A World of Death || ASOIAF Gamer Fic

Arthur walked through the corridors of the Red Keep. Every footstep echoed louder than it had any right to, and every echo seemed to throw what he had just done back at him in another voice.

He had drawn a sword on a Prince of the Realm.

He had attacked a member of the Kingsguard.

He had thrown across a corridor like a sack of grain, lifted a council table over his head and hurled it through the air, and he had done it all in front of half of the small council. Whatever pardon Duncan had pronounced in that chamber, the story of tonight was probably already running through the Red Keep on a hundred different tongues, and by morning it would have grown new heads in the telling.

The worst part of it all was that, even now, with his head finally beginning to clear, he could not honestly say he would have done any of it differently.

Duncan had stabbed him in the back. There was no kinder way to say it. The prince had given his word, looked Arthur in the eye and given his word, and then turned around and done the exact opposite in front of every lord and lady the Red Keep could fit into a single hall.

He turned a corner and started down the long corridor that led to the wing where Mira and Cassie kept their chambers.

'Cassie. Gods. Cassie.'

He knew her. He knew her better than anyone alive, and he knew what tonight would have done to her from both sides at once. There was a part of Cassie, a very small part, that had spent her entire childhood dreaming about having a family. The knowledge that she truly had a father, that he was alive and that he wanted her, would have meant the world to her.

But she would also hate the rest of it. Every last piece of it. The name. The legitimisation. The crowd of vultures in the great hall. The sudden weight of being a Targaryen, with all the targets that came with it. Cassie did not want a crown or a title or a place in the line of succession. Cassie wanted a small life with a husband and a baby and people she loved, and Duncan had taken that from her tonight whether he had meant to or not.

Arthur turned another corner and slowed, he needed to think about what he would do as he now had a lot more enemies than he did before.

The faith would hate him now. A knight of the Seven Kingdoms openly keeping two wives by Valyrian custom was a public insult to every doctrine they held sacred. The High Septon would denounce him within the week. The lords would hate him because he was an upstart from nowhere who had been raised above his station and given a Targaryen wife and a place in the royal line through his unborn child.

There were a great many lords in the realm who had spent a great many years jockeying their own daughters toward exactly that sort of position. Half the great houses would view him as a thief who had taken what they wanted for themselves.

His enemies had multiplied tonight by a factor he did not yet have the strength to count.

His mind began to race through the practicalities. He could hire a few sworn swords for Mira and Cassie's chambers. He could request that they place a permanent Kingsguard on Cassie, although that was a complicated request to make.

But none of that solved the deeper problem.

The deeper problem was that they were trapped in the same castle as the people who would now be most motivated to hurt them.

Maybe staying in King's Landing was the wrong choice.

Maybe it had been the wrong choice for a while now.

He had coin enough, between what he had earned in the tournament and the gold he could now create with [Creation], to buy passage for all of them across the Narrow Sea. Pentos. Lys. Volantis. Even Braavos. There were a hundred Free Cities where a knight with a sword and a clever mind could carve out a life, and where no Westerosi lord would have an easy time reaching for his family. Or further still. Yi Ti. The Summer Isles. Somewhere distant enough that the politics of the Seven Kingdoms would matter as little as the weather over Leng.

However he shook those thoughts out of his head as he came up to the door of their chambers. Whatever he decided tonight could wait.

Cassie could not.

Arthur raised his hand and pushed the door open slowly. As he looked in he saw Three figures sat together on the padded bench beneath the window. Mira had one arm wrapped around Cassie's shoulders, her cheek resting against Cassie's temple. Rhaella sat on Cassie's other side, both of her pale hands clasped around one of Cassie's, her head bent close while she murmured something Arthur could not hear from the door.

Cassie was crying. Her shoulders shook softly under Mira's arm and her face was hidden behind the curtain of her dark hair. The pendant Arthur had admired at the start of the evening lay against her collarbone in the candlelight, rising and falling with her breaths.

His chest clenched so hard he had to brace one hand against the doorframe for a heartbeat.

