Tyrion
Never once was the mood in the Red Keep ever bright when Tyrion had lived in it. But compared to now, those days were pleasant memories. All of the women in the castle had taken to a similar appearance to Cersei's current fashion of short hair and dark clothes. In fact, nearly everything but the castle itself had taken to darker colors since his last day in King's Landing.
In every hallway he walked, every passage he took, the eyes of those Tyrion passed viewed him with anger, disgust, and even dread. After all, almost every person Tyrion recognized was present during his trial and heard his wishes of death to them all.
Tyrion was constantly battling questions in his mind for the answers. 'What do I say? What is she planning? What the fuck am I doing back here?' Those questions all halted when Tyrion stood across from Jaime, outside of Cersei's solar. The door to the room was guarded by the Mountain. Here he was, in the most hated city in Westeros, outside a room with the most hated woman in Westeros, guarded by the most dangerous man in Westeros.
Jaime looked just as sad and pathetic as he did in the Dragonpit. This was something new for Tyrion. He never saw his brother this way even when he returned to King's Landing without his hand as looking like horse shit. Something about him was broken. At the moment, Jaime was rubbing his thumb against the gold of his hand while sitting on the stone railing surrounding the painted map of Westeros.
"Have you spoken with her?" Tyrion asked.
Jaime only shook his head, looking down at his golden hand.
"She wouldn't let you in?"
"No, I have no business with her." Jaime took his gaze off of his hand and onto his little brother. "I'm terrified of her just as much as you are."
"I never expected you to be as such towards our sister."
Jaime only sighed at Tyrion, looking unsure of himself. "Bronn told me when you sent a ship full of Wildfire against Stannis Baratheon's fleet at the battle of the Blackwater Bay."
"I was watching from the battlements of the Mud Gate. Bronn shot a flaming arrow at the ship and it decimated everything around it."
"Where you close enough to hear? When the fires of green fell onto the Baratheon soldiers and the ships began to sink, were you close enough to hear their screams?"
"I was. I was ready to kill any of them, but after witnessing what I did, I wish I did it some other way when I saw Joffrey smiling at the devastation. Even when the men tossed themselves into the water, they burned and screamed."
Jaime hesitated, taking in all of what Tyrion told him. "When I put my sword in into Aerys's back, I thought I would never have to see the atrocities he called amusement. When I sat on the Iron Throne waiting for father, I became relieved when I looked down at the charred stained floor of where hundreds of people burned alive and I watched every single one of them, knowing that not another person would join the stain. But now, if Daenerys doesn't win the throne, the world we live in will have to suffer a Mad Queen as well."
Tyrion's mouth gaped open as he recalled what he just heard. Cersei wasn't falling into madness, she was diving into it. "Why her?"
"Anyone would become mad when their children are murdered. Tommen was the only one-"
"No, not why is she becoming Aerys reborn, why are you still with her? Why in Seven Hells are you still here? Why are you still a damned fool in love with his sister?" Jaime didn't answer, he looked ashamed to, but he didn't need to for Tyrion to figure out the answer. "Her child, your child."
"It's the only thing keeping me here. It's the only thing that gives me hope."
"Hope for what?"
"Anything."
Before they could continue, the door to Cersei's room opened and the Mountain stood aside as Qyburn exited. "The Queen will see you now, Lord Tyrion." He stood next to his abominable creation and waited patiently for Tyrion.
Tyrion and Jaime both looked at each other, exchanging nervous smiles before Tyrion walked into the one place he did not want to be.
As he walked through the doorway, the Mountain followed closely behind him while Qyburn remained outside. The door was shut and Tyrion wasn't at all surprised to see a shattered wine glass near Cersei's bed.
Cersei was sitting at her desk, leaning back in her chair with one left arm resting her elbow on the arm of her chair and massaging her temple while her right arm rested at the base of her pregnant belly. Her facial expression revealed that she was recuperating from some displeasing news. Her eyes shot daggers as she looked at her brother. There were two vacant chairs opposite to her side of the desk. "Sit down." She ordered. Tyrion decided to oblige and sat in the chair closest to the desk. They each exchanged glances in tensed silence before Cersei broke it. "I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose. She's your kind of woman. A foreign whore who doesn't know her place."
There was no insult in the world that would make Tyrion break in front of Cersei. His love for Shae died when she betrayed him. "A foreign whore you can't abduct, beat, or intimidate. That must be difficult for you." Cersei always loved to watch those beneath her suffer. It was no mistake what Joffrey inherited from her.
