Three days passed, then another, and another. Yet Lord Tyrion did not come riding through the gates of King's Landing, and despite their lord father's words Sansa treated her with nothing but cool politeness when they crossed paths. At times it left Lyanna feeling as if King Joffery was the one who cared about her most in the Capitol and that was a frightening thought. Each day her loneliness seemed to reach a new height. She missed her old life.

Mere months earlier she had been in the North, thinking that the worst possible fate for her was an abusive husband or maybe even the life of a whore… at least then the only one she would have to worry about would have been herself, and she wouldn't have to fear for her siblings lives, or their hatred.

Since then she gained the favor of two kings, wed to the heir of wealthiest family in the seven kingdoms, and carried his seed within her. Yet all it had brought her was loneliness and worries. She really should have run into the northern woods and hid, perhaps then she could have found herself a nice man, a hunter, and they could have lived happily together in a small cabin close enough to the wall that seeing her twin would be almost as easy as it had in their childhood. Strangely enough the fantasy was a new one, never had she imagined such a life for herself… previously her more pleasant fantasies had involved a lesser lord, one with honor and heart. Now she didn't even want that, now she wanted simplicity. It was strange how dreams changed. The more she seemed to gain, the less she seemed to want.

But more than anything else she seemed to miss riding, and fighting. Since the news of her pregnancy she had not been allowed to do either, she wasn't even allowed to move around the keep or city without armed guards. For her safety, or so the Queen claimed. Lyanna suspected it had more to do with fear that she would try to run away with a Lannister in her belly.

With that thought in mind she looked down on her swelling midsection. It wasn't big; truly it was not. There was barely even a bump to indicate the child within. It wasn't a hindrance yet. Biting her lower lip she went on her small balcony, her rooms were only the third floor and the guards were stationed far enough away that they wouldn't notice her climbing down in the dark of the night. She may not know these walls as well as those of Winterfell, but they would be easy enough to climb. Her real problem would be getting a horse and getting out of the city unnoticed. She shook her head; it was too much work for a ride. Perhaps she could convince King Joffery to go riding with her, when it came to her he seemed to have little problem denying or defying his mother. He even seemed to relish in it. And the request was a small one, compared to the life of her father.

It was still with this resolve in mind that she woke up the next morning she went down to the dinning room to break fast with the royal family, instead of having it brought to her room. But as she entered the room her eyes landed on a crying Sansa and a queen who made fairly unconvincing attempts to console her. But as Sansa's eyes landed on Lyanna she all but tore out of her seat and launched herself at her, holding her so tightly that Lyanna had difficulties breathing.

As she looked around the room in confusion even King Joffery had difficulties meeting her eyes, and his younger siblings looked up at her with sad little faces. But as her eyes locked with the Queen she decided to answer the unspoken question with a surprisingly compassionate tone.

"It seems you have not yet heard." She began. "Your father was attacked on his way North."

"Was he hurt badly?" She asked concerned, her hand absently stroking Sansa's back, not sure what to make if it yet.

"They killed both him and his guards. I am sorry." Somehow her stokes on Sansa's back remained even and calm, but she was not aware of them as the news were whirling around her brain as it tried to make sense of it, find out who could have done it, and why.

It was Lannister guards that were guarding him, or rather transporting him to the wall. It would be easy for them to send others after them that would be welcomed as reinforcement only for them to kill the old guards and her father. But it made no sense, the queen had been adamant in her attempts to convince her son to have him take the Black. And Joffery… she looked at him and he looked worried. For what, she could not tell. But she didn't think he was responsible, he would just have beheaded him as he had first wanted. But at the moment she could not even begin to phantom who would want her father killed. He was taking the Black, he was removed from all politics, in fact as far as influence and politics were concerned he was as good a dead already. He was too honorable to go against his word, he would have taken the black, and he would have stayed on the wall. He was powerless. Unless…

No, his influence wasn't completely gone; his murder would matter. Someone wanted him dead, not to silence his accusations but for the effect it would have. There would be war. A real one. Not the small one the Lannisters, Lady Stark, her sister and Robb had been fighting in the Riverlands over Lord Tyrion. That little feud should be over. But this… he was dead, her father was dead, all because someone wanted a war. But who? Suddenly something else dawned on her.

