Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter Ninety-Four

He may have had a dream just like this once, or perhaps thinking back on it then it was probably a nightmare. Now that it was happening to him, it very much seemed like a nightmare now that it was actually happening to him. Elia Martell and Cersei Lannister in the same room, Jaime did feel like he was somewhat out of his depth.

Elia was garbed in a bright orange silk gown with myrish lace sleeves, a black diamond that hang from a chain around Elia's neck shone in the light of the wall torches, the rings at her fingers also caught the light.

His sister may have been a prisoner in the castle that once she had been a princess in but she still dressed as though not a single thing had changed since the day that she had married Rhaegar. She wore the colours of House Lannister today, her dress was made of red silk with her sleeves were made from cloth of gold and she wore a string of emeralds around her neck.

Cersei took one look at the Dornish princess, and Jaime knew that his sister could be fearsome when her anger was raised but Jaime was certain that the only time that he had ever seen her angrier than in that moment was either at their brother for the crime of drawing breath or at her husband when he finally returned to the city after shaming and abandoning her, and stormed to the other side of the room.

Elia accepted his invitation and sat down, her hands running over her skirts to smooth them out. "Thank you, I am certain that the past few weeks have been just dreadful for you, for the both of you." Elia turned her head to look over to Cersei, though his sister remained staring at the blank wall, and spoke softly and sweetly to her.

"I am sorry for the loss of your husband, Princess Cersei." Elia's fingers twitched then, her thumb rubbing over the polished black stone of one of her rings and to Jaime's eyes it looked as though that the Dornish princess did not realize that she was even doing it. "I can not imagine your grief, at this moment. But, Rhaegar was my friend since childhood, while I cannot mourn the man that he became I do mourn that boy."

Cersei reacted then, the scoff was filled with rage and loathing and disgust. She spun on her feet to face the both of them, his sister's eyes had ever been the colour of wildfire but Jaime was also certain that he had never seen them burn brighter than in that moment. "Why are you here? The truth now, if you have the bravery to give it to me. Come now, I heard that it was your brother who lacked the spine, not you."

A rage entered Elia Martell's dark eyes in that moment, while it could not compare to his sister's own fire in it's own way it was no less terrible to behold. For a moment, Jaime thought that she was about to say something that no doubt would have enraged the situation futher but Elia supressed her rage and when she spoke her voice was calm.

"I have come to express my sympathy to you for the loss of your husband, nothing more. I am not your enemy Princess. The both of us ended up on different sides of this was through no choice of ours. I see no need for either of us to make this any harder than it has to be, your husband is dead and I see no need to take any sort of joy in that. Even less so, considering that he used to be my friend. So again, you have my sympathy."

"And will my children have your sympathy?" With Cersei's words, the air suddenly seemed that much more heavier. Cersei took a step forward then, stalking forward like a lioness. A cruel glint in her eyes, Jaime knew that she had smelled weakness and Cersei would never let such a thing pass if she could pounce on it instead.

"Come now, you can't be so much a fool as to not know what will happen to them. I do." Her voice grew tighter when she said that and her eyes for a moment showed only fear, all the rage that had been there before had simply drained away. "I know, because it's what I would do if I had won. If I was in control. If I had any say at all."

"My daughter might be spared, might. Perhaps she will be sent to become a septa or a silent sister, her right as a princess stripped from her and all the while the leaders of this vile usurpation will congratulate themselves for how very merciful they are. Perhaps, if she is very fortunate then she will be allowed the honor of marrying the Usurper in Storm's End in order to give his claim more legitimacy and she can be his queen. Married to the man who stole her right."

"And my daughter will be the one better off, what future does my poor son have? I ask you. There will be no mercy for him, not even the tiniest grain of it. They will take his head rather than suffer what they might see as a threat to the Usurper. That, or they will send him to the Wall where he will spend the rest of his, more than likely extremely short life, freezing to death. So tell me, do they have your sympathy Princess? Will you beg for mercy for them? For me? Answer me, now!"

Elia did not answer her, and she did not for quite a long time. Cersei scoffed and in her eyes the fear was gone only to be replaced with the same look that she always had in her eyes whenever she had thought that she had won.

"You all have my sympathy, Princess Cersei. I did not want this war, I am fairly certain that most of us did not want it. But regardless the actions of others have brought us here and now we must all try endure whatever happens next as best and as bravely as we can. And yes is the answer, by the way. I shall plead and do all within my ability to ensure that you and your children are given as much mercy as possible."

"Out, get out!" Cersei screamed at her, the only thing in her eyes now was the rage that had been there at the start had returned now and it was a great deal more intense than it had been before. Cersei was always enraged at the thought that she had no control, that she was always at the mercy of others. "Get out!"

