I do not own ASOIAF. I do not profit from this story, nor would I ever seek to do so. All credit for characters and setting to the wonderful GRRM.
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The walls of the city loomed in front of him. He could see the towers and turrets of the Red Keep.
"Tyrion," he said, turning to his brother who had ridden at his side.
"Yes, Brother."
"Will she?" he said, feeling panic grip him. He had been able to attend Joffrey's funeral without any response and accept his passing without emotion, but the thought of something harming Tommen made him sick. He had come to know his younger son better than he ever had his first born. Tommen was a sweet and innocent boy. "Tyrion, please, please do not let her harm Tommen. He is a good little boy."
"If Tommen surrenders the city without a fight, Her Grace will allow him to accompany me back to Casterly Rock and be raised as my ward. Her Grace does not wish to kill her people. She has been a merciful conquerer as much as her conscience will allow, and she desires to show her mercy to her subjects. She wishes above all to be seen as better than what came before. You will be carrying a message to Tommen in the city. Her Grace commands that Ser Barristan accompany you."
Jaime rode confidently toward the gate with a knight at his side. He was hailed immediately and the gates were opened to admit him given the distance the army stood back.
The words replayed themselves in his mind over and over as he rode Honor into the city. He was a knight of the Kingsguard, the Lord Commander of Joffrey's and Tommen's whether he had asked for it or not. The knights at the Tower of Joy had preferred to die rather than bend the knee, but they had not had a son to think about or the mother of the son.
No one was in the streets. There was no evidence of fires in the homes either. It was as if the peasants believed that if there was no sign of life in a house that the dragon's fire would not burn them. He urged his horse to a trot down the straight road to the great castle. There was nothing to slow them, and he preferred to get this humiliation out of the way. Her Grace had arrived back this morning without a girl she had left with on a scouting mission toward the Vale and North. She flew over the city on that beast of hers, showing her strength and power to those watchers. She even had the creature send out a blast of fire between two towers of the keep, one of them was the Tower of the Kingsguard.
"What do you think Her Grace will do with me?"
"Her Grace's safety is my only concern. I do my best not to dwell on anything else."
Jaime felt a clench in his stomach. He ought to tell Tommen right away that he was his father and Myrcella's. He might never see his daughter again. He never told her that he loved her, not once, even when she had been a little girl and kissed his cheek, professing her love for him when he had been bullied by her into playing 'Knights and Ladies.' She also had often enjoyed being carried specifically by him when she was very little, preferred him to Cersei to his sister's massive annoyance. He should write something to his daughter to tell her everything in case he never had a chance to tell her in person.
"If your words about Lord Stark saving her nephew were true, then I imagine you will be allowed to live. Who is this boy?"
"His name is Jon Snow. Lord Stark claimed that he was his bastard son, but anyone who knew Prince Rhaegar might see something of the similarity to the boy in his face and demeanor and how he fought with a sword. I never asked Stark about it, but I thought it best for everyone. Just one more secret that I knew."
Ser Barristan was quiet.
"And the other boy, Aegon? Do you really think he lives?"
"I know that I helped Lord Varys to help him. What became of him after, I could not tell you. He may have become sick. He may have gotten in a bar fight and been killed. He may know or not know who he is. I hope he lives." Jaime did not say that he mostly hoped the boy lived because it would give him a shred of honor in the eyes of a man he respected so highly. "I remember when I served as your squire once. I wasn't a very good squire, always underfoot and asking far too many questions."
Jaime looked at his stump.
"You are learning to fight with your left hand?" Ser Barristan asked.
"Only fighting poorly with it." Jaime said. Not that the other knight would not know the full truth of his helplessness.
"Perhaps we might practice at some point. I have some experience at learning to fight at such disadvantage."
Jaime looked over at the knight. Did he mean that or did he just want a chance to humiliate him? He wished the other man would be silent, though he knew that there was doubtless much he wished to know. Perhaps he might add these deeds to the list of those performed by Ser Jaime Lannister,
"Why did you not tell me that you saved the princes?"
Jaime shrugged. It had not been a good idea to ever mention such secrets in the Red Keep.
"I thought it best. If the boy Stark took to Winterfell was whom I thought him to be, best for all that no one know. If Aegon lived, best he not have the greatest knight alive being a beacon pointing to him. You are one man. Robert would have come with an army to annihilate that baby. Best he be allowed to live and grow up quietly. If he was a true King, he would come back."
They quieted as they arrived at the gates of the Red Keep. Jaime took a deep breath and walked up the steps. They moved into the throne room and found Tommen sitting the throne with a kitten on his lap.
"Ser Uncle. I was worried." Tommen rose and walked down the steps in front of the throne.
Jaime moved swiftly down the middle of the room and gathered the boy to him. He held Tommen close in his arms. He buried his fingers in the boy's soft blond hair.
"Jaime, what are you doing here, Ser? We had heard you were captured."
Jaime turned and saw his sister with her head still covered. Her walk had humbled her, but the death of their uncle had increased her paranoia.
"Your Grace, I ask for a private audience."
"Mother, I will speak to Ser Uncle alone. Ser Boros, please take mother to her room."
"Let me kiss you, Tommen."
Tommen motioned his mother close, stepping from Jaime's embrace to accept a kiss on his forehead.
"I love you, Mother. All will be well."
