Some say the world will end in fire. Some say in ice.
When Rosalie Stark found herself in an inferno of dragon fire, fighting against an army of dead soldiers with eyes as cold as ice, she surely thought it was the end. But fate had different plans...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧
280 AC, King's Landing
Steffon Baratheon couldn't imagine ever feeling at ease when he stayed in the Red Keep. Whenever he rode through the gates he wondered if he would exit again in one piece. His cousin, King Aerys II Targaryen, was not an easy man to please and he had grown more and more erratic over the years.
But what once were lapses of madness that grew more frequent over time was now a constant paranoia since the last of his sanity had been shattered after the Defiance of Duskendale. The King that never had been the epitome of stable now refused to leave the Red Keep and wouldn't allow anyone to touch him which resulted in that his appearance started to reflect the madness within.
After the Defiance of Duskendale Steffon had been summoned to the Red Keep and named Master of Laws, and was henceforth a permanent member of the Small Council whose place was inside the Red Keep. Something he knew his wife, Cassana, hadn't been too pleased about. It killed her to be away from the boys, especially young Renly, who she didn't want to bring to court.
Aerys ordering Steffon to travel to Volantis in search of a bride 'of noble birth from an old Valyrian bloodline' had therefore come both as a blessing and a curse. It brought them away from the Red Keep but at the same time farther away from their boys. Therefore, the visit of the Stark siblings had come as a very pleasant surprise.
It had given them a reason to travel to Storm's End and see the boys one final time before they travelled to the east. A voyage that in the end had been for nothing because it seemed like there was absolutely no Valyrian bride for Prince Rhaegar in the known world. The few women that lived of Valyrian descent was either too old or too lowborn.
Steffon had fought many battles before but he had never felt closer to death than when he had to return to the Red Keep, kneel before the Iron Throne and explain to the King that he had failed the mission he was given. It almost made him wish that their ship had sank during the storm that they apparently had missed with a fortnight when they sailed home.
Much like he expected, King Aerys had been all but pleased by his failure. Steffon had never before been forced to endure such humiliation and berating but in the end he was just grateful that his cousin hadn't found a reason to execute him. Steffon had expected, and almost hoped, that Aerys would dismiss him as Master of Laws but unfortunately he had not been so lucky. Perhaps the King realised that it was more of a punishment to force him to stay in the Red Keep.
