Yay! More nonsense! I kid. As noted in earlier chapters, most of this is over 3 years old and has not been edited since, but for those who have stuck with it and requested updates, this one if for you :)

She moved as quickly as she could without being obvious. The City Watch and Kingsguard were everywhere as of late. She had been grateful that they were far easier to recognise than any of Cersei's spies.

As soon as they dragged him away in chains she knew it was time. Honourable men died all the time and the death of this man could lead to her own.

He was covered in dirt and his own filth, he was injured but he was far from broken. Varys and Monterys had warned her against going to visit the Queen's captive but she had to, just in case he didn't come out of this alive.

He wouldn't come out of this alive.

He needed to know what she was about to do. She knew he bore no ill will to the girl, she was just a girl after all and he had done all that he could to protect her from the King. The disappointment was all over his face as she told him what she had done and what she was considered doing. She knew it wasn't ideal but it had to be done.

He had confirmed her suspicions.

She had to protect him.

No matter what the cost. It was a gamble she was willing to take.

They had both disagreed in the best way to move forward. Perhaps she was just not as honourable as he. She remembered the desperation in his eyes as he begged her to go North and to take his daughters with her. Robb would do all that he could to keep them all safe, to keep him safe.

Vesara had already made up her mind but it did not prevent her from being drowned in guilt. It was held deep in her chest, restricting her breathing. In the lead up she was certain that she had made the right decision but after seeing him all she felt was doubt. It was all she thought about as they fled in the night. She was distracted at the worst possible time.

The water was clouded black, it had been a calm night and she hoped that the day would be much the same, something that didn't occur very often in King's Landing. Without a breeze there was no wafting of the infamous stink of the Capitol.

The stillness made her uneasy.

She quivered, attempting to shake off the sinking feeling in her stomach and to ease the guilt stuck in her chest.

It wasn't long before the stillness was interrupted as the sound of darting arrows rained through the horizon above them and into the ships.

The silence turned to screams.

The screams of burning men.

She watched in terror as they desperately dove into the water as their vessels became engulfed in glowing fire. She had heard stories as a child but she had never dreamed that it truly existed.

Tallon shook her shoulders violently, attempting to break her daze. "Vesara you need to get into the water!" He screamed at her as he looked around panicked by the scene unfolding around them. Her body was tense, she had never felt so helpless.

The flames were getting closer, burning hotter and brighter. It wasn't until the flames stared her in the face that she threw herself and the bundles in her arms overboard; doing all that she could to raise them out of the water until she clambered to a broken piece of driftwood, struggling to stay afloat. As long as they were above the water that was all that mattered.

She was remotely aware of the soft wails of the babes as she placed them on the piece of driftwood, she held her arms on either side to keep the babes from rolling off holding them as close to her chest as she could.

She struggled to tread the water through all the screams and floating bodies of her men, some cloaked in red and others in gold and black. Her dress was most impractical as it did all that it could to pull her to the sea floor. She did all that she could to focus on swimming, on staying afloat.

Paddleboats to her left and right were in flames. Some men were frantically swimming in the low morning light at least that was from what she could tell, it was still too dark to be certain of anything.

Everything that was under the light of the flames was destroyed. Their only hope of survival lay beyond the darkness.

Another flurry of arrows fired across the bay lighting up the sky, the flames and destruction fled further and further.

She paddled towards Stormkeeper and Durran's Defiance II as Tallon waded through the water frantically clearing the debris.

The soft cries of the babes were drowned out by the screams that echoed in the bay. She held them closer to her chest. If this were to be there last moments they would not leave her arms.

Tallon halted. Vesara followed suit as they could do nothing but watch as it came towards them.

Her neck craned upwards and her arms tightened around the babes.

This was it.

The mast of Stormkeeper was aflame and plummeting towards the water. There was nowhere to move, she would be too slow.

The muteness terrified her more than anything; she had never known real fear until this moment. As she came to, only the sound of one set of screams could be heard. She feared the worst.

She had never felt so much pain.

Her skin was searing.

She waited for the flames to engulf her but the true darkness did not greet her. Instead her body ached.

Her heart ached.

She wanted nothing more than to open her eyes, to move her body. All she felt was the searing, all she could smell was burning flesh. Her own burning flesh.

She had heard stories of how nothing could extinguish the flames of wildfire; she waited for it to consume her until there was nothing but darkness.

In the darkness she saw them. Their faces gray and decayed. Their voices were full of malice as they screamed traitor. Harlot. Coward. A disgrace. No kin of mine. It seemed that in this reality their distaste for her was the one thing they could agree on.

