Tyrion's hand was on Jaime's knee, a pat here and there coming from it. His family had never asked him what happened, but only Tyrion's silent support had been genuine and for him. His father only cared that the capital was theirs and that Aerys was dead. Cersei cared not one bit at all. The mad king was dead, and her vendetta against him for the insult he lay by not marrying her to Rhaegar was met. But Tyrion's silence was in his support and his support only, with no ulterior motives or innuendos attached.
"Y-you never said this."
Jaime's head shot up to see Ned Stark, the honourable fool, staring at him with wide eyes.
He was there that day. He would have died as well had the Mad King burned it all.
Jaime sneered.
"Why should I explain myself to you?" Jaime's voice was laced with anger and a tone of superiority as if to say he was better than that man. "You came into the throne room that day and had no qualms with pointing a finger at me and cursing me for what I had done. Did you notice in what state I was? Did you see my hands shaking? My knees barely able to keep me up? No. You walked in, you sat the Mad King dead and you pointed your self-righteous finger at me and cursed me. So tell me, Ned Stark, would my explanation have done anything to change your mind? Or had you already painted the entirety of House Lannister as opportunists because my father was late to join the war?"
Ned's face had grown solemn and dark.
"You were too busy judging me for breaking my oath of protecting a Mad Man to care" Jaime spat. "Yet at the same time when Barristan Selmy turned cloak and swore to Robert, you were more than happy with that. Isn't the oath of a Kingsguard for life? Should Barristan Selmy have received your scorn too? Or was it because you already deemed my family unworthy because of how late my father joined the war? You speak of honour yet you are selective of who those rules apply to."
Jaime turned away, refusing to meet the eyes of anyone else or answer any questions. He did not even hear them speak.
"He still broke his oath" Stannis muttered.
"Does a Knight not take an oath to protect the innocent as well?" Robert asked. "Had he not killed the Mad King, how would history remember him then? The Kingsguard that put the life of a Mad Man over those innocents he'd sworn to protect. Would you not have cursed him even then?" Renly asked, surprisingly calm.
Stannis had no answer for that.
Or rather, the answer he had did not please him.
[DRAGONSTONE DUNGEON]
[SHIREEN whispers to a sleeping SER DAVOS SEAWORTH through the iron bars of his cell.]
"I thought I told you to stay away from Ser Davos" Stannis raised a brow at his daughter, pushing the unpleasantness of Jaime Lannister's reveal away for now.
"I have done no such thing" Shireen shrugged. "And even if I did, you were wrong about him and he does not deserve to be locked up for being something you always respected."
Stannis could only sigh at his daughter.
[DAVOS comes to the bars to talk.]
"Go back to your room. You're not supposed to be here. If your father knew-"
"He said you Were a traitor. Are you?"
"I am, child. I disobeyed my king, your father, and now I'm paying the price."
"I don't care."
"You should care" Renly pointed out. "Rightfully or not, you don't know if Ser Davos is a dangerous man."
"He isn't. I have known Ser Davos my entire life and I can vouch that he is not a bad man" Shireen insisted.
"But still-"
"He is not a bad man!"
"Very well" Renly sighed. His niece was quite opinionated and stubborn in her beliefs. All her father.
"You're my friend. You must get bored down here. I brought you something to read. It's about Aegon and his dragons. Aegon used to live here. Did you know that? And the Targaryens built this castle."
"Ser Davos can't read" Stannis informs his daughter gently.
Shireen stares at him in shock.
"We must change that when we return!" the Princess said adamantly.
Stannis only nods.
[SLAVER'S BAY, RIVER]
[A score of Unsullied march and halt in front of DAENERYS and her group. DAENERYS speaks Valyrian]
"You did not choose this life. But you are free men now. And free men make their own choices. Have you selected your own leader from amongst your ranks?
[The Unsullied part, revealing their chosen leader.]
"It was a good choice to let them choose their leader," Doran said softly. "They are yet strangers to you as you are to them. By allowing them to choose, you show that you trust them to make important decisions that affect them."
