Recovery

Something wet and cold lathered my face, causing me to stir and slowly open my eyes at the odd sensation. The cold gave way to heat as the covered area of my face started to tingle and burn, I try to move my hand towards my face to scratch the irritant but a hand grips my wrist with a strong yet careful strength and slowly sets my arm down by my side again. Trying to see who grabbed my arm, I blink repeatedly to focus my vision, noticing I can't see anything on my left except for darkness. Seeing no-one on my right side, I turn my head left and spot a grey figure moving and sorting objects next to him.

"Its good to see your awake my Lord." The figure spoke out, revealing himself as Maester Creylen through his soft, orotund voice. "It would seem that the milk of the poppy I gave you has worn off."

"Maester Creylen?" I said, somehow conveying my surprise through my groggy voice, "Are we at the Rock?".

"We are" He said "You've been in bed for around a week now, that cut on your hand became infected and you developed a fever, luckily it was rather mild." the Maester explained as he continued shifting tools and vials of liquid.

"What happened?" I ask, to which Creylen replies "Well, a supply train from Casterly Rock was a short distance away, trying to make it to the camp and drop off its goods, when they noticed the fire. Fortunately, that train was mostly consisting of more Lannister soldiers that you had requested for. Apparently they saw the scene of the skirmish in which you had been kidnapped and tracked down the kidnappers, killing nearly everyone of them, rescuing you in the process."

"You said the soldiers killed 'nearly everyone', did any survive?" Creylen nods his head, "They managed to capture two of the kidnappers and bring them back here, your father has had them placed in the dungeons and tortured for information."

I sigh and lean my head back into the comfort of the pillow as my thoughts turn towards my kidnappers, they had said something about bringing me back to Dorne but makes no sense. The only houses within Dorne that would have the power and confidence to try and abduct me would probably be Houses Yronwood and Martell, though I could be wrong. However, House Yronwood doesn't make any sense as I cant see any reason why they would do it, It most likely wouldn't be out of vengeance for the murders of Elia Martell or her children due to the feud between both houses.

House Martell is the most obvious choice, though having said that, Doran Martell isn't the kind of man to plot a scheme such as this from what I remember of him from the books (Doran in the T.V. series was very disappointing) he takes a much more slow approach to ensure success.

"Now, those bandages around your head and wrist should stay on until I tell you otherwise, when you bathe a servant will prepare a new set of clean bandages and will wrap them around you." Creylen told me, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"My eye.... Is it gone?" I ask him warily, fearing the loss of one of my eye's. "No, your eyesight should be fine, blood from the cut on your face leaked into your eyes but the soldiers were able to clean your face with water they had on their person. The reason why your left eye is covered up is because it is much easier to bandage your face, there was quite a large area needing treatment." The Maester explained to me.

"Anyway, that cut on your palm was the most troublesome, it had gotten infected after not being treated or cleaned since you were kidnapped. How'd it happen anyway? its odd that they would cut your palm like that and not anywhere else on your body except your face." Creylen asked me, curious as to what I would say.

"I cut myself" I muttered indignantly, "I went to stab someone in the chest but I hit armour and my hand slid down the hilt to the blade, cutting my hand."

Maester Creylen adopts a small curled grin, showing his amusement, before taking on a more serious face, "You're fortunate that cut on your face was all they had done to you, sure it will scar and wont be pleasant to look at but there are many things they could have done to cause you harm.", I sit and let his words stew in my head, "They said that I was not to be killed.", Maester Creylen hummed in acknowledgement "Well whoever ordered it, your father will figure it out, never have a seen a slight against your father go unpunished."

Maester Creylen got up, with his bag of tools and medicine in hand, and proceeded towards the door and opened it. Only for a small figure to dart in and run up to me, "Cerion!" the figure said and jumped up on my bed, making me groan from the extra weight on my sore and bruised body.

