Robert
Being king had its moments that were exciting but those were few and far between and the luxurious lifestyle made life easy. But it also made him bored and lazy. It had made him unhappy and lonely. Becoming king had cost him his closet friend and the woman he loved and whom he had imagined sharing this life with. It was also tiring because he knew most was only around for whatever they wanted from him and would stab him quicker than he could turn around if he let them. But he also knew that he wasn't well liked and that he was too much sometimes but how else was he to fill this gaping hole that once held his heart.
He married that bitch only because Lyanna wasn't alive, and he needed the western lands and their gold to fix the kingdom according to the man who had always been there and treated him like a son and lead him through the war and now as the king. He wasn't clueless and knew she had no love for him only the position and that she had come in and with her father influence had taken over. So very much he wishes he could go back and change everything.
"My King, are you well this morn? You seem more lost in thought than normal." His hand asked him, and he looked at the man and saw just how tired and old he was looking now days making his stomach clinch in fear at the thought of trying to do all of this alone.
"Wishes and would haves on the mind. News?" I asked the one man whom I have always looked up to and who I knew I could trust.
"It is never too late my king to make those wishes and would haves happen. A stagnate man is an easy target and leads to misdirection my king." Jon said and then handed the letter over from Ned to Robert.
"His captain of guards delivered this not an hour ago. He also wrote to me of a personal manner and urge me to be cautious and that he must speak with us and will be here after a trip to the wall and north of it. He worries of his reception here because of how things have been left between you two." Jon explained and watched as I unrolled the scroll and found another with a seal on it that I broke and unrolled. Bringing it closer to the light I began to read words from my oldest friend who I had not spoken to nor seen in more years than should have passed.
My King, I send tidings and bid your time. I would like to visit you at Storms End. There are matters we must address alone between us of the kingdom. I know that we left things in a horrible place, and it never was addressed with the passing of my sister. I know that wound was deep for the both of us. If you wish to not see me, send word with my man, he will know where I will be and tell me. I hope we still have some trust between us and some ability to heal old wounds. Your loyal man Eddard.
"Why now? So much time has passed and why would he fear coming" I asked wondering just how badly our friendship was ruined as I reread the letter and tried to understand more than what was written in it.
"My Lady wife has said nothing of her sister of late. The two have written often but as of late nothing, but their relationship has always been contentious. She commented just last week of the lack of communication from her, but I got the feeling that it was more in relief than worry. Do you think something is wrong? Maybe this is the opening you need to make things right with him. The two of you were always closer than brothers" Jon asked worry tinting his words as he thought of the other son of his heart. He had known that he was angry and lost after the war and had many times reached out and was met with short answers and then nothing after a while. Why now indeed did he want to make amends. Something was in the air with his boys, and he wondered if it was a good or bad thing. He always believed together they would make this kingdom great, but it got so messed up in the end due to the Lannister and the death of the only woman that could have tamed Robert and who would have demanded his best always.
"Tell his man that Ned is always welcomed here, and I look forward to talking to him after so many years. Maybe even hunting together." I said feeling excited to see my long-lost friend again and reconnect. Maybe we could become close again because I had been very lonely over the last few years and wondered about the timing when I was so disconnected the last few weeks.
"I would like to speak on another matter, Ten and five years ago when we ended the war, and I took over we had big dreams did we not?" I asked after sitting a wine glass down after finishing it. I drank too much, but it was the only thing I enjoyed anymore, that and food as even fucking was getting harder as I had to be drunker and drunker as the years have passed. I had more bastards than I knew what to do with and I love each more than my true born children. What did that say about who I had become. But it was too hard to connect with children whose mother went out of her way to keep apart from me and who I had to go through to begin with.
"How did I get to this point, fat and a drunk?" I wondered out loud standing and moving to look out the window of his hands solar.
"What do you want Robert? It is never too late to stop the direction you are going if that is truly what you wish. Yes, we had big plans, but plans that was made in back rooms and with dreams of old dead men." Jon Arryn asked as if he was talking to that young boy who had just gotten caught doing something wrong.
"Fuck if I know, what can I even change?" I Exclaimed in frustration and then turned from him looking back out of the window and frowned as I could see many millings around in the city below.
