This chapter was written as part of the Facebook challenge "Sur Votre 31":
- Invite : ''Book''.
- Number of words: From 100 to 1000 words

All the universe of Game of Thrones belongs to GRR Martin, DB & DW.

Context: Post - Season 8

Enjoy reading!

The library of Casterly Rock was much larger than in the memories of Tyrion. Shelves covered the walls up to the ceiling, crumbling under the books, old grimoires, and more recent volumes.

When he first entered it holding hands with the twins he had had from his marriage to Sansa Stark, which they had renewed after the war, the fall of Daenerys and the rise of Bran Stark, many memories, almost as old and dusty as most of the books in this library, came to his mind.

When he was a child, he spent his days here, lost in books, preferring the company of dead or imaginary characters to the company of people who constantly made fun of him because he was different.

Fortunately for them, his two children, Loren and Alys, did not seem to have inherited his deformity.

They had inherited something else, which hurt Tyrion even more every time he looked at them.

Although they had the soft red hair of their mother, they also had the typical Lannister emerald eyes.

Emerald eyes that painfully reminded Tyrion of other twins, twins that had long since disappeared, but twins that he still hadn't been able to mourn.

His children reminded him of Cersei and Jaime. He had never told them about them, but he often wondered if they too loved each other the way Cersei and Jaime had loved each other. Not that he was ashamed of his brother and sister, no, but talking about them hurt too much, much too much. The wound that the discovery of his brother and sister's bodies had left deep inside him was not healed, and would probably never fully heal.

Sometimes, when he was really too sad, when it hurt too much, he would go down alone, into the crypt of the castle, where he had their bodies repatriated and buried, together. He could stay there for hours, crying all the tears of his body, crying for his family, his family that he had helped to kill, his family that he had killed.

At this thought, a lonely tear ran down his cheek, a tear that he hurried to wipe off with his sleeve before it raised questions from his children, questions that would be many, far too many for him to answer without starting to cry, to really cry.

Alys and Loren pulled him out of his daydreams, pulling on his clothes in the hope of getting his attention. Their familiar, all-too-familiar emerald eyes shone with excitement as they called out to him.

They had just found a huge book about the monarchy in Westeros, a very recent thick book, which traced all the reigns of history back to Bran Stark's.

The children were terribly perceptive, despite their young age, and they had opened it up and started flipping through it, until they came across a particular page...

This time Tyrion did not hold back his tears when he saw the scarlet coat of arms, like the blood that had been shed and spilled, like the castle that had collapsed, and the golden lion, as golden as the metal that had made their family's power and supremacy, as golden as their crowns had been.

It was little Alys who spoke first, in a small, enthusiastic voice:

''Father, did you know Cersei Lannister? She has the same name as us, is she one of our family ?''

Before he had time to answer, she had already turned the page, her brother leaning over her shoulder as they put the book on the floor for better viewing, and both of them had gasped to discover the next page and Cersei's print that had been made, capturing with disturbing realism the thin face, piercing, burning eyes, high cheekbones, well drawn nose and pulpy lips of his sister.

When he saw the drawing, his tears redoubled, but always silently.

''Is that her? How beautiful she is!''

But the children, still waiting for the answer of their father which however did not come, looked at him again, and saw his tears still flowing. Alys and Loren both got up and came to hold him, hugging him as hard as their little arms would let them.

When he had finally dried his tears, he went and sat them down in an armchair, and made them sit on his lap.

The two little ones huddled together as he began to tell them a story, a new story, a story they had never heard before, a story of gold and blood, a story of murder and betrayal. But above all, a love story.

''Cersei Lannister was my sister.''

At these words, the two children stood up:

''You never told us you had a sister!''

''You are the brother of a queen?''

''Why "was"? She is not anymore?''

''Slowly, slowly. I will answer all your questions but take it easy. I had a sister and a brother, twins, just like you. Their names were Cersei and Jaime. But before I tell you their story, you have to promise me something. Something very important.''

Loren nodded solemnly, as grave as a seven-year-old could be and was quickly imitated by his sister.

''You will read and hear a lot about Cersei and Jaime Lannister. You will only be told what History has wanted to remember about them, the Mad Queen and the Kingslayer, that they were a monster and a perjurer, a heartless ruler and an oathbreaker. You will be told that what they did was wrong, that it was a sin. But you two must not believe it. You must not believe what people will tell you or what you will read about them. These things are not true. These people didn't know them. The only things you have to believe about them are the things I'm going to tell you''.

''We promise you.''

''This is not the story of a monster, perjury, or sin. It is the story of a woman and a man who were tortured, and of a forbidden love when it should not have been...''

A few days later, when Tyrion goes down into the crypts of Casterly Rock, he is not alone.

There is Alys hanging on his left hand, and Loren on his right hand.

They are all three there, silently, their heads bowed down, and the same tears on their cheeks.

The three of them are standing in front of a huge white marble tomb with gold letters carved into it:

Cersei and Jaime LANNISTER

261-305 AC

Died together, as together they were born.

Thank you for reading!
Please take the time to leave a little comment, it's always a pleasure ^^
Don't be too hard on English, it is not my mother tongue.