Once Visenya had left, the three siblings chose to remain at the table. However, the silence between them was quickly interrupted by Trystan.
"Why?" he asked, his voice trying to sound stable but his anger had not died out yet.
Cersei felt his sharp gaze on her and she returned it with a defiant one of her own.
"Why what?" she asked, as if she didn't know what he was talking about.
"Why do you have to act like an ungrateful, whiny little bitch?" he finally asked, surprising his siblings with his choice of words.
She was about to argue but he did not let her.
"Let me finish, Cersei, or may the Seven help you because you will not like how I will act next if you do not let me," he warned, his jaw tense and his eyes narrowing as a threat.
To Tyrion's surprise, his cocky sister did not argue.
"Fine," she agreed, though not wholeheartedly.
"You had no right to bring that topic up and accuse Mother so openly," he said and she scoffed.
"I have every right to do so when it's my life that is affected by it," she argued back, getting bolder again. "And why do you rush to defend her? We all know it is the truth."
She glanced at Tyrion, expecting him to back her up.
"Don't involve me in this topic, Cersei," he said, still brooding over the fact that he had to marry Sansa and ruin her. "I have enough troubles already."
She rolled her eyes.
"Poor you. At least you will remain here and you will not have to ruin your body and carry babies," she hissed, playing the victim. "I will be sent to Highgarden, be surrounded by stupid roses while my family, my children are all here."
"Oh please," Trystan commented, earning a glare from her. "If you managed to handle that fat pig Robert all those years, you can handle a green boy like Loras. It's not like he is attracted to women."
"So I am to bear the humiliation of once again being the side woman?" she asked rhetorically. "I am Queen Regent, I was Queen for 16 years and now I am to be simply lowered to that humiliating position?"
The younger of the lions was getting tired of this drama.
"You are just bitter because there is no Jaime here to impregnate you instead," he said, dropping the bomb so bluntly that it made Tyrion's jaw drop.
He always knew that Trystan held back, always trying his best to avoid conflict with their siblings but he never expected him to be so aggressive with his words. It made him wonder what dark side the Half Lion had, for he was always the one that kept it in check and hadn't shown it yet—at least not to him.
"You should consider yourself lucky you got married to Loras and not an old man on his deathbed," he continued, preventing her from talking. "We already fucked it up enough and Father knows it. This is the most lenient he could be with us."
However, his sister was not done yet.
"I should consider myself lucky?" she repeated, her eyes flashing dangerously as she slammed her palm on the table. "You have no right to talk for me and tell me how I should see myself. You are Father's Golden Boy, always the favourite one," she spat. "You are his heir, the one thing he so proudly reminds us all the time and you dare to tell me how I should be after everything I had to do for the family? Because last time I checked, you did nothing to contribute."
Trystan did not reply immediately and for a moment, Cersei felt pleased, thinking she had won this argument.
Before she could stand up, though, the Half Lion spoke up again.
"You think I want this?" he exclaimed, earning the attention of his siblings. "You really think I want what I am given?" he asked rhetorically, chuckling darkly. His smile disappeared faster than expected, his gaze turning colder than the harsh winters in the North. "I never asked for them," he continued, slowly standing up. "I never asked to be the different one, to be Father's favourite. I never asked to be his heir, to be Jaime's replacement and be reminded daily of that." His voice started to crack. "I have spent all of my life trying to be what Father wanted me to be. I never had the chance to grow and just be me. I never chose to be at odds with you, earn those looks of jealousy you often give me or be the target of your frustration when Father was being unfair to you..." He took a deep breath.
His siblings looked away, ashamed as he finally spoke up for himself. They heard the way his voice cracked; they could hear the hatred he had for the responsibilities he had to carry ever since he was a child.
He had always remained quiet, taking everything in and never fighting back but even he had reached his limit. He passed a hand over his face and then through his hair, letting out a heavy sigh before he collapsed on his chair again.
"I am not happy with any of this." He looked at Cersei with a softer gaze. "I am not happy that you will be sent away from your family, surrounded by Tyrells and having once again to handle a man not interested in you."
He then turned to look at Tyrion.
"I am not happy that you have to marry Lady Sansa and be forced to leave her with a child when she has already been through enough," he took a deep breath. "But tell me, any of you, when did we ever manage to change the opinion of Father?"
Cersei did not reply, slouching on her chair in thought but also exhaustion. The news alone had shaken her; the need to just hug Jaime and let him comfort her was too much. The thought of leaving her sons behind and being trapped far away made her emotional.
Tyrion looked at his broken siblings in silence, each one carrying an invisible load of responsibilities that the others could not see.
"We are truly fucked up, aren't we?" he finally asked.
"I think this started the moment we were born with the word Lannister as our last name," Trystan commented in an odd attempt to joke but earned a scoff of amusement from Cersei.
