They had been sitting in uncomfortable silence for almost half an hour. He had started pacing the room, yet his father had told him to stop making a fool of himself and sit down.
Tommen, ever the kind and obedient boy, had not moved from his chair. He shifted from time to time, laying his hands this way and that, yet remained seated still. Myrcella had taken out a piece of string and tied knots into it, well hidden from her grandfather's eyes. Cersei drank, their father stared at the door, and Jaime felt useless.
He wondered whether he should attempt another walk around the room when a knock sounded on the door. In the silence of the room the sound echoed like an explosion.
A Lannister soldier appeared behind the opening. "She is here, m'lord."
"Good. Send her in," his father responded.
The door was pushed open wider to let a young woman step through, and Jaime immediately knew where he had seen her before.
She was that girl he had followed to Cerelle's tree at the wedding, who had for whatever reason been very agitated and confused, and who had confused him in turn when she had simply run away instead of answering his questions. He had considered it, for a moment, but then realised how unlikely that would be. Especially with how heavy her Dornish accent was.
The girl did not look too dissimilar to that day, yet her dress and veil were now red instead of yellow, and an ugly bruise sat on her right cheek. Her left hand clutched a wooden cane, upon which she was now leaning herself.
"Take off the veil, you are embarrassing yourself," his father said.
Her eyes darted between the people in the room, each of them surely as confused as Jaime as to what this all meant, before she reached a shaking hand up to her head and carefully pulled off the veil to reveal her golden hair.
His father liked to believe he was slow on the uptake, and for some things this might have been the case, yet he knew he was the first person in that room to understand the purpose of this reveal. To understand what a girl with golden hair dressed in red, invited by his father into the circle of close family, meant.
"I apologise, I fear I do not know your name," Tommen said.
"It is no shame you do not know her, seeing as she had left before you were born," his grandfather answered with a tone Jaime did not like. "That is your sister, Princess Cerelle."
To hear her name after all this time, to see her face. He knew he should have trusted his instincts that day-
"No," Cersei said. "That thing is not my daughter."
His sister had recoiled on her place on the couch, the wine glass having been set down with a loud chink on the table beside it. He was about to open his mouth in an attempt to reason with her, but his father was quicker.
"Is that a way to talk about your own flesh and blood? You have been trying to find her for years, sending me quite desperate letters if I recall correctly."
Cersei's eyes burned like wildfire as she jumped to her feet. "You think I will accept this Dornish bastard as my own? Those desert dwellers are taunting us, using this as a way to punish us for the perceived slight against their family. You will truly trust their word?"
"No, but I trust my own, and your daughter's. I have evidence-"
"To the seven hells with your evidence!"
"Mother-" Cerelle tried.
"Don't you dare call me that!" Cersei hissed in response, and stormed out of the room. The door swung with a crash against the wall.
Jaime took a breath. "I'll talk to her."
As he made his way out of the room he passed Cerelle, shakily leaning on her cane, tears welling up in her eyes. He wanted nothing more than to clasp her into his arms, yet he knew he could not do that in front of his father. And not as long as Cersei cast her out.
He needed to make things right. His family was almost united again, his sister needed to see this. Then everything would be alright and as it once was, and he could finally hold his- Cersei's daughter in his arms again.
He found her on one of the roofed galleries surrounding a small yard, leaning against the banister and staring down at the courtiers. She did not react as he took his place beside her.
"Cersei-"
"I don't want to hear it."
"Why? Do you not want to have our daughter back?"
"The last ten years it seemed like I was the only one who wanted her back. Everyone told me it was too late, that she was dead, that I should stop trying. And now our father pretends as if I were mad for having doubts."
"But you have her back."
"That girl looked me in the eye and said naught a thing." She straightened her back, the hatred in her eyes fighting against the tears forming in them. "My daughter would do anything to get back to me if she loved me, not hide for a moon right behind me."
"You don't know what she has gone through. I mean, did you recognize her? Did you say something when you saw her?"
"Are you truly blaming me for this?
"No, but- Cersei, please." How was she so blind? "I saw her at the wedding. She was agitated by something and ran directly to Cerelle's tree. She knew the hidden path through the maze, did not even take a wrong turn. This has to mean something." He laid his hands on the side of her face to force her to look at him. The tears were already escaping her eyes. "Can't you see it? She looks like you down to the very bone. Were you to look into a mirror, it would be her face staring back at you."
He pressed her against his chest, and despite the weak resistance his sister put up, she eventually started to melt into his embrace.
Her shoulders shook from the force of her sobs. "I don't want this to be a lie. I want my little girl back."
"Go back. Talk to her. And then decide."
a/n: today's a double chapter again! meaing by the time you're reading this, the next one will already be up