The morning of her anointing she wakes up to find the queen at the foot of her bed.
"Your grace, what brings you here?" Lyanna hid her shock and asked the statuesque woman just sitting there watching her sleep.
It was then she realized that this was not her bed, it was the one belonging to the Queen and everything had been ready for her.
Lyanna feels violated even if nothing had happened -or at least she hoped. Had the queen drugged her?
Varys will have to know about this, but that will be much later when Lyanna can slip away unnoticed. It was becoming a challenge now, sometimes one of the ladies would ask to go with her or Edda would.
"I am your godsmother, sweetling, in the eyes of the Seven, I am your mother." The smile does not reach her eyes. Her green eyes are filled with venom, Lyanna knows she has done absolutely nothing to warrant such hatred, but she has ceased to try and make sense of irrational creatures like Cersei.
"If my mother is as cross as I know she will be, you may have to keep me in Court much longer." Lyanna says wryly as the queen orders for Senelle and Jocelyn Swift to attend her new 'daughter'.
It feels like a punishment, even if Sen and Joce are quiet experts at dressing a lady and going through her morning routine. Just knowing that Cersei is watching everything, from the morning bath to her being dressed in a simple linen shift is making her uncomfortable.
"You mumble in your sleep, sweetling." Cersei says in that soft voice she only uses on her children. Lyanna knows this is all an act, but sometimes she wished her mother could be as warm as this facade Cersei puts on.
Lyanna had always had that habit, the more she mumbles the less she remembers what she dreamt.
Last night she dreamt of Domeric and Aunt Bethany, they were playing sardines in the hunting lodge by the River Shannon that divides House Dustin and House Ryswell. Lyanna can't find them no matter what how hard she looks for them.
At each turn, she finds Uncle Bolton's bastard instead and by the end of the dream she is trying to outrun him and his rabid pack of dogs.
Ramsey had three hunting dogs when she had last been a guest at the Dreadfort. He had looked at her with a disgusting variation of hatred and lust, and even more blatantly so when Bolton declared he was to have him legitimized.
In her nightmare he has five dogs. Five girls he's raped and murdered.
"Tis a habit, I cannot seem to outgrow, your grace." Lyanna prayed she will, especially now that things will be more dangerous.
"You asked for your aunt and your cousin while you tried to run away from a bastard named Ramsey, did this Ramsey hurt you?" by hurt she means rape. If she were to have been raped, then her value would diminish to men. no one likes damaged goods, so a maidenhead is worth more than your life.
"No, your grace, I have been fortunate enough to have been spared such horrors. Ramsey Snow is Lord Bolton's bastard son. He is an unsettling creature whom my family believes poisoned my cousin, Domeric." Lyanna does not know why she tells her all that. Roose Bolton was not a good man, but he was their ally and now without Dom to keep him on their side, who knows how he will act. "He also has three hounds that he brags about naming after girls he has murdered and flayed."
"I'm sure it is an exaggeration, the girls not the murder of your poor cousin. Bastards are known for wanting to take what isn't theirs. I worry his grace's bastards will hurt my children, especially that Florent boy." Cersei confides as if they are friends. "My good sister, Selyse, comes from such a grasping sort of family. Even she hates her cousin for seducing his grace at her wedding. If the mother turned out to be such an ambitious slut, that boy must be worse."
"Perhaps, your grace is right, and those are just empty boasts he does to frighten me." Lyanna agrees for the sake of ending this conversation.
"Make sure her hair is completely dry, Lord Royce will have my head if she catches a chill." The blonde told simple Jocelyn who nodded and used a towel and began to blot her hair with it.
He will have your head either way, my queen. Lyanna closed her eyes and let herself be spoiled by the woman whose death she will cause.
"May the Father show her right from wrong!" the High Septon prefaced the first of her seven immersions on Holy Water.
One down six more to go.
"May the Mother bless her with health and offspring!"
Each prayer is met with the congregation's unanimous prayer of: Seven hear our prayer.
"May the Warrior protect her with shield and sword!"
The water was warm when she entered it and clean too, Gods forbid highborn converts and babes be bathed in the dirty cold plebian water outside.
"May the Crone give her with her wisdom and knowledge!"
At least it's not salt water like the Iron Born. Gods that sounded horrible.
"May the Smith let her have a hearth and home!"
