17

Chapter 17: Part XVIINotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Disclaimer: I own nothing, just borrowing for a while.

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"We've had a 'King Baelor the Blessed' and a 'King Jaehaerys the Wise' but for all my attempts at popularising it 'King Joffrey the Unusually Competent' hasn't caught on yet."

The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister - 325 AL

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The Red Keep - King's Landing – 298 AL

"This is not a debate mother, this is simply the way things are" Octavian told Cersei firmly. "As soon as the funeral feast begins you are to quietly slip away and head to Casterly Rock escorted by Uncle Jaime and half the Lannister soldiers in King's Landing" he said. "And once you are there you will stay there until I say otherwise" he ordered before turning his back on her and facing Jaime Lannister. "If you have to, tie her up and throw her in her carriage next to my brother and sister."

"Duck!" Jaime said loudly, Octavian doing so just as a cushion flew over his head. "You can tell she loves you" Jaime observed wryly as the boy resisted the urge to retaliate for the projectile verbally. "It wasn't something heavy or sharp."

"It's a long journey, try and talk some sense into her on the way would you?" Octavian requested.

"Father tried that for years, I mostly gave up on that when we were still children" Jaime replied apologetically with a shrug.

"If she stays here some Baratheon loyalist that believes Lancel's story, or somebody else trying to sow discord, will make an attempt on her life" Octavian told him, flinching as a bottle flung against a wall smashed behind him. "She's safer in the Westerlands and so are my brother and sister for now."

"And it'll be easier for you and the new Lord Regent Eddard Stark to run things smoothly without her being here as well" Jaime observed knowingly.

"So much easier" Octavian had to agree with a sigh, wincing as Cersei practically howled in rage behind him and apparently overturned a table judging by the loud crash and the sound of crockery breaking on the floor. Despite a letter from Lord Tywin ordering Cersei to obey the instruction to return to Casterly Rock, and over an hour of well-argued and increasingly less gentle persuasion from himself culminating in an ultimatum that if she didn't go willingly she would go in chains, Cersei was still livid almost to the point of being unable to string a coherent sentence together.

"How in the name of the Old Gods and the New could I have raised such an ingrate?" Cersei complained. "To cast me out after all I did for you?"

Ah so they were back to accusations of ingratitude then, Octavian thought to himself. Cersei must have run out of attempted methods of emotional blackmail if she was repeating herself already. Since crying, pleading, rage, something that might best be described as "screeching", and references to the pain of childbirth had failed she had returned to that.

One advantage to being raised by Atia of the Julii was that it all rolled over Octavian like water off a duck's back.

"Mother you're going back home to grandfather, you're not being banished to the jungles of Sothoryos" Octavian responded calmly, still keeping his back to her.

"It's that little Stark bitch isn't it?" Cersei declared. "She seduced you at her father's behest, the redheaded slut's been spreading her legs for you ever since you became betrothed hasn't she?"

Now that was too much, not only was Sansa a good, decent respectable girl of high virtue, Caesar's wife must be above suspicion. "No she has not!" Octavian responded angrily, turning back towards Cersei. "And if you ever say that again, to me or anyone else, then you can look forward to never setting foot in King's Landing again" he vowed, directing a withering look at her that she found herself unable to meet.

"Why else would you accept Ned Stark ruling the Seven Kingdoms?" Cersei wanted to know, her tone rather more subdued now however.

"I already explained several times and I'm not repeating myself again just because you don't want to listen" Octavian told her firmly. "You are my mother but I am no longer your child and I only explain myself out of courtesy, not out of necessity" he said. "The fact you can't put your feelings aside and conduct yourself in a calm and rational manner only strengthens the case for keeping you away from an already precarious political situation."

"You're too young and inexperienced to understand" Cersei told him.

"No mother, the truth is that you're not as smart as you think you are and you also lack the self-awareness to realise how badly your emotions cloud your judgement" Octavian replied harshly. "The two flaws in one person would be a recipe for utter disaster even if you hadn't somehow come to erroneously believe you were a master of manipulation."

Jamie was trying to keep a straight face. "Why am I reminded so much of father's lecturing right now?" he remarked, regretting it immediately when his sister delivered a glare at him that would cut through Valyrian Steel.

Octavian took a deep breath to collect himself. "Just don't get any ideas about having Lancel killed, it would only be throwing wildfire on the flames when I'm doing my very best to smother them" he said, before pulling the door open stepping through and slamming it closed again behind him.

Tyrion was still waiting in the adjoining room where Octavian had left him an hour ago before confronting Cersei. The dwarf had a glass of wine in his hand and was wearing an amused expression. "It is indeed a great pity that you can choose your friends but not your family" he observed.

"I suppose you heard most of that" Octavian queried.

"It's a good thing the walls are so thick or most of the Red Keep would have heard most of that" Tyrion replied only half in jest. "Do you still want me to take Tommen and Myrcella to go see King Robert lying in state in the Great Sept later before the public are allowed to pay their respects?"

"Yes, they like you" Octavian confirmed. "In different circumstances their mother would take them there but…"

"Since a fair proportion of the population thinks she had the king murdered it wouldn't be a good idea to give them the opportunity to say she was only there to gloat" Tyrion finished for him. "Why don't you take them?" he asked.

Octavian sighed. "Because with some justification they don't like me" he replied sadly. It was strange that even though never much of a people person himself he simply couldn't imagine ever being as cruel and mean-spirited to his own sister Octavia as Joffrey had been to his siblings. "I already went to the Great Sept myself, the Silent Sisters did a good job at making the body presentable so they shouldn't be too upset at seeing it I hope."

"I heard that Robert didn't want to be laid to rest there permanently" Tyrion inquired.

"Not among all those dead Targaryen kings no" Octavian confirmed. "The day after the funeral feast Renly is escorting his remains home to Storm's End so he can be with his own ancestors."

"I'm sure that both he and the Targaryen's would much prefer that arrangement" Tyrion responded with a gentle smile which was soon replaced by a more serious expression. "If you need someone to talk to as a son mourning his father, not the man who just inherited the Iron Throne, let me know and I'll be there" he offered. "Incidentally, in case you find yourself reaching for a bottle at some point, wine isn't a permanent solution for any of life's problems" he continued. "Unless you never stop drinking, in which case you've only swapped one problem for another" he said from personal experience.

Octavian smiled himself then turned to look at the door which led back to where Cersei was. "She'll never forgive me for not letting her be here for my coronation" he said, frowning.

"Probably not, she is one to hold onto a grudge" Tyrion agreed. "But just for the record I'll never forgive you for not being the one that got to tell her" he complained. "It would have been so sweet seeing the expression on her face" he said longingly.

Imagining Cersei picking her little brother up and bodily throwing him out of the nearest window Octavian was glad he had chosen to tell her himself since even in a world of magic and dragons it was unlikely the little man could fly.

Notes:

Note from the author:

The Great Sept of Baelor is where kings are laid out and in most cases later entombed. King Robert wanted to sit out eternity back home in Storm's End among his own ancestors rather than a bunch of dead Targaryens.

Sending Cersei back to Casterly Rock is the best thing Octavian could have done, not only for her safety and the good of the Seven Kingdom's but for his own sanity!

The Silent Sisters are the order that worship the Stranger and prepare the dead for funeral.