Cersei

The feast was a lavish one tonight, none could deny that.

They feasted on boar that men had returned from the Kingswood with, and put on all the splendor of a tourney being held in honor of the appointment of a new hand.

So far Cersei Lannister had drank little during the feast, though she had eaten well. She was nibbling on some olives before she decided that she didn't like the taste of them.

She sat next to Robert in the feasting hall that had been erected on the tourney grounds, with her children next to her.

Her children sat next to them, Joffrey wearing a red and gold doublet that was emblazoned with the joined lion and stag, looking every bit like the proper prince. Like his father, she thought a little satisfied.

Tommen and Lanna were there as well, though neither seemed to look quite so good as Joff or Jaime did. Neither seemed particularly interested, and Cersei did not doubt that if afforded the choice they would've rather remained in the Red Keep to play with Loren or their kittens. She wondered if Lanna was even old enough to be attending the tourney, though Robert had insisted.

Joff's betrothed, Lady Sansa sat with her family though, rather than by Joffrey. She had changed between the tourney and now Cersei realized, wearing a sleeveless dress of green silk, with a jeweled net in her hair, while she spoke with her brother.

Lord Eddard who had not been in attendance of the tourney had come to the feast as had the younger Stark girl, who had her dancing lessons, though Cersei had learned they were truly lessons with a Braavosi water dancer. A dance of a different sort, she supposed, but hardly fit for a lady.

They had their pups with them too, which Cersei had thought not to allow, having them leave the beasts in the kennels at the Red Keep, but she knew it would not be worth arguing with the Starks over it. They were stubborn, especially when it came to their wolves. Even Myrcella had seemed half in love with her wolfling's pup when last they had spoken.

It was Myrcella and Marla's absence she rued the most. The two girls had always delighted in the spectacle of tourneys, taking pleasure in men vying for their favors, and enjoying all the celebrations that came with it.

Lord Arryn's son was a good rider with an interest in jousting she recalled, and no doubt when Marla was wed she and her husband would descend from the Mountains of the Vale to attend tourneys, but Myrcella was not like to be attending many tourneys anymore now that she was so far in the North. Once in a good long while perhaps, but not very often, when they were not even in attendance for the tourney being held in honor of her good father.

Perhaps Lanna would grow into it in time, as she hoped her sons would become champions of the list as their father was, but at just five she wasn't entirely sure she was even old enough to be attending.

Jaime sat at the high table next to Cersei too though, in his gilded armor, and she was glad for his presence. He had been one of the four to still be competing in the joust on the morrow, where he would face the Hound in his first tilt, before the winner between the Knight of Flowers and the Mountain in his second.

The common folk seemed to love the Knight of Flowers, best, even against Jaime. Compared to the Cleganes, Cersei could see the sense in it, but against Jaime it was folly.

All the while, Robert was drunkenly japing next to her. When she looked at him, she could hear him whispering the name Lyanna into her ear on their wedding night.

When Myrcella had been born he had suggested that she be named Lyanna in the wolf bitch's honor, the one that Prince Rhaegar had stolen from him. Would that it had been the other way around, and Prince Rhaegar had chosen her, while the Lady Lyanna was stuck with Robert.

It had been the same with Marla too, though Cersei had insisted that she be named for her mother's mother, and finally when Lanna came she had chosen a name that sounded similar to stop him from suggesting it anymore. A prouder name though. A Lannister name, yet she had not birthed any daughters since.

He did not name them, save for Myrcella, who he had named after some old Baratheon woman who had once been betrothed to a Targaryen princling. He had taken more interest in her than the rest of her children. Perhaps it was because Myrcella was the eldest, or perhaps it was because he had always dreamt of joining his house with Lord Eddard's.

The rest he had not named them any more than he was a father to them, yet all the same Cersei was forced to be seated next to him and proclaim her children to be his before all the realm.

For as drunk as Robert was, he seemed to take little interest in other women in the hall which was not usual for him. Certainly not during a tourney feast when his appetites normally seemed to be at their greatest.

Cersei sat silently, one hand hidden underneath the table holding Jaime's when Robert turned and looked at her. "Would you care to hedge bets on the melee?" He asked her.

"Which melee my lord? The tourney or our marriage?" She said back.

Robert let out a laugh, "the tourney of course."

Cersei couldn't have cared who won the melee on the morrow. She only hoped that Jaime would win the joust. The melee had not sparked her interest enough for her to even learn the names of those who were competing.

