"You're not free because you do what you want, you're free because you don't do what you want." Aenar Targaryen.
----------
Crimson flames looked like a huge wave of fire, like a monster engulfing the entire army of House Greyjoy. The salt men simply turned into something like salt, ash. They were blown away by the wind. There were no screams or even any noise, just the silence of the burning flames.
The enemy armies of House Targaryen stopped fighting and just watched in complete terror at the diabolical scene before them. An army of tens of thousands of people disappeared in a few minutes.
Perhaps for a modern person, such a thing wasn't so impressive and impactful because of nuclear bombs and various films showing the mass death of people. But for someone from the Middle Ages, such a scene was pure terror straight from hell.
Tywin watched coldly as the soldiers scattered everywhere, fleeing in panic. The Lord of Casterly Rock didn't even try to control his own soldiers.
The battle had been lost the moment the army began to desert on a large scale, the destruction of House Greyjoy's army merely accelerating an inevitable process in his eyes.
Tywin couldn't help but sigh, looking much older than he sounded. Even his strong aura had disappeared. He looked more like an old, weak lion, ready to be replaced by a young lion.
Like King Loren I of House Lannister, called the Last, Tywin lost against House Targaryen.
The rain was still falling from the sky, but the temperature on the battlefield was high and a light mist surrounded the room.
"Are you happy, dear father?" Tywin heard a sarcastic voice coming from his side, and he looked coldly at the dwarf who was approaching with slow, clumsy steps. Tyrion's nose was gone and his face bore a large scar, but the joy in his eyes could not be hidden.
"The great and fearsome Tywin Lannister, being captured alive." Tyrion looked at the man before him and spoke with an almost pleased tone. Seeing Tywin's definitive defeat was more pleasurable than a million whores.
"I wasn't defeated by you, you monstrosity." Despite having lost, Tywin replied with a terribly calm tone.
Without waiting for Tyrion's reply, Tywin walked towards a specific location.
Tyrion was about to stop and order the soldiers to arrest the Lord of Casterly Rock, but stopped when he saw the direction his father was walking, more precisely, who he was walking towards.
Tyrion's lips pursed with force at the sight of the corpse lying on the muddy ground. The once shining armor was stained with blood and mud.
The rain stuck to the dwarf's hair, causing him to feel almost deathly cold, but seeing his brother's corpse caused him to feel even colder.
Seeing the peaceful expression on his son's face, Tywin couldn't help but show a complicated expression. He knew that Jaime had died relieved that he was no longer a puppet of a god.
"Your king plunged a dagger into Jaime's heart, he smiled happily as he plunged the dagger into his flesh." Tywin spoke coldly to Tyrion while keeping his gaze on the corpse of his beloved son.
Although Jaime had betrayed him and caused him so much pain, in the end, his brother was the one who cared for him the most. Tyrion didn't have enough fingers to count how many times Jaime had encouraged him or even stood by him.
However, seeing the expression on Jaime's pale, lifeless face, Tyrion felt that all the anger, resentment and hatred built up in his chest simply didn't make sense.
After a psychological struggle, Tyrion showed a determined look and replied in a calm tone: "This is war, death is inevitable."
Tywin looked into Tyrion's eyes for the first time, there was some appreciation in the Old Lion's gaze, but it was gone so quickly that Tyrion thought he was hallucinating and seeing things that were impossible.
Seeing Tywin still silent, watching Jaime's corpse with an icy stare. Tyrion spoke in a calm, deep tone. "Arrest the Lord of Casterly Rock, he will be tried personally by the king."
The Red Legion soldiers obeyed Tyrion's orders and put chains on Tywin Lannister's wrists. The soldiers showed no mercy and practically dragged the Lion of the Rock like a mangy animal, with force and brutality.
They didn't care if Tywin was old or even when he fell into the mud after a while, they beat the man, urging him to get up and continued to pull Tywin without any sign of respect.
Tyrion silently observed his father's miserable situation, but remained silent and didn't stop it from happening.
Looking at the battlefield, Tyrion could see that many of House Lannister's soldiers had fled or surrendered. Looking to another corner, he saw that House Baratheon's army was still retreating as they struggled to flee back to Casterly Rock.
The only place that could still serve as a stronghold for House Baratheon. After all, after that battle, Tyrion estimated that there was no other Lord who would allow the Baratheon Army to enter. This war was already won, all that remained was where and the day of the final battle.
"This is only the beginning, we are far from finished." Tyrion didn't forget that there was still a war coming from the North, a war more important than the one being fought. A war for the survival of humanity.
Tyrion sat next to his brother's corpse and held his hand as he let the rain wash over him, as if he wanted the rain to wash away all the negative feelings inside him.
"I hate you for lying to me, but I still love you, you stupid, arrogant brother." Tyrion didn't know if he was crying or the rain pouring down his face, but he didn't really care.
