Dance of the Empire

Chapter 2 The Exquisitely Odd Lannister

As Katherine Lannister stood atop the steep cliffs of Casterly Rock, she hurled rock after rock into the tumultuous sea below. Each boulder seemed heavier than the last, straining her slender frame and causing a tear in the fine fabric of her bright red dress. Despite the thunderous impact of the rocks against the waves, the sea appeared indifferent, effortlessly swallowing the missiles.

With heaving breaths and a growl of frustration, Katherine seized another boulder, its weight causing her delicate features to contort with effort. With a fierce roar, she flung the rock with all her might, watching as it vanished into the frothing abyss. As the salty wind whipped her hair and the light rain kissed her skin, Katherine's mind drifted to Borros Baratheon, a crude and illiterate brute whose lecherous gaze had often made her skin crawl. She could still feel his eyes upon her, roving over her body with a lascivious hunger that made her blood boil.

With a fierce punch, Katherine struck the rocky ground, her hand stinging with pain. It was a small but satisfying hurt, one that matched the fierce turmoil of her thoughts. For a moment, she surrendered to her anger, to the primal bestiality that lurked beneath her carefully cultivated veneer of elegance and poise. She needed this moment of pure anger, irrationality and bestiality. On her way back to the castle, she rearranged her dress and assessed her figure from a small pond formed by accumulated rainfall. Her lips formed into a slycurve, her beauty was nothing short of incomparable and she knows it. Katherine Lannister enchanted everyone but the Lannisters.

She remembered when the Princess Heiress' letter congratulating her thirteenth nameday, subtly reminding her that her exceptional appearance might become an inconvenience. From then on, she noticed the lingering gazes of admiration, longing, sympathy, and lust. And she used those glances to her advantage, relishing the power she wielded with her effortless moves. She despised her father for treating her like a prized breeding mare, and the lustful men to whom he paraded her, but she had scoffed at the idea. How could something so beautiful ever be an inconvenience? The inconvenience was them. Some day, she would make sure there will be none.

As she entered the hall of the castle with her usual graceful and confident demeanour, her younger half-siblings gathered around the Cyvasse table glared at her presence.

"Oh well well, isn't this our broodmare half-sister ," sneered her sister, her tone dripping with malice. "Father will sell you off to the highest bidder, and you'll be nothing but a breeding machine for some lordling's pleasure."

Her brother snickered, his lips twisting into a cruel smile. "Or maybe he'll just marry you off to some old, ugly lord. That way, you'll be stuck birthing his heirs until you're old and grey."

Katherine's doe eyes narrowed, a subtle yet unmistakable expression of disdain crossing her delicate features.

"How kind of you to entertain me with your charming wit and eloquence." With effortless grace, she sank onto the couch, her silky brown hair falling in a cascade around her delicate features.
"It's funny how you naively believe you can prove to father your worth with your studies and your pretense of grace, but do not forget your place," Lanna Lannister gritted her teeth, "you are the same breed as a bastard. You do not share our family features, with your earthly colour of eye and hair. Who knows if you are the fruit of some indiscretion your whore of a mother had," her voice dripped with cruelty.

Katherine forced back her chuckle as she recalled the distant days where Alerie Tyrell snuck out of Tyland Lannister's chamber when Ariane Stark was still alive.

"Bastard?" Katherine scoffed, her laughter ringing out like silver bells. "You truly do have a gift for wit, Lanna. Perhaps you should consider a career in comedy, for I have never heard such a hilarious insult in all my life." With an almost teasing tone, Katherine raised her eyebrows provocatively and let her doe eyes return to their innocent expression, "My dearest, I do wish you success in achieving the things you crave in life. For myself, I am quite content with all that I have," she said, her voice carrying an air of superiority that could only be matched by her enviable reputation, the Exquisitely Odd Lannister, across the realm.