"No your grace… Though I am sure you would triumph over them all," she said.

It was meant as a simple compliment, but Robert seemed to seriously consider the notion. "It's been long enough… Perhaps I ought to fight," he said back.

Cersei wondered what she had done. "No you mustn't, your grace. It would not be proper of you as their king."

She meant her words in good sense, but Robert only seemed to be enraged by them. "You will not forbid me from entering the lists, woman… I will do as I bloody well please," he said angrily. The wine must have been doing some of the talking she saw.

However just as she was about to respond, another figure entered the hall. Cersei did not know this man, who was cleanly shaven, with his hair being a mixture of red and grey. His eyes were a pale blue and his face was lined and worn.

He wore plain armor that showed no heraldry on it either. She did not recognize him to be one of the men who had competed in the lists earlier though, as he strode forward towards the high seat.

"Your grace," he said, kneeling when he was close enough to the table, before he pulled a letter out.

"Who are you, and what do you want, Ser?" Robert asked back.

"I have the honor to be Lord Jon Connington your grace, returned from exile," he announced.

Robert and most the others at the high table went quite with that. Cersei looked over the man, though she didn't remember what the Lord of Griffin's Roost had looked like. Only last they had heard he had drank himself to death in exile, yet here he was now.

"You wish to beg me for your lands back?" Robert managed to say, keeping his calm in a way Cersei hadn't thought possible.

"Aye, your grace," the man answered, before he put the letter before the king. The letter was rolled up with an unbroken seal of grey wax that had a crowned stag on it. Myrcella had decided to make it her own personal seal she realized.

Cersei felt her heart rise a little as she wondered what message her daughter could've possibly written to them that had required her to send an exiled lord that had once fought for the Targaryens against Robert rather than sending it by raven, while he also presented two more letters, one to Tommen and one to Lanna, though not one for Joffrey she noted.

Robert broke the seal and unrolled the letter, while Tommen and Lanna both eagerly were starting to read theirs. It was Myrcella's hand too from what Cersei saw, writing to them to let them know they ought to raise him back to his former lands. Myrcella wrote that things were still well in the North, and that she grew with child, though Cersei already knew that.

All Cersei could wonder was why Myrcella had put her trust in this man. For a moment she wondered if perhaps the man had threatened her, and forced her to write the letter, but she had a knight of the Kingsguard and other men at arms, there to keep her safe… And the garrison of Winterfell and the Stark boy's pup, she thought ruefully. She had seen how eager the wolves were to defend their masters.

"Speak with Ned after the tourney…" He said, making it clear that his audience was at an end.

"There is more your grace. At Harrenhal I encountered Lord Tyrion," he said.

"Has anything ill befallen my brother?" Cersei asked him. She wasn't sure to hope that anything had or hadn't, but she was curious as to what was taking her imp of a brother so long to return to King's Landing. She had thought he surely would've come to the Tourney, but had yet to arrive.

"Worse than ill…" He began to say.

Cersei listened as he spoke of how at Harrenhal her brother had been slain. Killed by outlaws there he claimed, though Cersei wondered if he was lying.

When he had finished speaking, she didn't know what to think. She had never cared for Tyrion, to be sure, yet he was her brother all the same, and she knew she would need to show her grief somehow.

Jaime beside her seemed ready to rage, and she wondered if he would kill the man right then and there. He had always had a soft spot for their brother she knew, much to Cersei's displeasure.

But he simply rose and stormed out of the hall. Cersei did not know where he meant to go, but she hoped her twin was simply leaving to quell his rage.

Two of the Riverlords, the Vances were responsible according to Connington, and Cersei wondered if he meant to go burn them out of their keeps.

Cersei only watched as he left before her attention was turned back to the exiled lord in front of them. Robert remained speechless, as though her brother being killed meant nothing to him. Dwarf or no, Tyrion had still been a lion.

"Why should you be rewarded from bringing such news to us?" Cersei asked him.

The man who claimed to be Jon Connington took a moment before he spoke. "They… They had spoken of pitting the lion against the wolf… That they might restore House Targaryen and overthrow the usurper."

Cersei knew that when they referred to the usurper they were speaking of Robert. "The younger one… Daemon… He is to wed a Royce by Stark's heir's leave… Restore me to my lands and I will be true against Rhaegar's sons…"

"Done," Robert said, with an angry look to his face.

