𝕋𝕙𝕖 attack came at noon, when the sun was high in the sky. The Golden Company stood at the ready outside the gates, facing the ragtag army opposite them that consisted of Unsullied, Dothraki, Northmen and a few other groups I didn't recognize. Out there, somewhere, was my half-brother, and Cersei's brother, commanding the charge that would be coming for us any moment now. To the other side of the castle, if I leaned out over the balcony, I could just barely see the water of Blackwater Bay, filled with hundreds of black dots - the Iron Fleet. Everyone was in position, only one person had yet to appear: Daenerys with her dragon. The last of the citizens were still streaming in through the castle gates, although we would soon have to close them. Not everyone would be able to get in. I didn't care. I only cared about Cersei and me, as long as we survived, the rest of the world could burn in hell for all it was to me. Cersei, clad in a gorgeous crimson velvet gown with ornate metalwork, nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other. The wait was the worst part. Who would make the first step? Nobody moved. Then, a hint of black on the horizon, a fleeting ghost of movement, gone again so quickly I would have missed it had I blinked. A whistle through the air. One moment, everything was quiet, the next, the bay was on fire. Scorpions fired, flames streamed, and I watched the mighty fleet of Euron Greyjoy being decimated into nothing as if they were merely toys. I looked uneasily back at Cersei, who only pressed her lips together in a tight line. "We still have plenty of Scorpions on the city walls", she said. "At least one of them must hit its mark. All we need is a single well-placed shot." I nodded and continued watching the carnage. The dragon approached the city now. The Lannister soldiers on the battlements fired as one, and Daenerys was forced to turn away if she wished to avoid the deadly bolts. The ballistae were reloaded, but the dragon was faster. Diving up from beneath them, it set fire to the first of the Scorpions, then flew a flaming path along the wall, burning everything in its wake. Suddenly, it banked, flying away from the castle toward the edge of the city. Confused, I looked at Cersei for a possible explanation, but she seemed to be as clueless as me. I grasped the railing of the balcony as I watched and tried to figure out what Daenerys' plan was. 

Then, the city gates exploded outward, burying most of the Golden Company in a cloud of rubble and fire. Daenerys' army charged in through the opening, the Dothraki on horseback slaughtering our foot soldiers lining the streets. Daenerys continued burning the Scorpions. She wasn't stupid, she knew they were the only real threat to the heart of her power. But would she be able to take all of them out before one could land a shot? Abandoning the walls, she circled above the center of the city now, in range of the shooters. A door opened behind us, and Qyburn entered. "Your Grace, my lady?" "You will address Queen Vallery as 'Your Grace', too", Cersei corrected, still tracking the dragon's flight with her eyes. "Of course. What I came to say... The Scorpions have all been destroyed, Your Graces", Qyburn said carefully. I looked back at the city and could see that he was right. Thick plumes of smoke were starting to rise from all the walls where the weapons had once stood. "The Iron Fleet is also burning, the gates have been breached", the alchemist continued. "The Golden Company-" "Our men will fight harder than sellswords ever could", Cersei countered. "They will defend their queens to the last man." "Yes, Your Grace." "The Red Keep has never fallen", she insisted. "It won't fall today." Qyburn bowed and left. "Cersei", I began cautiously, "are you sure about that?" Her head whipped around to look at me, surprised at my sudden doubt, but I continued. "We have no more effective weapons against that thing. Most of our men are already dead. We're running out of options. What exactly is your plan?" She remained silent. "If we cannot win, we have to flee", I went on. "Flee?", Cersei asked, incredulous. "What kind of queen runs from a battle for her own throne?" "A smart one", I said. "Promise me: if our chances get any worse, we go." "And where would we go? How would we escape?", she asked, laughing mirthlessly as she gestured at the burning city walls. I swallowed. We were trapped in our own home. Except for one minute detail. "There's a hidden exit onto a beach, in the tunnels, where Jaime met with Tyrion. It's how he got in. We can leave that way, find a boat - maybe one of Euron's, if any are still intact - and sail away." Cersei didn't respond, so I asked again, "Do you promise?" Finally, she nodded. "If it becomes apparent that we'll lose, I'll go with you", she said dutifully. I smiled, taking her hand and looking out at King's Landing again. "Who knows, maybe it won't come to that. Maybe, by some miracle, something will happen to her dragon - an arrow in the eye when it flies low, a leftover Scorpion bolt used as a spear, or some other solution we haven't thought of. The gods know we've suffered enough already. Shouldn't it be our turn to win for once?" "It truly should", Cersei sighed.

