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Arya Stark I
Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Year 298 AC
Her brother fell flat-faced on the floor yet again and so punched the ground bitterly. "Can we stop it now?" he asked. "We have been here for hours…"
"No, I have to keep practicing." Arya insisted. She would never allow anyone to come as close as to take her life as that stupid Prince was. She had the blood of the Starks of old, the Daynes and of Nymeria she couldn't let herself be bested nor be afraid as she was. "I must get better!"
"But I'm tired, Arya." Bran scoffed as he stood up. "I want to eat something!"
"If we were reading you wouldn't complain would you?"
"I would. I'm hungry and tired from the voyage!" Her older brother insisted. "Please let me go."
"No!"
"Arya!" she heard Ros call and when she looked towards her, Arya noticed that Ros' arms were crossed and she had an annoyed expression was carved in her face. "Call it a day."
"But…"
"No buts, young woman." Ros plainly said. "You are being selfish and unfair with your brother. If you keep this up, I will forbid you from practicing swordplay the rest of the month if not for longer."
"But Ros!" she tried to counter as she did not wish to lose the right to train, she needed to train…couldn't Ros see it?
"No excuses Arya." The older woman insisted. "I understand how you feel but you are abusing your brother's goodwill and that I cannot allow."
She sighed bitterly. "Fine, you can go and eat Bran…"
"Finally!" Her brother proclaimed. "Thank you for saving me, Ros." And then he quickly tried to leave the courtyard. Stupid…
"You are welcome." Ros smiled a pretty smiled as she approached Arya and brought her closer. "I know you are angry that the Prince almost killed you Arya, and believe I am angry too, with him and with me for I should have been watching you closely and failed in my job so you have my apologies."
"It wasn't your fault…" Arya said, feeling sad Ros felt this way when it was more of Arya's fault for hiding from her and mother…
"All the same…if you died…I would have been crushed…" Ros admitted with what looked like tears coming to her beautiful greyish-blue eyes. "I love you all as if we were kin, as if we were siblings or cousins."
Arya's eyes were also becoming wetter it seemed. "I love you too Ros…you are family to me."
A smiled drew itself on Ros' face. "Thank you, Arya, those words mean a lot to me, my sweet," she said. "But I must tell you that training like this will not help you one bit.
"Then how can I become better if I don't train?" she asked confused.
"You won't."
"Then you are proving my point!" Arya said.
"But I'm not invalidating mine." Ros smirked as she passed her arm through her eyes.
"What does that mean?"
"You will find soon enough, my dear," Ros assured as she patted Arya's back. "But right now, you shall not hear anything from this woman's mouth."
"Indeed you will not…" It was mother who spoke now. "Someone is letting some things that should be kept hidden be brought forward…" Mother said as she eyed Ros with narrow eyes but with a smile.
"Looks like I got myself in some trouble…" Ros said with a troublemaker's face. "Oh well…I better go and eat…"
"Yes…you better go…you naughty one." Mother said as he Ros quicken away from them. "And you too my lovely daughter, dinner is waiting for you."
"Is father joining us?" she inquired.
"He is. He arrived a few minutes ago and he is looking forward to having dinner with his well-behaved children." Mother said.
"I will behave well." Arya avowed.
"I know you will, now let's fill our stomachs." Mother said as she led her forward into the Tower of the Hand. "And know that your mother loves you and will not let any harm come to you."
Arya glanced her and saw her mother smiling at her. "I love you too, mother."
Cassana Baratheon V
Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Year 298 AC
"Cass!" she heard her uncle Robert shout as soon as he saw her. She and Jaehon were finishing their dinner in the Maidenvault where they took residence ever since they arrived. "My beautiful niece!"
She got up and happily embraced her uncle Robert. "Nuncle, it's good to see you."
"You too! Gods you look like a woman already, a beautiful one as well." Her uncle said as he eyed from up and down. "It's hard to think you came from Stannis' seed but then again you are Lady Catelyn's daughter."
"Nuncle!" she hissed bitterly. She loved him dearly but she would not forgive him for insulting her father. "Don't say such things about my father, I do not like it!"
"Sorry…" Her uncle said with a more grim expression. "I meant those words I said about you…you look beautiful."
She smiled even though she didn't see herself as that beautiful at all. "I'm not that pretty. I'm just a regular looking woman."
"Your uncle Robert is right, Cass." Uncle Renly said with the same smile as his brother. "You will make a lot of women envy here, you are truly a beauty. And to think that my brother kept you in that moisty hell for what? Five years?"
