Tyrion heard his voice, the very same voice that he had been hearing all his life. It had the same tone of disappointment it always had and for the first time in his life, the dwarf Lion did not care about it.
"Father," Tyrion spat and turned his head above his shoulder to look at him, his body positioned sideways so the crossbow could remain aimed at Visenya; preventing her from doing any moves.
"What a disappointment you have turned out to be," Tywin said without a simple hint of worry that Visenya could easily be shot.
Dressed in a tunic and pants, he still looked and acted as if he had control of everything in the room; which he did but Tyrion refused to acknowledge or see it in his state of anger.
His words seemed to tick Tyrion, who was weighing the options on whom to aim the crossbow in the end. Visenya was not that innocent but his father did keep asking for it as if thinking his own son would not shoot him.
Visenya simply sent him a look, understanding what he was doing but she did not approve. It was evident that Tywin was trying to anger Tyrion more and force him to point the crossbow at him, thus keeping her out of harm's way.
"I am sure you must have been used to it by now, Father," Tyrion said as the guards in the room moved one step at a time. "But since you are here, you save me the trouble of finding you," he continued, bringing the crossbow closer to Visenya's body. "Answer me my question or good-mother here will pay in your place."
If the threat worked in any way, Tywin did not show it or the low illumination of the candles did not reveal the small details on his face.
The Mighty Lion did not make a single move, eyes momentarily glancing at Visenya; who had remained silent but was trying to pass him a message.
Do not do anything stupid, was the message and if they were alone, he would have scoffed.
"Very well. What do you want to ask me?" he asked and waited.
"What did you do with Tysha?" He asked, his voice dangerously low as his mismatched eyes almost glowed with pure hatred for the man, who raised him.
"I don't remember," he said rather casually as if he should have any knowledge of that girl's whereabouts after the punishment ended.
"However, I do suppose the steward sent her away after she learned her place."
His words seemed not to help with the situation but the fact that Tysha might not be dead bypassed some of the current anger.
"Where?" he asked, the tiniest glimpse of hope audible in his voice.
"Where all whores go."
Visenya, who had been observing Tyrion in silence, took notice of how his grip on the crossbow was weakened just a tad, surprised by how Tywin called the girl and with the lack of care about her wellbeing after what he ordered his soldiers to do to her.
Acting fast, she lifted her knee and used the force to redirect the crossbow to the roof. The force almost made Tyrion stumble and with the new opening, the Dragoness pushed herself off the bed and put some distance between her and Tyrion.
She backwalked until she stood next to Tywin, who had narrowed his eyes dangerously. He did not take threats well, especially threats against her.
"Now!" he ordered to the 2 Guards, who had moved carefully all this time and were waiting for the order.
They tried to tackle Tyrion and seize the weapon from him but the dwarf was smaller and faster than them.
He managed to jump on the bed and escape them before heading for the other side of the furniture. However, he was not willing to leave without at least an attempt; especially after learning what he did. The crossbow was still in his arms and ready and he had a better position on top of the bed.
He aimed at Tywin and pulled the trigger, just as a soldier tackled him off the bed and towards the ground.
This caused the arrow to fly with a decline but it was still heading straight for its intended target; just like it had taken place in Visenya's dreams. Every detail was there and in the haziness of the sleep but also everything in that moment had slowed her down and did not recall the dream she had; until she saw that bolt leaving the crossbow.
NO! she thought and her body acted on pure instinct.
She pushed Tywin out of the way with all her might, surprising him as he stumbled to the side since he did not expect it. The very next second, she felt the sharp pain of something piercing her through her abdomen and her eyes opened wide as the force made her stumble back.
Her lips parted but she made no sound and her hands subconsciously went to her stomach, feeling the arrow had pierced her left side. She did not move but she could feel the faint signs of weakness, shock threatening to overwhelm her. Then an arm wrapped around her shoulders and stabilized her while someone's body was pressed against hers, keeping her on her feet.
Her vision blurred for a moment from the sharp pain but Tywin kept her stable and prevented her from collapsing. She could hear him shouting to the guards, who had failed to catch Tyrion, who had escaped from the same passage he had come through.
Amidst the shouts and the sound of her heartbeat, Visenya heard Tywin ordering someone to summon Pycelle.
"Not... Pycelle..." she managed to say through her teeth, feeling the sharp pain coming from her new wounds as the warm blood slowly coated her hands. "...Qyburn..."
The bells of the Red Keep echoed across the middle of the night, almost everyone residing in there was awakened by them. Guests were confused, servants were unsure what they had to do while every available soldier was shouting orders and running around, everyone looking for Tyrion.
