Ned Stark stood at his window in the Tower of the Hand, his gaze fixed on the red comet that blazed across the sky like a bleeding wound. With every passing moment, the unease in his heart grew heavier.
He had only just confirmed the terrible truth—that the queen's children were not King Robert's—and already, the whispers had begun. Rumors swirled through King's Landing, spreading like wildfire from the docks to the Red Keep itself. They said Prince Joffrey, Princess Myrcella, and Prince Tommen were not Baratheons. They were the children of Queen Cersei and her twin brother, Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer. The whispers painted King Robert a cuckold, a fool who had raised another man's sons.
The rumors seemed to erupt from nowhere, yet in a matter of hours, they were on everyone's lips. Ned didn't know who had leaked the secret, but he could feel the cold hand of conspiracy at work. Someone had done this deliberately, but for what purpose, he could not guess.
He only knew that the situation was spiraling out of his control. With the king due back from his hunt at any moment, Ned had to act.
He intended to speak with the queen herself. He knew his friend Robert. If the king discovered that the three children he had raised as his own were the product of incest, his rage would be unstoppable. In his fury, Robert would not hesitate to bring his warhammer down upon Cersei's head, and upon the heads of her children.
Ned's honor would not allow him to stand by while three innocent children were slaughtered. He had to give the queen a chance. He would warn her, urge her to take her children and flee King's Landing, to escape Westeros entirely. If Cersei had any sense, she would sail for the Free Cities across the Narrow Sea. It was the only way she and her children might survive Robert's thunderous wrath.
With his mind made up, Ned summoned his guards and prepared to confront the queen. At the same time, he ordered Tomard, the captain of his household guard, to keep a close watch on Sansa, Arya, and Bran, and to ensure they had no contact with the royal children.
Confined to the Tower of the Hand by their father's command, the Stark children were growing restless.
"What's wrong with Father?" Arya complained, kicking her heels against the legs of her chair. "Why won't he let us out? I want to practice with Syrio and Needle!"
Sansa, however, was quiet and pale with panic. Her maid had already told her the rumors, and the news had shattered her world. The dream of marrying her handsome Prince Joffrey and one day becoming queen was crumbling to dust.
"No, it's not possible," she whispered, sitting numbly on her bed, her face a mask of disbelief. "How could Joffrey not be the king's son? It can't be true..."
Bran, still unaware of the scandal, looked up from his toys. He saw Sansa's dazed expression and heard her muttering. "Sansa, what are you talking about?" he asked, frowning.
Sansa turned to him, her blue eyes wide with shock and fear. "You haven't heard? Everyone in the Red Keep is whispering about it. They're saying Joffrey and the others... they aren't King Robert's real children. They say Joffrey's father is the Kingslayer." The words felt foul in her mouth. "His uncle is his father... It's unbelievable."
She clasped her hands together, her face ashen. She looked from her sister to her brother, desperate for them to deny it. "You don't think it's true, do you? It can't be. How could Joffrey not be the king's son? He's a prince. He's going to be King of Westeros!"
When Arya and Bran finally understood the gravity of what she was saying, their mouths fell open. Though young, they were children of a great house, and they knew exactly what this accusation meant.
"If Tommen isn't the king's son..." Bran began, his mind racing to his sweet-natured friend. He couldn't imagine what would happen to him.
Even Arya was stunned into silence. The news was too shocking to comprehend.
The Stark children were not the only ones in turmoil. Across the castle, Queen Cersei, Ser Jaime, and their three children were reeling.
Cersei and Jaime were terrified. How could their secret, a secret they had guarded with their lives for years, suddenly be exposed?
Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen were drowning in disbelief. An enraged Joffrey stormed into his mother's chambers, demanding to know the truth behind the rumors.
Cersei, of course, denied everything. If she admitted the truth, she, Jaime, their children, and even her powerful father, Lord Tywin, would be consumed by Robert's fury. The entire Lannister family would be crushed.
"It's a lie! Slander!" Cersei declared, her voice sharp with feigned outrage. "It's an insult to the royal family, spread by cowards hiding in the shadows! They want to shame us, so they invent these vicious rumors to tear us down!" She insisted to Joffrey that it was all a conspiracy orchestrated by their enemies.
Joffrey's anger subsided slightly, replaced by a gnawing unease. He had often looked in the mirror and thought he resembled his uncle Jaime far more than his father, Robert. The thought now filled him with a cold dread.
Seeing the lingering doubt on her son's face as he left, Cersei turned to Jaime, her own composure finally cracking. "Jaime, take the Red Keep guards and the gold cloaks of the City Watch. Arrest everyone spreading these rumors! Anyone who dares to repeat this filth will be thrown in the dungeons! Go, now!"
Jaime looked at his sister, her beautiful face twisted with rage and panic. He sighed wearily. "I wish it were that simple, Cersei. But the truth is, we can't stop it. As far as I know, hundreds of thousands of people in King's Landing have already heard the rumors. We can't arrest them all."
"No!" she shrieked, her voice rising with hysteria. "We have to do something! If these whispers reach Robert's ears, he'll order Ned Stark to investigate, and we won't be able to hide the truth! What do we do? What do we do?"
Her fear became a tangible thing, filling the room. "If Robert finds out none of the children are his... his temper... he'll kill us all. The Lannister name will be burned to the ground. We can't just sit here and wait for it to happen! We have to do something! For me, for our children, for our family!"
She began to pace the room like a caged animal, her hands clutching the fabric of her red gown so tightly her knuckles turned white. She mumbled to herself, her eyes wide with terror.
Seeing his sister on the verge of collapse, Jaime moved quickly to her side, wrapping his arms around her. "Calm down," he said softly, holding her tight. "Breathe, Cersei. We haven't reached the worst of it yet. Don't panic. There's always a way."
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