EDITED: 8th Jan 2022

277AC

Tya had thought very little of Denys Darklyn's proposal at the time. She had been holding court from the Iron Throne - Aerys had been overcome with another fit of uncharacteristic piety and had decided to pray with the High Septon - when the proud Lord Darklyn had come before her with the desire to win a charter for Duskendale that gave the town more autonomy from the crown.

It was a foolish idea to ask, and she would have been a fool to agree. Tya refused him with some sharp words, and when he became angry at a woman telling him no and asked to speak to the king, she dismissed him with some even sharper ones. She then put the matter to the back of her mind - as close as Tya came to forgetting things - believing it sorted.

Darklyn had the nerve to come before the crown with a borderline insulting request for a charter, but she had never thought he would dare to start withholding his payments to the crown. Yet that was exactly what he did.

Evidently, during his time in King's Landing, the man had observed the relationship between King Aerys and Lady Tya; how when she suggested anything, he often made a point of doing the opposite, slighting her at every opportunity and delighting in the (very quiet) rumours that he was the father of her son Tyrion. A matter that she had believed to be a non-issue suddenly became a thorn in her side, as Lord Denys wrote directly to the king himself, inviting him to Duskendale - without the 'nagging presence' of his Hand - to hear his petition for a new charter himself.

It would be unwise for Aerys to accept the visit for multiple reasons, first and foremost that it set a terrible precedent; lords could not be seen to dictate their king's actions and get away with such insolence. Second, because if Darklyn was fool enough to withhold his payments from a court all but led by the woman who had destroyed the Reynes and Tarbecks for doing a similar thing, he was fool enough to do something rash like lay a trap for Aerys.

There were other layers to this, however. In the Small Council meeting where the king read out the letter from Lord Denys detailing all of this, Tya did not immediately weigh in on that matter for this reason. This was not unusual for her - she preferred to listen and then speak her piece at the end after judging the situation correctly, and people tended to do as she said - but now more than ever she needed time to think.

She knew that if she told the king to refuse the visit, Aerys may go anyway just to spite her. And perhaps it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for him to walk into a trap. Rhaegar could be king then; Tya was starting to feel more comfortable with her position in that event, considering how the prince still sought her out almost regularly to discuss various matters.

But if she encouraged the visit, and it was a trap - or even if Aerys refused to go because she told him to - there would no doubt be (reasonable) accusations of treason flying around. Accepting the invitation was such a blatantly stupid thing to do that for Tya - whom all could admit was not stupid, even if they despised her - to advise the king to accept was as good as a confession of wishing him dead.

No, she would have to work on the assumption that Darklyn wasn't as suicidally moronic as she feared - hoped? - he might be, and tell Aerys to avoid the visit on the basis of not indulging the demands of every lord who fancied a favour from the crown. And he would likely do the opposite.

So far, the king seemed to be leaning towards declining the invitation. Time to remedy that.

"I agree with you, your Grace," She said, and everyone seemed rather surprised; those words had become incredibly rare from her in recent years. "Darklyn presumes too much. If you intend to go to Duskendale, do so with an army and demand the gold he owes you. If he refuses, storm the town and remove his head - his heir should learn to obey well enough. Perhaps take a hostage for good measure, and you'll have no more trouble from Duskendale during your reign,"

Aerys' eyes narrowed and a nasty smirk twisted his lips.

"Oh, well if Lady Lannister thinks so, then let her will be done," He said mockingly. "You were the one who refused his charter in the first place, were you not? No wonder the man is acting this way - you have a remarkable talent in enraging men, my lady, for no particular reason other than you took an initial dislike. Perhaps his request was reasonable, and you refused out of a woman's pettiness. Perhaps I will go to Duskendale after all, just to hear him out,"

Tya did not have to fake the cold expression on her face, as Jason winced at her across the table, hiding his smirk behind his hand; whether he was laughing at her expense or the king's was anyone's guess, although it was likely both of them. Aerys was testing her out; he hadn't convinced himself yet. If she had a strong enough reaction, his mind would be swayed.

"Regardless of whether his request was reasonable, he should not act with such disrespect. Surely you should take it as an insult that he sees you as a soft touch to negotiate with, knowing I will not grant him what he wants? Your Grace, in the strongest possible terms I urge you to refuse this invitation,"

That did it.

