Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun
Chapter One-Hundred and One
Once she was certain that Ned was utterly out of earshot Elia turned to her brother and glared at him, her arms held her daughter tightly to her chest as if that could protect her from any who would try and do her any sort of harm and in this city there was no shortage of people who would try and do that and just as many who would have no problems with hurting a child.
She should know, she was one of them. She never thought that she would be that person, her Mother had taught her the same lessons that she had taught to Doran after all. That in the end, whatever they would do the lowborn would pay the price for it and that in all things the children were the innocent ones and needed to be protected above all else.
But she had also learned that such a lesson had been useless in the actual world that they had to live in, sometimes you had to do things that you hated, that made you hate yourself, if you wanted to survive and protect the ones that you loved more than anything else, and make sure that their interests were furthered.
Elia would like to think that Princess Loreza would understand that, she had always had to make the hard choices in order to keep Dorne and her own family safe and she had never apologised for that, not even once. She had never explained her actions either, she might have once to her husband as Elia remembered clearly that her Lord Father was the only person in the world that her Lady Mother had truly trusted, the only one that she had ever trusted with all of her secrets, and when he had died she had left the rest of them with only silence when it came to her plans.
As she looked at her own daughter now, she had to wonder if one day Rohanne would be where she was now, wondering what she would think of her and what she had done when she was a woman grown.
For now all she could say was that she loved her daughter so much that she could not ever imagine being disappointed in her, and the same was true for Mors and Torrhen as well. She was certain that there was nothing they would be able to do to make her stop loving them.
Which was why she understood Oberyn's frustration when it came to Obara being away from him and locked up, with the threat of death or even something far worse than that hanging over her then of course he wanted for her to be safe, no matter what crimes or mistakes that she had committed in order to end up in that situation.
But that didn't mean that she was going to stand for him feeding into her husband's worst impulses. "You need to be patient Oberyn, I understand how you feel I truly do but getting my husband killed isn't going to help anything."
"I am not trying to get him killed, and this is not about Obara. This is about the fact that Hoster Tully nearly killed you." Oberyn glowered and Elia could not help but sigh, making sure that Rohanne was secure and was not going to fall before she brought up her hand to rub at her eyes. She was so tired, a tiredness that was deep in her bones.
She had not been sleeping well, not at all really. Every time that she had tried to do so she found that she was either unable to fall into the sweetest oblivion or that when she did manage to fall asleep she found that she was disturbed by terrors from her own mind. Renly was often present in them, more often than not simply staring at her and no matter how hard she tried she found that she could never get away from him.
She wasn't a fool, she knew that if Ned ever learned what she had done then he would not forgive her. Robert had been his best friend, he had gone to war as much for him as he had Lyanna and that his death had hurt him as much as Lyanna and Brandon's had done. Renly had been his brother, the brother that Ned had put the crown on, and it was at Elia's word that the boy was dead now.
It was something that she would have to take to her grave, because the truth was that while Ned's hate would be something unbearbale for her to live with the fact was that if anyone actually did learn of it then no doubt her future would have been shortened by a bit, about as much as of a head. She would need to keep her slience for the rest of her life.
"Well, I am telling you to leave it alone." Elia spoke, trying to put the same note of commanding that their Mother always had when she had spoken. Their Mother had always been able to get Oberyn to mind her, well, as much as anyone could at least. It also seemed that ever since she had married Ned that being able to do that had come so much easy to her.
Between needing to stand firm against Tywin Lannister and commanding him to allow her to leave Casterly Rock and then having lived through a war perhaps that could only be expected, she wondered if the girl who had travelled so very far north with her best friend to meet her husband was even the same person as she was now or if that girl was dead now.
Or maybe she had never existed at all, maybe she was a pretty lie that she told herself, told everyone.
