Benjiamin's armour clattered as he entered the council chamber.
"You're late."
Tywin Lannister sat at the head of the table, surrounded by his generals.
"My apologies." He fell down in a free chair at the other end of the table. "We were ambushed by a group of outlaws. Their bodies now decorate the trees on the way to the castle."
Lord Tywin showed no reaction, which was to be expected.
"As I was saying-" one of the lords - Serrett perhaps - said- "The last we heard from Storm's End was that fighting had broken out between Stannis' forces and former Renly supporters. As to the outcome, no message has been sent."
Truthfully, Benjiamin couldn't care less about the happenings in the Stormlands. He was already well occupied with his own war and the idiotic uprisings in his lands - what some far-away pretenders were quarrelling over was of no importance to him.
"The only thing we should concern ourselves with is the Tyrell host," Lord Tywin said. "Whomever they join will become our biggest threat."
A dark haired girl went to fill Benjiamin's cup, but he laid a hand over the goblet. He needed his wits with him at all times.
"Perhaps we could now return to the issue of this Golden Paladin," one of the men said.
Benjiamin shifted in his chair, trying not to seem too interested. But oh, how glad he was that someone had brought up that bitch. She had been nothing but a nuisance to him, a thorn in his side, a pest plaguing his land. Her meddling in his affairs was one of the reasons he had decided to ally with House Lannister. Well, that and the letter by that imbecile Edmure Tully berating him for punishing his subjects.
Lord Tywin's frown deepened. "The peasant's love for her is misplaced. She is a foolish woman that will soon find her end."
"Girl."
"What was that?"
Benjiamin looked up, gaze switching from one general to the next before settling on Lord Tywin. "I was simply saying that she is younger than even me, you could not possibly call her a woman."
"Ah, I remember," he said, leaning back in his chair. "You have met her before."
He ground his teeth together. Met her. Had been embarrassed by her, would better describe their interactions.
The image of her standing above him, golden curls swaying in the wind, smiling viciously, would haunt his dreams until his dying breath.
(At least it was something pretty, for a change.)
"Aye," was all he said.
"Tell me, how is your pursuit of the Paladin going?"
Lord Tywin stared at him almost in challenge, but Benjiamin was not one of his weakling generals who easily caved to the Lord of Casterly Rock. He was the son of Elyana Vypren, the blood of the First Men, and no one, not an old lion, and definitely not a rambunctious paladin, could make him feel any lesser.
"Less ideal than I would have liked," he finally answered. "The people love her too much. Most of them would rather die than confess they have even so much as seen her."
"Perhaps you should see this as your sign to dedicate your attention to more pressing matters."
And abandon her? Never.
He raised a brow. "I have killed Harrion Karstark for you. And his entire army. The way I see it, a girl inciting riots against our forces and garnering sympathy for the enemy is the most pressing matter at this point."
Lord Tywin took a sip of his cup. "Do you at least know where she is?"
"I have already encountered her by now. She was close, but slipped right through my fingers."
Finding her that day had been pure coincidence. He had come to the town expecting it to go down like any other raid he had conducted - interrogate someone, kill a few others, and then burn what was left. But to actually see her again… Standing there before him, in the flesh, with her cursed green cloak and her alluring golden hair. He had forgotten to breathe for a moment.
It was lucky he had been there. To think he might have almost lost her to Ser Gregor… He would never let that brute touch her. She was his to catch, his to take, his to punish.
"And do you have a plan on how to find her again?"
"Not just find." He straightened in his chair. "The people love her, and she loves them. Therefore, the easiest way to defeat the Paladin is to either utilise that love or turn it sour."
He had thought about this, long and hard. Had spent every sleepless night contemplating where he had failed and how he could win.
"One way is to turn the people against her," he said. "We could tell them that our attacks are her fault, and if she was handed out to us, we would stop."
"And how would we spread this information?"
Lord Tywin was testing him, seeing if his place at his side was justified.
"That is the catch with this plan," he quickly answered. "It also relies too much on people believing our word."
"Why do we not simply kill her?" Lord Lydden asked. "Put a bounty on her head."
"And risk her becoming a martyr?" Benjiamin had interrupted Lord Tywin, he knew, but if the man wanted to play with him, he would be glad to participate. "I also do not trust them to bring her to us alive. The chances are too high that something will happen to her on that journey."
"Still. We should not abandon that idea fully," Lord Tywin said. He turned his scrutinising gaze towards Benjiamin again. "Was that all you had in mind?"
"There is one more thing." He started playing around with his father's ring. "As I mentioned, we could use the Paladin's love for the people. If we, say, burned a swath of destruction through the lands, that would force her to answer. And if we controlled where we went, we would control where she would turn up." He smiled at Lord Tywin. "And we could kill a few Stark soldiers along the way."
The lord dismissed every other person from the room, Benjiamin the only one allowed to stay. They stared at each other, testing who would be the first to break.
"There has been a change in plans," Lord Tywin said. "Due to the unforeseen situation this war has put us in, you will bring the Paladin to King's Landing after her capture. Unharmed, of course."
Un- This had to be a jape. His Golden Paladin to be brought to King's Landing. Unharmed! He would not stand for this… this…
He had not spent hours devising the perfect punishment for her to be taken away from him. Had not crafted the exact torture he would inflict on her body and mind to lose her.
"I refuse."
Lord Tywin raised a brow. "You refuse?"
"She committed crimes against me and my lands. I deserve-"
"This is not about you, Vypren. Has stopped being so long ago."
Benjiamin clenched his teeth and averted his gaze, opting to stare at his father's ring and the flames reflected in its metal.
"The Golden Paladin is dangerous, wouldn't you agree?"
Lord Tywin talked to him as if he were a child, needing even the simplest concepts explained to.
"I do," he answered quietly.
"Then surely you also agree, as you have previously stated yourself, that we need to avoid making her a martyr."
"At all costs."
"And we shall achieve this by bringing her to King's Landing, finding out her identity and motive, and then deciding what the appropriate punishment would be."
Benjiamin nodded slowly.
Perhaps Lord Tywin was correct. There was a certain special torture in denying the Paladin punishment for so long, denying her a conclusion to her capture.
"Under one condition." He locked eyes with the lord once more. "I get to play a part in her final fate."
A short, almost unnoticeable nod. Benjiamin saw this as his dismissal, yet he was only able to take four steps before Lord Tywin spoke up again.
"Your mother would have been proud of you."
He froze. His shoulders tensed almost on their own accord, stretching the skin on his back.
"Mayhaps, if things had turned out different, we could have been able to call each other family."
Benjiamin knew, of course, of his mother's ambitions to betroth him to the princess. They had been born on the same day after all, and that could have been nothing less than a sign from the Gods.
Yet his mother had died, and the princess had disappeared.
Sometimes, he wondered what happened to her.
Was likely snatched up by a criminal like the Paladin. A "woman" like that could learn a thing or two from the grace and poise exhibited by a princess.
"We shall find another price worthy of your accomplishments," Lord Tywin finished.
Benjiamin's men were already waiting for him before their quarters.
"So, what's the plan?" Henrix asked.
"We shall bring her to Lord Tywin once we have her. Unharmed, sadly. Otherwise, proceed as discussed." His men bowed. "Now, get some rest, we leave before sunrise."
Let's catch some snakes.