The dragon flew back across the city and perched on a tower, roaring fiercely. I could just barely make out the people running from it, like little ants fleeing from a lion. Let them burn, I thought bitterly, better them than us. But the dragon did not breathe fire. It just waited. Shouts arose in the streets, repeating, something I could not make out. Then, one by one, all the bells of the city began to ring out. "What are they doing?", Cersei asked. "The attack began long ago, they can't be ringing them for that. Are there reinforcements coming?" Initially, I was just as confused as her, but then I understood. "I think they're surrendering", I said quietly. "What? Nonsense. I've never known bells to mean surrender", Cersei replied. "Neither have I, but look at them. They're frightened, and by all measures and accounts, we are losing. They don't want to die." Cersei closed her eyes in defeat, knowing I was right but not wanting to admit it. She quickly opened them again, though, when the sound of wingbeats filled the air. We both watched with our breaths held as Daenerys and her dragon took off, flying directly for the Red Keep. Soldiers and commoners alike ran for their lives in the streets. Fire streamed from the dragon's jaws and swallowed a street whole. The screams of the people sounded out high above the roaring of the flames. What was the point of this? The city had surrendered, she had won. Why burn it all to the ground now? The fire tore through alley after alley, house after house, person after person. It ravaged everything in its path, leaving behind nothing but burning, blackened ruins. This was the power of the monsters of old, the pure destruction that had brought kingdoms to their knees and made Westeros bow to the Targaryens all those centuries ago. It was death incarnate. And I had seen enough of it to know what it meant. 

"Time to go", I said, putting a hand on Cersei's arm. But she pulled away, shaking her head vigorously. "Not yet. There's still a chance." "What chance?", I asked, aghast. "Are you seeing this? Our city is burning. Our people are dying. What. Chance?" "We can still win", she whispered, continuing to shake her head as if she could just make it all go away if she shut it out. "No, we can't", I pleaded. "We have to go, now." As if to drive my point home, the dragon flew closer to the castle, right by us, and burst through one of the smaller towers in a gust of flame. "No, no, we'll win. We have to", Cersei continued, turning away from the window. She looked to be on the verge of crying. I stepped closer to embrace her. "I know it's a hard choice to make. But dying in this castle won't do any of us any good. We'll start a new life somewhere, maybe even get a chance to take back our throne one day. But all that is only possible if we get out of here." More of the castle was engulfed in flame, the largest tower separating and falling to the ground. A piece of the ceiling hit the table behind us. "This is my home", Cersei cried out. "Everything I've fought for. I cannot abandon it. You don't know for sure that we will lose." "We've lost already!", I shouted, grabbing both of her shoulders to make her look at me. "And if we don't leave this city right now, we'll lose our lives as well." She stared back at me, wordless, her lip quivering. Qyburn burst into the room. "Your Graces, it isn't safe here any longer. The Unsullied have breached the gates of the Red Keep. Maegor's Holdfast would be-" "We know where to go", I interrupted, leading Cersei out past him. I could not let him try to convince her to stay in the city, not when I had just managed to make her do the opposite. The fully assembled Queensguard fell in beside us as we marched down the spiral staircase at as brisk of a pace as we could muster. The ceiling above us tore open, and Qyburn, Cersei and I dropped to our knees while Ser Gregor placed himself over us as a shield. I could hear the other guards grunting as one by one, they were taken out by the debris. When the clatter had stopped and we rose, the entire wall next to the staircase was gone. And at the bottom of the stairs... stood a man I had last seen many years ago, right before the Battle of Blackwater Bay. Sandor Clegane, the Hound, once Joffrey's sworn sword - and the brother of the hulking undead Queensguard standing beside us. "Your Grace", he said in mock respect. The three surviving guards rushed forward, swords drawn, but the Hound cut them down with ease. The Mountain growled. "Hello, big brother", Sandor said. The older Clegane stepped forward. "Ser Gregor, stay by my side", Cersei called out to him fearfully. He only looked back at her, pure hatred in those bloodshot eyes, and kept walking. "Ser Gregor, I command you!" He ignored her. Qyburn tried to stop him. "Obey your queen, Ser Gregor!" But the Mountain seized him by the throat, crushed his head against the remnants of the wall and tossed him down the stairs, where he remained, motionless. The Clegane brothers faced each other silently, squaring up for a fight. It wasn't our fight, though. I took Cersei's hand and led her past them quickly. They paid us no attention. 

