Hear me Roar - English version

CHAPTER 56 - Azor Ahaï

               Leaving me helpless, Cersei departs the Dragonpit. I feel as though I played my hand far too quickly. I had not anticipated that Jon would be the one to ruin my plan. His damn honour is seriously starting to break my balls.

"Have you ever considered learning how to lie every now and then?" Tyrion asks him, exasperated like the rest of us. "Just a little bit?"

"I will never utter an oath I cannot honour," Jon protests. "Talk to me about my father, if you want. Tell me that this attitude ended up killing him. When people do not hesitate to make false promises, words no longer mean anything. Then the only solution is to lie, to always lie better. And lying will not help us in this fight."

"This attitude ended up killing our father."

               I don't think I have ever uttered such words in so detached a tone. Always, for six years now, my voice would begin to tremble, my hands would clench, my throat would go dry. But time has passed, I have grieved. Above all, I have made sure never to make the same mistakes as Ned Stark. Today, I have his worthy heir standing before me. And I am starting to lose patience. If I hadn't lost it already.

"When Robert Baratheon was on his deathbed, he entrusted our father with a letter in which he granted him full power until Joffrey came of age. Father surrounded himself with the King's councillors, had the men of the City Watch gathered because he knew that facing Cersei alone would be no easy task."

"Joffrey had to be separated from his mother," Varys explains. "Ned Stark knew she would have used him as a weapon, would have turned him into a tyrant."

"When he gave the letter to Cersei, she tore it up and all the soldiers turned against him. All over the Red Keep, the Northmen were massacred. Arya vanished. And Father was imprisoned. He had trusted too much, spoken too much, and imagined a wonderful world where a scrap of paper could stop a war. Because Ned Stark liked to believe that every man would act just like him, with honour. So those few words you blurted out while naked in a bed, Jon, Cersei has just crushed them, and she will have no qualms about destroying the country if it keeps Daenerys off the throne."

♐︎

               From that moment on, everything that came out of Cersei's mouth was nothing but lies. Tyrion chose to believe her. According to him, the child she is carrying is reason enough to send her troops North. He is no longer the man I fell in love with, the one who ruled Westeros and thwarted his enemies' plans. He has grown weak. Perhaps the drink finally got the better of him.

"You seem to be adjusting well," a voice says behind me.

"What are you talking about?"

"To life at sea."

               Theon is right, I like it here. With the horizon before me, the world is full of possibilities. Buried treasures, unexplored regions, and epic naval battles. Perhaps that is where I belong.

"Are you leaving for Pyke?" I ask him.

"Yara is the only one who tried to save me," I cannot abandon her.

"And what will you do after?"

               I am naturally expecting Theon to join us at Winterfell. Returning to those grounds will not be easy for him, but it will still be easier than letting everyone he loves die. Deep down, Theon is as much a Stark as he is a Greyjoy.

"Diana..." he whispers, taking my hand. "What would you say to leaving with me?"

"I cannot leave Jon..."