𝔹𝕦𝕥 𝕔𝕦𝕓𝕤 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕥𝕙 𝕥𝕠𝕠 ; (ℂ𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕖𝕚 𝕩 𝕆ℂ🐺🦁)

𝟙𝟚 - 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟 𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘

𝕀 shot upright, waking up with a jolt. Cersei stirred next to me, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "What's wrong, love?", she asked sleepily when she saw my face. I shook my head slowly, brushing my hair off my shoulder. "Nothing, I... it was just a dream." Cersei sat up, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You dreams are not to be underestimated. You once made your wolf run all the way to the castle through one. So tell me what happened in this dream." "Really, it's nothing. It's probably just the stress I've been under, worrying about my family... I dreamed about a wolf dying. He was eating with his pack, and then something came and attacked him. Rhaenys is right here, though, unharmed - so like I said, it was just a dream." "Alright." Cersei kissed my cheek and got up from the bed, opening the wardrobe to select a gown. She tossed me one, too, and although her dresses were always slightly too long on me, I loved wearing them. It made me feel like I was hers, like we were truly wives who lived together and shared a life. "Let's go", Cersei said after we had both gotten dressed and done each other's hair (we didn't exactly want handmaidens attending to us when we had spent the night together), "I'm already late for the council meeting." I kissed her once more before we exited the room and went our seperate ways. While contemplating what to do with my morning, I walked through the gardens, the sun warming my face as I took in the smell of the summer flowers. They wouldn't be blooming for much longer. Winter was coming, after all, and I hoped it wouldn't be as harsh as Father always made it out to be. I had just decided to go retrieve my books from my room to study outside when I ran into Sansa and Tyrion, followed with some distance by Shae, the girl I had met once before during the Battle of Blackwater. It was scary how little Sansa and I saw of each other's lives these days - although perhaps it was better if she didn't see too much of mine, all things considered. "Lady Vallery", Tyrion said, his tone strangely grave. "How are you feeling?" "Fine, I suppose", I said, confused at his serious mood. His face changed, and it was only then that I saw that my sister, too, was staring sadly ahead, eyes slightly reddened. "What's happened?", I asked, concern filling my voice. Tyrion took a deep breath. "That is not for me to tell you", he said and continued walking. I looked at Sansa, hoping to find an answer in her face, but she showed no sign that she had even understood.

When I returned to my chambers to finally get the books I had been meaning to, I found Cersei already waiting for me. "Well, that was a short meeting", I said and closed the door. "You wouldn't happen to know what's going on with your brother? He and my sister were looking terribly sad, but they wouldn't tell me why." Cersei looked up at me, a small line of tears glistening in her eyes. "Vallery", she began quietly, "I'm so sorry." "For what?", I asked, sitting down beside her and searching her eyes, which yielded more answer than Sansa's. "Your family... I... There was a wedding, at the Twins", she said. "Did Robb finally marry the Frey girl? What happened, is she infertile or something? What's the big deal?" Cersei swallowed hard. "No, Robb did not marry. Well, he did, but not last night, which is actually what caused the problem. He married someone else, a great offense to old Walder, and to make up for it, his uncle Edmure married a Frey girl of the Lord's choosing." She paused again, and I was growing impatient with anxiety. "Cersei, what happened at the Twins?" She looked into my eyes. "They're dead", she said. "Your brother, your mother, all their bannermen... slaughtered at a wedding, guests under their killer's roof." The room began to spin around me. When my father had died, I had been able to tell myself it was okay, because I still had my mother, my brother... but now, they were all gone. All the elder Starks, dead. Passed. Disappeared. Wiped out. A sob broke from me, and Cersei pulled me close, holding me against her body and stroking my shoulder. I clung to her, the one piece of stability left in my life. Still crying, some rational part of me realized that I was the head of House Stark now, that I had to protect my remaining siblings, keep the pack together. All the responsibilities of my dead came crashing down upon me together with the grief, the rage, the despair. When I eventually had no tears left to cry and straightened, Cersei said softly: "My father... he orchestrated this. Walder Frey and Roose Bolton commited the act, but it was his command." The information didn't even shock me anymore. "Why does he always have to ruin everything", I said tonelessly. "I agree", Cersei replied quietly. "He does. I used to admire him, I wanted nothing more than to be like him, but he's horrible. He breaks all the things that matter most to me - he breaks you." The suppressed anger in her voice was hard to miss.