"So you bring her hear with her bastard husband to sway the other lords against me?"
"Not against you." His words were ignored by her.
"And now you've brought her into your plans you've been working towards your entire life."
"Cersei, for once it's not about you."
"The destruction of this family." She stated. Tyrion wasn't at all surprised at her. Ever since the day he was born she convinced herself to think that all he was, was a demon who was born to kill Lannisters.
"I am the one who is preventing that from happening. Daenerys didn't want to debate and negotiate, she didn't want to bring you words, she wanted to bring you Fire and Blood, until I advised her otherwise and her husband supported me. I don't want to destroy our family, I never have."
"You killed our father." She reminded, the smallest of smirks present in the corners of her lips.
"After he sentenced me to death for a crime I didn't commit, yes I killed him." He never really saw Tywin as his father, only a man who belonged to such a label. Only once was he ever a father to him and it was on a day he decided not to drop his dwarf of a son into the ocean. "Both of you hate for what I did, believe it or not I hate myself for it, in spite of who he was, in spite of what he did to me."
"Oh the poor little man," she mocked, "your papa was mean to you. Do you have any idea what you did when you fired that crossbow? You left us open. You laid us bare for the vultures and the vultures came and they tore us apart. You may not have killed Joffrey, you killed Tommen. No one would've touched them if father was still here."
Tyrion did accept that a part of the blame of Myrcella's death. Even if it was Oberyn's choice to be his champion against the Mountain, he chose the trial by combat. But in the time he met with Elliara on Dragonstone, he had become convinced that she would've killed Myrcella even if he didn't kill his father. But Tommen's death was completely Cersei's fault. Varys told him how Cersei gave the High Sparrow power and armed the Faith Militant. She gave Margery and Loras to the Faith and Tommen loved Margery more than his own mother. But aggravating her and being correct was the last thing he wanted to be if he was ever going to get anywhere with her. "I have never been more sorry-"
"I will not hear it, I will not hear it!"
Tyrion was starting to lose his patience, if he was even allowed such a luxury in his current predicament. Jaime could only sit in his chair and listen. Why he was even in the room, Tyrion didn't know why at all. "Alright, you love your family, and I have destroyed it. I will always be a threat" He wasn't trying to mock her, but falsely accept her beliefs in him. "So put an end to me." She eyed him hatefully and resisted smiling, almost tempted to do as he suggested. "If it weren't for me, you'd have a mother. If it weren't for me, you'd have a father. If it weren't for me, you'd have two beautiful children still alive. I've thought about killing you more times than I can count." Tyrion got out of his chair and walked up to the Mountain, looking into his bloodstained eyes. "Do it!" He turned around and looked Cersei directly into her venomous green eyes. "Say the word."
Cersei's lips twitched, almost happily to give the order, but she sighed and leaned back into her seat. Tyrion couldn't help but breath nervously. He didn't want to die, but he practically spat on death's door. The only thing that would calm him down was some wine and he walked over to a small wooden table to pour himself some. He swallowed it down as fast as he could, not caring at all for the taste but only the effect.
He set his glass down and filled another with what remained in the glass wine pitcher. He returned to his sister and placed one of the glass on the desk. "I am more sorry about the children than you will ever know."
"I will not-" She hissed.
Tyrion gritted his teeth as he spoke. "I don't care, I love them. You know I did. You know it in your heart if there's anything left of it."
"It doesn't matter. Your love doesn't matter, your feelings don't matter. I don't care why you did what you did, I only care what it cost us. It cost us our future."
"If you have no future then what are you carrying inside you? Another child to be like Joffrey? Hated and despised by all except his mother and father. Or are you hoping for a child like the ones we all loved? Why did you allow me to come at all?"
"To make sure that you weren't plotting to turn an armistice into a surrender."
"We thought about doing that, but then we remember that there's something more important to be focusing on. You must see that now!"
"I do. This one time, I will set aside my desires and focus on believing in the stories we were told as children. What did you hope for when you came? Everyone would see that creature and bow to your dragonspawn rulers?"
"Eventually," he admitted, "but only when they would see who Daenerys was for who she is. That she isn't her father and wants to make this world a better place."
"You said she'd destroy King's Landing."
Unfortunately, Cersei was right about that. "She knows herself. She chose an advisor and married a man who would check her worse impulses instead of feeding them. That's the difference between you."