She really needed to sleep
Oberyn glared at her, it was hardly the most fersome expression that she had ever seen on his face but it was the fiercest that she had ever seen aimed at her from him. "And what if I choose to ignore you? Hoster Tully nearly killed you and I am not going to be quick to forgive that, I could just disregard you and kill him anyway. Honestly, I'm so good at murder that I could more than likely make it look like the man's heart gave out. I could probably convince his own squire to poison his cup."
"Be quiet." Elia hissed at him, they had not spoken of it since he had returned. What they both had done, for surely they were both as guilty as one another. They were the only ones who knew that Renly's death had not been caused alone by the fear of a nursemaid who wanted to spare the little one from a terrible future.
And it was not mercy that had seen Oberyn cut her throat with a knife, he had made sure that the woman could not write or read so as not to sign some sort of confession and then cutting her throat after the fall from the window had not killed her had simply been to keep her quiet after all was said and done. The truth was known now only to herself and to Oberyn.
She meant for it to stay that way. "You are going to leave this alone, I mean it Oberyn." She then let out a small sob, it was the best way to get Oberyn to agree with her. "Please Obi, I am so tired. I do not need you doing this, I need you to just let it go for now at the very least and then let me rest. I am so very tired."
Elia found that the tears were coming far more easy than she expected them to do, and her throat burned. In her arms, her babe let out a whimper and Elia rocked her gently. Oberyn stared at her for a long few moments before he finally let out a long sigh of his own, his hand coming up to cover his eyes before he let out another sigh that seemed to make his entire body shudder. "Fine, I will let it go. But if I let this go then I want Obara freeded, I did not lie when I said this wasn't about her but don't think that means she's not on my mind."
"I know." Elia said and let out a small sigh of relief, for seeing that Rohanne had fallen back to slumber and also for getting Oberyn to drop it. "I promise you, we are going to get her away from the Golden Tooth as soon as we can, but things are delicate right now Oberyn. You know that they are. Just...give me some more time, and soon everyone will get what they want."
"If I got what I wanted then Hoster Tully would be on the end of my spear right now, and I would still be strong enough to lift it." Oberyn shook his head. "I'm going back to my chambers, I haven't forgot what I promised don't worry." And with that Oberyn left the room and Elia was on her own, except for the babe in her arms.
She let herself cry once again, not making any noise but simply allowing them to roll silently down her cheeks but she wiped them away before they could fall from her face and land on Rohanne. She just wanted to rest, to sleep for days and days without having to worry about anything. Without having to worry what new enemy her actions would make, or who would die because of them.
Once she had shed all the tears that she was going to Elia held Rohanne close to her chest and began to climb out of bed. Her body screamed at her for doing so but Elia pushed past it and soon enough she was fully out of the bed and carried her daughter over to the cradle and laid her down in it, taking a moment just to look at her.
Elia ran a finger over the back of a tiny fist and just watched as her little chest rose and fell. It was terrifying, in a way. To know that she would do anything in the world to keep her safe, including burning all of it down. Nothing mattered except for her and her brothers, and Ned. She would burn it all down for them and she would kill to keep them well and safe.
Once she was certain that her daughter was safely tucked into her dreams Elia turned and walked to the door and popped her head out and told the servant at the door to bring her a tub with water, she needed to be clean first before anything else.
The water was as hot as she could stand without it burning her and she had simply sat in the water for a few moments, allowing the heat of the water to surround her, to soak into her bones and ease the aches for a moment before she reached out for the horsehair brush and the lye soap and began to scrub at her skin.
Her skin was red by the time she was done and it was stinging and Elia let out a muffled sob before she put the brush back down on the side of the tub and climbed out of the tub and called her maids in. They knew better than to say anything at the state of her and so quickly began to dry her and dress her in a simple wool gown that had been dyed black and that would keep her warm and covered her from head to toe.
She needed a walk, she had been all but confined to her bed and in her chambers for to long and it was driving her out of her mind. She needed to be alone and she needed fresh air, even if the air in King's Landing was tinged with the scent of shit and as of late blood and ashes despite all the work that had been done to try and fix the city back to what it was before Lord Tywin's sack.
