Chapter 11 Cersei Lannister

This was madness! If that bastard thought, he could treat me like some commoner and get away with it; well then, he was even more of a drunken fool than what I had believed. "I am the bloody Queen for the Seven's sake. How dare he hold me in a dark cell like some poor subject, just wait until my father hears of this, I seethed out to myself. He would call his banner men and then we would truly be in control like we should have always been. I would be queen regent until my son comes of age and oh the things we could enjoy, the power our family would gain. So what I was having an affair, everyone knew he had many of them even fathering all the little bastards and somehow no matter my attempts so many survived, but now It was time to make sure none of them did throughout all of the seven kingdoms. Then I would make sure he knew about it just to show him who was in charge before he joined his beloved Lyanna" I thought darkly mumbling to myself in anger.

Hearing the door to the dungeon open I rose from the crappy bed that was supplied and went to the bars to see who was coming, it had better be that idiot with a long apology. I did not think It was supper time yet or maybe it was I could not be sure anymore I thought with a sigh in frustration. I was losing time as I laid here simmering in my anger.

"You idiot come release me right now, how dare you treat me this way, I am your wife and the Queen." I said when I recognized the fat slob that I called husband.

"You stand trial today, but we need to talk about your crimes first because I have some things that I want to say to you." Robert said watching me as I glared right back at him with so much rage that if my hands could fit around his neck, I would strangle him with them.

"What crimes? I did nothing you did not do. I was faithful until you were not?" I spat back at him and watched him sigh knowing full well that was only partly true.

Hell, their wedding night was spent with whores instead of me and by the time he showed it was almost dawn and he was to spent and drunk to keep it up long enough to even stick it in. It did make it easier to lie about having been deflowered before our wedding or answer any questions as to who the man had been to take my virginity. How father or that pig ever thought I would let him be my first was absurd. Our culture was absurd thinking women had no say in their own lives and bodied. Just wait until I was truly in charge. But I digress on where my thoughts were going, I would have never let another touch me when Jamie was always meant to be with me and have that gift and who had always loved me the best and put me first so of course he would be the gentlest. First times were meant for love and comfort with gentle touches not drunken pigs rutting away on you just to make a child or forget I was not some dead whore who never wanted him either.

"While that might be true, you tried to pass off children that are not mine. That is not acceptable, and you had to know what would happen when I found out." Robert said watching me in a way he had never before, and I felt my angry mask flicker just the slightest and knew he had me.

"Prove it!" I hissed out trying to hold onto my temper and bully him into letting me go or at least call his bluff because the buffoon was easy to manipulate if the right buttons were pushed. I just need to figure out which ones today would get me what I wanted. The angry harpy or the loving wife who was full of remorse and depressed from all our lost children.

"All of my children have dark hair and blue eyes, are very smart and there are other traits that are only Baratheon. Besides did you not think I would not have them tested that very next morning after finding you how we did?" He asked me and truthfully, I had not considered it because him and those surrounding him are neither bright nor studied the sciences that the Maesters did.

"Try and tell my father his grandchildren are not true born. He will call his banners and stop this madness." I said going to my last ditch fall back of lying to my father and acting the injured mistreated lady who would never do such a thing. He was so easy to get on my side unlike my mother had been. I hated that monster for killing her, but I would have never been able to get father to do or act if she was still around. It was her who moved Jamie and I apart, her who never looked at me the same after that day in the stables. She who had maids, my septa, and herself always watching me. It had made life harder but not impossible to sneak around with him. What was a missing maid here or there when I always made sure to be seen by mother during the time they went missing. Gold and Clegane were the best ways to keep nosy idiots away.

"I have told your father just that and you want to know what he said. He wanted nothing to do with the boys at all. Would not even take them in and raise them. He has been here a week and not seen them nor asked of them at all. He signed all his rights away to our daughter." Robert said as he handed over the paperwork that my father had signed stating just that and all to make a deal for his golden son.

Once his words sunk in my heart sunk. I never believed Joffrey, Myrcella, or Tommen was his. The only one that was, was the first, who was lost to us and has never been found; thank the heavens. I could never love a child that was part of him nor looked like him in anyway. I never even considered Myrcella, but maybe something in me knew and it was why I was so hard on her, why I felt distant even though I did love her. I had figured it was because of how my mother taught and raised me but maybe deep inside I knew.

