The Storm Queen | Game of Thrones

Twenty Five

Cassana

We all take up residence in Storms End while preparing to meet with Stannis.

"You weren't kidding when you said it was a fortress," Robb comments now our army surrounds it. 

"It's never been successfully besieged," I tell him. "The wall is one hundred feet high. House Durrandon built many castles each were destroyed by storms, except for this one. They say magic was woven into its walls so the sea god couldn't destroy it."

He looks curious. "House Durrandon were some of the first men, how did the Baratheons end up as the Lords of the Stormlands?"

A history I'm proud to tell. "House Durrandon were known as the Storm Kings, similar to your Kings of Winter. The Andals tried to conquer the castle but they never could, eventually they made peace through marriages. Then Aegon the Conqueror came. Orys Baratheon, the founder of my house was believed to be his bastard brother and he slew the last Durrandon king. His daughter Argella named herself the Storm Queen. She refused to bend the knee and was willing to die defending Storms End against a dragon but her men betrayed her and handed her over to Orys. He took her as his bride, adopted the sigil and words of House Durrandon as his own and House Baratheon became the Lords of the Stormlands."

"The Storm Queen," he says to himself as thunder roars in the distance "Sounds like someone else I know."

"I hope not," I comment knowing what the equivalent would be, knowing her story. "She was fiercer and braver than all her men but still they betrayed her."

"Well if she was anything like you then those men would have been fools." He then looks at my uncle who walks ahead of us and whispers "Just like someone else we know."

I laugh quietly as I take his hand in my own, finally able to introduce him to my home in the daylight as we step into the courtyard, in the midst of it sits a massive round tower.

"This is where just about everything is," I tell him, it's size never seizing to stun me. "The Round Hall, our chambers, rookery, maester. Everything."

It's not like anything he's ever seen, Winterfell has its towers but Storms End is unique from any other castle ever built. With the storms that batter it I'm willing to believe it took magic to keep it standing.

We're about to enter the tower when Margaery approaches us.

"Cassana may we have a word alone?" she requests then clarifies to avoid suspicion. "Women's business."

"Of course," I hesitatingly agree and leave Robb standing there with Greywind.

As she leads me away I notice Renly approach him and lead him towards the kennels.

"I would like to apologise again for everything, and express my joy at how happy you are in your marriage," she tells me out of the blue. "I wish I could have a fraction of that with Renly."

"So the marriage still has not been consummated," I gather but that is hardly a secret.

"No," she admits and I'm confused as to why she is even sharing this with me now. "I have tried but he will not lie with me. How am I meant to be his wife if I cannot bear children for him, his men are beginning to whisper behind his back. I love Loras, and I knew what I had agreed to when I married Renly but-"

"You do not need to explain yourself Margaery," I say knowing that if I was not betrothed to Robb then I'd likely be married to bloody Loras by now. Her position is one I could very easily be in. "Renly isn't a fool, to protect his secret he will do what he must."

"Thank you Cassana," she says squeezing my hand but her vulnerability alarms me, I know she is not telling me all of this because she wants to. She wants me to be vulnerable with her. It is not a mistake I will ever make again, but I must pretend to be to find out what is truly going on.