Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter Ninety-Six

Dawn in King's Landing was not as cold as it had been at Riverrun but there was still a chill in the air that winter would not let loosen it's claws so easily, even this far south. Of course, from Elia's perspective it was expected to be colder as this was the North where anyone from Dorne was concerned but she had been living in the heart of Winter for years at this point and it would take more than a little chill to daunt her now.

Still, a chill was a chill and Elia's health would not thank her if she did not dress warmly enough to combat it and so she had kept herself dressed in her velvets even if on a warmer day the heat made it very uncomfortable but she had been through a war, she could handle being a little uncomfortable and if she could not deal with a little heat then really, what sort of Dornishwoman was she?

She had pushed herself up from her bed this morning, frowning when she saw that Ned was not there even though it was silly considering that he had been gone for days and days now but all the same it still hurt to see that he was not there when she woke up. She moved her fingers across Ned's side of the bed that they had shared for a short time and she sighed when felt that it was cool to her touch.

It would do no good to mope over it, Ned had ridden off with his brother and men that he trusted, even if some of them like Howland Reed did not deserve it, to go and find his sister wherever she was and while there was little that Elia could do about that she could at the very least ensure that while Ned was gone the good work he had done for King's Landing and it's people was kept up.

Ned had kept true to his word and had not left the city until the Order of the Pyromancers had begun their work to remove the casks of wildfire from the places where they had been placed under the city, like vile seeds that would sprout a poisonous fruit.

The sheer amount of pots that had been placed, and where, was concerning. Obviously when Aerys had still been sitting on the throne the Pryomancers had a great deal of influence and respect and honors and so they had been able to go pretty much anywhere that they wished to go without anyone telling them otherwise.

After all, it was at their hands that the High Septon had burned under the orders of the Old King and stories of how Aerys had dealt with any sort of crime, any sort of defiance, must have reached the ears of everyone in the city and it would take someone with a great deal of bravery to tell the Pyromancers no when all of that was known.

Perhaps some of them had said no, but the reward for their bravery would be to be feed to the flames of Aerys's madness as they were tied to the pyre and burned. He must have felt like a god when that happened, when he sat high upon his throne and watched as all of those that he thought of as enemies burn at the pyre, screaming and begging for mercy.

But in the end, no matter how he had felt it had not been enough to save him from having Jaime Lannister shoving a blade through his back. There was justice in that, though considering all of the paronia that the King was said to have it surprised her that he would keep the son of the man that he had insulted so close to his person.

But regardless, Aerys was dead now and they instead had to deal with what he had left them with. A large group of the pots had been found under the Sept of Baelor, at least six hundred which surely would be enough to burn down the sept and most of the buildings that surrounded it and rain green fire down on those who lived below Visenya's hill.

Another three hundred pots had been found under the Dragonpit, why Aerys had placed some under there she did not understand but then trying to understand the reasons that a mad man did anything would always be something of a fool's errand but if she did have to guess then she would assume that he did not wish to leave a single inch of the city standing for anyone to claim.

Elia wouldn't deny that it pleased her to know that his last act of spite had failed miserably, it had been his act of spite which had seperated her from her husband for far longer than she ever wanted to be seperated again and the only thing that could make the revenge even slightly better was if the Mad King was still alive so he could see how far he, and his family, had fallen.

Of course those thoughts made her feel guilty, not for Aerys as to her the worst of the seven hells would be to good for him but it saddened her to think of how the rest of his family had fallen apart. Rhaegar had been her friend, not so long ago even though at times after all he had done it was hard to remember that and the thought of the man he had been, who he could have been if things had turned out differently, saddened her greatly.

And now his children would grow without their Father, that was assuming that they would be able to grow at all as many of the people who were in power now would no doubt wish for their throats to be cut in the middle of the night. Cersei Lannister was wrong about many things, but she had not been wrong when she said that her children were in danger and many would call for their deaths.

But Elia had not been lying either, she fully intended to plead for mercy for the children as she did not wish for the new reign to begin with the slaughter of children not much older than babes in the cradle. There had been enough blood in the days past and there would be more than enough blood in the days to come to drown the entire world in it.

Oh, she was tired. More tired than she had ever been in her life and considering that it was her that was saying a very great deal indeed, there were many times when she had been a girl that her constant sickness drew all of the strength from her and often left her confined her to bed for days, if not weeks, if not moon's turns at a time.

But none of that compared to this, sickness was one thing but living through a war and trying to survive what came after that were very different things and of course it was not like her illness had left her. She was still ill, even if her health had improved ever since going north and marrying Ned, and sheg had ever been grateful for that, but the war had drawned a great deal of her strength from her.