"You have as much nerve as Darklyn!" The king scoffed. "You think me incapable of handling the situation without you hissing in my ear? Insidious woman! I will settle this myself, in person, and Duskendale will come to heel,"

And that was that. Whatever happened now, Tya was safe from any accusations of treason that may be thrown her way, and would be proven right whatever happened.

"Insidious woman!" Jason declared once they were back in the Tower of the Hand, earning him a glare. "Ha! I'll be using that from now on. I take back what I said about everything out of the king's mouth being foolish,"

"Did the king call you that, Mother?" Cersei was sat at the window and looked up with narrow eyes. The look on her face confirmed it, and her daughter's eyes flashed. "How do you bite your tongue and let him insult you like that?"

"It serves a purpose," She replied. "You must remember, Cersei, that openly rising to anger is rarely the best course of action,"

It was odd, Tya thought as she watched the king ride out of the castle with his small escort. For once she cared very little about how a situation turned out now she'd made her move. Either Aerys came back unsuccessful, angry and wanting an army, or he didn't come back at all. There was little chance of this negotiation going successfully; the king was impossible to negotiate with.

As predicted, the news came back within the week. Pycelle brought the letter straight to Tya, wheezing from having hurried from the rookery as fast as he could, and she couldn't even bring herself to hide her small amused smile. The Grand Maester was her creature through and through, he wouldn't tell anyone.

"Jason," She called out to her husband, on the other side of the room playing at wrestling with Tyrion and Damon. "Negotiations with the Darklyns seem to have deteriorated,"

"Is his Grace coming back with his tail between his legs to raise an army and pretend it was his idea all along?" Her husband asked hopefully, holding their giggling youngest son up by both ankles as Damon tried to save him.

"No," She replied. "His Grace will currently be sat in a cell awaiting rescue from our army - Lord Darklyn has made him a hostage,"

The situation was serious, of course, and outwardly Tya treated it as such, but inside she couldn't help but be amused. No one could blame this on anyone but Aerys and his arrogance. And Denys Darklyn, of course, although it didn't even need to be said that the man would pay for his actions. Not only had he taken the king prisoner and held him to ransom, but he had killed every member of Aerys' escort, including Ser Gwayne Gaunt of the Kingsguard.

It all fell to her to resolve, of course. Well, her and Jason; she set her husband in charge of the army sent to siege Duskendale by land and sea, while she ruled in King's Landing in the absence of the king and Master of Laws. Jason was a mediocre fighter but more than capable of commanding a force, and there would have been outrage if she had taken charge of it herself. Tolerating a female Hand was bad enough for many men, let alone a woman who led soldiers and knights on a battlefield.

Her husband ended up gone longer than she expected. Darklyn clearly recognised that his life was forfeit and the only hope he had was the fact Aerys was his hostage; he thus threatened to execute the king at the first sign of anyone trying to storm the town. It ended up as a stalemate; what else could be done?

Tya had a rather enjoyable half a year whilst Aerys was rotting in a dungeon somewhere. Her orders were followed to the letter, the japes and slights towards her stopped immediately - those who had done so before to win the king's favour now scraped and cringed for her own instead - and she managed to pass through many useful decrees that she had attempted to before but been stopped for no reason other than petty spite.

It got to the point, however, where waiting any longer would become ridiculous. The town had to be on its knees with hunger after all these months, just after winter too; what had Darklyn been thinking? But much longer and Aerys would starve to death, and no one would look any more favourably on her for that than they would if she ordered the town to be attacked and they executed him.

At least this way she would see him die.

Tya rode out to Duskendale herself. She hadn't been in a war camp since she was twenty, dealing with the Reynes and Tarbecks, and found it much the same. Full of bored men, desperate women and shit. Although on this occasion everyone knew why she was here, and there was a stir in the air; after months of waiting around, they would finally have a city to sack, and perhaps a dead king too, which of course only added to the excitement amongst the common soldiers.

Before she could even make it into the war council, however - she had scarcely dismounted her horse - Ser Barristan Selmy approached her and dropped to one knee in the mud before her, oh-so-nobly.

"My lady," He said, loud enough that the many people around them - lords and knights included - heard. "I beseech you, give me one night to enter the keep myself and attempt to rescue the king before you storm the town. I believe I can be successful, and would not be able to live with myself or my vows if I did not at least try,"

An outbreak of murmuring followed that statement. Oh, why did men have such moronic ideas? Did Selmy think he was the hero in a song? Barristan the Bold indeed.

