Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun
Chapter One-Hundred and Two.
She broke her fast on fried fish, coated in breadcrumbs and wrapped in bacon, eggs that had been boiled in a pot of salted water till only just set, fresh bead from the oven and a pot of blackberry preserves. Cersei ate all of it as she knew that she was going to need as much strength as she could get for the day that was to come if she wanted it to go her way.
Over the past few weeks King's Landing had been streched to it's breaking point with the amount of people that had come to the city, even the tourney at Harrenhal had not drawn so many. Every lord with even the slightest amount of influence wanted to have their voices heard when it came to this, when would the next chance came that they would get to decide a king?
Even the smallfolk were coming as well, like ticks running over a dead beast, hoping to get a scrap of something tasty. Many had brought gifts with them for who was to be their new ruler, hoping to gain some sort of favour no doubt. Mostly bent tin cups or crops of something or other, a few luckier ones who had not lost much during the war had brought heads of cattle or flocks of sheep with them.
Cersei found them pathetic, low and high alike. Most of the lesser lords would not dare cross the lord that they were sworn to in how they cast their votes and the lowborn had made their journey for nothing as none of them would even get close to whoever it was that was finally chosen to take the crown for themselves.
Regardless, Cersei was not about to have her children's rights stolen away from them. Rhaegar, may the foul bastard rot in the worst of the seven hells, had been the King's son and her children were his children as well and anyone with sense would see that the throne was theirs by right. Who could deny it, truly?
When her Father had heard the news of the little brat at Storm's End dying, well, he had not smiled but for a moment he looked like he was about to and in that moment Cersei was never more certain that she and her Father had both been of one mind. In the end, the Lannisters always got what they wanted even if it took awhile at times.
They belonged at the top, golden and powerful. High above all of the rest.
But that moment of understanding had not lasted long when Cersei had suggested that it should be Rhaenys that they put forward as their candidate for the Iron Throne. His pale eyes had stared into her for so long and it had made her feel like she was an idiot, that she was worthless and ugly and that she should never have opened her mouth at all.
Cersei drank deep from the goblet of lemonsweet, finding herself wishing that it was wine.
Lord Tywin had not said a word to her, simply waved his hand at her to dismiss her. Uncle Kevan was dead now, so there was none of her uncle's fruitless attempts to try and make his older brother's commands seem less harsh and unfair than they were and in truth Cersei was more than glad of his absence, Lord Tywin was at least honest with his disdan of those he did not agree with. Her uncle's saccharine words had made her want to grind her teeth until they exploded into fragments.
She would not be silent about this, she refused to be. Her daughter was her eldest child and when all of this was done she meant to see her on the Iron Throne and herself as her daughter's regent. After all that she had suffered, all the she had gone through, the humiliations and the fear and the betrayals and the shame, this was what she was owed.
And more than that besides, if she could get her daughter on the throne then it meant that she could make her own case for her right to inherit Casterly Rock, Jaime was still a member of the Kingsguard and she wanted him to stay there as he would not be able to inherit before her and so he could stay to protect her daughter and her son, and the babe who grew inside who could be no other man's but his.
Lord Tywin would never allow that beast that killed her mother to inherit the Rock, Cersei would kill half the lords in Westeros and all of the smallfolk before she ever allowed that to happen. And when he saw how wisely she ruled until her daughter came of age then she knew that he would gladly give her the Rock as her due.
Cersei would not allow herself to be thrown to the side and forgotten, she would not. Even if Rhaenys was not chosen to take the throne and it was Aemon who was given it then that did not matter much in the long run of things. She would still be his regent, the rule would be hers regardless and then so would the Rock and she would accept nothing else but that.
Once she had finished breaking her fast on the food that had been brought to her there was a knock at her chamber door, one of her handmaidens no doubt. It was odd, but a part of her did miss Lelianna. She was as much a fool as the rest of them, and insipid as well but the girl had at least been of her own blood which certainly made her better than the rest of them.
Sadly, Lord Tywin had sent her back to Lannisport when he had seen the state that she had been reduced to. The taking her tongue by the Mad King and the grief for her family had broken her. According to the maids that had been placed in charge of caring for her she did nothing but lay there in bed as they read to her and poured a thin broth down her throat to keep her alive.