"Robert, as your friend I am worried what has brought this on. Talk to me son?" Jon asked and stood and walked closer to the man and rested his hand on his shoulder and felt the deep sigh before he watched the man turn once again.
"Don't mind me, I am just woolgathering. Tell me where is the family today? What is planned for this stormy day?" I asked and Jon watched the mask fall back over the man and knew he would get nothing else from him now.
"The women are in the morning room stitching, Prince Joffry is being drilled in the yard and your youngest son is in the library reading about the history of the Storm Lands. The small council is meeting in the hour to discuss the issues of the kingdom and you are due to hear from the Storm lords after we break our fast." Jon explained.
"Push that all back I am going for a ride and a hunt. I want only the barest Stormlands guards and that is all. I need some time alone." I tell him making up my mind on being alone to think and Jon nodded before sending in the maid to help Robert get ready for the day.
It was getting dark and the storm that had threatened just off the coast had finally moved ashore. Robert was riding his massive horse that he had gotten from a house in the Vale. They had been well known for their horses and he liked this stallion allot as it held him and still moved quickly. He had killed a stag and two large bores that he had commanded to be given to the small people of the Storm hold. He knew his lady wife would complain about it all from him being gone to giving away his spoils but for him it was more about peace and quiet and less about bringing in the food; that was someone else job in the hold anyways.
"My King watch out!" He heard and turned just as his horse spooked due to the large bolt of lightning that had hit a tree off to the left and rattled their bones as the tree split falling towards him. He knew he was going to be hit and did his best to block the worst of the blow but still felt himself falling and then nothing.
"So, this is the storm lord, our supposed savor; the puppet king" A voice said as he slowly opened his eyes ready to remind that person, he was a king and as such better mind his tongue. That died on his lips as he looked around taking in the sight of what could only be an ancestor of his as they looked very much alike.
"I had a good run, always figured I would die on the battlefield not by a damn tree branch." I said watching the man glare at me in a way that made me feel like a small boy once again that Jon was punishing for some mischief that I had gotten up to.
"Don't be so damn stupid boy, you are not dead yet even though you are doing your damn best to make it so. Listen up we have allot to discuss and change about your boy or this world as we know it will be lost. It needs a true leader, and you are far from it. Letting some bitch and her father use you as a mouthpiece. When did you lose your balls?" the voice said, and I glared at him but knew there was not much I could defend as much of what was said was true.
"Why in the seven hells am I being chosen for this role?" I asked what I assumed was an ancestor in front of me.
"Because it was argued that we cannot expect just your friend to save the world alone. He would never be able to convince you or the others of what needs to be done, and even though you are one of the most selfish creatures alive you and him are brother by all, but blood and you are in the position to save the known world and all of mankind. It will be with your help that the prince that was promised and his wife who holds the key ends the Night King and his evil for good and brings about the age of hope. You do not want the position and it was never yours to be had. You were simply holding it for the true king to become of age." The man said and in the moment a weight seemed to lift from my shoulders, and I really thought about the word being said and had to agree. I was great at war, great at leading, but a shitty king and I didn't want my children to know the stress and lack of true friendships because of a bloody throne. Their lives always being dominated by intrigue and deception.
Over what felt like a lifetime Robert trained in the histories of the kingdoms from the Dawn of ages to the present, old forgotten languages of the groups that had settled what was now Westeros, tested on his decision skills and taught how to be the leader he had always thought he would have been but failed when he lost his soul and heart. It then came to his family and what he saw made him sick watching as he was used as the mouthpiece while his wife and her brother slept together producing the children, he believed to be his and being led by the balls into weaking the kingdoms in ways he was not sure he could recover it from.
Then he watched as what the first ancestor told him was the original timeline supposed to start in just mere months. He watched as those around him played the game of thrones and plotted with others to take the kingdoms from him. As he wife and her father plotted to gain more and more control in the kingdoms and how the man was behind the scenes king as he had lost himself even more into the drink and depression that grasped him. He watched as Jon was murdered and his wife write to her sister from the promptings of Baelish. Her went north and seen his only friend and person he could trust and in doing so got him and his family murdered. He watched his wife and son murder his friend, brother in all but blood and all his true born children but one a boy, Gendry, the world go to shit, and war start; then something of a monster from the north bring the walking dead to end those who had survived the wars. The price was so high and only was it for Ned's children and a Targaryen were there anyone left alive to rebuild. Ned's Arya was everything he believed his love would have been given time to become it. He wished his daughter, the only one who was legitimate, would become more like her. She was to cowed by her mother and brother but he would see that changed.
