Chapter Text
For almost twenty years, Jaime had secretly hoped that the Red Keep would never again delve back into the sullen environment and dour atmosphere from King Aerys II reign, but it had, and Jaime knew why. All he had to was look out the window of his chambers, and see the gaping crater where the once opulent Great Sept of Baelor once stood atop Visenya's Hill. The sight of the demolished holy established was enough to send Jaime into a fit of rage but more often than not, it only left him in a state of almost catatonic numbness. He was unable to go away inside anymore and was forced to relive that horrifying day all over again.
Having finally rode hard up the Hill of Rhaenys, Jaimed slowed his galloping steed to a trot and finally to a stop as the commanders of his cavalry called for a company halt. He could gape as he took in the ghastly view from above, saw the smoking ruins of where the Sept of Baelor was supposed to be. He urged his steed forward and rode ahead of his army, with only Ser Bronn by his side through the unusually empty streets. Finally he turned a corner and saw it true: the Sept had been reduced to rubble, with small fires still burning in some parts, few smallfolk running around and carrying off the injured and the unmistakable odor of wildfire in the air. Jaime immediately knew what had happened here.
When his men finally joined him on the scene, Jaime arranged for Ser Addam and a small group men to help put out the rest of the fires and calm the smallfolk down (Tommen didn't need another riot to deal with) and for Bronn to lead the rest of the army to the Red Keep so they could finally rest. He jumped down from his horse and took in the horrific scene, up close and personal. He walked up to the one of the commoners, a crying old crone and asked her what had happened here.
"Was making my way up the Street of Steel when I saw it blow, a big great explosion it was. But before that, the streets were too crowded because all the lords and ladies were making their way in there and now they're all dead. The Sparrows, the lords and ladies, the Rose Queen and her lord Father. Maybe a few lions too," she sniffled out. "Whoever was out on this street either died or they're half way dead by now."
Her words registered within him instantly and Jaime's stomach lurched and with a dawning horror he realized what today was. It was the day of Cersei and Margaery's trial with the High Sparrow and his Faith Militant. All of King's Landing nobility would also attend as a courtesy. And all that's left of them now is ashes, Jaime thought and fought the urge to vomit right there on the street. Remnants of wildfire from Aerys' time were still around and were clearly concentrated underneath the Sept of Baelor. But since the sack of the city and the Battle of Blackwater Bay, there hadn't been a true incident with wildfire in years. Nothing could've caused it to accidentally blow, it would've had to be purposefully ignited by someone. Before Jaime could ponder it any further, he heard one toll of the great bells, and then another.
"Ser Jaime," Addam called to his attention and Jaime turned to him. "The bells... from the Red Keep."
"Continue to help the people as much as you can, I must convene with the King at once," Jaime hastily ordered to his cousin and climbed back on his horse. He rode at a breakneck speed down the uncharacteristically empty streets towards the castle.
The sentries outside the walls recognized him and let him without any questions. Unbidden, Jaime found himself praying to the Father and the Mother to find Cersei here, alive and safe, and Tommen too. He gave his horse to a stable-hand and made his way into the castle, dully registering Bronn and the rest of his men.
The keep was deathly quiet and Jaime made his to way to Maegor's Holdfast, where he hoped to find his sweet sister and his son, but stopped short when he saw a procession leading into the Great Hall. The halls doors closed before he could enter so he went up to the second level dais and saw it all. A crowd of mostly commonfolk had gathered on both sides and in the middle was Cersei, dressed in a lavish black gown, somberly yet confidently walking up to the empty Iron Throne with the Kingsguard falling in line behind her. She stood in front the throne and Qyburn crept up to her, placed a crown upon her head, and stepped back to the side. Tommen was nowhere insight and neither was Margaery or Uncle Kevan, Jaime grimly noticed.
"I now proclaim Cersei of the House Lannister, First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms," Qyburn's high voice resounded as Cersei took a seat down. As if she could sense him, she promptly looked to her left and met Jaime's hard stare with one of her own. By just looking at her face, all of Jaime's recent questions had been answered. A former Queen Mother adorned in mourning clothes crowning herself with the King nowhere to be seen could only mean...
