Lord Tywin Lannister

The tourney of Lannisport had come to an end earlier that day, with the jousting finally completed and a winner declared. Prince Rhaegar Targaryen seventeen and new to knighthood had gone up against Ser Brandon Stark of the Kingsguard, and in what had been a very interesting and fascinating joust had broke fifteen lances against the white wolf only to manage to knock the White Wolf from his stirrups on the sixteenth tilt, earning the roars of the crowd and their cheers. Prince Rhaegar had crowned Tywin's own daughter Cersei Queen of Love and Beauty, Tywin found it interesting that the Prince who all knew had been very bookish as a child was suddenly so interested in weaponry and often found himself wondering what had caused the change in the boy.

However, just now was not the time to spend wondering about the intricacies of the heir to Summerhall. No, in just a few short hours Tywin and his wife and children would be heading to the Great Hall of Casterly Rock for the closing feast of the tourney, which if he did say so himself had been one of the biggest and best tourneys the seven kingdoms had seen in a very long time. Lords and knights and their retainers had come from all parts of the kingdoms, as had the King and the Royal Family. In fact Tywin had hoped that by the time the feast rolled around there would another reason to celebrate, for he had hoped that the king and his best friend Aegyl Targaryen would agree to a betrothal between Prince Aemon the heir to the throne and Tywin's own daughter Cersei. However, because of his daughter's foolishness and being caught in that foolishness the betrothal was no longer an option, and now Tywin meant to speak with her about it.

The door to his solar opened and in walked his wife and his daughter. Joanna seemed tense, whilst Cersei seemed scared. Just looking at his daughter, Tywin could feel the anger building up inside him. "Sit down Cersei." He said calmly.

"Father I," his daughter began.

"Sit down Cersei and do not speak until I ask you to." Tywin replied brusquely, his anger growing by the minute. Cersei sat down and then Tywin spoke once more. "Do you know why I have asked you here now, before the feast Cersei?"

"Is it because of the lies that Prince Aemon told you and the king father?" Cersei asked timidly.

Tywin felt his anger grow then. "Lies? You call the prince a liar when there was another witness to you folly?"

"Yes father!" Cersei said hotly. "Of course I do father, Ser Jonothor is nothing more than Prince Aemon's thug, of course he's going to agree with whatever rubbish the prince says."

"So explain to me where the girl is now then Cersei?" Tywin said his voice calm though his anger was growing.

At that Cersei began to stumble and fumble for words. "It wasn't my fault father. She was near the well and she fell in. I did not push her in father I swear, why would I? Melara was one of my friends."

Tywin merely looked at his daughter, "I do not care what happened to the girl nor whether you pushed her in to that godsforsaken well. No I care more about the fact that you were careless enough to be caught in the open doing whatever it was you were doing. Do you not see how badly you have damaged the family name now with your foolishness?"

"Father, I... I never meant do anything that would harm the family. I swear to you father!" Cersei said, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Tywin though was unconvinced his anger was growing by the second, whether because of the failure of the betrothal or because of the lies he was convinced his daughter was telling him he knew not. "I do not believe you Cersei. You have put our family name into disrepute with your foolish actions whatever they were. I had meant to ask the King that he accept your betrothal to Prince Aemon, but now the king will never agree to such a match, and if I am be quite frank I cannot blame him. If I were him, I would not wish to betroth my son and heir to a girl who could be so stupid as to get caught killing someone. You disappoint me Cersei, you are not a Reyne, you are meant to have more sense than that."

His daughter began mumbling then her words becoming choked behind her tears and her fear. "I... I hate you father!" she eventually screamed. "I want to be queen, but not to Aemon Targaryen! The boy is a liar and a cheat, and he is nowhere near as nice Prince Rhaegar. I want to marry Rhaegar and be his queen not stupid Prince Aemon's!"

At that Tywin lost his patience and stood up to his full height and walked towards Cersei towering over her, he yanked her to her feet and hit her square in the face with enough strength to leave a mark on her face and to cause some blood to run from her nose. "Enough!" he roared. "I will not have my children spew such nonsense, you have been raised better. Aemon Targaryen will be king one day not that idiot Rhaegar. It is time you grew up and stopped living in a dream Cersei. And never speak such treason again, or I will personally make you life hell."

"Tywin, enough." Joanna said suddenly pulling Cersei out of the iron grip he had had her in. "You have said your piece, enough now. Let Cersei go, we can deal with this all later on. I will see that Cersei is ready for the feast."

Tywin nodded and let his daughter leave the solar with her mother, and once the door closed he poured himself a glass of wine and sat down in the lord's chair and stared numbly at his desk. What had his daughter become, why had she done what she had done, gods above what would this do to his relationship with the king and the future king, was his family to be cursed with fools until he died?