"More like it started the moment Lord Tywin Lannister was chosen as our father, if one can ever call him that," she commented, the atmosphere changing as the tension and anger slowly disappeared.
"You know what?" Tyrion said as he stood up from his chair. "I am certain Father hides his good Arbor wine somewhere here. I do not know about you but all this requires a good drink."
His words amused her, a faint smile forming on their lips. It was in those times that the cubs actually came together, at least just a tad closer than before. Because at the end of the day, they all had to please the same man and they all failed in his eyes the same way.
"It's over there," Cersei pointed out towards a specific corner, earning a surprised look by her siblings. "What? You think you two are the only observant ones?" she asked rhetorically, earning a small grin from the two males. "Now, I suggest we do this before Father returns."
She offered a small grin of her own, one that the three siblings seemed to match like copies of one another.
The Chambers of the Hand, Red Keep — King's Landing, Crownlands — A few hours later
Visenya and Tywin had spent a few hours after that small family meeting working on a few loose ends and planning their next steps.
Eventually, time for supper had arrived and the two of them chose to eat at a smaller table in one of the smaller sub-rooms offered within those huge chambers. Candles illuminated the room, giving enough light but not too much, while shadows played on the walls with each flickering flame.
Visenya had been rather quiet ever since, talking about their work but never truly bringing up the latest topics or what took place a few hours ago. She barely ate that evening, mostly playing with her food or eating small, slow bites—which was unlike her.
Eventually, Tywin, who had grown tired of watching her, chose to speak up.
"You should have spoken up," he said, grabbing his goblet. "Cersei had too much freedom and you should have disciplined her when she crossed the line."
She watched him drink some wine and put her utensils on the plate. A heavy sigh escaped her lips.
"I believe we had this discussion before," she said, looking him in the eyes. "It is not my place to discipline your children or punish them like you do."
At her words, he could not help but scoff and place his goblet down.
"They are your children too, whether they like it or not," he commented. "They should be disciplined by you so they remember their place. You are not just my wife but also their good-mother and they should respect that."
"They do respect me, without me having to become like you. They already have a strict parent," she mumbled the last sentence and grabbed her goblet. "If her actions were not justified, I would have corrected her."
He leaned on one side of the chair like he always did as the two of them sat across from one another.
"Her actions were not justified and neither was her childish tantrum."
"She was frustrated and needed to direct her anger somewhere. She knew she could not do it to you." She took a few deep sips of the wine.
He rolled his eyes.
"She let her emotions get the best of her. She is a Lannister and we do not let our emotions affect us. She should remember that."
Visenya swirled the drink in her goblet.
"She is a young woman, a widow who was just told she will be sent away from her sons to marry yet another stranger and produce babies," she reminded him but he clearly did not see that as an excuse. "Perhaps you don't approve but I understand her. It was a sudden drop of news and she reacted."
He narrowed his eyes faintly.
"She shouldn't have. This simply proves the image I had of her all those years. She dared to come to me earlier, thinking I didn't include her in anything because she is a woman. Today she just proved exactly why I don't and it has nothing to do with her gender."
She did not comment on it, clearly not going to find common ground with him on that topic. She drank some more wine and then pushed her plate a little bit away from her, clearly not intending to finish it.
"You should eat," he said, having finished his already while she had barely touched hers.
"I am not really hungry," she confessed and also placed her goblet on the small table.
She did not say anything else for almost a solid minute, just the two of them existing in the room until her attention averted to the side for a moment.
"Why didn't you?" she finally asked.
"Why didn't I what?" he asked, clearly wanting more information on the topic.
Visenya took a moment to gather her thoughts and then focused her attention on him, her amber eyes meeting his green ones.
"Why didn't you remarry after me?" she asked him, bringing up a rather painful topic she often questioned and thought about but never asked him directly about it.
Tywin had seen it coming and he was honestly not in the mood to discuss this topic again or answer such a stupid question. However, seeing the look she gave him, he gave up.
"Why should I?" he asked, trying to make her talk more so she could hear herself and realize that all of this was stupid, to begin with.
"To have more heirs, more children to marry and secure your legacy," she started, gathering all her courage. "If not remarry...why didn't you take a mistress? Someone to bear your children?" she asked and although it all sounded so stupid even to her, she could not stop now; desperate for some comfort in his answers. "If the children had been born looking like a Lannister, no one would question if no one found out."
Tywin took a deep breath; his one hand was in an almost complete fist but his fingers rubbed against one another, the band of the ring with the Hand insignia spinning faintly around his finger.
"You are asking me why I didn't father bastards," he pointed out, reaching her conclusion. If he was talking to anyone else, he would have kicked them out already but Visenya was not anyone else. "Why would I stain my family name by having bastards carry it? My father's bastard caused us enough trouble or have you forgotten?"
She shook her head; she never would. Pitt Lannister had been the first big enemy they fought together and he was the reason she had visited Casterly Rock. It was after their victory he found her on that balcony and they had their first real talk—the beginning of her feelings for him.