"I don't care about checking my worse impulses I don't care about making the world a better place, hang the world. All I care about is my future and making sure I have one with those that matter to me. So tell me, dear brother, what does your queen have in store for me? Will she burn me with dragonfire, or feed me to the peasants like she did with the masters and the slaves in Mereen."
"We haven't discussed such things yet. First we have to win the fight ahead of us before we can think of the justices and mercies that must be issued. And in order to do that, we need your armies to fight with us. Only when we have a force of equal size will we stand a chance. You heard what Daenerys said. One of he dragons was killed by one of the White Walkers. If we lose another to them, then they power the dead will hold will be enough to destroy everyone and everything in the world. Surely you want to live through such an ordeal."
"You're right, I do. So what bargain will you strike for my armies?"
"As much as you want it, you can't remain on the Iron Throne."
"It doesn't take a half wit to understand that. What will you give me that is worth my armies?"
"If you pledge your forces to Daenerys and Jon to fight against the dead, I will give you Casterly Rock and name you the governing Lady if you step down and renounce your claim to the throne."
"What would I want with Casterly Rock? Did father never tell you that the gold mines ran dry years ago?"
"He did, but if he bothered to not give up on them, he might've found two possible mines. And there's still Lannisport. It's the center of trade of the West Coast."
"I suppose you'll want me to kneel."
"No, that I can make sure you are spared of."
"And I suppose we'll all live out our days as if nothing ever happened."
"It's better than fighting against us. Even you don't fight with us and we win at the cost of half the entire army, you can't win. The Iron Fleet will still be ours, we'll have two dragons and near one hundred thousand men. All we have to do is lay siege to King's Landing and let the common folk rebel against you. You could of course, flee to Essos and start anew. But I doubt that you will."
Cersei sighed as she took the wine glass from the desk. She didn't drink much, only a single sip of it, but it was enough for to find an answer. When I return to Casterly Rock, I will be named Warden of the West. Your King and Queen will leave me be until my death. After that I don't give a damn what our children do."
"I'll do what I can to make that happen."
"I wasn't finished. There's one more thing I desire that I will have, or else there will be no deal."
"As long as it is within reason." What he already offered was beyond that.
"Vengeance for the Lannisters who've died ever since Ned Stark's execution. Though now that I think about it, Tommen and Myrcella have already been given that grace. Elliara's corpse rots next to her daughter's in the Black Cells, The Tyrells and the Faith are nothing but ash and rubble, so that just leaves father." She stared long and hard at him, making sure he knew of what she was asking and he did.
Tyrion locked eyes with her and could see someone else behind the eyes of his sister. She always wanted him dead, she tried to have him killed multiple times, but this felt different. It didn't feel like anger she bore towards him, it felt like a hunger that nothing but what she asked for could settle.
Jaime
Jaime was surprised when Tyrion came out of Cersei's room alive. He half expected him to be burned or cut in half by the Mountain. He did overhear some commotion, but the noise was too muffled to understand what they were saying. When Cersei stepped through her door, followed by the Mountain, she looked displeased as did Tyrion. Whatever they negotiated for, they failed.
He followed closely to Tyrion as they were all joined by Qyburn and the rest of the Queensguard on their long walk back to the Dragonpit. To save time however, Cersei had carriages brought to the Red Keep. She took one for herself and Qyburn leaving the other for Tyrion and Jaime. He would've preferred to ride on horseback, but he did want to talk with Tyrion.
As they rode out of the city and onto the roads to the Dragonpit, Jaime became surprised when he offered Tryion a small flask of wine he had and was refused. Never once in ever knowing Tyrion did Jaime ever see his brother refuse wine. It didn't stop him from drinking however.
"I take it Cersei refused?" Jaime asked.
"I only wish it could've gone better."
Jaime stared at his flask, contemplating his place in life currently. "What Castle did you give Bronn?"
"The Twins."
"You gave the Twins to Bronn?" Jaime took a moment to confirm what he heard. "I get the feeling he may be worse than Walder Frey."
"He promised to be more fair when it came to letting people cross the bridge. He'll be wealthy and loved, not having to give two shits worrying about men slicing his throat and feeding him pies made of his sons."
Jaime was able to smile for the first time in weeks. "And what highborn beauty will he take?"
"He never told me her name, only that she's the most beautiful woman in the world."
"I hope it's not the Lady of Bear Island. She's looks like she could stare a man to death with that gaze of hers."