Well, in the end it was no great lose to Cersei. Being slightly better than the other women that attended to her was not saying that much. In the end, they were nothing. They would be forgotten in her wake, if they were lucky their names might end up on some maester's scroll when they looked back at her and saw how she began her reign.
They would call it glorious, she was certain. Glorious and golden that no reign before or since it would ever be able to compare to. It was a sweet thought and one that would keep her warm as she pushed onward.
Cersei called for whoever it was at the door to enter and she was right when she saw that it was indeed one of her handmaidens and Cersei called for her to come and dress her, now more than ever she needed to look like a Queen, even if she would never be one in name.
As much as she hated the idea of wearing Rhaegar's colours after what he had done to her but she knew that she needed to put herself through this for her words to have more weight, she needed to remind them all that she was Rhaegar's widow and the mother of the rightful heirs to the throne and so she had her maids put them in a gown of black and red.
She looked well in it, of course. But then she could be wearing an onion sack and she would still look better than most of the ladies at court even when they were dressed in their finest. But she looked like she was a Targaryen, which severed her purposes for the moment at least but as soon as her babe was given the crown and she had the regency in her hands.
Once that was done she would never wear black and red again, she would wear green and gold and the only red that she would wear would be the rubies that she had in her hair and at her fingers and around her neck and in her bodice.
Once she was finally dressed she walked out of her chambers and through the corridors of the Red Keep until they arrived in the courtyard where her litter was waiting for her. Once Cersei had climbed in the bearers picked it up and began to carry her out of the courtyard.
The grand council was being held in the Sept of Baelor and while all those who be taking part in the voting would be doing so inside the Sept the entire city seemed to be heaving with people, she did not like how close they were to her if it were not for the guards around her litter then no doubt the sheer flood of people would be able to touch the sides of her little, maybe even tip it over.
She brought a square of silk which had been scented with lavander oil up to her mouth both to block out the smell of their filith as well as to calm herself, she had always loved the smell of lavander ever since she was a girl.
It took them longer to get to the Sept because of all of the people, and once or twice the litter rocked like the men carrying it were about to drop it but they always found their balance in the end, and when they let her down and she climbed out of the litter there were still hundreds and hundreds of people gathered in front of the Sept, just standing around in the courtyard.
"Make way!" The captain of her guards called out as they began to push through the crowd, there were so many people about that it seemed to her that there was to little air to breath. "Make way for Princess Cersei, make way!"
None of them made way, but that might have just been because there was no room, her guards were near pressed against her due to the lack of room. For a moment Cersei was certain that she couldn't breath at all, it was chocking and to close and there were so many people and she hated all of them, she needed to breath.
For a moment she was certain that she had fainted as one moment she was standing in the middle of that massive crowd and then the next moment she was at the bottom of the steps that would lead into the Sept itself and she had no memory of moving towards them.
At the top of the steps was a line of guards, twenty at the very least. Cersei would have felt better if they were all Lannister men but she could see at a glance that they were from each of the Seven Kingdoms, which meant that they did not have as much control of the situtation as Cersei would like but that did not matter. In the end, she would get what she wanted.
The guards created a small opening for them to pass through, so small that they had to walk in a straight line in order to get through it, and then they hurried up the rest of the steps into the Sept of Baelor.
It was still crowded inside of the sept, more crowded than Cersei had ever seen the Hlall of Lamps before, but at least she felt like she had something like room to breath now. A few lords and ladies came up to her and made their noises, some asking her who she would throw her support behind and others asking for her to support them.
Of course, Cersei had no actual vote. A fact that made her want to scream, but she was the widow of the prince and the mother of another and a princess as well and the daughter of a great lord, her word had weight. She kept her silence for now, only laughing or smiling when she needed to do so and saying nothing else on the matter.
A small surprise was when her Aunt Genna came up to her, dressed in a black dress that covered her massive form, her eyes rimmed red from tears. "Auntie," Cersei began, resisting the urge to slap her Aunt for what she had said to her the last time they had spoken to her and she thought she had some right to lecture her. "I did not know you were here."
"Your Lord Father summoned me." Genna said as she reached up to wipe at her eyes with her own plain sqaure of silk. "Not that he had any need to do so, my husband has been given the honor to cast House Frey's vote in this matter, as my goodfather is so old I do not think that he can get up from his chair without falling over dead, and I would not be left behind."