Three pairs of eyes lifted as he stepped into the room. Mira's expression softened immediately. Rhaella's tightened, just slightly, around the edges of her violet eyes.

Cassie looked up, saw him, and then immediately turned her face away. "Don't," she whispered hoarsely, lifting one hand to shield her cheek as she turned. "Don't look at me, Arthur. I look horrible."

Arthur was across the room in three strides, he then sank to one knee in front of the bench and gathered her against him, pulling her into his arms. "Cassie. You silly, silly woman." He said softly and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. "There is not a version of you in this entire world that could ever look horrible to me. Not one. Look at me."

She shook her head against his shoulder.

"Look at me, my love."

After a long moment she lifted her face. Her eyes were red, her cheeks were streaked with tears, her lower lip was trembling, and yet she had never looked more beautiful. Arthur cupped her jaw in his hands and kissed her forehead and kissed her cheek and kissed the tip of her nose until she let out a small broken half-laugh against him.

Mira's hand had come to rest on Arthur's back the moment he knelt, and now her fingers stroked slowly between his shoulders. Rhaella had not let go of Cassie's hand. The four of them sat like that for a long stretch, while the candles flickered and the fire crackled softly behind them.

Eventually Rhaella cleared her throat very gently. "Arthur. Did you, by any chance, go and speak to my idiot uncle."

Arthur let out a slow breath and chuckled, low and a little nervous. "I... may have done that. Yes."

Rhaella's mouth turned slightly upwards. "And how did that conversation go, Ser Arthur..."

"Reasonably well," Arthur said, "if you ignore the small council table I threw at the wall."

Mira's hand stilled on his back.

"And the Kingsguard I threw across a corridor."

Mira began to make a small high noise.

"And the punch I landed on your uncles jaw."

"Arthur!" Cassie breathed.

"And the brief sword fight I had with Ser Gerold afterward, which Duncan had to stop, but don't worry he gave me an official pardon everything I had done in the room. Other than that, it went rather well."

There was a moment of silence in the chamber.

Then Cassie hit him.

Not hard, more of a frustrated swat against his shoulder, but it was followed almost immediately by another from Mira on his other side, and Cassie hit him again, and Mira pinched the back of his arm. Cassie called him a lackwit, Mira called him an oaf, Cassie called him a brainless donkey-headed fool, Mira called him a man with the survival instincts of a turnip, and Rhaella, sitting calmly on the far side of Cassie with her hand still wrapped around her cousin's, threw her head back and laughed properly for the first time all evening.

"Stop, stop," Arthur protested through his own helpless laughter, fending off the slaps as best he could. "I have apologised. I have been pardoned. I have already been chastised by Ser Gerold."

"You attacked Ser Gerold," Mira hissed.

"I lifted him. I did not attack him. Technically he attacked me."

"You drew a sword on a Targaryen prince," Cassie said, her wet eyes wide.

"Well. Yes. That part is true."

"Arthur!" Mira said, "I swear by every god there is."

He held up his hands in surrender. "I know. I know. I should have handled it better. I know that. I just... when I left the hall, I could not control myself. It was as if a different man stepped into my skin." He explained. "I am sorry. I should have come here first. I should have come to you first."

Cassie sniffled and leaned forward and wrapped both of her arms around his neck. "You are an idiot," she whispered against his ear. "But I still love you."

Mira's arms came around them both from the side, Arthur closed his eyes and let himself be held.

They stayed that way for a long while. Rhaella, after a moment, reached out and rested a hand lightly on Mira's shoulder, and the four of them sat tangled together that for what might have been minutes and might have been longer.

Eventually Cassie lifted her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist. She drew in a slow breath and let it out again. "When I was little," she said, "I used to dream about him, you know."

Arthur smiled sadly and nodded.

"I did not know who he was, of course. Not his name, not his face. But I knew he was out there somewhere. And every night in the orphanage, when I was supposed to be asleep, I used to lie there and I used to imagine that he would come for me. Magic himself into the shared room in the middle of the night. He would lift me out of my little cot and he would take me away from the cold porridge and the broken windows and we would ride off together and I would have my own family."