Daenerys nods at the compliment. She wasn't used to many compliments, Viserys not being one to shower her in them for a long time. But she still remembered how to take them with grace.
[The man removes his helmet when told to and walks forward, head bowed. He then looks up at DAENERYS. They converse in Valyrian]
"What is your name?"
"Grey Worm."
"Grey…worm…? That's his name?" Bran questioned, "What kind of name is that?!"
"All boys taken in as unsullied are given new names when they are… put into their training" Brynden explained, finding a lack of words to explain how their 'training' starts. "They are given a new name to remind them that they are no longer free men."
Bran frowned at that. Just how cruel were these Essosi? The Wildlings seemed tamer in comparison.
"From this day forward you will choose your own names. You will tell your fellow soldiers to do the same. Throw away your slave name. Choose the name your parents gave you, or any other. A name that gives you pride."
"'Grey Worm' gives me pride. It is a very lucky name. The name this one was born with was cursed. That was the name he had when he was taken as a slave. But Grey Worm is the name this one had the day Daenerys Stormborn set him free."
"It means a lot to them that you have freed them" Elia whispered to Daenerys.
"I must free them this time as well" Daenerys spoke softly.
"Must you?" Elia questioned.
"I must!" the reply this time was more confident and her eyes reflected it clearly. "Look at them, look at how glad they are to be free, how happy and grateful! How can I look away from them?" she paused a moment. "I don't want to marry Khal Drogo or any Dothraki savage. But I want to hatch my eggs and I want to save these people."
"Very well then," Elia said with a smile.
She turned to Oberyn.
"We shall see what can be done" was all Oberyn said in reply.
[RIVERRUN, WAR ROOM]
[ROBB surveys a battle map in deep concentration, while TALISA sits on a chair behind him. ROBB throws down an army piece in disgust.]
"The Karstarks are gone. Almost half our forces."
"You killed their Lord. They had no reason to stay" Rickard Stark said somberly.
"Aye…" Robb muttered. If only he had… what would he have done differently? Punish his mother? Make sure she didn't free the Kinglayer? Keep her away from the camp entirely?
So many possibilities… it was a good thing he was learning of them before the events unfolded.
"Tywin Lannister knows what he needs to do to make us unravel. Nothing. Only wait."
"Don't let him."
"What can I do? Attack King's Landing? There's nothing he'd like better. He'd crush us in a day."
"We could ride north. Take your land back from the Greyjoys. Wait out the winter."
"Winter could last five years. Once my bannermen are home again, sitting by the fire, surrounded by their families, warm and safe, they'll never ride south again. When I gathered my lords together, we had a purpose, a mission. Now we're like a band of bickering children."
"They all marched to avenge the death of their fallen Warden. They have found his son lacking, an oathbreaker and indecisive, and his wife a meddling woman who freed one of their most prized prisoners over false hope and watches her walk with a punishment that is equivalent to a slap on the wrist" Rhaegar said with a frown and hum. "They no longer wish to follow such a… broken King."
"I am no oathbreaker!" Robb said angrily, standing to face the Targaryen Prince.
"Did your mother not promise your hand to Frey's daughter?" Rhaegar asked simply. "And were you not the one to break that promise, which can be called an oath, to marry this Volantene woman?"
Robb fell back on the seat scowling. He'd forgotten about that little indiscretion.
"Give them a new purpose."
"What?"
"Oh, I don't know. I don't even know where Winterfell is."
[ROBB takes her hand and uses it to point out locations on the large map. He pauses as a thought takes his mind.]
"I can't force them to meet us in the field and I can't attack them where they're strongest, but I can attack them where they're not."
[ROBB moves one piece to take another on the map.]
"And Casterly Rock can't run away. I'm going to take their home away from them."
"With what army?" Oberyn asked. "Half your army deserted you for home."
"I don't know" Robb muttered, "he hasn't said it yet" Robb pointed to his future self.
"I need men to replace the Karstarks who marched home. There is only one person in this kingdom with that kind of army who hasn't already sided with the Lannisters. The man whose daughter I was supposed to marry- Walder Frey."