"Believe me, she's tried doing that to me many times." They two Lannister brothers shared some laughter together, not knowing how much longer they would have such precious moments.
"Bronn offered to take me with him."
"I imagine you refused?"
"Yes, yes I did. But I wish I could go with him. I'm sick of this city, I'm sick of these people. I want to be somewhere that doesn't try to kill me."
"I'm afraid that's impossible. You live in Westeros, remember?"
"Maybe enough of us will be dead after the war that no one will care."
"I must disagree and hope as many of us as possible live through the war. Our family has been the center of the death of thousands for years now. I'm rather sick of it."
"We can agree on that, at least." There was a still silence between the two Lannisters as they drew closer to the Dragonpit.
"If you had the choice of how you die, what would you choose?" Tyrion asked while looking out of a window he sat next to.
Jaime thought about it. How would he die if he had his choice? "I know how you would. Lying in a bed in a castle as an old man with wine in your belly and a maiden's-"
"Shut up!" Tyrion demanded, annoyed. "Can Bronn not keep anything to himself?" Jaime couldn't help but laugh a little at his brother. Such a thing was typical of him to desire. "I wouldn't mind some wine and woman next to me when I go. But with everything happening, I don't care how so much as where. As long as my body rots anywhere that isn't King's Landing, I can die happy." Such a simple thing didn't sound so bad. "You didn't tell answer me yet." Tyrion reminded.
Jaime couldn't help but smile a little. "On an Island. Away from all the shit of Westeros, surrounded by nothing but trees and water as blue as sapphires and with someone who loves me."
The carriage came to a halt as the arrived back at the Dragonpit. The door opened for the two brothers and Tyrion was the first to leave, Jaime taking a moment to think that maybe such a wish would come true someday.
The Queensguard dismounted their horses and formed up behind Cersei and Qyburn as they all marched back into the Dragonpit. As the entered the arena, Jaime could feel the stares of the two dragons fall onto them and low growls resonated as the walked. To Jaime and Tyrion's surprise, the other lords and ladies of the realm were all seated while Jon Snow was dueling with his cousin, Arya. He was wielding a Lannister sword rather than his own Valyrian Sword while she wielded a very small rapier. Her speed was far greater than Jon's but he clearly had more skill than her. She nearly had an opening to his head, but a strong parry with his Longsword and using his free hand to smack the back of Arya's sword hand caused her to leg go of her sword. Before it even clanged to the ground, Jon had his blade at Arya's back.
"Dammit, you win." Arya admitted.
"Bravo, your grace!" Edric Dayne shouted as he and many others applauded. Others looked discontent as they handed over money to those sitting near them. Apparently they were making wages. Edric Dayne stood from his seat and approached the Targaryen King. "You've bested every swordsman here. I have no doubt you would stand level with my uncle if he were here to challenge you. Since you were once a man of the Night's Watch, I name you the Sword of the Evening."
Jaime had a small interest in this boy. Edric was very expressive and bold just like he was in his youth. All the cheer died down after Jon noticed that Lannisters had returned. Cersei stepped forward as Jon handed his sword off to one of the Dothraki.
"After much counsel from Lord Tyrion, we have come to an agreement. I will march my armies North to fight alongside you all. If the battle is won, you will grant them safe passage to return to the Westerlands and the Crownlands."
Jon couldn't help but smile a bit. "That's perfectly acceptable." He said.
"Then let us declare now," Edric exclaimed, "with the Maesters of the Citadel as Witnesses for all history to know. Dorne pledges its forces to fight the dead."
Melessa Tarly and the other liege lords stood up. "The Reach pledges it's forces to fight the dead."
"The Stormlands pledge their forces to fight the dead." Gendry said.
"The Riverlands pledge their forces to fight the dead." Edmure said.
"The Vale pledges its forces to fight the dead!" Robin Arryn said excitedly.
"The Iron Islands pledge their forces to fight the dead." Theon said.
"The North pledges its forces to fight the dead." Sansa said.
"House Targaryen pledge their forces to fight the dead." Daenerys said.
"The Night's Watch will stand will the Seven Kingdoms to defend the realms of men." Lord Comander Tollet said.
All eyes were on Cersei as she hesitated. "The Crown pledges its forces to fight against the dead."
Jaime attention turned to the Dothraki who watched in awe as all the lords practically proclaimed themselves to the Targaryens, to Jon. The one who Jon gave his sword to,quietly spoke something, but he couldn't understand what it meant. "Vezh fin saja rhaesheseres."
