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"Your Grace."
Lyanna's soft voice drifted in from behind him as she gently draped a heavy, fur-lined cloak over Joffrey's shoulders.
"It is late, and the wind is biting."
Joffrey turned around and pulled Lyanna into his embrace, resting his chin on the top of her head.
"Tell me, did I do the right thing?"
"You are always right, my King." Lyanna's voice was so tender it practically melted.
"Yes. I am always right."
Joffrey muttered to himself.
But there was still a massive, jagged thorn deeply embedded in his chest.
The secret.
He was not Robert Baratheon's son.
Tywin knew. Jaime knew. Cersei knew.
And now, Lynn knew too.
Even though Lynn had chosen to keep his mouth shut—even making his mother use her own body to buy his absolute loyalty...
It still felt like a massive broadsword dangling directly over his neck by a single, fraying thread, ready to drop at any second.
No.
Absolutely not!
The fewer people breathing who knew this secret, the better.
Joffrey's eyes slowly shifted, turning dark and lethally cold.
Besides those four, who else was a threat?
His two "uncles," Stannis and Renly. Both of them already believed they were the rightful heirs to the Iron Throne. The second they managed to dig up any concrete proof against his claim, his crown was completely doomed.
And then...
The image of a small, fragile boy suddenly flashed into Joffrey's mind.
Tommen.
His weak, pathetic little brother who did nothing but cry and play with his stupid kittens all day.
He was a massive threat too!
If Joffrey's true parentage was ever exposed, Tommen was next in line for the throne. Those treacherous lords could easily use Tommen as the perfect, legitimate puppet to replace him!
A young, highly obedient King!
No.
The realm can only have one King.
And House Baratheon can only have one true heir.
And that is me!
Joffrey Baratheon!
A highly toxic, terrifying thought began wildly mutating and growing in his mind.
"Lyanna."
"I am here, Your Grace."
"Tell me... if a royal family has far too many heirs... doesn't that just invite absolute chaos and treason?"
Lyanna's body stiffened for a fraction of a second. She looked up, staring into Joffrey's eyes, which were currently gleaming with a dark, psychotic intent.
"A pride of lions can only ever have one true King." Lyanna's voice was barely a whisper.
"Haha! Perfectly said!"
Joffrey released her and began aggressively pacing back and forth across the room.
"A pride of lions can only ever have one true King!"
He stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes locked in absolute, murderous resolve.
"Guards!"
A Kingsguard quickly stepped into the room and dropped to one knee.
"Your Grace!"
Joffrey closed the distance, crouched down, and heavily patted the man on the shoulder.
"Meryn. How long have you served me?"
"To Your Grace, since you were a Prince. It has been five years," the guard replied, his voice shaking slightly from the sudden, intimate attention.
"Excellent."
Joffrey leaned in, dropping his mouth right next to the guard's ear, spelling out his order word by agonizing word so only the two of them could hear.
"My little brother, Tommen, has been feeling quite unwell lately."
"I heard that when he sleeps, he has a terrible habit of pulling the heavy blankets completely over his head."
"He's just a foolish little boy... he doesn't understand that doing that makes it incredibly easy to... suffocate."
"Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
The guard's entire body violently convulsed.
He snapped his head up in raw terror, staring at Joffrey's grinning face.
It was a smile far more terrifying than the devil himself.
"I... I..."
"Hmm?" Joffrey's voice instantly dropped twenty degrees.
"I understand! Your Grace! I understand completely!" Ser Meryn Trant, absolutely terrified out of his mind, nodded frantically.
"Excellent."
Joffrey stood back up, flawlessly sliding right back into his regal, authoritative persona.
"Go."
"And remember. It must look exactly like a tragic accident."
"Yes, Your Grace!"
The guard practically scrambled out of the room on his hands and knees.
Throughout the entire exchange, Lyanna just kept her head bowed, acting as if she hadn't heard a single syllable.
...
The next morning.
A bloodcurdling, hysterical shriek violently shattered the dead silence of the Red Keep just before dawn.
