The street was silent as the King's body came past. He was carried in procession by six of the Kingsguard, Lord Commander Balon Swann proceeding ahead of them. Men of the order lined the streets, black cloth tied around the tips of their spears, flapping lazily in the dead breeze. That was not the only black to be seen. Every banner of gold had been replaced with dark black cloth, weeping like inky tears from the windows and turrets of the keep and looking out from the city walls like empty eye sockets. But the eyes of the people were filled with soft tears as the King's body passed them, still and silent as stone, arms folded across his blade and his crown resting in his greying curls. Flowers littered the streets, fluttering down from the rooftops or being thrown over the shoulders of the guardsmen, the white steel boots of the Kingsguard crushing them into the stone cobbles. She and her children were first in line behind the Kingsguard, all garbed in mourner's black. She held Cat's hand fiercely, her daughter had her head bowed in a vain attempt to hide her tears. She'd been offered a veil, but had refused it. "My tears are genuine, I welcome the world to see my grief." Behind them came lords and their families in their dozens and hundreds, all in black, but not one in ten genuine in their grief.

When they reached the sept, Jasper was lain down on a great slab in the middle, atop a huge Baratheon banner which lay over the stone slab and slithered onto the floor like a golden waterfall. She stood at his side all day as lords filed past her like an endless army, wishing her well and falsely assuring her of their sympathies. They paid their due respects for the passing of an able king, but nothing more than that. "Most of the baseborn scum outside showed more sorrow at his passing," Durran hissed. Well of course they would. Jasper had saved the city, twice, brought the wealth of the east flowing in, more than any other in Westeros, they had reason to mourn him. But the lords... this was a man who had forced them into line, never been afraid to attaint those who stood against him or let them forever remember their defiance with a Royal Castle on their lands. Now he was gone they likely thought that the days of oppression were over.

He lay in state for three days before being interred in the earth. His sarcophagus was carved on top with his arms beneath a large crown. Where his feet lay was his full title. Jasper of the House Baratheon, First of his Name, King of Westeros, King of Andalos, Lord of the Lands and Peoples and Protector of the Realm, who passed after twenty eight years of rule, carved as though written in the most elegant hand. Around the sides were scenes drawn from his life: His coming of age, being presented with High Justice; his battle and duel with Loras Tyrell; his capture of Renly; his coronation; their marriage; making peace with Robb; slaying the dragon; standing in judgement of the Red Priests, capturing Aegon at King's Landing; forming the Justiciars; helping his son back to his feet after the rebellion and finally his funeral procession through the streets of King's Landing and his burial. He would be the first King of Westeros to be buried in the Sept. The Targaryens had all given themselves to the fires in death, his father had chosen to be buried at Storm's End and Joffrey had been pulled up when the truth of his parentage had been revealed, to be buried unknown and uncared for in some small sept far from the city. When it had been built, the Targaryens had never foreseen that they would one day have to bury people in it. A tomb had been ordered for Joffrey but Jasper ordered it expanded upon into a great crypt, to be used by him and every king from then on. "When you are king, you are alone," he had said in one of his darker moments. "Best that I be buried alone. Others may join me... in time." She looked down at the dark, empty crypt. There was enough room here for another thirty monarchs, who would come, in time, when they had served their kingdom.

She was the last to be with him. The lords who had been invited to see the actual internment left the cold and the dark swiftly; her family stayed longer, but soon even Cat was escorted away by her half sister. She leant forward and pressed her hand to the stone. "Rest, my love. You've earned it." She kissed the cold, dry stone. She took the torch that was the only source of light in the room and, with one last glance at her love's final resting place, she made her way up the steps and back to the light.

()()()

Durran was crowned king four days later, while all the lords of the land were present to see it. All the joy that had been held back at Jasper's funeral was here in abundance. Every lord had a smile on their face as Durran knelt before the High Septon with his wife beside him. Both were anointed with holy oils and Durran swore his oaths before his crown, a different one to his father's, with antlers circling it for points it was far more visible, contrasting with his silver and black hair. The applause when they turned to the lords almost shook down the whole sept and a new king arose.

She stayed back for the most part, sitting and smiling at the coronation feast as lord came to congratulate her son on his new position. He sat the position like he'd been born to it... which of course he had and he needed no guidance from her.

Afterwards they all gathered again, once more, in what had been her and Jasper's chambers, but which were now Durran's. The servants had finished moving in their things before the coronation.

"It feels... empty," Durran said, sitting on the bed like it was made of thorns. "Without father here."

"He always did fill most rooms he was in," she replied, unable to smile at even the happiest memories. "Even before he became a king or a father." Cat squeezed her hand, gently. "Are the arrangements made?" She asked her sons. There was no use putting it off any longer.

Arlan nodded. "Durran and I have made our arrangements over the splitting of the Order and on which debts shall belong to Andalos and which to Westeros. I depart in two days, Andalos cannot be kingless for too long."

"I depart as well," Robert said as he leant against the wall by the fireplace. "The Bellmores are eager to be going, and as the guardian of the young lady, I should go there, at least for a while. The money father left me has been gathered and is ready."

"What about you mother?" Durran asked.

"Two days as well," she said. They would all be departing at once it seemed. "I'll be going with my brother to Winterfell for a while, Cat as well."

Durran nodded. "I understand. Just don't keep her up there for too long, already I've had six proposals for her."

"Six?" Cat croaked. She hadn't smiled since her father's death, despite his last wishes to her. But she would recover. She was her father's daughter, she was strong.

