Hey guys! More edits from take 2 at this story so of course some of this will be familiar to returning readers. These familiar parts will be scattered across the first 10 chapters or so.
"You miss her don't you?" She spoke softly as she rocked the sleeping babe in her arms, gently settling him by playing with his small toes.
"More than anything, Khalessi, I have been at her side since the day she came into this world. I was sent to take her as a babe from the arms of her mother fresh from the womb, but I didn't do it." He looked down, he always looked down when he spoke of Vesara and fiddled with a piece of gold strapped to his wrist, she couldn't quite see what it was as it was obscured by his tunic.
"What changed your mind?"
"The circumstances changed. Her mother died in the childbed and word had reached Dorne that Princess Elia had been attacked. Your father had ordered that I remain with Vesara in Sunspear until the Kingsguard had destroyed the Kingswood Brotherhood. It seems that things kept happening that kept us in Dorne and there we remained under the protection of Prince Doran until they demanded our return and your father and brother were defeated." His face was pale as he recalled those dark times, sometimes he had wished that his memories escaped, unfortunately his mind was just as sharp as it had been all those years ago.
"Vesara would have been raised in your home had things turned out differently, you would have loved her like a sister and the babe in your arms would have belonged to your nephew. That was what the King wanted."
"Why did my father want Vesara so badly?" She began pacing the room and swaying Torrhen more aggressively as he began to stir.
"He knew how stubborn Robert was, he knew he would never agree to have his daughter fostered to King's Landing or Dragonstone, so he ordered me to take her. He wanted the last piece of his strong and true friend that remained. People often forget the early details…" he paused, he didn't like to recall the past and he certainly did not take any comfort in retelling the history he knew to the woman before him.
She raised a brow insisting that he continue.
"… Lord Steffon Baratheon, was the cousin to your father, and his most trusted friend and confidant. Your father begged him to venture to the East and find Prince Rhaegar a Valyrian bride, at the same time he had just learnt that Robert and Princess Mariah Martell were with child. Lord Steffon never returned and as far as your father was concerned his grandchild was all that remained. The death of Lord Steffon was one of the things that pushed the King into madness, he trusted no one."
Monterys was dark.
She didn't doubt that the things that he said were untrue but it was as if it all existed in an alternate universe, the stories she had always been told were of her family's greatness and of their dragons. When people were feeling exceptionally courageous she would hear stories of their downfall, of her father's madness. No one ever spoke of the things that drove him mad.
"It seems as if he was wise not to trust anyone, they all played a role in my family's downfall, his suspicions were not unfounded."
"There is only one man in the Seven Kingdoms who was clever enough and with enough motive to overthrow the Targaryen dynasty."
"Tywin Lannister?" She questioned, she was begging to gain some clarity in who all of the major players in Westeros were.
"Aye, Robert Baratheon was no more than a brute, Lord Eddard Stark his conscience and justice, Lord Jon Arryn his brain. He never had the desire to rule but it seemed that by default his battles had led to an empty victory. I often think what it would have been like if Robert didn't take the crown, his two sidekicks would have ran as far and as fast as they could, the remaining option would have been Lord Tywin Lannister."
"An usurper is a false king, it makes no matter which one it is."
"Like I said, Robert was fierce in the battlefield, you could always read which way he would move and strike, Tywin on the other hand, he is politically fierce, for that you never know where the next attack will come from."
"They're all traitors and my dragons will burn them all the same, flesh is flesh."
Monterys was not in a position to agree or disagree with the Mother of Dragons, she was still young, younger than Vesara by a few years; she would grow into her political acumen.
Or so he hoped.
She sat in her chamber in Qarth, she had to admit that she spent a lot of time thinking and wondered if she was beginning to overthink. She still had her concerns with taking Torrhen as her own, she didn't know what she would do if she found that he was not of the dragon. She couldn't just leave the boy. But she couldn't have him as her heir.
"Does something trouble you my Queen?" Ser Jorah Mormont came to her side. It was times like this she turned to him, he had been her only constant throughout the death of her brother and Khal Drogo.
Everything troubled her as of late, being in Qarth surrounded by warlocks and rich merchants unsettled her. She had only just got accustomed to being in a khalasaar and now she was leading a people that were still foreign to her into even more foreign lands.
"What reason do I have to trust Ser Monterys? Did you ever encounter him in the West?"
He could barely recall his time in Westeros, he could barely remember his time at his home on Bear Island. It seems the only memories he had were of Lord Eddard's mercy in banishing him instead.
