Realm of Fate and Sacrifice

Chapter Five

|Heavy Mind|

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There he was. Dead. He'd been dead for a few hours now. They brought him to a small tent where they laid him in silks and his golden crown on his chest. Loras was crying, Margaery was blank faced and pacing, Araelia...she didn't know what she was. She was sad about Renly's death, but she was more torn over her sibling loss. Araelia could have fixed everything, she could have brought he realm together, she could have ended the war. But no, Renly just had to get killed. By who? Araelia could take a good guess; The Red Woman. Only she would have that sort of power.

"We must go home" Margaery broke the silence.

Loras didn't look up from Renly's face, and neither did Araelia. Maybe she could still hold thier army, maybe she could still help the Starks...but if Renly was gone...what were these men fighting for?

"Loras! Lia!" Margaery used her nickname.

"We can talk of it in a moment" Araelia whispered, she didn't mean to, but she did.

She heard Margaery scoff and started pacing again...but she heard something else, something had entered the tent.

"My lord, My Ladys" a familiar voice came.

"Get out" Loras said before Araelia could even open her mouth to say the same.

"Stannis will be here in an hour" Little Finger warned them "when he arrives Renly's banner men will flock to him"

"Stop telling us things we already know" Araelia scowled, there was worse she could think of than Little Finger rattling on.

"Your men will fight for the privilege to sell you to their new king" Little Finger continued on.

Loras stood up quickly and unsheathed his sword "I bet you want that privilege for yourself"

Araelia had to admit, something about seeing a sword to Little Fingers throat gave her pleasure.

"You will note that I am standing here talk to you, not Stannis"

Margaery let out an exasperated sigh "there's no time for this"

"Ride back to Highgarden, the both of you" Renly pushed past Margaery and kneeled next to Renly's corpse "I'm not runnign from Stannis"

"I'm not just going to run back home like a coward!" Araelia spoke up "we can fix this"

"How?" Loras turned to her "how do you mean to fix all of this? The only thing that will fix this is killing Stannis"

"Brienne of Tarth killed Renly, not Stannis"

"That's not true" Araelia snapped at her sister.

"Oh, I'm sorry, the shadow of Stannis killed him"

"It was the Red Woman, I know it, you don't know what I saw in there, Lady Stark and Brienne could vouch the same"

"Well Lady Stark and Brienne fled" Margaery snapped back.

"Think about it, who gained the most from Renly's death? Hmm? Not Brienne, not me and not Lady Catelyn" Araelia argued her point.