As she drifted further from consciousness their voices would become quiet.

"I do not wish to greet you so soon."

There were many things that caused her to awake drenched in sweat despite the cool air in the room, she was relieved that fire had been her nightmare of late.

Without Durrandon near her they came frequently.

Septa Davina was forceful with Vesara, no doubt from the whispers of her uncle when she was brought into their service. He had probably told his bastard niece what he would tell everyone that he brought into the fold after his stringent screening process. For a long time Vesara thought that he was over protective and dramatic, only now that he had gone she had realised how he was protecting her from herself as she lived life ignoring the world's dangers.

Ignoring the dangers in her own Keep.

Septa Davina had insisted that Durrandon have separate chambers and was extra cautious when he had taken ill with a cough. As stubborn as Vesara was she admitted that she had been far too exhausted as of late to take care of herself and an ill child.

Her exhaustion was attributed to many factors; Jaime's return to the Capitol, avoiding Cersei, assisting Tywin and amusing Joffrey. Cersei was much easier to deal with when her brother wasn't around, she didn't linger as much and with Tywin present avoiding the Lannisters was near impossible.

"The Hand requests an audience with you my lady." Bane lingered in the doorway of her chambers as he awaited her response.

She nodded.

"My Lord." She smiled gracefully as she waited for him to sit at the small table across from her.

"Do forgive me for intruding Vesara, it was rumoured that you had taken ill but I'm afraid this could not wait." She didn't have the energy to deal with whatever was troubling the old lion today.

"I'm sure it will pass. What troubles you?"

He had to admit that her skin had lost its colour like his spies had said which had caused him some concern, it seemed that nobles were dropping like flies as of late and many more would follow. He would do all that he could to ensure that none of his family joined the long list of deaths.

"As the traitor king Renly Baratheon was slain… some arrangements need to be made" he paused expecting her to shed tears.

Traitor.

Harlot.

Coward.

A disgrace.

No kin of mine.

She had thought any discussion of Renly had come and gone. Apparently the Lord Hand had taken it upon himself to allow her an appropriate amount of time before discussing the arrangements of the dead.

"What does it matter? One less false king." He raised his brow at her, initially surprised by her response. She pushed away the fruit in front of her, the mandarins were far too fragrant for her liking.

He noticed the look of distaste on her face.

"Well yes. It still leaves the matter of Storm's End. With Stannis weak, now is the time for you to challenge his claim on your ancestral seat. Rest assured, I will protect what belongs to this family." Vesara's stomach dropped.

This family.

It was true. They had admittedly handed over all of the Baratheon holdings to the Lannisters, at least until a time where Durrandon could take control. Or if Joffrey had his way, four sons.

"Stannis cannot hold the storm lords, they are stubborn, they won't support a lord that turned against their liege lord. It will be a struggle to gain their support for any claim. Regardless of whether it be for myself or Durrandon. The option to support a woman or Lannister babe will hardly be the most appealing proposition for the storm lords. In their eyes it is likely that we are all considered traitors."

She knew what Tywin wanted and he would get it. She wouldn't give up her ancestral seat to anyone outside of her family even if it meant that she had to dance with lions momentarily.

"Loyalty runs as deep as pockets."

"For some."

"Well… what do you propose?" He was sceptical that a mere girl would be able to come devise any plan that could meet both his demands and gain the favour of the storm lords.

"The men will want to go home. Give them their freedom from this war." If Tywin had his way he knew that these men would be brought into the Lannister army, she wouldn't have her people die to settle someone else's scores.

He pressed his lips together tightly and narrowed his eyes.

"The lords won't fight battles that aren't their own and I would support the decision of the bannermen." She held her breath, slightly afraid of his response.

"Very well… For now."

She felt a sharp pain in her side. She wriggled slightly to shift it to no avail.

"If that will be all my good father?" Perhaps the pain in her gut was due to conversing with Tywin Lannister. She rose to farewell Tywin as he straightened his jerkin.

Standing only worsened the pain causing her to wince, an action that did not go unnoticed by Tywin. A concerned look now present on his face.

She shuffled uncomfortably causing warm liquid to gush from her nether regions. Slightly embarrassed, she turned away from the old lion.

"Ser Bane!" Tywin boomed. He aided Vesara to her bed carefully as Bane came and went from the room.

"You do understand what is happening?" The entire situation made Vesara uncomfortable as he moved a chair next to the bed. She merely nodded in response.

He was curious as to why she seemed unfazed by what was occurring. Perhaps that was why he insisted on staying until Maester Pycelle arrived to examine Vesara.

