[King's Landing -- Renly Baratheon's Chambers]
Renly is seated in a chair, Ser Loras Tyrell kneeling beside him, preparing to shave his chest.
"Lord Stark's lucky he still has a head."
"Robert will rant for a few days, but he won't do anything. He adores the man."
"You're jealous."
"Are you sure this won't hurt?"
"Only if I slip."
"And you prefer me like this?"
"Hmm - mmm..."
"If you want hairless, maybe you should find a little boy."
"I want you."
"My brother thinks that anyone who hasn't been to war isn't a man. He treats me as if I'm a spoiled child." Loras laughed. "Oh, and you're not? Loras Tyrell, the Knight of the Flowers? How many wars have you fought in? Oh, and how much did your father spend on that armor of yours?"
"Hold still."
"All I ever hear from Robert and Stannis is how I'm not tough enough, how I squirm at the sight of blood."
"You did vomit when that boy's eye was knocked out in the mêlée."
"His eye was dangling out of the damn socket!"
"He shouldn't have entered the mêlée if he didn't know how to fight."
"Easy for you to say. Not everyone is such a gifted swordsman."
"It's not a gift. No one gave it to me. I'm good because I work at it -- evey day of my life since I could hold a stick."
"I could work at fighting all day, evey day, and still nevr be as good as you.
"Yes well, I guess we'll nevr know." Loras wiped Renly's chest off and then raised his arm to shave underneath it.
"Everywhere?"
"Everywhere." Loras confirmed. "So how did it end up? The Targaryen girl will die?"
"It needs to be done, unpleasant as it is. Robert's rather tasteless about it. Every time he talks about killing her, I swear the table rises six inches."
"It's a shame he can't muster the same enthusiasm for his wife."
"He does have a deep, abiding lust for her money. You have to give it to the Lannisters -- they may be the most pompous, ponderous cսոts the gods ever suffered to walk the world, but they do have outrageous amounts of money."
"I have an outrageous amount of money."
"Not as much as the Lannisters."
"But a lot more than you."
"Robert's threatening to take me hunting with him. Last time we were out there for two weeks -- tramping through the trees in the rain, day after day. All so he can stick his spear into something's flesh! Oh. but Robert loves his killing. And he's the King."
"Hmm ... How did that ever happen?"
"Because he loves his killing and he used to be good at it."
"Do you know who should be King?" Both men exchanged a look.
"Be serious."
"I am. My father could be your bank. I've nevr fought in a war before, but I'd fight for you."
"I'm fourth in line."
"And where was Robert in the line of royal succession? Joffrey is a monster. Tommen is eight."
"Stannis?"
"Stannis has the personality of a lobster."
"He's still my older brother." Loras slices a small cut in Renly's side. "What are you doing?!"
"Look at it."
"You cut me!"
"It's just blood. We've all got it in us. Sometimes a little spills. If you become King, you're going to see a lot of this. You need to get used to it. Go on. Look. People love you. They love to serve you because you're kind to them. They want to be near you." Loras rose, taking Renly by the hand, helping him stand up as well. "You're willing to do what needs to be done, but you don't gloat over it. You don't love killing. Where is it written that power is the sole province of the worst? That thrones are only made for the hated and the feared. You would be a wonderful King."
Loras knelt down in front of Renly, unfastening Renly's pants and sliding them down. After a moment, Renly smiled with pleasure.
[King's Landing -- King Robert's Chambers]
King Robert was seated at his desk, staring pensively at the drink in his hand when Cersei Baratheon entered.
"I'm sorry your marriage to Ned Stark didn't work out. You seemed so good together." She told him, sitting in the chair opposite him.
"I'm glad I could do something to make you happy."
"Without a Hand, everything will fall to pieces."
"I suppose this is where you tell me to give the job to your brother Jaime."
"No. He's not serious enough. I'll say this for Ned Stark -- he's serious enough. Was it really worth it? Losing him this way?"
"I don't know. But I do know this -- If the Targaryen girl convinces her horse-lord husband to invade and the Dothraki horde crosses The Narrow Sea ... we won't be able to stop them."
"The Dothraki don't sail. Every child knows that. They don't have discipline. They don't have armor. They don't have siege weapons."
"It's a neat little trick you do -- you move your lips and your father's voice comes out."
"Is my father wrong?"
"Let's say Viserys Targaryen lands with forty thousand Dothraki screamers at his back. We hole up in our castles -- a wise move. Only a fool would meet the Dothraki in an open field. They leave us in our castles. They go from town to town, looting and burning, killing every man who can't hide behind a stone wall, stealing all our crops and livestock, enslaving all our women and children. How long do the people of the Seven Kingdoms stand behind their absentee King -- their cowardly King hiding behind high walls? When do the people decide that Viserys Targaryen is the rightful monarch after all."
"We still outnumber them."
"Which is the bigger number -- five or one?"
"Five."
Robert held both hands up in illustration. "Five ... one. One army, a real army, united behind one leader with one purpose. Our purpose died with the Mad King. Now we've got as many armies as there are men with gold in their purse. And everybody wants something different. Your father wants to own the world. Ned Stark wants to run away and bury his head in the snow."
