"You didn't have to do that, you know?" Jaehaerys said to the princess.
He wasn't terrified of the trial; he could always request a trial by combat, just as he ended up having to fight in the end. It was foolish, really; Rhaegar was looking for any excuse to screw him over.
"I already did it, what does it matter if I had to or not?" the girl snorted, trying to downplay it.
"Today I will receive Lord Stark's answer. After the trial, we can return to ArgentStone, unless your father has other plans for you," said the prince, sensing the princess's anxiety.
"I don't care about the drama; Grandfather will save Joffrey; he'll live, probably in exile," she shrugged. "I'll find him eventually," she whispered at last.
Jaehaerys was not so sure about Tywin wanting to save Joffrey's life. He wasn't soft-hearted; if he needed to cut his family three, he would do it.
"And the looks, what do you think of them?" he asked her. On the way, they had encountered many lords looking at the princess with pity. One or two ladies even covered their mouths as they stifled sobs.
"I don't care, there are no looks like that in your castle," she said sharply. Her sisters walked behind them in silence.
------------------------
"Did you allow that, Cersei?" Tywin asked, without shouting, without making a scene; it was that low voice, but it contained everything but calm.
"That's a lie!"
"Your offspring's eyes screamed his guilt; don't take me for a fool!" Jaime and Tyrion were there, watching—one with disappointment and the other with amusement.
"They... Serena and Joffrey loved each other. It was Jaehaerys who intervened; they would have been happy together," Cersei began to rave, making up nonsense—a desperate woman.
"Lannister!" said Tywin. "What does that name mean to you?"
"It reminds me that we are superior to others." She said, her head high, "What does the opinion of sheep matter to a lion?" she replied proudly.
"Lannister... is legacy, now tarnished by your stupidity. Perhaps I should have sent you to become a Septa instead of marrying in Dorne," said the older man.
"It wasn't my fault, Father," she whispered, as if begging for mercy.
"You saw it and allowed it. At first, I didn't understand Serena's reluctance to discuss the prince in detail. But now it's all clear. She hates you and, therefore, she hates us," Tyrion interjected thoughtfully.
"She doesn't hate me," Cersei bristled at his words.
Tyrion seemed to want to say something else, but his father silenced him with a glance. He shrank into his seat; despite everything, he respected the older man. He feared him even more.
"You will remain on the rock from now on. Serena condemned the act in public, so even if she refuses, the voices will continue to scream. An, no. I don't care about the sheep's voices, but the Dragon's. " Tywin told Cersei, like a father sending his daughter to reflect in the corner. Rhaegar is unhappy with the marriage between Aegon and Myrcella, and he sees this as an opportunity. 'No... Rhaegar is too cowardly.'
"What will happen to Joffrey?" she asked, her voice a whisper.
"We should hang him and completely disown him from our house," said an angry voice at the door. Joanna strode in. "I heard everything, the damn voices are screaming it everywhere," Joanna looked at Cersei in disbelief. "You knew? And you allowed it?"
"It's a lie, they... they loved each other," she tried to justify Joffrey.
"Cersei, even though you've been away from me for so long, I still know perfectly well when you're lying to me. Your own daughter... why? If anyone had laid a finger on you, I would have thrown him into the sea in a lead suit of armor, melted with their flesh," Joanna asked with anger and sadness.
Cersei shut her mouth. No matter what she said, no one seemed willing to defend Joffrey.
"Joffrey will be judged," Tywin decreed.
"No, not him, Father, please. He's your grandson; he is a kid." Cersei fell to her knees as she pleaded.
"He's a plague, one I must clean up quickly. I don't want him to end up affecting everything else," her father said, ignoring even his daughter's tears. Joffrey had been considered a possible heir to the Rock if Jaime had no male heir, but at that moment, it was no longer necessary.
He had an heir. "I remember Lord Coin's eyes were the same color," the prince's words echoed in his head. Would Lysa have been capable of bearing another man's child? He didn't know, but from that moment on, he couldn't see any resemblance between Jaime and the baby.
"And the prince's trial? There's a chance the prince will lose against seven men in battle. I'm sure the king will provide his own if necessary," Jaime said.
