#because now she's first and foremost established as a captor

[thissmycomingofage]

I'm still not over how creepy Love In Paradise is. Calypso literally says to Ody that he's trapped with her, forced to love her and to sleep with her. Then next scene of the two together she says "Love, come back to bed" like...I'm sure that was not Jay's intend but that made my skin crawl. He's trapped with her against his will and I'm supposed to feel genuine worry from her??? That she expresses by telling him to come back into his captor's bed ?? She's his abuser plain and simple, and she inspires me nothing but disgust.

[rhymesswith]

Chapter 3 scene 6 (part 2)

JAIME

Jaime doesn’t need to go looking for Bran Stark as much as the young man is, in his usual uncanny way, laying in wait directly in his path. The courtyard had once held a godswood, but at some point it had been brutally razed. Based on the dust laying over the charred stumps, Jaime would guess that it was years ago on Stannis Baratheon’s order, likely at the behest of his red priestess. Bran’s chair has made tracks in the scorched dirt leading to the centre of the yard where the largest stump sits. Wide enough for two grown men to lay across, it must have been a truly magnificent tree. Jaime stops on the other side of the stump; Bran watches him with a vague smile.

“You know that’s unnerving, right?” Jaime has to ask.

Bran’s expression doesn’t change, but he offers a small shrug, “What is the use of having these powers if I don’t wield them? People will get used to it or they won’t.”

“Well that is true enough. I wonder, how will you wield them for your new queen?”

Finally a flicker across his face, the boy’s dark brows twitch together. “Why, just as the terms that were agreed upon by the council. I will act as an emissary between the kingdom and the territories, providing an invaluable bridge of communication across the lands to ensure the peace and security of the realm.”

Ah. It’s just as Jaime had suspected, this raven’s third eye seems to have a blind spot. The past, the present, the future, nothing is out of range, except it seems, for the hearts of men. “I’m going to offer you some advice, to do with as you may. You are to be Daenerys Targaryen’s spymaster; that is why she demanded that you stay here as part of the agreement. She gave your sister what she’s always wanted, what nobody ever thought she’d give, and in return she gets you. Who needs a network of spies when she’s got the three-eyed raven? The North may have been granted independence, but don’t mistake that for freedom.”

Based on his deepening frown, Jaime has actually managed to take Bran Stark by surprise. “You are suggesting,” he says, leaning forward in his chair, “that I would betray my family.”

“I am suggesting that you might not have a choice. You are to be a hostage, first and foremost. That’s no secret, the great families have been taking hostages from each other for all of our history, to ensure peace, cooperation, the preservation of the established power structures. The difference is that you also provide your captor with limitless information about the movement of her enemies. And you won’t be able to refuse her. You will be alone, separated from your family, unprotected.”

“Queen Daenerys wants peace.”

“For now. King Aerys wanted peace for many years. Daenerys has more of her father in her than she’d care to admit, do not doubt that her potential for savagery is as great as his. I served my king for as long as I could, but eventually the day came that he asked me to serve in a way that I could not bring myself to, and I was forced to make a choice. It ruined me, but I would do it again a thousand times over. The day may come where you are forced to make the same decision. So it would be wise for you to start thinking about what your line is.”

“You are aware that I can see the future, Jaime Lannister? What I see is peace and harmony.”

“But are your futures set in stone? Did you not claim to see your own death at the hand of the Night King, did you not see the endless night? Yet that did not come to pass. Things change because people change, it’s in our nature. And madness is hard to predict. And there is madness in your queen, make no mistake. My brother saw it, that is why he was willing to die to put an end to the war before it had a change to bloom. She would have burned that city to the ground if we had failed to negotiate the surrender. Thousands more innocents would have died at her hand. I hope that you’re right, and this peacetime is long lasting, but let your visions blind you to what is happening in front of you. Watch them Bran, with your own two eyes.”

The boy - for that’s what he is still a boy with less than twenty years still - stares at him for a long while before saying softly, “I will take your council into consideration.”

“That’s all I am asking.”

Bran nods, his brow smoothing out. “Before you leave would you do something for me? I would do it myself but- you know.” He gestures to his dead legs.

“Of course.” Anything.

“See in the centre?” He points to the giant stump, where the middle is nothing but mulched up old cinders. “Dig a hole there.”

As absurd as it sounds he doesn’t appear to be joking. Jaime obliges, his boots crunching unsteadily on the burnt husk. When he reaches the dip in the middle he looks at Bran who nods encouragingly. Feeling like a madman he kneels in the ashes and starts to dig. The top layer is light and dusty, scooped easily away. Then he hits tougher, more compacted coals that he has to break into pieces to remove. Then his fingers, blackened past the wrists from the grim, hit something different. Carefully he scoops the dirt out from around it, uncovering a crooked, unburnt root. And from it, cradled in the twist, a slender green sprout.

“You see,” Bran calls, although there’s no way he’s able to see it from where he’s sitting, “It’s not so hopeless really. There may be potential for bad, but there is equal potential for good. Sometimes we need to have trust that we’re on the good path.”

Jaime stands, an intense chill suddenly gripping his body. Wiping his hand on his pants he jumps down off the stump. “I hope you‘re right.” He tells Bran. “Please excuse me, I must be off. Good luck Bran Stark.” He hurried away, quite glad to be leaving the strange boy behind.

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Chapter one / previous / next

a/n: this scene is mostly jaime’s farewell tour, with his kinda getting shot down each time lmao my poor son.