The aftermath of Loki's plan finally hits! Will Loki get what he wants? Only one way to find out. Not gonna lie, this chapter took a completely different turn to what I had planned. But that's Loki for you isn't it? He can't be controlled.
After pushing him, Loki quickly teleported out of the tower and behind one of the pillars in the courtyard where he was previously with Myrcella and his two sisters.
He watched, fighting off the nausea from teleporting, as his son Fenrir gleefully talked to Myrcella, Sansa and Arya. Loki waved his hand, causing the sketch book in Fenrir's hands to blow away and in his direction.
Fenrir being the canine he is, immediately took off after it, much to the amusement of the ladies currently watching him. Loki scowled, his son was many things but subtle wasn't one of them.
As soon as the book flew behind the pillar, Fenrir following close behind,Loki undid the cloaking spell on his son, causing him to regain his smaller wolf form once more. Fenrir immediately started pouting.
"Father, I was having fun!" he said, his voice low so as to not alert Myrcella and his sisters.
"I'm sure you were, but now's not the time for fun. I need to swap back now."
Fenrir was still pouting at him, however he still loyally followed along as he walked back to Myrcella, Sansa and Arya.
"I apologise for that," Loki said forcing a smile on his face when he saw the amused looks on their faces, Fenrir was lucky he was his son because if he wasn't Loki would have flayed him for embarrassing him in such a way "my sketchbook is quite precious to me, I would be terribly upset if something happened to it."
"Oh I completely understand," Myrcella said, an amused but kind expression on her face "considering the contents of that book I would be quite protective of it too."
"Yeah Bran, you really are quite the artist, I've seen you sketching in that book before but you've never shown any of us your drawings," Sansa smirked turning to Myrcella "you must be quite special if you received the honor before any of us."
Myrcella's cheeks reddened, however before I could say anything Arya spoke, her nose scrunched up "I've never seen you so lovesick before brother, seeing you act all romantic is actually kind of gross."
Lovesick? Romantic? Does Arya really believe either of those words describe him?
Loki was again cut off, this time by Sansa "Despite being mischievous Bran's always been soft-hearted, once when I asked him to bring me a wild Blue-Winter Rose he brought me a whole crown of them!"
Soft-hearted? Seven Hells, Loki felt like he was going to throw up again at being called such a thing.
"Really? That was very kind of you," Myrcella said, looking at him.
"Not really, he probably only did that to shut you up Sansa." Arya said, causing Loki to almost sigh in relief.
"Arya! You're being rude in front of the Princess!"
Before Arya could reply the bells started tolling, signalling the return of the hunting party. As the sound of hooves drew nearer, Loki bit back a smile when he heard the blood-curdling scream of the Queen echo throughout Winterfell.
"Mother!" Myrcella cried, running in the direction of the scream. Loki turned to face Sansa and Arya, who both looked rather pale after hearing the Queen's scream.
"Sansa, Arya go find father and the King's men, gather as many as you can, if the Queen screamed she could have been attacked," Loki said.
At their nod, Loki turned, playing the role of doting fiance as he ran after Myrcella's frantic form. However, Loki already knew what sight awaited them.
Much to Loki's joy, the King, Prince Joffrey, his father, Theon and his brothers arrived at the same time as Myrcella and himself to the scene, with Arya and Sansa sitting behind Robb and Jon on their horses. It was just as Loki had planned. After all, the hunting party had left and returned through the North Gate, which was relatively close to the once broken tower, and would have taken minutes to reach on horseback.
Not that Loki had calculated that or anything...
The Queen herself was doing an incredible impression of her house symbol, her wild, tousled golden locks framing her face like a mane as she turned and snarled at anyone who dared to approach her brother's naked, mangled corpse. Her dress looked like it had been hastily thrown on, with one of the sleeves on the verge of slipping off her shoulders.
She looked completely mad.
At the sight of her dead father-uncle, Myrcella threw herself into his arms sobbing. Whilst incredibly uncomfortable with the sudden affection, Loki patted her on the back, a fake concerned look on his face as he gleefully watched the King awkwardly climb off his horse and walk towards the Queen.
"What has happened here woman!?" the King roared, his sword drawn as his eyes frantically, almost eagerly searching for enemies to slay. It probably would have looked intimidating, if the King wasn't as fat and slow looking as he was.
The King looked down at the naked corpse of one of his Kingsguard and again roared "Who has done this to one of my Kingsguard? And why in all the Seven Hells is he naked!?"
The Queen looked at a loss for words, clearly too shocked at her brother's surprising death to have thought up a lie to tell the King.
After a few moments of silence, the only sound heard being the King's heavy breathing, Cesei finally spoke "I was taking a walk in the courtyard, husband, however when I heard my brother scream I looked up and saw that he was pushed out of this tower."
"Pushed?" the King asked.
Cersei nodded, wiping the tears off her face "yes, I could not make out the person's face, but I assure you, my brother was most definitely pushed!"
"Did you see the assailant leave?" father asked,"if this only happened recently then either he's still in the tower or he's somehow snuck by us."
Cersei paused, clearly not wanting to admit that she herself was in the tower, however knew that she had to come up with some excuse as to why she did not see the attacker.
