Trials and Tribulations of the Oathkeeper

Chapter 93: Young Cub and the Red Priestess

―At King's Landing―

Red Keep ― Main corridor...

Tommen paced through the Red Keep main halls, often occasionally adjusting his collar and rehearsing his lines for the upcoming wedding to his betrothed, Margaery of Highgarden. Eager for his big moment once his older brother and sister-in-law returned from their trip to Dorne, some of the royal servants tended to Tommen—adjusting the collar of his golden attire. "'I am hers and she is mine. From this day until the end of my days'," he practiced. "No, that sounds a bit squeamish..."

One of the servants chuckled. "Nervous?" she asked.

Tommen felt embarrassed. "Yeah... I mean, I'm marrying the most beautiful girl in the world, and it's all because my brother arranged it."

"Was it not Lord Tyrell who agreed to the match?"

He nodded again.

Another servant, on the meanwhile, seemed a bit more realistic. "Probably as his way of apologizing for what his son and heir, Loras Tyrell did to His Grace at Blackwater Bay."

"That was three years ago, Laisa. We all know Littlefinger orchestrated the whole thing."

"Who's to say another upstart won't try anything else, Grayce?"

"Because we know how fast His Grace would put 'em back in their place," she replied confidently. "Besides, we need to get the Prince ready for his big day."

Once they pulled away, Tommen looked in the mirror; the fourteen-year-old looked more like an eager puppy waiting for a treat. In his case, his treat was Margaery. He still hadn't forgotten that night when she snuck into his bedchambers in the middle of the night. At the same time, however, it made Tommen reflect back to Daveth's and Sansa's wedding at the Great Sept of Baelor... and his earlier lectures as well.

ooOoo

Three months ago...

"Tell me, Tommen. Just for the sake of argument, what kind of King would you want to be known as?" he asked.

"A... a good one?"

Daveth nodded. "Well, you've got the right temperament to be one should it ever occur. But what is the most important quality that does make a good King?"

"Holiness?"

"Huh. King Baelor the Blessed was holy and a pious man. He built the Great Sept," he pointed out the window referring to the Great Sept of Baelor, "and named a six-year-old boy High Septon because he thought the boy could work miracles. He ended up fasting himself into an early grave because the fool believed 'food was of this world and this world was sinful.' Holiness, pah! What a joke."

Feeling as if he gave the wrong answer, Tommen guessed again. "Justice?"

Daveth knew his youngest brother was really trying his best; lenient as he wanted to be, even he knew he had to a bit strict with him and only gave a slight nod. "True, a good King must be just. Take Orys the First of House Durrandon for example; when the Stormlands were an independent kingdom, nobles and commoners alike applauded his reform. But even then, it didn't last long. He was murdered in his sleep by his own brother after less than a year of ruling. Was that truly just of him to abandon his subjects to an evil he was too gullible to recognize?"