King's Landing
Tyrion sighed heavily as he made his way toward the council chambers, walking passed Asha bragging about her victory over Euron during the Battle of King's Landing.
The naval battle was havoc over the Blackwater, thousands of men and hundreds of ships now float or had sunk to the bottom of the sea.
Euron tried to flee the field, with that shiny horn of his but Asha destroyed it with fiery shots from a scorpion bolt. With the weapon destroyed, Vaeleris dived down and sank the Silence which ended the battle completely.
A week it's been since the battle, Daeron won the Iron Throne and though peace hasn't completely been restored to the city, some semblance of calm had arisen since the fight.
The last lion of Lannister had secretly sent a few scouts in search of his brother, or if they cannot find Jaime then they were to ride in search of his sister and nephew. It's all quite dangerous, but I don't trust Daeron's intentions. Tyrion thought while entering the throne room.
The King had taken his throne six days ago, he shows a strong face but having to silence his pet struck a chord and left a scar that he doesn't feel that his grace will be able to control his anger if Tommen and Cersei are brought before him.
"You look thoughtful?" He heard and turned to Varys, the reinstated Master of Whispers approached him with his hands in his robes.
"Don't I? I assumed too much of my abilities, then." He said with a bit of humor, though it was eclipsed by his gloomy expression making his tiny smile forced in an obvious way.
"Still searching for Ser Jaime and the Queen?" A sigh of frustration escaped him, thinking that all but Lord Varys would know of his secret mission to find his family.
"I assume you know more than I on the subject, care to share it with me?" Varys gave him the expression that told him to let all of this go, he couldn't and the man knew why he can't.
"There has been no news on Jaime Lannister, most of the foray he rode out to attack the camps with have been killed or were scattered on the Blackwater Rush. As for the Queen and Lord Tommen... " It's still King Tommen, a rival King of the Lannister State but still royal. "His grace sent Jorah and some 12,000 men after them. They will have been caught by now, I'm sorry, Tyrion."
He continued inside the council chamber where Daeron was sitting along with his newly picked Small Council.
Varys was the Master of Whispers. Garlan Tyrell became the new Master of Laws. Harry Strictland was appointed the Lord Commander of the City Guard, even gained the newly legitimized bastard of Robert as a Lieutenant.
The Master of Ships and Coin were Baelor Blacktyde from the Iron Islands and Mathis Rowan from Goldengrove, both were eager for the position when the victory feast was held.
Grey Worm, Daario, and himself were also given advisory positions. The only two positions unfilled at the moment was the Hand of the King and Grand Maester, the smaller of the two being because Pycelle was murdered many months back and no new chain wielder was picked.
Jon Connington among many from the Stormlands, Vale, Dorne and the Reach offered themselves to the position of Hand but Daeron refused them all.
It's good, wait on choosing the secondary ruler until the Realm has calmed down.
Trystane had taken the title of Representative for Dorne along with Anders Yronwood. Barristan also resumed his duties of Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Barristan, Jorah, Obara, Kovarro, Rhakaro. Tyrion pondered, who will fill the last three positions of Daeron's Kingsguard.
Jaime might have been the one he'd have recommended to the King. His brother could earn redemption by fulfilling his duties to House Targaryen.
Bah, a fool's desire. Daeron might have a forgiving heart but not a forgetting one, he's seen this when he spared the Lords fighting for his nephew after the battle but made sure to take tribute and consequences be severe in the next ten or so years for their neglect to choose their rightful ruler.
"You have come, thank you... Now we shall begin." Daeron said coldly as he and Varys took a seat next to Lord Yronwood and Trystane.
Several matters of state were discussed, coin and troop count and supply consumption during the last few months- No, years of war that had ravaged the Riverlands, Crownlands, Stormlands, Reach and the Westerlands.
Daeron, he didn't show any sign of boredom as he had seen in Joffrey when he had the throne. His eyes didn't falter when even the simplest of official proposals, he took it all seriously and when it was over his grace dismissed everyone and he chose to remain.
"You've been doing well, in these last six days as King." Daeron nodded to his compliment, "I know you were crowned in Oldtown but wouldn't it be well enough to have a coronation here in the throne room? Every King's done it since Aenys the First." He advised and the King shook his head no.
"I am not the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms if I don't rule the Seven Kingdoms, right?" That is true, in away. "The North and the Riverlands, the King of the North had begun marching down South- He stopped and tore down the towers at the Crossing," Daeron commented with praise to his next adversary.
