King's Landing 298 AC.
Olenna.
For the sheer amount of tourneys she'd attended in her life, it was remarkable how much she still enjoyed them. The joust most of all though it brought her sadness too. Each time she looked to Willas she'd think of what could have been if fate hadn't intervened. He'd have been equal to his brothers of that she had no doubt, either with a sword in his hand or as Loras was right now with a lance in it. Olenna cheering on as her grandson easily dispatched his second opponent before she turned once again to the one who sat looking on.
That Willas only took pleasure in watching his brother compete showed just how true and good her grandson truly was. His own dreams of crowning the girl she now knew he cared for, perhaps even loved already, would have to remain just that. Yet Willas sat and clapped and cheered as enthusiastically as Margaery did when Loras unseated the knight from House Banfefort. It made her even more determined to see that his other wishes regarding Sansa Stark would come true. This meant that she needed to speak to Jae and Margaery before she even considered approaching Ned Stark.
If it were for any other reason then she may not even approach the king today. As each time she looked at him other than when Loras or one of the Kingsguard or his cousin rode, Jae, looked to be miserable. Had she not known the cause of that misery then Olenna wouldn't have arranged for a private lunch with Jae and Margaery today and instead would have left it to for another day. But she knew exactly why Jae was in such a mood and it was no wonder that he and her grandson had become such good friends, boys, and their games and need to prove themselves.
As the next two knights charged at each other, Olenna found herself looking once again at Sansa Stark and liking what she saw even more. When she'd told Alerie about her talk with Willas, her gooddaughter had been more than pleased. Her own time spent with the girl having quickly brought her in favor with Alerie, just as it had with herself, Mace, Margaery, and almost all who'd met Sansa Stark. Given she was just two and ten it was clear that she'd be a lady to be reckoned with in the future and was exactly the kind of one that she'd wish to see as the Lady of Highgarden when she was gone.
"How many more of these blasted things are there before lunch?" she asked irritably, though she was anything but, still she did have a reputation to live up to.
"I believe Robb Stark and Ser Arthur both have their matches to come mother." Mace said and she sighed over elaborately to let everyone else know she was still who they expected her to be.
It was something that was becoming harder and harder to pull off she had found. The idea of an irritable Queen of Thorns who you dared annoy at your peril, one which didn't fit with who she was right now. For so long she'd been aiming to see her family settled, to place her granddaughter on the throne, and to see Willas in a position that recognized his worth. Even to see him wed, though that was something that had taken a backseat to Margaery's own marriage prospects in her eyes most of the time.
Now it was almost all done, Margaery was a queen whose husband loved and respected her. Willas a Master of Coin and by the time she was done, he'd be betrothed to the king's beloved sister and the daughter of the Warden of the North. Loras was a Kingsguard and Garlan though he'd turned down an offer of a role in King's Landing, had accepted the king's offer to be in charge of a reserve army. The lords who'd fought with him at Highgarden all keener to fight under her grandson rather than her son. It was both a dangerous and clever thing to do but she knew that Jae had intended for Garlan to be in a position to be named soon as Warden of the South. It was always supposed to be a military position compared to Lord of the Reach which was to be a political one and Jae wished it to be a military man who held it.
