- The Vale - Sometime Later -
Lysa Tully Arryn was angry. Irate. Filled with rage she never thought possible. When word reached her of the Lannisters taking control of King's Landing through the new King Joffrey, she was happy. The plan had worked just like her love Petyr Baelish had said it would. House Stark had bled, its Lord soon to be killed, and the Lord's heir for a son would soon be next with the right manipulation when fighting Tywin Lannister. He had promised her a crown, becoming Queen, their secret son under the cover of being the old fool of a Falcon's son being Prince one day. All she had to do was wait in the Vale, command the Lords to not fight for House Stark, and stay here to protect Lord Arryn's "son". Many of them did not agree with her decision to stay out of the fighting, but had no other choice in the matter. Only obey. Obey her. The Lady of the Vale. And one day Queen of the Seven Kingdoms with King Baelish at her side when they finally married.
Only for it to go downhill soon after when the Targaryens returned and attacking King's Landing with dragons no less. Crushing the Lannister forces in the city and taking the title of King from Joffrey to put it once more on the dragon's head. Of course, Lysa didn't care about that. Kings came and went. What she cared about was her love being killed by the new King just after sitting on the Iron Throne. The nerve! And for what? Nothing! He has been killed over nothing. Her love had done nothing (in her eyes) wrong and yet the bastard Targaryen had him killed.
And to make matters worse, shortly after this dragon became King, he went after those who had fought against his House during Robert's Rebellion. Crushing House Lannister by executing its Lord, its heir, its daughter who was the former Queen, and the Queen's eldest son who had ascended briefly to become King. Again, Lysa cared not for the lions since it only weakened them, but she did care to some degree about her Father and her stupid brother, who were next on the dragon's list of those he wanted punished.
And punished her House this new King did. With Lysa's Father being killed, her brother being sent to the Wall with Uncle Brynden becoming the new Lord of Riverrun. And yet nothing bad happened to sweet sister Catelyn or her damn family of wolves from the North. Oh, Catelyn had been shamed for hurting the King when he was just a Northern bastard, but did she lose her husband as an additional punishment? Any of her children? No! It wasn't fair! If Lysa lost her own love, then dear sweet sister should suffer too. It was bad enough the dragon took their Father, removed their brother as heir to Riverrun, and put their Uncle Brynden as the new Lord of Riverrun. But the nerve to command her, Lysa Tully Arryn, the Lady of the Vale, to return to King's Landing and face the new King's wrath? His judgment? His punishment?
She would not. She would defy this new King in the name of her deceased love while using her dead husband, dead Father, and dishonored brother as a rallying cry to get the Lord's of the Vale on her side. They didn't need to be part of the Targaryen's rule or the other Kingdoms. They could break away from the Crown. Become their own independent Kingdom like they had in the days of old and rule with such a greatness the Targaryens could never hope of achieving in any lifetime.
Lysa's thoughts on the issue were soon ended rather violently when the sound of a dragon roaring could be heard, shaking the castle to its very foundation. Her sweet child Robin was suckling when it happened, scaring the poor child, and his yell of fright being among the many around her running about. Servants fleeing, knights running to defend the castle from the beast flying outside, and making the Lady of the Vale snarl in anger.
So the so called Targaryen King was coming here, was he? Bah! Let him come. The Vale was an impregnable fortress. Designed to withstand anything. Armies. Bombardments from siege weaponry. Even a dragon could not hope to best Lysa's home and the knights sworn to protect her and young Robin from harm.
It wasn't long however, that the dragon had left. Flying away from what she could feel from the lack of shaking of the castle itself. After everything calmed down, Lysa let out a small breath and relaxed with Robin in her arms while basking in the sudden silence. It was only almost made her laugh out loud in the belief that the dragon had retreated after failing to intimidate the knights of the Vale.
She was safe. Her precious Robin was safe. She would rally the knights and Lords of the Vale to her cause and teach the foolish Targaryen a lesson he wouldn't soon forget.
However, such thoughts were interrupted like before, but instead of the roar of a dragon, it was the presence of dark robed, and a mask helmeted figure with half cloak bearing the sigil of House Targaryen covering his left shoulder. She instantly screamed, yelled for the guards and knights of Vale to come to her protection and the protection of her son.