"I'll look after Tommen and Myrcella." He said, closing his eyes as he listened to the rain falling on the ground and the screams in the background on the battlefield. Suddenly, Tyrion opened his eyes and looked at his shoulder with a confused expression.
For a moment, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Perhaps guessing something, Tyrion showed a complicated expression.
When Aenar got close to the Dwarf, he saw the scene and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Even if there was hatred between the brothers, the affection and love cultivated over decades could not disappear so quickly.
"My king." Rising, Tyrion greeted Aenar with a respectful tone.
Looking at the man before him, Aenar smiled gently. "Jaime died peacefully, he regained his free will and was finally free from the clutches of the Seven Faced God."
Tyrion pressed his lips together tightly and looked at Jaime with his green and black eyes. He clenched his fists and asked in a low tone. "Did he really have to die?"
Aenar looked at Tyrion and answered with a sincere tone. "If I had controlled the energy input, he would have survived, but the chances of the God of the Seven Faces escaping would have been high, so I didn't want to risk it."
"Do you resent me for killing your brother, Tyrion?" Aenar asked in a calm tone, looking directly into the different colored eyes of the Hand of the King.
"Will my king kill me if I say yes?" Tyrion rebutted the question to Aenar, looking directly into the king's eyes.
"No." Aenar shook his head and answered truthfully. "I will remove you from office and do what I promised you."
"But if you become my enemy, I will kill you." He finished with a calm and sincere look, not hiding the consequences of his betrayal at all.
"I may hate you, but I can never be your enemy." Tyrion said with a slightly amused tone. "Your Grace is still as tyrannical as ever."
"What can I say, I'm a rather contradictory person." Aenar replied with an equally amused tone.
"Yes, it's like two sides of a coin in one person." Tyrion nodded, agreeing with the king's assessment of himself.
The smile on Aenar's lips disappeared as he looked deeply at the dwarf. "So you're my enemy, Tyrion?"
"I am not your enemy, my king." Tyrion said calmly. "But I feel anger at my brother's death."
"Then be angry." Aenar said. "I care little how you feel about me."
"As long as you remain loyal and useful, you will always be my Hand." Aenar didn't really care how Tyrion felt about him, he only cared if he was useful and loyal.
But if Tyrion really became his enemy, he wouldn't mind making Myrcella Lady of Casterly Rock. Friendship? Sorry, his only loyalty was to House Targaryen and mankind. Anything other than those two things was nothing in his eyes.
Call him indifferent and cold, but that was his nature after so long living in this world.
Tyrion looked at Aenar and let out a sigh; he wasn't surprised by the king's words. During his time with Aenar, he had continued to look at him. Always trying to figure out the king's thoughts, gestures and intentions, so that he would know what to say at the right moment.
Just like now. If it had been before he met Aenar, Tyrion would never have dared to say that he hated Aenar for killing Jaime, but knowing the King's true face, he understood that he wouldn't die even if he hated him.
The being in front of him was as pragmatic and cold as you could imagine from a being who was carrying the fate of humanity on his shoulders.
"What will your grace do about my father's trial?" Tyrion asked as he stood next to Aenar, his expression returning to its former calm and he regained his composure, acting once again as a Hand of the King should.
"I'll give him to my grandmother and Rhaenys, they want Tywin's life, so be it." Although he also wanted to kill Tywin, Aenar knew that to free Rhaenys and Rhaella from the hatred they carried, they needed to kill Tywin.
Tyrion remembered something when he heard the king's words and spoke. "Mountain was also captured, that monster killed four men before he was immobilized."
Aenar showed a satisfied expression, Rhaenys' affairs would be settled more easily after she killed the monster that terrorized her nightmares.
"After this battle is over, come to my room and I'll make you into a normal man." Aenar put his hand on Tyrion's shoulder and spoke in a gentle tone. Then he left without looking back or even glancing at Jaime's body, as if it were something insignificant.
Tyrion showed a complicated expression. How did it feel to work for and be loyal to someone you hate?
If you asked Tyrion, he would say that it was an extremely insulting feeling and, at the same time, a feeling of pride in working for Aenar.
Contradictory, no? But that was the irrationality of the human mind. It could hate and love at the same time, perhaps the only race that could do something like that.
For this very reason, the human race was the main cause of the birth of the Chaos Gods, beings conceived in the Warp, a dimension that seemed to be the fruit of the collective consciousness of all the intelligent beings in the universe.
Looking at his brother's body, Tyrion asked a Red Legion soldier to carry the body back to camp. He would give his brother a wake worthy of the heir to House Lannister.
Looking at Aenar's back, further and further away, Tyrion thought for a moment and then let out an emotional sigh.
Again, showing a resolute and calm expression, the dwarf walked towards the camp, Tyrion murmured in a calm and deep tone. "Let's take it one step at a time."
--------
Read more than advanced chapters in my Patre on!
Read chapters ahead on Patreon. Two chapters are updated every day except Sunday.
/GOTSW