"It's not that bad of a place to live…I do admit that the frequent rains are troublesome…" she said. "And it's good to see you too, uncle Renly." she proclaimed while she embraced her other uncle whom she loved dearly too. "And yes, it has been five years since I visited Storm's End."
"You should pass by sometime." Her uncle suggested. "I'm quite sure the people there will be delighted to see Cass the Mighty fighting evil monsters in the halls of our ancestral home once more."
"Nuncle!" she barked as she began blushing upon being remembered of the nickname she gave to herself when she was younger to find evildoers in Storm's End and Dragonstone and whatever place she visited…now it was quite embarrassing to remember even if she held dear those memories.
Her uncle Robert broke into laughter as well. "Ah, Cass the Mighty…I still remember that one."
"You both are the worse…" she muttered as she glanced her cousins Myrcella and Tommen by the door still, looking at her warily. Last time she saw them, Myrcella had been a year old girl and Tommen a newborn child, so it was quite normal for them to not recognize her at all. "Hello there fellow cousins." she said with a warm smile in hopes to make them less afraid as she moved towards them.
"Hello, cousin Cassana," Myrcella said with a smile of her own, seemingly less afraid now. "I'm pleased to meet you."
"Hello…" Tommen wasn't so confident yet but it would pass she was sure.
"You two were barely more than babes when I saw you for the first time…now you are handsome young lads!" she proclaimed. "It's nice to finally meet you both."
Both of her cousins smiled and embraced her for a hug. "Where is Joffrey?" Her uncle asked with an angered face.
"He said he felt indisposed, father." Little Tommen said a bit frightened. "Mother said he should rest and meet cousin Cassana some other time."
She was now remembering that little devil of a cousin she had who because she defeated him in a child fight last time she was there, decided that he had to humiliate her by calling her ugly and more mean names in front of the lords who were a bunch of cunts and laughed at her…She was not looking forward to meeting him and she was glad he wasn't either.
"Indisposed…" Her uncle said with disdain. "He better be, damn kid, is only good to torment and kill poor animals…"
"And get his arse kicked by a skinny little girl…" Her uncle Renly whispered to her so that only she could hear and she looked towards him abashed.
"What?"
"I will tell you some other time Cass." he whispered back as her uncle Robert moved to stand in front of Jaehon who had stood up as soon as the King entered the room.
"And who might you be?"
"Jaehon Velaryon, Your Grace."
"Velaryon…" Her uncle looked towards her friend with a certain disdain.
"He is my friend and sworn shield, nuncle." Cass intervened with half a lie. "He came with me to provide me company."
"Did he?" Her uncle said while glancing Jaehon with a raised eyebrow. Her friend in turn never said a word and stared with an expressionless face. "I hope…he isn't what I'm thinking is he…"
At first, she wondered what he meant but then when she saw Jaehon turning redder she understood what he meant. "Nuncle!" she hissed with embarrassment. "We aren't lovers!"
"Thank the Gods you are not. I fear to think what my good brother Stannis would do to this lad…" Uncle Renly remarked as he laughed. "Poor lad would find himself gelded."
"Nuncle!"
"All the same." Uncle Robert spoke. "I will keep my watch on you Velaryon. Don't you even try and betray my niece for some Targaryens."
"I would kill myself before that could happen, Your Grace," Jaehon said. "I don't betray friends, the Targaryens are not my friends, unlike your niece."
Her uncle glanced him from up and down and then frowned. "You should have joined us at dinner, Cass."
"I'm quite well here." she dismissed his invention. "I prefer less crowded areas."
"All the same, I expect you at my table tomorrow. You and the Starks too," he said. "Now I will let you and your…friend eat at peace. Come on, children."
"Can I spend time together with the Starks tomorrow?" Little Myrcella asked as they retired. "Mother doesn't let me..."
"Sure, go on." Her uncle proclaimed. "Don't know what goes into your mother's mind to refuse such a normal thing."
"Thank you, father." And with that, they were out of Cassana's view.
Cassana took a seat again and eyed Jaehon. "I apologize for my uncles' behavior, it wasn't proper."
"It's perfectly understandable that they are wary of me." Jaehon dismissed.
"That too, but mostly about us being lovers…" she blushed. "It was ill done…"
"Well…your uncle Renly would be quite right in regards to what your father would do to me would it be true," he said expressionlessly. "Anyway, I didn't take any of it as an offense, for it was false."
"Yes…all false…let's just eat in peace…" she concluded.
Ashara Dayne V
Red Keep, King's Landing, Crownlands, Year 298 AC
The bathtub wasn't as large as the one Ned had built for her at Winterfell but it would definitely work for the function it was meant. As expected she was already diving in the perfectly tempered water while Ned was finishing getting undress and just about to join her.