Elia took up her stick, it made her feel an old woman but she didn't feel strong enough on her own to walk without it anymore. Gods, she must look like an old woman. Indeed, every step hurt her more than the last but she kept moving until the pain finally faded into a dull ache which she could ignore easily enough.
The corridors of the Red Keep were more filled with people than they had been before she had been confined to her bed, they had been starting to come out before the incident which had her giving birth a week before she should have but not in this number, perhaps they all thought that it was all coming to an end now.
But of course, that wasn't even close to true. Each black gown and black doublet spoke for that, the court had entered mourning for the young king that had never had a chance to wear his crown, but there were those who still wore full colours as well and Elia looked close at them. They announced themselves, without saying a single word, where they truly stood.
All came up to her, black and colour alike. Wishing her well and telling her how glad they were that she was back on her feet and all of them expressed their joy when she told them that yes her babe was well as well and Elia made all the noises that were expected of her at moments like this, all of them coming easy to her.
But her words died in her throat when she saw Ser Jaime at the other end of the corridor, it did not look like that he had seen her yet and Elia thought about turning and walking away as fast as she could but first of all she knew that was childish, and second of all in the time she ran her mind over staying or going he had seen her and was coming towards her.
"Princess." Jaime began, his hair had grown longer since she had last seen him and the beard on his chin was growing firmly, he looked almost as tired as she felt. "I'm glad to see that you're well, I was worried when I had heard what had happened. Hoster Tully should not have done that to you, he had no right to do so."
Elia had to bite her tongue to stop herself from letting out a groan, honestly between her brother, her husband and now Ser Jaime it was a miracle that no-one had ended up putting a knife in the Lord of Riverrun's back by now. Well, there was still the council to get through and Elia imagined that when that finally begun there would be more than enough knifes in the back to go around.
"I thank you for the concern and the desire to see justice done for me Ser Jaime, but my daughter is well and I am well. All is forgiven between myself and Lord Hoster, at least as far as I am concerned." It would not be that easy of course, she knew that her husband and her brother would never forgive him for it and Lord Hoster himself would no doubt not see himself in the wrong.
It was funny, they had removed all of the wildfire from the city and yet somehow Elia still felt like she was standing atop a cache of the vile stuff and it was moments away from going off.
"You are more gracious than I would be in your place my Lady." Ser Jaime hummed and gave her a smirk, though to her eye it did not seem to come so easily to him as it had done before everything that had happened. "And you have a daughter? I...am truly glad for you, I imagine that Lord Eddard is pleased as well, to have another child with you."
"She does seem to be a bonny little thing, thank you Ser Jaime and I hope he is." She had seen the look on Ned's face when he had first held their daughter, staring down at her like she was the most beautiful and precious thing in the entire world so she knew that she didn't have to hope that was the case. "How are you Ser Jaime?"
"Well enough, I suppose." Jaime said with a shrug of his shoulders, his arms crossing in front of his chest. "Of course, I am still not entirely certain what my fate is to be for...well, you know what for." He cleared his throat and Elia looked over her shoulder where a small group of ladies were standing clustered together into a small group, whispering to one another. Elia couldn't hear what they were saying but considering they seemed to keep glancing over at them in what she had to assume they thought was a subtle manner and they snickered to one another.
"Yes, I suppose that I do." A part of her wished to comfort him but she didn't think that she had the words to do so, it was not for her to say that all would be well as she was not sure that it would be, she did not know what decision was to be made for him or who indeed would make that decision. It was going to be the regency council for Renly who would make it but within Renly dead the regency council was all but dissolved.
She would like to think that because he had told her of the wildfire that it would be enough to give him some sort of clemency, she had come to think that he had done it out of some sort of selfless instinct but that by itself might not be close to enough. The awful truth of it was that if he was allowed to walk away from this then that would set a horrible precedent for whoever sat next on the throne if there killer could be forgiven for political reasons.