"This can't be right, there is nothing in here about me. He wouldn't just let me die. I am Queen, I am his daughter." I whispered out but sit down as tears filled my eyes realizing that once again, I wasn't going to be put first by anyone in my life. That I was still only a woman, and my brother would always be the golden child no matter what he confessed to or did to spite our father.

"Please Robert I will do anything, please spare my life." I begged now terrified because my crimes would mean a death sentence. Turning the tears on had always swayed him in the past because he hated to deal with hysterical women. It was my last hope he would give in now.

"I was never fair to you as I never loved you nor wanted you the way a husband should have a wife. But you were queen, and you had all the comforts of the world. I say nothing with you taking lovers because I didn't care as long as I didn't have to be with you but once or twice a year doing the husband deeds. Why did you have to betray me then with Joffrey and Tommen, I could have shown you mercy if it wasn't for that fact." He said sitting across from me just looking at the me in what felt like the first time of truly seeing me and it was too little too late. I had come into this just wanting to be seen and loved but he never wanted me always his Lyanna. Oh, how I wish I could have been the one to murder her slowly for the pain she has caused me over the years. The dagger she sent into my heart the first time he called her name out while rutting on me with no care to how I felt.

"Can I see the children; Can I say goodbye at least. What will happen to my sons now?" I asked having broken down and truly started to cry no longer using it to gain anything from the man across from me even if it was not in my nature to be weak in front of anyone. I doubt in all my years I ever felt this broken and what was the point now when I have truly lost everything and been abandoned by my own family.

"I will grant you that request if they choose to see you but only if you write a full confession of your crimes. I mean a full confession of the murders committed by you or for you, those you have had sex or a relationship with, the incest, the line of succession theft and so on." He tells me and thinking about it for a bit it would be a way to hurt them all. Father for never thinking of me as anything but a woman to pawn off to gain power and as someone who didn't have a brain that worked, Jamie for never leaving the gold cloaks and us leaving together like we had talked about so many times, this man across from me who would trade me in for even one second with a dead woman who hated him by all accounts. Thinking about what I would have to lose and concluding nothing at this point, I nodded knowing nothing would save me anyways and revenge and one last strike at them would be nice.

"What will happen to the boys?" I asked once again, thinking of my sweet precious boys and how unsecure their futures were now because of me and their real father. At least my daughter would be protected.

"If your brother lives tomorrow, and he chooses to raise his sons, then he will take them with him when he leaves for Lannisport. That is if your father lets him. Otherwise, I have made arrangements for them. Joffrey will go to the wall at some point until then he will live in the orphanage here in the Stormlands. I will make sure he has all his needs met until he leaves for the wall at 16 summers. Tommen is so young that I have decided to foster him in the vale until he reaches maturity, and he can go to become a maester or a soldier depending on what he wants to do. I will pay for it all as well." Robert informs me and I could see that he did believe he was being fair.

"What are you not telling me, they are my sons, I have a right to know." I demanded because it felt like something was left unsaid.

"Joffrey must live to make it to the wall and his behavior so far is not making it easy. He is an entitled, spoiled idiot who is as mad as the mad king became. How I never saw it till now I do not know but I have had to lock him away in his rooms for his protection after his last episode.

"He is a prince, was a prince and only demanded the respect due to him and took what had owed him. Let me see him, maybe I can calm him down. I am sure he is just confused and hurt by all these rumors. It is very unfair that he lost his home, father, titles all at once by your selfishness. We could have dealt with this quietly Robert. We still could, please do not let anything happen to him." I tried once again to manipulate the man across from me who used to be so easy but at his glare I looked away. What had changed, why had it changed, and when? So many questions but this was not the man I had married, and it seems to have happened in that fall that should have killed him. Oh, how I wish it would have been then we would be free, I would be in control, and I could show father I was more than just a pretty face and womb to produce heirs.

"And Myrcella, she will be queen?" I quietly asked because it would be doubtful as she was just a female, and none would inherit the throne or rule on their own as the past had proven. She would be married off and find herself and just a pretty face with no real power as the man takes over.