Princess Elia bent her head and turned and walked towards the door. She was about to knock on it when Jaime rose from his own chair and caught her attention. "Let me come with you, it's time that I return to my own cell at any rate. I was only brought here in order to visit and comfort my sweet sister as best as I could and that has proven little enough."

"What!?" Cersei snarled at him as Elia stared at him, her dark eyes were very handsome in their own way but there was an intensity in them as well that Jaime could not deny made him feel...small, for lack of a better word. It was not a feeling that he liked, at all.

"One moment." Elia said and then turned to walk out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Once the door was shut, Cersei hurried over to him with her skirts brushing against the floor sounding almost like a rushing river and then slapped him hard across the face, when Jaime turn back to look at her she slapped him again.

The third time that she tried Jaime grabbed hold of her wrist, when Cersei tried to use her other hand to do it Jaime grabbed hold of that as well and Cersei then began to try and pull herself free while also trying to kick at his shins. "Let me go!" Cersei hissed, at least she had the sense not to shout. The last thing that either of them needed was the guards on the door rushing in.

"If I do, you'll just slap me again and I would much rather not be slapped." Cersei glared at him and for a moment Jaime thought that she was going to spit at him but instead, she relaxed in his hold even if she did not look much calmer.

She was still glaring at him when she spoke again. "What do you think you're doing, you can't just abandon me to go and run off with her. I won't let you. you can't leave me here on my own. I need you Jaime, now more than ever." Tears began to well in her eyes and Jaime's heart turned soft at them, he let go of her wrists and instead used her hands to cup her face, gently wiping away her tears.

"I am not leaving you, not at all. But they would've taken me back to my own chambers away from you sooner or later anyway. This is for you, for your children. I killed the King and you were married to the Prince, anything could happen to us. Elia says that she will plead for mercy for the both of us and given our time together at Casterly Rock and traviling back to the North I am inclined to believe her but all the same I would rather not leave anything to chance when it comes to it, I might be able to convince her to do something much more strongly than plead for us."

"Such as what?" Cersei asked, looking less than convinced with his words.

"Such as getting that husband of hers to directly intervene." Jaime did not relish having to put himself at Ned Stark's mercy, the memory of his short time with him in White Harbor still left something of a bad taste in his mouth, but he would do it for Cersei. He would put entire cities to the sword for Cersei, if it came to that.

Still, he hoped that it would not come to that.

Cersei still looked uncertain, but he would take that over enraged or trying to slap him again. Regardless, she wasn't really able to say anything else about it as at that moment the door opened and Princess Elia and one of the northern guardsman walked into the chambers. "I've been allowed to walk you back to your chamber Ser Jaime."

Jaime nodded and joined Elia in walking out of the chamber, the door shutting behind them. Jaime had been kept apart, both from his sister and his Father and it seemed that it was only at Lord Tywin's insistance that he was finally given the ablity to visit his sister in her own chambers, he could also visit his Father if he wanted too and yet so far Jaime had not taken advantage of that but then neither had his sister and Lord Tywin had not come to visit either of them.

The walk back to his chambers was not a long one and said chambers were not as large or as grand as his sister's, many of the noble lords and ladies that had still been at the court of Aerys had to be confinied and so a room for himself had to be very quickly found. Once he was inside, Elia turned to leave. "Princess, I beg of you to wait a moment. We need to speak."

"I am not sure about what, I have already said that I will do what I can." Elia said as she turned back to face him, her hands clasped together in front of her. "I am not one of King Renly's regents, nor am I the hand of the King. Whatever choice of action they choose to take, we must each of us live with it. For whatever it is worth to you, I doubt that any punishment you face will be harsh, or at least I do not think that any heads will be rolling. Your Father does at this moment have an army outside the city, after all."

"I'm aware of that." The truth of it was, what he had told to Cersei...It hadn't been a lie, not entirely. He had wanted to hope that he could get lesser punishments for the children, even if he doubted it, but he knew that himself and Cersei were in very little real danger. Well, Cersei wasn't in any real danger. Jaime was a kingslayer and that action might very well have cost him his head, even though someone would have had to kill Aerys themselves if he had not done it.

"But still, I want to speak with you. It's been a long time." The last time he had spoken to her had been at White Harbor, after she had given birth to her sons. Such a very long time ago it seemed now. She had been at Harrenhal when he had been, but they had not spoken to one another and once he had been made a kingsguard he had been sent back to the capital before he had the chance to say anything to her.

"I suppose it has." Elia hummed and worked at the bottom of her lip with her teeth which Jaime had remembered from their time at Casterly Rock normally meant that she was turning something over in her mind, he still found it to be quite an adorable sight though he knew better than to tell her that. In truth, he actually was certain that he would rather die than say it. "And what would we talk about, hm?"