Tywin had left the room as well, to ensure every single soldier available was searching; not just the Red Keep but the ports and keeping an eye for anyone trying to leave the city through the gates.
At the same time, Qyburn was in the chambers and was busy treating Visenya.
The Dragoness was sitting on the edge of the bed, having consumed a small amount of poppy milk and even had to bite on a piece of wood to muffle any sounds as Qyburn worked to remove the arrow.
When it was all done, she felt a little bit light-headed but the adrenaline in her body kept her going while the milk of poppy was trying to bring it down and allow her to relax. The wound felt like it was burning and it did, as the odd Maester cauterized the wound after the arrow was off her body.
"You have been very lucky, my lady," the man said as he was busy wrapping her torso with cloth-made bandages to ensure the wound would not reopen and if it did, no blood would easily slip out.
"I just had an arrow in my stomach. I do not see how this is lucky," she replied, trying to focus on her breathing while her skin itched from being freshly cauterized but also wounded.
"Because it did not pierce your stomach, my lady," Qyburn said as he finished wrapping her lower torso.
She looked at him with an arched eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.
"The arrow pierced you here," he started to explain, pointing to the place her new wound was. "If it was a single inch more to the right, it would have harmed your bowels and the attack could be lethal. Yet, if it was just a little bit more to the left, it could have just cut a small piece of your skin."
He then grabbed faintly her lifted nightdress.
"Also, silk my lady."
"What about it?"
He smirked.
"Tough for an arrow of such kind to cut through. It wraps around the tip as it enters the body and makes its removal far easier while protecting your insides from those pestering barbs," he explained and showed her the arrow tip, pointing at the two extensions at the base of it.
Visenya blinked and looked at the odd man, who seemed to have extensive and rather rare knowledge of the body.
"Jaime did say you were more skilled than our Maester," she started, realizing what her stepson had meant back then. "He also said your chain was removed because of your... questionable experiments."
Qyburn shrugged his shoulders.
"If you wish to learn how to treat the living, you can only do so by studying them as they breathe," he said, his words rather dark and also apathetic.
This odd man that looked like a normal grandfather, whose older body and laughing wrinkles around his eyes made him seem harmless; spoke of experimenting and opening live people with the excuse that it was the only way to learn.
Yet the very same man, who was stripped of his chain because of those experiments had managed to acquire enough knowledge from them to stop Jaime's infection and save the rest of his hand. Now, he had most likely saved her as well and that did offer a moral dilemma to her.
As Visenya lowered her night dress and Qyburn was busy gathering his things, she noticed that he was glancing her way; intending to ask something but he was hesitating.
"Yes?" she asked, passively giving him permission to go ahead and ask her.
"Forgive me, My Lady but I happened to notice something when treating you. It might also have been why the damage was so minimal," he started and somehow she knew what he was referring to. "Never have I seen such internal anomaly. Your uterus feels as if it has been deformed by a blow."
If that damn injury back then saved my life now, the Gods have a very cruel sense of humour, she thought as she narrowed her eyes to the curious man.
"And never will you. If you ever think of extending this or any information to anyone else, I assure you that your head will be on a spike before a single word leaves your lips," she threatened without moving a single muscle; ensuring he would say nothing.
He would say nothing of the real events behind her injury caused by the arrow, nothing of her injury from the Trident; nothing of the bruises around her neck that he had taken notice but chose not to address.
By the sound of her voice and how her unique eyes were locked on his form, mimicking those of a fierce predator, the message and the threat passed clear as day to him.
He lifted his hands in surrender.
"You can rest assured, my Lady that my lips will remain sealed even when the Stranger takes me."
She was silent for a moment, processing his words. In the end, she nodded her head.
"Good."
"If I may ask, my Lady... how?" Qyburn asked, clearly interested in the topic.
"A war hammer," was her answer and she said nothing else, for she was not going to discuss the topic with anyone else.
She could see Qyburn's dark eyes be filled with interest but he was not able to open his lips again as Tywin entered the chambers at last.
"Leave us," he ordered the former Maester, who hurriedly obeyed without saying anything.
Visenya did not make any move to stand up and simply turned her head to look at him as he walked deeper into the chambers.
"How is the search going?" she asked, seeing his tense jaw.
"No sign of him or Varys. That spider must have helped him to escape, although we have yet to find out why," he informed as he made his way towards her.
"Perhaps he owed Tyrion a favour? Or he knew something more and needed Tyrion," she said as she remembered that Varys knew about her dream with the crossbow.
Could he have done it on purpose? Did he think he was the one to make it happen? she wondered but she did not say anything else, just watched her husband coming to a halt by her side.