A few hours later and Tywin found himself seated in the Great Hall at the High table along with the royal family and his own family. It seemed Joanna had done a good job at masking the bruise he had given Cersei, and though each time he looked at his daughter he felt some guilt at what he had done, he knew that she would never learn unless taught a sharp lesson, and hopefully that had been done now. The feast went rather well there was much cheering and toasting amongst the lords and ladies present, toasts were made, the King himself got up to toast their friendship and the friendship between the kingdoms. At the end of it all, Tywin found himself in his chambers in bed with his wife, the castle was relatively quiet now, the royal family would be departing tomorrow morning and Tywin would join them in a few days time. "It had to be done my love." Tywin said to break the silence, Joanna continued reading a letter from her brother as if she had not heard him. "What Cersei had done could damage the way our house is viewed. I will not see all my hard work put to ash because of the folly of a ten year old girl."

At that Joanna stops reading her letter and looks at him with a fierce glint in her eyes. "She is just a girl Tywin. Yes what she did was horrific, but you did not need to scare her so. She is terrified of you now, and she is terrified that you will leave her completely alone now."

Tywin was unmoved by that. "A bit of fear never hurt anyone. Cersei must learn to stop her childish fantasies, wanting to wed Rhaegar Targaryen will give her nothing, marrying Prince Aemon would give her everything she deserves."

"Prince Aemon is but a boy still Ty, there will be time enough for that to still happen. For now surely it is best that Cersei continue to enjoy her childhood and not live in constant fear." Joanna said reproachfully.

Tywin merely snorted but said nothing, and so when he left for the capital two days later joining up with the royal party on the Kingsroad, Jaime accompanying him the issue was still not resolved and Cersei remained confined to her rooms. It was business as usual when they returned to King's Landing, Jaime began squiring for Ser Arthur Dayne of the Kingsguard, Tywin himself continued helping to rule the kingdoms, and council business was peaceful and fairly mundane. Until one day a raven came from Duskendale and the whole can of worms that they had all thought closed opened up once more.

"Darklyn demands too much Your Grace. He once more does not specify what he wants from these demands. I say that we put him to the sword." Prince Aerys said.

Tywin heard his friend sigh in exasperation. "I cannot do that without just cause Aerys, otherwise half the realm would be in uproar. No I say we give no other choice to Darklyn, we tell him that he must come to court himself to make these demands, or we shall never consider his pleas ever again."

"That would be the wisest course of action except that Lord Darklyn has been holding back on the taxes he owes to the crown. Has been doing so for the past two moons, it seems that this letter is simply a ruse." Master of coin Ser Benjen Rykker said.

The King was silent for a long moment before asking. "How much do they owe the throne in taxes and incomes?"

Ser Benjen Rykker swallowed nervously. "600,000 dragons Your Grace. The trade being brought into Duskendale has increased significantly in recent times."

"600,000 dragons? And what are the Darklyns doing with this money?" Tywin asked then breaking his silence.

It was Victarion Greyjoy who spoke then. "Build ships my lord hand. My men have reported that some of their colleagues have been contracted to build galleys, with this money."

"And you gave them leave to do so?" Tywin asked incredulously.

"No my lord hand. These requests have been done under wraps, its only that Darklyn was foolish enough to get one of my men onto his ships as the lead builder." Greyjoy replied.

The king spoke then, his voice iron and commanding. "Pycelle send a raven to Duskendale, tell Lord Darklyn that unless he starts paying his taxes to the crown starting with the 600,000 dragons he owes the throne, he will never get whatever he wants from us. And we might even start taking hostages from him."

The raven was sent and for two moons they heard nothing from Duskendale and whenever the council met Ser Benjen Rykker would report that the amount owed to the crown continued to grow, and then one day Tywin was with the King discussing some matter of Dragonstone, when Pycelle came bustling in followed by Prince Aerys. "A letter from Duskendale Your Grace."

The king took the letter and read it once and then twice and then a third time before swearing out loud. "What has happened Your Grace?" Tywin asked carefully.

The king turned to him then a fire in his eyes. "The fools of Darklyn have taken Prince Aelix's son a hostage as he was making his way to the Riverlands. They are demanding a ransom for him and for the taxes to be ignored."

"You cannot let this stand Your Grace!" Aerys said heatedly. "You must reply with force, they will not yield otherwise."

The king looked at his cousin then and asked in a voice as cold as the ice on the wall. "And put our cousin's life in danger? I do not think that would be the smartest move cousin."

Aerys snorted then. "They would not dare harm him with a host at their front Your Grace. Give me the command if you don't want the command or the blood on your hands, and I will bring you Darklyn's head and see our cousin to safety."

The king was silent for a moment before he sighed. "Very well go, but do not do anything of force until I give you command to do so. Lords Rosby and Stokeworth and their men will go with you."

