CHAPTER TWENTY
First of Her Name
Alana's POV
ONE MONTH LATER
The great sept had an echo no matter how many people filled it's walls. The ceiling was so high that when I looked up to see all the artwork that had been carved into it, my neck was in so much pain and I felt dizzy.
I had not been in the great sept since I was a child. Mother used to bring me here for funerals and one time my father brought me here to show me where the Targaryens had been laid to rest. Or what was left of most of them that is.
As a child I thought because I was small that this sept seemed so large. Turns out that even in adulthood this place is monstrous. The entire city was flooding in through the doors and all them cheered my name and smiled as they looked at me at the top of the steep steps that led up to the dais.
Robb stood beside me wearing a long cloak that was dark grey with the Stark house sigil embroidered onto it. His armor was brand new and glistening in the light that came in from the windows of the sept. The stained glass casting all colors of the rainbow to fill the room.
I found myself forgetting to breathe at times. Each time I looked at Robb I sucked in another breath of excitement.
He looks so fucking good.
Filling my lungs with the air of the sept I held my breath for a moment and then released it. Down at the bottom of the steps stood all those I love most. My four beautiful children, Sansa, Arya, Brandon and Rickon. Staring up at me as they wore small crowns and tiaras.
Today is my coronation ceremony, and Robb's as well. We were already crowned in Winterfell as King and Queen in the North but now we ruled the Seven Kingdoms as a whole. Today I will look over only a portion of the people I have vowed to rule over and protect. And still, it's hundreds of thousands of people flooding in through those doors and many more waiting outside, filling the streets of the city.
All for me...
Crimson silks draping down my body as a golden cloak lay on my shoulders. A golden pin on my heart of the crowned stag, engraved on it the initials of both my uncles, Stannis, and Renly who both lost their lives for me to be here right now.
I looked back at the bottom of the steps again and saw that Rickon was getting antsy but only to be tamed and calmed down by my sweet cousin, Daenerys Targaryen. This was her first time in this city and being in the great sept. Both our ancestors and hers laid to rest just below us. I wondered if she knew where each family member was buried and how they had died they way my father had told me.
Even as a young girl their faces and names haunted me. This place frightened me and yet also fascinated me. People came here when they had died. Others came here to be crowned and some died shortly after. Even some skulls of dragons were beneath these floors.
My mother and my brothers both came up the steps. Myrcella waited down below with the other children. Joffrey and Tommen each taking one of my mother's arms and escorting her up the steep steps of the great sept.
Mother's jewels were jingling with each step she took. The diamond hairnet on her updo glistening and jingling. Each step was followed by the strum of instruments playing her house's song. The Rains of Castamere.
The lute playing a soothing tune as my mother hummed the words loudly. I looked to Robb and grinned. He did not have to allow my mother to come stand up here with us, but he did for me. My king husband knew that I was trying to fix the broken relationship with my mother and her family.
What happened to her was not her fault. She was taken advantage of and attacked from such a young age. When my father was not beating and raping her... Her own brother was doing it to her. She never was safe until both were dead and burned in a funeral pyre.
Although Jaime was burned among many other bodies of Lannister soldiers. His own father, my grandsire Tywin, did not even want his remains. Just his sword and that was simply because he had it personally made for him when he was just a young boy.
Tywin was at the top of the dais with us. His hands folded together in front of him as he smiled at my mother who approached me first, kissing my cheeks one by one and then moving to Robb, holding his hands in hers and sharing a whispering word with him. Robb grinned and then kissed her cheek in return.
Both Joffrey and Tommen shared kisses to my cheeks and then shook Robb's hand before they took their places back down the steps with the other children and members of the family. Aside Tywin on their own feather pillows were two crowns.
One was custom made for Robb, styled to be exactly like the one Torrhen Stark has fashioned when he was king before kneeling before Aegon the Conqueror back when the Seven Kingdoms became one and all bent the knee to one king and two queens. Aegon, Visenya and Rhaenys Targaryen.