"I've had pains for the last few days, I had just assumed it was a passing illness. It seems I was wrong."

"Shall I have a guard fetch Jaime?"

"No." She responded all too quickly. "There is nothing that can be done now. I shall just wait for it to pass."

Things had been tense between the two of them, it didn't help that she continued to push him away. She didn't have the strength to battle an entire pride. She was unsure if it was guilt but it was definitely some form of regret from hurting Jaime. That was perhaps one reason that she didn't want Jaime there, it would only make things worse than they already were. He came and went as he pleased and she was always there waiting for a time where she would need to leave the Capitol again. The time would come and she would be ready, whether it was tomorrow, next moon or in the new year.

The further away he was, the easier it would be for her to leave.

"Magnificent."

"Mm-hmm."

"Looks fresh-forged."

"It is.

"No one's made a Valyarian steel sword since the Doom of Valyria."

"There are three living smiths who know how to rework Valyrian steel. The finest of them was in Volantis. He came here to King's Landing at my invitation."

"Where did you get so much Valyrian steel?"

"From someone who no longer needed it. I had only wished your wife had given up that ridiculous Stormbreaker. No one needs such a monstrous war hammer. I had heard that the edge of the blade is Valyrian steel."

Vesara was adamant that the war hammer was not in her possession, that no one had seen it after it was used to slay Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident. She insisted that was still the case despite Tywin's ongoing inquiries.

"You've wanted one of these in the family for a long time."

"And now we have two. The original weapon was absurdly. Plenty of steel for two swords."

"Well, thank you. It's glorious."

"You'll have to break it in for Durrandon, after you've trained your left hand. Any decent swordsman knows how to use both hands. You'll never be as good." As usual, his father wasn't one to spare any feelings.

"No. But as long as I'm better than everyone else, I suppose it doesn't matter."

"You can't serve in the Kingsguard with one hand."

"Where's that written? You can't serve in the Kingsguard with a wife either and yet… I can and I will. The Kingsguard oath is for life. The King can change the rules, they're his rules after all."

"Robert had you released and yet you are in denial and continue wearing that wretched white cloak. The war is over. The King is safe." Tywin was insistent that the matter was closed. Of course it was all just a ploy to have Jaime completely stripped of his role in King's Landing that way he would be rid of his son and of Vesara. He would also conveniently be rid of Cesrei's insistent nagging.

"The King is never safe. How many people in this city alone would love to see his head on a pike?"

"Other knights protected the King while you were a prisoner. They will continue to do so when you go home." There it was.

"Home?"

"You'll return to Casterly Rock and rule in my stead, unless of course you'd prefer Storm's End. It won't be long before it is secured under our family and Durrandon will need his father to hold his seat. To hold both his seats."

Jaime pressed his lips together. Neither place was suitable for him. The bannermen in Storm's End were difficult enough for their liege lord let alone for an outsider and Casterly Rock, well, they were both away from Cersei. "You are the Lord of Casterly Rock, a castellan appointed by Vesara will hold Storm's End."

"I am the King's Hand. My place is here and I don't expect to see the Rock again before I die."

"You know what they call me?" Jaime's blood was starting to boil. He had always been calm in the face of everything but reminders of his transgressions always irked him more than anything else. "Kingslayer. Oathbreaker. Man without honour. You've already asked me to break my vows by marrying Vesara…"

Tywin cut him off. "You know that marrying Vesara was necessary to safeguard our family's position. My eldest grandson is a vicious idiot, your sister has never had favour with the people and with recent events the distaste for her is growing despite Vesara taking her place. I knew a time would come when they would call for a new regent, I never expected Joffrey to very well approve her appointment. The closer she is to that throne, the greater the challenge to her half-brother's position for the throne. I am tired of cleaning up this family's mess and yet I find myself having to do it again."

"For now she needs to be out of the way and when necessary… permanently." He finished.

"By getting rid of Vesara you… you want me to break another sacred vow. Send her to the Rock on her own if you fear the girl that much, or even better, eliminate her like you do to all the rest."

He didn't mean it. He didn't mean to use Vesara's life as an option but perhaps it was the best solution to all of their problems. He already had an heir, what else was she needed for now? If he had solved their problem when she was a child then this conversation would never have happened.

He would have been free to love Cersei in secret for the rest of their lives.

"To secure everything we need a Baratheon! You haven't broken anything, as you said the King gets to decide. There is a precedent to relieve a Kingsguard of his duties. The King has exercised that prerogative."

"No."

"No?"

