The Tower of Joy had to be the most misnamed place in the Seven Kingdoms. Even without its current occupants, it was a desolate outpost amidst barren mountains, without as much as a single tree within hours of riding. Sixty feet high, it commandeered the lands all around it. Fully manned, it would be a thorn in the side of any army moving across the Prince's Pass and into Dorne. However, when Eddard laid eyes on the pale sandstone pillar, the Dornish Wars were a distant memory, and only three figures came out to meet them.

They had ridden hard through the Reach, the leagues melting behind them like summer snow. As ordered by the Lord of Highgarden, each Inn and waypost had fresh horses for their party of six, each of the three nobles travelling with their sworn swords. Ned could have picked Lord Karstark's son or Lord Mormont's sister, but in the end, Howland Reed had been his choice. Since Lord Tyrell's guard would be waiting, he was more interested in his friend's knowledge of the healing arts than in his martial abilities. Robert had Denys Arryn with him, with whom they had spent many an evening in the Eyrie. And Mace had brought Ser Jon Fossoway, the betrothed of his sister.

"I looked for you at Hayford, where your Prince took the field," Eddard shouted once they had dismounted. A score of knights walked with him and his companions, the rest spread out to surround the tower and ensure no one escaped.

"We had our orders," Arthur Dayne replied and Ned felt his stomach drop. He had known that Ashara's brother was on the way to Lyanna, but seeing him, talking to him, made the situation sink in. They would have to cross blades, and not only did he fear to get the worse of that encounter, even if he won, he would have to explain to his wife why she would never see her brother again. There was no other way, only one of them would walk away from this encounter.

"Woe to the Usurper if we had been there," Ser Oswell said, and Robert stepped forth.

"Care to stake your life on that?"

"We rode towards King's Landing. If you did not fight with the Prince, then surely you would guard the King. Yet all we found was death for the Mad King showed his true self," Ned continued. He wanted - needed to hear the words, hear how these men could call themselves knights and yet aid the Prince in stealing Lyanna and then hiding her while the war raged on. And foremost, he needed to know where she was.

"The Kingsguard does not judge the King."

"This entire war would not have happened had you judged him," Denys muttered under his breath, but he had not been quiet enough.

"We swore a vow."

"So did young Jamie, but he did not forget that he was a Knight first and foremost."

"Then we came to Bitterbridge. The great Lords of the Reach dipped their banners and proclaimed Robert their King. I expected to find you amongst them, yet you were not there!" Ned shouted in the vain hope to prevent the last, unnecessary bloodshed of the war.

"We see that you hide behind the colours of a turncoat, but our knees do not bend easily," the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard said. His courage in spite of the odds was certainly admirable. His cause, less so.

"I fought for the dragons in the vain hope that there would be a change for the better, that Rhaegar would rein his mad father in. But all he did was steal a girl and ride to his death, all while his father killed - " Mace Tyrell shouted, but Ser Hightower interrupted him.

"Prince Rhaegar stole no girl!"

"Where is my sister then?" Ned asked the White Bull. Their short answers and evasions were straining his patience to the breaking point.

"He charmed your sister with sweet words, just as he convinced us to help him with his madness."

"You speak treason, Arthur!" the Lord Commander hissed.

"Treason against whom? Rhaegar is dead, the Mad King is trapped in the ruins of Kings Landing. His greatest supporter stands next to Robert Baratheon and even Doran Martell has agreed to terms. The Bloodroyals cannot hope to stand alone against all," Ser Arthur snapped and then said the sentence that shattered Eddard's world. "With the Stark girl dead, we have no one to fight for - "

"Lyanna is - dead?" Robert rasped, asking what Ned could not.

"She had been distraught ever since she learned what had happened to her kin in the capital. She overheard us talking about what Aerys the Mad did and flung herself from the window - there was nothing we could do - yet it was all our fault."

"So you are a traitor as well!"

The Lord Commander's words seemed to be the signal for all hell to break loose. Arthur Dayne was attacked by his sworn brothers while Robert and Ser Jon charged into the fray. However, within the blink of an eye, Fossoway had been struck down by Ser Hightower while Ser Whent's shield was shattered by a single blow from Robert's hammer. The fight between the two Kingsguards was evenly matched, and any knight who tried to interfere met a quick end. However, the last brother was losing ground badly, all his finesse with the sword wasted against the unleashed fury of the newly crowned King. If another fighter had been by his side, he could have exploited Robert's overextension, but hard-pressed in single combat, that was not an option. Again and again, the hammer struck the third Kingsguard, who struggled to block or dodge as the fight dragged on.

When a fierce blow disarmed Whent, Robert did not even offer his opponent the opportunity to yield as the next strike crushed his skull. Ser Hightower tried to use the opportunity to cut him down, but Ned was there to block for his brother in all but blood. The outcome of the fight had never been in doubt, even with all three Kingsguards sticking together, but alone the Lord Commander was left with no way out. However, he was not considered one of the finest knights for nothing. Even against three, he managed to move in such a way that his opponents could not make use of their numbers and hindered each other.

