11

Chapter 11: Part XI

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Disclaimer: I own nothing, just borrowing for a while.

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"Men willingly believe what they wish"

Joffrey Augustus, The Wars in Essos - 315 AL

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The Red Keep - King's Landing – 298 AL

Sat alone at his desk in the Tower of the Hand, a weighty tome open before him, Eddard Stark scanned down the page. "Lord Orys Baratheon, black of hair. Axel Baratheon, black of hair. Lyonel Baratheon, black of hair," he read aloud, "Steffon Baratheon, black of hair" he said, flipping to the next page. "Robert Baratheon, black of hair. Joffrey Baratheon" he paused. "Golden haired" he said eventually, frowning as he looked down upon the copy of The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms he had borrowed from Grand Maester Pycelle.

Did that prove Cersei had cuckolded Robert with another man, perhaps even her own brother? Petyr Baelish and his idle talk of blond Lannisters and Targaryen incest had certainly triggered a thought along those lines that the book seemed to support but was that enough, Stark considered.

All of Robert Baratheon's known bastard offspring had dark black hair sure enough, whereas his "legitimate" offspring did not, but then again not all of the eight or so women who had born a child out-of-wedlock to the king were light of hair themselves so that wasn't entirely conclusive in itself was it, Stark thought to himself?

Returning to the book, whenever a Lannister had previously married a Baratheon it seemed that the resulting children were dark haired, again supporting the theory, but then again it hadn't really happened that often over the years. Prior to the wedding of Robert and Cersei the last Baratheon to marry a Lannister was Gowen Baratheon who had married Tya Lannister ninety years ago, and the next most recent union between the two houses was decades before that. Too much further back and the House of Baratheon didn't even exist as such, because its founder, Orys, had only arrived in Westeros along with the invading Targaryens, so there weren't exactly thousands of years of records to go on like there were for marriages between other Westerosi Houses.

Orys Baratheon was himself also rumoured to be the bastard half-brother of Aegon the Conqueror, both being sons of Aerion of the House Targaryen, so the family history was a little murky to start with for that matter.

The thing was, even though the House of Baratheon were dark of hair the Lannisters were practically renowned for being blond. Cersei was light of hair, as were both of her brothers. Her father Tywin was light of hair, as were all of his own brothers and his sister. Her grandfather Tytos was light of hair, as were all three of his brothers and her great-grandfather Gerold Lannister was actually known as "The Golden", and not because of the gold mines of the Westerlands.

Unlike the Baratheons the Lannisters were a very old House. Despite being southerners, with a great deal of Andal blood in their veins as a result, their family could be traced back to Lann the Clever, a legendary hero of the First Men. If you wanted to find examples of golden-haired Lannisters who had golden-haired children despite having dark haired wives or husbands The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms was full of them going back to the dawn of recorded history. Not every time of course, but more than enough to point to if you wanted to deride the notion that Joffrey not having Roberts dark hair was certain proof he wasn't the king's son.

For one thing, as Baelish had noted, Cersei was probably even more of a Lannister than your average Lannister because her parents were first cousins, both being grandchildren of Gerold, he of the famously golden hair.

Eddard Stark groaned, even though something told him it was true he couldn't help but imagine mentioning this notion he had to someone else and getting looked at like he was a bloody idiot. "So because Prince Joffrey is blond, like practically every other person with Lannister blood for the past ten thousand years, you think Robert isn't his father?" he muttered to himself, imagining what the other person might say. "I suppose you think those red-haired children of yours prove your wife slept with her brother Edmure too do you?" Stark continued sarcastically, before burying his head in his hands.

Maybe it was true but how could be prove it? If there was one thing that he had rediscovered anew recently about Lannisters it was that they weren't stupid. Tywin himself was always well known for his planning and calculation and now his grandson Joffrey had repeatedly demonstrated in the Small Council that he was very bright. Even the runt of the Lannister litter, the dwarf Tyrion, was well read, and Petyr Baelish, a very clever man himself, appeared to rate his intellect highly.

I could confront the queen directly but only a complete moron would admit to cuckolding the king with her own brother, Stark thought to himself, either crime being punishable by death. If I tell the king of my suspicions he'll either believe me, and have Cersei and her children executed, or he won't believe me and then who knows what he'll do. I could warn Cersei before telling the king, giving her the opportunity to escape with her children beforehand, but if she doesn't run, what happens next?

It might not even be true though, in which case I'll potentially have entirely innocent blood on my hands, Stark realised. Robert's blood if they were his children after all. Joffrey isn't a bad young lad, despite what I've heard people say about him, and nobody has a bad word to say about his brother and sister even if their mother isn't exactly beloved, he thought.

Agreeing to the assassination of the Targaryen pretenders in Essos still weighed heavily on Eddard Stark's conscience. Killing someone for something they might do was wrong, despite any arguments as to it being necessary, or the lesser of two evils, how is killing someone for something they might be any better?

It seemed likely that Jon Arryn had reached the same conclusion by looking at the same evidence regarding Joffrey's parentage, Eddard Stark surmised, and perhaps that was the reason for his assassination, but nobody has tried to kill me despite my visiting Robert's bastards and obtaining this book from Grand Maester Pycelle as he did. Is there more to learn, something else that Jon Arryn discovered that I have yet to find out? Conclusive proof of Joffrey not being Robert's son or even something else entirely?

