NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7: Chapter 7: BURN THEM ALL
< Jaimie Lannister POV >
The worst outcome has come true. My father is now sacking King's Landing, and here I am standing next to the very King he wants to kill.
I am torn at the thoughts of what I must do. Do I follow my oath and protect the king fighting and dying against my own Lannister house? Or do I become an oath-breaker and stand by watching and do nothing.
Neither one I wanted to do,
I had my whole life ahead of me.
Each outcome would ruin my reputation greatly.
"Time is nigh, Rossart… Burn them all."
Shocked at what I heard from the King's mouth. What did he mean, burn them all?.
"Your Grace, the wildfire caches are not all in place just yet, but we have placed a lot underneath the Sept, Flea Bottom.. It has been scattered across the town, but not truly enough to level the entire city."
'WILDFIRE' I felt a palpation in my heart hearing these words.
"Rossart! I have high trust in you, at this moment if we were to start now, how many people would burn?"
"Your Grace, roughly counting 100,000 thousand your grace, this will include everyone from Man, Woman, Child, Old, Young, our allies and your enemies"
"THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! BURN THEM ALL!" The King's voice was deafening, not in tone or magnitude when he said them, but the words themselves. I felt my very blood freeze to the core.
My King.
Was about to genocide his own people.
I close my eyes to put all of these distracting thoughts out of my head and finally understood,
I never had a choice to begin with.
I made an oath to protect and follow the King, so I must follow it.
As I watch the Pyromancer in thought, the King moves his gaze towards me. Something must have been wrong with me to actually say what I was thinking aloud.
"Your Grace, we can always surrender to my father, he was the hand before and he will not kill you. Just like the Pyromancer said, if we light the wildfire we will kill not only your enemies but everyone else… This is not-"
"Jaimie Lannister." I felt my breath quicken, I never saw someone look at me with such calm cold eyes, but soon his eyes turned into a fiery madness. His next words almost made me pull out my sword at that moment, but I held back on, close to breaking my own sanity and my own vows.
"Go out to bring me your father's head, I want you to do it yourself, as he watches his golden son killing him, it must be an interesting sight"
"Rossart what are you still doing here... I want you to BURN THEM ALL"
I look around at the remaining five kingsguards around the king, and I start contemplating if my chances for an assassination would succeed.
"BURN THEM ALL"
These thoughts should never come from a kingsguard, but what am I supposed to do in this situation?
"BURN THEM ALL"
Blindly obey these words of a clear madman, killing my father and watching hundreds of thousands of people die by burning.
"BURN THEM ALL"
I didn't get much of a choice of time, as I watched the Pyromancer finally turn around to leave the Keep.
"BURN THEM ALL"
I finally made my choice, with firm eyes and a clear conviction, I unsheathe my sword and started approaching the Pyromancer.
"burn them all" started to become a mumbling to my ears, it was said so often that even I couldn't help but start to tune it out.
The other kingsguards watched me, after seeing my pull out my sword each one had put their hand on the hilt of their swords, tension filled the room, and the pyromancer looked towards me as I walked slowly to him.
My mind felt free, I finally came to a choice. For the people and for my own house, I couldn't have my father tried as killing a king, I must do it.
I will burden everything, no one will ever understand what happened here truly, and I don't want them to. I will start to live for myself now.
The Pyromancer watched in fear as I stabbed my blade through his heart.
His trembling lips tried to move, but soon he just plopped and fell down.
Turning around I heard the unsheathing of swords and the king looking at all of this just mumbling 'burn them all.'
Two of the kingsguard make their way towards me. I know they are strong, but I couldn't think that much.
I watched as my movements followed theirs, swords clashing, It was exhilarating, watching their swords flow near me and as I was nimbly dodging left and right, looking for a chance to parry and even fight back.
Eventually I saw a slip up, stabbing into one of the openings and piercing the throat of the first kingsguard.
The second one must have thought it was surprising and also gave a flaw to which I followed up on, piercing my sword straight into his chest, and pulling it out to let the blood spurt out. He fell to his knees, then to the floor.
The remaining three kingsguard realized I am a lot stronger, and attacked me together.
I never thought of making it back alive, I think I will die here right now, three against one, and I am also a little tired from just fighting the first two, but I know I must keep moving forward.
Blocking the first attack, I step backwards, to dodge another attack from my side, this keeps going on for a couple of seconds before I harden my resolve and take a hit for a hit.
Following the direction of attack from the sword of the kingsguard on my left, I move in a position to not be fatally injured and allow the sword to pierce my left shoulder, I use a forward motion to cut his head straight off his neck.
Blood gushing out and dyeing the remaining of us standing for a quick second.
After killing, I step back to catch a breath, but the remaining two kingsguard press harder.
Feeling a strong sense of pain from my left shoulder, I know I have to still keep fighting.
I step backwards towards the dead Pyromancer body, and stand right in front, waiting for an opportunity.
Soon after clashing swords back and forth I make a sudden step back over the body, the kingsguard in front follows, but ends up stumbling down the body.
And from that misstep on his part, I capitalize on his mistake and I slice down my blade right into his face, ending life.
Feeling exhausted I can barely keep standing, I start to think of my sister Cersei, I couldn't leave this world leaving her all alone.
What would she do without me?
Thinking of the love words she told me, I knew someone was waiting for me to get back alive and come home. I must do this for her.
With this in mind, I felt a burst of power and finally fought back the last kingsguard.
*Swords Clashing*
Back and forth our swords made a metallic chorus, eventually I pushed him back into a wall where we were both only using our remaining strength.
I was leaning my whole body weight onto my sword to cut him, while he was resisting, I felt my strength start to loosen, I couldn't keep going,
He seemed to notice and started to push back. I didn't know what to do besides look around for anything to help me.
I noticed a dagger on his waist.
I know my thought was dangerous, but it's the only option I have left.
I let go of my sword and stopped pressing my weight, as I reached for his dagger, the sudden weight gone made the other kingsguard push forward. With the two motions of movement coming together, I was able to reach the dagger faster than he could react.
I grabbed his dagger and used my remaining strength to swing upwards, I was not sure if I cut him or not, my back was completely turned and exposed to him.
I heard the sound of metal clanking and closed my eyes, only to open two seconds later to see the final kingsguard laying dead with his throat cut.
*Heavy Breathing*
All I could do was breathe, inhaling in and out felt like it took so much effort, but I did it.
All that's left is the king. My eyes erratic from this heavy battle, I observe to see the king still mumbling
'Burn them all.'
Even after everything… in this now quiet hall, these words were the only thing you could hear.
I have seen people go insane from torture at Casterly Rock, but my King has simply lost his mind, he finally snapped.
As I continued to take heavy steps towards the king, hearing the constant mumbling, my mind was starting to get enraged.
Walking up the steps at from the foot of the throne as I look into his eyes, he still has the same clouded look, mumbling
'Burn them all.'
No change. I felt pity, then anger, all my emotions, my future, my house, this final thrust empowered my everything.
"RAHH"
*Slice*
I felt the lion inside me roar as I stabbed my sword through the king's chest. Even as he died he didn't even seem to notice, he kept saying those damn words.
'Burn them all'
'Burn them all'
'Burn...them.....all..."
Looking at his lifeless body, my thoughts couldn't keep up with my actions, I the same dagger used to kill the final kingsguard and slit my kings throat to make sure he wouldn't come back.
Pushing his body off the throne, I sit down on it and close my eyes, steadying my breath and awaiting for what's next to come.