"How is your wound?" he finally asked, seeing faintly the bandages from the hole the arrow had created on her nightdress when it embedded itself in her stomach.
"Aching but I can handle it. Qyburn said I was lucky and he saw no internal damage," she explained briefly.
"I wouldn't say lucky, more like reckless. That arrow was aimed for me," he said, clearly not happy how she almost got seriously injured in her attempt to protect him. "You shouldn't have gotten in the way," he scolded her.
She craned her neck to look up at him as she forced herself to stand, despite Qyburn's warning to take it easy.
"And should I have let that arrow kill you, then?" she asked rhetorically, looking back into his eyes with a silent challenge.
"You wouldn't know if that arrow would kill me with how low it was positioned," he pointed out but then something seemed to click in his mind. "Or did you?" he asked, a warning tone evident in his voice.
She kept looking at him in the eyes but she did not answer directly. She parted her lips faintly but made no sound as she eventually turned her attention to the side, looking above his shoulder.
"What if I did?"
"And you said nothing," he concluded, glaring faintly at her; displeased with her choice to keep such vital information hidden from him.
"It would not change anything, you know how my dreams work," she said as she finally looked at him with stubbornness. "I didn't tell you because I was afraid if I did, it might make things worse. In my dream... I never saw if you survived that bolt or not and could not risk it," she confessed.
Yet, the reasons behind her actions were not enough for him. They were not enough because he saw her getting hit by an arrow meant for him.
He held her in his arms as she slowly bled and he knew personally that arrows in the stomach could be troublesome if not lethal; she knew it too.
She had no right to withhold that information from him and let him internally suffer as she was wounded in front of him, for a moment not knowing if he was going to lose her on the spot or not.
In a moment of spontaneous anger, he grabbed her upper arms and kept her close but also shook her faintly.
"You could have died!" he said, trying his best not to raise his voice to her but failing. "What you did was reckless and stupid. Endangering your own life like that and for what?"
The sudden grab surprised her since he was never that physical with his anger nor did he lack the control of it. She looked into his eyes, hearing how his voice changed and she could almost hear his worry, hidden beneath layers of frustration and anger.
Yet, when he called her reckless and stupid, when he discarded her actions as if he didn't matter enough to her to risk her life like that—she snapped.
Perhaps it was the milk of poppy that loosened her lips, perhaps it was the fact that she almost met the Stranger if the arrow had been aimed a little bit higher or if she had been shorter.
Either way, she spoke before her brain could stop her.
"For you?" she snapped, looking him dead in the eyes. "I risked my own life for you and I would do it again and a million times again if it meant saving you," she said, her voice cracking faintly. "I would do it without hesitation because I love you," she finally confessed.
They had been married for 20 years and one could say their relationship was even longer than that. In all those years, not once had she uttered those three words and neither did he.
She knew that he was a man not really in touch with his emotions. He was a man, who showed his favour in different ways. He was not someone, who thrived on physical contact and love and he was sure not someone, who grew emotionally attached to anyone; not anymore at least.
She knew that there was always this professionalism between them, this partnership that had started far earlier than their marriage. There were some mutual feelings, carnal desires and respect for each other's minds but there was no true love... at least not from him.
Visenya had grown attached to him, she had grown to love the man in a way she had never loved anyone else. Yet, she never showed it truly, she never said it out in the open because she knew he was not returning fully those feelings. She had grown used to what she could take from him, to appreciate and enjoy whatever little emotion and contact he could get when it was more about passion and care because she knew she would never get the full package.
Tywin remained quiet, speechless even and that was rare; even for him.
He just stared at her in the eyes, trying to look for any lies or something to indicate she was just saying things to justify her actions better... but he found none.
His lips did not part and all he could hear for a moment was only the sound of their breaths as they stared at one another, her words replaying into his head without remorse, without mercy.
Because I love you.
Those words somehow seemed to bypass his walls and his defences as he looked at her differently. Somehow, deep inside him, he suspected... no... He knew. He knew that she bore feelings for him, far more than she let anyone know; even him.
Yet, hearing those words out loud and directly coming from her lips while he stared deep into her eyes... it felt different.
He was not sure what to say at that moment, what to comment after she dropped such a revelation; one he ironically knew but never suspected he would hear outside his head. He just stared back, his shoulders moving with each deep breath he took.
"...say something..." her voice cracked faintly, her eyes filled with desperation for some reaction; for an answer.
Then, Tywin Lannister did something he had never done before; he acted without thinking.
His hands let go of her arms and immediately grabbed her face, palms pressed against her cheeks and he pulled her forward; sealing her lips with his. His eyes were closed and through this spontaneous action, he gave her all the answers she needed but he could not truly say them or even understand them.