She feels like a kitten being drowned and Lyanna swears she sees Cersei smirk, at what she can't tell.
"May the Maiden bless her with chastity and loyal love." His Holiness no longer shouts it, or maybe Lyanna feels like he's stopped shouting after growing used to the dunking and the shouting.
One more and it is over.
Then she will be dried and kept there covered in the big white fluffy towel as the High Septon says one last prayer and has two of the Most Devout Septons wave their incense bowls about her.
"May the Stranger make her days long and plenty."
The final prayer is said, but Lyanna swears the High Septon held her down too long.
She comes out with a gasp and the applause of all those present are wholly unaware of the sinister gleam in the Queen's beautiful green eyes.
"In the name of the Father, Mother, Warrior, Crone, Smith, Maiden and Stranger I anoint your servant, Lyanna Dustin, so she may worship you all her days." The High Septon takes her by the hand and leads her down the steps of the bathtub and into the arms of Cersei Lannister.
Stranger save her.
The feast is fine and rather small given it should have been a private affair, not whatever this is.
Lyanna's dress is yellow, like a newborn chick, and her hair is worn down with a yellow ribbon in her braided crown. She wears a girdle of bronze medallions emblazoned with the runes of house Royce and the main one -where the clasp is- has the arms of her house.
She looks stunning and like the maiden herself.
Lancel, as her betrothed, acts as her escort. He is happy for once, in his costly and almost gaudy Lannister crimsons and golds, they make a handsome couple. Like Hugor of the Hill and his gods given wife.
"My lady mother has sent a gift for you, my lady." He begins nervously. In his hands is an intricately carved trinket box, she wants to drop it when she sees it is carved entirely with lion heads. It was small and lined in black velvet, making the seven-pointed star medallion stand out that much more.
It is made of gold -Lannisters hardly wear silver- with a seven-sided diamond at the center and a precious stone serving as the seven points.
Lyanna is surprised to find that it has their initials intertwined on the back. Lady Dorna was a romantic, a shame her son was not.
If Dorna was a man, she would not have such an issue marrying her.
"It is very lovely, Lancel. Your mover has very fine taste and I hope you write to her and give her my most sincere thanks." Lyanna's blush is real. The girl in the miniature looks far too much like her to have been a mere coincidence. "I will treasure it always and will wear it for the feast tonight."
"I am sure Lord Renly, and his companions will stop pawing at my betrothed, especially when they see you wearing it." He is a socially awkward young man, retreating into his arrogant little prick attitude the moment he feels vulnerable. Like now.
"You should speak to father if you want it to stop, I promise he will not laugh at you like his grace did or my sweet Andar did." Edda says lying very cleverly. The Royces wanted a match between Baratheon and Dustin, have one of theirs be in the line of succession especially now that it was to become a lot shorter.
"I suppose I will, Lady Edda. We Lannisters are not to be laughed at." The squire said proudly, as if he didn't know that everyone laughed at his family behind their backs -and to their faces if you are bold enough.
"If you say so, now I suppose I must leave the two of you alone. How else can one come to love one's betrothed if they are always chaperoned?" she said with her dimpled smile. Lyanna was astonished how such a gracious and sunshiny woman was related to a man Waymar had described as Dolorous.
"Her grace said you are to be knighted soon." Lyanna takes the initiative and tries to have at least one good conversation as he helps her with the gift his mother picked out for him.
"I am to be knighted on my six and tenth nameday, it is on the first day of the first month. My father says it is a lucky day, what with me a firstborn son born and knighted on the first day of the year." He is giddy with the news, he tries not to show it in an attempt to appear more mature, but the both of them are merely children pretending to be grown.
"Your father must be so proud of you, will he come to King's Landing soon? I confess I would like to meet him. Senelle has told me much of your family." Lyanna chatted amiably with him.
They could be friends, she thinks. Perhaps with gentle encouragement and a friendly disposition, she could make him a better person for the girl he will have to marry once she's queen.
"Father is coming from Casterly Rock with my uncle, they have just left and will be here before the new year. He is not like my uncle, but he is a great man and worthy of his name." Lancel answers, embarrassed because his father is no Tywin Lannister.
If only he knew that it is a blessing not to be Tywin Lannister.
notes: I made up the baptisim and the prayers, so no that's not canon, but y'all are free to use them in your writing as long as you credit me if its exactly the same.