"Jon, I remember him being a somewhat intelligent lad and also a bit gloomy." His grace chuckled, "A smile, a laugh, you must be doing better than most thought." Daeron stood from his chair and stretched his arms out.
"To tell you the truth, I am a broken person... Sansa helped me on the first four nights, without her comfort then I might have lost myself." Then he can thank his former wife for such a blessing, then.
"Sansa has a very gentle heart, far more gentle than Lady Stark or Ned. She'll make a good Queen, a greater mother." Daeron showed a flustered face at the mention of marrying Sansa Stark. "Daeron, I know that I have no right to ask this... But my sister and nephew?" He was stopped by the boy who smiled lightly.
"If they surrender and quit running, then their safety will be guaranteed, my friend... But if not, I cannot be lenient to someone who threatens my reign." He wanted to yell and shout and throw a fit.
He left his grace and didn't care to acknowledge the King while doing so.
The Riverlands
Everyone felt sore, tired, fatigue had begun setting in as they've been running since the battle.
The Targaryen forces have hounded them for two nights, taking several hundred of the last loyalists following King Tommen Baratheon.
Two such soldiers were Ser Forley Prester and Ser Jon Bettley, following their commander Addam Marbrand. The two shared nothing but contempt and hatred for their misfortune.
Many that were left wanted to turn around and surrender, take their chance to pledge their allegiance to the new King.
Feron Hawthorne had counseled Tommen to do just this, Marbrand and the Dowager had him hanged an hour later before the slaver Jorah led an assault on them.
The time of House Lannister is at an end and Addam and Cersei both keep thinking that they'll make it back to the Westerlands, that they'll be able to rally and keep battling the Targaryen's force and his dragons.
It's a futile effort, the end result being that they all get murdered and their families exiled, lands and titles stripped and the records of their houses getting erased.
"I won't die like this, I can't die like this... " Forley muttered as the two stopped and watched Marbrand escort Tommen and his mother inside of the ruined castle.
Jon Bettley grunted and nudged the other man, "We won't, tonight we go home and earn some fortune while we do so." Forley took a moment but he understood what his companion meant.
Nightfall came and 280 Lannister soldiers made their way to the ruined castle, killing the loyal men along the way. Marbrand didn't realize that they were attacked by their own men until the keep was crawling with traitors.
"You turncoats!" Were the last words and Jon shoved his spear into Addam's chest from his back, Forley led twenty other troops and barged down the doors to the former King's chamber and Cersei hopped to her feet with a sword in her hands.
"What is the meaning of this? Turning on your King?! Traitors!" The oathbreaker scoffed with a wild smirk.
"Traitors? The only traitors here are the ones who are forcing us to protect you all to the death, you are a tyrant and we have chosen a new ruler to bend our knees too." Taking steps to surround them, Cersei tried her best but she was butchered and cut down in front of her terrified son.
Tommen begged and his pleas were ignored as his crown was ripped from his hands and his head was lopped off of his body.
Cersei's head was also taken, the remaining Lannister men left in the night to meet the Targaryen force coming to find them, catching a glimpse of the army when dawn broke over a field.
Jorah Mormont and Grey Worm were puzzled that the enemy King would surrender, considering that they've been running for the last six and now seven days. The Kingsguard knight stopped his horse, watching the small troop come closer and closer and all looked tired and had blood on their arms and armor.
Recognizing the Prester family crest, Jorah narrowed his eyes on the man.
"Where is his grace, where's the Dowager Queen of Baratheon?" Forley Prester dismounted and he plus two others offered three heads to them.
Deep down, Jorah realized what and whose heads these were despite the decapitated being covered in white cloth.
"... Grey Worm, arrest these men." Forley and Jon and the many mutineers were surprised and shocked at the Knights decision on their action.
"What are you doing, we thought you lot wanted this?!" Jorah shook his head no, denying these men.
"The King, Daeron Targaryen never wanted to murder a son in front of his mother, that would make him no worse than the Mountain and Tywin Lannister." He dismounted and yanked King Tommen's crown from Jon Bettley as he was taken into custody. "Whether he was a rival to his throne or not, Daeron made promises to the former Princess and Lord Tyrion, you made oaths and you broke them in this heinous crime. Take them away!"
Jorah ignored the pleas as he ordered a man to bag the heads and bring them with, he also sent a scout group to wherever the traitors left the remains of King Tommen and Queen Dowager Cersei.
Ordering the army to turn around, they started marching back to the capital and he was unsure of what the King or Tyrion might think or say when he hears of the demise of Tommen and his mother.