"I never thought," Cassie continued softly, "that learning who he actually was could feel like this. Like dread. Like a stone tied to my ankle in deep water."

"Cassie."

"They are going to hate me, Arthur." Her voice cracked. "All of them. Every lord and every lady in that hall. They were already whispering as I left. I could hear them. A bastard girl raised up in the orphanage, legitimised by the Hand of the King at a feast, married to a knight by Valyrian custom no one has dared invoke since Maegor. There is no part of me they will not pick apart. And the people who want to hurt the royal family, the Blackfyres, the malcontents, all of them, they will look at us and they will see soft targets. Mira. The babies. You. They will come for us. They will come for us and it will be because of me, because of who I am, I never asked for any of this, and I never wanted any of it, and I—"

"Cassie."

"And what about you, Arthur? What about the orphanage? The progress you have made in the keep? All of it is going to be tangled up in this now, every conversation you have, every duty you take, will be coloured by what people think they know about us, I have ruined it, I have ruined everything just by existing, just by being his, and I—"

"Cassie!" He shushed her with a finger pressed gently to her lips and then folded her properly into his arms again, drawing her against his chest where he could feel the wet heat of her tears soaking through the front of his tunic. "It's going to be all right," he said softly into her hair. "Do you hear me, my love. It is going to be all right. I promise you."

"You cannot promise that, Arthur."

"I can. And I do. Whatever comes, we will face it together. We are not without resources and we are not without allies and we are not without our own strength. I will not let anything happen to you. I will not let anything happen to Mira. I will not let anything happen to the children. That is my word."

Cassie laughed against his chest.

Mira had moved closer and now had her arms wrapped around both of them from one side. Her cheek rested against Cassie's shoulder. "He is right, Cass," she said softly. "We have come through worse than this. We will come through this."

Rhaella's hand had stayed on Cassie's. The princess's thumb stroked gently along her cousin's knuckles. "And you are not alone in any of this either," Rhaella said quietly. "Whatever else may come, the royal family will protect its own. I will see to that personally if I have to. You are my blood cousin Cassandra."

Cassie nodded against Arthur's chest, but the tension in her body had not entirely gone. For a long time the only sound in the room was her slow breathing. Eventually Arthur let out a long breath of his own.

"After the babies are born," he said quietly, "and you are both fit to travel. We are going to leave."

The hand Mira had on his back tightened slightly.

"Where," she asked.

"I am not entirely sure yet. I have been turning it over since I left the council chamber. Pentos, perhaps. Or Lys. Or even further east. There are a hundred cities across the Narrow Sea where a knight with a strong arm can earn good coin, and not one of them gives a damn about Westerosi politics. We could find a small house somewhere, with an orchard or a vineyard or a view of the sea. The babies can grow up in sunlight instead of in a snake pit."

Mira let out a slow breath that sounded suspiciously close to relief.

Rhaella was quiet however.

When Arthur looked up at her, the princess's violet eyes had gone slightly bright in the candlelight, but her face was perfectly composed. "I think," she said, very softly, "that is probably wise. I do not want to lose you, any of you. But I would rather you were safe and far away."

"Rhaella—" Cassie started.

"It is all right, Cass. I mean it. You should go." Rhaella's smile was small and very tired. "Just write to me sometimes, will you? Tell me what your children are like . Tell me the names of the streets in your new city. Tell me that you are happy."

Cassie squeezed her hand without speaking.

After a moment Cassie sniffled and lifted her head from Arthur's shoulder. "What about the orphanage," she asked. "The children. Alys. They... they need help, Arthur. They cannot be left to fend for themselves."

Arthur let out a sleigh and rubbed a thumb along her cheek to wipe away a fresh tear. "They will not be left to fend for themselves. Before we leave I will see to it that they have enough gold to keep them fed and clothed and warm for the next ten years at least. I will speak to the most reliable of the merchants in Flea Bottom and have a steady supply arranged. I will set up a proper steward to manage it. The orphanage will be better off after we leave than it has ever been in its life. I promise you that." He paused. "But right now, my love, my only concern is you. And Mira. And the children. Everything else can wait."

