A smaller chapter this time, but one that will have a major impact as we go further into the story.

That's honestly what most of the beginning is, setting the Lannister's up so high that when things start going wrong it's all the more drastic. That will start to come into play after this chapter!

I own nothing but the OC's, everything else is either the property of George R R Martin or HBO.

Finally, the war that would define Tywin Lannister was over. He stood atop the walls of the Mud Gate with his royal grandson, with a couple of the Kingsguard a few feet away, and watched as the fleet grew larger on the horizon. Joffrey looked positively gleeful, a fact which worried Tywin.

"Do you understand what will happen?" He asked Joffrey.

Joffrey scoffed. "Of course I do. My grotesque cousin will get on her knees before me and I will judge her treason."

Tywin pursed his lips. "The Lady Baratheon will bend the knee towards you and will state her oath of fealty before the Iron Throne, and then you are to accept that and lift her back to her feet, granting her the Baratheon ancestral seat of Storm's End." H r told Joffrey firmly.

Joffrey's eyes narrowed questioningly. "Shouldn't Tommen be granted that seat as the only other male Baratheon?"

The thought had crossed Tywin's mind, but with the Storm Lords having followed Stannis he couldn't see them accepting Tommen as one of their own. "Tommen will be granted Dragonstone when he reaches an age, as befits the King's heir. Shireen will be given Storm's End and a husband loyal to us that will benefit our House. Do you understand?"

Joffrey nodded, looking back out to the ships. "I do, Grandfather. The bitch has to live." He sighed dramatically. He turned to leave. "I'll be on the Iron Throne to greet her."

Tywin nodded his acceptance as Joffrey moved to leave, he would have to be the one to greet his son and their prisoners. He waited for Joffrey to be escorted out of sight before moving on down to the docks to wait for the ships to come in. It took a while, but eventually a small rowboat came towards the shoreline with Tyland at its bow. He stepped off first, before walking up to Tywin and quickly bending the knee to his Liege Lord. "Rise my son." Tywin said quickly, and the heir to Casterly Rock did as bid. "You have done well."

"I did no more than my duty to the King, Father." Tyland answered. He stepped aside and Tywin saw Ser Loras Tyrell helping Shireen Baratheon off of the boat. "The Lady Shireen, and her protector and advisor, Ser Davos Seaworth."

The knight got out of the boat as soon as Shireen was on dry land, and Tywin noticed his hands were not bound. "You trust him not to try and escape?" Tywin asked quietly.

"He values the girl's life more than his own." Tyland noted. "So long as we treat her well he will be appeased."

"Very well." Tywin said, before stepping forwards to greet the prisoners. "Welcome to King's Landing, Lady Shireen."

The girl curtseyed, a fake smile on her lips. "Thank you for being courteous in your victory, Lord Tywin. Ser Davos and I appreciate it."

"Ser Loras will escort you to the Red Keep." Tywin told them both. "There we shall get the formality out of the way and you shall be shown to your quarters in Maegor's Holdfast." The Knight of the Flowers gestured for them to follow him and some Lannister guards that had kept their distance. Once they had began to move through the city, Tywin began walking back as well, only hanging back so he could talk to his son. "The mother?"

"Locked in her cabin." Tyland murmured. "It seems this Lord of Light may be more of a problem than I anticipated. I drowned 4 prisoners due to their incessant blaspheming. Lady Selyse would have been among them had I not already promised her life. I felt it wise to finalise the surrender before bringing her ashore."

"Hmm." Tywin thought aloud. "The Red Woman we have heard about?"

"Abandoned them once news of Stannis' death came." Tyland answered. "I spoke with Ser Davos on the journey about her, he holds no love for the witch and says that she heads back to Essos."

"And you believe him?"

Tyland nodded. "Oddly enough I do, he's a wise man for a lowborn smuggler.

"Then we must ensure that His Grace does not order the man to lose any more of his extremities." Tywin said mockingly, as the pair tried to catch up with the others in their party.

Loren was stood in the gallery as Shireen Baratheon was led into the Throne Room by Ser Loras, stood with Tommen, Sansa and Margaery. The room may have been relatively empty, but the gallery itself was filled. Cersei stood alone, watching on in anger at having been left up here.

Down by the Throne itself Tywin quickly moved to take his place beside the Iron Throne, where Joffrey sat lazily as he always did, his Kingsguard standing tall by the steps. Shireen and Ser Davos Seaworth were led towards them, and stopped a few yards away from the Kingsguard.

"Lady Shireen Baratheon." Tywin called regally. "You have been brought here to King's Landing to atone for your Father's treason and to swear fealty to King Joffrey Baratheon, the First of his Name."