But Tya could hardly refuse, for everyone knew that if they stormed the town now, it was likely that Darklyn would follow through on his threat and they would see Aerys lose his head on the battlements. A sweet sight that would be, too; one of the reasons she had come in person. If it got out - which it would - that Barristan Selmy himself had offered to save the king and she had refused...

"Very well," She granted, trying to keep the edge from her tone, locking eyes with her husband who looked as irritated by the turn of events as she felt. "You may try. If you can do such a feat before dawn tomorrow, Ser, we will all thank you for it," No need to give him much time to plan.

Denys Darklyn had evidently heard of Tya's presence in the camp outside his gates, and like everyone, he knew what that meant. The man appeared on the town's walls within hours of her arrival. At first, she did not recognise the emaciated wretch he dragged up with him, but then Jason swore quietly beside her and her eyes widened a fraction.

She had believed that the Darklyns were keeping the king in conditions fit for his station, at least, but Aerys had clearly been housed in a dungeon. His hair was long, filthy and matted, his once-fine clothes covered in dirt and mould, with shackles around his ankles and wrists. She couldn't see much more from here, but of course it would be much worse up close. Most striking of all, his head was hung and he didn't look up at all.

"As much as it amuses me to see him in such a state," Jason murmured so only she could hear. "If Selmy gets him out of there alive, he'll have lost any sanity remaining to him,"

She could only nod. Best pray he does not.

"Did you have to bring your wife to handle this for you, Lannister?" Lord Denys called out to them. His tone was desperate, underneath the bravado.

"Fine words, from a dead man," Jason replied with a leer.

"To you, Darklyn, Lady Tya might as well be the Stranger riding to Duskendale," One of the lords of the Crownlands heckled from nearby.

No doubt the man knew that already, for he did not reply. A woman with tanned skin who must have been his Myrish wife, Lady Serala, spoke instead.

"You hear that?" She actually elbowed the king cruelly. "Your favourite whore has come to save you. Or sign your death warrant, more like,"

Aerys did look up then, practically snarling at the woman, though a guard yanked on his chains, preventing him doing anything else. There were a few chortles from amongst their ranks, which were quickly silenced with one glance from Tya.

"Is Lady Serala deranged, do you think?" Jason turned to her, tone light. "Or just suicidal?"

"I'll see her hang alongside her husband for that," Tya replied evenly.

"Aerys won't let them off that easily," He said. "Nor us, for letting him languish for half a year there," He was right.

Again, Tya prayed that Selmy failed.

But of course, Barristan the Bold pulled off a miracle.

She was woken several hours before dawn that night by the knight, with an escort of guards, half-carrying the king into the tent she shared with Jason. It was presumably the only one large or grand enough, but she wished they had given her a warning. Why couldn't both of them just have been killed on the way out?

"Next time, announce yourselves," She said sharply, as all the men turned sheepishly around whilst she slid out of bed and put on a robe over her nightclothes.

Aerys had been placed in what was likely the one proper chair in the entire camp. He wasn't saying anything at all, just staring, the light from the torches held by the guards making his eyes flicker as though on fire.

"Your Grace?" She stayed back while Jason approached him carefully, knowing the sight of her would likely just set him off. "It is a gift from the Father himself - the greatest relief - that you are returned to us. Ser Barristan has done a great service to the kingdom this night," Tya could hear the sarcasm in his words, though doubted anyone else could.

Still Aerys remained silent. This close, she could see the cuts and bruises on every bit of exposed flesh she could see, the starved look of his face... the madness in his eyes.

"I want them dead," Finally the king spoke, his voice rasping and weak. "Dead, dead, dead and buried. Everyone in that cursed castle, dead. That wicked bitch most of all," For once he wasn't referring to Tya.

"Darklyn will surely surrender within the hour," Selmy spoke up, looking tired. He wasn't as young as he used to be, and sneaking into both the town and the castle would have taken it out of him. "We didn't leave quietly,"

Sure enough, the sounds of the town hurriedly stirring could be heard from here, even though it wasn't yet dawn. Yes, Duskendale would open their gates soon enough.