"I see." Cersei hummed as she considered her aunts words for a moment. "I trust House Frey knows who to vote for, my lord grandfather gave them a great honor than they ever deserved when they married you to those weasels, the debt that gave them can never be truly repaid of course, but it's a start."
"Oh, I don't think it's House Fret we have to worry about when it comes to the voting." And just like that, all of Aunt Genna's tears had just dried up and she was crushing her square of silk in a clenched first. "Your Father has told me what you've been doing Cersei, what you mean to do, and I am telling you now to not."
"Why, Auntie. I do not know what you mean, I am merely Prince Rhaegar's widow. I have no vote.." Cersei smiled, innocent as a lamb.
"No, you don't. But you have been convincing people, I know that you have. When you care enough to try you can make people love you." She always could, and gaining the supporters that she had not be easy at all. She had bribed and threatened, offered favours and promised rewards and whispered sweet promises in to what felt like thousands of year.
She could feel it, she had her followers. Her votes.
"Oh, you could always see through me. Couldn't you, Auntie?" Cersei smiled and tilted her head to the side. "But it makes no difference, my supporters are ready to vote for whoever I tell them to vote for, and Father can not do anything to stop me."
"Cersei, being dragged into this war has cost us so much." Her eyes were wet again. "I had four brothers when I was a girl, now I only have one. We must cope to make up with the damage as best we can, and the best way to do that is to get your son on to the throne and Tywin as the Hand of the King, anything else would be disastrous for us."
"Why does it have to be my son, why can it not be my daughter? You of all people shoulder understand Aunt, you were smarter than any of your brothers and yet Grandfather married you into that family of disguisting rats. Tell your husband to vote for Rhaenys, he will listen to you. You know that he will."
"Cersei, there are no second votes here." If Genna had heard anything that Cersei had said then she had ignored it. "There are three Targaryen candidtates, Queen Rhaella sent Lord Sunglass here to represent Viserys, then your son and then your daughter, the vote is not unified between any of them. If you do this, then the other kingdoms out number us."
"You're speaking to the wrong Lannister Aunt Genna, my Lord Father is the one that you need to convince." Cersei drifted her hand down, adjusting a jewled bangle around her wrist. "My mind will not be swayed on this matter, it will not. If he wants to have our votes unified, then he must tell his supporters to cast his votes for me."
"For Rhaenys, I assume you mean." Aunt Genna scowled at her and then she brought her hand up to cup her forehead. "I cannot believe that you will risk the future of our house, the future of the Seven Kingdoms, just so that you can play a game of chicken with your Father. He won't yield Cersei, his pride is greater than even yours, he will not allow himself to be threatened."
"And I will not give in, tell him that." Cersei span on her feet then and walked away, not interesting in hearing any more of whatever it was that her aunt cared to say to her. She had come to far now.
She made a quick walk around the hall, making sure that all of her supporters were still firm in their conviction to her and her cause. She also tried to pry a few votes away from those that were still firmly in the camp for her Father's cause. None of them moved, some of them even ran away from her. So terrified were they all of Lord Tywin.
But she wasn't, because she knew the truth. All that her Father had ever cared about was his legacy, the idea of what the family should be. That they should never, ever, appear weak or frail or be laughed at. He would not risk them losing this chance for power, to come out on top, he would vote for Rhaenys rather than lose.
She was certain of it.
As she walked around the halls, she caught sight of others. Hoster Tully and Jon Arryn were whispering to one another in a dark corner, Tully looking furious and Arryn looking like he was about a foot away from the grave. Mace Tyrell was smiling down at a shrunken old woman who could only be his Lady Mother, the Fat Flower clearly not paying attenting to word this the Queen of Thorns was actually saying to him.
Cersei stopped in her tracks when she saw Elia Martell speaking to her husband, she was dressed well enough in an orange gown with rubies in her hair. She seemed to be imporing her husband of something, whatever it was she could not hear it over the noise of the room and it would be impossibe for her to get close.
The sound of the bells ringing cut through the noise and the doors that would lead into the Sept proper opened up, the droll of the High Septon carrying over all of them. "My Lords and Ladies, the time to choose who will sit the Iron Throne has finally come. Please, enter and be respect full for this place of the gods."
There was a long and tedious selection of prayers then that only a few fools actually cared about after they has taken their places and then it came to it, the choosing.