"Help! Prince Tommen... Prince Tommen... he's not breathing!"
The news detonated like a massive explosive, instantly sweeping through every corner of the castle.
The Tower of the Hand.
Cersei had just finally passed out from sheer exhaustion after Lynn's relentless "tutoring."
She was violently jolted awake by frantic, rapid pounding on the door.
"Queen Mother! Queen Mother! Something terrible has happened!"
Cersei shot up in bed. She grabbed a silk robe, threw it over her shoulders, and rushed to yank the heavy door open.
Her personal handmaiden stood in the hallway, her face completely drenched in tears and raw panic.
"What the hell is going on?!" A massive, suffocating wave of dread instantly gripped Cersei's chest.
"Prince Tommen... he... he passed away in his sleep last night!"
BOOM!
Cersei felt like her skull had just been caved in with a warhammer.
Tommen...
Her sweet Tommen...
Her kind, innocent little boy...
Dead?
"What... what did you just say?"
Cersei grabbed the handmaiden by the shoulders, her manicured nails biting brutally into the girl's flesh.
"Say it again!"
"Queen Mother... it's true... when they found Tommen... his body was already completely cold..."
The handmaiden's words felt like the ultimate, final judgment, utterly obliterating Cersei's entire reality.
"AAAAAAAGH—!"
An ungodly, inhuman shriek ripped out of Cersei's throat.
Her vision instantly went pitch black, and she collapsed straight backward like a felled tree.
Lynn stepped out from the inner chamber and effortlessly caught her limp body before she hit the floor.
He looked down at the unconscious woman in his arms, her face completely streaked with tears, his expression a mask of absolute, freezing apathy.
Everything was playing out exactly according to his script.
He picked Cersei up and gently laid her back down on the heavy mattress.
Then, he walked back to the doorway and casually addressed the terrified handmaiden still trembling in the hall.
"Go fetch King Joffrey."
"Yes, My Lord."
A short while later.
Joffrey arrived.
His face was plastered with a flawless, perfectly calibrated mask of profound grief.
"Lord Lynn." He walked into the bedchamber, his eyes flashing with a brief flicker of fabricated pity when he saw Cersei lying completely motionless on the bed.
"My mother... the grief must be unbearable."
"Indeed." Lynn gave a slow nod.
"I am also deeply saddened by the sudden passing of your brother."
"My condolences, Your Grace."
"Thank you, My Lord."
Joffrey replied, dripping with fake sincerity.
"However, Tommen's death is highly suspicious."
"I strongly suspect foul play! A deliberate assassination!"
"Is that so?" Lynn stared right through him.
"I swear I will launch a full investigation and drag the truth into the light! I will get justice for Tommen!" Joffrey declared, practically glowing with righteous indignation.
Lynn looked at Joffrey's face, completely plastered with "justice" and "fury," and felt a dark spike of genuine amusement.
This little psychopath actually had a decent flair for theater.
Too bad his acting was absolute garbage.
Lynn's tone remained completely flat.
"I have absolute faith that Your Grace will unearth the killer and bring justice to Prince Tommen."
Joffrey gave a firm, solemn nod. He shot one last look at Cersei's unconscious body, a highly complicated, twisted flicker passing through his eyes.
"I leave my mother in your capable hands, Lord Lynn."
"Her mind is incredibly fragile right now. She requires strict isolation and absolute rest."
"Don't worry. She will be exceptionally well taken care of here." Lynn kept his response brief.
Standing in front of Lynn, Joffrey suddenly felt like a completely exposed, pathetic clown. It felt like this man was effortlessly reading every single filthy, twisted thought right out of his brain.
The sensation made his skin violently crawl.
"I must take my leave."
Joffrey threw out a quick excuse and hastily practically bolted from the Tower of the Hand.
He needed to get back to his chambers and properly bathe in the massive, euphoric high of finally having his useless little brother permanently erased from the board.
This was infinitely more satisfying than butchering stray animals.