Cassie looked up at him for a a moment, she then leaned up and kissed him.

It was a long passionate kiss, salty with the tears still drying on her cheeks. Arthur kissed her back gently, both hands cradling her face, he felt her exhale against his lips like she had been holding that breath since she walked out of the great hall.When they parted she rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," he murmured. "More than there are stars in the sky, Cassie."

Mira's arms had not left them. Now she leaned in and pressed a kiss to Arthur's temple, and then to Cassie's. "We love you," she said softly, including all of them in it. "We are going to be all right."

Arthur drew Mira in and kissed her properly, his hand at the nape of her neck, while Cassie pressed her face into the warm curve of his throat. Mira's lips moved slowly against his, her free hand came up to rest against his jaw. Cassie's hand slid up Arthur's chest and curled into the front of his tunic. Mira's thumb stroked along his cheekbone.

Arthur felt the worst of the rage finally start to leech out of him. He couldn't be mad when he was kissing the women he loved.

*CRACK*

The keep shook.

A massive crash rolled through the stone walls of the chamber like thunder. The candles guttered and one of them tipped over and went out. A small clay cup on the side table jumped and rattled. Somewhere in the corridor outside a woman screamed.

Everyone in the room froze.

Arthur was on his feet in an instant, one hand already moving to the hilt of Sunset where he had set it down by the bench.

"What in the seven hells was that," he breathed.

────────────────────

[QUEST ACQUIRED]

────────────────────

ATTACK ON KING'S LANDING

────────────────────

Description:

An enemy force has somehow slipped past the royal fleet in the Blackwater and the watchful eye of Dragonstone. Their ships now sit within range of the city walls, and their fire rains down upon the capital. King's Landing burns. Stop them before the city falls.

────────────────────

Objectives:

• Join the defenders

• Defeat the enemy force

Optional Objectives:

• Slay the enemy commander

────────────────────

Rewards:

• 3,000 XP

• Skill Upgrade Token

• Character Template

────────────────────

Failure:

• King's Landing falls

• Unknown consequences begin to unfold

────────────────────

Arthur dismissed the notification with a thought and crossed the chamber to the balcony as quickly as he could. He shoved the doors open and stepped out into the night air. The view from Mira and Cassie's chambers looked out over the Blackwater Bay, and the sight that greeted him made the breath catch in his chest.

The dark water glittered with the light of dozens upon dozens of ships.

They sat in a curved line just within range of the city's outer walls, their decks bristling with the unmistakable silhouettes of catapults and scorpions. Even as he watched, fire bloomed along the line of ships in a rolling wave, one vessel after another loosing their payloads in a coordinated volley.

Burning stones and pitch arced up and over the night sky like a swarm of falling stars, and a heartbeat later the second wave of them began to crash down into the streets and rooftops of King's Landing, making another deep boom roll across the bay.

A section of the outer wall near the Mud Gate shuddered visibly under the impact. Arthur saw a tower of black smoke begin to rise from somewhere near the docks. Bells had begun to ring across the city, faint at first, then louder as more of them joined in, the alarm spreading from one district to the next like fire through dry grass.

"How..." Arthur breathed.

It was impossible. The Blackwater was patrolled day and night by the royal fleet. Plus any enemy fleet sailing down the Narrow Sea would've been flanked from Dragonstone. The Velaryon ships were stationed precisely to prevent exactly this kind of attack from reaching the bay.

There had been no warning.

There had been no ravens.

There had been no riders.

Nothing.

How had they got through?

He spun back into the room. Mira and Cassie had risen from the bench, both of their faces pale, while Rhaella was moving for the door.

"Mira. Cassie." Arthur said sternly. "Listen to me carefully. We are going to Maegor's Holdfast. Right now."

"What is happening," Mira asked, her voice full of worry.

"Arthur, what was that," Cassie said almost on top of her.

