AN :
Next goal for another extra chapter is 200 power stones.
In the Game of Stones, you either win or you wait. The more Power Stones you offer, the faster the chapters come.
...
( Cersei Lannister POV )
Cersei was upset with her father.
Well, it wasn't that she was truly angry. Part of her had always known that her access to the secret tunnels was never going to last forever, but while she tried to hide just how she'd gotten to the black cells from her father, he had figured it out fast enough. He was smart like that, smart the same way she was, not like the fools whom she had spied on.
Of course, because he was smart like that, he was never going to let his daughter keep staying in a bedroom with a secret passage that led all over the castle. Instead, after having a pair of Lannister men survey the tunnels, he had ordered the ones in the tower of the hand to be quietly sealed up with bricks at the bottom, then filled in with gravel at night. Cersei had been moved to a different chamber at any rate, her one source of freedom in the whole Red Keep cut off from her.
On an intellectual level, she knew why her father had done it. She wasn't stupid! She knew that she would do the same if say- if someone had a tunnel into Callum's room that they might use to sneak in and hurt him. And Father didn't understand her heart. Of course, he didn't, but that didn't stop it from filling with bitterness at having her sole escape from the drudgery of embroidery circles and gossip stolen away from her.
The one source of real adventure in her life was snatched away from her just because she'd done the right thing, just because she'd been a good daughter and come to tell her father about the bitch of a sorceress who worked blood magic in the black cells. The bitch of a sorceress who was busy preparing to marry the man that she was supposed to marry, the prince who was supposed to make her a queen!
Cersei ground her face into her pillow as she felt hot tears trickle down her pale cheeks. She didn't want to be trapped in this stupid place any longer if all it meant was futzing about the court with fools and idiots. She didn't want to look at the courtiers who tutted at her about being a proper lady while they sipped their wine, even though Cersei had seen them fucking one of the gold cloaks behind the buttresses at the edge of the great yard. It wasn't that she hated them for being hypocrites, she had always known most people were fools, women most of all.
No, it was that she, Cersei, who ought to be going off and doing better things, who by all rights of heart and soul ought to be sparring with Jaime or riding horses or hunting or doing all the other things boys got to do, was stuck in a room eating lumps of cheese on bread and listening to their worthless chastisement. Their words were as sugary as their sliced fruits and as hollow as the walls from which she'd spied their hypocrisy.
All of that upset her, but the real reason she was mad at her father was different. The real reason she was mad was that, though she'd come to him and told him the truth and lost her freedom for it, Father chose to do nothing about the stupid witch. Oh, he'd heard her out, told her to describe everything in detail, written it down even.
Then he'd just told her, told her to not speak of it again. Told her there was nothing that House Lannister could do with the information that would benefit it. Told her that she'd just risked everything, thrown away her one source of adventure and freedom for the sake of a few placating words and nothing more. The witch would still marry Prince Rhaegar, even though she was sure to twist his mind with blood magic like Larra of Lys had bewitched Prince Viserys a century ago. Her father did not see the danger, he thought it was just some Essosi nonsense, but he was not a woman, so of course he did not see how evil she could be.
Cersei could see though, she could see through Lady Valia just like she had seen through Princess Elia of Dorne who had insulted and berated poor Callum. Lady Valia was a viper and a whore who had used Prince Rhaegar to escape from her sins in Volantis no doubt. She would probably use Prince Rhaegar to take the throne as queen, then poison him to death and rule as regent as soon as they had a son.
Cersei had thought of doing that, a few times, so she had no doubt that some sorcerous foreign witch would leap at the opportunity. Yet her father could not see, would not see. Only Cersei could see because she had a woman's body and a man's mind.
Only she could pierce the veil of deception that the vile woman had thrown up around herself with her lavish gifts to the court. She was angry with her father because no matter how plainly she stated her reasoning, he didn't seem to accept her words as such. He just told her again that there was no useful way to use her knowledge, no way to bring Lady Valia down for being a blood mage.
That was why she was angry.
Cersei squeezed her pillow tightly as she cried, her breath ragged. Why didn't he trust her? Why wouldn't her father listen to her when she was his oldest child? When she was clever and smart and brave? Why did he look down on her like she was just another foolish woman when she had the heart of a man?
Cersei rolled onto her back as the tears rolled down her cheeks, looking at the roof of her bed.
She hated this room. She hated this bed. She hated that she'd been moved here, that she was stuck where she didn't want to be, being looked down on even when she was right about everything… Everyone looked down on her these days, everyone in the Red Keep, in King's landing. Everyone thought she wasn't good enough, from King Aerys himself all the way down to the squires and maidservants who rolled around in the stables when they thought nobody was looking. There wasn't a single person worth respecting in the Red Keep except her father, and she was angry with him.
Cersei sniffled and wiped her sleeve across her nose.
She missed her brothers, well, not Tyrion obviously, but that twisted infant could barely be called her brother. No, she missed Jaime and Callum.
Jaime her perfect equal in every way save his gender. She knew everything about him, for he shared it with her just as she did with him, and he would never, could never look down on her, because they knew each other as well as anyone else in the world. She just wanted to hug him now, to tell him what she had done and seen and learned. She wanted to tell him about the sorceress so that they could plot together, to work to stop the evil woman together and be the heroes of the Kingdom.
Callum, her beautiful mystery. He was so private and quiet and proper, whereas she and Jaime had always been loud and adventurous. Callum's heart was hidden away like a flower in winter, fragile and tender, he took after Mother in mind and body. Cersei had been so distraught when he had been stolen away at the King's Tourney.
Then as now, Father had been unable to see the wicked wiles of Princess Elia sinking her claws into innocent Callum. Cersei had more than once thought of stealing a horse and riding to his rescue, but he had escaped on his own before she found the nerve.
She felt her tears subside a bit as she remembered how Father had reacted to the news that Callum had been blessed by the maiden and the crone. He had groaned and grumbled, and scheduled a meeting with the High Septon, and started figuring out how much he'd need to bribe the High Septon to get this all resolved. Cersei had been in his office when it happened, having managed to avoid a social event by feigning a headache.
While she clutched a rag to her forehead though, she had smiled for hours. She had been right about Callum! Even the Most Devout could see it! And that meant she was right about herself too! If Callum was blessed by the Maiden and the Crone, perhaps she was blessed by the Warrior and the Father? Surely the Seven wouldn't just bless her brother and leave her with nothing.
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