A Discovery Pt. 1

Margaery Tyrell was no one's fool. As the only daughter of the Lord Paramount of the Reach, she'd been raised as a prim and proper lady from the outset, to one day be married off for the betterment of her Lord Father's holdings. But as the only granddaughter of the Queen of Thorns, Margaery had been taught quite a lot more than just that. Olenna Tyrell had raised Margaery to be a Queen, one day, long before she'd even begun to whisper plans into Mace's ear to make her idiot son think that he'd believed this was the goal all along.

And now here she was in King's Landing, set to marry the King and ascend as his Queen. Of course, Joffrey had up and died right after their wedding, which had certainly put a bit of a damper on things. Still, House Tyrell was too important to the Lannister cause for them to discard her at this point. The food that the Reach provided, along with their armies and their gold, was irreplaceable by now, with the destruction that the War of the Five Kings had done to Westeros.

So, there was already a plan in place, now that the Imp's trial was over and he was heading for the Wall, to marry Margaery off to Tommen Baratheon, the newest young King to sit upon that ghastly Iron Throne. In truth, Margaery was perfectly fine with this turn of events. Joffrey had been, by all accounts, a monster. Worse than a pig, he had quite literally been a hyena in Margaery's eyes, the kind that she'd been fearful would strip the flesh from her bones bit by bit, just as he would strip all the joy of being Queen from her as well.

She would never dare say it out loud, but it was a relief that Joffrey was now dead, and Tommen was now King. The younger man was still practically a boy, and quite malleable at that. Where Joffrey had needed to be placated and metaphorically jerked off at every moment in order to keep him from flying into a wild rage, Tommen was the opposite. Oh sure, he lapped up every compliment and bit of affection that Margaery so much as threw his way, but in the end, he was shy and quiet and taciturn in a way Joffrey was not.

He was the perfect King to be Queen to, in Margaery's opinion. He was the kind of boy that she could mold and shape into the perfect sort of man. One that listened to his wife above all else, a gentle, caring man. It was what Margaery had been raised for, at least where her grandmother was concerned. As the Queen of Thorns had said more than once to her granddaughter, men were stupid and smart women knew how to lead them.

They had spent many a late night talking about ways that Margaery might lead Joffrey, despite his innate flaws. She'd done a pretty good job of it too, before his death. But there was absolutely no denying that Tommen would be easier to lead, far, far easier. Really, the only true obstacle that Margaery had expected to stand in her way at this point had been… the Queen Mother.

Cersei Lannister was old. Not on the same level as her grandmother, and Margaery wouldn't even voice her thoughts in front of Olenna, lest she take her to task. But she still considered it an inescapable fact. Cersei Lannister was old and was of the past. She was Queen to Robert Baratheon, and while yes, she was Mother to the new King just as she'd been Mother to the last King, that didn't mean she should continue to hold power.

Unfortunately, for all that Joffrey and Tommen both had the last name Baratheon, this was undeniably a Lannister dynasty that House Tyrell had wedded itself to. They'd tried to marry into the actual Baratheon Dynasty, and while Renly Baratheon was a peculiar sort of man, Margaery had been perfectly willing to be his wife and beget him a son or two, while her brother Loras shared his bed and held his true affections. Theirs had been an interesting threesome, as Margaery had been unable to use her own great beauty to lead Renly… but in the end, Loras had proved more than an acceptable stand-in, for all that he'd been just as in love with the Baratheon as Renly was with him.

At the end of the day though, Renly had died, and his army had been routed. The Tyrells had taken their forces and their resources and gone home, awaiting the next best offer to come along. It was unfortunate that the next best offer was Joffrey Baratheon, but that was just how it went. All the same, the Lannisters owned King's Landing, and they'd almost certainly won the War of the Five Kings most… decisively.

Robb Stark, dead at what everyone was calling the Red Wedding (and honestly, Margaery hadn't truly appreciated how disrespectful and distasteful that was until she started hearing people call her own failed reception the 'Purple Wedding' on account of Joffrey's face as he died from poison). Renly Baratheon, killed by his own bannerman… or woman, as the case was, though Margaery still couldn't quite understand why Brienne of Tarth had betrayed her King as she had. Everyone else had their own thinking on the subject, but it still didn't make a lick of sense to her.

Stannis Baratheon, beaten back at the Battle of the Blackwater, losing both his fleet and the army that he'd managed to siphon from Renly's fractured men, ultimately having to flee back to Dragonstone and sulk and lick his wounds. They didn't even know what he was up to these days, the silence coming from that worthless rock practically deafening.

And last and certainly least, Balon Greyjoy. Still technically in open rebellion, but who the fuck cared, truly? The Iron Islands could remain apart from Westeros, in Margaery's humble opinion. So long as a strong defense was built upon the coast, the Greyjoy's and their raiders would starve to death on those lifeless, barren rocks they called home.

So yes, in the end, the Lannisters were the undisputed winners of the War of the Five Kings, and it didn't matter that Tommen's last name was Baratheon. His advisors were Lannister advisors, his Hand was his Lannister grandfather, and his mother was a Lannister Queen through and through. That was what the Tyrells had to contend with, what Margaery had to contend with as she deftly navigated the politics of King's Landing and worked her way closer and closer into her King's good graces.