"That is undecided yet on the line of succession, some are not happy that she is a girl and thinks she would never hold the kingdom and while I do not agree with them I do not want her in harm's way either." He says and I went to speak my thoughts but saw my father walking by talking with his brother, my Uncle Keven.

"Father, please, Father…. Father! Please talk to me, fix this father." I begged but it fell on deaf ears and my shoulders slumped even more. I was his daughter, and he was just acting as if I didn't even exist. It was not even this bad with that imp. How dare he treat me this way. To think he could get by with ignoring me for his golden child. I would make him pay, I would make them all pay for their lack of loyalty and love.

"Give me paper and quill, I will write my crimes and all of those I know of from my father, uncles, and brother. All I ask is a full day with my children before you take my head." I cried into my hands as I had sat back down on that tiny hard lumpy bed I had been given and accepted my fate but determined to have the last word for those who betrayed me.

For hours I wrote all I could remember and knew, I had requested my journals that I never left behind to make sure I had dates and events correct. I had a code I used for everything and that I kept dirt on all those around me in. I had to request more ink and parchment. Finally, I had to ask for a person who could write for me as my hand was giving out. On and on I went spilling the secrets of all those around me and leaving the kingdoms in chaos as I hoped it destroyed the housed that had power. Only one I had nothing on was of the North and they did a good job keeping spies out and their business clean. Oh, how I hoped my daughter would bring them to their knees when she was queen. Someday she will understand why I did what I had, and she will herself become just as jaded.

Robert

Leaving the parchment, ink, and quill I walked out and never turned back around as I left the dungeon and my past behind me. I would need to see the boys and tell them their fates but only one would understand and I dreaded that talk. It would have to come later as I had court to address and bills to introduce now that everyone had arrived. Even the North had sent someone which surprised me and made me worry about the state of things there because Ned would never have sent his daughter alone, but here she was. Sansa Stark, representing her father who was still north of the wall with her escorts and acting guardian Lord Overton, his wife, and their daughters and two sons, her septa Mordane, Lord Talhart with his family, and Lord Poole and his daughters had arrived just that morning. I had not asked for them to come and was unhappy they were here as this was no place for a young woman who was still a child who would be seen as a new shiny toy to gain power with by manipulating her into deals or marriage. I would have to measures to make sure that did not happen, or Ned really would murder me and with good reason.

"Lady Sansa, I am sorry I was not available this morning to greet you please forgive me. You look a great deal like your Lady mother at your age if my memory serves me well. I hope your journey was not too unpleasant. I did not know you were coming has something happened with your father?" I asked her after requesting to meet her alone before the council meeting and the new Lord's meeting to get a better understanding why she was here.

"After consulting with the Lords not north of the wall with my father and brother, Lord Bran, who is acting Lord of Winterfell and Paramount of the North, decided that it would be best to come in my father's stead. As my older brother is also with my father and Bran is acting lord that left me to attend the needs of our king in court. Father would want the North represented." She said and he smiled as at the child who was on the cusps of becoming a woman but still held to that child fantasy and innocents.

"I am sure you will do your father proud Lady Sansa but take it from his oldest friend he would never have wanted you here alone." I started with a chuckle. "However, while here you are ordered to stick close to myself or Lord Arryn, the hand of the king, or with my children. I would also like you to please keep in mind as you are still a child and not of court, that many will see you as a new shiny toy to play with, manipulate, and twist you and your house into agreements and deals. Even try for your hand in marriage to gain power over the north. You are not to take any of these meetings without myself present as your king and your representative. While I do not doubt Lord Overton's council, I do not think your father would want you meeting alone with anyone no matter the reason." I tell her not liking this one bit and wondering just what the lady of house Stark was up to for sending her daughter here in her or Ned's and having to know Ned would be very angry about this.

"Thank you, your grace, for his council and I would very much enjoy spending time with your children while I am here." Sansa said hoping to catch the eye of the prince and get to know him better as her mother promised her that she would one day marry him and become queen. She knew her father would not be happy that her mother had sent her, but it was really her idea and Bran was easy to manipulate into agreement even if Maester Luwin was against it and pitched a fit over it all.

