Thoughts

Awkward silence continued to envelop the room even after my uncle Renly left, his calming scent lingering faintly in the room.

The whispers of the wind that made the curtains dance as they filtered through the windows were the only faint sounds that could be heard.

"Ignore him, Sister, you'll only make him happy when you fall for his tricks." Jaime gently adjusted my position and said to my mother whose eyes grew colder by the minute. The anger that she was showcasing was nowhere to be seen. Her cunning was starting to show.

"This is not the first time he's mocked me to my face," My mother turned to my uncle, her pretty face as hard as stone. "He finds pleasure in it and because he's Robert's brother, he thinks he can get away with it."

She paused, her voice almost a whisper as a small but menacing smile crept unto her face. "But he has forgotten that I'm the Queen and the Queen always gets what she wants. He thinks there's nothing I can do to him or that I have nothing to use against him. Oh, how mistaken he is. It's time for him to know he's just a young stag in the midst of a hungry pride. In the coming days, he'll come to sorely regret gaining my ire..."

She finished calmly, her voice as sweet as before but it was laced with the most potent of venom.

My uncle just stared at my mother with a blank look on his charming face but then, he sighed softly and a cunning smile drew on his charming face.

"Normally, I would talk you out of whatever devious schemes that pretty head of yours is cooking up," He chuckled. "But sadly...I'm not feeling compelled this time. Just don't go overboard. He's the King's brother after all."

This statement from my uncle made my mother's smile deepen and stretching her arms, he slowly placed me in her loving arms.

"Don't worry, it'll just be a little something to let him know his place." My mother giggled, her head lowered as she gazed at me warmingly. I giggled as she tickled my little nose with her finger.

"I'll keep my ears peeled then. Anyways, it's time for me to go before I get called. Mummers and whispers will start running around if I stay here any longer." Jaime nodded with a smile and said causally as he straightened up, his right hand placed on the pommel of his sheathed sword.

Hearing this, I could see and practically feel my mother's mood drop, and saddened, she raised her head to look at my knightly uncle.

"Do you have to go now?" She muttered lowly, her melodious voice weak and her eyes trembling slightly as they beheld him.

A sad smile blossomed on his face and he stepped close to my mother—at arm's length—his eyes clouded with hesitation.

"You know I have to," He stretched his hands to the sides of my Mother's head. "We can't have people talking behind our backs, especially at this crucial point in our lives." He convinced, his strong voice brimming with affection as he held my mother's head, their faces only a few inches apart.

Staring at his eyes, my mother sighed and nodded helplessly, making the corners of my uncle's lips lift into a bright smile.

"Good, there will be more opportunities for us in the coming times. Just be patient," He assured and drew closer to place a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I'll see you later Sister."

"You too Jaime." Her mood seemingly uplifted from the kiss, my mother smiled and kissed the knuckles of my uncle as he removed it from her head, her eyes showering my uncle with a unique kind of affection.

His smile broadened and he lowered his eyes to look at me with a gaze filled with pride and longing and after trailing his index finger along my cheeks, he turned and walked away. His white cloak fluttered gently with the passing wind.

He pulled the ornate double door open and walked out with a straight, confident, and strong gait befitting someone of his station, never looking back. The guards outside gently closed the door with a thump.

Looking at my mother who was still staring at the door even after my uncle left the room with a deep and unsettling sense of longing, conjectures formed in my mind.

Their relationship wasn't normal. It transcended the limits of what siblings or even twins shared. From what I had seen and observed, I came to an unnatural conclusion: My mother and uncle deeply loved each other.

This wasn't familial love or any platonic kind of affection. It was the affection people who are deeply attracted to each other felt, the kind of love that could create wars...

The kind of love that siblings shouldn't ever feel for each other...

It was a rather interesting development or piece of information my unnatural talent for human psychology had picked up and instead of it unsettling me, it rather bred more questions.

How long had they been in love? How far had they gone? Who or which people were privy to this information?

And lastly, was I the son of the King as everyone had been made to believe or was I the spawn of the unholy union between brother and sister?

I hadn't even lasted a week in this new world or dimension but I was already absorbing and accumulating mysteries that needed to be solved, mysteries I wouldn't be solving anytime from now...

The problems that came with these mysteries didn't escape me though as my mother walked to the bed with me tightly held in her soft arms.

If I was truly a child made from incest, how would the public react, and more importantly, how would the King react to such a thing?

Medieval culture wasn't a fan of such things, even labeling them as abominations due to the influence of the Papacy and a few other things.

I couldn't be sure such institutions would be present but it was highly likely that there was some kind of religious influence in the Empire or Kingdom, so should my guess be correct, it was an undeniable fact that my life would be in danger.

And in extension, the lives of my mother and Jaime.

But, just as these thoughts popped up in my mind, they dissolved and disappeared the same way, like a passing breeze.

This was because, at that moment, all those problems were hypothetical and just guesses with no substantial weight in them. In addition and most importantly, I simply did not care.

So what if I wasn't a legitimate heir, who could prove it? And even if they could, evidence was extremely easy to get rid of without even noticing it existed.

Also, I was never one to judge anyone no matter the circumstances. I'd never found a reason to do so. So on the off chance that I was the product of incest, it didn't matter to me as long as any genetic defect was absent and even that seemed like an impossibility if the words of that old medical practitioner were true.

The fact that my uncle and mother might be in a sexually involved relationship also didn't affect me in any possible. The only way something like that would have any influence on my life would be when it was necessary or detrimental to my goals.

Subsequently, my mother and uncle weren't dumb. They looked experienced so there was nothing to worry about.

I was also sure that people knew about them, after all, even I couldn't hide my existence for long, so the fact that no one had blabbed about it indicated the power my matrilineal family held and the wisdom of those who kept the whole affair a secret.

So none of those concerns could scare me or make me feel uncomfortable because, at the end of the day, problems were meant to be solved and there was practically nothing to be scared about.

Still, my mind was churning out solutions to these hypothetical problems in the event of any complications.

I had still not decided on what I wanted to do with my new life but the little things I had seen and heard were enough to spice up my view of this new world I had found myself in and it was making me hungry, hungry for knowledge.

Hungry for experience...

"My little lion, it's time for you to rest. I have some things to do so I'll be leaving you for a while. Don't be sad, I'll be back any moment. For now, sleep." My mother whispered sweetly into my ear with a smile and placed me gently into my exquisite crib made of a unique kind of wood with the insides furnished with the softest of fabrics.

I giggled in response, stretching my hands in the air, to her. Satisfied, she smiled and bent to kiss my nose. Then, after looking at me for one last time, she turned and walked majestically towards the door.

As I watched her leave the room and hearing her command the guards with a threatening tone, the upcoming tourney to celebrate my birth popped up in my mind, bringing a smile to my face.

It was going to be exciting to see the people I birthed to rule and I had a feeling that the advent of such an event would finally make me 'see' the answer to my most important question.

...What should I do in this new world and what was going to be my new purpose...