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Chapter 62
🕑 Added 2025-10-25 12:11:45 +0000 UTC[Deep inside the Red Keep, Sansa is having a conversation with Cersei. Grand Maester Pycelle, Varys and Littlefinger being in their presence.]
"Your father has proved to be an awful traitor, dear."
"Serving the Realm are you?" Robert narrowed his eyes on his Master of Whispers.
"I could do a lot better alive than dead, your Grace" Varys lowered his head.
Robert grunted in displeasure.
"King Robert's body was still warm when Lord Eddard began plotting to steal Joffrey's rightful throne."
"Fucking lickspittle" Rhaegar spat. Pycelle was always a rat of the Lannisters. There was no way he didn't know about Joffrey's parentage.
"He wouldn't do that. He knows how much I love Joffrey. He wouldn't. Please, Your Grace, there's been a mistake. Send for my father. He'll tell you, the King was his friend."
"Sansa sweetling, you are innocent of any wrong. We know that. Yet you are the daughter of a traitor. How can I allow you to marry my son?"
"Sweet poison" Tyrion spat. He had no doubts that his sister was only putting up a front here.
"A child born of a traitor's seed is no fit consort for our King. She is a sweet thing now, Your Grace, but in 10 years who knows what treasons she may hatch?"
"No, I'm not. I'll be a good wife to him, you'll see. I'll be a Queen just like you, I promise. I won't hatch anything."
"The girl is innocent, Your Grace. She should be given a chance to prove her loyalty."
Catelyn bit her lips and glared at the wall. Petyr Baelish was dead to her, and no matter how much he helped from this point on that would not change. She wanted him dead for stabbing her husband in the back, for stabbing her in the back.
"Little dove, you must write to Lady Catelyn and your brother, the eldest. What's his name?"
"Robb."
"Word of your father's arrest will reach him soon, no doubt. Best it comes from you. If you would help your father, urge your brother to keep the King's peace. Tell him to come to King's Landing and swear his fealty to Joffrey."
"If...if I could see my father, talk to him about..."
"You disappoint me, child. We have told you of your father's treason. Why would you want to speak to a traitor?"
"I only meant that...what will happen to him?"
"That depends on your brother. And on you."
Ned threw a glance at Robert, which the King met. The fat King saw the clear message in his best friend's eyes. He nodded and Ned looked away,
[Back at Winterfell, Robb reads the letter Sansa sent.]
"Treason? Sansa wrote this?"
"It is your sister's hand, but the Queen's words. You are summoned to King's Landing to swear fealty to the new King."
"Joffrey puts my father in chains, now he wants his ass kissed?"
"This is a royal command, My Lord. If you should refuse to obey..."
"I won't refuse. His Grace summons me to King's Landing, I'll go to King's Landing. But not alone. Call the banners."
"All of them, My Lord?"
"They've all sworn to defend my father, have they not?"
"They have."
"Now we see what their words are worth."
[Maester Luwin walks off. Theon approaches]
"Are you afraid?" Theon asks
Robb glances at his hand. It is shaking
"I must be."
"Good." Theon said
"Why is that good?" Robb asked
"It means you're not stupid."
Ned's jaws set stubbornly. How could he berate his son for something that Ned himself would do in these circumstances? Something he'd already done even if
Aerys did not demand his head off a spike?
[At the Eyrie, Catelyn rushes to Lysa's chambers. Upon arrival, she angrily speaks.]
"You've had this since dawn?"
"He sent it to me, not you. I've only shown it to you as a courtesy."
"A courtesy?! My husband has been taken prisoner."
"A courtesy!" Catelyn inflated in anger. That was her husband that was in danger, how was er knowing a courtesy?!
"I believe you've been told before, Lady Stark," Lysa Arryn is no longer the woman you used to know Tyrion Lannister spoke kindly.
"And I'm beginning to believe it" Catelyn muttered to herself, her entire posture stiff. First Petyr and now Lysa. Who else did she know that she would no longer recognize?
"My son intends to declare war."
"A war? Your son against the Lannisters? You should go to him. Teach him patience."
"That might be some sound advice that Lysa gave," Jon Arryn said softly.
"My father rots in a dungeon and you wish for me to sit back and be patient?!" Robb said harshly, earning a reproachful look from his father that he ignored entirely.
"I want you to calm yourself and think things through, young Robb" Jon Arryn said as patiently as he was talking to a child. "Charging in headstrong will yield you nothing. You must be patient, and look for ways to free your father first before taking drastic steps. War should never be your first option for anything."
Jon Snow grabbed Robb's hand and shook his head when Robb turned to him. Robb said no more, glaring furiously at the screen. Jon glanced at Jon Arryn, who was smiling at the boy.
Jon Snow frowned.
"Ned rots in a dungeon and you speak of patience? He is your brother by law! Does family mean nothing to you?"
"Family means everything to me. And I will not risk Robin's life to get caught up in another of your husband's wars."
"I can't blame her" Ned inhaled deeply, his arm around his wife as firm as ever.
"Me neither" Catelyn muttered. Cross as she was with her sister, even Catelyn would hesitate to join something if it put her children's lives in danger.
"I'm hungry."
"Hush now, darling. You just ate."
"You will not support us then? Do I understand you correctly?"
"But I'm hungry!"
"Your son does not seem to adhere to the patience you preach, Lord Arryn," Oberyn said with a sly smile.
"I'm afraid my wife's influence ruins whatever I try to teach the boy" Jon Arryn sighed. The thought of fostering his heir was becoming stronger the longer he watched the boy. Anything to pry him away from Lysa's... whatever this was.
"Soon, love, soon. You're always welcome here, sister. But if you're asking me to send men from the Vale to fight..."
"That is what I ask."
"Go on, sweet. Time for your bath. I'll feed you after."
[Robin walks out of the room.]
"If you fear for the safety of your son..."
"Of course, I fear for the safety of my son! Are you an idiot? They killed my husband. You say they shoved your boy from a window. These people will do anything."
"And that is why we have to stop them."
"The knights of the Vale will stay in the Vale where they belong, to protect their Lord."
"I'm afraid Lysa lacks your courage, Lady Stark" Jon Arryn smiled apologetically.
"She is a mother who fears for her child, Lord Arryn. I do not hold that against her" Catelyn smiled back.