"And if Jaehaerys wins, we Lannisters will lose twice. First, by defending a rapist, one who went against his own blood, no less. Second, in a trial. I don't think Jaehaerys is kind enough to spare the lives of the seven warriors," Tyrion interjected. "Who would the king send, his royal guard? It's unlikely he'd risk losing them. I don't think there's anyone besides the Sword of the Morning who could stand up to the prince," he narrowed his eyes as he thought. "Not even you, brother," he silenced Jaime when he opened his mouth. "Jaime, don't you feel repulsed when you think of Joffrey?" Tyrion thought of poor Serena. If anyone deserved what happened to her, it wasn't her; it was Cersei.
Jaime remained silent. "He's a Lannister... we protect our own."
"We're protecting Serena," Tywin said, as an excuse. He was really looking to protect his reputation.
"Even so, the king seems to want a trial," Tyrion added.
"It doesn't matter what the king wants," said Tywin, walking away angrily, his feet pounding the floor, the echoing noise mingling with Cersei's sobs.
"If Joffrey admits his crimes, he will be sent to the Wall, a fitting fate for him," said Tyrion.
"HE IS NOT GUILTY!" Cersei shouted for the umpteenth time. Saliva flew grotesquely from her mouth, her bloodshot eyes touching Joanna's heart.
"Otherwise, he will die," said Tywin's wife.
"If Prince Oberyn hasn't killed him already," said Tyrion, grimacing, not wanting to sound happy.
Cersei screamed as she rushed to her son's chambers. This time, there was no Sandor to stop her.
"The queen mother, how did she react?" asked Tyrion.
His mother, Joanna, had been tasked with distracting Rhaella and keeping her away from the prince's trial. She had to feign dementia, as if she didn't really know about the trial and just wanted to have tea with her old friend.
"She was angry at first," she said with a sigh. "Then she laughed out loud, not in the demure way she usually does." Joanna's frown was pronounced.
"Ah... I can imagine what news made her laugh so much," Tyrion said with a smile.
"You look happy, brother," Jaime said, his eyes suspicious.
"It's not happiness, it's amusement. They're not the same thing," said the Imp. "You should get ready and talk to Myrcella, tell her what story she should tell. She can't open her mouth to defend Joffrey. She has to condemn him, too." Jaime listened. "I think you will talk against Joffrey", Tyrion commented.
'If I wanted to control Cersei, I need to be someone she believes is on her side', Jaime thought, but just shrugged his shoulders. He left in silence.
"You are cruel, my son," Joanna said softly, stroking the white hair of her youngest son, her favorite son.
"Of all my nephews, the only one I dislike is Joffrey. To a certain extent, I think it's good that he has been exposed publicly. That way, Father won't be able to save him," Tyrion said. "There will be justice, even if for Father it is only a way to maintain his reputation."
"You are a Lannister, one with a reputation as a womanizer and an alcoholic," said his mother, holding his hair a little tighter. "People will see a little of Joffrey in you," she warned, wanting to tell him not to rejoice too much over public justice.
"But I paid with gold, I don't need to force anyone," he pushed away his mother's hand, who, despite her age, continued to caress him as if he were a small child. 'Bad things about being a dwarf, you don't grow up,' he thought.
Tywin had prepared letters against Prince Jaehaerys, accusing him of controlling his daughter, the tournament, and even the desperate attempt at a trial; none of it worked. In Tyrion's eyes, his father's biggest mistake was his interaction with Lord Stark.
Tyrion remembered his father ordering that only two chairs remain in his Solar, including the one he occupied. The prince had pissed him off; apparently, his power play had been entirely useless against Jaehaerys. When he tried to regain his lost ego by making Eddard Stark, a Lord Paramount, wait for him.
Tyrion shouldn't rejoice in his family's misfortunes, but they didn't help themselves. If his father had done things the right way and treated Lord Stark as an equal, Sansa would now be betrothed to Jaime.
But his father had no equals, not even the king.
Or so he thought.
Tyrion was amazed by how people forget that Jaehaerys controls three dragons.
'Do the people think they are not unburned?', Tyrion wanted to visit ArgentStone. But maybe he would not return from there.