"If I could and have borne you more children—"
"It wouldn't change a thing," he interrupted her, looking at her with a stern look. "Even if I had ten more children with you, they would still marry whom I told them to. They would still do their duty to the house by extending the legacy. If we had more children, they would follow the same path and simply get married to other families to form strong alliances."
She did not argue or say anything, because she couldn't. What he said was true and it made sense. She was simply letting her self-doubts and second thoughts get the best of her, embarrassing herself in front of Tywin.
She looked to the side, embarrassed that she had spoken such stupid words and shown him a weaker side. She was supposed to be a strong woman, confident and above those thoughts.
She was a proud Dragoness, a Lioness even, that knew too well her mind was of utmost importance. Yet, she let him see her like that and hear her speak like a naive child and not the woman he married for her intelligence and skills. She hated herself and if she could, she would have stood up and excused herself but she knew this would only worsen the situation. She refused to make things worse.
Tywin kept looking at her, having made his point and finally making her hear herself, hear how stupid she sounded. He was not sure where such thoughts came from, where this insecure Visenya was hiding.
She was a confident and powerful woman, not a weak little girl who felt bad for herself and put her own self down.
He saw how she looked to the side, refusing to meet his eye because she knew she had humiliated herself in front of him. Yet, as the minute passed and he kept being silent, he found himself getting annoyed by the lack of eye contact.
"Look at me," he said, the command there but his tone less forceful than he would use with others.
She didn't listen to him though, testing his temper at the wrong time.
"I am not talking to the side of your face, I am talking to you. Look. At. Me," he said, every single word now sounding far more commanding and threatening.
Eventually, she turned her head and their eyes locked again. She tried to keep her chin up and stare back at him like she always did, but he could see that small tug to look away. She didn't though, and that pleased him—seeing that his Visenya was still there.
"This is the last time we are having this conversation," he started, taking a silent breath to keep his temper in check. "You bore me an heir, a male heir that can take Jaime's place if worse comes to pass. That child is more competent than all the rest combined. You did your part in this marriage and now you will continue your part in our partnership," he said, his voice strict. "Right now our house, our power and our position are threatened by the Tyrells. This is what we will focus on. Not on ridiculous accusations a spoiled daughter of mine threw and not on anything else. Do you understand?"
She nodded her head.
"I do."
"Good. And so to clarify it to you," he took a moment to answer, making her mentally stand on the edge of her seat as she hung on his next words. "If I truly cared for more heirs, I would have remarried. I would have found a woman to carry them for me but as you can see after nineteen years I haven't. I value your mind and your skills far more than I value your ability to bear children."
Relief flashed into her eyes, the tension in her shoulders slowly fading away and he took notice of it. Her lips stopped being pressed in a firm line and her grip on the arms of the chair relaxed.
Deep down she knew the true reason why he had married her and stayed with her even after both lost their power to control the Kingdom. Yet, hearing him say it worked far better than her self-scolding. Hearing those words leave his lips offered her the comfort a hug and some sweet words would have.
She knew she would never get them from him because he was not that kind of man but he had his ways to show it—his way to express them through words.
"I apologise, my thoughts got the best of me," she said, her gaze softening and to her surprise, so did his.
"Eat," was all he said, choosing not to say anything else.
There was no more strictness in his voice for he saw no reason. She understood her mistake and honestly, that apology was unnecessary but he was not going to chase the subject any longer.
He never fully understood her, him being a man and her being a woman, but he did respect her. She was brilliant, cunning and possessed so many traits that rarely any man or woman had in that time and age.
On top of all, he appreciated it even though he could not truly find a way to say or show it—a sign of his own weakness when it came to her.
Because Visenya had approached him on the subject a long time ago and had asked him to try.
She was willing to try and be pregnant again, in hopes that she could birth another child even if she did not survive it.
If Tywin was any other man, perhaps he would have followed her idea and simply tried his luck but he was not like the others. He already lost a wife to childbirth and he had seen how often women's health was put at risk during miscarriages.
He could still remember her miscarriage when all that blood just came from her and could not be stopped. He still remembered how she passed out after giving birth and Val almost lost her. He still remembered how for almost a week Visenya was unresponsive, just a pale body hanging to life by a single thin thread with the odds against her.
Back then, he truly thought he would have lost her like he had Joanna and he refused. He had threatened the Maester to do anything in his power to keep her alive and save her. He never told her that, he never would.
She didn't have to know how he lost his composure, how he truly passed through a déjà vu every single day until she opened her eyes.
She never would learn how her near-death experience had made him reconsider everything he felt about her and how big a part of his life she had become.
He remained quiet, watching her as she slowly ate with all the royal manners she possessed. He did not move from his position, simply kept looking at her and trying his best not to think of any other scenario where she would not be sitting across from him.