"Long may she reign," Qyburn declared and the bleak crowd echoed him. Tommen is dead, the thought rang hollowly through Jaime's head as he watched the few highborn present approach the Iron Throne to swear fealty and wish the queen a long reign. All of our children are dead... and for what? Jaime couldn't go away inside this time and had to accept and live in the bitter truth now. He numbly left the dais to do his duty as Lord Lannister, as the Warden of the West, as the queen's brother, and as his sister's lover. It seemed like it was the only thing Jaime could ever do.
Jaime approached the Iron Throne, never breaking eye contact with Cersei until he curtly bowed to her. "May Her Grace have a long and prosperous reign," Jaime stiffly announced. "Casterly Rock and the Westerlands are yours."
A barely there smirk grew on his proud twin's face, the face that looked so much like his. "Thank you my lord, for your loyalty to the crown and to House Lannister. We must meet later and discuss your successful siege of Riverrun and.... other matters." The obvious was left unsaid and Jaime nodded his agreement and hurriedly made his way out of there.
That had been exactly one moon ago and ever since then, he purposefully kept his distance from Cersei and only interacted with her when it was absolutely necessary. That first night back, Jaime learned the truth more or less from Cersei. She came to him first for once and told him that the Great Sept of Baelor had unfortunately erupted due to wildfire, unknowingly yet conveniently placed underneath, and that Margaery Tyrell, her lord father, her brother, their Uncle Kevan had perished along with the High Sparrow, all his zealots and everyone else inside. Impassively, she then explained that Tommen had viewed it all from his room, unable to bear the pain of his wife and in laws dying, decided to take his own life by leaping off his balcony to his death. Jaime processed her words with her detached demeanor then asked her why she and Tommen weren't in the Sept with the rest of them, for it was her trial after all. Cersei brushed off his question with a flimsy answer of her allegedly feeling unwell all morning and had just begun to get ready when the Sept blew. Before she took her leave of him, she told him of the arrangement for Tommen's body to be cremated and his ashes to be spread over the Sept on the morrow, and that Jaime should attend as the king's uncle.
After his son's farce of a funeral, Jaime was engaged with the dispersal of the Lannister army, sending half of them back to the Westerlands and keeping the other half in King's Landing to aid the City Watch and further protect the Red Keep. He purposefully sent his best bannermen, the soldiers and knights from Houses Marbrand, Lydden, Brax and Farman, away so they could be spared from Cersei's uses, although he'd miss the company of his cousin Ser Addam. As children they were as close as brothers and one day when he had accompanied Addam to Tobho Mott's shop, Jaime confessed to him his fears of his sister and what he thinks actually happened the day they came back from the Riverlands. Addam hesitantly agreed with him and subsequently comforted him when Jaime suddenly got choked up over Tommen's death. However, there had been no time to properly mourn his son anyways because following Cersei's coronation, intriguing news from all over Westeros and beyond had arrived and took up a good portion of Jaime's thoughts.
First came the news from the Riverlands, of Walder Frey and all his male kin having been poisoned by a mysterious assassin, leaving no trace of themselves, and the remaining riverlords were assembling to choose a new Lord Paramount of the Trident. Qyburn, Cersei's slimy poor excuse of a Hand, also reported that they were most likely to choose Lord Edmure Tully, the former captive lord who the Freys and Lannisters had used to end the siege of Riverrun. Jaime noted Cersei's annoyed response to the report but her reaction was tame compared to the ensuing news after. A few days later, news from the North detailed an immense battle between Houses Bolton, Karstark and Umber against House Stark with minor bannermen, wildlings and the Knights of Vale with the Starks being victorious. The Battle of the Bastards, it was called because Roose Bolton and Ned Stark's bastards faced off, resulted in the reclaiming of Winterfell and the Stark bastard crowned King in the North by the lords. Cersei's furious reaction was heard through the Red Keep and she consulted him and Qyburn on the matter. Jaime had barely been able to convince her out of the idea of a Northern invasion and instead advised her to write the Starks a cautionary letter instructing them to bend the knee and the crown will forgive them of their treasonous insolence. "They may not bend the knee but they'll remember the last time we went to war with them and the history books will say that House Lannister was the first to act diplomatically," Jaime pointed out to her, with the frightening thought of being remembered as destitute of honor in the years to come.
