court of lies | robert's rebellion

the joust

"legends are slippery little things, for the glory that coats them hides the pain, suffering and death that spun them"

279 AC, Storm's End

The next day everybody was happy because of the jousting. Atera woke up early though, wore a beautiful fuchsia coloured all satin gown. It had long sleeves though it was still very thin, it had high collars and v-neck that was relatively conservative and from the back of her collar a same coloured cape fell to the floor. Her hair was braided and were filled with actual jewels of all kinds, emeralds and pink diamonds, obsidients and small rubies. She didn't wear any necklaces or earrings only rings and a beautiful diamond bracelet. She rushed to the castle gates with Alea and Adelaide behind her.

With the corner of her eye, she spotted the prince and his two guards, Oswell and Arthur. She was nervously tapping her feet, she was overly excited because her maternal grandfather and uncle were joining to the tourney but she was also a bit nervous because her paternal family hated them and vice versa. She just hoped there would be no problems. They had to arrive later with a few of Lord Tywin's bannermen due to bad weather though Robert was apparently right and the sun was up that day. While she was playing with her rings the prince silently approached to her.

"Good morrow, Lady Atera."

She gave a sharp turn to her ring and tried to force a smile, turned to the prince. "Good morrow, your grace.", she made an elegant curtsy.

"May I ask you what you are doing here in this early?"

No you may not. She bit her tongue. "My grandfather will arrive with the rest of the Westerland Lords, I thought it would be kind for me to greet him."

"You thought well.", Rhaegar smiled and turned towards the castle gates, cursing himself internally. Atera was aware his nervousness so she took a deep berath and decided to play the bigger person.

"I want you to know that I hold no grudges against you your grace, no matter what people whispers."

"I have no doubt on that.", Rhaegar spoke very quickly and then cursed himself again when he saw her mocking eyes. "I mean, of course, it is only your right to held I grudge because I had wronged you.", he looked at her with sincerity. "And for that I truly do apologize."

Atera looked at her, pursed her lips but before she could open her mouth the castle gates opened and her face lit up with happiness, real happiness. Rhaegar only saw the fake and forced one with Gerold and Leyton. Now it surprised him when she exclaimed with excitement.

"Grandfather!", she rushed to him quickly and he dismounted his horse, hugged her tightly. "I thought you would never arrive."

"I wouldn't miss the chance to see you without supervision.", he was an old man, in his fifties. His once blongish ginger hair was white now and his face was filled with wrinkles. "Look at you, how much you grow up!"

"It's been years since I last saw you. It's only normal.", she said with a broken excitement now and Lord Westerling patted her hand and suddenly she was flying.

"And here is my favourite niece!"

Atera laughed and turned to hug her uncle. And Rhaegar felt the presence of one another next to him. Leyton Hightower, watching the scene with cold, almost deadly eyes. Rhaegar had never saw the man that angry before but with a blink, all of them was erased from his face.

"Your grace.", he bowed respectively but before Rhaegar could answer he added with a threatening tone. "I do not wish to see you around my sister. You had harmed her enough."

"I only wanted to apologize."

"Secret apologizes do not fix anything when the damage is this big. With all respect, if you truly wish to right your wrongs, I suggest you to speak with your father. You may be the guilty one but the actual crime belongs to the king."