Chapter Fifteen

A/N: Thank you to magnus374, EndlessReign and elaine451 for reviewing the last chapter.

The dancing had gone on long into the night, the music so loud it must have echoed to the streets of Flea Bottom, and Joanna had never been so grateful to have Tyrion to put to bed. It cut a rather tense evening mercifully short and, once her excuse for departing the feast was accomplished, it gave her a chance to talk.

"But they have been good to you?" Joanna asked, the question that had been plaguing her since the moment the ship set sail.

Cersei pulled her blanket a little tighter around her shoulders, then nodded. "When I first arrived, I hated them all. How could I not? I blamed them for my being taken away. But that did not last long. Lord Luthor is decent enough, he treats me well, and Lady Olenna is… I'm not certain I can find the words to describe her."

Joanna laughed. She had heard of the tart-tongued woman, who some already referred to as 'The Queen of Thorns', though she had been Lady of Highgarden not quite as long as Joanna had been of the Rock.

"What of the children?" Joanna pressed, taking a sip from her goblet of honeyed milk. "Do you get along well with them?"

"They are hardly children, Mother. Sir Mace is wed with a babe on the way, and all his sisters are women grown." Cersei corrected, though her tone was more affectionate than chastising. Such open love was a rarity for Cersei outside the safety of the Rock; it simply went to show how sorely she had missed her mother. "But I do care for them. Not the same way I love my own brothers, but they are dear to me. The girls especially. They are like sisters to me now."

"And I am glad of it." Lady Lannister smiled. Her eyes gave away the truth, as they began to fill with tears. To be true, she was not glad of her daughter's words at all. Her only girl had found a family far away from her own and seemed to love them just as well. It was a difficult meal for any mother to swallow.

"Oh, Mama, please." Cersei whispered, leaning forward to clutch at her mother's hand. "I never meant to hurt you. I want to come home more than anything, truly I do, but it is the king's whims I am at mercy to, and mayhaps Lord Luthor. The Reacher girls are no more privy to their father's failings than I could be to mine."

Joanna stared at her daughter in astonishment. "Last I saw you, you were a frightened girl quaking on the deck of a ship. When did you grow so wise?"

"I grew up." The explanation was tinged with the weight of regret, for she should not really have had to say it. Had life gone the way it should have done, her mother would have been by her side for each step.

Silence fell between them once again as the two looked out over the water, the way they had done when Cersei was a child. The calm of the waves had lulled the girl to sleep, a constant presence no matter the weather; it was a sound she still longed for amidst the green fields of Highgarden.

"What will happen now?" Cersei spoke. Whether she was wondering aloud or asking it of her mother, neither were quite sure. "The prince is wed to Dorne, the Targaryen dynasty is secure again. Surely Aerys might consider relinquishing his control a little."

"Nothing is sure when it comes to Aerys." Joanna sighed, reaching across to run a hand over her daughter's curls. "All we can do for now is hope."

"Mother, I've been hoping ever since I was taken away." Cersei bit back. With her eyes ablaze, she was the image of her father. "There must be more I can do than sit and wait for a raven scroll to decide my fate."

"Cersei," Joanna sighed, resigned. "Until you are wed, you have no voice in your own affairs; you will obey your father's word. Mayhaps your husband will be more mindful of your wishes, but for now, you must let it be."

"And is that what a lioness would do, Mother?" Gone were Cersei's affectionate smiles, replaced by a fierce determination. It seems the Tyrells had no more intention of raising an empty-headed young lady than Tywin Lannister, and Joanna could not be more thankful for that. "When we stood together on the dock, you made me promise you that I would be strong, a lioness for my core. Well, now I am going to fulfil that promise. I am the daughter of Tywin Lannister, the one woman with the chance to raise this family to the very top of the world. I will not forget who I am, and nor will the rest of the world."

Joanna was stunned into silence. It was true, sure as the sun set above them, that Cersei was no longer a girl. And yet there was something in the young woman's strength that set her mother's skin tingling. Mayhaps there was too much of her father in her. After all, Lady Joanna had raised her daughter to survive the world; Lord Tywin had raised her to rule it.

As if sensing her mother's discomfort, Cersei rose, folding her blanket onto the seat of the chair. "I ought to be getting to bed. I've still not recovered from the journey to the capital."

And with a cursory peck on the cheek and a brief curtsy, the young lady was gone, leaving her mother to watch the waves alone. The moonlight shone on the surface of the water, dancing among the ripples, like the magical spirits spoken of in the songs. Her septa had used to say such light was the Crone's lantern, guiding the world through the darkness. Joanna longed to hear such guidance now.

'What is there I can do?' the woman wondered, gazing up at the stars as if they held the answer. 'My son is foolhardy, only interested in his sword, my daughter is becoming too ambitious for her own safety, and my poor babe still believes his father would see him gone. I do not know what to do; even a mother cannot protect her children from themselves.'

Her daughter's face swam in front of her eyes once more, not the keen young woman she had become, but the girl who had stood on the dock, glancing fearfully at the strange flag flying over the ship. And it was her own words, once again, that echoed in her ears.

I am a lioness, and I shall protect my cubs if it is the last thing I do, even from themselves.

A/N: I always imagined that if Cersei had had more of a chance to learn how the game worked, she would have been one of the most invincible players out there. So that's what I'm doing. The Lannisters are about to increase their role in the game! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review!