"No… Your grace… You mustn't," Cersei began to protest. The restoration of the Targaryens were troubling to her too, knowing Joffrey's throne was not secure, but even this seemed folly.

"I can," he said looking at her. That answer did not please her, so she stormed off, looking for Jaime.

He found her at his pavilion, saddling his horse.

"Where are you going?" Cersei asked him.

"To avenge my brother," he said.

"Stay… Please Jaime… Leave on the morrow if you will, but tonight, please stay," Cersei said.

"They killed Tyrion… That is all I need," Jaime answered with a stubborn look on his face.

"Did it ever occur to you the man might be lying?" Cersei told him. "He might have killed Tyrion for all we know."

Jaime's rage began to be redirected, as though he were going to storm into the hall and kill Connington himself, though Cersei put herself in his way.

"Wait… Wait until we have more accounts of his death." She placed a kiss on his lips, and he began to move his hand towards her. "Not here... " She said to him. They couldn't now, not so close to everyone else. "Go, rest for tomorrow."

At that, Jaime began to return to his pavilion.

For a moment, Cersei thought to return to the main hall, but instead she retreated to the pavilion that had been put up for her and Robert. She wasn't too pleased to share one with Robert, while the children were entirely separate, but for a tourney they had to.

Cersei choose to go to bed, even if it was a little early for her. She thought about Tyrion as she lay awake in the bed considering Tyrion. She felt a little relieved that he was dead. But he had killed mother to come into the world. A waste she decided.

Perhaps Myrcella and Marla would come south after learning of Tyrion's death. He had always been fond of the girls, and them of him Cersei remembered, much to her disapproval. If that was what it took though, she could forgive it.

As long as she and Jaime died together, Cersei would be content she knew. They had come into the world together, they ought to leave it together too.

At some point she must have drifted off to sleep though. At first she dreamt herself atop the throne, a queen truly. All would need to kneel before her.

She was naked though, her bare skin being cut by the throne, and suddenly she began to see the faces of her foes. Old Jon Arryn was whispering with Lord Stannis. The were Lord Renly scheming with the Knight of Flowers to make his sister a queen. The Targaryens with crowns atop their head, Lord Eddard eyeing her suspiciously.

Yet Robert entered, and suddenly he began to go up the steps on the throne, until he stood over her. He began to fuck her, right then and there, leaving Cersei feeling the blades cutting deeper and deeper into her skin.

For a moment she thought to call out for Jaime, her other half, the father of her children, but he didn't save her.

She woke in the morning, with one of Robert's arms atop her, feeling a soreness in her loins. No, she thought to herself miserably as she rose, pushing Robert off of her before she realizing what must have happened.

Cersei had not let him in her for years, but she had let her guard down last night. She had half a mind to kill him, right then and there, or to tell Jaime, but instead she went to dress herself.

Today she wore a sleeved, red silk dress that had golden lions emblazoned on it, and donned her golden crown with emeralds in it.

Robert had begun to stir, and for a moment Cersei began to leave the pavilion when he called out to her. "Wait…" He said.

Cersei turned and looked at him as he had risen as well, and was beginning to dress himself in a golden tunic.

"Your brother… I am sorry for him," he told her.

She didn't know whether to laugh of cry at that. This was Robert, the man who had taken her two daughters and given them to other men without her leave, who had made her life misery for years, begging her forgiveness for the death of some brother she cared nothing for.

The thought of her brother reminded her that she was to be in mourning. It was customary to wear black when in mourning, but Cersei decided not to. She did not mourn her brother.

Instead, Cersei stepped out from the pavilion, onto the tourney grounds, whether more tilts were soon to begin, leaving the king behind to the horn of ale he was soon to be drinking from.

Her children's pavilion was not far from the one that had been set up for her and Robert. Thankfully this was the second and final day of the tourney, meaning she could return to her chambers in the Red Keep and not have to share her bed with Robert.

In the morning light, she saw men were busy, passing the tents and pavilions of other lords. Squires were running abound, helping to prepare their masters for the day.

She passed the pavilion for the Redwyne twins, and heard the sounds of the Redwyne twins fucking some woman. Slobber's wife, she guessed, since she didn't think they were like to have gotten some other woman no matter how much gold they could give. Cersei wondered if she was able to tell the difference between the two in bed. They were both quite comely after all, and covered in freckles. Perhaps there was some difference between them, but she had never seen it.