While the chaotic melee was going on, Lord Tyrell ordered his own men to fetch crossbows. It might not be knightly, but his best friend had been slain and he wanted to see blood for that. Before long, Hightower noticed that not only had he been surrounded, a score of men had crossbows pointed at him, waiting for the command and the right moment. Even then, he fought on. Rather than yielding, he feinted against Ser Arthur, but dove low and spun around. Faster than a viper, he struck against Robert, whose shield arm was slow from the repeated injuries he had suffered over the past months.

For one dreadful moment, it looked as if the White Bull had succeeded and ended Robert's reign before it could begin. Luckily, the blow had struck the edge of his shield before it got to his eye, gliding along the metal rim. It opened a nasty gash across Robert's eyebrow and up his forehead, but the gamble failed. The King's hiss of pain was drowned out by the wet gurgle of the Lord Commander as his sworn brother drove Dawn through his throat.

For one moment, all the men left standing froze and eyed each other, trying to decide what to do next. Howland stepped forth and unbuckled a satchel he had been carrying. The small man rushed to the fallen king. He poured clear spirit over the wound and Robert howled in pain, the treatment hurting more than the blow that had caused it. He then applied a thick, green paste as one of Lord Tyrell's knights assisted with binding up the gash across his forehead.

During all of this, one figure stood a silent, unmoving vigil over the body of his former commander. Robert was pulled to his feet by Denys Arryn, half of his head covered in bandages, including one eye. He shrugged off the hands holding him up, which left him weaving as if he had spent the past hours drinking a tavern dry. Only when Arthur was certain he had the King's attention, he acted. In one smooth motion, he raised his sword. The knights who surrounded him reached for their own weapons, but before they could draw, he spun Dawn around and drove the tip into the dry clay they stood on, pale cream a stark contrast to the reddish ground.

"I lay my life in your hands, your Grace."

"It is not your life I want, but answers - I want the truth - what happened with Lyanna?" Although his voice was shaky, he grew more determined with every word.

"The Prince, he was always peculiar. He used to prefer the book to the sword, until he woke up one day and decided to become a warrior. What caused this shift I do not know. Mayhaps it was a dream, a nightmare or a vision from the gods. One morning, Rhaegar was convinced that he had seen the future and that he needed to change it. As the Mad King got worse, especially after Duskendale, the Prince's words grew more appealing. Next to his father, he looked like an emissary of the Seven, the respite we had all been praying for - "

"What has this to do with my sister?" Ned cut in. It hurt to even think of her dead, but the tale of Rhaegar's supposed greatness made him sick.

"You have to understand - we thought that Rhaegar was enacting a plot of his, a grand scheme to rid the realm of his father. We met with your sister not far from Riverrun, and she showed no sign of struggle, that she did not want to come with the Prince. The need for secrecy was understandable, even if your father and the Prince were plotting, the Master of Whispers hears everything and Lord Baratheon would be angry at being spurned."

"You thought my father was in cohorts with the Mad Prince?"

"Your father was the first Stark since the Hour of the Wolf who took an interest in the south - there was no telling what he was thinking and Lyanna was not opposed to coming with us. Your sister, much like we, fell for the pretty promise of a better future. It was not until we heard of Brandon's ride to King's Landing that it dawned on us, on me, that Rhaegar had dared to run away with the daughter of a Lord Paramount, the betrothed of another. He was no longer in control of the situation. It was then Lyanna realised that she had been fooled. Still, even then the mess could have been resolved, but Rhaegar chose to stay here. It was not until a rider from Lord Manwoody brought the news that you had been crowned and led a host across the Trident that he left for Oldtown."

"And Lyanna?"

"At that point, she was already with child and Rhaegar ordered us to guard her. We begged him to take us with him and leave Lyanna at Kingsgrave or even Oldtown, but he insisted that we stay here. I do not think that he considered his death a possibility, he was thinking about deposing his father and a great council, not the battles to come."

"You said that my sister took her own life?

"Yes, once the Prince had left her, it dawned on her that Rhaegar's words of a grand future were empty and meaningless. The only time I saw her smile was when we told her that Lord Robert had slain the Prince. Other than that, she was left alone with her thoughts, and she began to blame herself for the war and the death that followed. And once she overheard us talking about the fate of King's Landing, that must have made her reach a fatal conclusion. We were still debating what to do when she jumped. No words, no accusations for us or anything. She appeared at the balcony and leapt over the rail before we could blink."

"She didn't -"

"No, it was a quick death."

A short silence followed, and to everyone's surprise, it was Ser Arthur who broke it.

"Your grace, with your permission, there is only one path for me. I will ride to Starfall and return Dawn to its shrine. From there, I will take the first ship North and join the Night's Watch. The White Cloak brought me nothing but dishonour, mayhaps I will find redemption with the Black."

All eyes turned to Robert, to gauge his reaction. His face betrayed no emotion, but his eyes looked tired, almost haunted. Denys Arryn was holding him up, but the king brushed off his friend and steadied his voice.

"For the part you played in Lyanna's death, I should have your head. For the honour you showed when you fought your brothers, I should reward you richly. Therefore I shall grant you your request. You shall hold no lands, take no wife, father no children. If you honour those oaths, mayhaps the Mother will grant you mercy," the King announced, sounding more tired than Ned could ever remember.

AN: Beta'ed by LifeEquals42.