"I had crossed his path once, when I stood trial in Winterfell, he and the Princess were visiting before she journeyed to White Harbour from Karhold and the Dreadfort. She was a timid girl with her knight at her side. The Velaryons of Driftmark, the old, the true, the brave, I have no doubt of his loyalty if that is what you are questioning. If you ask him something be sure that he will answer honestly."
Daenerys found little comfort in the words of Jorah. Times were trying and she had a feeling that things were only going to get worse from here.
x
Jaime enjoyed taunting Robb; that much was apparent. Jaime enjoyed seeing the boy riled and agitated, it certainly made his detainment a little more interesting considering the Northern men didn't gossip nearly as much as every other force he'd been with. It made for boring listening.
Usually.
After the death of Eddard Stark murmurings started rushing through the camp, the ones about his wife intrigued him the most.
One minute his wife was to be betrothed to her half-brother Joffrey after they had removed Jaime in order to strengthen his claim to the throne, the next she was rallying her own army with her mother's people in Dorne. After awhile one was sounding more outrageous than the next. One of his favourites was that she was headed for the Stark camp to offer herself to Robb so that he could claim the Iron Throne for her.
It was all so ridiculous.
The girl wasn't ambitious enough to take the Iron Throne for herself. She was content doing what she wanted when she wanted; she was a lot like him in that respect.
Perhaps that was why they got along so well for the most part. She let him do what he pleased and he let her do as she pleased.
She had always been the perfect Princess, nothing more and nothing less.
Everyone always forgot that she was a contender, probably down to the fact that she was a girl and married to a Lannister, leaving the bickering to her uncles Stannis and Renly. Had they pushed her to withdraw her renouncement of the crown they would have rallied behind her, the half-wits wouldn't forsake their honour long enough to pressure her into challenging her brother and they definitely would not encourage her when it would give Jaime a stake in the Iron Throne.
Not that he wanted that ugly thing.
Jaime enjoyed their obvious distaste of him. Vesara had yet to forgive Stannis for not attending their wedding, her disfavour towards him was something to be grateful for, the worse their relationship was, the better.
Jaime knew he should feel bad that he didn't worry for her welfare, that and the welfare of his child. He didn't even know if his child had made into the world safely or not, he up and left with only his need to satisfy his thirst for revenge. He would save his brother and that was all that mattered.
He didn't think that Vesara would care. She wasn't really the caring type. The Baratheons were never ones to wear their hearts on their sleeves; however, he assumed that being the only woman of the family that she would have some softness about her, apparently not.
It had disappeared with her youth.
She was perfectly capable of looking after herself, she had done it most of her life. He was certainly surprised when she did not object to marrying him as his sister insisted she would. Although she had not shown him any particular distaste, she certainly did not fawn over him like the rest of the girls and women in King's Landing and certainly not like she had as a child.
To her he was a duty.
It was rather unfortunate really. If things were different he could have seen himself satisfied with a life with her. That version of life consisted of Cersei's absence. That wasn't a life that he was ready to accept.
Vesara knew the two were close, he was certain she didn't think anything of it. If she did she was a lot better at acting than he had thought and definitely less Baratheon than he assumed.
He spent far too much time thinking of Vesara in his isolation, it made him uneasy.
The men in the camp were beginning to agitate him. Their conversations were louder today than they had been in the last few weeks. They were excited.
There was a woman in the camp.
Robb Stark had come to visit him again; this time there was an air of arrogance about him that Jamie hadn't seen before. He was impressed, almost fearful when his beast entered his confines. Something was in the works.
He could smell it.
It smelled of slightly blood orange, a smell that was all too familiar to him.
She appeared in the doorway as soon as Stark and his beast disappeared from sight. She wore a familiar pouty smirk on her face; clearly she was unfazed by his appearance.
"Seems as if the rumours from the camp are true." He peered at her from beneath his greasy overgrown locks.
"And what rumours would those be?" She inched closer.
"You've taken to the bed of Robb Stark, the gallant wolf and King in the North that is set on freeing your throne from the jaws of the lion."
She pursed her lips before swinging a bucket of lukewarm water over him. "Do not mistake me for a common whore."
"You are the daughter of Robert after all."
She came closer and whipped his face with a washcloth.
"With that temper one might mistake you for a lion or perhaps it's your fabled Baratheon fury." She began aggressively scrubbing at his skin, the thick layer of dirt and grime that covered his handsome face was stubborn and unmoving, all the more reason for excessive force.
