Chapter 3: The Trial

The trial wasn't real, Jorah knew that it wasn't, and yet there was still a faint feeling of butterflies still fluttering around nervously in the pit of his stomach as he stood at the foot of the steps that led up to his Queen's throne. His eyes were trained on the ground in front of him, more preoccupied with looking at his boots than into her eyes. Jorah wanted to be standing up there in his place by her side, but the likelihood of him ever getting back there was beginning to look rather slim at best. To be judged by his Queen, who was also the woman that he loved, was a cruel thing and he knew that he would have to brace himself for the harsh words that she would have to say to him in front of the others to make it seem as real as it possibly could be.

"Ser Jorah." His Queen spoke and yet he couldn't bring himself to move or to look up at her, not just yet, in fear that the pain that he was still experiencing would worsen. "I exiled you and yet you came back to me, despite the threat that I had made on your life. Most men would have fled from the city and wouldn't even dare to look back out of fear for their lives. Tyrion Lannister has made it known to me the lengths that you have gone through to make it back to Meereen and I must admit that it is admirable. But I and the others in the court would like to hear these words from your own two lips."

Daenerys went silent for a moment as Jorah finally allowed his gaze to meet her own at the top of the steps. The room seemed to open up and become larger and more intimidating as he took everything in from his position, the position of a man that was there to beg for mercy, and he briefly wondered if everyone that ever visited her there in the pyramid must feel this way or if his case was a special one. For Jorah, this was a personal experience. He knew her better than anyone and he wondered if this made everything worse for him or if the pyramid was in fact designed in such a way to intimidate the strongest of me. "When you accepted me into your service, I made a vow to kill for you and to die for you if need be, my Queen. I intended to keep those vows to you."

"You also made a vow to obey me, did you not?"

"Aye, I did."

"And yet you came back even though I commanded you not to?"

Jorah didn't answer the question posed to him, not directly at least, because he didn't know how answer it other than to give her a slow nod in response to her question instead.

"And what do you have to say for yourself?" she asked in a calm tone.

"I am as flawed of a man as they come, I assure you, and I have made many mistakes, my Queen… many of which I am not proud of. But my biggest regret is not telling you what I had done sooner and that you had to find out by other mean..."

The exchange within the court kept going with Dany asking him some of the same questions that were similar to the ones that she had asked of him the night that she had brought him up from the dungeons beneath the great pyramid and for that he was thankful. The rest of the court could hear what he had to say now and all of them were listening to his every word. All of them knew him and his past and everything that he and the Queen had been through together and he only hoped that they would be as sympathetic towards him as Daenerys had been. Or had he expected too much? Had he deserved all of their anger and their rage for what he had done? In truth, he held enough anger for each of them towards himself for what had happened.

"If I decide to accept you back into my service, what is it that you ask from me?" she suddenly asked.

"I only wish to serve you in some way or another… in the manner of which I will serve you, it matters very little."

Daenerys went silent for only a moment, but then gave him a small nod and a smile before standing up from her throne and taking a few steps towards the edge of the landing that it was perched upon, causing her Unsullied guards to stand at the ready in case he would bring any harm to their Queen. Dany motioned for them to stand down and then her attention was drawn back down to his thin frame.

"Come here, my dear bear." Her voice was just as calm as it had ever been as she summoned him to come up the steps to meet her at the top. He hadn't been expecting her to call him that, not in front of everyone in the court at least. Nervously, Jorah climbed a few steps and looked up at her before climbing a few more. The steps felt as though they took an eternity to climb up and to reach her, but when he finally reached the top step, she reached out and wrapped both of her arms around his shoulders. "I missed you…" she told him before letting him go and taking a step back to look up at him. "Never leave my side again…" she whispered, only for him to hear and yet he doubted that he was the only one to have heard it. The room was in dead silence and all noises, even the faintest of them, had been able to echo off of all the stone walls, causing them to become louder than anyone had ever intended for them to be. Dany clutched at the sleeve of his shirt as she stood there looking up into his eyes. Eyes that were mixed with that same sadness and longing that had been present when she first laid eyes on him again out in the arena.

"You can come back to serve under me under the condition that you will never lie to me again and you will never keep anything from me again. I want you to tell me if you so much as get a tiny splinter beneath one of your fingernails… do you understand me?" she asked, to which Jorah only nodded again. "Good. If you ever dare to lie to me again, Jorah the Andal, you will wish that you hadn't. I won't go so easy on you the next time."