"Was the city—"

"Are we under—"

"Listen." Arthur cut through both of them with a hand raised. "The city is under attack. There are ships on the bay and they are throwing fire over the walls. That is everything I know. I do not have time to explain more. We are going to Maegor's holdfast right now."

The two women fell silent.

"Good." Arthur was already moving to scoop a heavy cloak off the back of a chair and drape it around Cassie and Mira's shoulders. "Up. Both of you. Stay close to me. Rhaella, lead the way."

Rhaella nodded quickly and pulled the door open. Arthur took one of Cassie's arms and supported her on his right while Mira braced herself against his left, and the four of them moved out into the corridor at the fastest pace the two pregnant women could safely manage. The keep shook again as another impact landed somewhere closer this time, and Arthur felt the vibration through the soles of his boots.

They had taken perhaps a dozen steps when Cassie suddenly stiffened beside him with a loud gasp.

"Arthur—"

Her knees buckled, but luckily Arthur caught her on instinct, his arm tightening around her waist, he felt her whole body lock up against him. Her free hand flew to the underside of her belly and her face went white.

"Cassie? What is it, what—"

A dark wet warmth spread across the front of her gown.

"Oh," Mira breathed.

Cassie made a frightened noise in the back of her throat and her fingers dug into Arthur's tunic. "Arthur. Arthur, I think—" Another tight gasp tore out of her as the first contraction took hold properly, her knees would have given out entirely if his arm had not been around her. Tears sprang into her eyes immediately, partly from the pain and partly from sheer panic, and she clung to the front of his tunic with both hands. "Arthur, it is too soon, it is too soon, the baby cannot come now—"

"Babies do not check the calendar, my love," Arthur said grimly, even as his heart hammered against his ribs.

He scooped her up off her feet without breaking stride, one arm under her knees and the other around her shoulders. Cassie cried out at the motion, her face pressing into his neck, and her whole body curled toward him. He turned to Rhaella, who had gone very pale but was already gathering her skirts in one hand.

"Rhaella, please run and get the midwives. Bring them to the holdfast. Go."

The princess did not argue. She turned and bolted down the corridor at a pace that no proper Targaryen princess had any business moving at and disappeared around the corner.

"Mira. Stay next to me, keep the cloak around her," Arthur said as he turned towards her.

Mira was already there, one hand keeping the fabric wrapped around Cassie's lower body, the other hooked into Arthur's belt to keep herself balanced. They moved together at the fastest careful pace Arthur dared, his arms full of his shaking, gasping wife and Mira's free hand never leaving him. The keep shook a third time as they passed the great staircase, and a small piece of carved stone broke loose from a corbel above their heads and shattered on the floor a few paces behind them.

Cassie sobbed against his neck. Another contraction rippled through her and she let out a cry that he felt vibrate through her entire body.

"I have you," Arthur murmured, over and over, low and steady against her ear. "I have you, Cassie. I have you. I am not letting go. We are almost there. Almost there, my love."

Maegor's Holdfast loomed at the centre of the Red Keep, the great square fortress within a fortress, ringed by its own dry moat full of iron spikes. The drawbridge was already down and being lowered further by guards who clearly understood what was happening, and a steady stream of women and children was being ushered across it.

The guards saw Arthur coming and parted for him at once. He carried Cassie across the drawbridge at a near run, Mira hurrying along at his heels. Inside the holdfast the corridors were already in chaos as women being directed to various chambers depending on their station, and Arthur shouldered through the crowd.

He found a chamber off the main hall that had a bed and a hearth and was not yet occupied. He carried Cassie inside, laid her down on the bed as gently as he could, and immediately knelt beside her to brush the sweat-damp hair back from her brow. "You are safe now," he said softly. "You are in the holdfast. The walls here have stood for hundreds of years and they are not going to fall tonight. Do you hear me, Cassie? You are safe."

"Don't—" Cassie's hand caught his wrist with surprising strength. Her eyes were full of tears. "Don't go, Arthur. Please don't go."

"Cassie."