In mere moments, the entire room was filled with knights and even Lords of the Vale with swords and spears drawn to do battle. When they saw who was standing there, some of them were hesitant and fearful to even engage the masked man in battle. They knew who this man was and heard the stories of what he could do no matter the odds. Add to the fact his dragons could simply burn this castle to ground, yet chose not to spoke of the man willing to get his hands bloody.
"It seems my reputation precedes me," commented Aegon while looking around the room casually.
"You dare come here dragonspawn! To my castle! My home!" exclaimed Lysa with her voice being near hysterical.
"Last I checked, the Vale is part of the Seven Kingdoms, is it not? And I am the King, correct?" asked Aegon with Lysa glaring at him with all her hate.
"It is, but I don't recognize you as its King. I only recognize one man as King and he is dead," said Lysa to Aegon while conveniently leaving out the name of the man she called her King.
And it wasn't Robert Baratheon.
"You mean your secret lover Petyr Baelish?" asked Aegon while Lysa looked like she had just been slapped in the face, but her anger never left.
"How dare you say such a thing to me! In front of everyone here. I will have your head! I will have you thrown through the Moon Door regardless of your title as King," threatened Lysa with Aegon looking unafraid of her.
"I say it to you because its the truth. Petyr Baelish admitted as much before the Lords and Ladies at Court. How he was planning to start a war and throw the Seven Kingdoms into a state of chaos where the only one who benefitted was himself," replied Aegon knowing his words would provoke the woman into anger.
"Lies! Petyr would never do such a thing. He was devoted to his duties. My husband was the one to appoint Lord Baelish his position as Master of Coin. Through him, the Crown prospered greatly!" countered Lysa with Aegon laughing at her.
"You mean the Crown went bankrupt. The Crown was six million gold dragons in debt thanks to 'Lord Baelish' and his skills with numbers. In fact, he was the one who wanted you to stay out of the fight between House Stark and House Lannister. Even though your sister was married to Lord Stark. Even though House Tully were allies with them and the fact House Lannister was attacking your girlhood home," countered Aegon while Lysa was getting angrier by the minute.
"You have no proof of such things," Lysa shot back.
"Oh but I do. Your beloved Petyr Baelish left quite a few letters behind from his various correspondences with you. Several of your letters to him mentioning the overall plan you two created. Of your love for him. Your devotion. Your desire to make him happy and do whatever it is he commands. Like killing your husband with the Tears of Lys poison in his food and drink," said Aegon with the Knights and Lords of the Vale looking unsure now on how to act given this verbal spar.
Even more so when Aegon admitted he had proof to backup his words.
"Lies! All lies! Petyr never sent me a message to kill my husband!" exclaimed Lysa in a near panic like voice.
"No. He told you to do it personally. Face to face," replied Aegon quickly while using the Force to weaken her mind further to mental suggestion.
"Well of course he told m-I-I mean no. No! You are trying to trick me," countered Lysa while looking nervously at everyone around her.
"How am I tricking you? What have I said that was wrong or a lie?" asked Aegon while Lysa was trying to come up with an answer, but was unable to speak properly.
"You are making wild accusations about my dear Petyr. A dear friend to me, House Tully, and House Arryn," said Lysa while Aegon let out a chuckle.
"A dear friend? Don't you mean your secret lover? The one you have been having an affair with? The one you had a child with?" asked Aegon while his masked face tilted slightly to look at Robin.
"You dare! You dare sully my name! Seize him! Seize him now and throw him through the Moon Door!" commanded Lysa with some knights moving forward.
Only for Aegon to twist his right hand and twitch his finger to make those knights lift off the ground they hit the ground hard. Two Vale knights behind Aegon tried there hand at attacking, but were suddenly thrown to their right into a stone pillar and knocked out. As this played out, Lysa began to slightly panic since she had only heard rumors and stories of the man's sorcery.
And he was using it to take her army apart piece by piece.
Several more men were spun around like they were caught in some kind of wind storm and hit stone pillars or stone walls before they slumped over unconscious. All the while, Aegon barely moved, his posture one of calm and control. How she hated it!
"I must say, the hospitality of the Vale is not what I expected. Of course, it is somewhat to be expected of so called Lady of the Vale. Given how you refused by summons to be at Court to answer for your crimes and the crimes of those you helped," remarked Aegon with the Lysa gritting her teeth and looking like she wished to launch fire at him.
"I do not have to honor such a summons. You are not my King! I do not recognize your so called authority," replied Lysa with her glare intensifying.
