Disclaimer: I do not own A Song of Ice and Fire or Game of Thrones. Everything belongs to George R.R Martin

Chapter X - Back to King's Landing

King's Landing

They finally arrived at King's Landing after a few days of journey. It has been a very long and difficult journey. Both Alyssa and Arya stopped talking with Sansa after what happened in the Trident. Sansa has stopped talking with their father because he killed Lady. Joffrey was avoiding Alyssa, no doubt humiliated at the situation in the Trident. Currently, Joffrey was in his room at the Red Keep in Maegor's Holdfast while his mother tended to the little wound on his arm.

"Ow!" Joffrey winced with tears in his eyes as his mother applied cream into his wound.

"Please, it's nearly healed." Cersei pleaded.

"It's ugly." Joffrey complained.

"A King should have scars." Cersei said as she wrapped a fabric around his wound. "You fought off a direwolf, you're a warrior, like your father."

"I'm not like him." Joffrey admitted, looking into his mother's eyes. "I didn't fight or fend off anything, all it did was bit me and I screamt."

Cersei gave Joffrey a concerned look but he continued, "And the Stark girls saw them, all three of them."

"That's not true." Cersei said trying to assure her son. "You killed the beast, you only spared the girls because of the love your father has for their father."

"I didn't, I-" Joffrey began.

"When Aerys Targaryen sat on the Iron Throne, your father was a rebel and a traitor." Cersei said looking into her son's eyes. "Someday, you will sit on the throne and the truth will be what you make it."

Joffrey thought deeply and then said quietly, "Do I have to marry her?"

Cersei gave her son a careful look, knowing that her son was humiliated already. "Yes." She said. Joffrey bit his lips and looked down but Cersei continued, "She's very beautiful and young, only a year older than you, but it's enough. And if you don't like her, you only need to see her on formal occasions, and when the time comes, make little princes and princess." Cersei added the last bit with a smile. "And if you rather fuck painted whores, you fuck painted whores. And if you rather lie with noble virgins, so be it." Cersei moved her hands towards Joffrey's chin and said, "You are my darling boy and the world will be exactly what you wanted it to be."

"Do something nice to the Stark girl." Cersei said after a brief moment.

"I don't want to." Joffrey said stubbornly.

"No but you will." Cersei said swiftly. "The occasional kindness will spare you all sorts of trouble down the road."

Joffrey got up his seat, annoyed and said, "We allow the Northerners too much power, they consider themselves our equals." He proclaimed as if it was some sort of offense.

"How would you handle them?" Cersei asked interested.

"I'll double their taxes and command them to supply 10,000 men into the royal army." Joffrey boasted.

"A royal army?" Cersei asked raising her brow. The Royals don't have an army.

"Why should every lord command his own men?" Joffrey asked disgusted. "It's primitive, no better than hill tribes. We should have a standing army of men loyal to the crown, trained by experienced soldiers, instead of a mob of peasants who has never held pikes in their lives."

"And if the Northerners rebel?" Cersei inquired.

"I'll crush them." Joffrey spat. "Seize Winterfell and install someone loyal to the realm as Warden of the North. Uncle Kevan maybe." Joffrey said talking about his great uncle, Ser Kevan Lanister. Although a knight with no lands, but is Lord Tywin's greatest advisor and has enough wealth and is very devoted to his brother. Contrary to Tywin's other younger brothers, Tygett and Gerion who were rebellious.

"And these 10,000 Northern troops. Will they fight for you or their lord?"

Joffrey looked confused but stepped forward and said arrogantly, "For me, I am the King."

"But you just told them to invade their homelands and asked them to kill their brothers." Cersei told him.

"I'm not asking." Joffrey said.

"The North cannot be held—not by an outsider. It's too big and too wild. And when the winter comes, the Seven Gods together couldn't save you and your royal army. A good king knows when to save his strength…" Cersei stood up from her seat, her cascading golden hair swaying a bit as she did. "… And when to destroy his enemies." She added coolly, donning a slight smirk and Joffrey observed her in slight surprise.

"So, you agree then…" He stepped closer to his mother, smirking in the same fashion as she had. "… the Starks are enemies?"

"Anyone who isn't us is an enemy"

oOoOo

Tower of Hand

Alyssa, Sansa, Arya and Septa Mordane sat around the table to eat their breakfast. They ate breakfast in the Tower of the Hand, where their father lived as Hand to the King. Alyssa was reading a book about King's Landing as she was reading. Ned Stark had advised her to read it since she will marry Joffrey and be Queen one day, but Alyssa could tell that her father doesn't want her to marry Joffrey. Neither does Alyssa, that snivelling coward who got beaten by an eight years old girl isn't what she will call a husband.

Neither of the Stark sisters were talking to each other. Of course, because what happened in the Trident. Both Alyssa and Arya blamed Sansa for what happened, Arya was grieving for Mycah, and Alyssa hopes that there wasn't anything romantic between them, but she still felt sorry for the butcher boy. It seems the incident was quickly forgotten by the rest of the household. Alyssa felt sickened, how could people just don't care of a butcher boy.

Dunk! Dunk! Dunk! Alyssa closed the book gracefully and watched seeing Arya stabbing the meat with her knife. Sansa and Septa Mordane looked up annoyed. Alyssa didn't bother to excuse herself, before leaving the room, not wanting to hear Sansa talking.

"Father." Alyssa said surprised seeing her father come in the room. "I thought you were with the Small Council."

"Aye." Ned replied to her. In his hands held a packed, and he unwrapped it and there was doll inside. "I had a dollmaker, the same dollmaker who makes dolls for the Princess Myrcella, to make Sansa a doll. Do you think she will like this?"

Alyssa shook her head and said, "Sansa hasn't played with dolls since she was eight."

She left the dining room.