If you were trying to destabilise the Seven Kingdoms then driving a wedge between the Great Houses would be necessary. For that matter if you wanted to stabilise the Seven Kingdoms then something that bound several of them together in blood upon the Iron Throne would be extremely welcome. Beyond their ties of friendship Robert Baratheon had another reason to want to wed his son to Eddard Stark's daughter as a child they produced would have Stark and Tully blood through Sansa and Baratheon and Lannister blood through Joffrey. That was four of the seven kingdoms united, even without considering that Robin Arryn, now Lord of the Vale with his father's death, was Sansa's first cousin.

Something else that Lord Baelish had said was also nagging at Eddard Stark's mind. The Master of Coin had commented that when considering who had murdered Jon Arryn that when looking for motive in such situations he usually pointed the finger at whoever benefitted, and that made a lot of sense. If Joffrey wasn't Robert's son, and the Lannisters discovered that Jon Arryn had learned this, it would be in their interests to shut him up, permanently. On the other hand could there be even more going on than first appeared? Who benefitted from Joffrey and his siblings being removed from the line of succession? Or for that matter who benefitted from a less stable kingdom?

With Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella gone then Stannis was next in line, not that the man was the type for scheming himself but if someone led him to believe, rightly or wrongly, that the current heir was illegitimate he would definitely follow the letter-of-the-law and claim the throne, perhaps leading to civil war on Roberts death. Not only was Stannis younger, if not by much, Robert's constant drinking and feasting would likely put him in his tomb years before his younger brother after all.

As for wanting Westeros destabilised the most likely candidates would be the Targaryens, Stark reasoned. Did they still have enough influence and supporters in Westeros to be a genuine threat?

"I need to know more before I decide what to do" Stark said to himself firmly, closing the book shortly before someone knocked on the door of his chamber. "Come in" he called out, the door opening to reveal his eldest daughter, herself carrying a book if a rather smaller volume than the one before him. "What is it Sansa?" he asked.

"Prince Joffrey came to the door and asked me to pass this onto you" she said, walking in and holding out the book for him to take.

Eddard Stark took it from her. "Fire upon the Grass" he read the title aloud.

"It's a book by a Braavosi that rode with a Dothraki horde apparently" Sansa explained. "Joffrey said he hoped you might sleep easier regarding your decision after you read what they did to the town of Ibbish, and remember that they did the same to all the other towns and cities around the Dothraki Sea" she said. "What did he mean by 'sleep easier' father?" she asked curiously.

"Small Council business, nothing to concern you sweetheart" Stark replied, putting down the book. Whether the boy was a bastard or not in the literal meaning of the word he seemed a decent sort and clearly wasn't one in the derogatory sense. "Did he say anything else?"

"No, he wasn't here more than a couple of minutes" Sansa replied before rolling her eyes. "Arya asked if he wanted to practice against her with wooden swords tomorrow" she told her father. "He said now that she's been having lessons she might need a better opponent because he's not really very good."

"Not like his uncle Jaime then" Stark responded before frowning and looking at both books before him. No, Joffrey wasn't much like Robert but he then again wasn't much like Jaime Lannister either was he? Apart from the archetypical Lannister looks anyway.

From Eddard Stark's observations if Joffrey took after anyone it was his grandfather Tywin, but then again not all of the Baratheon's were warhammer swinging battle lords like Robert Baratheon, some were adept at politics not just combat. Robert's grandfather Ormund had served as Hand of the King, and if he hadn't died in a shipwreck his son Steffon, Robert's father, would have likely been made Hand as well.

"Is something wrong father?" Sansa asked, his expression seemed to say so.

"I don't actually know for absolute certain and that's the problem" Eddard Stark replied sadly. "And if I did know either way I'd still have a problem" he added, looking his most grim.

Notes:

Note from the author:

The quote at the top is actually from Julius Caesar and comes from his book The Gallic Wars, Octavian "borrowed" it for his own book.

While Baratheon children, legitimate or not are dark-haired, Lannisters are notoriously blond so "The Seed is Strong" isn't exactly a slam-dunk argument unless you want to believe in it. Baratheons have married Lanninsters before, and this resulted in children with black hair, but the two houses really haven't inter-married very often so the number of examples to point to are very thin. The most recent marriage mentioned in the books (between Gowen Baratheon and Tya Lannister) was nine decades ago and the most recent before that was another four decades earlier so unless Baratheons married Lannisters en-masse for the first few years after Aegon's Conquest there haven't been a lot of weddings between them.

Fire upon the Grass follows a Braavosi as he travels with the Dothraki and includes his recollections of their sacking of Ibbish. The Dothraki Sea and its environs contain a good number of sacked towns and cities.

In a situation when he hasn't fought with Jaime outside a brothel following the massacre of his bannermen by Lannister Guards, doesn't have a hole in his leg because of the spear wielded by one of those guards, there isn't a Lannister raiding party led by Gregor Clegane laying waste to the Riverlands and he doesn't think that Tyrion made an attempt on the life of his son Brandon, Ned Stark isn't as automatically hostile to those of Lannister blood as he would have been otherwise.

Men willingly believe what they wish and Eddard Stark, wishing that Joffrey is Roberts son because he likes him, and if he's not then things are going to get horribly messy, is trying to justify that belief in his own

Mind