King's Landing. The Great Sept of Baelor. 295 AC.
Cersei Lannister / Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
The Great Sept of Baelor was the temple of the Seven that crowned the Hill of Visenya in King's Landing, the heart of the Faith of the Seven and the seat of the High Septon. Built of marble during the reign of King Baelor the Blessed, for whom it was later nad, its seven crystal towers rose above the city and served as the primary landmark alongside the Red Keep and the Dragonpit. It was one of the largest and most beautiful temples of the Seven in all of Westeros.
The structure was counted among the wonders of the Sunset Kingdom. Thousands of pilgrims of the Faith made their way to King's Landing every year to behold the sept's grandeur with their own eyes. Its bells sounded only for events of the greatest consequence, whether joyful or terrible. Not long past, such an event had shaken the entire realm to its foundations.
Jon Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie, Defender of the Vale, Warden of the East, Lord Paramount of the Vale, and Hand of King Robert Baratheon, had died of illness. So most believed. She did not. The Lioness of Casterly Rock was clever, extraordinarily clever, and the only one who could have matched her was her father.
Cersei had never believed that the Old Falcon had died so quickly from sothing as common as a chill. Pycelle assured her that the late Hand had not been poisoned by any of the common varieties, but he did not dismiss the possibility of rare and undetectable agents. To determine the cause with certainty, the Hand's body would have needed to be opened, but Lysa Arryn had rebelled at the idea and refused to allow any desecration of the dead.
Pycelle's grumbling had only confird her suspicions. Soone had murdered Jon Arryn, a conciliatory figure who suited everyone and kept the realm from drifting without direction. Cersei felt no grief for the Hand, to speak plainly. She felt nothing in particular. But if soone had managed to kill the second most powerful man in the realm, they might well turn their ambitions toward her children, and that could not be permitted. She would not sleep soundly until she had destroyed whatever threat lurked out there.
"My dear sister, as your brother I must warn you that if you keep frowning like that, you'll get wrinkles," Jai said, doing his best to lift her spirits in his usual fashion.
"Soone in this family has to do the thinking for both of us. Even as a child you used to jump from Casterly Rock without a thought for your own neck."
"Thinking was pointless and safe enough, right up until you told Father." That was his old grievance about her looking out for him. "'We are Lannisters. Lannisters do not do foolish things.' Do you have any idea how many lectures I had to sit through?" He asked the rhetorical question with great suffering.
"Who could have killed him?" She hated an unsolved puzzle.
"The better question is what Arryn was killed for," Jai said, and when he chose to apply his mind, he was capable. "What did the Hand know that was worth killing him over? Though it hardly matters now. Jon Arryn took whatever he knew to his grave with him. Robert will appoint a new Hand and things will go on as before." Only Jai could be so breezy about sothing like this, and that was exactly why she loved him, even when it made her want to scream.
"It still gives no peace. The mont the little Arryn chick decides to stop his tantrum and co ho, soone kills his father to prevent a family reunion. Who was behind it? I doubt the new Lord Arryn will simply let his father's suspicious death go uninvestigated. He won't, and neither will his cutthroats."
"The boy is not lacking in aggression or bloodthirst, if the stories coming out of Essos are to be believed. He will dig until he reaches the bottom of it." Jai was being surprisingly generous about soone who had handed him an insult.
"And the king?"
"In his grief he rode off to hunt boars and bed whores. Left here because he doesn't want to see blond heads during a ti of mourning.'"
"To bed whores and hunt boars? Ha." His little jokes. "You know, Lysa Arryn has left in a hurry, heading north to Winterfell."
"Why not the Eyrie or Riverrun?"
"Her relations with both Hoster Tully and Axel Arryn are complicated. She is in a deep and longstanding quarrel with Lord Tully, and the new Falcon cannot stand the sight of her or his brother."
"Am I the only one who finds it strange that Jon Arryn happened to die precisely when his son was finally coming ho? Perhaps he was the one who sent the old man to his ancestors?" He could be sharp when he wanted to be, and then he said sothing like that.
"You are not the only one who finds it suspicious, but everyone knew their relationship was difficult and equally full of genuine love. No. That is not possible." It was tireso to have to state such obvious things aloud.
"Personally, I'm glad Arryn is coming back," her brother said with the satisfaction of a cat in the sun. "I'll repay what I owe him, and I'll have soone worth crossing blades with again."
"Boys and their toys," she thought to herself, and almost smiled.
Her beloved had his way, and sothing in her settled. When the panic receded, it beca clear to her that she could steer her family through whatever trials lay ahead. For now she needed to focus on the safety of her children and find the poisoner, and for that she would use the Arryn. Axel Arryn would beco her hunting falcon, whether he wished it or not. And like any good falconer, she would give him just a little help along the way.
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