10th Month of 298 A.C. King's Landing

Jon Snow

Jon feels his horse pelting through the streets of King's Landing back toward the Red Keep, surprise and horror running through him. The attack had come as a surprise, he was not sure why, things were obviously quite tense within the capital, but he had not expected such a thing to happen. There was no honour in those fools coming to their deaths that way, and still, he had faced death down once now and survived. It was a strange thought that, knowing he had come close to death. His horse was pelting it through the streets, people looking at them in surprise, not yet aware of what had happened just a few feet away from them. The king was there at his side, his face unreadable as they rode through King's Landing, Ghost was at his side now, and there was a lot of nervousness flowing through him. He was not sure, who might have planned this, for that was what it clearly was, but there was something more about it, something he felt he should know but did not. It was beginning to gnaw at him not knowing, this thing that was just there in his line of sight but seemed unreachable. The Lord Commander of the Kingsguard bellows for the gates to be opened, and soon enough they are riding into the courtyard of the Red Keep.

That is when the king loses it. "Those ungrateful bastards. Those treacherous curs. They dare attack me here?! I will have their heads, I will destroy them."

People are looking at the king now, wondering what he is going on about, Jon finds it surprising that they do not know what has happened. The king continues ranting. "They think to get me, here within my own city?! I shall find them and kill them. I shall destroy them and all they hold dear. None shall escape from me. None!"

Something is pushing at Jon, forcing him to think hard, and then he finds himself saying. "Your Grace, acting now might not be the wisest of decisions."

The king looks at him then, turning eyes of rage onto him. "What?!"

"If the king does not act now, then those fools have won." Tyrek Lannister snarls.

"Do you know who they are?" Jon asks trying to keep his voice calm, despite the growing sense of fear rising within him. "Do you know where they are hiding?"

"It does not matter. They have attacked their king they must be punished." Tyrek snarls.

"Of course it matters." Jon replies, still fighting to keep his voice calm despite the fear growing within him as he thinks he knows who organised this. "If you do not know where they are hiding and who they are, you risk attacking innocent people."

The king stares at him a moment and then snarls. "And those people out there, who were staring at us as we rode by? They did not seem to wonder why we were riding hard through the streets of King's Landing, they did not seem to act when those fools began attacking us."

"They were scared." Jon says. "When the king shows signs of fear, how else are other people supposed to react?"

The king moves his horse closer toward him then and whispers. "I did not show fear."

Jon looks at the king, his own heart racing in his chest, he wants to say that the king did show fear, but instead he finds himself saying. "No, of course not Your Grace. I did not mean to say that. What I meant was that, the people who were there when those fools began attacking us, were terrified, they risked being killed in the midst of all that fighting."

"They should have come to fight for their king. Not hidden behind their house walls like curs." Tyrek snarls.

"But then, how were they to know that? They did not know what was happening. We cannot take action just yet until we find out what exactly happened there." Jon says, trying to calm himself.

"Jon is right Your Grace." Bryce Storm says. "Unless you find out who did this, who ordered this be done, then there will be nothing but chaos. The people of King's Landing will spend their days in fear once word gets out."

Jon can see that Tyrek wants to argue, and he wonders at that, usually Tyrek is the calm one, but it seems this attack has really worried him. The king raises his hand and says. "Very well then. Let us move to my chambers, and then we might discuss who did this." With that the king dismounts and gives his horse to a stable hand who has emerged from somewhere, Jon dismounts as well handing his horse to another stable hand, his friends doing the same.

As they walk toward the Red Keep, the Queen Regent emerges looking worried. "Your Grace, what happened?"

The king stops then, and fixes his mother with a stern and appraising look. "We were attacked in the streets of King's Landing by fools with knives and arrows. I want Varys to look into that, and I want an order to go out to tell the people to remain calm." With that the king walks past his mother into the keep, Jon and his friends follow, but they see the Queen Regent looking very worried, very worried.

Silence greets them as they walk through the keep, Jon's own heart is racing in his chest, he is not quite sure why, but he thinks he knows the answer, or at least it is becoming clearer as to why that might be, the more time he spends thinking about what has happened. The Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Barristan Selmy walks by the king's side, the other members of the Kingsguard and his sworn sword Sandor Clegane walking around their group. Eventually they come to the king's chambers, he orders Ser Barristan and Clegane inside and then once they are all in the door is shut. The king looks tired then, tired and worried, and rightly so, Jon sometimes forgets that the king is only as old as Sansa. "Now then, who might want me dead?" the king asks.

