The rise of a rebellion

When Tywin Lannister arrived at Casterly Rock it was midnight, it is tradition that when a Lord or King were to approach a fief that held bannermen or subjects they would wait for it to be day before entering so those inside could present themselves to their ruler.

Tywin Lannister is a man of tradition. So when he entered Casterly Rock with his daughter and escort when the moon was highest, it wasn't very difficult to image the kind of mood he was in. The servants and members of the household were confused because they didn't know what to make of the rumours going around the castle that he was back.

In fact, I didn't even know he was here until he had a servant tell me he wanted to see me in the Lords study.

We both sat in silence for a minutes until he broke the silence, "Maester Creylen tells me that your studies are going well" he says, not looking up from the letter he is writing.

"They are Father, I enjoy politics the most" I reply to which he just hums.

"Ser Rylen also tells me that he thinks you have potential with a sword" Tywin states, also not looking up at me.

"Well I doubt Ser Ilyn would tell you" I say sarcastically, finally getting acknowledgement in the form of an unimpressed stare at my poor jest.

Yet again we both sit in silence for a few seconds before I say, "Might I ask why you have called me to your study?"

"Your brother has decided that he wants to play around with swords and wear a white cape for the rest of his life instead of being heir to Casterly Rock." Father says with a hint of steel in his tone. "As the second eldest son, that title falls to you Cerion."

To say I was shocked was an understatement, I thought that like with Tyrion in the future he wouldn't allow me to become heir.

After seeing me too stunned to reply, father relays " I will have Maester Creylen and Ser Rylen increase the difficulty of your lessons, you are also to come here to my study every other day of the week starting tomorrow, your time with me will include us going over politics, strategy, finance and any other matters a Lord should know of. Now leave, you are to arrive here when you would normally be studying with Maester Creylen."

[The next day]

My presence in this world hasn't really changed anything major in the grand scheme of things yet, or well before yesterday. The fact that I have been named heir is a massive change, I expected Father to not want to name me as heir like he did with Tyrion in the future.

Speaking of Tyrion, he actually supported me and told me I would be a good lord. I wasn't quite sure what his reaction might've been but I suppose that as he is the third son he knows the chances of him becoming lord were slim.

Arriving at the door to my Fathers study, the two red cloaks outside opened the door for me. I could see Tywin sat behind his desk with a board in front of him. inviting me to sit down on the chair in front of him with a hand gesture he says "do you know what this is?" indicating towards the board in front of him.

Recognising what it is I reply "It is a Cyvasse board?" with a curious tone as to why he has one without the pieces. Inwardly I'm surprised, Cyvasse originates from Volantis and has been played their for decades, however not a lot of Westerosi know this and assume that the Dornish created Cyvasse because it is very popular there. The reason I'm surprised is that Father despises Dorne as a whole and may not know that it is Volantene.

"It is, do you know how to play?" to which I respond with a nod. Cyvasse is like a much more complicated chess, with pieces that can only take out certain pieces. I learned the rules from a book of foreign games by a Maester Wrentall.

"Good" he says as he folds up a screen, the screen was there to make sure that you couldn't see the other player's formation. The game pieces of Cyvasse are: rabble, spearmen, crossbowmen, light horse, heavy horse, trebuchet, catapult, dragon, elephant and finally a King. As I mentioned before only certain pieces can take out certain pieces, like a Dragon can take out an elephant whilst both a catapult and trebuchet can kill a dragon, However rabble can take out every kind of piece on the board but the same goes for the opposition and they can only move one square. The King is the objective of the game, like chess if you get the king you win, on the other hand the King can only move one square at a time and is the only piece on the board that cannot take out another piece.

After signalling that we were both ready to each other the board came down to where I bared witness to a very unorthodox formation on Fathers side of the board. Now I wasn't any good at chess, sure I could play it well and just go with the flow but I didn't know any techniques or named moves and strategy whatever, but Fathers formation was almost backwards, as if he was playing himself.

His king was at the front flanked by a catapult and a spearmen, the complete opposite to mine where I have gone with the more typical and orthodox style of having my king at the back surrounded by the other pieces.

[Two and a half hours later]

A Cyvasse board is bigger than a regular chessboard because it is meant to allow more flexibility and to simulate the size of a battlefield, However that tends to make the game much longer. Over the two and a half hours that we were playing for we played a total of nine games, and I will humbly accept that I lost each one, although I was getting better near the end, I could feel it.

As it turned out that lesson was a one off because the lessons that would come after would be of things one would expect an heir to learn of, occasionally we would play Cyvasse.

As the days pass turning days into weeks and weeks into months those lessons would continue with an increasing difficulty, a tournament was missed and a new year would come about, life at the rock was normal until a letter a letter came upon the Rock speaking of abductions, burning, madness and war.

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It's starting to heat up now in Westeros, I know that the chapter is relatively short but I couldn't think of anything else to right and just wanted to get to the important shit. Tell me your thoughts on the chapter in the comments.

[I do not in any way own game of thrones or a song of ice and fire]