"I am sure Myrcella, and the others, will enjoy your company during their lessons. I will have you and the other ladies of the north taken to them. Can you please ask Lords Overton, Payne, and Talhart to come in as you leave." I said sighing knowing that I was overstepping but she was a child and Ned would murder me no matter how close we used to be if something happened to his daughter.

"Gentleman, sit we need to talk. I am not happy with young Lady Sansa being here. This is no place for a child and especially one alone with just bannermen as escorts." I bellowed out in my frustration as I took in the lords that had come with her and not overly impressed.

"We agree your Grace, we were all very against coming and questioned as much as we could the reasons for coming as we know Lord Stark would have all our heads if something was to happen to Lady Sansa, but our disagreement can only go so far in the face of an acting liege lord orders. We called our men and put together a party in the shortest time we had that would not only protect her but escorts her as a proper lady could. Her father and brothers are north of the wall, and we have heard rumors of problems. Lord Stark left going on three months ago now and no word in the last month and half. What would you have us do my Grace." Lord Talhart asked, this worried me even more as Ned's letter had said he would come to me after going past the wall. If there were issues that would explain why now Ned was wanting a meeting and why it was taking so long for him to come.

"She will be entertained, along with your daughters, with mine and can attend their lessons while here. Your sons as well or they can train in the yard if you like but make sure they understand the dangers of those in court and make sure they are guarded by Northern men, Lady Sansa and your daughters as well, at all times. Sansa is not to meet with anyone from another house unless I or Lord Arryn and one of you are always present. Not even the ladies as they are just as manipulative if not more so. As for court, that will be no place for a child no matter who her father is, so you can decide who sits in for her. The other two can look over the proposals that I was going to take to Lord Stark once this was over. Your party can come with mine to White Harbor once this mess is over, I need to see what is happening north of the wall and talk with Lord Stark before I tour the rest of the kingdoms." I said and they all nodded and agreed with me feeling slightly better that their lord's daughter was being more protected than what they thought she would be.

"I will attend court while the others unpack and make sure that our men are taken care of. We will have Lord Overton and his family travel back as there is to many my grace to travel by boat. However, we will meet back up at White Harbor to escort Lady Sansa and yourself, my Grace, to Winterfell." Lord Payne explained, and the others left doing as they were bid by Lord Overton. He was the oldest and while all minor houses of the north were largest out of them all and had age. They felt he would be best to deal with the matters of court. It took hours of meetings to finish the day out and start looking at the different things they would have to take back to Winterfell for approval and none felt comfortable locking the north in to deals.

That evening was the first time since this mess started that a full court would be held and with it a dinner that all would attend. It was also the first time my children would be presented with me, and I feared it was going to be a spectacle that would overwhelm the children who were new to all of this.

"His Majesty, King Robert Baratheon, the first of his name, the Protector of the Realm, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, King of the Andal's and the First Men." The announcement sounded out and all rose before dipping down in a bow to me as I passed them by to take my seat at the table at the top of the room.

"Crowned Princess Myrcella, Prince Edric, Princesses Maya, Salena, and Serella. Prince Trystan." It was announced and all assumed they were getting a glimpse of the assumed order of secession now that it had been established that the Crowned Prince that had yet to be announced by me and Jon until we could meet him and talk with him about the new responsibilities he would have to undertake and the Princess Myrcella that was the only true born from the previous queen. However, Gendry and the other two girls would come into play also, but they were either not here or too young to attend. It had been decided that Myrcella would be the second in line behind Gentry to inherit the throne and then it would come Edric, Maya, Trystan, Salena, Serella, Ananastasia, and Maribel. It was the best outcome that could have happened as all were voted into succession and made or recognized as legitimate. The push for me to remarry had already started with any children to be born to come after Edric in line of succession but I had no want yet to remarry and I doubted I would want any more heirs as I had enough as was to worry about and to secure my line since we had agreed that females could inherit the throne the same and a male heir. I was learning to love each one and be the father that I should have always been but there were many and it was not easy when so many other things demanded my attention. I worried how Gendry would take the news that he was a full true born child and not just a bastard but even being the oldest would be first in succession. He was an unknown and many would never accept him like they would Myrcella.

The dinner went well with the children having no major mistakes and everyone praising their beauty and talk that all favored the Baratheon family with two looking like my lady mother and the rest having dark hair and blue eyes of myself.