To guarantee the safety of the woman he loved, Brienne of Tarth, Jaime Lannister dragged his sister to her death in the collapse of the Red Keep, sacrificing his own life in the process. Now, Jaime must ensure Brienne's future, from beyond the grave...
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Jaime clamped his eyes shut against the encroaching darkness, not from fear, but so the hateful face of his own sister would not be the last thing which filled his mind in this life. He told himself that even as he grasped Cersei's wicked frame in his arms that it was his true love, Brienne, he held as he had for so many passion-filled nights in the North. The bricks and dust now pummeled him on all sides, yet it was odd that he felt little pain. Nothing could have ever been as painful as watching the tears that filled his darling Brienne's sapphire blue eyes as she begged him not to go. He had not told her then that his wish was not to reunite with Cersei but to drag her to the Hells himself, so that she, Brienne of Tarth, the one who truly possessed his heart would always be safe. He could not have divulged such a truth for she would have surely followed him here to her death. It was a fate he could not abide. So he left her hurting, sobbing in the freezing cold, unsure of his love, all the while knowing that his heart would forever be true to his Sapphire Maid.
He clutched Cersei close to him, fearful she would bolt from the terror of the walls collapsing all around them. He had already sacrificed too much, they would both die this day, for Brienne. His mind filled with treasured images of the time he had spent with the woman he himself had knighted. They had been so happy, and so in love. Widows Wail, his magnificent Valyrian steel sword, virtually pulsed at his side, searching for its own mate. The blade not knowing that Oathkeeper was so far away. He had given Brienne her own glorious weapon. He had sworn it would always be hers. They both knew that he spoke of his heart. Jaime hoped it was a bond that would connect him to Brienne, even in death.
As the dirt choked his lungs, Jaime said a prayer of thanks to the Gods, that Brienne was safe. He felt Cersei shaking as he held her in the darkness. He wondered for a moment if her tremors were from fear, or from knowing it was he who was to fulfill the witch's prophecy she had revealed to him long ago. She had always hated Tyrion not only from the blame of their mother's death, but for her assumption that it would be her youngest brother who would wrap his hand round her throat and choke the life from her. Jaime almost laughed to think that he had been her Valonqar all along. Cersei sobbed in the final moments and pressed her flat belly against him. Surely, she knew now that he realized there was no child. Her desperate effort to keep him, had been a lie. The knowledge only strengthened Jaime's resolve. As the ceiling gave way above them, and the thick rubble crushed their very bones, knocking them to the floor and covering them in a tomb of bricks, Jaime gasped for his voice, needing to call out one last word to whatever Gods would listen. Cersei too, choking and fighting reflexively for air, drew what Jaime was certain would be her death rasp. Jaime needed her to hear him. He wanted her to know. Weakly Jaime leaned his lips to Cersei's ear and spoke his final whisper so that she would know the truth.
"Brienne." He called, as he was buried by the falling bricks, and all went black. ———————————— In an instant, it stopped. The ground beneath Jaime's feet ceased its shaking. The dust no longer choked his lungs. The bricks halted their destruction of his body. Cersei was gone from his grasp. The pain was no more.