Jorah felt himself involuntarily swallow as he nervously watched her move to sit back down on her throne. "You are dismissed, for now, but after the tournament I wish to meet with you privately to discuss the manner of your return and how you will best come to serve me… you're free to come and go as you wish without a guard and you're no longer confined to your room."

"Thank you, my Queen." He said with a bow of his head and he hesitantly turned to walk back down the steps and to leave the room.

After court, Jorah left to go back to his room to sit at his desk as he winded down for the tournament the next day with a book there before him on the table. He had been given the freedom roam the great pyramid now and yet he still felt drawn to himself in his room as if it were some kind of protective shell from the outside world. He felt safest there with no one to run into or to talk to, knowing that everyone there was still wary of his presence there and he didn't feel the need to explain himself to anyone any further than he already had. He didn't want to hear any of their lies or to see their faces that would easily give them away.

A sudden knock at the door caused him to spring up from his seat, but before he could even make it over to the door to open it, Dany was already stepping inside of his room.

"Daenerys?" his voice was clearly full of surprise to see the young Queen coming into his room. It was something that she had never done before and he hadn't been expecting her to do it now that he was back. "Thank you-for the trial today. I appreciated the way that you handled all of it."

"Were you expecting something different?" she asked, clasping her hands together in front of her as she strode across the room to stand in front of him.

"No, I suppose not. But you didn't have to do what you did for me either."

"I know that I didn't have too… but I think that you earned a fair trial, don't you?" she asked with a genuine smile as she reached out to carefully take hold of his good hand that was free from any grey scale. "You have always been there for me and I think that a second chance is the least that I could do for you." The butterflies were back in his stomach now and they were becoming more and more relentless as he fought to keep them under control. Jorah's legs were starting to become wobbly and his heart was racing just from her closeness to his body and was beginning to wonder if she felt the same way that he did.

His Queen was just inches away from him, holding his hand, it would be so easy for him to just lean over and meet her lips in a kiss if he had wanted to. He so desperately wanted to press his lips against her own, to taste her, to pull her close and to hold her, but would she even allow him to? Would she want him to kiss her or would she hate him for doing it? Did he even really want to risk losing her trust again so soon just to find out? As his mind began to race with those questions, to his surprise, he didn't have to fight with his thoughts for much longer because she reached up with her free hand and placed it on the back of his head to pull him down into a kiss. Yet again he was hesitant at first to react to her touch, but he soon gave in and began to return her kiss against his better judgement.

Daenerys was a married woman now and in the back of his mind he knew that what they were doing was wrong and if they were caught then it would mean trouble for her rule there in Meereen, but how could he possibly resist the temptation of something that he had longed for, for so very long? After another moment, Daenerys parted her lips to allow him to deepen their kiss, if he would be so daring, and he allowed his tongue to slip inside of her mouth to begin to explore the inside. Her mouth was sweet and tasted of red wine and it only made him all the more eager to explore every last inch of her. Jorah let go of her hand and slid his arm around her waist to pull her closer to himself and he felt her fingers starting to go through his thinning hair as he held her close. How long their kiss lasted, Jorah could not say, but he was breathless by the time that she pulled away from him to rest her forehead against his own and began to gently caress his face as she looked up into his eyes with a smile.

"I love you." He muttered to her once again. "But are you certain that you want to be doing this?"

"Jorah…" she sighed as she pressed her lips against his once again. "I told you that I don't love Hizdahr, it is only a political marriage-"

"That may be so, but I don't want to cause any more trouble for you than I have already." He responded as he felt her fingers continuously moving through his hair. "If anyone in Meereen were to find out…"

Biting her lip, Dany brought her arms to rest them on his chest, just to allow him to hold her while they were standing there together. "I know my sweet bear… but what would you have me do?"

Jorah knew what the right thing was, he knew that he should tell her to go and to leave him there alone inside of his chambers to spare herself some trouble later on but he couldn't force those words to leave his mouth. "I-I can't… Daenerys. Because I cannot deny that I have wanted to be with you ever since I first saw you in Pentos… and I can't bring myself to say to you what I think the right thing to do is…" he shook his head. "I think that we both know…"

"No, Jorah. I will not allow politics or this cruel disease take you from me. I promise you that we will find a way…"