HEAR ME ROAR. | ❝ I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
'Cause I am a champion and you're gonna hear me roar ❞
In which Tywin Lannister has two daughters instead of one.
[GAME OF THRONES • ASOIAF]
[HIATUS...
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Castle Black, the Wall, THE NORTH
AS THE NEWS OF HIS FATHER'S ALLEGED TREASON REACHED THE WALL, AND ALL THE OTHER CORNERS OF THE REALM, HE ASSUMED. Jon found himself on the radar of Ser Alliser Thorne, who used every opportunity he had to humiliate him. Lord Commander Mormont already lectured him on his behaviour, and he believed that it cast out every thought of deserting from the boy's head. But as the news of his brother march to the South reached them, it became worse.
"Tell me, did you ever wonder why the men of The Night's Watch take no wives and father no children?" The blind Maester Aemon asked him, as he helped the old man to feed the ravens.
"No," he answered dully. In truth, he did wonder, but in his predicament, it suited him not to extend the line of bastard Snows.
"So they will not love. Love is the death of duty." Maester said prophetically, and Jon realized where this was going. "If the day should ever come when your Lord father was forced to choose between honour on the one hand and those he loves on the other, what would he do?"
"He would do whatever was right." Jon was certain of it now, as his father currently rot in dungeon for doing the right thing. "No matter what."
"Then Lord Stark is one man in ten thousand. Most of us are not so strong," Aemon's voice was sad. "What is honour compared to a woman's love? And what is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms? Or a brother's smile?"
"So Sam told you." Jon felt a jab at the brother's remark. He said it himself not so long ago that he should be with his brother and Athena, but Sam, Grenn and Pyp corrected him, saying they are his brothers and there was no place for a woman's love, even if she was the Queen of Beauty.
"We're all humans," Aemon continued. "Oh, we all do our duty when there's no cost to it. Honour comes easy then. Yet sooner or later in every man's life there comes a day when it is not easy, a day when he must choose."
"And this is my day? Is that what you're saying?"
"Oh, it hurts, boy. Oh yes. I know."
"You do not know! No one knows." Why they were all so adamant in claiming they knew about his torment. "I may be a bastard, but he is my father and Robb is my brother."
"The Gods were cruel when they saw fit to test my vows," the Maester explained. "They waited till I was old. What could I do when the ravens brought the news from the South... the ruin of my house, the death of my family? I was helpless, blind, and frail. But when I heard they had killed my brother's grandson, and his poor son... And the children! Even the little children."
"Who are you?"
"My father was Maekar, the First of His Name. My brother Aegon reigned after him when I had refused the Throne. My nephew, Jaehaerys took the throne after him and he was followed by his son Aerys, whom they called the Mad King."
