The Birth of Dragons

Ser Brynden Tully

The years were catching up with him. Brynden no longer had the patience to deal with some of the things he would have accepted and moved on with in the past. Foremost amongst them, his niece's pouting. Something or the other set her off, as it often did, and now Brynden was having to explain to various lords why their Lord's mother was not meeting with them. The Lord of the Vale was a sickly little boy, who was likely going to die, and that was a thought that both terrified and relieved Brynden, perhaps if the boy went, he'd not have to deal with the constant fear of civil war. Harrold Hardying was more capable, more alive than anyone else, and Brynden knew the boy could be a good Lord with the right guidance. Still, he was not going to sit around and allow his niece to throw off another opportunity for them to get justice for an old friend. That was why he was in her solar, standing before her, doing his best not to lose his patience or his mind.

"Lysa, for the love of the Seven, will you think about this for a moment. You have called these lords here under the pretence of discussing the war raging in the Riverlands, and yet now you have decided not to meet with them. Can you see how that looks? Can you see what you are doing to your son's reputation, let alone your own?" Brynden asks.

His niece looks at him with her chin turned up. "I am the Lady of the Vale; I can do as I wish uncle. And you have to obey my commands. I do not wish to see them."

Brynden sighs in frustration. "Why? What has changed in the past three days? You were eager to meet with them before, why have you changed your mind now?"

His niece looks at him with watery eyes, Minisa's eyes. Her voice quavers. "They all judge me. They look at me and they think they can push me over. They all want what is not theirs."

Brynden feels his frustration grow at his niece's ramblings. "Where is this coming from Lysa? Who are these people who are judging you, and what do they want that is not theirs?"

His niece throws her hands up in anger. "Royce, Waynwood, Corbray and Redfort, they all want something that is not theirs. They want my hand in marriage, and they want control over Robin. But I am his mother, I will not give over control of my son."

Brynden runs a hand over his beard, he'd grown it in the months after arriving in the Vale, shortly after the rebellion. "Lysa, so long as I am here and alive, no one will take Robert from you. But you cannot go on doing this. You must meet with them lords who are expecting you. You must discuss with them the plans we had come up with. We cannot sit on the side anymore, the Riverlands is bleeding, they need us. Edmure needs us."

He can tell that just for a moment Lysa seems won over, she had always loved Edmure, and treated him as her own son sometimes, and then something changes and her eyes harden. "Edmure has not asked for my help, neither has father. Why should I go help someone who has not asked for it?"

He can hear someone else's words in his niece's voice and he snarls in anger. "Lysa, your own nephew has written to you and to the lords of the Vale asking for help fighting the Lannisters. If you do not help him, the lords of the Vale will take action in their own hands and they will take Robert from you."

"But you would stop them would you not, uncle?" Lysa asks innocently.

Brynden sighs, he knows this game. "I would try Lysa, but I am just one man, and an old one at that. You know what needs to be done, so why do you refuse to do it?"

His niece looks at him with her big blue eyes, Minisa's eyes and he thinks of her mother, and his heart aches, he remembers the promise he made to her long ago, and he thinks he has failed. His niece looks at him and then speaks. "They never helped me."

Brynden leans forward and asks. "Who? Who never helped you?"

"Father. He never helped me, he never cared for me. I was an extra burden to him, I was not a boy, and I was not Cat, I was just someone else, another burden." Lysa replies her voice sounding so small that it breaks his heart, it makes him curse Hoster once more.

"You know that is not true Lysa. He might have been stern, but he was always like that. He loved you, he loves you, he always has." Brynden responds.

"Then why did he stop me from marrying Petyr? Why could he not let me be happy? Cat was to marry Brandon Stark, and that made her happy, why could he not let me be happy?" Lysa asks in a little voice.

Brynden sighs, this was what he had most feared. "I… Your father was never the one to go for happiness, he loved your mother, but that came afterwards. And yes he loved you, and he wanted you to be happy, but with someone of your rank, not with someone like Baelish. That Baelish boy was a mess, he was a snake, he was not worthy of you."

"He loved me!" Lysa responds. "He told me so himself!"

Brynden thinks over what he heard about his niece and Baelish when they were children and what he saw himself, and he sighs. "He might have said that to you, but he used you Lysa, he always used you."

He can tell his niece wants to protest, can tell by the way her shoulders straighten and her mouth hardens, but then something changes, and her shoulders slacken and her voice is soft. "You are right. As always uncle. I will speak with the lords and lady."