"Please. Please. I can't do this alone. The baby is coming, I am scared, I dont want to do this without you, please—"

The door opened behind him. Two young women in fine but rumpled gowns slipped into the chamber, looking around wide-eyed before their gazes settled on Arthur and Cassie. The Velaryon daughters. Taera and Vaera. Their silver-gold hair was loose and they had clearly been bundled here in a hurry, but their faces lit up with relief when they recognised him.

"Ser Arthur," Taera said breathlessly.

Arthur looked up at them and made a snap decision.

"My ladies. Forgive me. I have to ask something of you. I cannot stay. Could you please, both of you, sit with my wives until the midwives come? Cassie's water has broken. She is going into labour. She needs people she can trust beside her, and I have to go and join the defence."

The two sisters exchanged a single quick glance and then both of them nodded almost in the same motion. "Of course," Vaera said immediately. "Of course we will. Go, Ser Arthur. Go and do what you must. We have her."

Taera was already moving past him to take Mira's hand and lead her toward the bed, murmuring soft words of comfort as she went.

"Thank you," Arthur said quietly.

Cassie's hand had tightened on his wrist. He turned back to her and her tear-filled eyes were locked on his face. "Arthur, please—"

He bent and pressed his forehead to hers.

"My love. Listen to me. I am sorry. I am so sorry. I would stay if I could. I would stay with you for every breath of this if there was any way at all. But the city is burning land if I do not go and help to stop them then this entire keep may not be standing by morning, and our child may not have anywhere safe to be born into. Do you understand me? I have to go. I have to. I will come back to you. I swear it. I will come back."

"Arthur, please don't, please, I—" A contraction hit her mid-sentence and she cried out and arched on the bed, and her grip on his wrist went briefly slack.

He kissed her brow, and then her lips and then he was on his feet and moving for the door before the next wave of pain finished moving through her. Mira caught his eye as he passed. There was a question in her face and a great deal of fear and, beneath both of them, a grim and absolute trust.

"Look after her," he said.

"Always," she answered.

He kissed Mira too and then he was through the door and out into the corridor. Behind him he heard Cassie sob his name once more. It nearly broke him in half but he kept walking.

The keep shook again as he crossed back over the drawbridge of Maegor's, and he felt the impact roll up through his bones. Out in the open courtyard he could see the orange glow of fires beginning to bloom across the city beyond the walls, the smoke rising in dark columns against the moonlit sky. Somewhere out over the Blackwater another rolling boom announced another volley.

How... how was this happening.

He walked fast through the corridors as he turned the question over and over in his head. The royal fleet had been at full strength the last anyone had reported. There were watchtowers along the coast, beacon fires, scouts on every relevant headland. There was no way for a fleet of that size to reach the Blackwater without being seen days in advance. None.

Which meant either someone had been bribed to look the other way, or someone in the chain of command had been turned.

Or both.

That thought sat in his stomach as he climbed the stairs of the White Sword Tower two at a time. The corridor outside his small chamber was empty. He shoved the door open, stepped inside, and shut it behind him.

His armour stand stood against the far wall, his full plate hanging on i. He stripped out of his feast tunic and breeches and tossed them onto the bed. The padded gambeson came first, then the mail shirt, then the breastplate buckled and tightened. Greaves. Sabatons. Cuisses. Vambraces. Pauldrons settled and laced. The gorget around his throat. He did not bother with the helm yet, he simply tucked it under his arm.

He lifted Sunset from where he had laid the sword on the table and slid it home into the scabbard at his hip. The hidden blade went onto his left forearm and locked into place with a small soft click.

Arthur paused for a moment in front of the small polished bronze mirror on the wall and looked at himself.

A knight in full plate looked back at him.

Ser Arthur Pendragon.

He drew a m breath, let it out, and turned for the door, it was time to go to Battle.

(AN: I told you things would be ramping up. Who is the mysterious enemy that has the audacity to attack Kings Landing? Will Arthur and the others be able to fend them off? Find out next time on... anyway hope you enjoyed.)

Support if ya want.

Patreon.com/captainalfie78works