Even if none deserved it more than Aerys.
Before she could say anything else to him there were the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching them and the both of them turned to see Lysa Tully standing there, her long auburn hair was bound up in a silver hair net which was studded with deep blue sapphires which matched the blue of her eyes, but the rage and the hurt in them could not be matched by anything, Elia was certain.
"Ser Jaime." Lord Hoster's younger daughter began, stepping close to the knight. "Why did you do it? Why? I would have been a good wife, I would have made you happy and given you sons, as many as you wished for. You humiliated me, in front of the entire realm." Her shoulders were shaking and her eyes were wet and her next words came out as a scream. "How could you do that to me?"
Everyone lining the corridor was now looking at them and Elia felt a headache beginning to form behind her eyes, it was becoming a more common problem as of late and for a moment she considered breaking off and walking away from this but she could not show any sort of weakness here and now and so she stayed where she stood.
Ser Jaime did not seem startled or shocked, he simply kept staring at her and when he spoke he did not scream back at her, keeping his voice level. "I did not do it because of you my Lady, and I can not say that I thought about you at all when I made the choice to join the Kingsguard. The truth of it is that I never thought of you at all, and I never will at any point in the future."
Lysa slapped him, it barely made Jaime's head move and when he looked back at her, a red handprint on his face and a smirk formed on his features. "Well, I can not count myself fortunate enough that I missed out on such tender kisses from you my Lady."
Lysa let out a squeak and it was clear that she was going to try and slap him again, Elia decided to step in then both to try and avoid Ser Jaime suffering any more pain and to stop Lysa from more than likely having her wrist broken if she continued. "Lady Lysa, please, I think that is more than enough. I understand that you are upset, and I do understand why, but what is done is done and can not be changed now. It is not fair and it is not right but this will not help you."
"Who are you to say what will help?" Lysa spat at her, the rage in her voice was so thick that Elia was surprised that she did not choke on it. "Your husband's house had done nothing but spit and shame mine for years now, well, I'm glad to say that you can finally have some shame of your own now Princess. Your loving husband is not so immune to the charms of lesser women after all."
"What are you talking about?"
"One of my Father's men was in the courtyard when Lord Eddard rode in with his men, he had a babe with him that a servant took to the nursery. The servant said that the babe was a boy that looked very much like your husband." Lysa Tully smiled, like she had won some sort of a great victory over her and Elia was suddenly overcome with the urge to smash her teeth into shards. "You are Dornish, I'm sure it's not something that will surprise you that much."
Elia breathed in. One word, that was all that it would take. One word to her brother and she could have a poison put in Lysa Tully's cup that would choke the life out of her. Elia could have that done and not have to worry about losing sleep over it considering that she was not getting any sleep at the moment anyway.
But no matter what she wished to do, the situation was still to senstive to do something so stupid for her own petty hate and so she settled on shaming her with her courtesy. "I will have to beg your pardon, my Lady. Nothing would please me more than to speak more to you, but I am afraid that matters of great important call to my attention at this moment, and they can not be delayed any longer. Do excuse me."
Elia hurried off before the younger Tully daughter had time to respond to her, she heard Jaime call after her but she ignored him and all the people in the corridors of the Red Keep that tried to get her attention as well as the pain in her own body from moving so fast. She could go only to one place now, and nothing would stop her from going there and seeing the truth of the matter herself.
The royal nursery was empty, Lord Tywin had been keeping his grandchildren close to himself and only allowing his daughter to see them very briefly and under supervision according to what she had heard, it was why a babe of no great importance could be placed there with no great amount of resistance from anyone as well as there being no guards on the door.
As soon as she walked in, she heard it. The soft cooing and burping of a small babe, noises that her own children had made. Noises that she had heard her daughter make earlier the very same day. Elia walked over to the crib where the noises were coming from and, terrified that her knees were going to buckle, rested her hand on it to give herself some sort of support.