Lynn waited until Joffrey's rapid footsteps completely faded down the corridor.
Then, he slowly closed the heavy door.
The room was completely empty, save for him and the unconscious woman on the bed.
Lynn didn't immediately try to wake Cersei.
He simply sat down in a heavy chair next to the bed, quietly studying her tear-stained, devastated face.
He needed this absolute, suffocating agony and total despair to ferment in her mind just a little bit longer.
Because it's only when a person has been stripped of absolutely everything that they truly learn to worship the single ray of light handed to them.
An impossible amount of time passed.
Cersei's long eyelashes finally fluttered, and she slowly cracked her eyes open.
Hollow. Numb. Absolutely dead.
Her brain was a complete blank for a few agonizing seconds, until the world-shattering news violently crashed back into her consciousness.
Tommen...
Her sweet Tommen was dead.
Tears immediately began silently, uncontrollably streaming down her face like a broken dam.
First Joffrey tried to murder her, and now, her kind, innocent little Tommen had been killed.
No!
It was Joffrey!
It had to be him!
That rabid, psychotic animal!
Just to completely permanently secure his grip on the throne, he actually butchered his own flesh and blood!
A towering, apocalyptic wave of pure, unadulterated hatred erupted from the very bottom of Cersei's soul, threatening to completely swallow her alive.
She wanted revenge!
She was going to slaughter that little bastard Joffrey with her own two hands!
But... how the hell was she supposed to get revenge?
Right now, she was nothing more than a prisoner. A highly-used sex toy who didn't even have the power to decide her own fate, let alone assassinate the King.
Right at that exact moment of absolute despair, Lynn's voice sliced through the silence.
"You must really want to murder Joffrey right now, don't you?"
Cersei's entire body violently convulsed. She snapped her head toward the sound, her bloodshot, tear-soaked eyes locking dead onto Lynn.
"Was it Joffrey?!"
"He did it, didn't he?!"
Lynn completely ignored her frantic questions, simply stating another cold, hard fact.
"You've already experienced firsthand exactly how unhinged Joffrey has become."
"I..."
Cersei opened her mouth, but her vocal cords completely failed her.
What the hell could she even do?
She was completely, utterly out of options.
Lynn looked down at her face, completely warped by raw despair. He slowly stood up from the chair and walked right up to the edge of the bed.
He leaned down, staring directly into her dead, hollow eyes.
"What if I told you that Tommen isn't actually dead?"
That single sentence detonated inside Cersei's skull like a literal thunderbolt.
She completely froze.
Her eyes practically bulged out of her head, staring at Lynn in absolute, paralyzed disbelief. Her lips trembled violently, but no sound came out.
"What... what did you just say?"
It took her what felt like an eternity to finally scrape the words out of her throat.
"I said, your son Tommen is still alive."
Lynn's tone remained perfectly casual, like he was discussing the weather.
"The corpse they pulled out of the Red Keep this morning was just a dead body wearing a highly convincing flesh mask."
"I swapped him out hours before the hit."
BOOM—!
Cersei felt like her brain essentially completely rebooted.
Tommen... wasn't dead?
He was still alive?!
Lynn... Lynn had saved him?!
A massive, overwhelming tidal wave of pure, ecstatic euphoria instantly obliterated every single ounce of the crushing despair and agony in her chest.
She shot up from the mattress and desperately grabbed Lynn's arm with both hands, her emerald eyes suddenly erupting with a blinding, desperate light.
"Is it true?! You swear to God you aren't lying to me?!"
"Why the hell would I lie to you?"
Lynn fired back smoothly.
Cersei stared deeply into his dead-calm black eyes, searching his face for any trace of a sick joke.
She believed him.
"Where... where is he?! Where is he right now?!"
Cersei's voice violently shook, completely overwhelmed by sheer panic and joy.
"He's in an incredibly secure location."
Lynn stated flatly.
"But as long as Joffrey's ass is sitting on that Iron Throne, Tommen cannot show his face."
