court of lies | robert's rebellion

prologue

There were moments he thought that maybe Rhaegar was losing his mind too, just like his father. He wouldn't talk or eat or even sleep for days, reading from old books and parchments, ignoring him, Oswell and his wolf-lady. But they were brief moments and short days. He was normal most of the time. He was like the old Rhaegar before that thrice-damned tournament. Always melancholic but affective, charming and sincere. He could easily understand why a 17-year-old lady with a fierce heart would have followed him. When he considered the ex-betrothal of that lady in question, he understood it even more. That usurper was the exact opposite of his prince. Loud, brutal and exuberant.

Atera was trying to organize her thoughts, much time passed since they last saw each other, much had changed and facing them again, after two years, was never something she planned to do. They had lost friends and allies and Rhaegar didn't keep his promises, any of them. She took a deep breath when she felt ready to talk but the door opened and the infamous wolf-lady entered the room. Seeing her, not looking like a hostage like Robert Baratheon loved to claim, looked like it made the trick to finally anger her. Her sharp eyes observed the girl's almost challenging face and then they slowly found their way into Rhaegar's indigo eyes.

"You left your wife in pain and agony. The Maesters told you that there was a high risk of her dying if she ever went to labour again but yet she tried again for you, while you didn't even care. To give you an heir, to protect you and your claim from Aerys, she put herself in danger. She almost died in that birth. She suffered for hours and lost more blood than you ever did in your entire life. Couldn't wake up for days, and couldn't leave the bed for moons. And the moment she began to heal you left her for another woman, for a child, under your father's mercy."

"I left her at Dragonstone, safe and sound and the last I had seen her, she was in Dragonstone, safe and sound.", Rhaegar straightened his spine. "I will not have you act as if I had cast my wife aside when the truth is far from it."

"No one cares,", she hissed. "what the truth it. Victors shape history as they see fit and as of now, you are losing the war. Who knows that you will not go down in history as a man who abdicated a child and raped her?", Rhaegar almost seemed flinched and Lyanna frowned deeply at her with silent accusations. "You know, before this, everyone thought that you were different from the king. Much better, much saner... I was amongst those people.", she frowned while looking at the walls, not deeming him worthy to look at. "I called you my friend, I put myself and my family in danger for you, I believed in you. I thought that you were the only hope that Westeros had, that you ought to do things right again.", she raised her eyes to Rhaegar's to make an impact but he didn't meet with hers. "I was wrong. You are just as mad as he is. You'll be the end of this realm.", she declared.

"You shouldn't talk to him like this. He didn't want it to happen, and neither did I. We did everything because we love each other.", Lyanna took a step forward. "And if you want to blame anyone, blame yourself you wicked witch.", Oswell muttered a curse under his breath as Atera turned to the young girl once more. "We all are in this position just because you couldn't keep your mouth shut. You caused all this, you don't get to play the victim now."

Rhaegar, unintentionally, took a step towards Lyanna in a protective manner. The longer it took for Atera to answer, the more nervous the men in the room became but Lyanna, not even once, seemed cowered.

"Do you know what happened to your father and brother?", she asked so nonchalantly as if she was wondering about the weather instead.

Arthur and Oswell shared a look again, of course, she knew. They still remembered the curses and cries that lasted for days. None of them was spent for Rickard Stark though, no. Lyanna was only sad for her brother and was still grieving for her brother. Not for Rickard, and not for Eddard. But for Brandon, she cried and for Benjen she prayed on these days.