"Blacker than night was the heart of Maelys the Monstrous. The man who ate his twin in the womb, absorbing everything but his head, and killed his cousin Daemon, cursing him as a kinslayer. Barristan the Bold killed him and so died the male line of the Blackfyres."

-Excerpt from The Blackfyres: Aegon IV's Greatest Mistake

THE LORD OF WINTERFELL

"My son is getting married soon," Robert told him. Edward, the black haired one and the one Robert loved most, it seemed. "A Dornish wench from House Jordayne. Jon Arryn was the one who arranged it, you know. It will bring us closer to Dorne, he said. The same man who put Cersei Lannister in my bedchamber put a mad Dornish woman in my son's. Yet he seems happy."

Ned Stark had not been in Dorne for almost two decades. Promise me, Ned, promise me. Ever since he had torn down the Tower of Joy and brought back his sister's bones to rest beneath Winterfell. To be buried next to Brandon and father, as she wanted.

"How long as it been since you seen the lad?" Ned asked. The two were out near Winterfell, waiting to start the hunt. But Robert had wanted to catch up and out of earshot from Cersei and her brother. Tyrion Lannister had stopped briefly for one night before heading north with twenty men at his back. Jon Snow, Ned's bastard son, and Benjen, Ned's younger brother, would be departing within a sennight. To the Wall.

I don't want him to go, but Cat wants him gone and he wants to do something with his life.

"Three years Ned. Three years since I've seen my boy," Robert sighed. "Ever since that damn thing with Joffrey and Jon Arryn and Cersei banded together to beseech me to send him away. To Summerhall, that damn place where Rhaegar used to sing his sad songs. Raised by Lannisters like all my children. Tyrion, though the man is a lot smarter than his siblings, and now Kevan Lannister, Tywin's younger brother."

Ned remembered Kevan Lannister during the Sack of King's Landing. The man was an able commander, smart, and dutiful. But he was too subservient to Tywin Lannister. And Tywin had built Robert's reign on the bodies of murdered children.

"Why haven't you visited him?" Ned asked and Robert sighed again.

"The damn wife of mine. He needs to learn his lesson, she says. It's too early, she says. At least Varys sent the boy his bastard brother and Ser Cortnay Penrose so he's not surrounded by lions. And his standard pisses Cersei off, so there's that," Robert then gave a wild laugh. "When he sent the Small Council his standard, Cersei yelled at me. Me! You poisoned his mind, she accused me, even though I don't write to the boy, don't talk to him, nothing! She needs to blame Stannis. He was fostered there for almost five years."

Ned nodded, though he still wondered where Stannis was. The man was brooding on Dragonstone, Robert had told him, following the death of Jon Arryn. He should be here or in the capital, but he's not.

They had talked about Daenerys Targaryen before and they would not speak of her again. She was wedded and most likely bedded. She's of an age with Joffrey, a few years older than Sansa.

"At least he's forging his own path," Ned decided to say. "An independent lad, it seems."

"Independent. He's the lucky one. He doesn't have to deal with Cersei, the Small Council, the shittiness of King's Landing. I miss the Vale, the snow, the fresh air. Instead I get stink and shit," Robert muttered. "The Kingswood is a nice place to hunt, but nothing like here. Gods, I miss the days when I could fight all day and fuck all night. I was strong back then."

"And now you're fat," Eddard pointed out and Robert groaned. "Maybe you shouldn't be eating and drinking as much as you do and put yourself in the training yard."

"Watch yourself, Ned," Robert said half-threateningly. "You may be the Hand, but you're speaking to the king. But you're right. I am fat."

"Your sons aren't fat at least. Joffrey fights well, though I've heard he's more accustomed to a crossbow than a sword. And Tommen swings his sword well for a seven year old," Ned lied through his teeth, not wanting to give Robert even more grief. "And I've heard stories about your son, Edward. A solid swordsman, a capable rider, and a good lord."

"Don't lie to me about Joffrey and Tommen, Ned, it's beneath you. But Gods, Edward...he reminds me of both myself and Stannis, the Gods be good. He's too headstrong for his own good and he was raised by Tyrion Lannister and Stannis, but he's a decent Lord of the Marches if there ever was one," Robert praised his son. "Had Lord Bryce Caron rage at me for three years when I made Edward Lord of the Marches. Then he stopped complaining when Edward visited him."

"He sounds like a good man," Ned said. I wished he was the first born. Edward was by no means a special man, just a capable one, but seeing that Joffrey...was a bit off, he wondered... But alas, the boy is going to get married to a Dornish woman. He reminded himself of Ashara and her haunting violet eyes…

And she threw herself from the tower following her brother's death and her stillborn child.

"He's a good lad. I plan on inviting him back to the capital for his sixteenth nameday, which is in a few moons," Robert revealed. "He'll be wedded and bedded by that time, though I've heard that he's bedded that Dornish wench a few times already. Tywin is going to finance his marriage but I don't know where the lad is going to get married. Heard that Jordayne likes Oldtown for some reason, so he might get married at the Starry Sept. HAR! Wouldn't that be a sight, a Dornish girl and a Stormlands boy getting married in the Reach!"

Robert then took a bite out of an apple while Ned watched the riders around him. Ser Jaime and the queen were not present and there were only a few Baratheon men, lead by the Kingsguard knight Ser Arys Oakheart. There were Lannister men everywhere though, the red seeping in the white snow.

"Does Edward have a member of the Kingsguard with him?" Ned asked. "I've heard his sworn shield is a bastard from the Stormlands."

"No, he doesn't. I've wanted to send his uncle Jaime to the damn place, but again, Cersei insists. However, what she doesn't know is that I'm planning on sending Myrcella to Summerhall to visit her brother after we're done here," Robert smiled broadly. "I may be a terrible father, but even I know she misses him greatly."

A good plan. Myrcella was a sweet girl and he wouldn't have minded betrothing her to Bran, as the two were of an age.

"And I'm planning on fostering Tommen with Renly," Robert said, draining his goblet of wine. "I made a mistake with Joffrey by not sending him away to live away from his mother. I should have been more involved. I won't make the same mistake with my youngest."

Ned didn't know if that was a good plan. Renly was the Lord of Storm's End the Master of Laws, but he had heard rumors about him and Ser Loras. Too entrenched with the flowers.

"Why not send him to Stannis or Tywin?" Ned pondered and Robert groaned again.

"Tommen's a sweet lad. Sending him away to Tywin or Stannis will change him too much and I can't do that to my youngest son," Robert explained. "Edward's too headstrong to be changed even by Stannis and Joffrey...well the Gods know what Cersei what would have done if I had sent Joffrey away. Renly might be too soft but the man has a good head on his shoulders and he should do his nephew some good."

Robert wiped some of the wine dribbling down his beard with his elbow. "Enough talk about sons and fostering! Let's go hunt!"

Eddard nodded his agreement. The two would go hunting...but come back to terrible news.

Brandon Stark had fallen from the Broken Tower.

AN: A shorter chapter again. Haven't had much time to write so this will have to do. Thank you for all the support you guys have given this story!