The other was for me and since my bloodline comes from both Baratheon, Lannister, and Targaryen, I wanted to tie in all the houses. Including Stark. So my crown was made from Lannister gold, melted down with the antlers of a stag. Right in the center was a dire wolf with eyes shaped like dragon eggs.
"Are you ready, Your Grace?" Lord Tywin said to me with a grin.
I looked to Robb and we both nodded at the same time.
Tywin stepped forward and then clapped his hands. The music stopped and the room fell completely silent. All chatter from below the steps stopped. All the voices from outside stopped too. Grandfather's voice echoed even though the room was filled from wall to wall.
"Welcome all," He said loudly, projecting his voice for all to here. "We are gathered here today for the dawning of a new age! A new king and queen stand before us not only by birth right, but by right of conquest. Today sets history and we all will watch it be made. As the ruler of our Kingdom, all seven will be a Queen."
The crowd below roared but I paid no mind to them. They may have been happy for me but they also cheered with Ned Stark and Cat Stark lost their heads. They wept for my father when he died and cowered in fear when I stormed the city. They wanted my mother dead when her secret was revealed but did not care to know the truth.
My attention was given to my mother. I looked into her summer green eyes as they filled with tears of joy. Her smile bringing her cheekbones higher and higher up her face. Pride was radiating off of her. To see her own flesh and blood that she created standing here to be crowned. For all the things I have accomplished.
But I did none of it alone.
I owed it all to Robb and Stannis. To Renly and Blackfish. To Tyrion and Theon. To Jon and Ygritte. To Daenerys and Ser Jorah.
Even to my grandfather, Tywin Lannister, and my brother Joffrey Baratheon.
Most of all I owed it to the four faces that were smiling up at me. All four of the beautiful Stark children who crowned me not as their queen, but as their Mama. I would forever hold them in my arms and in my hearts no matter how much they grow.
"Today, my own blood..." Grandfather paused to catch his breath as tears began to well in his eyes. He was choking up but knew he had to get through this speech. "My eldest granddaughter, Alana of the House Baratheon-"
"Stark." I corrected him. "My blood may be Baratheon but my name is Stark."
"Alana of the House Stark," Tywin said louder than he had said anything else before. "First of her name and Protector of the realm! Queen of the Seven Kingdoms! Long may she reign!"
"Long may she reign!" All the voices cheered from down below. Even Robb and my mother's voices chanted along too. "Long may she reign!"
My mother placed the crown onto my long dark hair that I had inherited from my father. But when I look at my own reflection now what I see is my uncles. I see Stannis and Renly. I see my mother too. I see my grandfather.
But I see what Ned and Cat saw in me too.
A mother... A wife... A Queen...
"As for our King," Tywin started. "Robb of the House Stark! First of his name and King of the Seven Kingdoms! Long may he reign!"
"Long may he reign! Long may he reign!" The chanting began again.
Mother placed the crown onto Robb's auburn curls and the iron glistened brighter as the sun rose higher in the morning sky. Robb's blue eyes looked into my hazel eyes as we both smiled greatly at one another.
We are the rulers of the Seven Kingdoms... We are King and Queen...
-
After a long feast and being greeted by men and women from all over the world, I did not realize how far many had traveled just to see the Queen who won the Kingdoms by storm. They said my army and my war was quick and covered all the lands like a blizzard. One they had never seen before. Even beyond the wall.
I was exhausted as I lay in my feather bed in the King's Chamber with Robb aside me. I wore nothing but a thin silk sleep gown while Robb wore nothing but small clothes, even then he had no shirt on at all.
The blankets covered our bodies as we laid together. My long dark hair sprawled out over the feather pillows and Robb ran his fingers through it. Until he took his fingers and ran them down my face, pressing his thumb to my lips before kissing them softly.
"Can't we stay like this forever?" He asked.
"I wish we could but we have Seven Kingdoms to rule over and children to raise." I replied with a kind smile. Feeling a heat burn beneath the sheets. A desire for him to move those hands lower and spill himself inside of me.
