JAIME

"Aerys stop.. please…you are hurting me", screamed the Queen Rhaella in pain while Jaime Lannister went through an intense internal conflict, hearing the woeful shrieks day in, day out, seeing the bruises on the Queen's body thenext day almost made him plunge his swordinto the man he was sworn to protect. Even now, hishand was constantly shaking, hesitating between clutchingthe hilt of his fine sword, rage swirling through his mind. He had no place here, he did not sign up for this, he didn'twant to be here. All he wanted to be was to be withCersei, they had made this half-assed plan of himjoiningthe kingsguard and her becoming Queen sothatthey'll always be together…he had been stupid, therewere no gentle consoling words to explain his predicamentbut to keep on regretting. Oh had been soexcited the day he had joined the Order, his earlier dayswererepletewith his joy at training with living legends like SerGerold Hightower, Ser Oswell Whent, Barristan Selmy, Jonothor Darry, Lewyn Martell and most importantlythe man he looked up most to, or had, Ser Arthur Dayne. All that excitement had mellowed soon after he saw his first burning, no thanks to the Mad King. It had been a couple of lowborn kids who had stolena block of cheese from the kitchen. A simple whipping could've solved the matter, if not that then losingone hand at the most, but never had he expected themto be doused with wildfire and casualty burnt like roasting a chicken. The screams remained withhim till today, it was inhuman and monstrous, there wereno other mellower words to describe it. Yet anotheranguished scream of the Queen sent a shudderthroughout his body, all he wanted was to stormthrough the door and plunge his longsword intoAerys, take a dark delight in seeing the light disappearfrom his eyes. He couldn't do so though, the woe he'llbring on his loved ones would be immense.

"You alright Lannister?", asked Ser Jonothor, whowas sharing duty with him.

Jaime looked at him and gave a brief nod beforestaring back into the nothingness again. He gave nota shit about Darry anymore, he was a coward, all of them were, the Order of the Kingsguard was so glorified in the tales but it was nothing more than seven goons following and protecting a mad man.Goons might have been harsh, but for all their'chivalry' and skill at arms, they were almostinsensitive to the things the king did to his subjects. Chivalry meant for nothing if Darry wasn't willing tocare a whit about the woe the king brought on thepeople around him.

A man in the same armour as them came towardsthem just then, it was Barristan Selmy.

"Sers Lannister and Darry, it's mine and Ser Lewyn'stime to share duty now, Ser Darry is to take light patrol for the night while Ser Lannister will have guard duty with Prince Viserys before resting."

With a nod towards Selmy, Jaime and Darry wentthrough the corrider to their respective dutiesalthough just before Jaime turned in the direction ofthe Prince's room he felt Darry put a firm hand on hisshoulder, he turned to hear Darry speak, " You seemedvery troubled there Lannister, your hand was gripping the sword rather tightly than usual, are you alright?"

"It was the Queen Rhaella…and the King, I-I just couldn't sit still through it, h-how do you-"

Ser Jonothor interrupted, "Our duty is to guard theKing, not judge him." He had a fierce glint to his eye, almost fanatical. "Remember your oath well SerJaime, didn't Ser Gerold make that clear to you, theday the boys burned for their crimes?", He gave asqueeze to Jaime's shoulder befor going off to patrolduty. Darry was always a little bit too fanatical.

As he went towards the Prince's room, he wassurprised to see the boy standing outside his door, arms folded and looking up at him with a furious determination. Curious. The little slip of a boy hadn't shown any such signs till yesterday.

"My Prince, you must not be out at this hour, it time to sle-"

"I have been waiting for you for a long time Lannister', the Prince boomed, which was just souncharacteristic for him,'Come on, we have some work to do."

He decided to humour the brat, "Right…and what is-"

"The dungeons man!..we have some business there, release a couple of wolves and stir up the game, hehehe!"

At his puzzled look the brat groaned, "The Starks, Kingslay- oh wait that hasn't happened yet..yeah, right back to topic! We are going to the dungeons andrealising Lord Rickard and his son."

"…What..", Jaime was simply lost of words, of all the days he wanted to deal with thus madness he had hoped it not to be today." And why do you think I am going to entertain your wishes."

The brat seemed annoyed, "I swear Lannister, if you don't come along with me I'll reveal your oh-so sweet relationship with Cersei to anyone whopasses by…"

Now that stiffened him suddenly, how in the seven hells did this brat know that. Perhaps he should just kill the brat off, look at him all high and mighty as grinning at him as if he had stuck gold eventhough he himself was born of such a relationship.

"How-, no I-I don't know what you are talking about my Prince, perhaps I should just bring the Maester here and see to some dreamwine, you do seemto be having some really ludicrous dreams huh-", the annoying shit had interrupted him yet again.

"Look lannister we can either keep arguing here for the rest of the night or you come along with meand prevent another stupid war from happening, don't pretend as if you have not a care about what could happen tomorrow with Lord Rickard and his son, itcould lead to war never seen before and I am merelytrying to prevent it. So you can stand there guarding an empty room or you can come along with me and prevent a war from happening."

(A FEW MINUTES LATER)

Jaime Lannister could safely say thatagreeing to the Prince's mad idea was perhaps the worstdecisionof his life, and he had made a lot of then, they were apile long and this one was right on top of it.

As he wiped the sweat on his face and the blood of a score of goalers and guardsmen from his sword, thelittle shit came swaggering in casually steping over the other bodies, and heading to the head gaoler, "Ah, here are the keys." He stood up again an looked around gapingly before looking at Jaime with a wide grin, "My word Kingsl-Ser Jaime! 1 against 20, huh,you really are the swashbuckling badass they made you out to be in the show, just..Respect, man!" He said and held up both of his hands in a peculiar gesturebefore grinning again. "Right..with that done we moveon to finding the Stark's cells.."

On so they went through the dark passagewayignoring the occasional strange shreiks, beforefinally coming upon Rickard Stark's cell,the man seemed somewhat weakened from the giant burly northman that had come to the capital days ago, for thatweakness, his eyes still had strength in them and his demeanour was resolute. He looked obviously surprised to see the two of them in front of him.

"Your Grace", uttered Lord Stark, his throat rasping painfully.

"At ease my Lord, at ease", the young prince said.

"Your grace, what is a child like you doing out here down below, tis not a place for children."

"No it isn't", said the brat. "But circumstances often force a child to mature"

"Circumstances like?"

At this the brat let slip a short laugh, "Circumstances like freeing you of course."

Lord Stark took a lot of convincing, obviously, but heeventually relented. Viserys then handed the keys toBrandon Stark's cell in his hands, "Go on free him too."

As Jaime went about the task, a painful thought kept screaming woefully in his mind.

He so did not sign up for this!

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