swore me one oath right here in my castle. You swore by all the gods your son would marry my daughter!" Lord Frey hissed.
"We are sorry that we broke that vow, Lord Walder," Cassana opined, turning herself to face the Frey even though it made the dagger cut into her neck deeper. "But instead of having a daughter that is the Queen of the north you will have a son that will be the King of the Seven Kingdoms!"
"You cannot offer someone's hand in marriage when they are already dead," Walder Frey heckled, smirking.
"Shireen is living safely in the Free Cities," Cassana retorted quickly. "And we will bring her back home once it is safe and then she will marry your son and ascend to the throne."
"Lies!" Lord Walder barked. "She is dead!"
"No! I would not lie about this, Lord Walder!" Cassana roared. She wanted to approach the man, but the knife being held to her neck prevented it.
"When was the last time you heard from your little cousin?" The older man asked with a sly smile. "It's been a few weeks, has it not? I'm sure that has worried you before this, but you ignored it so you could get what you needed; our alliance."
"No," Cassana snarled. "Shireen's alive."
"Give it to her," Lord Walder gestured to one of his sons. The man pulled a bundle out from under the table his father was seated at and walked towards Cassana. He smirked as he opened the package and showed her what was inside.
"No!" Cassana whimpered once she laid eyes on the items in front of her. Sitting in the cloth was the beautifully carved stag that Davos had gifted to Shireen before they parted ways in Braavos. It was covered in blood with a lock of brown hair wrapped around it. The dagger that was included in the bundle was also tinted crimson. Cassana knew the things she was looking at were all that was left of Shireen; a stag figurine covered in her blood and lock of her hair. Shireen, who was beautiful despite her scars, who'd never misjudged another person in her life, who'd always loved with her entire heart, who had become just another innocent fatality in the war.
"What did you do?!" Cassana yelled at the Frey lord, struggling against the man who held her in her spot. "What did you do?!"
"I did not do a thing, Your Grace," Lord Frey snorted.
"How did you get these?!" Cassana raged.
"It arrived a week ago with a letter informing us of our queen's demise."
Suddenly everything welled up inside of Cassana; all the grief, the guilt, the purest kind of pain she had ever felt. Everything came flooding through her instantaneously. She tried to take a deep breath, but she choked it down as a sob erupted in her throat instead. Dozens of her loyal men were lying around her dead, Robb was barely clinging onto life, and Shireen, her only remaining blood relative, had been murdered. Standing there in the great hall with all the carnage and death around her she did not feel like the next in line for the throne; she felt absolutely powerless and vulnerable. She attempted to hold up the emotional walls she had built when she was a child. She tried to be strong in the last moments of her life, but the agonizing pain overwhelmed her. Cassana slipped from her captor's arms, collapsing onto the floor as she let out a long cry that silenced the room and made almost every man in the room wince with a pang of sympathy.
Cassana had never been one to believe in ghosts, but she would have cut off her own hand to glimpse one of Shireen. Instead of a ghost all she found—all she felt was the hole in her life where Shireen had once been.
She was snapped out of her sorrowful daze when Robb fell to his knees in front of her and took her face in his hands. He tried to get her to look at him, but she could barely force herself to.
"I am so sorry," Cassana stammered quietly, but Robb shook his head and told her the responsibility for what had happened did not belong to her.
"I love you," Robb promised as he stroked her cheek affectionately.
"I love you too," she cried, the tears continuing to roll down her face.
"Kill them," she heard Lord Walder command.
Cassana knew it would be useless to fight for her life. She lifted her gaze as Roose Bolton stepped up behind Robb. The older man pulled her husband to his feet as the Frey did the same to her. She jerked away from him and stumbled backwards so she could hold Robb's hand. They looked at each other for a long moment before nodding.
Cassana turned to Walder Frey with a forlorn, but accepting look. "Please, let me die beside my husband."
The elderly lord thought for a while before nodding once. Cassana squeezed Robb's hand as both Lord Bolton and the Frey raised their weapons.
"The Lannisters send their regards," Roose Bolton hinted and Cassana shut her eyes, accepting that the time for her to die had come.
But the pain of the dagger running through her heart never came. Instead she heard a sound all too familiar to her; two arrows flying through the air. Cassana opened her eyes as the Frey standing in front of her fell to the floor with an arrow sticking out of the middle of his throat. She immediately turned to see Robb lying on the floor beside a beheaded Roose Bolton. The young Baratheon fell to her knees and wrapped her hand around the dagger that was only halfway in his chest. She pulled it out quickly, ignoring the sound of swords clashing and shouts going on around her. Cassana tore off a piece of her dress and pressed it hard over Robb's wound. She forced the thought that he might already be dead out of her head and rested her hand against his cheek, slapping him lightly. She repeated the action several times until Robb stirred.
"Is he alive?"
Cassana looked up to see a young man with silver hair and beautiful violet eyes. She wiped her tear-streaked face with her bloodied hand and shook her head as she dropped her gaze back to her husband. "Yes. But he—he's hurt bad."
The man dropped his blood-coated longsword on the floor and lowered himself to his knees beside Robb. He pressed a few fingers to his neck, waiting a few second before nodding. "His heart is still beating, but he has lost a lot of blood. We have to get him—and you to a maester."
"Who are you? Why should I trust you?" Cassana wondered as she held onto Robb's hand.
"My name is Aegon Targaryen," the man paused, "and I just saved your life."
Cassana eyes widened at the silver-haired man once his name left his lips. She wanted to reject the idea that this man could be a Targaryen, but she knew they did not have the time to argue over such things. She looked around the room once. She saw that most of the Freys who had killed her men were dead and Lord Walder was being held at knife-point by Davos.
She inhaled sharply when she saw Catelyn Stark lying on the floor, her throat slit open. Cassana desperately wanted to bring Lady Stark back to Riverrun for her daughter's sake. She knew there was nothing worse for young woman than growing up without a mother to guide and love her; she never wanted that fate for Sansa.
"Why?" She spoke as she faced the supposed Targaryen.
Aegon looked at her and sighed. "We have a lot to discuss."
What did you think? Was this emotional enough? I tried to show how much Shireen really meant to Cassana. I hope I did it justice.
Next chapter coming soon. Please follow or favorite! Reviews are also welcomed and very appreciated.
Question of the day: If you were Cassana, how would you react to finding out your parents are alive?