Her stern face and silence brought a smile to his face.
She wiped that smirk off his face aggressively before turning to the entrance and demanding a squire to attend to his lavatory messes.
"I'm surprised you know how to clean at all Princess. Tell me, would be so kind as to clean my cock with your folds, or perhaps those pouty lips of yours will suffice?" He smirked at her.
She grabbed him by the hair and ripped his head backward before taking to his beard with a blade.
She did not take to his humour something that he had grown used to, despite his lack of trying. It seems that her uncle Stannis had ingrained part of his dull personality and stoic expressions on his niece.
He remembered when the Princess returned to the Capitol, she had not been past her two and tenth name day after being brought to the Capitol after spending most of her childhood between Dragonstone and Storm's End. She was a studious girl who spent a majority of her time reading of military strategy and war through the ages and when she could, harassing her father on how he won the Iron Throne.
On the two days that he watched over her she never acknowledged him once, not so much as a smile, he had grown saddened when he realised the smiles of this child would only exist in his memory. On the evening of the second day Stannis came to bid her farewell as he returned was set to return to Dragonstone.
He spoke to her in hushed whispers, it was clear that he did not wish for Jaime to her what he was telling the young girl. Tact was always something that Stannis lacked, among other things.
He did not capture all that Stannis had said but it was no doubt incredibly boring.
"Ensure that the head that it rests on is not tempted by the flesh, the gold, or the glory but rests on wisdom, pride and honour, for ours is the fury."
She had not said a word in the time that Stannis visited her, instead she responded with a brief awkward hug before he vanished from sight.
This girl had been peculiar; she wasn't like the others that were consumed by stories of princes and gallant knights, their hair and extravagant dresses. As she scrubbed at his skin as if he were nothing more than a toy he saw glimpses of that girl, so cut off and uncaring.
She concluded her work and perched herself on a stool across from him. The remote feeling of cleanliness that he felt as if he had forgotten relieved him.
She lowered her head signally her exhaustion.
"What of the babe?" He asked.
Her face was cast downward but he saw a glimpse of her smile.
"Strong and healthy, a boy by the name of Durrandon, black of hair with deep blue eyes and a set of lungs that give the most stalwart a scare."
Jaime attempt to hide his smile. He felt an odd sense of pride, one that he had repressed when Vesara had told him that she was with child. A babe in the womb was not yet a babe in the flesh, childbirth is not a certain thing, he could not bring himself to feel anything for something that may not exist and yet, in hearing that the babe had made it into the world he felt something in him stirring.
A pride that he had not allowed himself to feel at the birth of his children with Cersei, this was a child he did not need to be ashamed of.
"You were not foolish enough to bring him here were you?"
"You take me for a whore and a fool? Is there anything else to add to the list my good husband? The child is safe, that is all that needs to be said."
"So what foolish notion has brought you here?"
"It would seem any place is safer than King's Landing with a tyrannical brother warming the Iron Throne and even more unreasonable regent controlling the Council. I have interests of self preservation, I don't fancy having your dearest sister roast our child and I with wildfire." He flinched.
She knew of the tales of King's Landing during the rule of Aerys and his plots with pyromancers. He had told it to her once as a child, although he had omitted a few things and even though she was young she knew him well enough to know that the story pained him. He remembered the hug that she gave him at the end, her small arms wrapped around his neck telling him that everything would be okay.
A child's world was simple.
And yet still he believed that his sister would never do such a thing. Cersei was many things but she was not a kinslayer. Was she? Vesara was one thing, but the babe was a Lannister. Perhaps her jealousy had thrown her over the edge. All she needed was for Jaime to return to her and assure her of his loyalty only to her.
"Before my father's blood had gone cold there were calls to displace the Queen, and to appoint another regent. Of course my darling brother saw to it that a Stark would not be her replacement, so they turned to me. I value the life of myself and my son far greater than the glory of throne."
Executing Stark was a foolish move, no doubt one from Joffrey. His death was more trouble than it was worth and unfortunately it would continue to be a bother.
"You? Regent? What a ridiculous sentiment, you know nought of politics and the influence of gold."
"I've survived your sister this long haven't I?"
"You can't value your life that much Princess, you are here after all."
"It would seem your father was rather taken with the suggestion that every Northern man in the camp should fuck a Princess for the freedom of one lion. He would get everything he wants, his son freed, a grandson and rid of Joffrey's only legitimate threat to the Iron Throne."
She was lying. His father's pride would never let something so brutal happen to Vesara, she was a Lannister now.