A little before she had reached her children's pavilion, she came upon Lord Eddard himself. He didn't seem pleased when he saw her, and he seemed to have been making to see Robert, but she stopped him all the same. She knew that the man was following in the steps of Jon Arryn, and wondered how far he had gotten so far. Cersei considered whether she would need to have him killed for it. Perhaps she might not even have to, she realized, there was the matter of his son's marriage.

"You did not send for our children in the North, Lord Eddard," she said. "Surely they ought to have been here for a tourney being held in your honor."

His grey eyes seemed to give her a look with some pity. "There must always be a Stark in Winterfell, your grace. In place of me, it must be Robb," he said back. The Starks were always so stubborn, but she wanted Lord Eddard to see Myrcella and his son together, to remind him of what he would lose when he should discover her secret. Myrcella was a good girl, kind, sweet, beautiful and quick of wit. Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn would not dare take her away from their son, especially when she had whelped a pup of her own for them.

"Must there my lord?" She asked him. It seemed quite foolish to her. Jon Arryn had lived in King's Landing with all of his children, leaving only his wife's bastard daughter in the Vale.

He nodded. "You wish to see Myrcella again, I take?"

"Yes," Cersei said quickly. "Surely as a father yourself, you would understand."

She could see he missed his children, even if he tried not to show it.

They began to walk together, and they passed by the lightning lord, Beric Dondarrion's tent as well. His wife, some Dayne of Starfall, had stepped out and Cersei saw a look of complete shock on Lord Eddard's face. She was a pretty girl, who must have not been long into the flower of her womanhood, though she was heavy with child.

She wondered if Lord Eddard was shocked because the Dayne girl reminded him of Lady Ashara, or perhaps even the Dayne girl was his daughter with Lady Ashara. Cersei kept her thoughts to herself though, as they walked past, and Lord Eddard looked back at her.

"I would send for my sons if I could, your grace, and your daughter too, but I cannot," he said firmly.

Damn the Starks and their ways, Cersei thought. "I trouble you my lord… Why?"

He gave her a hard look that told her all she needed to know. He thought she had killed Jon Arryn, and perhaps even ordered the man that tried to kill his daughter, but he didn't care to give an answer.

"I would rather us be friends. We both wish for the best for our children. Be loyal to me and you will be loyal to your Robert too," she said.

His face didn't seem to have changed though, and so Cersei left him there.

When finally she reached the pavilion of her children were being kept in, she saw that they had already been dressed. Joffrey and Tommen both looked golden princes, while Lanna seemed to be as beautiful as her sisters today.

She helped them finish preparing for the day, and when they were done Cersei began to lead them to the royal box from which they would watch the rest of the Tourney. They were some of the first to be seated, but soon seats began to fill.

Joffrey's betrothed, Lady Sansa, came alone not long after, and took her seat next to Joffrey for the tourney, while in time she saw that Robert and Lord Eddard had come as well, japing as they did, telling some old tales from their boyhood together. As though Connington's words the night before, and her words to Lord Eddard that morning had meant nothing.

Because they hadn't truly. Lord Eddard and Robert would not change she thought to herself as the herald began to call out the competitors for the day.

Now she even felt herself wishing that Robert had gone to compete in the melee, so that he might come to harm. The sooner Joff came into his throne the better she decided as she saw Jaime ride out, and the crowd began to cheer.

Author Notes:

Tata: Lol, you have read A Game of Thrones right? Yes, the Tourney of the Hand starts at Chapter 34 here, but it starts on Chapter 29 for the books, so… Also, excluding chapters from before Robert arrives, I have 6 (and another joke chapter) compared to only four with AGOT so…. We're pretty close to even there in terms of the distance between Robert's arrival in Winterfell and the beginning of the Tourney of the Hand.

I went back and cut out Catelyn's pregnancy. For a while it did have a purpose, but as my vision has changed, the child she would've given birth to became less and less important.

My vision for this chapter changed a little, but I stuck with it because Cersei is too much fun to write.

In this, both Beric Dondarrion and Hobber Redwyne are married and their wives will be of importance.

Thanks for reading as always, and be sure to leave reviews to let me know how you feel. I enjoy engaging with you guys and as always, your feedback is much appreciated. Thank you for all follows and favorites as well.

ASOIAF does not belong to me, much to my woe.