Unbidden, his thoughts went to Brienne of Tarth, his lady knight somewhat of a friend who he had last seen at Riverrun, the clear vision of her stubbornness and guileless blue eyes flashing in his mind. They waved goodbye to each other as she rowed up the river with her squire Podrick in the cover of night, back to her Lady Sansa, to the danger of the Battle of the Bastards. He wondered if she had made it back in time to participate in the battle and if she did, how she fared in it? The sudden horrifying image of the wench lying dead in the snow went through his head and Jaime had to remind himself of the unlikely timing, with Brienne arriving back North after the battle to see the crowning of the bastard king and not before.
The most recent news was the most appalling of all: from across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys Targaryen was sailing from Essos with Unsullied and Dothraki armies and her three fully grown dragons to conquer and claim the Iron Throne. What wasn't shocking was the news that Dorne and Highgarden had declared for the Targaryen girl, as Jaime figured that Ellaria Sand and Olenna Tyrell would rather take out their combined revenge on Cersei through the Dragon Queen than attempting it alone. Her eventual arrival at Dragonstone, the island closest to King's Landing made Jaime especially worried of the possibility of waking up and seeing the city under siege or worse, set aflame by dragonfire. On this day, Jaime met with the Gold Cloaks and the Lannister knights with them to tighten up security within the city and to prepare the city for a possible siege and afterwards made his way to Cersei to let her know of the plans.
Stepping into the council chambers, Jaime walked past the empty table and halted when he saw his sister standing in the open courtyard beside it, over a painted map of Westeros. Confused, he strolled in and made eye contact with the artisan on the floor, nodding at him so he could promptly leave.
"What is this?" Jaime finally asked.
"It's what we've been waiting for our entire lives," Cersei began and surveyed the work below her. "It's what father trained us for, whether he knew it or not." We?
"He knew it. Made me memorize every damn city, town, forest, lake and mountain," Jaime lamented bitterly.
"It's ours now, we just have to take it," she replied and Jaime tilted his head in question. Surely, she can't be serious, he thought as she finally turned around to face him. "You've been quiet since you came home. You're angry with me."
She said it as a statement, not a question and even though he knew it was true, he deflected. "No, not angry."
"You're afraid of me." Again, she stated instead of inquiring and Jaime steeled himself before answering. "Should I be?"
With that, Cersei paused momentarily, looked away and then continued. "Daenerys Targaryen has chosen Tyrion to be her Hand. Right now they're sailing across the Narrow Sea, hoping to take back her father's throne." She paced around and met his eyes again with a sardonic smirk on her face. "Our little brother, the one you love so much, the one you set free, the one who murdered our father and our firstborn son. Now he stands beside our enemies and gives them counsel... He's out there somewhere at the head of an armada. Where will they land?"
"Dragonstone," Jaime said, fighting down the urge to argue at her presumptuous words. "They have deep-water ports for the ships. Stannis left the castle unoccupied and that's where she was born."
"Enemies to the east. Enemies to the south," Cersei declared with displeasure. "Ellaria Sand and her brood of bitches. Enemies to the west, Olenna the old cunt. Another traitor."
Maybe they wouldn't have been traitors if it weren't for you, Jaime thought darkly and watched as she prowled along the map. "Enemies to the north. Ned Stark's bastard has been named King in the North and that murdering whore Sansa stands beside him. Enemies everywhere, we're surrounded by traitors. You're in command of the Lannister army now. How do we proceed?"
"Winter is here," Jaime started with the obvious and strolled closer to her. "We can't win a war if we can't feed our men and our horses. The Tyrells have the grain and the livestock."
"Will the Tyrell bannermen stand alongside a Dothraki horde and Unsullied slave soldiers?"
"If they think Daenerys will win. No one wants to fight on the losing side," Jaime admitted. "Right now, we look like the losing side."
"I'm the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms." The queen said, seemingly unfazed.
"Three kingdoms at best," he corrected. "I'm not sure you understand how much danger we're in."
"I understand we're in a war for survival, I understand whoever loses dies," Cersei proclaimed. "I understand whoever wins could launch a dynasty that lasts a thousand years."
With her words, Jaime's tempered anger suddenly swelled up. "A dynasty? For whom? Our children are dead.... we're the last of us."
"A dynasty for us, then."
Jaime could only stare at her, appalled. How could she even think about a dynasty for themselves when all of their children died abhorrent deaths recently, as a directly result of their schemes and plots for power. "We never talked about Tommen."
The composed mask on Cersei's face wavered as she swiftly turned around and walked to the table with wine, Jaime hot on her heels. "There's nothing to say."
"Our baby boy killed himself!"