Prince Aerys set out with 1,000 men for Duskendale accompanied as well by Ser Harrold Grandison of the Kingsguard. There was no news from him about the state of affairs for some time, until about two moons after Aerys had left a raven came from Lord Darklyn, stating that Aerys had tried to storm the castle and as such had been captured, and that Ser Harold Grandison was dead slain by Ser Symon Hollard. Darklyn demand that if the King wished to see both his cousins safe and sound he would order his men to leave Duskendale and would grant the Darklyns a new charter and would ignore the outstanding debts that the crown was owed.

Another moon passed in which the council debated the best way to deal with the situation presented before them, the Darklyns had gone too far now all agreed by taking Aerys and Prince Aelix's son hostage. Though whether a military threat would be the best way to get them to surrender was being questioned, Aegyl had ordered Lord Rosby to continue laying siege to Duskendale, and Victarion Greyjoy had the royal fleet blocking ships coming and going from the town. Eventually the king decided that he would march on the city and teach the Darklyns what it meant to mess with the dragon, except this time he called the banners of the crownlands, and Lords Celtigar, Massey, Velaryon, Bar Emmon, Hardy, Hayford, Staunton and Thorne all came bringing with them a combined total of some 6,000 men. Aegyl and Tywin left for Duskendale two weeks later leaving the small council and two knights of the Kingsguard behind to defend the royal family.

As they camped outside Duskendale, battle plans were discussed. "An envoy has been sent to the walls of the town yes?" The king asked. "Good so now we must wait for them to accept the terms."

"What will we do if they do not accept the terms Your Grace?" Lord Aegon Celtigar asked.

Tywin saw his friend grimace. "Then we storm the walls and we put House Darklyn and their allies to the sword."

"Is that necessary Your Grace? Surely a peaceful settlement can be found with a sword at Denys Darklyn's throat or that of his whore of a wife?" Lord Bar Emmon asked.

Tywin saw the fire return to his friend's eyes then. "They hold two princes of the blood, and you wish to discuss peace with that man. No if the man is fool enough to refuse the terms. He and his will die, and they will die painfully."

There was a commotion outside the tent and then Ser Gerold Hightower walked in, his armour covered in mud and blood. "Your Grace, there has been word from Duskendale. The Darklyns have agreed to open the gates to talk terms."

Tywin saw the king smile then, though he himself felt nervous. "Very well then, my lords until next time. Tywin walk with me." The king was dressed in dark black armour, Tywin in dark red armour. Ser Gerold and Prince Aenar walked behind them protecting them both, they mounted their horses and rode close towards the gates of Duskendale. Waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

"Your Grace, I have a bad feeling of this." Tywin said.

"We hold a peace banner Ty, the man has agreed to discuss terms what is there to be nervous about." Aegyl said.

Tywin was about to reply, when the gates began to move, opening, he heard their whirring, and kept his attention on the sight of men mounted on horses as they became clearer in his vision. "Your Grace!" He heard Ser Gerold shout, before arrows were loosed from the walls of Duskendale, two managed to strike the king before they managed to get away. Tywin drew his sword and bellowed for the men to prepare for battle. Out of the gates of Duskendale came the armies of House Darklyn and Hollard, it had all been an elaborate trap.

Ser Barristan appeared by Tywin's side. "My lord hand what would you wish of me?"

Tywin looked at the man briefly and then said. "When this battle happens, you are to sneak into the town and get Prince Aerys and Prince Aenar out of the Dun Fort kill whoever you have to make sure it happens."

And with that the battle began, hacking and slashing, hacking and slashing, the men of Duskendale fought with reckless abandon clearly knowing that they would not last for long. Tywin bathed his sword in blood, and cut down more men then he probably had during Oxcross, still on and on it went until the last man was dead and the ground was littered with bodies. Ser Gerold rode up to him with Lord Denys Darklyn bound and gagged. "Where is the king?" Tywin asked.

Darklyn had the audacity to laugh. "Dead killed him myself. His uncle as well."

Tywin looked at the lord commander of the Kingsguard who was covered in blood the man nodded his head grief in his eyes. Tywin looked at Lord Darklyn and in a voice laced with poison said. "You and your house are at an end Darklyn. Your Treason will cost you everything."

And it did, on the last day of the eleventh month of the 276th year after Aegon's Landing, in punishment for his crimes and those of his bannermen, Lord Denys Darklyn, his wife and children and brothers and cousins and those of House Hollard were all executed for treason. The wealth of Duskendale was taken and brought back to King's Landing, and the Dun Fort was given to Ser Benjen Rykker who now became Lord Rykker. Prince Aerys and Prince Aenar were freed, but there was a bitter tinge to it all, for King Aegyl Targaryen was dead of his wounds at the age of only twenty seven. His son the boy Prince Aemon was now king, and more trouble would ensue.