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Lannister : Chapter 4
🕑 Added 2025-03-13 14:19:50 +0000 UTC
( Joanna POV )
She smelled King's Landing long before she saw it. It had been years since she'd been forced to endure that pungent odor as Queen Rhaella's handmaiden, and in her opinion, it hadn't been nearly long enough. The city was disgusting on the best of days, and in the midsummer heat, it was positively revolting. She saw that her children, riding with her in the carriage, were all pinching their noses, and she could hardly blame them.
"Ugh, mother what is that smell?" Cersei asked her, groaning in disgust. "It smells like the castle privies but a thousand times worse."
"It's the smell of the city," Callum answered quickly, though he himself was cringing. "King's Landing is famous for it, though I didn't think it'd be this bad."
"Like rotten fish in the sun!" Jaime agreed with his younger brother, bemoaning the stench.
"You'll all get used to it over the next few days." Joanna comforted her children. "At the very least it's not as bad in the Red Keep, most of the time."
"Ugh." Cersei groaned. "Why does it smell so bad? We've been to Lannisport and it doesn't smell nearly so bad."
"Lannisport is a properly built city" Callum replied effortlessly. "It's built on a solid granite footprint several dozen yards above the water table, and it has a proper sewer network built by the Lannister Kings before the conquest." Joanna had to wonder just what books her son was reading to know things like that.
She was a grown woman and didn't know things like that. "King's Landing in comparison was built on the floor plain of the Blackwater, the ground, except for the hills, was low and marshy, and it's still dank and grimey to this day. Then of course the city has twice the population of Lannisport but no sewage system. The human and animal waste just flows downhill into the lower parts of the city and pools, before streaming down into the blackwater when it rains."
Cersei blinked at the detailed answer, before pouting. "How come you know that Callum?" She said almost accusatorial. "I bet you made that up!"
"Callum knows lots of things!" Jaime added helpfully, which made Joanna smile, reaching down and ruffling the hair of both twins at once.
"There now, no need to worry about your brother and his strange reading habits, some children are just odd you know?"
"Mother!" Callum said, blushing at her teasing. As in other things, Callum was ahead of his siblings in his understanding of sarcasm. "I'm not that odd! It's important to know these things or else your cities will smell terrible!" He faux-pouted, but she only smiled.
"Most boys don't worry so much about sewer systems Callum."
"Maybe that's why they smell bad!" Her younger son replied and she could only chuckle. "Ah! There's the city now."
Their carriage had crested one of the low-lying hills on the plains of the Crownlands, and now they had a good view of King's Landing, sweeping out in the distance before them.
"Well it's not the Rock, but it's certainly an impressive piece of architecture." Callum chimed in, his eyes glued to the red keep, while Jaime looked in awe at the broken skeleton of the Dragonpit rising over the city.
"Whoa… so they really kept dragons there, mother?"
"Mhmm. We'll see their bones when we go to the Red Keep." Joanna smiled, patting Jaime's head again.
"What's the big deal? It's just a stinky city." Cersei frowned. "Lannisport is better!"
"Well, maybe, but King's Landing is still the biggest city on the Continent, there's a lot to do here." Joanna gave her daughter a smile, before looking back out of the front window, blinking. "Wait… is that! Oh my, stop the carriage for a moment!" She felt a smile cross her face and a thrill in her heart as a party under a Lannister banner was riding out to meet them. At its head was a tall man with long, golden hair, and a proud face, the man she loved more than anything in the world.
She opened the carriage door, stepping out onto the running board just as her Lord hus and came to a stop beside her, a small smile on his face that meant so much from the dour man.
"Joanna, I've-"
"Tywin!" She cried, happiness filling her head to toe as she leaped from the carriage to hug her husband wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight, a motion that nearly pulled him from his saddle, but she couldn't care less for that minor embarrassment. Sure, he had written her frequently, but it had still been more than two years since she had seen him. "I've missed you husband, more than anything!"
Tywin stiffened, though she could feel him struggling to stay in the saddle with her hanging off of him, but after a moment he sighed. "I've missed you as well, Joanna." His arm wrapped around her back, patting her shoulder as he returned her embrace. "Now if you'd kindly allow me to dismount?"
Joanna giggled, she couldn't help it, and let go of her husband, dropping to the ground beside his horse, she looked up at him cheerfully as he got off of his steed, his retinue closing around them protectively. He smiled at her, still taller than her on the ground, he held her close, and her heart skipped a beat as she almost thought he'd go for a kiss.
Then he let out a wry chuckle, and she saw that his eyes had turned up towards the carriage, where all three of their children were peaking out from the sides of the door.
"It seems we have an audience." He said, clearly in good humor, something that relieved Joanna greatly, for he had written of his consternation with King Aerys for some time now.
"Indeed we do." She replied cheerfully, gazing up at her little golden cherubs.
"Well then." Tywin let her go, and she felt only a hint of jealousy as he clambered up to meet his children. "Let's have a good look at you all then."
...
Chronicle of the Targaryen Dynasty in the Seven Kingdoms
Maester Willem
272 AC- Fifth moon
Many Noble Lords and Ladies from across the realm gather in King's Landing for King Aerys II's ten-year anniversary tournament. Suitable housing in the city becomes difficult to find, and a tent city is set up around the Tourney stands that have been raised near the shore of the Blackwater Rush. Lord Tywin Lannister, Hand of the King, orders an expanded system of levees and dykes raised along the shore of the river to mitigate the risk of flooding the tourney grounds.