He needed to correct his mistakes and he needed to do it today. He had so little time to save all those he loved and a kingdom that was full of vipers. He knew what he needed to do now as with help from his ancestors and the old gods he had a plan of action that would best save the most people and pull all the seven kingdoms together tighter under the one who was meant to be king.
"Send your daughter north with your other bastards. Make them legitimate to secure your line and house and train them all to lead like a true storm lord. Get your brothers to do their duty and secure their lines. We have also granted you the one wish you truly have need of. Time with Lyanna to get closer and to understand what you must do." The voice of the old gods said. It was like many talking at once but also a single voice in the air that he heard and felt all the way to his bones.
"Robert?" He heard her voice that he had forgotten over the years, and it nearly broke him at that realization.
"Lya, gods your still as beautiful as I remembered you being. I am so sorry I failed to save you. That I was not quicker ending that bastard." I said as she let me embrace her and rubbed soothing circles into my back as I cried into her neck.
"Robert in the next life we will have our time, but you must save the kingdom and our loved ones first. I am sorry I ran from you and our future. It was never you Robert it was me, I wasn't ready and wanted adventure and the only way I saw I could have that was to flee with the one person offering that to me. I didn't see him as the mess that he was. It took me dying to see that while the adventure would never be the stories of warrior queens, you would have never held me back like I believed. I was unfair to you by not giving you that chance to prove to me you could be all that you said you would. I was scared you would never stay true to just me and love me for me and not what you and so many wanted me to be. I am so very sorry at how my actions and childish behavior caused so much pain and grief to so many." She tells him as they sit next to each other, and she held his hand.
"I watched the memories of Arya, Ned's youngest girl, she is so very much like you and just as wild. She is what I dreamed our daughters would have been." I said sadly.
"You have a daughter you spend no time with, and bastards more than you can take care of. Tell me why you do this. This behavior is what scared me of you; never being able to be faithful to me and only me. You must change Robert and let my memory go or you will never be happy in this life and all I want is for you to find love and happiness." Lyanna said and I knew she was true and hated that I had become all she feared I would, and I wanted to say I would have been faithful to just her but even after we were betrothed, I had a bastard child in the Vale.
"I swear I will do better; I will become the man I knew I could be with you. To make you proud." I said meaning it and turning so she could see my eyes and know I meant what I said.
"Do not do it for me Rob, do it for your children. All of them. Stay true to yourself and make sure that you change the things that you can and fix what you can with my brothers help. Stop the evil from winning any ground Robert." She said and he nodded because war was something he could do and do it well.
"What did you die from? Ned just sent a letter that said you had passed, and he was taking your bones home. I never heard from him again, I never got to explain." I asked dreading the answer but needing to know in any case.
"I fear telling you the truth because it can cause so many issues and put the one person I died protecting in danger. Swear to me you will never hurt this person by your hand or another's. Swear it to me Robert on your love for me." She said knowing she was taking a huge chance, but it was one that was needed to heal old wounds and to protect her son should he ever be found out.
"I swear Lya. Your child will never be harmed by my hand or another. Why would you ever believe I would harm your child." I said standing up having put the pieces together because she would have only ever died for her child or family and since she was alone in her captivity it had to be the first. Put that together with the rumors of Ned having a bastard and him knowing his friend as he did it could only be her child.
"You laughed when Elia and her babes were presented to you, you were a part of their murders even if indirectly. I made Ned swear on our family honor to protect my son and raise him as his own. Those around you would have always made sure my son and myself would have been removed from the picture so that bitch could become queen. She is a horrible person and the way she treats your daughter when you are not around is enough, I wish for five minutes alone with her. What mother acts that way." Lyanna said her temper showing as she thought of what would have happened to her son and what is happening to Robert's daughter. She may have run from the responsibilities and duty of her station, but it was never because of Robert, well not completely, and she had truly cared for the man. She was just not ready to grow up and had believed he wasn't either and wouldn't have been faithful. Oh how misguided youths and young adults were.