Loren zoned out of the list of things that Stannis had done then, bored out of his mind. All he could think about was his betrothal. He had spent a few days with Kathryn Payne and honestly thought that she was as boring as any person he had ever met, although he suspected that it was because she didn't want to do anything wrong. House Payne was an old and loyal banner to House Lannister, but they had rarely been in a position to marry into Casterly Rock.

The pull of home distracted him as well. Until this war Loren had only ever left the Rock for a couple of weeks at a time, and he hadn't set eyes on the place now in well over a year. He was drawn back to the Throne Room when Tommen leaned into him.

"Is it bad that I love how much Grandfather scares him?" The Prince asked quietly. Loren looked at the Iron Throne and saw Joffrey had straightened, with Tywin glaring down at him.

"But of course, as the Lord Hand says, your Father's crimes are not your crimes." Joffrey was saying, and Loren presumed he had threatened to kill Shireen. "Bend your knee, cousin, and let us forget that the last year has happened."

Loren saw Shireen look up at the Onion Knight, who just nodded mournfully. The girl smoothed down her dress and fell to one knee. "I swear to serve you, Your Grace. From this day until my last day."

"Rise, Lady Shireen." Tywin said after a moment of silence. "You shall be confirmed in your new title as Lady of Storm's End in a few days, and your new bannermen may come and bend the knee towards you in due course."

"And there we are." Loren muttered. "The war is over."

Sansa heard him and turned to Loren. "What will you do now?" She asked.

"I'm to stay and continue helping His Grace and the Prince in their swordplay." Loren answered, ruffling Tommen's hair. "I long for home, but I shall have to deal with this rotten place for a while yet."

Sansa looked down at her feet, and he knew she was thinking of wanting to leave. "I'm sure neither you or your sister will be here for too long, My Lady."

"Arya will." Sansa chuckled. "She's bitten three guards already. I'm surprised they haven't moved her to an actual cell."

Loren knew the reason why, it was because they didn't want to be seen treating the heir to both the Riverlands and the North too harshly, but he wasn't about to tell Sansa that. "It is good that you visit her, maybe you can calm her somewhat."

"The only thing that would calm Arya is some milk of the poppy." Sansa muttered amusedly. The rest of the gallery began applauding at the new peace, and so Loren and Sansa both half heartedly joined in, before the crowd began dispersing.

"Right, my Prince. Shall we get you armoured up?" Loren asked the 11-year-old. Tommen eagerly nodded. "Let us go then." He turned and bowed to Sansa and Margaery. "My Ladies." Before he took Tommen out towards the training yard.

A few hours later, Sansa went out towards the Godswood and sunk to her knees by one of the rocks, closing her eyes to pray. She began to pray for her sister to be less wilful so that she may live, she prayed for her own safety, and a match that would take her away from King's Landing and the cruelty of Joffrey. Above all however, she prayed for justice. Justice for her fallen family, and justice for the North.

"Lady Stark." A voice came from behind her. Her face scowling in annoyance, she rose to her feet daintily and turned, a smile masking her true emotions. She saw a relatively pretty girl in a sleeveless black dress, decorated with white, barren trees. A sigil that Sansa recognised from so long ago.

"Lady Mira?" She asked. "What are you doing here."

Mira Forrester smiled and curtseyed. "I'm one of Lady Margaery's handmaidens, My Lady."

Remembering her Mother mentioning one of the lesser Northern houses sending a daughter south, Sansa nodded. "The south agrees with you." She smiled.

"A pity it doesn't agree with us all." Mira said quietly. "I'm so sorry about what's happened."

Sansa shook her head. "My family were traitors, they died traitors deaths." She lied.

"You don't believe that any more than I do." Margaery said from behind Mira. "Your family were murdered heinously, Lady Stark."

"Lady Margaery, I wasn't expecting you in the Godswood." Sansa said, nervously looking about.

"There's nobody here, Lady Stark." Mira smiled. "We made sure of it."

Sansa stared out to the sea. "Everything gets heard in this place." She whispered.

Margaery smiled, taking Sansa's hands. "Not here. Here we are free to talk as we please."

Sansa wanted to believe them, and Mira could see that. "She was extremely kind when news of the Twins reached Highgarden and I found out that my Father and Brother had been murdered by the Lannisters." She said, trying to help.

Sansa hadn't realised that, and her heart ached for Mira. "I'm so sorry. I remember your Father, he was a good man and my Father spoke highly of him."

Mira smiled weakly. "He would have been very proud to hear that."

"I want us to be friends, Sansa." Margaery told her. "I know what Joffrey is, I know what Tywin and Tyland are. If my Father wasn't so eager to tie my House to the Iron Throne then I'm positive that we would have risen up in outrage at their crimes."

"I appreciate that, Lady Margaery." Sansa told her honestly.

