𝕋𝕙𝕖 door of the cell fell closed behind us as, for the second time now, I found myself standing in the gloomy dungeons beneath the Red Keep as Cersei's torture accomplice. Ellaria Sand and her daughter Tyene were shackled to the walls opposite each other, their chains allowing them some freedom but keeping them just out of reach of one another. While Tyene did nothing to hide her fear, Ellaria stared at Cersei defiantly. "I want you to know I understand", the latter said to her, pacing around the cell. "Even though we're enemies, you and I, I understand the fury that drives you." She looked at the Dornish woman intently. "I was there that day when Ser Gregor crushed your lover's head." There were tears welling up in Ellaria's eyes, but she would not give Cersei the satisfaction of looking away. A mistake, I knew - her defiance did nothing to vex Cersei, at most, it would only encourage her to make her punishment more cruel, to watch that sweet resistance crumble away brick by brick and prove to yet another enemy that they could not stand against her. "I close my eyes-" - Cersei demonstrated - "-I can hear the sound of Oberyn's skull breaking. The sound of your scream. I've never heard a sound like that, I thought: that's true love." A part of me could not help but feel uncomfortable at this - after all, it was my own lover speaking these words, and the idea of her relishing the death of such love did not sit right with me. But I pushed the thought down; this was a justified revenge, and I wanted it to be as torturous as possible for her. My discomfort only proved that it was a brilliant punishment. This was the woman who had murdered my love's daughter in cold blood, the daughter she had fostered among her own for years, who had done nothing at all to her, or anyone. She deserved all the pain we had to offer. Ellaria tugged on her chains, breathing heavily, as Cersei continued. "Oberyn looked beautiful that day, he really did. No one moved like him, no one had such skill with a spear. Even Ser Gregor couldn't stop him." She looked over at the Mountain with a sneer, standing vigilantly by the wall between the prisoners. "If only he hadn't taunted him... he could've walked away and left poor Ser Gregor to die. But that wasn't your lover's way, was it? And now he's buried somewhere, and here's Ser Gregor, stronger than ever. That must be difficult for you." Ellaria was writhing as if trying to shut out Cersei's voice, though still not taking her eyes off her. The smirk disappeared from Cersei's face now, leaving only stone cold resentment. "When my daughter was taken from me, my only daughter, well, you can't imagine how that feels unless you lost a child." She could not keep the emotion from her voice, but it only made her that much more fearsome - a grieving mother's burning hatred. "I fed her at my own breast, even though they told me to give her to the wet nurse. I couldn't bear to see her in another woman's arms. I never got to have a mother, but Myrcella did. She was mine, and you took her from me", she spat, her voice breaking with building tears, "why did you do that?" Ellaria made no move to reply, and Cersei lowered her voice again, staring at the ground and trying to get her emotions under control. "Doesn't matter now." 

She turned to Tyene, smiling again with full composure. "Your daughter is a beauty, too. Those brown eyes, those lips - perfect Dornish beauty." Don't make me jealous now, I thought wryly, watching Cersei's plan unfold with a smirk of my own. "I imagine she's your favorite. I know, I know, we're not supposed to have favorites, but still, we're only human. We love whom we love." I didn't know if Ellaria noticed the soft glance Cersei directed at me accompanying those words, but in any case it felt good to not have to worry about people seeing anymore. Not because she was a prisoner, after all, Qyburn and the Mountain were here too, but simply because we had nothing to hide anymore. No one could touch us. They could whisper, they could make their jokes and call me a whore, but ultimately, we were free to do as we pleased. Ellaria started whimpering and mumbling around the rag in her mouth. "I'm sorry, I can't understand you", Cersei said with feigned pity, "the gag makes it impossible to understand what you're saying. It must be frustrating." She stared at her, serious once more. "We all make our choices. You chose to murder my daughter. You must have felt powerful after you made that choice." Ellaria lunged for her, but Cersei kept advancing without a flinch. "Do you feel powerful now?", she asked. They faced each other for a few more seconds, rubbing in the helplessness of Ellaria's position, before Cersei started pacing again. "I don't sleep very well. Not at all, really." I knew this wasn't true, she slept very well when she spent the night with me, but it served the dramatic purpose nicely. "I lie in bed and I stare at the canopy and imagine ways of killing my enemies. How to destroy Ellaria Sand, the woman who murdered my only daughter? I thought about having Ser Gregor crush your skull the way he did Oberyn's - would be poetic, I suppose, but fast, too fast. I thought about having him crush your daughter's skull." She grabbed Tyene's jaw. "She's so beautiful, the thought of this lovely face cracking open like a duck egg, no, it's just not right." 