"That moment has haunted my dreams and waking moments. I gave orders they were to be brought to me when found. We knew they had been held hostage in the Red Keep. When that bastard Jamie Lannister killed the Mad King, we assumed she was then safe, and I relaxed letting others send out the search parties. When they laid there at my feet bleeding their life blood out I snapped. All the innocents that had been killed or worse raped and tortured, those tiny babes were just nothing like I had seen before. I was a solider and I had seen men die but this was different Lya. These were babes, the girl was no older than Mya and I see her and just lost it. I truly didn't snap out of it for days and by then Ned was gone and the Lannister's were in charge and that hasn't changed. Those babes were so tiny Lya, just so very young. And Elia was as small as you but not nearly as tough. I had known her as a child; our mothers were friends and them visiting a few times. There are no words to explain how I was feeling." I tried to explain and took comfort in the hand on his back rubbing circles on it as he finally spoke of what he was feeling.
"You cannot change the past Rob; you can only make amends for your mistakes and pray for forgiveness for those that were hurt from your actions. Elia and her babes were not on you Robert those fall to the Lannister's and would have been the fate of me and my babe had we have lived, I fear. What about the two other Targaryen children. What will you do now that you know about my son being a third?" Lyanna asked curiously.
"Your boy is safe from me, and I will die holding your secret and his. If I can help set him up and protect him, I will, but it might be less attention if I leave Ned to it as he has done a great job to this point. None has even whispered differently that I have heard. The other two, I fear. The boy is as mad and his father was at a much younger age, and we cannot let him gain any kind of following, so we must contain him. The girl is a flip, do we let her be sold off once again and have her child as it seems she was very happy with her husband eventually or do we bring her home and contain her as well. Would people follow her and cause a war that we do not need right now and what danger does that put your son and my children in." I asked after promising her son would be safe.
"The boy must be contained or killed. He will never stop trying to start a new war for a chair that was never his. Even as a young boy his brother feared what kind of person he was becoming. He was subjected to, too much from his father. Watching that mad man treat his family and him the way he did. Rhaegar was very worried even for his own children around his brother. The girl I think you should bring home but keep it quiet, she deserves a chance at a good life not being sold to the highest bidder even if eventually she found love with him. There is a hold in the North that would need some repair, but it is in an out of the way place. Set it up for her with a household loyal to my brother. Let her learn the ways of the land and the true histories and then give her the choice to live a quiet life away from the crown or be exiled to that hold for her life. Let her have a family if she choices correctly but only to a family loyal who we can trust not to get bigger ideas. For all his faults and obsessions, we owe it to Rhaegar to give her a chance. I truly think in the beginning he had the right priorities. It was only after he went to the Isle of Faces that he lost sanity and put so much faith into a prophecy that things spiraled as they did. At first it was love between us and I do not say this to hurt you but for you to find understanding. He saw something there that freaked him out and he wanted to force to come about in a certain way that he claimed was even worse than his father and that it was the only option he had. I never got more from him. What did he say to you when you faced him?" She explained and then asked from me, and I sighed and the thought of the day I faced my cousin in the battlefield, and he waved off his guard and didn't fight as hard as he could have, should have. Now looking back, I see he wanted to be killed.
"He apologized for taking your love from me knowing how I felt for you and keeping you even after you begged to go back home, to contact your father or brother. He said it was his biggest regret in life his life was that he hurt both you and Elia. He said eventually we would understand but the prophecy had to come true, or all would be lost. I didn't understand then and I was so angry I didn't listen but looking back he didn't fight that hard and once he said his piece, he dropped his arms and let me hit him with all my might. It was almost like he was finally at piece with things knowing the end was near." I explained to her, and she let a few tears fall but nodded finding some closure hearing that he at least felt horrible for how he had done her.
"Renly would have been my first choice for Dany, but we all know how that went after you were killed. And why did you give him the Lord Paramount and Storms End over Stannis who was much more deserving of it?" Lya asked and Robert frowned thinking over her words and seeing the way she wanted things done and the logic behind it. He hated that the boy would have to be contained or killed but that was the way of it and an example would need to be made to stop other plots.