Margaery looked to Mira, and then back to Sansa. "We can help one another, you and I. You've been here the longest, you know the King, and you know his uncles. Help me outmanoeuvre them in order to manage Joffrey better, and I shall help you get out of here."

Weeks passed, and the Red Keep began to settle into normality after the stresses of war. Armies went home and the food being carted in from the Reach daily had improved the morale of the city greatly.

That had led Tywin to look to the future, and he had summoned the three of them that could still play a part in his plans. Tyland arrived first, as dutiful as ever, closely followed by Cersei. Tyrion of course, was late. He entered the room jovially, whistling 'The Lion Red' as he made his way to his seat.

"You're late." Tywin stated the obvious.

"I do keep telling you that there are too many stairs." Tyrion remarked. He looked around. "This is an interesting Small Council.

"We are not having a meeting." Tywin told them. "I have something important to discuss with all of you regarding the future of our House." That intrigued Tyland. "As you are all aware, Hoster Tully has died. We saw to it that he has no true heir in his son, so that means that the line passes through Catelyn Tully."

Tyrion looked pointedly at Tyland. "Who we had murdered." He noted.

"Leaving her daughter, Sansa, as both the Lady of Winterfell and the Lady of Riverrun by all the laws in the land." Tywin finished. "That cannot be allowed."

Tyland shifted in his seat. "The Frey's have paramountcy over the Riverlands now, give Riverrun to one of Walder's many sons."

"I plan on it." Tywin added. "Sansa Stark will have Winterfell, she is the eldest and that is the seat of House Stark. It's a ruin in any case so there should be no more noise from North of the Neck. Riverrun shall be passed down to Arya Stark." Tyland agreed but was wondering how it could possibly benefit them. He needn't have worried however as Tywin continued. "We have the Stark girl in our custody, she shall wed my sister's grandson as soon as he is able to arrive in King's Landing, and Riverrun shall pass to Genna's husband Emmon. That way the Frey's will gain Riverrun, and it shall be a branch that is loyal to Casterly Rock."

"A smart ploy." Tyland nodded. "Although the she-wolf won't go to the Sept quietly."

"She's hardly the first bride to be sold unwillingly." Cersei muttered.

Tyrion nodded. "That still leaves us with the North…"

Tywin was getting to that. "Tyland shall wed Sansa Stark and put a son in her, and we shall have a named Lannister as the heir to Winterfell."

Tyland double took. "Father I have no need of another wife." He said.

"And yet you shall take one anyway." Tywin countered. "The North will not follow anyone that doesn't have Stark blood willingly. Marry the girl, put a baby in her as soon as you can, and they can truly re-join the fold."

Tyland still didn't like it. "I am old enough to be her Father… why can't this fall to Loren? They are of an age, they get along…"

"Loren will be Lord of Casterly Rock." Tywin interrupted him. "Your second son will be Lord of Winterfell. You'll be the father to two of the most powerful men in the realm. You will do your duty, Tyland." Unable to say no, Tyland just nodded his head once, consenting to the match. He could see Cersei grinning wildly across the table. "The Vale is silent, but once the rest of the realm is silent we shall approach Lysa Arryn with a match for her boy."

"The boy is a sickly halfwit." Cersei shook her head. "He'll die sooner."

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Tywin told her. "The Westerlands is strong, and both Dorne and the Reach will be tied to us through marriage. That leaves the Stormlands."

"How convenient that we have Lady Shireen in our grasp." Tyrion rolled his eyes.

"How convenient indeed." Tywin agreed, staring intently towards his dwarf son.

It took Tyrion a while, but he finally understood. "No." He told Tywin firmly.

"You shall wed Shireen Baratheon when she turns 14 and put a son in her." Tywin said.

"I shall not." Tyrion complained, looking aghast. "She is but a girl!"

Tyland interjected. "She has flowered, she had her blood on the journey here."

Tyrion though, was defiant. "Father, I will not marry her."

"You will." Tywin said, leaning forwards. "Or I shall send you to the Wall so that you can serve out your days as a Black Brother, fighting Wildlings, Snarks and Grumpkins."

Cersei was absolutely gleeful, but Tyrion just glared back. "You wouldn't." He bit.

"Wouldn't I?" Tywin raised an eyebrow. "I have an heir, he has an heir and is about to wed a young woman from fertile stock. I have a brother with his own line. My succession is secure, so if you are so against doing your part for the family, why do I need you?"

It was times like this where Tyland was reminded of how terrifying his Father could be when he wanted to. The Lannister heir stayed silently in his seat as the dwarf stared down their Father, before Tyrion threw his chair back and got to his feet. "You're a cruel man, Lord Hand." Tyrion snarled. "She is little more than a child."

"But of good stock." Tywin said quickly. "About as highborn as they come, for a change."

Tyrion sucked in a breath at the reminder before storming out of the room, and Cersei allowed herself to laugh aloud.