And without further announcement, she turned around and kissed the girl. The action needed no words, Ellaria would understand. It was the same way she had killed Myrcella. I watched the woman's face contorting in shock as she realized what was happening, how her own cards were being played against her. "Mama", Tyene breathed in a scared voice when Cersei released her, clearly knowing what the kiss meant, too. Ellaria cried out and sank to her knees as Qyburn put her daughter's gag back in place and provided Cersei with a handkerchief. She wiped her mouth with it, taking off the poisoned lipstick. "Qyburn, he's the cleverest man I know. Clever enough to learn what poison you used to murder Myrcella. The Long Goodbye, was that it?" "The Long Farewell", Qyburn said and handed her the antidote. Cersei swallowed it down in one swig. "That's the one. How long does the poison take?" "Difficult to say. Hours, days, it depends on the subject's constitution", Qyburn replied. "But death is certain?" "Oh, yes, Your Grace, quite certain." She knew all this already, of course, but she wanted to repeat it just for Ellaria's sake. Cersei knelt down to her. "Your daughter will die here in this cell, and you will be here watching when she does. You will be here the rest of your days. If you refuse to eat, we'll force food down your throat. You will live to watch your daughter rot. To watch that beautiful face collapse to bone and dust, all the while contemplating the choices you have made." To Qyburn, she added, "Make sure the guards change the torches every few hours, I don't want her to miss a thing." With that, she got up and walked out of the cell, the three of us following behind her, as the two women behind us cried in agony over their impending fate. I looked back just before the door was closed and saw them hopelessly trying to reach each other, kept apart by their chains. A smile touched my lips. This was how the mighty Cersei Lannister dealt with her enemies. Let the people hear about this and be warned that they shall not cross her, or they would regret it. Watch out, world, here we are, I thought. We shall not be brought down by anyone's hand but time's.

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Back in the royal apartments, Cersei was looking at me with a strange concern in her eyes. I didn't push her to speak, but rather waited for her to come to me of her own accord. She crouched down before my chair, putting her hands on my knees. "I... I know my lust for vengeance got the better of me down there. I don't regret what I did, but... I also know you don't have quite the same taste for cruelty as me, so I hope it did not bother you to watch." I leaned forward to take her face into my hands. "Love, there's nothing you could do that would deter me. I'm with you, in whatever you do, and I can stomach some torture. That Dornish bitch deserved every second of hell you gave to her." Cersei nodded, visibly relieved. "Let's not give her the respect of remembering her", I added and pulled Cersei up onto my lap. "I want to think of something else right now." Cersei braced her legs beneath the armrests of the chair and put her hands on its back on either side of my head, leaning in close. I ran my hands up her sides and waited with an excited smirk for her to make her next move. She brought her face an inch from mine, wanting me to beg her for the kiss. I didn't. Instead, I riled her up in turn, letting my hands wander down to her ass and squeezing softly. She succumbed to my teasing all too quickly and her lips crashed into mine with a quiet moan. She grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me in - as if I would have ever tried to get away even a fraction of an inch from her - and rested her other hand on my shoulder. I pulled her hips down onto mine, rubbing them against my spread legs in circles until she continued the movement on her own. Gathering the skirts of her dress up clumsily, I fumbled for the hem to plunge my hands into her warmth, pushing my own simpler dress out of the way at the same time. After a short struggle with the various layers of fabric, I could finally feel wetness already dripping from between her legs onto mine. I cupped my hand around the back of her thigh and she moaned into the kiss again, more loudly this time. Her hips strained toward me, searching desperately for my hand. I closed my free one around her parts, pulling on them gently, then stroked one finger along the length of them, back to front. I circled her pearl, our tongues playing in the same rhythm, then dipped just the tip of my finger into her, immediately pulling it back out again in a teasing fashion. I let her wait, stretching the anticipation out, then thrust two fingers into her to their full length just as a door slammed somewhere, but I barely heard it over the delicious gasp Cersei let out. I grinned into the kiss, pushing my head against hers more vigorously as I pushed deep into her again.

