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CHAPTER ELEVEN. ━━━━━━━━━ These violent delights have violent ends.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, ROMEO AND JULIET ━━━━━━━━━
WHEN BRANDON STARK COMES TO King's Landing and stands at the base of the Red Keep, roaring, Astoria is in Elia's chambers, teaching Rhaenys to sew. The last day of life as Astoria knows it dawns like any other.
She knows the boy by name and reputation, of course. Handsome, in that cold Northern style of the Starks, brash and good with a sword but not much with his brains. Rhaenys purses her lips, brow furrowing together.
"Who is that loud man?" she asks her, pushing her thicker, blunter needle valiantly through her own piece of cloth. "What is he saying?"
"Shhh, love," Astoria says to Rhaenys, pushing back a strand of the girl's dark, Dornish hair. "Elia, who is that?"
Her friend does not speak, but the goblet of Dornish wine in her hand drops, clatters to the ground. Astoria stands up, but does not drop her sewing. "Who in the Seven hells —"
"Rhaegar!" he howls up at the Keep, "Rhaegar Targaryen!"
"He is calling for father!" Rhaenys jumps up, delighted. "Will they joust, mother?"
Astoria feels the blood run from her face, and unbidden, her needle presses into the ball of her thumb. A drop of blood, bright and alive, beads against her skin.
"Rhaegar!" he roars once more. "Come out to die!"
"Gods," Astoria whispers, and clutches at Elia's arm, "Gods, what has he done?"
The truth of whatever drove Brandon Stark here, in this manner, would surely cause her more grief than good. She almost trembles at the possibilities.
Later, Aerys imprisons the young wolf indefinitely, on charges of treason. The impetuous Stark hollers at the announcement, demanding justice for his sister, and understanding not a whit of what is happening. Astoria watches, quiet in her place next to Elia, and listens to Brandon Stark outlining the crimes of her husband's folly. And as he is led away, she can feel the eyes of every lord and lady upon the woman standing beside her.
"What happens now?" Astoria asks in the blessed privacy of Elia's chambers.
"Now, we wait," Elia sits herself by the window and looks out to the torch-lit courtyard below. "Either Lord Rickard will come to claim his son, or Rhaegar will come home to settle the chaos of his actions."
Astoria goes still, back tight with tension.
She thinks she has swallowed the Tears of Lys for how badly her heart burns.
