court of lies | robert's rebellion

the sign of the times

"people will never blees enough to fulfil your vision of justice"

281 AC, Oldtown

She could leave her chambers in the dead of night. Alea would be sleeping and she would send Finnan away, the kingsguard who stood vigil in front of Elia's chambers could not see her from that angle. It was too easy to move quickly and soundlessly -she would not wear shoes as she ran in the hallways, climbed a few stairs and marched to the north wing and slipped inside the girl's chambers, picked up the pillow and pressed it into her face, sat on top of her so she could not fight her off and she stood in that position until she gave her final breath. And then with the same secrecy, she would return back to her chambers and sleep like a baby.

Lythene Penrose would die and no one would know it was her.

It was raining, it rarely rained at Oldtown. Water fell from the clouds in many different ways, yes, but the open rain was a rare occasion and Atera loved those days more than others. She mostly felt like she was a princess in a tale, locked in a tower by a big bad man, waiting for her knight in shiny armour to save her. So when the sky wept, she amused herself by thinking that it wept for her.

With an urgent need, she took off her robe and left her chambers, did not answer when Finnan asked her where she was going. She just left the castle with a thin, sleeveless, navy nightgown, it was in the middle of the night so no one was there to see her. She danced through the rain, through her pain until the first lights of the dawn hit the city.

"You are going to be ill.", Alea said when Atera came back to her senses and realized how cold she was, she was soaking wet and the wind was enough to make someone ill. She wrapped a blanket over her shoulders and helped her to her chambers.

"I cannot kill them.", she whispered when she finally laid down in bed, refusing Alea's insistence on taking a warm bath first. "You must stop me."

"You don't think you are powerful enough to control your urges?", Alea sat down on the bed, caressing her hair lovingly.

"I don't want to find out."

*

"You called for me?", Garth entered the room with a cheeky attitude though Atera was not in a mood for it.

"You must talk to Baelor, he would never listen to me if I say it.", she looked at him over papers. "He must marry."

Garth's smile almost faltered but he was quick to fix it back. "Where it came from?"

"The three most prominent families of the Reach are the Tyrells, the Hightowers and the Redwynes and it benefits us greatly and provides us many securities to keep it that way.", she said without answering him. She needed to keep herself busy and if she could not fix her own problems, she could fix others. "There is already a union between us and the Tyrells through marriage thanks to Alerie and Mace. There is going to be a union between the Redwynes and the Tyrells soon enough thanks to Paxter and Mina. Would it be that bad if there would be a union between us and the Redwynes too? Paxter has many cousins, but one of them stands out particularly. The Lady Contessina Redwyne, the daughter of Paxter's late uncle -that happens to be Olenna's brother, she is the same age as us, is pretty and -I am going to tell you this, she is clever. Rhonda Rowan will not do,", she sent him a look, aware of Baelor's obsession with that woman. "but Contessina Redwyne will."

Garth took a deep breath and exhaled it by puffing his cheeks. He was not made for court games. "It is not our place to advice him such.", he shook his head, pleading for Atera to see reason. He could not outright tell her that he was already married but if she pressed the issue further, a disaster would occur. "He is an adult, he can marry whenever he wants."