"I see. So you are not only a traitor to the Crown, but a traitor to your own House. All of them answered it, and while one died with the other shamed to the Wall, they still did the honorable thing to answer," replied Aegon with Lysa spitting on the ground to further show her contempt for him.
"You think you can terrify me? With your dragon? With your sorcery? Without them, you are nothing! Just man in a mask parading around as a King. But all my knights have to do is end your life and the era of House Targaryens will be one step closer to being annihilated like my late husband planned from the start!" stated Lysa with madness in her eyes.
"A shame he failed to carry out his task. I have already revealed his treachery throughout the Seven Kingdoms. Everyone knows of his crimes. Robert Baratheon's crimes. Tywin Lannister's crimes. Holster Tully's crimes. His son, Edmure supporting said crimes. And now you admit to it too. Of course, you had a hand to play in it too. Preventing all those messages my Mother wanted sent out to the Lords and Ladies explaining the truth about her relationship with Prince Rheagar. Jon Arryn would allow it. Your Father wouldn't let such news become public knowledge. They wanted a rebellion. Wanted a war. If the truth was revealed, there would be no war. No chance to take down House Targaryen," replied Aegon before sending a knight behind him flying into the doors he entered and smashing them to pieces.
"Your Mother was a Northern whore! She spread her legs for the dragon in the hopes of taking the Iron Throne for herself and the North. We weren't going to let some she-wolf bitch claim what my husband wanted. He would become Hand of the King, the second most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms while yours would have been the Prince's whore on the side. We were better off with your kind dead!" countered Lysa while Aegon stood there in silence for a moment.
Before he threw every Knight and Lord against the wall of the room and pulled young Robin toward him with the Force to shock and horror of his Mother. The boy, Robin, was grabbed by the throat, dangling helplessly in the air over the closed Moon Door. Lysa let out a scream of fright, calling her son's name, and now pleading for Aegon to let him go.
But Aegon would not listen to her pleas or begging. This woman had thought herself to be above him. Above his station. His position. Above the Crown. His very House! She had sat there on her so called throne, sneering at him, mocking him, insulting him, and looking completely arrogant in her so called superiority. She thought her little army was enough to stop him, but the stupid woman was wrong!
And she was going to know what it meant to disrespect him by making sure the woman paid a heavy price for this disrespect.
Easily using the Force, Aegon opened up the Moon Door beneath him, his prey dangling their, screaming for his Mother to save him. Some knights of the Vale tried to get up and save the "son" of their beloved Jon Arryn, but were brought down violently to the ground by Aegon's power.
"Foolish woman. Only now, with your child in my hands, do you truly understand. You sit on your little throne, thinking yourself safe, and protected from all threats. That no one could touch you due to the knights of the Vale standing ready to be your shield. To give you some measure of control from your seat of power. But you are not in control and you do no have any power. You are weak. Your child is weak. A child born from a liar and from a scheming flesh peddler. While it was a clever plan in hiding his weak bastard son in plain sight and passing him off as the child of their late Lord, I will not allow such a crime to exist while I am King," replied Aegon with Lysa pleading loudly for him to stop.
"No! Stop! Don't hurt my sweet Robin! Please!" pleaded Lysa while Aegon was clearly unmoved by her words.
"Only now with your son in my hands do you beg. Only now do you cry and ask for a mercy you would not give others. Before now, you treated my authority as a joke. You treated me with contempt. Scorn. You mocked my House. You mocked my position as King. You defied me in an act of unforgiveable treason. As such, it is only fitting you pay a heavy price for your actions. Before, you called my Mother a whore. Rheagar's whore on the side and basically implied I was a bastard. I think it is only fitting that you pay for your crimes with the blood of your bastard child. To know the truly painful heartbreak of a Mother, who has seen her child perish before she does," replied Aegon while looking the woman dead in the eyes through his mask the entire time.
Before dropping young Robin through the Moon Door to the horror of the boy and his Mother, who was now screaming out her son's name as he fell to his death.
To further hit the point home, Aegon closed the Moon Door in front of him, and slowly walked up the steps the throne Lysa Tully Arryn had been sitting on. The woman was on her knees, looking down at the Moon Door, tears running freely like a river or damn that was broken. You did not need to see that her heart was shattered, her mind broken, and spirit reduced to ash.
"You have taken everything from me," whispered Lysa in a broken voice.
"As did you and your fellow conspirators in trying to go against me and my House. The only difference is you failed and started a year long war. My actions ended one within a few days," countered Aegon casually like he did just murder the woman's son.
