court of lies | robert's rebellion

the emperor's new clothes

She didn't say anything but sigh and even in the darkness of the room, Arthur saw the way she nodded. He took off his sword belt and coat and unlaced his boots, slowly moved to the fluffy bed and got inside of the covers. He needed comfort but being near her was enough for now. Hesitantly, he placed a hand on her arm but her other hand reached out to hold it and wrapped it properly to her and both fell asleep with the emotional tiredness they both felt.

*

281 AC, Winterfell

"My lord,", his captain of guards entered. "Lord Ryswell is here."

They were having a private family dinner at the beautiful dining hall his late wife adorned with wolf posts. Rickard Stark was sitting at the head of the table, as he was the head of the family. His two sons were sitting at his two sides; Brandon and Benjen, he had another one, Eddard, but he was far away from home now. As he was far away for a very long time. His only daughter, named Lyanna after his late wife Lyarra, was sitting next to her younger brother, Benjen. And while the room carried a certain tension as it usually did when Rickard was present, they were having a lovely dinner.

Until that.

"Ryswell?", he asked as he bit his meat rather harshly. "Old name, new money, what the fuck he wants at this hour?"

Brandon's own chewing movements slowed down a bit as he met with his sister's mischievous grey eyes and after sending one look at them, Benjen knew what was coming next.

"He did not mention, my lord.", Tallhart said, not only his captain of guards but also the Master-at-Arms of Winterfell, a name all of his children -except Eddard, saw as another father figure. "But he seemed quite in distress.", Rickard sighed in an annoyed fashion and put down his food, wiped his hands and left the room.

"Shit.", Brandon spat the moment he left and finished his wine.

"Now, you have a problem.", Lyanna always liked to see her brothers in trouble, since she got punished for even breathing from time to time. It was a nice change to see one of her father's precious sons take the shit once in a while. "Can't wait to see how you'll going to fix this."

Brandon narrowed his eyes playfully at her. "Don't worry, little sister, I never do something I cannot fix."

Half an hour later, this was proven almost wrong as his father summoned him to his private solar and was pacing around when he entered. "Rodrik Ryswell said to me that a fortnight ago, on your way to return here, you had broken into his castle and debouched a servant girl there, is that true?", he asked with obvious anger.

Brandon couldn't help but chuckle, he had no survival instincts, as his brother Eddard would put out. Laughing was the worst possible thing he could do at this moment -that and outright denying it. "No."

"Where is your judgement?", Rickard asked almost in disbelief. "Your self-control? You are my son, my heir!", he raised his voice. "I should have you whipped like peasants.", he declared as he turned his back.

"It was his daughter I debouched, Barbrey.", he said in a challenging manner and Rickard turned to him with anger, hitting his face with the back of his hand.

"You are betrothed to Catelyn Tully of fucking Riverrun!", he yelled at him, this insolence had to stop at some point. "You cannot go around humping the daughters of lords!"

"Oh but you did!", he talked back after he wiped his face; at least there was no blood this time. "At my age, you had everyone at Winterfell -Umber told me! Some of them were maidens, some of them were married, some of them were your own kin.", he took a step towards him. "My mother comes to someone's mind, of course. You married her, when there was no new face to fuck, just to secure your own seat because of how your nocturnal activities loosened the ties between you and your bannermen! You feared they would try to put you in your place!", Rickard move to him and dragged him to the other side of the room through his collar and punched him once more.