It was only when somebody cleared their throat pointedly that we noticed the man that had come in: Jaime. Cersei whirled around to look at him, then narrowed her eyes and languishingly kissed me again just to make a point of it before reluctantly sliding off me, my fingers releasing with a quiet squelch. I readjusted my dress while Cersei still stood in front of the chair, then sucked her wetness from my fingers savoringly. "I don't mean to interrupt", Jaime said slowly, raising an eyebrow at us, "but these news cannot wait." "Can't they, now?", Cersei snapped, annoyed by his intrusion. "You'll want to hear this", he insisted. With a sigh, Cersei poured herself a glass of wine and lowered herself into a chair beside me. She did not invite Jaime to sit. "Fine. Let's hear it." "I took care of Olenna, like you asked me to. But she had quite the last words." "Drop the theatrics", Cersei interrupted him, still irritated. "Just say what you came to say." Jaime swallowed. "Cersei, she killed Joffrey. It was her." I watched Cersei's face fall. "I hope you gave her a slow and painful death", she growled. "I poisoned her", Jaime admitted. "She didn't confess until after she had drunk it." Cersei shook her head. "She should have died screaming." I agreed. The old cunt had acted far above her station on too many occasions. She had treated respect for her superiors as an option, not a duty, and spit on that respect again and again. At least she was dead now, never to interfere with our lives again. "There's more, though", Jaime said hesitantly, and only now did I see the fear in his eyes. Something told me he wasn't just scared of Cersei's temper. This was something bigger. Cersei looked up at him expectantly, her face hardened. "On the Goldroad, when we were transporting back the Tyrells' gold and provisions... we were ambushed. Our men are all dead. I would be, too, if Bronn hadn't saved me. We're the only ones who got away." "How?", I asked. "You had hundreds of soldiers with you, and the Lannister army is the best in Westeros." "This was no ordinary ambush", Jaime replied, "and the attackers were not from Westeros. This was Daenerys Targaryen's doing." Cersei and I gasped simultaneously. We knew she had returned to the continent, but to venture this far inland, and attack a royal convoy? She had to be confident in her odds. "She came at us with a horde of Dothraki screamers and one of her dragons. Our soldiers might as well have been wooden toys for all the difference it made, we were decimated within minutes. We have to find a way out of this war, Cersei. We cannot win against this enemy." Cersei scoffed and rose from her chair, taking a threatening step toward her twin. "You want me to surrender my hard-earned throne, the one I am holding onto with hands slick with the blood of our children, our children, who have died for this endless power struggle that we are somehow coming out on top of? All because this eastern slut and her overgrown lizard made you piss your pants on the battlefield? I don't think so. I will not give myself the indignation of asking her for peace when I can just as well fight and win. King's Landing is closer to Dragonstone than the Goldroad, yet she hasn't attacked us here. We haven't seen any sign of her. If she won't come near me yet, then clearly she has something to fear. Yes, I think I'll take my chances. But thank you for your advice, commander. Close the door on your way out."