Elia sighed and brought up a hand to rub at her eyes, the headaches seemed to be unending as of late and each one was always more intense than the last and when this was all said and done she was just going to try and sleep for as long as she could. But that was for later, there was still more that needed to be done.

Once all of the pots, what they hoped was all of the pots in truth, had turned up the matter had turned on to what was to be done with all of them. The Order of Pyromancers had, in their own words, generously offered to allow the pots to be stored in their guild hall but both she and Lord Hoster had agreed that would be a terrible idea.

Surely, the only thing worse than having those pots underneath the city would be if they were in the hands of the people who had made them and were more than willing to make more and were seemingly fine with the entire city burning to the ground with them in it, many of the members of the order had been questioned, some of the senior members sharply, and most had spoken to knowing nothing about what the King had planned.

They had made the wildfire for him, of course, but they claimed that they thought that it was to be used for defending the city and not the madness that Aerys had planned and when it came to the junior members of the order, those who actually made the substance and saw that it was transfered into the clay pots, she was inclined to believe them.

But the more senior members of the order had been held in Aerys's favour, they had not been simply keeping their heads down in their hall as they toiled to make more of the wildfire in order to sate Aerys as that she could understand, no those senior members of the order had held their heads up high as they built up the pyre where men and women and children and babes would burn for no greater crime than it pleased Aerys to do so.

It had been a matter of some debate between herself and Lord Hoster as to what was to be done with them, the lords and ladies who had been held hostage at court did not find that they had much mercy in them for the men who would have not have blinked an eye as if the King had ordered them to be burned alive and would have shut out their pleas as they built up the pyre on which they were to be burned and they would have done it over and over again.

So no, it did not surprise her that the lords and ladies of the court would call for the entire order to be purged, put to the sword or, as one young lord with empty eyes had suggested to be burned with the same flames that they would have so easily and readily stoked for them, but Elia had not been so quick to jump to the idea of more bloodshed, more death.

Lord Hoster had crooned at her when she said as such, speaking of how she was of the gentler sex and it spoke well of her nature that her instincnt would be to that of mercy. Elia did not think that it had much do with her sex, plenty of the ladies at court had also spoken out for a cruel and slow and bloody end for the guild and Elia understood that, she had wanted her own vengence on the King as well but he had simply been dead before she had her chance.

But...putting the Pyromancers into their graves now, what would that serve? Other than the injured prides of men and women who could not take that they had been at their mercy and they had not had the nerve to stand against the madman who ordered the burnings of their fellows and only wanted them dead now that they were in the poistion to demand such a thing.

And when it came to it, Elia felt that getting rid of the ability to make Wildfire would be to much of a loss to bear. To be sure, the King would use it for a great act of horror but it was the closest thing that they would ever have to an actual dragon if there was more fighting to be done and Elia would much rather have it on their side than an enemy's or the substance simply not existing at all.

And if any of the lords or ladies at court had a problem with that then Elia would simply have to remind them that it was armies that her husband had been a part of, in the name of the young king that her husband was one of the regents off, that was the reason that none of them had to live with the threat of being burned hanging over their heads.

For the moment, none of them had lost their heads. The senior members of the order had been hunted down by the city watch who had been given their descriptions by Ser Jaime and they now rested in the Black Cells as their fate was decided, Lord Tywin's son had been very helpful indeed and Elia had to wonder if he truly was doing this to try and gain some clemency from them, he had not asked for such a thing as of yet but perhaps if he was truly cunning then he would not do so.

It would surely make everyone think better of him, would it not? Giving aid and not asking for anything in return would surely make them all think well, would make all of them lean towards clemancy, towards mercy, would it not? He would need to be cunning to do that, a fine player of the game and Elia wasn't sure if he was that.

She had done her best to avoid him since she had gone to speak to him and his sister, at least since Ned had left the city. It still left a bad taste in her mouth, the confrontation between herself and her goodfather in White Harbor when he had all but suggested that she might have an affair with him while she had been trapped at Casterly Rock.

She knew that it wasn't true, but she also knew how it would look if anyone else heard those rumors and she stayed too close to him. Her hand dipped down to rest on her belly when her babe now laid and it occured to her that she had sent Ned away while she was not to long away from giving birth and Jaime was still in the city and she had let him be with her as she had given birth the last time.

It wasn't that she had any intention of letting Jaime be anywhere near her this time, but word spread faster than wildfire ever could and she knew how it could look and she was a fool to think otherwise. She should have known better, her Mother would be ashamed of her for being such a fool she was sure enough of that.

Elia wished that she hadn't sent Oberyn away either, if nothing else so she could speak to him. But someone had to go to Storm's End to lift the siege and bring them the castle and everyone else had so much to do and Elia was the only one could trust, at least the only one that she had to hand and her belly gave a nervous twist as she prayed that she had not made a mistake.