"I needed a strong leader for the Fleet and a base that would protect against those who would come against the crown. I did not see the betrayal until now and the slight that he would feel. He was very outspoken about the Lannister hold, and it was their idea to set up a fleet there in Dragonstone. Plus, I saw it as an award since there had not been a Lord there in what 300 or more years now. I really needed you to help me meddle my way through this mess." I said to her as I ran my large hands through my shaggy hair.
"No, you do not. You need to have faith in yourself like what I have in you. You were taught how to lead by one of the most honorable men we have all known and he is still your hand. Get the kingdom ready for war, a long cold one, that you must win. Focus on what you know needs to be done and listen to your heart for once not to others." She said and they both felt it; that their time was over and so he pulled her into a long hug and whispered his love for her as she faded from his grasp. It killed him and he hated it, but it was a little less and felt comfort in finally saying goodbye.
"You need to move on and be the storm lord that you were meant to be. When you wake start being that person and fix all the things you broke. Listen to your friend and trust and make amends with your brother, get rid of the vipers including Renley. You know what happens if you die. Be smart and lead your people. Put your house in order and go north." The old gods said and then he felt himself fall and then jerked awake.
Opening his eyes, he knew at once he was in the kings' chambers that had been set up for him here at Storms End. The storm outside was raging louder than he ever remembered them doing before and he wondered just how much time had passed. He was alone and he wasn't too unhappy about that. He set up and moved to get up checking his limbs and body over and finding that other than sore he didn't seem to be hurt.
"Pappa?" A sweet voice asked, and he turned his head so quickly to the side that it popped, and he held in a complaint because there in the chair next to his bed on the other side hidden in the dark was, he small daughter. He could not remember a single time when he had been alone with her or shown her much interest and that burned in his gut worse than bad food and drink every did.
"Come here sweetheart. Have you been here the whole time?" I asked my daughter who rushed to my side, and I looked down at her red eyes and nose and the way she was so shy. I could tell she was afraid that she had been caught doing something wrong or from being there with him.
"No, your grace, I came in after everyone was asleep." She replied with downcast eyes.
"None of that grace stuff, you're my daughter. Papa or father is fine always. You may come visit me anytime you like my little one. There are some things about to change around here and the first is our time together. I am so sorry Marcella that I have not been a good father to you and that I have been so distant from your raising. That will change right now I promise. Many other things are going to change as well and some might be scary, and you won't understand it all right away, just know that I do love you child and that you are always welcome by my side and in my rooms anytime you please." I tells my daughter who beams up at me and throws her little arms around me holding on tightly and I took pleasure in the first genuine touch in years and shed a tear at the first hug between my daughter and I that I remembered. Gods I had been a horrible father, so uncaring and inattentive.
"May I read in here in the afternoons where others cannot find me?" She asked and I was glad it would not take her long to be comfortable enough to want to be around me or close to me.
"Yes, you may as long as you sup with me in the evenings and tell me about what it is you are learning and reading about." He granted her and she nodded with the largest smile he had ever seen on her face, and he could see his mother in her in that moment.
"Good girl now let's get you off to bed, I have things that need to be done." I said lifting her up and carried her towards the door and she laid her head on my broad shoulder and was asleep before we made it down the corridor to where her rooms were.
As he went up a flight of stairs, he met a maid that he recognized as one from the Stormlands and who had been with his family since he was a young man.
"Can you make sure her rooms are warm enough in this weather and then get a couple of guards that are from Storm End only and send them here quickly." I said and she nodded rushing forward and opening the small princess room for the king and stoking the lit fires and added some wood before going to where she knew the Guards for storms end was staying having been all but kicked out of their role with the king's guard coming in and taking over.
ten guards showed in less than 20 minutes, in which time I had made it back to my rooms and dismissed the kings guard that I had slipped by minutes before because the bloody fool was asleep and didn't even stir when I had opened and closed the large wooden door. Had I not been holding Marcella I would have kicked the stool out from under the lazy sod and sent him away with a hit to the back of his head.
"You two and you two" I said pointing at two of the younger guards, "are to guard Marcella and Edric until further notice and if you need to rest make sure that the person you switch with is another one from the Storm lands. The rest of you are coming with me. It is time to find out just who my lovely wife is sleeping with while I am laying injured. You and You go and get Jon Arryn and Stannis and met me at my wife's quarters quickly."
