Devotion (GOT Fanfic)

Chapter XVIII

After all, the gods find peace boring.

In his place was someone Leila never expected was hand of the king for the mad man. Jon Connington stood proudly that day, kneeling in front of the king as he gave him the brooch which symbolized the power of the hand as the king's trusted servant. Leila did not even want to be in the same chambers that day. Weeks after two battles concluded to announce the revolution and only days since the death of two good men.

The princess consort wanted to speak against the matter but Jaime had forced her to stay quiet and heel like a good dog. The king will suspect them. Jaime had reminded Leila of the most important thing and that was the safety of her children. Her words could turn her good young children into ashes too, just as much as the lord of Winterfell. In the end, she mourned in silence and did as she must.

Despite the entire splendor that shone the chambers of the throne room in such a proud day, Leila Lannister could still feel the haunting air of what had happened there that day of reckoning.

No one in that chamber felt neither secured or glee at the thought of Connington being hand. Connington's proud moment was overshadowed by the memories that they could never forget. The servants of the royal household had to cover the space where the lord of Winterfell burnt to death with a magnificent rug because the flames had been so hot, the floors had retreated to the color of pure black. Not even the splendid rug had been enough to make people forget that atrocious crimes had been committed unjustly and horribly.

As she sat there with the queen and the king, she could feel herself wanting to be somewhere else but these halls. In the same throne room where only days before a good man burned to death for committing no sin while his son watched helplessly with tears in his eyes and choked blood as he too died. Leila could even feel that the queen too wished she was elsewhere. Despite that kind smile on her lips, Leila understood as she looked at her good mother's eyes. They too mourned the deaths of good men.

Truth be said, the princess consort was disappointed in the lord of Griffin's Roost for accepting the position. He will have to do as a mad man bids, anything and anywhere. But Leila understood why Jon Connington even accepted the position as hand when he too hated Aerys with a fury. Leila had known him for a long while now and without even speaking to the man understood how much his loyalty for her husband overpowered logic and everything else around him. Connington loved her husband more than his own life, his own titles and would bend over backwards to defy his hatred for someone for Rhaegar.

Another devoted fool just like her.

Leila wondered why she thought of him now. But she supposed it was because they had spoken a few nights before his departure to fight Robert in the Riverlands, where the rebel forces stayed. After news of Robert stayed in the Stoney Sept after he was injured in the Battle of Ashford, where the loyalist forces prevailed recently, it was clear they needed to move. Connington was to be sent there because he needed to capitalize on the victory at Ashford and not only that but to ensure that while they had a chance, Robert Baratheon was to be captured.

They never really spoke alone together before, so the princess consort did not know how the conversation would ever go. She supposed Jon Connington found it important to see her off before he left to participate in the fighting. Jon and her spoke of many things. But the thing they spoke most about was Rhaegar.

But of course she could not lie when wine speaks through the tongue.

'Do you still love him?' Jon asked her as she sipped some wine from her goblet as she looked at him. 'After...after all he has put you through...after all the king put you and your children through...'

'As pathetic as that may sound coming from someone like me, yes.' Leila responded to him with a sad smile. 'He's my husband after all, for many years now. We've built a life together, a home for our children....'