32 Chapter 31

Lyanna woke up lying on a bed once again.

'I've been here before. Ah! Different room. The bed is softer and so is the linen.'

She was tired, but, was feeling much better than she could remember.

'Right... I ran away from Rhaegar and came to King's Landing on the gamble that Allan would be here. Seems like I was right.'

The chamber maid was cleaning when she heard Lyanna's moan and immediately turned to look at the latter.

"You're awake! I must inform Ser Curran!!"

She immediately ran out of the room.

'Even I haven't run that fast when I need to take a shit.' Lyanna thought in wonder.

She wasn't a delicate lady. She never thought low of crass words. She was a man through and through... Other than her anatomy.

She could hear running and soon, Allan reached the door of her room.

Aye, she wasn't a delicate lady, but, seeing Allan made her lose the guarded air around her and she broke down into tears.

Allan ran to her side and craddled her in his arms, letting her cry and let out all of her sorrow and anger. She had lost her father, her brother, been abducted and beaten for days by Rhaegar, lost a hand and part of her arm and had been living in fear of being raped.

It took her a while to settle and she fell asleep again, in his arms while she was crying.

(ACJTF)

'She must be pretty traumatized. Anyone would be after going through all of that.'

Lyanna woke up some time in the noon when I went to see her again.

"How're you feeling?" I asked while counting her pulse to see if she had a fever.

"Other than missing a hand, alright."

"Hm. No aching joints? Do you feel feverish? Any pains?"

"No."

I sighed and unwrapped the hunk of metal I had made.

"What's that?" She asked curiously.

"A prosthetic."

No words were exchanged as I quietly strapped it to her stump.

"Does it hurt?"

"Other than having to deal with a loat limb, no. No physical pain."

'I guess a max heal potion only heals physical ailments.'

She waved the metallic hand around and said, "I'd have liked it more if it was a hook, like a pirate. Or a sharp blade. Seems more practical."

"Well, it's replaceable. You can unscrew the hand from the wrist and attach whatever you want. A saw, a hook, a whip... Even a mallet!"

"... Why would I want a mallet?"

"To shove it up Rhaegar's arse?"

A crazy smile appeared on her face as she imagined herself doing that. Then, we burst into laughter and the sombre air around us was gone.

"I missed you back at Winterfell. I can't believe father thought we were lovers. He was paranoid beyond belief!"

I sighed and said, "I understand his decision. He was a lord who wanted the betterment of North. A lot relied on North's relations with the Southern lords. It's simply that... He chose his lordly duties over the happiness of his family. Whether it was right or not... We cannot say."

We sat in silence for a while.

"I can't believe he's dead. And Brandon... He was going to be the next lord of Winterfell. Instead, he strangled himself to death while trying to save father."

"You can never know what will happen tomorrow. The best we can do is make decisions with our minds and not follow our impulses. Decisions impulsively tend to have bad outcomes. We can dwell upon what we did in the past. Perhaps, we could have done something differently. But, we can't change the past."

I looked at Lyanna and said, "You can't go back in time and prevent yourself from being abducted. I can't go back and arrive at Riverrun faster than I did. If I was here, I could have stopped Rhaegar. If I did this.. If I didn't do that... We can think about it, but, it doesn't change the fact that it happened. We just have to live with it."

We had just finished talking when an armed man rushed through the door and exclaimed, "Ser Curran! Terrible news!"

I turned to him and asked, "What happened?"

"It's the Lannisters! There's an army of them at our gates! Tywin Lannister is here with his entire fucking army!"

(ACJTF)

"Rhaegar Targaryen!" Oberyn yelled while looking at the tower.

The prince and his kingsguard had moved to an abandoned watch tower. Doran was quick to make his decision on choosing sides. He sent Oberyn and hundreds of Dornish men to arrest Rhaegar.

Rhaegar looked down from the window and smiled while saying, "Oberyn! Did you bring those men to help me look for my beloved?"

Oberyn's teeth ground together in anger. He desperately wanted to put his spear through the prince's annoying face. But, for the safety of his sister, he had to arrest Rhaegar... alive.

"I'm here to detain you and your guards for abducting Lyanna Stark."

Arthur Dayne, Oswell Whent, Lewyn Martell and Barristan Selmy emerged from the door of the tower. It was their duty to protect Rhaegar as he was their king. But, one of them seemed to be unwilling to stand against the Dornish.

Oberyn was his nephew. Even if he was oath bound to protect Rhaegar, he couldn't bring himself to raise his sword against the young prince. He took a step forward. To Rhaegar and the rest, it seemed like he was going to say something to dissuade Oberyn. Instead, Lewyn quietly went ahead and stood beside Oberyn before placing a hand on the man's shoulder.

"I'm a knight before a member of the Kingsguard. I cannot stand with injustice."

"Traitor!!" Rhaegar yelled. His eyes were wild with fury and spit flew from his mouth as he tried to compose himself.

"I'm disappointed, Lewyn. I thought we were friends."

Oberyn was getting impatient and shouted, "Surrender! Rhaegar Targaryen!!"

Rhaegar always knew that he had his father's madness.

He was simply too good at hiding it from the world. With honeyed words and music that enamored the ladies, Rhaegar could dissuade others from seeing what was hidden under his violet eyes.

A storm of chaos and madness was locked in his body. So far, Rhaegar had managed to keep the storm at bay.

But, when Barristan looked up towards Rhaegar, he saw the mad king in the latter's eyes.

Rhaegar was struggling to keep his true self at bay.

"Surrender, now!!"

That command was the last straw and it broke the dam. Rhaegar exploded into screams and shouts about traitors and dragons.

"I'll burn you traitors when I have my wildfire!!! I'll burn you all!!! The three headed dragon!!! I shall have my three headed dragon!! Find me that bitch, Lyanna!! Death!! Burn!!! Burn them all!!! Burn Westeros to seven hells!!"

Everyone was shocked by his outburst. His true self was finally out for everyone to see.

Oberyn ordered his men to quickly detain everyone at the tower.

Every conspirator was arrested without any resistance from their part, except Rhaegar, who kicked and screamed and bit at the men until he was hit on the head to make him fall asleep.

Oberyn looked at the shocked Kingsguard and said, "I bet you didn't expect that, huh?"