King's Landing
The day was ending, after another day of being the second King of the Realm, soon enough he'll be the only King in Westeros.
Seven days and he's still not feeling any better after Wildfyre was killed, no, murdered.
Memories of the night Sansa comforting him resurfaced as he stood alone, he had just settled into the royal chambers and was filling his belly with wine until Kovarro let Sansa inside.
"I'm... Sorry, I must look quite disorganized and foolish." He said with a joking tone, "I raised him, you know, he was always the more excitable of his brothers." He murmured and Sansa sighed heavily and took the wine bottle from him despite his feeble resistance in keeping it.
"I lost my father, brothers, mother, and even my sister. I understand your feelings, Daeron but you have to stand stronger for it." She said and he didn't believe it entirely but parts of him wanted her to be telling him the truth, that she knows more about tragedy than even himself.
"How do you cope with it, Sansa? I've lost my family and now a son, a sister, and brother many months before that- No, now it's been years." He laughed at his own misfortune over everything and the fates are still kicking at him, even after he had won it all.
Sansa placed a hand on his cheek, getting him to raise his eyes up to look at her. "I used to cling to hate, and then my own self-loathing on being unable to avenge or redeem myself to my family." She began to spin her tale, he listened intently to her. "Then I met a friend, then another and finally, I met you... You let me avenge my father, let me redeem what I did that led to him being arrested for treason." She added and stroked his cheek.
He didn't believe himself to deserve all that credit, she took her own vengeance and redeemed herself with her own will.
Daeron leaned inward and at first, intended on kissing her on the lips but his course turned and he instead wrapped his arms around her. He shook and cried and bawled into her neck, he thought she would push him away and leave but she held on to him.
She brought sense back to his reasoning, all to bring him from this tragedy and to move forward from it.
A knock to the door brought him from his memory, seeing Rhakaro allow Sansa inside for the first time today and she brought him a gift.
"What's that for?" He asked and she approached and set the sealed box on the bed.
"It's almost Winter, I could feel it in the air." He remembered her mentioning that, something along the lines of 'I've lived in King's Landing for years and if it isn't humid when the sun is up or setting, then something has changed in the seasons'.
Taking the gesture from her, he got up and opened the box to reveal a cloak of some kind. It had sleeves and was dark red and black with the cuffs and neck having wolf fur, Daeron liked the feel of it and turned toward Sansa with a grateful smile.
"Thank you, my Lady, it looks exquisite." She beamed at his compliment, taking another action he took off his cloak and tried on the present. "I could have used this when I was a small boy, me and my siblings spent a number of nights in ruined abandoned buildings and inns with little warmth." He opened up about the hardships he encountered with Viserys and Dany.
"You don't ever have to be cold, again, Daeron. You're the King, the Red Keep is your home forever." He hopes it is forever, always and eternal.
He's struggled and fought to put the rightful family back on the Iron Throne, to put House Targaryen at the top of the mountain once more and he'll ensure that the people never lose faith in his bloodline.
"I am the King... And you are going to be the Queen." She looked at him with shock on her face, "I am sure this is all set in stone for us, but, I would make it official." He said while walking over to one of his trunks and opened it, revealing a lavish-looking crown. It was pure silver the roped around like vines, what looked like a sun was encrusted with amber stones.
"I found this in the Maester's chamber, someone named Qyburn offered it to me before I had him executed for the heinous things he had done to dozens of innocent people." He explained as he approached the red-haired maiden and then placing the crown on her head. "I will be honored to have you as my Queen, as my partner, and as the mother of our future children."
Sansa had said nothing, she simply threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips.
Unknown Home
A wounded warrior opened his green eyes to the home of some stranger, he tried to rise but he couldn't for his body felt on fire.
Brienne and Podrick entered the home and the surprise that he had awoken was visible on their faces, "Ser Jaime!" The female warrior gasped and ordered Podrick to bring the knight some water and some bread.
Jaime groaned loudly, "My sister... My son... " He muttered weakly at the woman who shook her head.
"I'm afraid they are still running with what's left of the Lannister forces, we came to the battle at its end and the Targaryen won the fight." Defeat left a bitter taste in the Kingslayer's mouth, the loss of his family's power being stripped away making him even angrier.
His own self-loathing and remembering the fire from that monster causing his skin to irritate and itch, much more than when he lost his hand.
Brienne helped sit up while she checked his wounds, Pod brought him water and food to which he knocked out of the squire's hand. The two backed off from him, his bandaged body and face getting stained with blood from opening wounds, merging with the dried up blackened stains as well.
"I lost everything... Everything."