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I needed some time to process this new information and decided to take a walk through the Red Keep to clear my head, Rhaenys at my side. A dragon, coming for us! We had heard about the Targaryen girl and her miracle beasts, of course, but nobody could have known how large her dragons were. The last dragons had been no larger than cats, why should these have been any different? Fire-breathing cats would have been nothing to worry about. But from what Jaime had described, these were the monsters of old, capable of turning entire armies to ash with just a few breaths. My path led me into the tunnels beneath the Keep, and I stopped in front of the skull of Balerion the Black Dread. It stood three times as tall as me, and a shiver ran down my spine as I imagined these gaping jaws opening for me, or worse, for Cersei. Touching its massive fangs, I wondered how exactly she intended to defend against three such creatures. Situated on Aegon's Hill, towering above the city with its many spires and balconies, the Red Keep was utterly unsuited to aerial assault. It would crumble away like a worm-eaten trunk if a dragon attacked it. The sound of steps near me pulled me out of my thoughts, and Rhaenys snarled quietly. Curious, I went to investigate, shushing the direwolf with a quick stroke. In the dim torchlight, I could make out Jaime and Bronn, being approached by a small figure. A child, perhaps? But with a jolt, I realized this was no child: there stood Tyrion, who had wisely not shown his face in this city since he had been convicted for Joffrey's murder and killed his father during his escape. Although, I suddenly understood, his sentence had not been right at all, had it? Olenna had confessed, Tyrion was innocent. He was still responsible for Tywin's death, but after being condemned by his own father, I could hardly blame him, in spite of the pain it had caused Cersei. For once, I did not believe he had considered that at all. So was this the truth of Tyrion's fate? The unloved son, unjustly blamed and sentenced for a crime he did not commit, running away to escape a world that would not treat him with respect no matter what? I didn't know what to believe, and I hated that. But what I did know was that whatever he was doing here, it was certainly not happening on Cersei's watch. And she would not be pleased if she heard about it. I decided to listen a little longer, to find out if this was just a family reunion or treason brewing.

Bronn turned to leave, and I ducked into the shadows quickly, not wanting to be discovered just yet. I prayed Rhaenys would not give us away. Luckily, she stayed quiet. "I needed to see you", Tyrion said, and I peeked out from behind the archway again to hear them better. "And I knew you'd never agree to meet." Jaime said nothing in response. "You made me look like a complete fool", Tyrion tried to lighten the mood, "I thought I'd surprise you by hitting Casterly Rock. But you were three steps ahead of me, abandoned the family home - completely unsentimental, Father would have been proud." "Don't talk about Father", Jaime growled. Tyrion stepped forward. "Listen to me-" "I once told Bronn that if I ever saw you again, I'd cut you in half." "It'll take you a while with a sparring sword", Tyrion remarked, gesturing at the weapon Jaime was holding. The older man only shook his head, huffing. "He was going to execute me", Tyrion pleaded, "he knew I was innocent, he didn't hate me because of anything I did, he hated me because of what I am. A little monster sent to punish him." Jaime still did not respond. "Do you- do you think I wanted to be born this way, do you think I chose-" "What do you want?", Jaime finally shouted, the same thing I had been asking myself. Why show up here when he was working with our enemy, when the only person who had ever truly loved him clearly still hated him for Tywin's murder, predictably so? What in the seven hells was he hoping to accomplish? "Daenerys will win this war", Tyrion said. "You're a military man, you must know there's no way around it." Jaime did not appear convinced, despite the words being so close to his own not long ago. "Daenerys is not her father", his brother argued, "she is even willing to suspend the hostilities if Cersei agrees to certain terms." Indeed, that was in essence exactly what Jaime had suggested earlier. Knowing her response as well as I did, Jaime said, "If you want Cersei to bend the knee, you can ask her yourself." But Tyrion shook his head. "I don't, and Daenerys doesn't. Not right now, anyway. She has a more important request." I had heard enough. Wrongly judged or not, to hell with that - Cersei came first, and this was toeing the line of treason too closely for my taste. Startling them both, I stepped out of the shadows. "There's no need to bother the queen about these nonsense attempts to gain her sympathy", I said coolly. "I am as close as it gets to speaking for her. Tell me about this 'important request', and I'll decide if it's worth taking to her, or if I'll take you to her, in chains. I have a feeling one would please her much more than the other, so do your best to convince me and change that." "Vallery Stark", Tyrion remarked, looking me over approvingly, "you're still here. And you have risen far, it would seem. Even so, I may have been out of town a long time, but please remind me how exactly you speak for my sister?" Jaime scowled in annoyance. "She's made her Queen Consort", he mumbled. Tyrion's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Queen Consort? In that case, you have risen very far. Well, I trust you to relay my words accurately to your dear queen. And I trust myself that they are potent enough to sway her." And so, he told me all about the ghastly alliance his liege was proposing.