"Your Grace, it is good to see you awake but should you not be resting yet?" Jon asked as he arrived just minutes behind Stannis and to a curious sight of one of the kings' guards standing at the door of the queens' rooms at sword point by two other guards and Robert and Stannis having a quiet intense conversation that ended as he walked up.
"No time. It is time to set my house and affairs in order and it starts with the Queen. Let's go." I gruffly said in resignation and without knocking opened the door to the queens' quarters and walked in crossing the sitting room to the bed chamber throwing the door open knowing what I would find but it didn't stop the anger that grabbed him. It wasn't just at the scene it was also at himself for having been a fool for the last ten and five years.
"Arrest both for treason and the Queen for infidelity and incest." Robert boomed and then turned and left ignoring the raging blond screaming behind him and berating the guards who dare to arrest her, the Queen. Oh, how he hated that position and title belonging to that banshee.
"I want them held in the cells and only our people always guarding them. I want the maesters to come in the morn and test all my children present in the castle. I want a meeting with the small council as well just after. Jon rest and then we will set out our path to the future and how to deal with this mess we are now in. Stannis come on we need to have a very long overdue conversation." I barked out at the two and lead my brother who had always been faithful and loyal to me into my rooms and told the guards none were to bother us.
"Stannis, it has occurred to me that I have been very unfair to you since becoming king, hell since we were boys, and that what I have seen as an honor was indeed a slight to you. That was never my intention. I gave you Lord title and Dragonstone because I believed you had earned the right to it and because we needed a strong military leader in that area to protect the kingdom. You were the best with the most strategic mind, and I wanted to honor my brother. I didn't take into consideration that you had earned the right to Storms End first and far most and it was your right of succession to take over as head and the title of Lord Paramount as well of the storm lands. I have been weak, and I have let the Lannister ilk come in and take over from the beginning and turned the other way when I should have known better. I admit that and I am sorry for my actions. I am not sure how to make it right accept to turn Storms End over to you and reaffirm the line of secession." I told my very stunned brother while watching him absorb the information and then process it.
"Your serious? Why now and what about Renley?" Stannis asked and while he had assumed that was what Robert's reasoning was, he had always felt slighted by it.
"I am very serious, and it is what you deserve. Renley will have to understand and besides he is seldom here in Storms End, he has left it up to Castellan Michel to run and we both know the old man should have been dead years ago. Our lands are suffering for it, and I know you will do better. Yes, we need a strong military leader and I have no intention of taking Master of ships from you if you think you can handle both. Your sweet girl deserves to know our ancestorial home as well. This will be hers one of these days after all." I went on to explain wishing for something to drink but if I started, I was worried I wouldn't be able to quit and think clearly and the gods had given me a mission and a second chance at a path forward. I just had to do this for my children who were in danger from so many directions.
"Thank you, Robert. I am sorry that I let this anger come between us. Now what is going to happen now that the queen has been arrested?" Stannis asked.
"I need you to leave at once and collect my bastards. Some of them if not all will need to be legitimatized and protected from that bitch. Marcella will be the heir I am sure of it. I am not sure what to do about the boys. Tommen is a good boy, but Joffry is as mad and the mad king, it is slowly showing. Lannister is going to be a problem once his golden children are put to the sword so we will need a plan. We need to secure the children first and bring them here for now. I will write a letter for you to show the mothers. There is five in Kings Landing, one in the Vale, and then Edric here which I have assigned guards to already, and lastly a babe in the village. Once you are back, we sail for the North. I have business there." I told my brother who nodded and left the room leaving his brother with his thoughts. I sit in my chair and write first the letter to be shown to take possession of his children and if too young to bring their mothers with them. Then in the old language that only I could read, I began to lay out my thoughts. First, he had to take care of the small council, then start with the kingdoms first uniting them and then leading them. I needed to see where the kingdom laid. The Western lands were going to be tricky, and I would need to plot carefully to stop a war braking out.
By the time it was time to break his fast he had a good idea where and what he needed to do but was starting to feel the effects of no sleep the night before and the stiff and soreness of the fall he had taken. The maester came and checked him over informing him he had been out for two days, and they were not sure as to how he was awake now as it had looked like it was the end for him.