First, a brown sellsword who Cersei could smell even from where she was standing and she brought her square back up to her nose to allow the scent of lavander to cover up the scent, Cersei could not understand what his claim to the throne was considering that the man was so drunk that Cersei wasn't certain that even he understand what his reasoning was.
No one voted for him, not even himself, and then he was dragged off and Cersei hoped they put him in the darkest cell they could find.
Next was a merchant from Pentos and a whoreson from Lys, the merchant had been flashing his gold around to order to buy votes with all the subtlety of an elephant and the whoreson claimed to be the great-grandson of some Targaryen princess or other, they both voted for themselves and when no one else did they were both quick to get out.
Then, came the serious candidates and Ned Stark stepped forward. "My Lords, my Ladies, I put forward Mya Stone, a bastard daughter of Robert Baratheon. She awaits in the Red Keep, as I had summoned her here. I suggest she be voted for, so she can be legitimized and take her place on the Iron Throne."
Someone laughed, someone else coughed and the High Septon spoke. "Will my Lords and Ladies please cast their votes?" A pitfully small amount of hands went up into the air. "Eleven votes, for Mya Stone."
Ned Stark looked crushed and stepped back into the crowd and Lord Sunglass stepped forward. "My Lords and Ladies, the choice here is truly obvious to all good and honest folk. Do not vote for bastards put forth by vile usurper's, or those who would turn their cloaks and bring slaughter to a city in order to save their own skins. I put forward Prince Viserys Targaryen!"
"Willl my Lords and Ladies please cast their votes?" More hands went up this time, more than there had been for the bastard girl at least and Lord Rowan of Goldengrove came as a surprise to her but it was clear that it was not enough for the little brat to be made king and that sent a thirll of victory through her. "Sixty-one votes for Prince Viserys Targaryen."
Now, it was finally her turn. Cersei stepped forward and all the eyes were on her and she could not help but smile when her Father's eyes bore into her, unlike all the other times when him doing such brought such fear out in her now she felt utterly free. She would not break. "My lords, my ladies, I have no vote in this matter but there is nothing to say I cannot put forward a candidate, I do so put forward my daughter, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen."
The hands were coming up but Cersei did not look at any of them, she kept her gaze looked on her Father and he stared back at her and she wished that Jaime was with her but he had refused to be a part in any of it.
She stared into him, and Lord Tywin's hand did not twitch.
"One hundred and Nine votes for Princess Rhaenys Targaryen." That wasn't enough, nowhere near enough and Cersei's stomach plumpted. Her Father had not budged and now all of those votes had been wasted, her throat had gone dry. It would be fine, it would all be fine. There were still plenty of houses left to vote and so the throne would go to Aemon instead.
It would be fine.
Lord Tywin said nothing, he just kept staring at her. It was Aunt Genna who came forward. "My lords, I put forward my grand nephew, Prince Aemon Targaryen."
The hands came up once again and the votes were counted. "Two hundred and eighty-nine votes for Prince Aemon Targaryen!"
Elia Martell came forward next, a gentle smile on her face. "My lords and ladies I have no vote either, however it is well within my power, as Princess Cersei herself pointed out," The flat chested Dornish bitch had the nerve to smile at her then and Cersei wanted to make her swallow her teeth. "To put someone forward, and so, I put forward my husband. Lord Eddard Stark, heir to Winterfell."
The High Septon called for votes then, no man of the west put their hand up, nor did anyone from the reach. But Northmen did, all of them with a savage roar as did most of the Dornish. Riverlands and Stormlanders too, if not by so great a volume and valemen as well. So many hands.
"Three hundred and eight votes, for Lord Eddard Stark." The High Septon spoke after the counting was done and then cleared his throat. "My Lords, my Ladies, all votes have been counted and the choice is clear. The crown shall fall on the head of Eddard Stark, who shall be known from this day on as Eddard of House Stark, the first of his name, King of the Andals, the First Men and the Rhoynar. Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, long may he reign!"
"Long may he reign!" As the cheer went up, again lead by the northmen, Cersei did not think she had ever seen a man so miserable as Eddard Stark looked but his wife looked happy enough for the both of them.
And when Cersei found her Father's eyes again...
Oh, how they burned.
End of Chapter One-hundred and Two
Ah, vote splitting, it's a bitch isn't it Cersei?
Welp, another chapter done and dusted.
I kinda wanna let this one speak for itself, so, see ya next time!
Lots of love,
Discordant Symphony