"What do you want?"
"We haven't had a real fight in nine years. Back-stabbing doesn't prepare you for a fight. And that's all the realm is now -- back-stabbing and scheming and arse-licking and money-grubbing. Sometimes I don't know what holds it together."
"Our marriage."
King Robert let out a hearty laugh, Cersei joining him.
"Ah, so here we sit, seventeen years later, holding it all together. Don't you get tired?"
"Every ay."
"How long can hate hold a thing together?"
"Well, seventeen years is quite a long time."
"Yes, it is."
"Yes, it is. What was she like?"
"You've nevr asked about her, not once. Why not?"
"At first, just saying her name, even in private felt like I was breathing life back into her. I thought if I didn't talk about her, she'd just fade away for you. When I realized that wasn't going to happen, I refused to ask out of spite. I didn't want to give you the satisfaction of thinking I cared enough to ask. And eventually it became clear that my spite didn't mean anything to you, as far as I could tell, you actually enjoyed it."
"So why now?"
"What harm could Lyanna Stark's ghost do to either of us that we haven't done to each other a hundred times over?"
"You want to know the horrible truth? I can't even remember what she looked like. I only know she was the one thing I ever wanted ... Someone took her away from me, and Seven Kingdoms couldn't fill the hole she left behind."
"I felt something for you once, you know?"
"I know."
"Even after we lost our first boy -- for quite a while, actually. Was it ever possible for us? Was there ever a time, ever a ... moment?"
"No." He said, dryly. "Does that make you feel better or worse?"
"It doesn't make me feel anything."
[King's Landing -- Littlefinger's brоthеl]
Ned Stark was in a room with Mhaegen, a prοstitսte and mother of King Robert's illegitimate daughter, who she was holding.
In an adjoining room, separated by a curtain of metal hoops, Littlefinger reclined on a sofa between two of his whοres.
Jory Cassel, Captain of Winterfell's Guard, stood opposite the sofa, next to the curtained doorway.
"She looks like him, don't she, My Lord? She has his nose, his black hair."
"Aye."
"Tell him when you see him, My Lord. If it please you ... tell him how beautiful she is."
"I will."
"And tell him I've been with no one else. I swear it, My Lord, by the old gods and new. I don't want no jewels or nothing, just him. The King was alwys good to me."
"When Jon Arryn came to visit you, what did he want?"
"He wasn't that sort of man, My Lord. He just wanted to know if the child was happy ... healthy."
"She looks healthy enough to me. The girl shall want for nothing."
Ned left the room through the curtain and joined Littlefinger in the adjoining room.
"Brоthеls make a much better investment than ship, I've found. whοres rarely sink." Littlefinger told him.
"What do you know of King Robert's bastards?"
"Well, he has more than you, for a start."
"How many?"
"Does it matter? If you fսck enough women, some of them will give you presents."
"And Jon Arryn tracked them all down. Why?"
"He was the King's Hand. Perhaps Robert wanted them looked after. He was overcome with fatherly love."
Ned, preparing to leave, told Jory, "Come."
Jory remains transfixed, staring at the whοres on the couch as one of them bares her breasts.
"Jory!"
Jor was startled out of his trance. "My Lord."
Ned and Jory exited the brоthеl and were joined by a handful of the Stark guards. Though they were swiftly surrounded by Jaime Lannister's armed guard.
Jaime rode up on horseback to the head of the guard and faced Ned Stark. "Such a small pack of wolves."
"Stay back, Ser! This is the Hand of the King!" Jory warned.
"Was! ... the Hand of the King. Now I'm not sure what he is ... Lord of somewhere very far away."
Littlefinger exited the brоthеl. "What's the meaning of this, Lannister?"
"Get back inside where it's safe. I'm looking for my brother." He turned to Ned. "You remember my brother, don't you, Lord Stark? Blond hair, sharp tongue, short man."
"I remember him well."
"It seems he had some trouble on the road. You wouldn't know what happened to him, would you?"
"He was taken at my command to answer for his crimes."
Jaime drew his sword as his men start to move forward. However, they are stopped when Littlefinger stepped up.
"My Lords! I'll bring the City Watch!" Littlefinger said before leaving.
"Come, Stark. I'd rather you die sword in hand."
"If you threaten My Lord again --"
"Threaten? As in, "I'm going to open your Lord from balls to brains and see what Starks are made of"?"
"You kill me, your brother's a dead man." Ned told him.
"You're right." He turned to his men. "Take him alive! Kill his men!"
A short but fierce fight breaks out between the men. Outnumbered, Lord Stark's men were felled one by one, ending with Jaime driving a dagger into Jory's eye.
Ned Stark engaged Jaime while all remaining watched. Their sword fight was brought to an abrupt end when one of Jaime's guards spears the back of Ned's leg, bringing him to his knees.
Angry, Jaime approached the offending guard and knocks him out with one hard blow from the blunt end of his sword before mounting his horse.
"My brother, Lord Stark ... we want him back."
Jaime rode away as Ned Stark fell to his back on the ground.