"There we go…" Ned sighed in relief when he took a seat inside the bathtub. "I just arrived in this shitty smelling city and I'm so tired already…"
"Was it that bad?" she asked while she dried her face after emerging from underwater.
"I know I was supposed to analyze the other members of the Council as you told me to but once Renly Baratheon shared with us a parchment that had Robert's will written in it…I just lost it." Ned said.
"And what did Robert want?" she asked somehow fearing the worst…
"To organize a tourney in my name…" he murmured. "Forty thousand dragons for the winner, twenty for the second and the same amount for the winner of the melee together with another ten thousand for the best archer…"
"Ninety thousand dragons?" she asked aghast. "That is a third of Harrenhal's prizes…"
"And that is not the end of it," Ned warned. "I found out the Crown is six million dragons in debt…"
"Six million dragons?" she shouted aghast, her heart-stopping for a second with the abashment. "It is not possible!"
"It is…" Ned sighed. "Lord Baelish, the Master of Coin will have to borrow more than a hundred thousand dragons to organize this bloody foolish tourney and this is all in my name, Ash!"
It seemed things were much worse than what any of them could anticipate… "With a debt so large, there is no way you can fix the realm's troubles with just a year…you only be able to gather a sixth of it, a fifth at the very best…"
"I just wonder how it got to this…" he sighed yet again. "When the Rebellion ended, the treasury was still full even if the Mad King spent quite a lot in the army…I mean I know Robert was always a proficient spender but this…this is ridiculous…"
"And with the taxes, they collect every year from all Seven Kingdoms?" she added. "It makes no sense…I do not know the numbers but I would say the Crown would at the very least receive half a million dragons in taxes per year…"
"I don't understand this…Jon was never a great spender, he always had the coffers of the Vale full…he couldn't have allowed this madness to happen…"
Something was amiss, it had to be…but what and why? "And do you happen to know who the creditors are?" she inquired.
"Half of the debt is to the Lannisters," Ned said with disdain. "But Lord Tyrell, the Iron Bank, some Tyroshi trading cartels and even the Faith have lent money to the Crown."
"Even the Faith?" This was ridiculous now…and it seemed that the dependence of the Crown towards the Lannisters was larger than what she had anticipated…they had Robert in their pockets… "The variety of sources of credit assures that the Crown is not fully dependent on a single entity, however, it's two Great Lords that know of the Crown's weak coffers and they happen to be the strongest and the second strongest…"
"Indeed…" Her husband agreed. "I told the other councilors I would try my best to convince Robert into giving up on the idea of this tourney but they all seemed as if I was speaking some sort of blasphemy…perhaps I was…this is not the Robert I once knew anyway."
"Giving it a try doesn't hurt, though I must agree with them…" she confessed. "I don't think you will be able to convince Robert to forsaken this particular tourney."
"If such things were to happen, then I will not have another bloody tourney whilst I fulfill my term as Hand." Ned decided. "I won't let him spend this amount of money in my name or anything else, it's just ridiculous."
"Then do tell him so," Ashara said as she approached him and rest her head on his shoulder. "Don't hold back, you have to stand your ground as you have been doing."
"I will do my best." he said while he leaned his head to touch hers.
"And what did you see in the other councilors?" she asked. "I know you did not pay the attention you wished but still."
"Varys is still Varys." That line made her laugh.
"I think I know him and Pycelle well enough." she proclaimed. "I have seen them in action before. We can't ignore them fully but I am more interested in the others."
"Lord Stannis, the Master of Ships left for Dragonstone when Robert went to Winterfell and no one seems to know why," Ned explained. "Though it seems his daughter arrived almost a week ago with a companion."
"It does sound odd that Lord Stannis left…" she admitted. "Maybe I can have a conversation with his daughter…sometime soon…see what she can tell me…and why did she come?"
"I don't know," Ned confessed. "I have never seen the girl before, I don't know how she is nor how she acts."
"Then I guess it falls to me to find out," she told him. "It shouldn't be too hard."
"Be it as it may, I don't think Lord Stannis nor Lord Renly are a threat to Robert," Ned said. "Their relationship may not be the best but I doubt they would go against their brother."
"You ought to expect everything by now," Ashara warned him. "Expect the unexpected."
"I know," he said with his shy smile. "Lord Baelish, on the other hand, seems to be adamant in annoying me with pesky talk."
"You said the man was the Master of Coin but…who is he?" she asked curiously.
"Brandon spoke of him a few times." Ned began explaining. "And I learned a little something about his house while at the Eyrie. He is from a very recently formed house of landed knights whose origins lay in Braavos. House Baelish holds a small tower in the smallest of the fingers."