"I've asked all the children where they wish to live... If they want to remain here or return home to Winterfell with Jon and Ygritte since Jon is now Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North with Bran as his heir until Jon sires a son... They all wish to remain here with you as their Mama. They refuse to leave you." Robb replied with a blush.
"They won't hate me... Will they?" I asked nervously.
Robb moved his hand down to my stomach and gripped it gently, but enough to feel what was beneath the surface of my skin. My belly already swollen but not enough to be seen through gowns.
"That night in Casterly Rock..." Robb said softly. "That night changed everything and we knew nothing, the children know nothing- but once they know they will feel what we feel for our little one. They will feel nothing but love."
"You're sure?" I asked with my hand now laying atop of his, my thumb grazing the skin of his hand, feeling his scars from battle that were now healed.
Robb grinned. "I've never been surer of anything."
But his grin soon faded as he led himself to ask me more serious questions. "Your mother will be leaving King's Landing soon, right?"
I furrowed my brows. "Why are you so quick to be rid of her? I want her to stay to see her grandchild be born."
Robb rolled his eyes. "I do not wish for her to know my son."
"She's my mother-"
"I do not trust her, Alana. She had years- many of years to tell you the truth. She could have told you when she came to Winterfell for our wedding but she did not. She could have come to see you at any point in time when you came of age and did not. She left you to fend for yourself, she is lucky my parents are noble and honorable. She put you in danger by sending you away with the man who assaulted her countless times. What if Jaime Lannister had his way and raped you? Filled you with his seed and this was his child in you? Another incest bastard-"
"Watch your tongue when you speak of my siblings or I will have your tongue myself."
"I'm the King-"
"And I am your Queen." I sneered at him. "We have had this conversation before, Your Grace."
Robb blinked at me silently.
"Your mother abandoned us and left me to become a mother overnight. I love your mother do not get me wrong, but I should not have mothered four children who came from her and your father before even getting a chance to create my own child. It was no fair what she did to me- to all of those children. Just as what my mother did to me and my siblings was also not fair, but she wants to make up for it now. Just let her have this chance."
"She can be here for the birth. But she leaves right after." Robb demanded. "I will hear no more of this. I want to enjoy my son growing inside of you and enjoy this wonderful time as our family grows. As we learn to rule this Kingdom and learn of our new home."
"She leaves when I say she leaves and that is the end of it. I want her to meet our boy and help me through motherhood because I still am unsure if anything I am doing is right. She may have had children in the worst way possible but that does not mean she loves them any less. She raised them on her own and raised me too. I need my mother."
"I am your husband-"
"And I am your wife." I argued. "I am swollen and tired and all I want is peace. The realm is peaceful but why is our home not? Why is our marriage not peaceful since we've come here? You dislike my mother for lies that were told. I could not like your mother for the same reasons."
"My mother is dead." Robb grit. "Enough of this, we are just going to continue to argue and I will not have that."
"Which is why you are not the one on the throne and I am." I grit back. "I am your wife Robb and this-" I pressed his hand closer to my stomach so he could feel our son moving about. "This is your son. Your flesh and blood. Don't you wish for him to have a better life? Better than what we had? Better parents than we had? Fix this now before he is born or he will live as though he is in the Seven Hells rather than the Seven Kingdoms."
Robb nodded. "I'm sorry, my sweet wife. I just... I love you and I do not wish to see our son hurting from the pain your mother has caused to you. I do not wish for him to feel the same pain as you. To hear the same lies or worse. I only mean to protect our family."
"Then protect all of us. Because the moment you spoke your vows to me, my family became your family just as yours became mine. My mother is yours by law and as King it is your duty to protect her too." I replied.
Another nod followed by a kiss to my lips. Robb's hand moving down to my core as he trickled himself inside of me. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he slid himself into me as his lips never once left mine.
This was how Robb apologized when he did wrong and as badly it bothered me for being a lack of communication... When he was spilling himself inside of me and making me come, I could not be angry with him.
Robb knew what I needed and knew that it was himself.