A glance was all she needed, this one was absolutelty a Stark there could be no question of that. The hair that was so dark a brown that it could easily be mistaken for black, the pale skin and the long face. Yes, there was Stark in there but...she wasn't sure if Ned was the Stark that she was seeing in the baby boy in that crib.
She had seen Ned in the faces of all of their children, Mors had his forehead and Torrhen had his lips and Rohanne had the shape of his eyes as well as the grey colour. If you looked closely, and knew what you were looking for, then you could see Ned in all of his children. The babe in front of her did not have that, releated to Ned she could tell that. But she could feel it deep down, he wasn't his son.
She heard the door to the nursery open again but she didn't look up until she heard the first steps being taken into the room, looking up to find Ned standing there. Her lord husband, the man she was sometimes frightened of how much she loved. A good man, an honorable man, a lord who cared and tried and would be the greatest the realm had ever seen.
"I think that you and I need to speak."
There was a long silence that filled the room then, neither of them saying anything. Neither knowing what they should say, when it came to that. Ned broke the silence first, letting out a sigh, and closed the door to the nursery before turning back to face her. His grey eyes, which she loved so much, were soft and sad. "Elia, he's my son. When we went to Dorne together...there was a serving girl at Sunspear, I had to much to drink and I...I shamed myself, and you, and I am deeply sorry. The boy's mother is dead, I could not leave him."
"Bullshit." Elia had to think it was the fact that she said the word, instead of screaming it at him, that caught her husband by surprise. She said it easily, a small statement of fact instead of the curse of someone who wished to deny the reality in front of them. "You are lying to me, I know you are. Who's babe is that? And tell me the truth this time."
"My-Elia, it is my babe. My bastard, I am sorry for doing this to you I am but it doesn't make it any less the truth-"
"Bullshit!" That time it was a curse, but it was more at the clear fact that her husband thought she was an idiot. "That babe was born when we took our sons to Sunspear, yes? Before the letter came to tell us that Brandon and Ashara had fled? That babe is nowhere near old enough to have been conceived back then, and you got him on a Dornish serving girl? That boy is as pale as milk, and finally, if you had gotten a girl pregnant in mine own home, it would have gotten back to me and then Oberyn would have cut your balls off and given them to me as a gift. Now, once again, whose babe is it!"
Ned did what all terrible liars tended to do in Elia's experince when the validity of their lies had been called into question, keep their mouths shut. His eyes were stormy now. Elia let out a heavy sigh and crossed the room towards him, letting her hands come up to rest on Ned's chest. "Ned, my love, you cannot lie to me. I know you, and I also know you well enough to know that you would not lie unless there was a good reason for it. Tell me, my love. All your secrets are mine as well, they are safe with me I promise you."
Ned bent his head and his hand came out to cup her cheek and the both of them just stayed there together for a few long moments, enjoying each other's warmth and presence in the unending storm that the world had seemed to become. That Elia had, in some small part, helped to make. "He's Lyanna's babe...and Rhaegar's."
Elia went cold as soon as the words left her husband's mouth and for a moment she was tempted to run back to the crib and look at the boy again, there had been something in his features that had been familar to her eye, something that had not been Stark. She knew that Ned was telling the truth, if it was a lie than it was even more damning than whatever the truth had to be.
Elia nodded then and stepped back, starting to pace the room back and forth as she tried to think of what to do, what to say. "We must say nothing of this, nothing at all. Things are bad enough, we don't need anyone to know there's another claimant to the throne. Rhaegar's son." She let out a bitter laugh then. "No, all right. He's your bastard, only you and I knew the truth of that."
"Howland Reed and the men who came with me to Dorne and survived knew the truth, your Uncle knows. But I swore all of them to secrecy." Uncle Lewyn was still alive then, that was good. Ned's letter had been a little vauge on that. "Elia...Jon Arryn told me...when the council is called to decide who should have the Throne, he wants to put me forward for it. He wants me to be the king."
