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[HARRENHALL BATHING CHAMBER]
[BRIENE sits in a large bath pool in an ornate bathing room, scrubbing the layers of filth from her arms with a bristle brush. JAMIE has entered with a squire. BRIENNE is surprised.]
"She is still a woman" Joanna muttered pointedly at Jaime.
"I'll remember to distinguish it when I lose a hand this time and end up a prisoner" Jaime muttered.
"You are no prisoner, let us be honest here" Joanna replied, her frowning features now easing out.
Jaime said nothing.
[The squire helps JAIME undress. We see JAIME's stubbed wrist, wrapped cleanly and tightly. The squire exits. JAIME removes his trousers and BRIENNE looks away in modesty. JAIME moves to enter the tub with BRIENNE. BREINNE moves to the far corner of the tub, but JAIME walks to join her. He steps into the water.]
"There's another tub."
"This one suits me fine. Don't worry. I'm not interested. If I faint, pull me out. I don't intend to be the first Lannister to die in a bathtub."
Tyrion snorts.
"Good to see you haven't lost your sense of humour with your hand here."
Jaime snorts back and cuffs his brother on the head.
"Why should I care how you die?"
"You swore a solemn vow, remember? You're supposed to get me to King's Landing in one piece. Not going so well, is it? No wonder Renly died with you guarding him."
"That was unnecessary," Myrcella said frowning. "It was not her fault, and she can hardly fight a shadow!"
"I know" Jaime muttered with some shame. "It was not right of me to say that."
The golden lioness cub nods and looks away.
[BRIENNE stands bold and naked, challenging JAIME to continue. He is shamed.]
"That was unworthy. Forgive me. You protected me better than most-"
"Don't mock me."
"I'm apologizing. I'm sick of fighting. Let's call a truce."
"You need trust to have a truce."
"I trust you."
[BRIENNE sits, appeased, but fuming.]
The vein in Jaime's jaw jumped seeing that expression. Oh, how he'd seen it so much since that day.
"There it is. There's the look. I've seen it for seventeen years face after face. You all despise me. Kingslayer. Oathbreaker. A man without honour. Have you heard of wildfire?"
The man blinked, his uneasiness and frustration gone. Was he... was he going to explain himself to this woman?
"The Mad King was obsessed with it. He loved to watch people burn, the way their skin blackened and blistered and melted off their bones. He burned lords he didn't like. He burned Hands who disobeyed him. He burned anyone who was against him."
Rickard and Brandon both shifted in their seats. One was burned, while the other had to watch.
"Before long, half the country was against him. Aerys saw traitors everywhere. So he had his pyromancer place caches of wildfire all over the city- beneath the Sept of Baelor and the slums of Flea Bottom. Under houses, stables, taverns. Even beneath the Red Keep itself. Finally, the day of reckoning came. Robert Baratheon marched on the capital after his victory at the Trident. But my father arrived first with the whole Lannister army at his back, promising to defend the city against the rebels. I knew my father better than that. He's never been one to pick the losing side."
Ned scoffed. Everybody knew it, the opportunistic Lannister who was only there for his gain, his family's honour and nothing more.
"I told the Mad King as much. I urged him to surrender peacefully. But the king didn't listen to me. He didn't listen to Varys who tried to warn him."
Rhaegar eyed Varys, who shrugged.
"But he did listen to Grand Maester Pycelle, that grey, sunken cunt. 'You can trust the Lannisters,' he said. 'The Lannisters have always been true friends of the crown.' So we opened the gates and my father sacked the city. Once again, I came to the king, begging him to surrender. He told me to bring him my father's head. Then he turned to his pyromancer. 'Burn them all,' he said. 'Burn them in their homes. Burn them in their beds.' Tell me, if your precious Renly commanded you to kill your own father and stand by while thousands of men, women, and children burned alive, would you have done it? Would you have kept your oath then?"
The Hall had gotten still and silent as a truth that nobody knew was finally out in the open. Even Tyrion was shocked that his brother had not told him.
All eyes went to Jaime, who refused to meet any of them.
"First, I killed the pyromancer. And then when the king turned to flee, I drove my sword into his back. 'Burn them all,' he kept saying. 'Burn them all.' I don't think he expected to die. He- he meant to burn with the rest of us and rise again, reborn as a dragon to turn his enemies to ash. I slit his throat to make sure that didn't happen. That's where Ned Stark found me."
Wrong answer by Robert Baratheon he lost the chance to answer the next two questions.
Congratulations to Jaime Lannister for the right answer he wins the family ressurection card.
Tyrion's hand was on Jaime's knee, a pat here and there coming from it. His family had never asked him what happened, but only Tyrion's silent support had been genuine and for him. His father only cared that the capital was theirs and that Aerys was dead. Cersei cared not one bit at all. The mad king was dead, and her vendetta against him for the insult he lay by not marrying her to Rhaegar was met. But Tyrion's silence was in his support and his support only, with no ulterior motives or innuendos attached.
"Don't use it now, keep it with you. You may need it when you go back " Joanna Lannister said when she saw that Jamie was going to use it to revive her.
"Y-you never said this."
Jaime's head shot up to see Ned Stark, the honourable fool, staring at him with wide eyes.
He was there that day. He would have died as well had the Mad King burned it all.
Jaime sneered.
"Why should I explain myself to you?" Jaime's voice was laced with anger and a tone of superiority as if to say he was better than that man. "You came into the throne room that day and had no qualms with pointing a finger at me and cursing me for what I had done. Did you notice in what state I was? Did you see my hands shaking? My knees barely able to keep me up? No. You walked in, you saw the Mad King dead and you pointed your self-righteous finger at me and cursed me. So tell me, Ned Stark, would my explanation have done anything to change your mind? Or had you already painted the entirety of House Lannister as opportunists because my father was late to join the war?"
Ned's face had grown solemn and dark.
"You were too busy judging me for breaking my oath of protecting a Mad Man to care" Jaime spat. "Yet at the same time when Barristan Selmy turned cloak and swore to Robert, you were more than happy with that. Isn't the oath of a Kingsguard for life? Should Barristan Selmy have received your scorn too? Or was it because you already deemed my family unworthy because of how late my father joined the war? You speak of honour yet you are selective of who those rules apply to."
Jaime turned away, refusing to meet the eyes of anyone else or answer any questions. He did not even hear them speak.
"He still broke his oath" Stannis muttered.
"Does a Knight not take an oath to protect the innocent as well?" Robert asked.
"Had he not killed the Mad King, how would history remember him then? The Kingsguard that put the life of a Mad Man over those innocents he'd sworn to protect. Would you not have cursed him even then?" Renly asked, surprisingly calm.
Stannis had no answer for that.
Or rather, the answer he had did not please him.