"Don't you worry, Cat," Durran assured her. "Only the best will be your husband."

Cat didn't reply and just looked at the ground. For so long her father had been the man in her life, she would take time to adjust to his absence.

"Do you know how long you'll be?" Robert asked, changing the topic.

She shook her head. "No, but we'll be back, don't worry. I may have been a Stark at birth, but this is my home now."

There was a knock at the door. She was about to call out for whoever it was to enter but caught herself, this wasn't her solar anymore. "Enter," Durran spoke in a King's voice.

Ned entered the room, the badge of the Hand gleaming on his chest. Durran's first act had been to name his friend as his Hand of the King. The first of a number of replacements he had made, a fresh generation for a fresh reign. "Durran, Lord Ambroise is insistent on meeting you."

"He can insist all he wants, I am the king and I am busy, I will see him when I am able."

Ned nodded. "Very well, and Aunt Arya, my father asks if you'll be ready to leave."

She nodded. "We will be, I promise."

Ned nodded. "I'll tell him. And Arlan, Lord Devan wishes to speak with you about the ships for your return."

Arlan nodded and got to his feet. "I'll go see him now."

"I'll go with you," Robert said. "I need to see the Bellmores as it is, I shouldn't put it off any longer."

As her two youngest sons left, Cat got to her feet. "I should go as well," she whispered. "I need to make sure I have all I need." Arya knew she was likely going to go and cry and think of her father. Eventually she would have to put a stop to it, but for now she would let her daughter have her grief.

When Cat closed the door behind her, it left Arya alone with Durran. "Are you going to be okay?" Arya asked. "I know this feels like we're all leaving at once but-"

"I'll be fine mother," Durran said, taking her hand softly. "I've been preparing ever since father told us that he was dying. What about you?"

"It's... strange. Like you I was prepared, or I thought I was, but him not being here feels... wrong."

"I know," Durran replied. "Sitting on that throne... I've done it before, but doing it as a King, it was strange."

"You're ready for it. Your father wasn't and he struggled at first. You've been prepared, you've been learning. You are ready, and you will be a fine king. I know it."

Durran nodded, steely self-assurance in his eye. "I'll do my best. I won't be like father, I can't, but I will try to be as good a ruler."

"Don't, my son," she said, drawing him into her arms. "Be better. It's all he ever wanted of you."

Extract from "A Vengeful and Just King" – Chapter 12 King Jasper's Legacy

A true assessment of Jasper's career and reign requires a perspective that encompasses centuries, from the time of Aegon III to well after Jasper's death, if we are to see his full impact on Westeros. Since the time of Aegon III, successive monarchs had tried, with varying successes, to determine how to effectively rule such a large realm as Westeros as a single polity. The most successful prior to Jasper was the theory, as posited by Jym Harkwood, of "The King's Coalition" whereby monarchs, through strategic marriages bound or hamstrung the greater noble families to keep them effectively working together. However Jasper took a different view. Rather than relying on the support of the noble families, he increased the presence of royal power throughout the land, with fresh castles occupied by his loyalists, and the Justiciars who had the power to overrule the greater landed magnates. He expanded royal power to touch more and more aspects of life in Westeros, integrating the royal family not just in the bloodlines, but the very routine of Westerosi life.

Undoubtedly his vassals were not supportive of this, even those bound to him by marriage seem to have disapproved of his overbearing reign, but it would provide the basis of rule for the next two hundred and fifty years. Whether it would be like his son, and bringing the lords of the realm to King's Landing to have all their issues and concerns settled by royal input or like Boremund II who"s royal power was projected into the very heart of his vassals domains. All was based off Jasper's style of Kingship.

In the east, his conquest of Andalos helped shape the Free Cities into different states, with the links to the new Andalosi nobility and the fraternal lines of kings providing a corridor for the ideas of west and east to pass, helping to create distinct identities in them that would come to be more than simply what they were before.

But none of these long term changes that can be traced to Jasper's reign would have been apparent or mattered to anyone in the aftermath of Jasper's death. When he was buried some expressed shock, others sorrow, many a hidden pleasure at the passing of such an overbearing king. But they would soon realise that things would not, could not return to how they had been. Jasper had changed things and they would either accept and go along with them or be left behind.

But what was remarked upon was the lack of drama and danger in his passing. Seamlessly the line of kings continued and Durran took the throne of Westeros as Durran I. He was crowned without rebellion, murder, deposition or war, and only the very oldest in Westeros could have remembered such a thing happening before. Whatever upheavals had come from Jasper's reign, he had left behind a polity and political system effective enough to survive without him at the helm.

Thus King Jasper, who had fought in eight wars, come to the throne over the assassination of his brother and secured it with blood, fire and atrocity, died and peacefully, rule passed to his son. He is not the best known king, not as celebrated as Durran I or Stannis II, or as widely remembered as Boremund I or Stannis III, but he definitively changed the course of the history of both Westeros and the Free Cities. But we must never cast Jasper as the paragon of kingship, he must not become the model for politicians to follow, and we must not forget the lives that Jasper ruined, or the peoples he displaced and customs he destroyed, for to do so would be a disservice to humanity and to our own national soul.

A/N: So that's the end of it. I hope this was a satisfactory conclusion to Jasper's story and that you enjoyed reading it. Any final thoughts, comments or questions, feel free to review them. I won't be doing a Q&A like I did last time, but if you log in to review I'll reply to any PMs there are. I wish you well and thanks for sticking with me.

Psykic Ninja