The only thing was… Cersei wasn't acting as she should have been. Something was off with her, and Margaery was rather determined to find out what, if only to keep it from coming back to bite her in the ass. She refused to grow complacent, just because the Queen Mother, who'd always been so very vindictive and spiteful and altogether antagonistic to the younger Queen before now, had suddenly decided to stop playing the Game.

Margaery had been raised to play the Game. She knew full well that you didn't just stop playing it. No, this was a ruse on Cersei Lannister's part, she just knew it. Even if her grandmother didn't think it as much an issue as Margaery herself did. If the Queen of Thorns was to be believed (and to be fair, Margaery had a lot of faith and trust for her grandmother, just not in this) then Cersei's strange behavior could be directly correlated to Jaime Lannister's departure from the Capital.

From what Margaery had heard, Ser Jaime had made a deal to save his brother's life. Tyrion was only going to the Wall, rather than dying via painful execution, because Jaime and Lord Tywin had worked out a deal in which Tommen would have Jaime hang up his gold cloak so that the handsome Lannister man could take his proper place as Lord Tywin's heir.

That, more than anything else, was probably something that Margaery suspected Lord Tywin had been working towards for quite a long time, perhaps even longer than she'd been alive. It was a testament to how convoluted the Game of Thrones was that it had taken the Old Lion this long to get what he wanted. If Margaery were pressed to say so, she would have put Lord Tywin as the smartest, most cunning, and altogether most ruthless man in all of Westeros. And even he had had to wait twenty years to get his heir back after the Mad King stole him in a fit of whimsy and envy.

But Margaery didn't think that Ser Jaime's departure from King's Landing was the only thing that was affecting Cersei Lannister. For one, in Jaime's absence, Margaery would have expected something awful to befall Lord Tyrion's squire within a fortnight. Podrick Payne was, in all things, an unfortunately placed soul. He was unlucky in the extreme to have ended up with his fortunes tied to a losing bet like the Imp.

And yet, he'd managed to hang on, mostly via Ser Jaime's good nature, even after Tyrion was found guilty and sentenced to the Wall. Margaery had expected the young man to flee the Capital, but he'd stuck around and become Ser Jaime's squire instead, ostensibly putting him under the golden-haired knight's protection.

But of course, if anyone could separate the two, it would be Lord Tywin. And separate them he had. Ser Jaime had left the Capital, and poor Podrick Payne had been left behind. From what Margaery had heard, Lord Tywin had no desire to have an associate of the Imp squiring for his heir or living in Casterly Rock.

One would expect then, at that point, Podrick to flee the city. Obviously with his last source of protection lost, the young squire should have left before Cersei finally had him killed. Even Margaery was aware that the Queen Mother was aggrieved by her brother the Imp's continued survival and was more than willing to take it out on any associates of his that were even loosely linked to him. Tyrion's squire was a bit more than loosely linked to his previous master.

And yet, that was just it. Sure, Jaime's departure could explain away why Cersei had been secluding herself in her chambers. It could explain why she only ventured out for formal occasions, and even during those times, was quiet and withdrawn. If the rumors of brother and sister fucking were true, then much of Cersei's current demeanor could be explained by Jaime leaving.

Except that wasn't quite right. Margaery liked to think she knew Cersei quite well. This? This wasn't how Cersei reacted to losing a battle, and King's Landing was definitely a battlefield. No, Cersei should be scheming and conniving to do something about what had happened. And more than anything else, she should have been angrier and more spiteful than ever and taking out her emotions on acceptable targets such as Margaery with sniping comments, just as she had throughout her engagement to Joffrey… and young Podrick Payne, though with a lot more than sniping comments.

And yet, the young squire continued to walk around King's Landing unmolested by the Queen's men. He continued to train in the yard, like an island in and of himself as everyone avoided him, but no one sought to do him harm. Meanwhile, Cersei didn't seem wrathful or vengeful… she seemed, above all else, defeated and broken.

Margaery felt like she was the only one who truly noticed it, who truly understood that something was going on beyond just the departure of Cersei's twin. And she was going to get to the bottom of it too. Which was why she was out here in the Royal Gardens, having heard that the Queen Mother was taking a stroll. Cersei had been avoiding her of late, and Margaery was going to have a conversation with the other woman whether she liked it or not.

As determined as she was, however, Margaery ended up running smack dab into a servant, ending up bouncing off of the other woman and falling flat on her ass in a most embarrassing and unqueenly fashion. Luckily no one is around to see it… save for the servant, of course.

"A-Ah, my deepest apologies, Your Grace! I did not see you there, I should have been watching where I was going!"

If she were Cersei, her reaction, even as she let the servant help her to her feet, would probably have been apocalyptic, and the servant in question, a dark-haired foreign-looking young woman, would likely have been thrown out on her ass if not outright killed. But that would result in rumors being spread, if not by the servant herself about Margaery's fall, then by those who would wonder exactly why the servant was dismissed or went missing.

This was what Margaery had always understood and Cersei did not. The people were just that… people. They were not toys to be played with and discarded when you grew bored of them, nor were they an infinite resource to continually use up. For one to be a good Queen, one must always keep the will of the people in mind, and not slight them too much.

-x-X-x-

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