No one else was awake yet. No Devan Seaworth offering witty comments. No Balon Swann asking Gendry's opinion on military preparations, like he would know the answer. And no Cortnay Penrose trying to dictate how everything was supposed to happen. Some of the servants had started to stir, preparing the castle for its first day back under Baratheon rule, but no one requiring anything of Gendry's was up yet. Which was good because there was one more place Gendry wanted to visit that morning. And he needed to go there alone.
He needed to visit the crypt to pay his respects to all the Baratheon's who had been before him. He needed to tell the ghosts that he was there.
Davos had told him they were all resting there. Even Stannis and Shireen. Davos had himself made sure that their remains were returned to the place where they belonged. Since Tyrek officially had been holding the castle for the Baratheon family he had also done his part in making sure they got their proper burial.
Gendry made his way deep down under the castle. Into the wet and slippery tunnels underneath. The tunnels lead down to the cliffs below if you knew the way. Which Gendry didn't. But he found his way to the crypts by following the trail of candles hanging on the walls. He wondered whose task it was to make sure those candles always burned.
The crypt was kept in a huge cave that was carved out of the cliff. The cave was flooding in light. Candles on the walls lit up white sandstone walls. It was beautiful, and it was peaceful. The stone coffins were arranged in neat rows beside each wall of the cave. Almost all of them had a statue beside it, claiming to look like the person buried there.
Gendry was at last surrounded by his family. A family of ghosts.
He walked down the aisle between the coffins and statues. Looking at all the stone faces of family members he had never known. That he would never know. He didn't know their names and he couldn't read them. Devan would have to come with him down here later and read them for him. People always said he looked like a Baratheon and he tried to see the resemblance among the stone faces. But the statues just looked back blankly at him. There was nothing to find there, no connection, no recognition, no welcome home.
As he got to the end of the line he stopped. Even though he couldn't read the name of the coffin he could see who rested there. The statue wore a crown. This was where Robert Baratheon, the king of the seven kingdoms, was resting for eternity. Gendry was standing in front of his father. This was as close as he would ever get to him. The man who went to war for the woman he loved but ended up on the throne instead, without his love Lyanna. Who one night in his sorrow about losing her had found comfort in a barmaid and sired his bastard son. It was not a grand backstory, but it was his backstory. That's how Gendry Baratheon had come to be.
Gendry kneeled beside the grave. He was finally there, by his father's side. And he could finally talk to him.
"Father... I know you don't know who I am, or that I ever existed. I'm your bastard son, Gendry. Lord Gendry Baratheon these days I suppose. I'm here now, as your sole heir. Apparently I look a lot like you."
He looked up at the stone face above him. Perhaps it looked a little bit like him. Perhaps he was imagining it.
He put his palm on the stone coffin. He needed to feel something tangible. He needed to make a promise to his father, despite him being long gone. So he put his palm down as if he was swearing an oath, just like had done when he promised Howland Reed he would protect him if needed. No one would hold him to this promise, but he still needed to make it.
The coffin lid was cool and smooth against his hand. Below it laid all that remained of a man who once ruled the whole world as Gendry knew it. A man who had burned brightly, loved passionately and fought ferociously. Only bones remained of him now. Bones that would turn into dust. Dust that would turn into nothing. Only his son would remain.
"I promise to carry the Baratheon name with honor. I promise to continue the Baratheon line. I promise to defend our castle. I promise to make you proud, just like any true born son would."
He remained on his knees for a while longer, with his palm still on the coffin. Almost as if he was waiting for a response from beyond the grave, from his father's ghost. But of course, he got no reply. His father wasn't there.
So he got up, brushed off his knees and turned around. The statue on the other side of the aisle did look familiar to him. It was the final resting place for his uncle, Stannis Baratheon. The only member of his family that he had ever met. But that meeting had turned into one of the worst experiences of Gendry's life. And if it wasn't for Davos Seaworth that's where Gendry's life would have ended.
He had a message for his uncle too.
"Uncle... I wanted to thank you. Not for what you put me through. That was horrific. You took my first time with a woman from me. But for being the one to reveal to me who my father was. I would not be here if it wasn't for you. And I know you would not like me, the bastard son, being here. You would never have treated me as an equal. But I'm the last Baratheon there is, so you're stuck with me. I'm Lord Baratheon now, uncle. And that's because of you."
He smiled as he said that last part. His uncle had used him for his blood. He had almost killed him for his blood. But in the end, his blood was what got him here. The blood of his father.
Next to Stannis' grave was a smaller grave. With a statue of a small girl beside it. It was the grave of Shireen Baratheon. Gendry had never met Shireen but Davos had told him about her. How kind and good she was.
He kneeled down to talk to the statue.
"Shireen, my cousin. I'm sorry you're here. It should have been me. I was supposed to be the one who burned. You should be here instead of me, you should be the last Baratheon. Davos told me that you were the best of them. You taught him to read. I don't know how to read either, so I wish you were here to teach me."
He wiped a tear as he talked to her. A little girl such as her should not be here among the other ghosts.
Then he left the crypt. He left the ghosts behind. He left to carry on their legacy.
One day Gendry Baratheon would also be buried in that crypt. One day he would be one of the ghosts. One day his son, named Robert after his grandfather, would stand there by his graveside and tell him all the things he never got to tell his father in life.