She remembered the feeling of Oberyn's hand as she had pressed the knife that Doran had sent with Nymeria into his hand, a gift to see him safe and a message to come back as quickly as he could. Oberyn's eyes had been dark as pitch, the candels cast long shadows over his face and Elia could see why men could be terrified of him even if Elia had never felt fear in his presence.

Her throat was dry. She poured herself a cup of wine, it was the yellow water that the men of the Arbor favoured instead of proper wine but in that moment Elia did not care and she drained the cup as quickly as she could before she poured herself another one. She did not take a drink from the second cup however, it would do no good to play the game of thrones as a drunkard playing at dice.

And other duties had demands of her, she had been riding out to the fishmarkets at the dock's and visiting the orphanages and doing what she could to alleviate the suffering of the people of the city as best as she could. A few gold coins pressed into the hands of the most unfortunate of this city wasn't much at all in truth but at least for the moment it was the best that she could do.

It was true that Ned had done the lion share of the work, if the city was on it's way to recovering then the credit had to be given to him and Elia was simply building on what he had done. He really was so good at this, her husband wasn't one to take praise well and she imagined that the guilt for that could be laid at Brandon's feet, the heir and the spare, one expected to be praised and given attention and the other expected to do his duty.

Ned had learned all of his lessons well, Brandon had learned nothing at all. And yet despite everything, Ned still trusted his brother, still wanted him at his side and Elia imagined that she could not begrudge him that as they had been at war together for so long now that much of what had happened between them, the prize that her husband had never wanted landing on him because Brandon had run off with Ashara.

Another sigh, it would do no good to think of Ashara. She had work to do and she had tarried long enough, she sent a page down to the kitchens with her instructions and by this point they knew better than to argue with her and as the boy was running to pass on her message Elia rose and began to make her way to the stables.

About an hour later, she was in flea bottom with her guard and serving the wretched lowborn bowls of stew, blocks of white cheese, bread and sausage and some bacon. Their faces were filithy and their eyes were mistrusting and they glanced at the guards she had brought as if they expected her to at any moment command them to cut them down.

But their hunger won out against their mistrust and as the sky began to take on the colours of the afternoon, the people were singing their praises of her, of her kindess and her mercy and she could not deny that she liked it. A very great deal, in fact. Near the end, a young girl on her own came up to her and Elia filled a bowl of stew for her and gave her two slices of bread and an extra large wedge of cheese.

"Thank you, lady." The girl whispered with tears in her eyes, bright blue eyes that almost looked like they could be Renly's eyes and Elia forced a smile on her face in order to stop herself from emptying her stomach in front of the girl. Not trusting herself to speak, Elia simply tapped the girl on the shoulder and sent her on her way.

"I would like to return to the Red Keep now." She didn't know who she had spoken those words to, but the guards were soon clearing up and Elia climbed atop the horse and rode away even as someone, likely one of the guards she had brought with her, called for her to wait but Elia did not look back at him and simply instead kept riding up until she reached the top of Aegon's High Hill.

She lept from the top of her horse one she had crossed the drawbridge and she shoved the reins into the hands of the stable and rushed across the drawbridge into Maegor's holdfast and hurried on quickly to the chambers she had taken and barred the door behind her before rushing over to her chamber pot and emptying her stomach into it.

"Aunt Elia!" Nymeria called to her, of course she had forgotten that Nymeria had chosen to remain within the castle, and ran over to her and rubbed at her back. It shamed her that all of her nieces knew what to do if she was being ill, it was not a thing that should have learned how to do but it was what they did. "Shall I go and fetch the maester?"

Ugh, suffering Pycelle was not something that she would willingly do even if she was bringing up her entire stomach out through her mouth and so she shook her head roughly and she placed her face back into the chamberpot, ever thankful that it had already been cleaned out before she had come back as the rest of the food she had used to break her fask came up.

Soon enough she was done and Elia was resting against a wall, Nymeria pressed a cup into her hands and Elia took it and sniffed, it was lemonsweet and she took a sip. Her face screwed up up as it seemed that someone had forgotten the sweet part and she glanced up at her bastard niece. Nymeria shrugged at her. "Father always says that unsweetened lemon juice can settle a stomach and bring you back to your senses after an attack of sickness, it certainly helped him and Obara after they had to much to drink."

Well, that certainly sounded like something that Oberyn would say and so Elia took another sip of the juice even if it sent a long shiver down her spine. Well, it hadn't been brought back up yet. "Thank you sweetling, I hope that I did not scare you."

Nymeria made a noise that most people around her age made, the noise that meant that they were all grown up and didn't need to be protected and they already knew everything that they needed to know about life thank you very much. "I am not a child, it might scare Sarella but I am not a baby anymore and I've lived through this war to."

