The Emancipation of Rhaegar

Chapter 10

He heard the cries of the men outside and the clanking of swords, Three large men had almost sprung from nowhere and were now fighting against their men, The Dornish men were falling quickly, swiftly and easily. Almost like a giant and breathed and they toppled over. He saw a figure run down the steps of their castle and try to get past one of the brutes, Lilia. He knew who it was right away. She was forced onto a horse with the tiny screaming package in her hands, and the brute got on behind her. They rode away. The whole thing was planned, how else would those monsters know when to be at their home? They had to have been called upon. He vowed to return that precious gift their mother had brought into this world back home to his father. His father, the man who would remember that night for the rest of his life, the man who was to be seated at their castle for the rest of his days, alone; his children taken away, unbeknownst to him or Arthur, by the very man who had caused the family such grief.

And remember he did. Every night he would see that same image in his head, replaying until the gods let him rest easy. Arthur knew that when that bastard Stark stepped through her carriage doors and up the stairs to her room and by the way Rhaella had looked at her, that she was his half-sister.

She held her mother's purple eyes, dark hair, and sun-kissed skin. But she had her father's beauty. Arthur also knew who her father was, and would never forgive Aerys for killing his mother. He refused to allow himself to forgive the man that had forced her into such a state that she died doing something she had already done twice before.

He looked to his half-sister, Arianne. She was dressed in a modest dress, more modest than the night before and kept quiet. Her siblings, on the other hand, talked amongst themselves, excited to see their brother win three jousts in a row.

These Southern have pretty knights. Knights that will lose wars. Arthur thought to himself. He knew better than meddle in the workings of jousts; they were poor warriors and sellswords who had no one to work for because as their name suggested they either could not fight or the Kingdom was running out of people to kill.

He wondered how the little girl had enraptured three men in one night; though he knew Ashara could capture twenty just by breathing their way. Jamie Lannister was certainly on his knees, boasting about how he was able to have the first dance and how so many did not dance with her the night before.

"She gave me her first dance just as she will give me her maidenhood by the end of this magnificent Tourney," Jaime smiled, his armour blinding those who dared stare at it.

"Talk about my sister one more time Lannister, and it's the last bloody thing that will come out of your mouth," Brandon Stark growled, dropping his sword and march to Jaime.

"Or what?" Jaime smirked. Arthur could tell he was a trouble seeker.

"Your daddy isn't here to buy you out of this fight boy, and I'm warning you," Brandon sneered a second time. His brother Eddard, the boy Arthur had saved Ashara from at the feast, pushed his brother away from Jaime and told him to take a walk. Turning to Jaime, Eddard glared and followed his brother, who picked up his sword and shrugged his brother's hand from his shoulder.

"I'd be lucky to have anyone talk of my sister like that," Walder Whent laughed as his brothers laughed along with him.

"Your sister is a beautiful girl, you treat her as such anyway," Oberyn pointed out.

"My sister is beautiful when you're drunk. She has a common girls beauty, not the beauty of Cersei or Lyanna or Catelyn," Walder said.

"No, they all have a commoners beauty too," Oberyn responded, leaning his back on a tree. He had been watching the men practice from the sidelines. Oberyn looked up to a window on the castle walls, no one knew what he was staring at, but he seemed to be looking to the window longingly. "She has the beauty of the Maid. She makes you want to scream and claw at your chest until you cannot do so anymore just for the gift of gazing at her face one last time."