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"The plan is set then." Lady Olenna looks to Astoria her amethyst eyes barely registering the pain she now unleashed upon herself.
She will not let her voice break, not now not ever. "When will it happen?"
"All you need to my dear is that, when the laughter reigns higher and only when the cups runneth over does the serpent strike." Lady Olenna pats her hand, and Astoria cringes she feels dirty and filthy. This is part of being Queen. The bigger picture, you must see if you will be the peace.
"Shall I wear a moniker like Uncle Jaime?" She looks at herself in the mirror, she sees a woman she does not recognize. The shell of the girl she once was. Her skin turned from porcelain, to ivory, to steel forged in the fires of her grief. Her long hair, hung down in loose waves, tumbling down her shoulders like a waterfall devoid of color.
"You are doing what you have to do." Her grandfather stands at the door way. His stance strong, his face proud. His jade eyes afire with his own ambition, an ambition to kill his own grandsire. All in her name, when had it come to this?
"Were we all blind to his cruelty, or were the ones that loved him fiercely only blind?" She does not turn away from the mirror, for she knows he can see her, as she sees him.
"When we love someone, we forgot their flaws. We put them pedastool, and when they come crashing down, they take a piece of us with them." He looks at her with sorrow, not for his grandson, but for her and her alone.
"If I do not strike first, he will kill me, won't he?" She asks him, knowing he will give her the answer she needed to justify this act.
"Now, you see him for what he is."
She cuts him off, "A monster, more of a monster than those I bore from fire and blood." She thinks of her dragons, they had set people aflame, but they had done so because those people would kill her. Or was this her way of justifying her dragons? Did her aunt justify Joff's actions the same way? As she once had? She loved him, she loved them all. Joff, Tommen, and Myrcella may be abominations to the world, created from incest. Yet to Astoria, they were the siblings she never had. Especially, Joff and now she sought to betray him, to end his life. For what? Some hollow crown?
"JOFF! I am going to get you!" Astoria yells aloud as she runs around the gardens of the Red Keep, her crimson dress flowing around her like a wave.
She can hear his giggle, and she can see his golden head bob up contrasting against the greens and creams of the florals. She pretends to be the lion, they tell her she is. She sneaks around the the red roses, like a lion stalking her prey. She can see him fidget in his crimson and gold doublet. How cute he had looked when presented to her, as their matching outfits contrasted well within the light color scheme of the garden. She creeps closer to him, careful not to dirty her dress as it was a gift from Aunt Ce.
When he has lowered his guard, she pounces on him. "Found you, my little lion!" She tickles him.
"Tora!" He shouts with glee.
They spends the days of their childhood in this game of hide and seek, and their nights staring at the sky. Even when Tommen and Myrcella came along, Joff would not allow them to intrude on this time, for all her time was his time. And, Astoria chalked his monopolization of her time to jealousy, but if she only knew how cruel he was becoming. How twisted he would become.
"Tora?" Joff asks one night, after Astoria is informed by the Great Lion himself that she will go North no matter what anyone said, no matter how her aunt raged, how her uncle brooded, she would do as he said. On this, she could not fight him.
"Yes, my dear Lion King?" As that what she calls him, for he will be King one day, and he is all lion and no stag.
"When I am King, I will cast aside my Northern savage and your Northern brute for us to rule together."
She looks at him, amethyst into jade. "We are cousins we cannot marry, though you are sweet to do that Joff, for me."
"The Targeryen's married each other and they were brother and sister." He counters.
"I will not repeat the sins of my family, Targeryen's started this and now I am the only one left to finish it." She says with a macabre sorrow etched on her face.
"It should never be on you, you deserve more than that. You deserve to be Queen, you were born to be Queen." His speech is passionate and fueled with anger.
"We all deserve more, seldom get that chance." She smiles sweetly.
"You will, I swear it."
"Do not make oaths, you will break."
"I'll make you Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, even if it means my death." He says nonchalantly.
Astoria and her grandfather arrive at King's Landing for a wedding celebration. The Red Keep entrenched itself in all the pomp and circumstances a Lannister and Tyrell match would muster.
But, the death of a King lingers in her mind. And she goes as far as seating herself in his presence to see if her grandfather was right. Even though, she knew by chopping off the honorable Ned Stark's head, he was insane.
"What happened to the boy I know, how could you have fallen so low?"
"The wolves deceive you, my Tora." He cackles, as he traces patterns on her cheek.
She pushes him away, "You killed Ned Stark, you tortured Sansa, you brought the Kingdom to its knees for what?!" She rages at him.
"Because, I was denied the one thing I wanted..... you."
She laughs, and it rings hollow, "You sound so much like him, like King Robert. I am not your Lyanna Stark. I refuse to be. In fact, you do not know me anymore."
He crosses his room, taking up his crossbow aiming it at her chest. "You are mine, dear cousin."
"Shot me, Joff." She can hear her breathing rise, erratic. "Do it! Do it and see the war you ignite. See for yourself that you are a true fool, not fit to wear a crown."
"I could have your head cut off!" He screeches
"You think grandfather or your mother would allow you to do that?" She smirks, she had a trump card in that aspect, he could not kill her not with Tywin Lannister around.
"I am King! I shall do as I like!" He roars but he sounds like a cub wailing and not a lion.
"Then know this, King Joffrey," This was the first time she ever used his full name, she usually always called him by his nickname, even when she was cross at him. "I am the blood of the dragon, and I do not fear you! I never will." She smirks as she turns to leave.
She knew as she left his chambers, her cousin must be deposed, she made the right decision in aligning herself with Olenna Tyrell.
She did not make a sound as the wedding was at its height, she did not shed a tear when her cousin's face turned purple, in fact she smiled. One monster was conquered, now she could turn her attention to another.