Cersei understood.
She understood absolutely everything perfectly.
Lynn hadn't just saved her son's life; he had actively preserved her absolute last shred of hope in the world!
Meanwhile, her own flesh and blood, Joffrey, was actively, cold-bloodedly orchestrating the assassination of his own little brother!
The contrast was absolute.
The verdict was final!
Thud.
Cersei literally threw herself off the heavy mattress and dropped straight to her knees, slamming heavily onto the floor right at Lynn's feet.
She honestly couldn't even begin to process the sheer magnitude of the emotions exploding inside her.
Gratitude?
No. That word wasn't even close to strong enough.
This man had literally just given her innocent son a second chance at life!
"Master..."
When she finally raised her head again, her face was completely drenched in fresh tears.
"From this exact second forward, I, Cersei Lannister... absolutely everything I am belongs entirely to you."
"My body, my soul, my absolute, unquestioning loyalty."
"If you give the word, even if you order me to walk straight into the fires of hell, I will not hesitate for a fraction of a second."
She knew with absolute certainty that from this moment on, her entire existence was permanently, irreversibly chained to the man standing in front of her.
As for that rabid animal Joffrey, she officially, permanently completely severed every single emotional tie to him!
Lynn looked down at the fiercely proud lioness completely, willingly prostrating herself at his boots, and a highly satisfied smirk spread across his face.
He reached down and gently tipped her chin up.
"Excellent."
"Make sure you never forget the vow you just made."
Lynn hauled her up off the floor and easily pressed her back down onto the heavy mattress.
His hands slowly slipped past the edges of her silk robe, beginning a deliberate, dominant exploration.
Cersei's body shivered, but she squeezed her eyes shut and completely, eagerly leaned into his touch, submitting to absolutely everything he demanded.
She knew this was the ultimate physical manifestation of her absolute loyalty.
And it was the only currency she had left to repay him.
The atmosphere in the room rapidly spiked, turning heavy, intimate, and intensely heated.
A long, highly active period of time passed.
Lynn finally pulled back, releasing her.
Cersei collapsed heavily against his chest, gasping greedily for air, a deep, highly flushed crimson coating her skin.
"Master, what exactly do you want me to do next?"
She was practically burning with desperate anticipation to prove her worth to him.
Especially if it involved completely destroying Joffrey!
Lynn slowly stroked her tangled, sweat-dampened golden hair.
"I want you to go back to Joffrey. Tell him you fully support absolutely every single decision he makes."
"Especially regarding his two uncles, Stannis and Renly."
"Convince him that Stannis and Renly were the ones who orchestrated the hit on Tommen, and heavily imply that Joffrey is absolutely their next target."
"Joffrey's been dreaming of wiping Stannis and Renly off the map for months. The only reason he hasn't pulled the trigger is because you and Tywin were constantly holding him back."
"I need you to actively stoke Joffrey's paranoia and rage. Push him until he provokes Renly and Stannis into either attacking Tywin in the name of the 'true King,' or forces the Baratheon brothers into a full-blown civil war against each other."
"The only way your daughter Myrcella's future child will ever be universally recognized as 'Your Grace' is if we completely muddy the waters first."
"Do you completely understand what I need from you, Cersei?"
Cersei's eyes instantly flared with a brilliant, calculating light.
"I know exactly how to play him."
A look of absolute, cold-blooded resolve locked onto Cersei's face.
She sat up from Lynn's embrace and meticulously smoothed out her ruined robes.
When she stood back up on her feet, she flawlessly morphed right back into the regal, untouchable, highly venomous Queen Mother of House Lannister.
Only this time, her very soul had been permanently branded by another man.
She walked to the heavy door, pulled it open, and shot one last, highly loaded look over her shoulder.
"Master. Await my good news."
With that, she stepped out into the corridor and didn't look back.
Lynn watched her walk away, picked up the goblet of wine from the table, and downed it in a single shot.
Joffrey, you're going to absolutely love what's coming.