Waving the annoying man off he got to the business that was why the maesters were there. He had no doubt he would have died in the other timeline but in this one it was not his time yet.
"Children there has been some things come up and these good maesters are here to help clear up parentage. Your lady mother was caught having an affair with another last night and has been arrested for that. Because of this there can be no question as to whether I sired you." I told the children after they were brought to me including my two bastards, one no older than a babe and Edric who was nine summers and Marcella who was barely ten and three summers old.
Taking a dagger, they pulled it across the palm of the children making a small cut before doing the same to Robert. Each child dropped their pooled blood into a chalice and then Robert also on top. He had no idea how they were able to tell if they were related but this was what the gods had told him to do and so here, he was. It just took a while, so he studied his children and was again angry he had not seen it sooner. Joffry and Tommen was a Lannister dead out with fair golden hair and green eyes, but it was more the build and demeanor. Marcella had golden hair, but her eyes were of the darkest blue like his and she looked like his mother had. His mother had had golden hair as well, but most forget that as his was so dark. Edric was his son made over with the same build, coloring, hair, and eyes there was no disputing who had sired the boy and he was smart and swung a mean hammer already. Something neither of the other boys wanted to do. Lastly, was his youngest child a girl who was named Marisol and had his black hair and blue eyes. She was all of two years old and yet was very bright child.
"My Grace, the results are ready." The Maester said coming back into the room with a scribe to take detail notes on the matter at the kings beckoning.
"Very Well. What of my daughters? I demanded first resting a reassuring hand on Marcella's shaking shoulders and felt her small body tense. At ten and three summers old she was old enough to know that this was serious, but not all of the finer details.
"There is no doubt you sired them both." The maester said and Marcella turned and hugged her father letting her tears drop as she was worried; she would lose him.
"It is okay sweets, go with the guard to my quarters and read then tonight we will sup together, and you can tell me all about it. Do not worry about all of this." I told Marcella who nodded, and I watched her leave.
"What of Edric?" I moved on and asked getting the two bastards out of the room before moving on to the two I knew was not from my loins.
"He is yours also Mi Grace."
"Good, take these two to the nursery and keep them there until you hear from me, and I want a guard with each kid in the room and two outside it." I said after taking my daughter from the floor she had been sitting on and handing her off to a trusted caretaker who was waiting out of the room and who lead Edric by the hand as they left.
"Now to the other two boys." I said as I watched as the two boys came over to us and waited.
"Of course, we are your son's father, Mother would never betray you like you claim." Joffry said and I sighed knowing that in just a few seconds his world would be very different.
"Neither boy is yours my Grace. Your blood reacted very badly to each other's."
"Thank you now leave us." I told the men tiredly and waited till the door was closed behind them before turning and looking at the two boys. Poor Tommen was just 4 summers old and wasn't the most outgoing or quick witted of kids.
"I do not know what is going to happen to you right now, but rest assured you will be taken care of." I started but was cut off by Joffry.
"Bring them back in here now; they were wrong. I am your son; I am to be king. Bring them back now and cut out their tongues for lying to you right now." He demanded and I sighed having little patience for him right now.
"Please escort Joffry to his rooms and lock him in until I figure out what to do. Tommen, I know you do not understand what is happening and this isn't fair to you suffering for your parents' sins. Why don't you go along now with your nurse and have some milk and honey and rest." I told the boys and watched as one was pulled away and the other wondered away after his nurse.
"You are much calmer than I thought you would have been. Are you okay Robert?" Jon asked and I didn't know what to say or how to say it. I had what felt like a lifetime to get past the anger while learning the old ways from the old gods and my ancestors on how to be the king the realm needed and while I am madder than I had ever been; it was more at myself than that bitch.
"I am angry, seething mad, but a part of me knew and hadn't cared to look too hard at her because that required looking at myself as well and I wasn't ready for that. I have failed as a king and a leader. Give me a war I am good at that, but this was never truly me. But like it or not I have a responsibility to the people and this kingdom to get it into shape and going the way it should. Now let's deal with some other business and then we need to plan." I said as I poured a glass of honey milk for myself doing all I could do to not drink anything that would impair my thoughts.