Cersei looked ready to give fight but went meekly as the knight took her arm.
Jaime collapsed to his knees when Cersei was gone.
"Tommen." He brushed his hand over the boy's face over and over before removing the crown from his head gently and setting it to the side. "You must listen to me."
Tommen was quiet in his arms and still.
"The Targaryen queen has returned to Westeros. Your uncle is with her, Tyrion. He serves as her hand. He has spoken to her of allowing you to go to live at Casterly Rock with him. She has agreed to these terms, but only if you give up your crown without a fight. She wants as little bloodshed as possible. If you force a fight, you will be executed."
"Uncle."
"She has a dragon. This city will burn and be destroyed if you do not yield. You must do so for the sake of the people. The thousands of people here surely mean more than the lump of gold on your head, yes?"
Tommen was quiet and his green eyes were large with fear. He trembled a little.
"But I am the king."
"Tommen, you must listen to me."
His son. He had to protect his son. Tommen was a good boy, kind to his sister and adoring of his mother even when she bullied him.
"They have your sister. They have dragons. They have an enormous army, Dorne, the Riverlands, the Stormlands, the Crownlands, and the Westerlands. If Lord Mace Tyrell is their captive, and he has not been heard from for many months, then High Garden and the Reach may side with the Targaryens. The Vale did not take sides in the last war. The Northern Lords have winter speedily upon them and will not budge to help anyone save themselves. This city stands alone. For the sake of the people, I ask you to put aside a crown. Give it to its rightful owner."
"But my father was king." Tommen looked so confused and his green eyes were wide with fright.
Jaime felt his stomach clench. He should tell the boy the truth. There was no reason not to at this point. He looked over his shoulder at Ser Barristan who stood shrouded not far from the door.
"No. Tommen, Robert was not your father. I'm your father. Myrcella's father. And I was Joffrey's father."
"But you are mother's twin." Tommen remained close in his arms. He had such a sweet nature to him. So gentle. So kind. He would see the sense of giving up the crown and saving all the people. He was easily influenced in his decisions.
"Yes." Jaime swallowed hard as he gave the boy the excuse that he and Cersei had used for years to justify their sin, a sin perhaps more his than hers. He loved her, and she might only have used him. It did not matter. It was over now. "The Targaryens wed brother to sister for generations, as the Maester has taught you."
"You are a knight. You took an oath."
Jaime felt all the sickness in his gut. He had come this far. The boy deserved to know everything of his family heritage. What was told to the world mattered little and less. The only boy who needed to know everything was here in front of him.
"Tommen, what do all the other men call me?" Tears filled his eyes. He had slain a king before. He could do it again. It would be a mercy to the people and to Tommen.
"They call you Kingslayer, but I ordered them not to. I do not like to have you called so. I love you." The boy looked as if he wanted to call him uncle or father but could not make up his mind which was most appropriate or correct.
"I am a Kingslayer, Tommen. No amount of orders not to speak of it will change the fact. I killed the Mad King. I had reasons for why I did as I did. I believed them honorable and right at the time, and I still do now, after everything I have been through. I have chosen for many reasons to keep my silence on the matter, until quite recently when I told a companion for my peace of mind. I have told several others since. I have been reliving it all too often recently. I will tell you one day if you should like to know but not today. Today, what you decide is what matters."
Jaime looked over his cherub faced son. He would kill him himself before taking the boy alive to the Targaryen women against his wishes. He would not let the people of the city die for a pointless fight.
"I'm scared."
"Fear is a part of this life we live, my son. But it need not be part of our death. You can give up the crown and a false claim you have to the throne through blood you do not share with the man you called father, or you can save this city and its people from death by surrendering. Her Grace, Queen Daenerys has sworn before her lords that no harm shall come to you for surrendering to her. She has shown this in the other cities she has conquered as well. You will be your Uncle Tyrion's ward. He loves you dearly and will care for you."
"Mother says—"
"What your Mother or anyone else says does not matter. You are king. You must make your choice. Whatever it is, I shall carry the news back to her."
Tommen shrank close to him. Jaime wrapped his arms tightly around the boy. Without his right hand, he was powerless to do anything but die before his son.
"You shall lose nothing that you ought lament being rid of, Tommen." He kept his tongue as he thought of what Tyrion had said of Cersei not being allowed to go free.
"Can I see Uncle Tyrion first?"
"I think the Queen will consent to allow him to come here. We shall ride to the wall and call him out if it please you."
"Will we see Myrcella?"
"She is still in Dorne, though I hope so soon." Jaime pulled him close, squeezing him tightly as tears dripped onto the boy's cloak. Joffrey would have damned himself and the city before releasing a hold that he had no right to exert.
"Will Mother come to Casterly Rock? Grandfather wanted her to be sent there."
"Let's go to the wall and begin talking. Talking to save the people. There is no time to waste." He could not tell the boy that Cersei might not be pardoned. He knew Cersei was capable of anything. She might even kill the boy rather than let him fall into the hands of the enemy. She knew as well as any Lannister, as anyone in the Seven Kingdoms really, what happened to royalty who had been found alive in the Red Keep when someone came to take the throne.
Tommen nodded bravely, and Jaime kissed his brow repeatedly.
"I love you, Tommen. Your father loves you. You are a good boy, a good son. You will be a great man some day."
"I love you—Father."