"The dwarf and the afflicted." She giggled. "May the bards never run out of material."

Tywin hadn't finished his matchmaking however. "You are to marry Ser Loras."

Cersei was taken aback. "I will not."

"You will do as you are told." Tywin snapped. "My children, all insolent." Tyland ignored the insult. "Tyland will secure the North, Tyrion will secure the Stormlands, you shall tie us to the Tyrell's so that they can have no doubt about their loyalties."

"Father please…" Cersei began to beg.

"Enough!" Tywin roared. "You shall do as you are bid. You are still fertile and you are not needed in King's Landing. You shall do your duty once more even if I have to drag you into the sept kicking and screaming."

Cersei couldn't put her thoughts to words, instead just able to open and close her mouth. Closing it tightly, she stood up regally and walked out of the room leaving Tyland alone with his father. "They will not take kindly to this, Father." He said cautiously.

"They've been stains to our name for too long, Cersei with her inability to think rationally and Tyrion with his whoring." Tywin spat. "It's time they grew up and did what was necessary."

"I could care less about Cersei's happiness, but Tyrion… he won't bed a child."

"He will." Tywin said.

Tyland shook his head. "No, Father. He will refuse to consummate."

"Then his hand shall be forced." Tywin countered. "I will not pass up this opportunity that our victories have granted us. If the little beast thinks himself too pure to bed the Baratheon girl, then he shall be made to put a son in her."

Memories filled Tyland's mind, and he grimaced at them. "I will play no part in it." He said quietly. "Not after last time. I will stay far away from Tyrion's marriage."

Tywin pursed his lips. "This is different… the girl was only after his money."

Tyland clenched his fist. "That didn't mean that you had to order 30 men to rape her." He exclaimed. "You could have sent her to the silent sisters, sent her to Essos, something else."

Tywin stood, and walked over to a side table to pour them both some wine. He handed Tyland a goblet but quickly drained his own, knowing that the topic coming up was a tough one. "What would have been said if I had let it continue? That the Lannisters were weak, letting their sons marry crofter's daughters. I couldn't let it continue. He had to learn."

"You ensured that he did." Tyland grimaced again.

Tywin sat back down. "You are as complicit as I am, son." He reminded Tyland. "You may not have partaken, but never forget who's idea it was to get rid of her completely."

Tyland glared down at the table. "I may have slit Tysha's throat, but that was as a mercy. If she had lived Tyrion would have searched for her and it would have brought him more pain, the one thing I swore to Mother I would never allow on her deathbed." The memories swam in Tyland's mind, of a bloodstained bed and his mother holding his hand weakly, making him swear to look after his brother. "Killing her and burning her body was a kindness to him." He convinced himself. "As was not telling him what happened to her."

Unbeknownst to both Tywin and Tyland, the door to the Small Council room was slightly ajar, allowing somebody to hear their every word.

Who do you think heard them? Find out next chapter!

A bit of a filler, but it was meant to put a final end to the first war of the story and to begin setting up Margaery and Sansa's friendship. She was being genuine when she said she wanted to be friends here. The truth about Tysha will also start to put cracks into the Lannister's unity.

Thanks for all reviews, favourites and follows. Until next time!

Reviews:

Silver crow: Most people like Tyland more, hopefully more will come to appreciate Loren, and he will be changing a lot more over the next few chapters. I wouldn't even call it a siege to be honest, but yes! The Red Lion making even more of a name for himself.

Black Magic99: Soon, we have another wedding to get to first though…

Hail King Cerion: That was a decision made because of the reviewers to be honest, originally I was going to have them all drowned bar Shireen, Selyse and Davos, but I felt people would appreciate a bit of mercy for once. As shown here, Shireen will marry Tyrion as Tywin believes that she can be easily moulded, although he's counting on Tyrion staying loyal…

TheOnlyKing: I get that, although what happened to Tysha will directly impact the Lannisters in a way that will fracture them. It's arguably the most important bit of history in this story.

C.E.W: Joffrey may die, he may not. Tyland won't be in Reborn, that's solely Torrhen's story.

DoomMarine55: Debateable given that there are still hundreds of views on each chapter… Loving the insults to myself though, keep them coming as they definitely don't make you look ridiculous.

Johannes293: They're so powerful because of the chain of events. With Tyland more cautious and more adept than Jaime they didn't rush into the Whispering Wood and managed to beat Robb back, chasing them and then making a deal with the Frey's to end the Northern rebellion before it even had a chance. With the North free the Lannisters could focus on the South, and when Stannis had Renly killed it left it 1 v 1. Tyland is also a man that likes to crush his enemies, and every time barring personal insults with House Drumm he has left a child in power, meaning that they can be tied to House Lannister easily and they grow in power.