His kiss was passionate and sweet, nothing like the dominant and hungry ones they would usually share in the bedroom. This one screamed of need, a need to express things that words failed to do so.
She returned the action merely a second later, the initial shock had long passed. She closed her eyes and melted into the kiss, her hands placed on top of his and her head tilted faintly; pressing her one cheek more against his one palm. She felt her heart beating faster, blood pumping through her veins like wildfire. The pain from the wound suddenly disappeared and all she could focus on was him, his lips and his presence. She got the message right and clear, one could say almost getting butterflies as a reaction to it.
Eventually, he pulled back but only to allow both of them to breathe. He did not remove his hands that were now trapped under hers, he did not step back and he did not say something; just kept looking at her like she was the most precious jewel in the world.
In his mind, she was far more than that.
They stayed silent for a minute, focusing on the presence of one another and allowing their lungs slowly to refill with the necessary oxygen they needed.
"Stay with me," she finally said, breaking the silence first as her eyes pleaded with him. "Let the guards chase ghosts."
He pulled her head just a bit lower and kissed her forehead in the same gentle manner he had when she had finished giving birth to Trystan.
"Very well," he told her, earning a tired but genuinely happy smile from her.
Jaime had been awoken by one of the soldiers, informing him that Tyrion had escaped and that Visenya was wounded. The information had shocked him enough not only to get rid of any sleepiness he had but to also get dressed and leave his room without his fake hand.
He knew that it was his fault, to begin with. He had been the one to tell Tyrion the truth about Tysha, thinking he would die once Oberyn lost.
He suspected that his brother would eventually confront their Father about the incident but he never expected that way, let alone with Visenya getting harmed in the end.
He was not sure how Tyrion had escaped, although his mind went to Varys for a moment. Either way, at that moment, all he could think was to go find his parents. He needed to check that his good-mother was okay and that the wound was not serious or worse... lethal.
He shivered at the idea and increased his walking speed. He did not care about the blame he would get from his father, for spilling the beans about the girl. At that moment, all he cared was to ensure his good-mother was okay and that she knew it was him that had involuntarily caused all of that.
He entered the Hand's Solar, a single soldier outside but he did not dare to stop him. The solar was empty but the door leading to the private Chambers of the Hand was half-open and he could hear his parents talking.
He walked towards it but stopped, barely peeking through the half-open door and listening; not wishing to interrupt them since he could hear the heated argument on the fact that Visenya had protected Tywin and took the arrow for him.
That information, Jaime did not know and did not fully surprise him; since Visenya was of kind heart and would protect those she cared about no matter her connection to them.
However, what surprised him were her next words.
"I would do it without hesitation because I love you."
That made his green eyes open wider, his lips part faintly upon hearing her confess her feelings for him.
Truth to be told, Jaime had suspected that Visenya had some feelings for Tywin. There was always something in her actions, in the way she defended him that made it clear she did feel something for him; although it was never known to what extent.
Yet, Jaime thought that if there was one person, who could truly love his Father with all his flaws, it was her. She was the only one, who could truly learn to see past all those flaws and choose to remain by his side, despite certain tough situations.
He smiled sadly upon seeing how stiff and silent his father was, knowing well that he did not share her feelings; not that way.
Tywin Lannister, once upon a time, could love but that ability was long buried along with his first wife.
Now, he could share some affection but he could never love and care the way he used to. It did not matter if it was his second wife or his children, they all got the same cold love from him; his children a little bit more because they were meant to continue his dream and legacy.
Jaime knew that his good-mother knew it too, which was perhaps why she had never said those words out loud. Now, he felt bad for her; especially by seeing how Tywin was just looking at her but saying nothing.
He was about to knock on the door, to make his presence known and save her; redirect all the attention and anger on him but he froze when his father finally moved.
He did not just make a single move but he did the move.
The young Lion opened his mouth in surprise and watched in silence as the Mighty and cold-hearted Tywin Lannister grabbed and tenderly kissed his wife. He was no fool; he could see that this kiss was not one of lust or desire... no... It was one out of passion and it was one Visenya happily returned.
He came to realize two things at that moment.
One, he had never truly witnessed those two kissing; ever.
Two, his father might actually be capable of loving again.
He observed them, hidden by the shadow of the barely open door as they slowly pulled away but did not dare to move further apart. He could not see the look his father gave her but based on that kiss, Jaime could tell that it was not some cold or aggressive or disappointed one.
He closed his lips and smiled sadly, upon hearing her pleading him to stay with her. He agreed and Jaime knew that was his cue to leave.
He could always visit them the following morning and clear things up.