"No. I've already given you what you wanted."

"I don't believe I asked you a question."

"There's my answer."

"If you think your bloody honour comes before…"

"My bloody honour is beyond repair, and you are a fool to have thought that marrying me off to Robert's daughter would help to change that. My answer is still no. I don't want Casterly Rock or Storm's End." Whenever he said that he was without honour aloud he believed a little more and one day he would believe without a doubt.

"If I do recall you didn't want a wife, you didn't want children and yet… the life that you have known is no more… What do you want?"

"Supper would be nice."

"For 40 years I've tried to teach you. If you haven't learned by now, you never will. Luckily I have your son. I'll do better this time around. Go."

For the short time that Jaime had been back in King's Landing he had grown tired of his father's harping on about what he was doing wrong and what he wanted was needed for him to fix perceived wrongs.

He wasn't having any of it.

Jaime refused to do what others commanded. He had lost enough, he had lost a hand and he would not continue to lose things that were not on his own terms.

For once he would be in control.

He had never been one for playing the role of a glorified septa, but in essence that was what he felt like some days. His sole task had been to mind Durrandon and teach him the things that all young boys should be taught. A job that shouldn't have been his, it should have been Jaime Lannister's.

It was better for all of them if Tallon took the boy under his tutelage. What could a boy learn from a one-handed knight well past his prime.

If he'd known better he would have thought that Jaime envied the time that Tallon was permitted to spend at the side of his son. Everyone was permitted more time with Durrandon than Jaime. He knew that if he had been in his shoes he would have felt like a worthless father.

Jaime still saw fit to remind Tallon of his place at every opportunity.

Tallon saw the likelihood of the one-handed lion's threat to his position as nil. He and the old lion had both done more for the boy than his father ever had and he would see that it would continue that way.

Durrandon was a simple enough task, true difficulty lay with Vesara. Although Durrandon had become curious about the man that had suddenly appeared in his life, the man he knew to be his father by name.

He noted that she became emotionally erratic, more so than he was accustomed to. She wished to spend more and more time in unusual areas of the Keep and often without company.

At first he had credited it to her miscarriage, but as he thought on it, he was certain that any emotion that she showed had not reflected the sadness or disappointment that he had expected.

Instead he could swear he saw guilt and remorse.

She barely slept, she barely ate and she barely spoke.

As every day passed he hoped that she was slowly returning to normal rather than the alternative.

With every passing day she became better at disguising whatever had weakened her so. He had known her long enough to see the difference.

The Vesara he had known, had grown alongside, had always been genuinely strong, brave and filled to the brim with fury that is after Stannis forced it to surface. But this Vesara pretended she was strong, she patched up every crack in her mask with whatever she could get her hands on. This girl was bitter.

No matter how hard he tried she wouldn't speak to him. She had become well versed at shaking off any questions he directed at her. As of late he barely saw her talk to anyone but Lord Tywin and Lord Tyrion, of course with the exception of her court duties.

She felt lost to him.

She was lost to herself.

A gentle tug at the hem of his breaches reminded him of the task at hand.

"Yes my little lord?" The boy beamed up at him.

"Pa… papa… we go now?" he drawled. As he spoke his face was firm and serious, concentrating on what little he had to say and as soon as he finished a smile spread from ear to ear followed by a chuckle.

"Tallon… Tallon remember?" He repeated slowly and clearly so that Durrandon could repeat after him. Over the last month he had taken to copying what he could from what others had said as he attempted to string sentences together.

"No… I'm Durrandon." He shook his head furiously before laughing once more.

It had been some time since he had seen Durrandon in such spirits, but as Vesara began to pick herself up so had her young boy.

Perhaps some of it was attributed to the lack of time they now spent together. Vesara had become rather accustomed to spending her time in isolation, away from Durrandon, away from him, away from anyone that would question her behaviour.

When she emerged from her sporadic isolation he would see how thin she had become, how pale she had become.

He saw her on the far side of the garden and so had Durrandon. Before he had time to grasp the little lordling as he moved as fast as his legs would carry him towards his mother.

It had been a long time since she looked as regal and proud as she did. Her long dark hair was pulled back tightly by a cluster of gold wire shaped like antlers, away from her face cascading down her backside. The only thing framing her slightly sullen cheeks were large elaborate chandelier earrings, drowning in rubies and pearls sinking to her bare collarbones.

She didn't exactly smile as they approached, it was more like an action where her face tightened and revealed some of her teeth, never rising past her lips.

This was who she had become now and he couldn't help but feel as if he were failing Monterys. That he was failing Vesara.