There is a long silence, and then Bryce Storm speaks. "Well there is Renly Baratheon for a start. We know he's moving toward King's Landing, and you are a grave inconvenience toward him Your Grace."

The king thinks on this before nodding. "Aye that is true, and that is also his favourite method of removing enemies. The mob attack, I know he did something similar on a smaller scale in the Stormlands once many years ago. But, there was something about this that seems off about it being him." The king pauses a moment and then looks at Selmy. "I want protection around my brother and sister constantly from now on." The Lord Commander nods. The king continues. "It seems too aggressive to be Renly though, he is more likely to use poison than a mob attack. Not since what he did all those years ago anyway. No, there must be someone else who did this."

"There is the obvious enemy. Robb Stark." Tyrek says then, and Jon feels all the eyes in the room snap to him then. "It would be the quickest most convenient way to get rid of you, Your Grace."

Jon feels something like anger flash through him, before the king has even gotten a chance to formulate a response, he hears himself speaking. "No."

"No?" Tyrek asks sounding surprised. "What, you don't think your brother could do something this dishonourable? Why to him and all those other fools fighting alongside him, you've done something just as dishonourable Jon."

Jon feels as if he has been slapped then, he stares at Tyrek, a mixture of hurt and anger flowing through him. He fights back tears of rage that threaten to spill forth. Fighting to keep himself calm he says. "I do not think Robb would have done this. He does not have the brains nor the deceitfulness to order such a thing, let alone come up with the plan himself Your Grace. And I do not think any of the lords fighting for him would have done something like this, without his permission."

Evidently, Tyrek does not believe him, judging by the expression on his face, however, he does not say anything, and instead the king speaks. "That is true, your brother does not seem like the type of person who would order this. And knowing the northmen, they are unlikely to do something without his permission. So, that leaves us with one other potential candidate out of the fools who I am fighting. Stannis."

There is a long silence that follows this, and Jon feels the uneasiness he had felt since the moment they had turned and ran from the attack, begin to grow, he does not think that this was the work of Stannis Baratheon, not the way he knows him at least. And he says as much. "Stannis does not seem the type of man who would do something like this Your Grace. Does he not have some stern dedication to honour and duty?"

The king looks at him and laughs. "Oh, please tell me you do not believe that nonsense. My uncle is good at one thing and that is crafting an image of himself. No, I think he is definitely capable of ordering something like this, and the manner in which the attackers came at us, it reminds me of him. Blunt and to the point. There was no fanciness about it, there was only one thing on their mind and they would not stop until they saw it fulfilled."

Jon feels slightly calmer then, but then something else comes to his mind. "But why would he want you dead Your Grace? He has not declared himself a king, he has done nothing but sit on Dragonstone for moons on end."

"That is the very essence of my uncle Jon." the king says simply. "He sits and broods and watches. All the while planning his own next move. I would not be surprised if this was the opening act of some misguided campaign of his. He has always hated my father, I think that hate might have transferred to me."

Jon thinks on this and then asks. "What will you do Your Grace?"

The king seems to contemplate this for some time, his face remaining expressionless as he thinks, and Jon feels some of the nerves he felt earlier coming back to haunt him now. Eventually the king speaks, his voice clear. "I shall send one last letter to Dragonstone, demanding that my uncle come here and explain himself to me. If he does not reply to that letter or does not show up, then when the Redwyne fleet comes I shall have him destroyed."

"You might want to speak to Aurane Waters as well Your Grace." Horas Redwyne says. "His brother is the Lord of the Driftmark, and has command over several ships which could help in any sort of campaign against Dragonstone."

A strange expression crosses the king's face then, as if the name Aurane is unpleasant to him for some reason. But then the look disappears and he says. "Aye, Aurane Waters is someone who could prove most useful, and he does owe me a favour after all."

Silence falls for a brief moment, then there is a knock on the door, and Ser Lancel-he was knighted after King Robert's death- enters the room when the king says he can. He seems shaky, as if he has seen or done something terrible, and his voice is filled with raw tension when he speaks. "Your Grace, your mother has met with Lord Tyrion."

"What about?" the king barks.

"To discuss how best to get your brother out of King's Landing. They want him safe and away from everything here." Lancel says.

The king says nothing and merely nods then, a strange expression covering his face.