"Brandon knew him?"
"He challenged Brandon to a duel for Lady Catelyn's hand back then…you can imagine how that turned out…"
"Badly?" she asked but she sort of already knew the answer to her question.
"Indeed…it seems the man carries a scar or something of the sort still." Ned added.
"Brandon was very imposing and strong…" she admitted. "I assume Lord Baelish isn't so?"
"Baelish is smaller than you and lean, he doesn't seem threatening but does seem to have a sharp tongue," Ned explained. "A sharp tongue did not help him win against Brandon."
Sharp tongue…sharp mind… "I see…The poor man will have to borrow more money for Robert's nonsense…"
"It seems so…Gods that man never learns…" Ned sighed.
"Maybe…" she began as she picked his hand brought it to her breasts. "You and I should…forget about this nonsense for the rest of the night…it was…just the first-day …we have a full long year ahead of us…"
"I don't look forward to that as much as I look for what is coming next…" His lips met her nipples and then he began suckling them, while she of course moaned. "A whole year in the capital…" he whispered as he switched around between her nipples. "How troublesome…"
"A good thing…we have each other…" she purred.
"It would be unbearable with you for sure." he said as they lips met and stayed together for almost a full minute.
"A beautiful wife always warms a man's heart doesn't she?" she teased while she took hold of his cock and mouthed it, just the way he liked.
"You know…you know me too…well…"
Afterward, she was done with her part, she was rewarded with his marvelous tongue on her cunt…she hoped the room was soundproof…
When he found her wet enough down below, he turned her around, entered her and before he began pounding her, he gave her a massage…it was trick he developed over the years…it was enough to make her lose her focus and succumb to pleasure…This was the chance he always searched for…as he began his movement, making her scream in ecstasy…she came undone first, it was too much for her to take and he didn't resist that long either…
They both began washing each other up in between kisses and then he picked her up and laid her on their bed. "A comfortable bed at last…" she giggled.
"Indeed." he smiled as he pressed another kiss onto her lips. "But I can't help but feel a bit uncomfortable…this was where Jon slept…"
"And Tywin Lannister…" she murmured and laughed with the disdained face of her husband and lover.
"Now I'm really uncomfortable…"
"I would say this bed is still capable of enduring us…" she whispered. "Not sure about the room being able to hold my moans…"
"You will know tomorrow…" he said laughing. "I would like to see if I can sleep…I must resume the meeting of the Small Council in the morrow…"
"I was planning to visit Sunshine Orphanage with the girls…see how things are…I imagine not well enough since we all left…" she was talking of her, Elia and the other ladies-in-waiting. Ashara kept sending money from Winterfell but it wasn't as much as it once was…she hoped it was still standing and doing what it once did. "It will do well for the girls to see how lucky they are in life and hopefully make them more humble and charitable."
"Indeed…" he agreed though she saw he was still worried about something.
"What else is troubling you, my love?" she inquired as she rested her chin on his chest.
"When I saw Varys…I thought about my nephew once again…" he was speaking of Lyanna's son who her brother Arthur took with him to Essos in order to protect him from Robert and the Lannisters… "I wonder how he is…how he has been for the past fifteen years…"
"He is with Arthur and though my brother doesn't carry Dawn with him anymore, he is still deadly with a regular sword at hand," she assured. "You don't need to be worried."
"It's just that she made me promise I would protect the boy and I have done almost nothing…" he sighed. "I wish I could have given him a proper childhood together with our children…but Robert would kill the child once he got word of him…a boy with Rhaegar's coloring…it was impossible…and after what happened with Elia and her children…"
"Lyanna's boy is safe Ned," she assured him with a kiss. "Arthur will protect him and you know it, and I know Lyanna holds no grudge against you, she loved you dearly and would understand the arrangement you made with the Spider."
"Perhaps…" he sighed yet again.
"Now you must sleep my dear husband, tomorrow is a big day." she kissed his forehead and left his embrace to lay properly on the bed.
He stood up and pressed his lips on her forehead as well. "You too My Shining Star."
And they fell asleep…tired of the long journey and the thought of the hard year they would have to face…
First I would like to thank everyone for the reviews. I would like to answer a few:
DodemGM: You don't have to like Young Griff, but if you feel like you can stand it, then I won't hold a grudge against you if decide to leave.
Giang385: This not the sequel of A Wolf That Met A Star, this a totally different work that shares some plot points with that story but it's a completely different thing. The sequel will come soon.
Without further ado, I thank everyone who spent time reading and I hope you all a good day.