"And what of my husband?" She asked, surprising herself by genuinely caring for the answer. She had not given him much though since he had been captured, a feat she still wondered how her brother succeeded in. After all she had been sure her brother would treat him fairly well, even as a prisoner, but with the death of their father…she wasn't so sure.

"After the news of Eddard Stark's death his escorts turned on him. He managed to escape and was intercepted by our men. He is on his way here."

True to the Queen's words, both Lord Jaime and Lord Tyrion returned to the Red Keep no more than a week later, a week during which Sansa had barely left her side, for while Lyanna doubted the Lannisters's and the King's involvement, she did not. And Lyanna feared that neither would her brother, or their father's wife.

"We should leave, run away. Like Arya." Sansa confided in her sister the evening before the Lannister lords return. "Before we become hostages." Lyanna almost laughed at her sister's naiveté. Not a happy laugh but one of disbelief. But she didn't.

"We are already hostages. Do you think our guards are for our safety? Do not be naive."

"But King Joffery-"

"Is mostly a figurehead. The Queen is the true regent, along with the hand when her father chooses one for the King. I would not be surprised if he asks my husband to take on the task. A Lannister rule."

"Oh… I just thought… never mind. What about the rumors? Do you think they are true?" Sansa surprised her by asking, and she knew which rumors she was talking about without them being voiced. The result of their father's claims.

"It doesn't matter one way or the other." Lyanna said. "Joffery is our King."

"I meant about Ser Jamie being his father. Could you still love him if he is?"

"I do not love Ser Jaime. But he has been kind to me, and I care not for his passed relations."

"She is his sister." Sansa reminded with an appalled expression, and Lyanna's thoughts wandered back to her last night in Winterfell, how close she had come to take Jon as her lover. It had been so easy, so familiar, so safe... she could easily understand if the Queen and Ser Jaime had fallen into the same trap. Perhaps she too had feared her intended's touch, as Lyanna had feared Ser Jaime's... and perhaps they really had become lovers... she couldn't fault them. She wasn't even sure if she would have regretted having been with Jon if he hadn't stopped it. But she couldn't tell Sansa that.

"Jon was my first kiss." She confessed instead, much to Sansa's astonishment. Lyanna almost laughed. "I never did more than kiss him. But it made sense back then, there is no one in this world that I love more than Jon, we are already one soul. And we are very close. I will never be as close to anyone else. But I don't love Jon like that. I don't think my husband and the Queen love each other like that either. Not really. They are just very close, and the Queen's children took after her, and only her, instead of her husband. That is no crime. But the ones who want the King to be illegitimate don't accept that and point at the one who look most like her. Her twin. There is no proof that the children are any one's but the late King's. Father acted rashly."

"You are defending them!" Sansa said disbelievingly. "Are you truly one of them already?"

"Our father was an honorable man. His mistake was believing others were as well. In this world it is not about what is true and what is false. It is about what you can prove, and how powerful you are. Father overestimated his power, his proof, and his allies. In the north he would have been believed and supported, but he had not built up a powerbase here in the Capitol. Not one that could rival the Queen and the Lannisters. So he lost."

"You think they killed him too then." Sansa guessed.

"No, I believed someone wanted us to think they did. Someone wants a war with the North. Perhaps so that they can attack from somewhere else and divide the King's forces."

"You mean like King Robert's brothers. They believe Father's claim."

"Yes, if it was true it would make them next in line. They want the throne. But it could also be the last Targaryen. She recently wed one of the horse lords to gain an army; it could be her making her first move here. Our father's death was a strategic move, I just don't know who did it. But I think the Lannisters are the ones to benefit the least from it."

"You didn't use to know anything about politics. You weren't interested."

"To survive one must adapt to ones surroundings, and like it or not we are in a political snake pit."

TBC…