"That is the most idiotic plan I have heard," Rnly said blandly. "Walder Frey is a proud man, all of us know this. You have broken an oath to marry his daughter and basically shamed him when you chose that woman to marry. He would never help you for that alone, and you'd be lucky if he doesn't kill you where you stand just to get in the Lannisters' good books."
"I know" Robb muttered frustrated. "Clearly it's an act of desperation if I'm crawling back to him! I don't blame my future self for being so desperate when half his army had left him."
"Had the future you been smart, he wouldn't have had to face so many problems" Renly pointed out evenly, like he was pointing to something obvious.
"I know…" the boy sighed, still frustrated.
[TYWIN'S CHAMBERS]
[TYRION enters, carrying a large tome. He spies CERSEI and pauses.]
"Oh great we were both summoned" Tyrion muttered. Nothing was ever good when they both were present for something.
"What's she doing here?"
"Our business concerns her, too. Sit."
[TYRION sits at the table.]
"You'll be pleased to learn that after one conversation with Olenna Tyrell, I've saved the crown hundreds of thousands on this wedding."
"Never mind that now. We have something important to discuss."
"Of course when it's my accomplishments, there's something else more important" Tyrion muttered darkly.
"Your sister has learned that your new friends the Tyrells are plotting to marry Sansa Stark to Ser Loras."
"Very well. She's a lovely girl. Missing some of Loras' favorite bits, but I'm sure they'll make do."
"Your jokes are not appreciated."
"It wasn't my best, but-"
"I bring them into the royal fold and this is how they repay me, by trying to steal the key to the North out from under me."
"Does he think he brought us in? Because I'm very certain that if not for us, his whole family would be dead right now" Olenna snorted. "The gall on this man to think we owe him shit!"
"Father does have that charm about him," Tyrion said with a dry chuckle.
"The Karstarks have marched home. The young wolf has lost half his army. His days are numbered. Theon Greyjoy murdered both his brothers. That makes Sansa Stark the heir to Winterfell. And I am not about to hand her over to the Tyrells.|
"The Tyrell army is helping us to win this war. Do you really think it's wise to refuse them?"
"There's nothing to refuse. This is a plot. Plots are not public knowledge. And the Tyrells won't carry this one out until after Joffrey's wedding. We need to act first and kill this union in its crib. We find Sansa Stark a different husband."
"Absolutely not!" Sansa shrieked. "I refuse to marry anyone he chooses for me!"
Most did not have the heart to tell her that her future self might not have a choice here.
The others simply did not care enough to tell her.
"You can't mean it."
"I can and I do."
"Joffrey has made this poor girl's life miserable since the day he took her father's head. Now she's finally free of him and you give her to me? That's cruel even for you."
Sansa's head sharply turned to Tyrion and she physically cringed at the sight of the man.
"I refuse to marry him" she declared hotly.
"The feeling is mutual," Tyrion said dryly. He didn't like how she'd reacted to him, to his appearance. Such a shallow girl… he'd never be able to keep her happy. Meaning he'd be unhappy.
Tyrion Lannister always preferred to keep himself happy.
"She's a child!"
"She's flowered, I assure you. She and I have discussed it at length."
Sansa cringed once more, this time from anger. How dare that… bitch!
"There, you see? You will wed her, bed her, and put a child in her. Surely you're capable of that."
"And if I refuse?"
"You wanted to be rewarded for your valour in battle. Sansa Stark is a finer reward than you could ever dare hope for. And it is past time you were wed."
"I was wed. Or don't you remember?"
The Imp's visage turned stone cold.
Joanna gave Jaime a look, and the man just sighed.
"You should be thanking the gods for this. This is more than you deserve."
"Tyrion will do as he's bid. As will you."
"What do you mean?"
TYWIN: You'll marry Ser Loras.
Tyrion couldn't help it then, his sour mood broken immediately by the words of his father. He broke into peels of laughter so hard that he fell from his seat in doing so.