Streaks Of Silver (Game of Thrones)

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Falling Apart...

After the ceremony was over, Litha and Jaime would join the reception party. Walking the festival grounds and talking. Litha telling him about one of the gardens in Dragonstone which was being redesigned into an enclosed aviary for her dragons. To give them a place to fly without fear of them getting hurt or lost, and even learn how to hunt with a fish stocked pond and wild game set loose every so often for further enrichment...

And Jaime? He'd tell her all about the Siege of Pyke and watching Thoros of Myr charge through the breach with his flaming sword...

"Can he do anything else with flame? Might be interesting to have a rival in magic," she wondered as they walked, making Jaime chuckle.

"He's far more interested in rum than competition these days, I'm afraid...ran off into the hills with the Brotherhood Without Banners," Jaime informed her as she jerked her shoulders.

"War changes people's perspectives...it's no surprise he ran off to really help people, after all he did at the Pyke turned out to be worth nothing. Now that Theon's betrayed the Starks and the Boltons have Winterfell," she couldn't judge him for that and Jaime found virtue in her words.

"For now," he said then, whispering it into her ear as a smirk came across her face.

"Yes...for now."

***

By the time came for the dinner to begin, Litha would sit beside Jaime, Tyrion and Sansa. Watching Joffrey's vulgar theatre performances as well as being forced to listen to hack musicians who played cheap rip-offs of the songs she once played in taverns...

And all the while, Litha would sit giggling in her seat until it grew too much for Joffrey to stand and he snapped...

"Is something amusing, Queen Visenya?" he asked, interrupting a performance while her giggling turned to a full blown laugh.

"It's nothing! It's nothing, King Joffrey...it's just that when I was still Litha Snow, I wrote these songs. They're playing plagiarized versions of my music for you," she laughed and Joffrey froze.

"What?! No, they're not!" he denied until Jaime raised a hand.

"They are, actually, dear Nephew," he corrected the King, "I was there when she wrote them, as was your Uncle Tyrion all that time ago on the Streets of Flour, Gold and Steel. Your people remember her songs well. So much so that they steal them for you without even realizing, I'm sure," he spoke eloquently as his gaze slowly panned to the bards while Litha already stared them down, "My Queen, what is the punishment for plagiarism in your realm?" he wondered as she came to rest her hand over his forearm.

"These men may have stolen my songs, but they play them well and I enjoyed their twists on the melodies...I do not compose easy pieces to play," she mused over them, "Just the once, I shall consider this an audition and invite this musical company to play for myself and my court in Dragonstone. We do have our own nuptials to plan, after all, my love," she declared and Jaime nodded in agreement.

Looking to the band who lit up at this opportunity, Jaime extended a hand out of respect, "Please, visit her Grace's court at your leisure, won't you?" he welcomed them and the lot bowed before getting on with a new song.

One which would end just before the royal pie came out and the entire day fell apart with one tainted glass of wine...

A glass that Joffrey would choke and die on...

Collapsing to the ground, suffocating as his lungs closed and his throat filled with bile. The Boy King passing on in his mother's arms while Cersei wept and Jaime rushed to his son's side with Litha in tow. Just as concerned, for how could she not be? Joffrey may have been a mangy cuck, but he was still Jaime's blood...

He was Jaime's first boy...

"He did this," Cersei dared to hiss when she saw Tyrion pick up the glass Joffrey's wine had been in, "He DID THIS...!" she screamed and that was it. Both Litha and Jaime'd had quite enough of her games.

"Do it," Jaime grunted before Litha threw an open palm across her face.

"ARE YOU FUCKING DEFECTIVE?!" Litha screamed as Cersei recoiled, "Your son dies and the first person you think to blame is the only one in the family that ever actually advised him to be kind?! To help people rather than you?! Who allowed him to flay whores in his bed chambers...?!" she scolded Cersei and slapped her again, "You insolent little girl!" she curled her lip at the Queen Mother who sat back in teary-eyed shock while the crowd of wedding guests all fell silent, "Tyrion Lannister is one of the greatest minds in the world! One that's saved this city multiple times, all to protect his nieces and nephews! To protect his family in Tywin and Jaime's stead, and you have the FUCKING GALL TO ACCUSE HIM AS HE STANDS BLATANTLY PROPPED UP FOR THIS?! YOU SPITEFUL FUCKING HAG!" she finished her rant at Cersei who crumbled apart as Litha then looked around, seeing Sansa sitting in horror.

Staring at Joffrey's corpse, the trauma she endured and the memories of it glistening in her eyes. Along with the love and obsession she once held for him, twisted into remorse for ever having felt for him in the first place. For ever begging to come south and dragging her sister along with her, "If this is how House Lannister chooses to treat their own kin in the face of adversity? Then, they don't need it," she declared then, looking to her Dothraki commander, Lakro, "Prepare my ships. We leave today," she ordered and the man nodded before going off with a few other guards.

Litha then turned to Tywin, "Tyrion Lannister will be a more welcome guest in Dragonstone alongside my sister than he has ever been in this Gods-be-damned city, or in Casterly Rock, for that matter. Handle the investigation of this heinous crime on your own," she scolded him as she made this next declaration...

Though, she wouldn't rush to part Jaime from his dead child just yet. Tears reaching her own eyes as she crouched back down beside him while Cersei crawled a few feet back in her grief. Wrapping her arms around her knight with her head resting on the back of his shoulder...

While Jaime Lannister openly wept over the body of his dead son as he took Joffrey's cooling body into his arms...