"He ran out of the tower," she said. "However, when I went to confront him, he shoved me down, messing up my hair and clothes."
Hmm, not a bad lie. Good enough to fool the King at least, however based on the look on father's face it was clearly not enough for him.
"Are you sure you didn't see the assailants face then?" father asked, "if he attacked you, even if he was fully covered, are you sure you didn't catch a glance at his face during the struggle?"
Cersei's expression soured, cleary disliking her story being challenged "I assure you that I did not see his face Lord Stark, if you are presuming I'm lying then-"
"What's that on your neck?" Arya blurted.
"Arya!" Sansa cried, completely scandalised, clearly having noticed as well but choosing not to speak up.
However, the damage of her words was already done, as upon her speaking everyone turned their attention to Cersei's neck.
Loki fought off a grin. Sometimes he loved how blunt and observant his sister was.
The lower part of the Queen's neck, close to her left shoulder, was covered in small, barely visible bruises from her little dalliance with her brother. The bruises themselves were incredibly faint due to them being recently made, meaning that you would have to have it pointed out to you in order to see them. Like his sister so helpfully did.
This normally would have been covered by her dress, it being designed to cover the entirety of her neck and shoulders, therefore hiding the evidence. However, due to the hasty manner in which she dressed in order to reach Jaime, a good chunk of her neck and shoulder was visible.
This was definitely not something he had planned to happen, his plan being to merely cast suspicion on Cersei for kinslaying and adultery, something which he was planning to use to slowly build Cersei a reputation of being untrustworthy and mad, therefore undermining her power.
However, as he scanned the faces of those present, his father's stoney expression, his brothers and Theon's disgust, Myrcella's mortified face hiding in his chest, Loki had a feeling that whatever came of this would no doubt be both incredibly exciting and pure chaos.
Loki also knew that, with the hickey covered Cersei and the naked corpse of her brother who was relatively well known for not taking bed partners, there would really be only one conclusion everyone would come to.
Loki keenly turned his gaze to the King, whose face was beginning to turn red and whose rage-filled expression was so intense that even Prince Joffrey, who had been watching the proceedings with an expression of complete boredom, took several steps away from him.
Cersei, to her credit, still looked for the most part calm, however he did not miss the glare she sent in Arya's direction.
'Glare all you like Queen Cersei, it still won't erase the evidence.'
The King's voice rumbled "Explain! Explain this right now woman or so help me I'll-"
"You'll what? Strike me? Run off and fuck one of your little whores?" Cersei sneered.
"Tell me the truth Cersei!" the King bellowed, clearly fed up "what happened here? And don't you dare lie to me."
Cersei, seeing that she wouldn't be able to lie her way out of this, decided to lash out like the caged animal she currently was "what a surprise dear husband, once again you take the side of these Northern savages over your own family. These bruises could have come from anything, yet you automatically draw the worst of conclusions due to your beloved Starks. Does my word mean nothing to you? Does our marriage mean less to you than your lust for a Stark ghost who never even loved you?"
The King's body began to shake with rage, however Cersei continued "for years you've lusted for Lyanna Stark, she's all you ever longed for isn't she? Is that why you cling so fiercely to House Stark? Are you afraid that if you show even the slightest hesitance in your loyalty for them that whatever pity she felt for you will too also disappear-"
The sound of the King slapping Cersei echoed throughout the courtyard. Loki nearly whistled, impressed. The sheer force of it was enough to knock her off her feet and onto the ground, staining her once lovely and expensive dress in dirt.
Cersei herself did not look shocked, rather she seemed pleased with the outcome, holding her quickly swelling cheek.
"I have tolerated a lot from you," the King said, his voice fighting a losing battle to stay calm "I have let you spoil that boy rotten despite advice against it, I've let you fly as many fucking Lannister banners as you want, however, one thing I will never allow, one thing that I will never tolerate, IS YOU INSULTING HOUSE STARK'S INTEGRITY AND THE MEMORY OF LYANNA WITH YOUR POISION!"
Father opened his mouth, whether it was to calm the King or something else entirely. However, before he could speak the King motioned to his Kingsgaurd.
"Take her to her rooms and keep her there on house arrest," the King ordered. The Kingsguard nodded, walking over to the now stunned Cersei.
"For your sake wife I hope you're telling the truth," the King said "cause as soon as we reach King's landing, we'll be holding a trial for your alleged crimes."
The Kingsguard dragged Cersei off. The King immediately turned his attention to Tyrion, who had just arrived and was currently standing in shock over his brother's body.
"IMP!" the King bellowed, causing Tyrion to nearly fall over in shock "send word to Lord Tywin at once of what happened here! I expect him to be present, Seven Hells knows that he's the only one who can put the fear of the gods in that woman."
Tyrion nodded shakily, running off as fast as his small legs could carry him.
As the King stormed off with father, presumably to deal with the aftermath of what occurred, Loki couldn't help but wonder what consequences would occur due to this unexpected occurrence.
Regardless, Loki would do his best to ensure whatever these consequences were would be beneficial.
And that's a wrap! I won't go into any spoilers, but what took place in this chapter will have a massive effect on future events. Whether these effects are good or bad, well that's to be determined. I will say though that Loki might need to be less reckless in his actions….By for now!