The Dragon and The Wolf (Game of Thrones - Season 1)

7. You Win or You Die

RIVERLANDS

Tywin Lannister's army had set up camp.

Jaime was in his father's tent, reading Ned's letter. "'Summoned to court to answer for the crimes of your bannerman Gregor Clegane, the Mountain'. Uh, 'Arrive within the fortnight or be branded an enemy of the crown'. Poor Ned Stark. Brave man, terrible judgement."

Tywin was sharpening a blade on a whetstone. "Attacking him was stupid." He started to slice the belly of the dead stag on the table in front of him, removing its entrails. "Lannisters don't act like fools." Jaime looked down. Tywin cleaned the blood off his hands. "Are you going to say something clever? Go on, say something clever."

"Catelyn Stark took my brother," Jaime told him.

"Why is he still alive?" Tywin asked.

"Tyrion?" Jaime replied.

"Ned Stark," Tywin said, skinning the stag.

"One of our men interfered," Jaime told him. "Speared him through the leg before I could finish him."

"Why is he still alive?" Tywin repeated.

"It wouldn't have been clean," Jaime said.

"Clean," Tywin scoffed, shaking his head. "You spend too much time worrying about what other people think of you."

"I could care less what anyone thinks of me," Jaime told him.

"That's what you want people to think of you," Tywin replied.

"It's the truth," Jaime said.

"When you hear them whispering 'kingslayer' behind your back, doesn't it bother you?" Tywin asked.

"Of course it bothers me," Jaime answered.

"A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of the sheep," Tywin stated. Jaime looked away. "I suppose I should be grateful that your vanity got in the way of your recklessness. I'm giving you half of our forces, 30,000 men. You will bring them to Catelyn Stark's girlhood home and remind her that Lannisters pay their debts."

"I didn't realise you placed such a high value on my brother's life," Jaime expressed.

"He's a Lannister," Tywin said. "He might be the lowest of the Lannisters, but he's one of us. And every day that he remains a prisoner, the less our name commands respect."

"So the lion does concern himself with the opinions of--" Jaime started.

Tywin cut him off. "No, that's not an opinion. It's a fact. If another House can seize one of our own and hold him captive with impunity, we are no longer a House to be feared. Your mother's dead. Before long I'll be dead. And you and your brother and your sister and all of her children. All of us dead, all of us rotting in the ground. It's the family name that lives on. It's all that lives on. Not your personal glory, not your honour, but family. Do you understand?"

Jaime nodded.

"Hmm," Tywin nodded, stabbing the blade into the table and cleaning his hands. "You're blessed with abilities that few men possess. You're blessed to belong to the most powerful family in the Kingdoms and you're still blessed with youth. And what have you done with these blessings, huh? You've served as a glorified bodyguard for two kings - one a madman, the other a drunk." He approached Jaime. "The future of our family will be determined in these next few months. We could establish a dynasty that will last a thousand years. Or we could collapse into nothing as the Targaryens did." Tywin placed a hand on the side of his son's face. "I need you to become the man you were always meant to be. Not next year. Not tomorrow. Now."