Elia let out a laugh, though there was very little humor in it to tell the truth and she took another sip of the juice which seemed to be going down smoother and smoother with every sip. "You miss them, don't you? Tyene and Sarella, more than you ever thought that you would now that you are actually away from them and you don't actually see them everyday."

"How did you know?"

"Because I'm a big sister as well." She was probably closer to Oberyn then Nymeria was to Tyene and Sarella but surely the same logic applied to them as it did to Oberyn and her. "Don't worry about them so, they are as safe as they can be in Dorne and you'll see them soon, if you go back to Dorne or if your Father brings them hear."

Nymeria seemed to stop and consider that. "What about Obara?"

"What?"

"Obara, she'll be with us, won't she?" In that moment, the mask fell away and the young women barely old enough to call herself one was replaced by a young girl who was far away from her sisters, who not that long ago her Father had been on his deathbed and the sight was like a knife to Elia's heart. "Where is she auntie? She isn't at the Golden Tooth, is she? There's been no word from her, not a single word and if she knew that Father was awake she would have ridden for Riverrun orders to remain or no, she would be at our father's side right now as he lift's the siege on Storm's End."

Elia said nothing, not for a long moment and in that moment tears began to run down Nymeria's cheeks, a rough sob escaped her throat. "She's dead, isn't she? Uncle Ned lied, she died in battle and you told him not to tell us so it wouldn't hurt Father while he was recovering, that is the truth of it isn't it? My sister is dead."

"No, no. My love." Elia rose, her back screaming in protest and the babe kicked away inside of her. She reached out with her hands and cupped Nymeria's cheeks, using her thumbs to wipe her tears away. "I swear to you, that Obara is not dead. And she is in the Golden Tooth, believe that and I will excuse you form never believing anything that I ever say again."

It was not a lie, after all. Obara was in the Golden Tooth, and she was alive. What happened after that, well Elia could not say. Ned's mercy had saved her, but who knew what would happen after that? There would be so much that would need to be decided, Oberyn would fight tooth and nail to save her and Doran, well, they were all pawns to Doran and he had proven that well enough.

Even when she tried her best not to, they always ended up playing his game. He knew them to well.

She was so tired.

Thankfully, it seemed that Nymeria choose to believe her and her niece helped her out of her clothes and into her sleep shift and left her to sleep on her own. Elia rubbed at her eyes and walked over to the table, where the two pitchers laid. The wine had gone sour but she did not want to drink the lemon sweet and so she sent the page, the same one from earlier, to go and get her a proper Dornish Red.

It wasn't quiet as good as her favourite wine, a strong wine that many in Dorne liked to describe as being red as blood and sweet as vengence with fire at it's heart, but it was much better than anything she had up to now. She finished the first cup, poured herself another and walked over to the balcony where she could better listen to the sounds of the city at night.

It was still far to quiet, the shadow city outside the walls of Sunpear was not even half the size of King's Landing but at night it was alive with the sound of tarvens and merchents and whore's doing their trade. A thousand cats sang into the night, there was laughter and singing and it was alive. It was so alive, a pulse that could be felt.

King's Landing was nothing like that, it was still to hurt. It would take time for it to heal, and Elia wanted it to. She wanted to be there as it healed, she wanted the men to be fat and happy, the women to have happy smiles and never have to fear bruises from their husbands, their fathers, their brothers or their sons, she wanted the children of the city to never have to go to bed hungry, to never be afraid.

They could do that, couldn't they? They could make this city better, they could bind the realm together together and help it to heal now that Aerys was dead. It would take time, and a lot of work but they could do it. All it would take...all it would take would a little blood, just a light bit more. It was like a birth really, women bled to bring new life into the world. It began with blood, it would end with blood.

The sky was the same shade of Oberyn's eyes tonight, that comforted her. Her brother would never betray her, they had always kept each other's secrets. They would lie for each, fight for each other, protect each other and in the end they would die for each other. She always knew that when it came to it, Oberyn would kill for her if she asked.

Tears ran down her cheeks and her shoulders shook, but she did not hide her face. None else could see her, if the gods could see her shame then let them. Let the stars watch as she shed every single tear, it wasn't even the slighest amount of punishment that she deserved, nothing close but it was the only one she would inflict on herself.

A bit of blood to birth a reign, and children died during sieges all the time.

Oberyn would see it done.

End of Chapter Ninety-Six

Ah, this chapter is no doubt going to be very controversial indeed but again, this is the way that the story was always going, a few details changed here and there but the song remains the same. Some might say that Elia's thoughts at the end of this chapter contradicts something that she thinks earlier on. To them I say, read it again and actually look at what she thinks.

Anywho, next chapter we are going to see what Ned is up to and then we are going to see what Oberyn is doing over at Storm's End

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Warmest regards,

DiscordantSymphony