Stones and dust were still falling in the map courtyard and made it harder to recognize the paths. Cersei braced herself on a wall, breathing shakily. "Through there", I panted after a moment and tugged Cersei along through the open room toward the door to the cellar. A gloomy, tight staircase led us down into the tunnels, but at least its thick walls had withstood most of the destruction. We exited into the curved halls of the tunnels. The ceiling was less structurally sound again here, and rocks and dust were crashing down all around us. "Quickly now", I said. "Once we make it out of here, we should be safe." We hurried down the wide corridors, further and further, until we must have been almost at the edge of the castle. "This is where I saw Tyrion and Jaime." I pulled us over to the right, into another room. "It's not much further now. Right through there, the tunnel should change, and lead to the beach I told you about." But when we rounded the corner, I stopped short. Because where there should have been an opening, there were only... bricks. "No", I breathed, a numb sense of doom spreading through my limbs. "Are you sure this is the right way?", Cersei asked, her voice shaking. I closed my eyes and nodded. "The exit should be right here. It- it must have gotten blocked." I walked up to the pile of bricks and scrambled onto it. "Help me with these. We might be able to make an opening and squeeze through." But before she had even gotten up, I could see that it was pointless. Behind every brick I removed, there were more, many more. It looked like the entire exit tunnel had collapsed. I sighed heavily, kneeling down on the bricks. Cersei gave up on trying to climb and began crying silently. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't. We were so close, we had almost made it- But what good was 'almost'? Almost winning still meant failing. Almost living still meant dying.

I clambered back down onto solid ground and pulled Cersei into an embrace. She clung tightly to me, a sob shaking her. "I'm so sorry", I whispered into her hair. "I thought this was the right thing to do, and now I've led us both to our death." She shook her head. "No, you were right. We should have left when you told me to. If we had gone earlier, maybe- If anyone is to blame here, it's me." "If anyone is to blame, it's her", I growled. "If she hadn't tried to take what's ours and followed in her father's footsteps out there, none of this would be happening." A rumble rolled through the tunnel and individual bricks broke out of the walls on either side of us. "Doesn't matter now whose fault it is", I said. "This will be our final minutes, we shouldn't waste them thinking of pretenders and would-be rulers. We may be dead soon, but at least we were true queens. Our lives had meaning, and impact, and we lived them to the fullest for as long as we could. We did everything right in that regard. Fuck the world, this life is ours." A loud crash behind us interrupted me. More dust filled the air. I held her close while the falling stones shook the ground beneath our feet. "Are you scared?", I asked, searching her familiar green eyes with mine. "Of course I'm scared", she murmured, another tear rolling down her cheek. "I don't want to die." "That's not what I asked", I said quietly, holding her gaze. "I want us to live, too. But I don't fear the prospect of death. I don't fear that it will hurt or what will come after. I only regret that we didn't have more time together." Cersei buried her face in my dress and hair and I rested my chin on her shoulder, clutching her even tighter yet to my body. We stayed like that for what felt like a long time, in silence, while all around us rubble came crashing down, the destruction moving slowly toward us. "At least we'll die the way everyone dreams of: in the arms of the one we love", I finally said, lifting her head by the chin so she would look at me. "And if there is any such thing as an afterlife, we will find each other again. I promise." She nodded, tears streaming rapidly down her face now. I felt my own cheeks grow wet, too. When I kissed her, I could taste the salt on my lips, could feel her body heaving with sobs. The wall next to us collapsed, and I could tell the end was near. Taking her hand in mine and still holding her with my other arm, I stood up straight, lifting my chin. "See you on the other side", I whispered and pressed a final kiss to her lips, setting free all of the emotion of the past years, summarizing our entire lives into that one last passionate act of love. Then the tunnel came down on our heads, and the last I saw was a cloud of smoke and stone as I squeezed Cersei's hand tightly. At an instant, pain exploded everywhere at once in my body, but only for a moment. Then it was over.

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I was standing on top of the pile of debris, still holding on to Cersei's hand. Beneath me, peeking out between the stones, I could see the crushed and twisted bodies that had once belonged to my love and me. I looked up slowly to my left, looked up at Cersei, tears still glistening on her face. Her lips parted, and we stared at each other for a moment before crashing into an embrace. My body felt so light, and her touch was different somehow, like a tender breeze of air, though no less electrifying than it always had been. "We made it. They can't hurt us anymore", I whispered and cupped her face with my hand. "Now it's just you and me, together, forever."