The figure, who I recognised as Tyrion, wrapped his arms and me, which was a bit awkward to do as I was laying down. Tyrion had filled out more since the last time I had seen him a couple months ago, he was a a weight that matched his height and his hair had turned a bit darker, going for a more bronze-blonde colour.

"I missed you" Tyrion said "I heard that you had been taken by bandits and that you were hurt." he was looking at the bandages on my head whilst saying that.

"I missed you too Tyrion, but I'm fine, just a few cuts here and there is all." I tried to reassure him to which he just raised an eyebrow and had a doubtful look in his eye. We spent the next half-hour speaking, catching up on what we were both doing since I was away. Apparently Tyrion has progressed a lot in his lessons with Maester Creylen and has self-appointed himself as his favourite student out of the four Lannister Children, he also informed me that our dear sister Cersei was pregnant and would give birth next year if nothing happened to the baby.

"Oh, that's right." Tyrion said offhandedly as he pulled out a crumpled letter from his pocket, "Jaime wrote to you after he found out what happened."

I took the letter from his hands and read it. To summarise, Jaime told me that he was worried over me and that would ride over and put them to the sword if he could, he also wrote about wishing me a full recovery and signed it himself as well as... Cersei? whose name is written in Jaime's handwriting, I like the effort.

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"Enter" a muffled voice rang out as I entered the my fathers study, it was becoming a ritual at this point. Tywin was sat at his desk stamping the sealing wax of a letter with his Lannister stamp. I sat myself down in the seat in front of him, I'd done this so many times that I couldn't be bothered to wait for his permission, earning a glare from my father.

"You could've visited me at least." I tell him, In the time that I have been awake this last week, Tywin hasn't seen me once. Now it may seem like I'm whinging but its the truth, I mean I've just been through a traumatic experience, the least he could do is other some words of comfort. Though I shouldn't have expected much from my father, knowing what kind of man he is.

"The Maester told me you were fine, that you would survive." he replied nonchalantly with his passive tone. "You could have maybe been there for me when I woke up, listened as I explained what happened, help me." I snarked back.

"You would have me coddle you, is that it?" he scoffs, "You're a Lannister, my Heir, and I will not have my heir so weak and feeble-minded that he cannot deal with the consequences of his actions and mistakes. Leaving yourself so unguarded was foolish, you had more than a hundred men and yet you surround yourself with only a handful. And thanks to your errors, I nearly found myself lacking an heir, now I have a disfigured one." Tywin spat out harshly, glaring at me momentarily before returning to managing his mail.

We both sit there in his study in silence as I try to gather my emotions and sort myself out. "Have you.... have you found out who was behind it?" I ask, curious as to what his interrogators might have found.

"No, however all the evidence points to House Martell being the ones responsible. Apparently, they were meant to bring you to Sunspear, where they would get paid. Despite this, I do not believe the Martell's were responsible for plotting your abduction, its more likely that someone is framing them to incite war between us. Doran Martell would never be so foolish as to create conflict between our houses when we are now related to royalty, relatively untouched by the war as well as Dorne losing more than half an army at the Trident." Father says in a matter of factly way.

"However" he continues, "I cannot let this go unpunished, I must take action if we are not to appear weak to our enemies and more importantly, our vassals. By now, more than half of Westeros knows you have been attacked and rumours are going around that Dorne is responsible. I will seek reparations for your attack, which Doran Martell will pay."

I nod and get up to leave, stopping as a thought comes to my mind, "Do you know what happened to my page?" I ask father, to which he responds with a nod "He's alive and is staying here at the Rock, I have wrote to his father, Lord Falwell, to explain the circumstances." I release a relieved sigh, Monty would have been on the edge of the forest where the bandits came from.

"Cerion" My fathers voice stops me, "seeing as your efforts to improve the agriculture in Lord Falwell's lands are nearly complete, you will stay here and man the logistics from within the Rock, you will only be allowed to go there when I have given permission with a large guard. Now, leave."