"He betrayed me, he betrayed us both," Cersei alleged as she poured herself a glass of wine and turned to face him. "Should we spend our days mourning the dead, mother, father and all our children-"
"Cersei," Jaime tried to interrupt but she continued.
"I loved them, I did, but they're ashes now and we're still flesh and blood," she affirmed. "We're the last Lannisters, the last ones who count."
Jaime absorbed her tirade quickly, again fighting back the urge to dispute her claims. In truth, Tommen didn't betray either of them, their son was easily manipulated by his wife and by the High Sparrow but Cersei wasn't able to meet in compromise with them and had to resort to malevolent deeds. And when Tommen freed Jaime out of his position of Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, it was unexpected, yes, but it had to be done so he could command the Lannister army for the siege of the Riverrun, for the good of their house. He began to wonder when did the sweet and charming sister Jaime knew went, and when the paranoid and corrupt woman came.
"Even Lannisters can't survive without allies, where are our allies now?" Jaime questioned. "Your saw what happened to Walder Frey and his family." He hated the old, shriveled up riverlord but he didn't want what happened at the Twins to happen to them.
"I heard, how could we ever trust a man like that?" Cersei sipped her wine, oblivious of Jaime's simmering rage.
"We couldn't, he was a useless old coward, but the Freys supported us, now they're all dead. Whoever killed them is no friend of ours," he replied. "We need allies. Stronger, better allies. We can't win this war alone."
"You think I listened to father for 40 years and learned nothing?" she asked rhetorically.
Afterwards, it had all dissolved into utter shit. When Jaime asked who she had in mind, Cersei answered with a proposition to not only invite knights and soldiers of the Reach to the capital to swear fealty but also the King of the Iron Islands, Euron Greyjoy. Jaime was taken back immediately with the idea, as his sister disclosed that Greyjoy's niece and nephew took a majority of the Ironborn fleet and served the Targaryen queen now as her main naval asset, but Euron had rebuilt his fleet and he'd be the perfect ally to aid them. When Jaime pointed out that the Crow's Eye was notorious for betrayal and dishonesty, his tales of ruthlessness and malice well known throughout the country, Cersei shrugged it off and said she'd depose of him if the need arises. Then, Jaime mentioned the possibility of the knights of the Reach choosing to follow their liege lady and not the queen on the Iron Throne, Cersei revealed her intention to meet with the Iron Bank of Braavos for a loan to purchase the sellswords of the Golden Company in case the southern knights disappointed her. He could only gape at her in horror as the all the possible scenarios played out in his mind; the Golden Company breaking their contract as soon when they take one look at the enemies three dragons, Cersei marrying Euron Crow's Eye then mysteriously dying soon after, the possibilities were endless and none were promising. Have they truly stooped so low as to hire sellswords by the bundle and make allies with a known treacherous pirate?
It was all too much for him to take, Jaime decided and leapt up out of his bed suddenly. The need to just get away from it all was overwhelming, to get away from the lies, from the stress of everything, the incessant feeling of uneasiness, the nagging worry that his sister had unknowingly turned into a monster, into another Aerys. He hadn't asked her directly, for he knew she would deny it, but all the signs point to her being the culprit of the Sept explosion, the reason Tommen and so many others had died. His golden twin had done some questionable things before but this was legitimately atrocious. Tell me, if your precious Renly commanded you to kill your own father and stand by while thousands of men, women and children burned alive, would you have done it? He remembered his emotional bathtub confession to Lady Brienne and Jaime made up his mind then.
He prepared a bag with clothes, coin and supplies, dressed in commoner's garb and a plain scabbard, slipped Widow's Wail into it and promptly left his chambers in Maegor's Holdfast. First he went to the kitchens and coaxed non perishable food from the head cook and then to the stables and commanded a stable-hand to prepare his horse. Once saddled and mounted, he rode out the Keep's gates in the dead of night without a look back. Where will I go now? Not a lot of places would graciously or even begrudgingly host the Kingslayer and Jaime paused when he left the city's gate and was presented the choice to take the roseroad, the goldroad or the kingsroad. Could he return to Casterly Rock and lead the remaining the Lannister forces back to King's Landing? Or could he disappear to Lannisport, or to Oldtown, or Duskendale to be a nameless hedge knight and live out the rest of his life away from mad tyrants and dangerous plots for power? Jaime made a decision, probably his most significant decision since Aerys and spurned his horse forward.