𝖇𝖑𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝖉𝖞𝖓𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖞, 𝐚. 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐲𝐞𝐧¹

intermission; part two

 ⊱❀⊰

      CASTERLY ROCK was unwelcoming despite the warmth the common folk offered to Lord Tyland and his grieving daughter as they made their way out of the grand castle and toward the cliff's edge where her mother's body awaited.

      The royal family stood in a line along the edge of the cliff, somber looks upon the faces of the elder members. King Viserys had declared that his entire family would attend Cerenna Lannister's funeral out of a show of respect for his Master of Ships.

      Alysanne remained silent as she and her father crossed to her mother's body, her own adorned in a loose-fitting black dress. Casterly Rock was warm, but Alysanne was cold. She had never felt welcome at the ancestral seat of her family's house, having been born and raised at the Red Keep with visits to Casterly Rock far and few in between.

      This day was not such a joyous one and yet, her family was more welcoming of her presence than they had been in her entire life.

      For once they didn't mutter about her being the heir, nor did they make any callous remarks about her low-born mother and the inappropriate nature of her marriage to her father. Cerenna Lannister had come from a lowborn, poor family from Lannisport. She was a scullery maid in the kitchens of Casterly Rock when she had met Tyland Lannister, a handsome man of eight and ten, and within six months, they had fallen in love and married.

      It was a union that had always been looked down upon by the elder members of their prestigious house, especially her father's twin, Jason.

       But now, as the pair walked toward the corpse of the woman they both loved more than anyone, the members of House Lannister extended sentiments of sympathy and pity. Their hypocrisy boiled Alysanne's blood, but she kept her head bowed as she walked.

      Her skin itched in the places that her distant cousins and uncles placed their hands upon as they muttered soft prayers and her eyes were uncharacteristically dry as she approached the table her mother lay upon. She had cried the entire carriage ride from King's Landing to Casterly Rock and she was afraid that she had no more tears left to shed. The trip had taken over a week, and as Alysanne approached her mother's body, she could smell the stench of decay that wafted from her.

      Even with the embalming, her mother had started to rot away all because her father insisted on burying her at Casterly Rock. As if Cerenna would have wanted that... King's Landing was her home, not Casterly Rock.

      The funeral processed quickly and it wasn't long before the crowd shifted inside the castle, leaving Cerenna's body behind to be buried. Alysanne had refused to move from her spot, even as her mother's body was toted away by the Silent Sisters of Lannisport to be buried in the crypts beneath the castle.

      The sun beat furiously on her back as she stood with her back to the castle, her eyes watching as the violent waves of the Sunset Sea beat against the massive cliff the castle sat upon. She wondered what it would be like to fall from the impressive height of the cliff. It was the tallest landmark in the world, even standing three times higher than the Wall in the North.