Dark Sister

-The Great Lion and His Cubs-

-The Great Lion and His Cubs-

298 AC
Casterly Rock

Jaime and Valyria had arrived at Casterly Rock during the night. The next morning they met with Lord Tywin in his war tent. "You have been summoned to court to answer for the crimes of your Bannerman, Gregor Clegane, the Mountain. Arrive within the fortnight or be branded an enemy of the crown." Valyria read the letter to the Lannisters.

"Poor Ned Stark, brave man, terrible judgment." Jaime piped in. Lord Tywin looked up from the stag carcass he was skinning. " Attacking him was stupid." Both Jaime and Valyria looked up as the Lord of Casterly Rock was slicing open the belly of the deer.
"Lannisters don't act like fools." He dropped the innards in a bucket. "Are you going to say something clever? Go on, say something clever." Lord Tywin dared as he cleaned his knife. "Catelyn Stark took my brother," Jaime said. Valyria raised an eyebrow at him with a 'that's the best you could do?' Look on her face. "Why is he still alive?" Tywin continued to skin the stag. "Tyrion?" Valyria questioned. "Ned Stark." "One of our men interfered speared him through the leg. I couldn't finish him off." Jaime spoke, more cub than lion.

"Why is he still alive?" Lord Lannister questioned again. "It wouldn't have been clean," Jaime said reluctantly. "Clean." Lord Tywin scoffed "You spend too much time worrying about what other people think of you." "I could care less what anyone thinks of me." Valyria knew that was a lie, Jaime was consumed with his image. "Now that's what you want people to think of you." Tywin ran the knife under the hide. "It's the truth."

"When you hear them whispering Kingslayer behind your back doesn't that bother you?" Tywin continued to pull the skin up. "Of course it bothers me," Jaime said angrily. "A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of the sheep." An overstated phrase used by the Lannister patriarch "I suppose I should be grateful that your vanity got in the way of your recklessness." Jaime sighed at his father's words.

"I'm giving you half of our forces, 15,000 men. You'll bring them to Catelyn Stark's girlhood home, and remind her that Lannisters pay their debts." "I didn't realize you placed such a high value on Tyrion's head." Valyria chimed in. "He's a Lannister! He might be the lowest of the Lannisters but he is one of us. And every day that he remains a prisoner, the less our name commands respect." Lord Tywin spoke moving away from the dead stag.

Jaime's face lit up "So the lion does concern himself with the opinions-" "No it's not an opinion it's a fact!" Tywin roared at his son's ignorance. "If another house can seize one of our own, and hold him captive, with impunity. We are no longer a house to be feared." Tywin looked at the two before continuing "Your mother's dead, before long I'll be dead, and you, and your brother, and your sister, and all of her children, all of us dead, all of us rotting in the ground. It's the family name that lives on, it's all that lives on. Not your personal glories, not your honor, but family. Do you understand?" He spoke as he turned to look at them again. Jaime nodded.

Valyria knew his words all too well, everyone in her family was either dead or exiled, but still, everyone in Westeros knew the name Targaryen, her ancestors did it right when they forged a dynasty. Tywin stabbed the knife into the table as he wiped his hands off with a rag. "You're blessed with abilities few men possess, you're blessed to belong to the most powerful family in the kingdoms, and you're still blessed with youth. And what have you done with these blessings, both of you? You serve as a glorified bodyguard for a drunk and a madman before him." Valyria and Jaime's eyes found the ground more interesting than Lord Tywin's pale green eyes.

"The future of our family will be determined in these next few months. We could establish a dynasty that would last a thousand years. Or we could collapse into nothing as your house did." Tywin looked to Valyria at the end. He then turned back to Jaime, whom he was now standing in front of. "I need you to become the man that you were always meant to be. Not next year. Not tomorrow. Now." Tywin showed a glimpse of fatherly affection by lacing his hand on Jaime's cheek.

"So when do we leave?" Valyria broke the silence that had encased the tent. "Jaime will leave tomorrow and you will stay here. I won't have the two of you, galavanting around and making stupid decisions." Valyria looked down at the ground again.