"I know, so do I." The look of bafflement on her husband's face almost made her smile then but Elia didn't, she honestly felt to tired to smile at this point. "You would make an excellent one, the Reach and the Westerlands have more people than us but with their own divisions and Viserys no doubt being put forward as well that should waste some votes, while we will be a united block."
"We will not be united, I will not vote for myself and I will not take it." Ned looked like something she had said had offended him. "Gods be good, Elia. I do not want to be King, I didn't want to be the Lord of Winterfell. I never wanted any of it, I wanted you and I wanted our children and I wanted our little holdfast on the coast. That was all that I wanted, not a crown."
"Life is not about what we want, you know that." Elia had to sit down if she did not want to collapse, she had been ignoring her own body's pain but she could not do so any longer. "We have our dutys, and they needed to be met. You did not want to be the heir to Winterfell when Brandon ran off, but you still did it all the same."
"I did it because I was the second son of my Father, with Brandon gone it was my duty to see it through." Ned frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "This is not my duty, I have no right to wear a crown and no right to sit on the Iron Throne. I would be stealing it, we would look like gready opportunists who started a war only to steal power."
"Ned. That is why we went to war." Elia pointed out and then held up her hand to stop Ned from speaking when he was about to object. "That might not have been why you went to war, you went to war to save Robert if you could and bring Lyanna home. You did it because you loved them, both of them, but by and large this war happened because people could not suffer another day with the Mad King on the throne."
"And now, you have a new duty. The realm is torn and bleeding and it needs someone one strong and fair and wise and just and...and good, to help bandage those wounds." Elia held out a hand to him and Ned came to her and took it, his hands were large than hers but they were warm and had the gentlest touch. "They need you, I believe that."
Ned sighed and for a moment Elia thought she could see tears of frustration in his eyes, but if they were there then they were gone just as quickly and all that was left in his eyes, and his voice, was actual frustration. "My love...I can not do it, if the crown lands on my head despite my objections then...fine, in the aid of not wanting the realm to suffer more and stop more chaos then I will take it. But I will not pursue it, I am going to summon Mya Stone here and put her foreward."
Stone was a bastard name of those who hailed from the Vale and Mya...that name sounded so familar to her. "Robert's daughter." When Ned nodded, Elia felt a stab to her guts. Another young one, would she have to kill her as well. "Ned, no one is going to vote for a bastard girl to take the Iron Throne, not even any Dornish men will vote for that. I will tell them not to, Westeros does not need a babe or a group of people making decisions in their name till she's gone. They need someone who can take action on their own, now."
"I fully expect to fail, when the council begins I have no doubt that when it comes to it I will be the only one casting a vote for Mya. I have no doubt that all the assembled lords will laugh at me for that but it will not stop, none shall stop me from bringing the girl here. She is Robert's daughter, the only person I can be certain of that still has any Baratheon blood left in her and I will fight for her rights, I must do so."
How could she love someone so very much while that same person also made her want to tear all of her hair out from frustration. "You are right about one thing, my love. When it comes to it, you will fail. And I will not have the votes wasted, you may appeal to the lords on your own merit but I cannot help you with it. I won't."
"I would not ask you to, just do not hinder me." Ned let out a sigh then and then knelt in front of her and rested his head on her knees, Elia letting out a sigh of her own before bringing up her fingers to run through Ned's hair. They forgot about everything for just a little while, allowing themselves the safety of the room that they were in and forgetting everything else.
For just a little while.
End of Chapter-One Hundred and One
Welp, another chapter done and dusted.
Next chapter, we see the Grand Council in action and we see it through the eyes of my favourite character in the entire series and the best character to write. I hope that you are looking forward to it as much as I am.
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With a ton of love and warmest regards,
DiscordantSymphony.