"Kill me. Kill me now," whispered Lysa since all reasons for living were taken from her.
"I will. But I want you to confess to all your crimes. Confess and I will end you quickly. If you do not, I will see to it that you live a long life filled with even more agony," replied Aegon coldly while drawing his sword and raising the woman's chin with the flat of his blade.
"I will confess to everything," said Lysa while sobbing the whole time.
"Do you confess to conspiring with House Arryn to go against House Targaryen? Do you confess to destroying the messages my Mother wanted sent that would have revealed to the Lords of the Seven Kingdoms the truth about her marrying Rheagar?" asked Aegon with Lysa nodding.
"Yes. I confess. My late husband approached my Father about it. They said I should get close to Lyanna Stark and destroy any messages she wanted to send out. They wanted a war built on the truth of their own making to justify the rebellion. My job was to kill the truth your Mother wrote so they could write their own," answered Lysa while everyone in the room heard it.
"Do you confess to killing your husband at the request of Petyr Baelish? Do you confess to conspiring with him to start a war between House Lannister and House Stark. Do you confess to keeping the Vale out of the fight because Petyr Baelish had ordered it?" asked Aegon with Lysa nodding.
"Yes. Petyr wanted both Houses to fight. To weaken them so they couldn't challenge his position later when he made his move for the Iron Throne. He knew if the Vale joined with House Stark in their war with the Lannister, the lion would fall. He said the best way to ensure no one could oppose our rise to royal status was to keep the Vale out of the war. I used my son as an excuse to keep the Vale bannermen here and their loyalty to my late husband to keep them in line," confessed Lysa while Aegon decided to go for the kill.
"And Robin? Was he Lord Arryn's child? Or was he the bastard son of Petyr Baelish?" asked Aegon with Lysa gritting her teeth.
"He was Petyr's son. I hated my husband. I hated the idea of being his wife. That I had to marry such an old man while my sister got someone near her own age. I loved Petyr. I loved him since I was a girl about to cross the barrier into being a woman. I wanted him. Only him. But my Father, he said it was beneath our House to have one of his daughters marry a boy from a minor House in the Vale. Even when I laid with Petyr and carried his first child in my womb, my Father ordered I take moon tea to end it. I vowed then and there that I would make my Father pay for denying me what I wanted. So when the war started, I saw it as a means to get my revenge on my Father, and helping my Petyr with his plans. So I took it," replied Lysa while Aegon scoffed.
"So much for following our House's motto. Not that it matters. I removed you from your House. You will die without a House name. Your son will be given a bastard name. All that you have done will be made known and no one will weep upon your death," replied Aegon while pressing the sword to the woman's throat.
"I'm sorry for what I have done," said Lysa after a few sobs.
"No your not. You only say that because your plans were exposed. You were defeated. You are about to die. And you want me to show you an instant of mercy in the hopes I spare your miserable life. All so you can find a way to kill me afterwards in some quest for the taste of revenge slowly growing within your heart," countered Aegon before his sword cut into the woman's throat and spilled blood on the floor.
Watching the woman clutch her throat, Aegon sheathed his sword, not carrying how she struggled to breathe, and just saw her collapse soon after. Looking at the men and women in the room, he studied them all, seeing the look of confusion and loss that filled them.
While some could say Lysa's confession was due to stress of losing her son and a sword aimed at her throat, there was no denying that what followed with Lord Arryn's death had been strange. Even more strange to them had been Lysa's command for the knights of the Vale to stay out of the fighting when her House by blood and House Stark, a House tied by marriage through her sister, were at war with House Lannister. They felt it was their call the banners and aid House Stark and House Tully in order to win it.
But Lysa said it was their duty to protect their Lord's only son and heir. How she would view anything less as treason against her late husband and House Arryn. It didn't make sense to them, but their duty and honor commanded that they obey her.
Even if the order given was wrong.
"Lord Royce, due to the events that have just taken place, I hereby name you as the new Lord of the Vale with all the rights and power that comes with it. Rule wisely and justly. But above all else, do not make the same mistake as your predecessor in terms of being ambitious beyond your means. There will be no room for pretenders or schemers seeking to destroy what my House has built centuries ago," said Aegon while pointing to Lord Royce, who nodded numbly, but accepted his new station all the same.
With the matter settled, Aegon called Revanchist to him and after leaping out the nearest window, landed on his son, who promptly flew back to King's Landing.