"I am not all that certain myself, in truth." Jaime sat himself down on the foot of his bed and tapped his fingers against his knees. He blew some air out of his lungs. "How are your children, are they well?"

"They are." Elia said with a smile, though to Jaime's eyes it certainly looked as though it was a little sad. "I have not seen either of them in a very long time, I left them at Winterfell to follow my husband. I did not wish for him to be alone in this, I wanted to help him as much as I was able to do so and I believe that I have managed to do that. At least to some degree but I do miss them, if I could summon them into my arms at this moment or grow wings so that I could fly to them then I would do so."

"They sound very fortunate to have a Mother who loves them so fiercely." Jaime couldn't remember what that was even like, whenever he tried to summon the Lady Joanna to his mind all he could imagine were flashes of long golden hair, the scratching of a quill against parchment and the humming of a lullaby that Jaime had long ago forgotten the words to.

"I hope so, I hope they will remember me when I finally see them again." Her hands came to rest fully on her belly, and it was only now that Jaime noticed that her belly was in fact swollen and Jaime didn't know what to think when he felt a jolt of rage rush through him when he realised that she was pregnant. "I did mean what I said, I will do all that I can for all of you."

"I know you meant it."

"I am glad that you know that." Elia was chewing on her lip once again and once again it was adorable. "May I ask you something, it's important."

"What do you want to know?" Jaime wasn't sure why he asked that, if he was being truthful. He already knew what it was, what else could it be about after all?

"Why did you kill Aerys, having to living with being a kingslayer and an oathbreaker and I do not understand why you did it? No one has told me the reason why you did it, as I understand more than a few people have made their own guesses as to why that is but nothing from you. I want to hear it from your own mouth, tell me why you killed him?"

For a moment, a moment of utter madness, Jaime wanted to tell her exactly why he had done it. He wanted to tell her everything, he wanted to tell her about the rage Aerys had fallen into when he had realised that Lord Tywin had betrayed him, how he had summoned his pyromancers to him and told them of what he wanted done. Wildfire, thousands and thousands of jars of it. Enough to burn the entire city to the ground.

And he wanted Cersei and her children summoned, so that he could burn them as well.

Perhaps the Mad King had thought that his vows had meant more to him than that, perhaps he thought that Jaime saying them had made them forget who he was. But when the threat was made, Jaime drew his blade and shoved it through the Mad King's back. Then, he had fallen on the pyromancers. They were old men, the youngest near sixty, and it was quick to end them.

He had dragged the bodies of the pyromancers out of the throne room through the King's door and had hidden them away...somewhere, he could not really recall it now. He couldn't recall why he had thought to do it, he had a reason at the time and it had made something like sense to him. He might have been in shock, now that he came to think on it again.

He was tired when it was done and he walked back into the Throne Room, and so he had left the Mad King where he lay and had gone to sit on the Iron Throne and he didn't know how much time has passed until his Father had come into the throne room to find him. Lord Tywin had looked at all of the bodies before he had looked at him and in that moment Jaime Lannister had felt like he was a little boy again, summoned to his Lord Father's solar to face punishment for some wrongdoing.

Everything else was something of a blur after he was helped off of the throne, all he was able to remember was being brough to chambers which he was fairly certain were not the ones he was in now and falling into a deep sleep. And after that, he had almost forgotten that anything had happened at all. But he couldn't forget for long before the memories came back, because he was a kingslayer. He had commited a sin that would never be forgiven, that couldn't be washed away.

The reasons, did not really matter.

"My father had already invaded the city, he was going to take the Red Keep sooner or later and I thought that I would just make it a little easier for him to do so, seemed quicker." Jaime added a shrug when he finished speaking, to add to the callousness that he had hoped to affect in his voice. "Mayhaps in mine own way, it was me trying to be merciful. No need for a long and bloody siege."

Elia did not look away from him, she did not scoff or mock at his words. She simply kept staring at him, for a moment a madness overtook him and he considered a world where Elia Martell had married his Father and had born him a child, that child would be able to undo entire armies, the entire world, on the strength of their stare alone.

What a horrifying thought.

"You are lying to me." The Princess spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world, perhaps it was to her. Perhaps Jaime was never as good a liar as he liked to think that he was. "Do not try and object to that fact Ser, for I know it to be a fact. For the first, look outside the walls of the Red Keep and you can see written in stone how much mercy there is in your Father. And to the second, there is only one man in all of Westeros who can lie to me and you are not him, tell me true. Why did you do it?"

Jaime swallowed around the knot in his throat, her dark eyes burned into him and suddenly Jaime knew that he could not lie to her.

So, he told her the truth.

She did not take it well.

End of Chapter Ninety-Four

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DiscordantSymphony