Hear me Roar - English version

CHAPTER 70 - You will recover

               My head buzzes. Sounds reach me muffled. The light blinds me. My vision is blurred. The smell of salt fills my nostrils.

"Jaime..."

"Diana."

               I manage to discern Tyrion's voice. I push myself up into a sitting position and, unsatisfied with his response, I demand:

"Jaime," I repeat.

               The silence nails me to the spot. Driven by my anxiety, I somehow manage to hoist myself onto my feet. The blood abruptly rushes down, pounding against my skull.

"Jaime!"

               As my vision clears, I turn to face the waves. And I am right back in it. The memories of Robin collapsing in the ruined tower strike me with the force of a heavy sledgehammer. I do not want to live through this again. Not again.

"Tyrion!! Where is Jaime?"

               The dwarf grabs my arm. He forces me to look at him. The sudden movement flares the pain in my ribs, which the confusion had made me forget.

"They got him."

               I am going to kill her...

♐︎

               Heading toward the throne room, my advisors attempt to keep pace with me as I stride through the corridors without granting them a single glance. Their voices echo behind me, like the final remnants of my conscience.

"If you react this quickly and harshly, she will have won!"

"You must stick to the original plan."

"You let yourself be defeated once. We must think before we..."

               I turn abruptly toward Lord Royce. Ever since Baelish dragged Sansa to the Eyrie before murdering our aunt Lysa there, Yohn Royce has proven loyal to my sister. On her advice, and following the Long Night, I agreed to give him a seat on my Small Council.

"Because you think I do not think?"

"Your Majesty, that is not what I..."

"You have not been by my side for long, Lord Royce, but know that I never stop thinking."

"Admit that you still have a tendency to make decisions based on your states of mind," Tyrion chimes in.

               Even if I weigh every possible plan, I still end up doing exactly as I please. I think I am acting for the greater good. And even if it succeeds for me most of the time, I have also had my fair share of complications.

"You no longer have the luxury of being wrong," he adds.

"Tyrion..." I whisper, pleadingly. "She has Jaime..."

"I know. That is why you no longer have room for error."

               Cersei is unstable, more than she has ever been. She sees everyone who does not venerate her as a potential enemy and considers those who disappoint her as traitors. Jaime turned his back on her by joining us to fight the Night King. So, I have no doubt that she will make him pay for it.

"She loves him," Theon says suddenly. "Doesn't she?"

"Once upon a time," I reply. "Now, I wouldn't bet on it."

"You told me they were bound, connected."

"That's how she presented things, back then. Cersei said that Jaime and she had started together and that they would finish together. That the gods had bound them forever in their mother's womb, and that... and that it was therefore entirely natural for them to be united."