"No mercy," Aerys hissed, emaciated hands shaking as he greedily gulped down the cup of water someone had passed him, some spilling down his ragged beard. "Not for any of them. I want their heads and innards on spikes before the moon rises again. I want their castle razed to the ground. No mercy, only fire and blood,"

"I can see how poorly you were treated," Jason said sympathetically. Tya bristled as she recognised the same kind tone he sometimes used with her, to avoid offending her pride or patronising her, and he shot her a rather wicked look, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

"They threw me in a dungeon!" The king exclaimed, eyes shining with fury. "Left me to rot in the dark, with only rotten food and stale water, except when they dragged me up for that Myrish whore to taunt and torment, Darklyn not saying a word - me, the king!" He paused, breathing heavily. "I saw things, down in the dark,"

Aerys' eyes suddenly fell on Tya, standing in the darkest corner of the tent for the first time, and he froze.

"You," He said, getting to his feet as unsteady as a foal and waving away assistance from one of the guards. He pointed a shaking finger her way. "I saw you, in your wedding dress, playing tricks on my mind," Jason pulled a disgusted face behind him that only she would've seen. "You whispered sweet things and smiled one minute, then glared down at me and slit my throat the next," He took a step towards her, as Jason, Ser Barristan and the three guards watched in a horrified fascination.

"I can assure you, your Grace, that I was in King's Landing the entire time,"

"Do you take me for a fool?" He snarled. "I know you were,"

She had not gotten the non-patronising tone down quite as well as her husband, apparently.

He staggered, about to fall on his shaky legs, and seeing as she was the only one in reach, Tya had to be the one to move hastily forward to steady him. Aerys tripped against her, hands grasping at her shoulders. He both looked and smelled foul - like a dungeon - and his breath stank of rot, making her stomach turn.

He didn't let go of her when he steadied himself, however. The king reached out with one filthy, long-nailed hand and grabbed her none-too-gently by the jaw, tilting her head upwards to meet his eyes. She was very aware that her hair was loose and she only wore a thin robe and nightgown, both thankfully falling to her ankles; she'd never been around him in such a state of undress since her bedding ceremony.

"Tya," He said her name almost indecently, head tilting as he considered her. She made to pull back but he held firm, other hand snaking around her waist, preventing her from moving unless she was to force him. Which, in this state, he would no doubt take as an act of treason.

"Your Grace, let me assist you to your chair," Jason's tone was no longer amused, and she saw him step closer.

"Be quiet for once, Lannister," The king hissed, not taking his eyes off her.

"Let go of me," Tya spoke in a low voice, furious at him manhandling her in such a way. "Your Grace," The grudgingly given title belied her hatred.

"You are too proud by half," He sneered. "That Darklyn bitch seemed to envy you - the power you have, at least. She called you my whore," She held his gaze, refusing to cower, and saw the madness dancing there, so much worse than ever before. "Is that what you're here for, Tya?" She willed Jason not to say anything too angry, willed herself not to wrench her face out of his grasp and slap him soundly. "Or did you come to be my murderer instead? If Selmy hadn't volunteered, you'd have stormed the town and let them kill me. Don't look at me like that!"

The king spat the last part abruptly, tone somehow getting even nastier. His hand moved to grip her hair, yanking her head further backwards in a way that made her blood boil as she was pressed closer to him in order to keep her balance. Her robe slipped off her shoulder, yet she could not fix it.

"Your Grace - " Jason moved forward but she shot him a look that made her husband grind his teeth and stop where he stood.

"Get off me, Aerys," Tya forced her next words out from between her teeth, unable to make them sound amiable or reassuring as he disrespected her in such a blatant way, in front of her husband, Selmy and these guards.

"You dare presume to order your king - ?"

"I have never been your whore," She all but spat, cutting him off and not caring as his eyes bulged in anger. "As you well know. You also know that Darklyn would never have killed you - you were the only thing keeping him alive. We'd have sacked the town, then negotiated with the castle - your safe return, a couple of hostages and a hefty fine in exchange for sparing them. Then once you were returned, he and his wife would be dead,"

Chances are that's what would have happened. Or Darklyn would've killed the king out of spite when he realised all was lost, and wisely not trusted any offer from her lips. She could have lived with either option, though it wouldn't pay to say that now.

"He would have killed me!" The king's voiced raised abruptly, a bit of spittle flying from his mouth onto her face. She refused to flinch back, though his breath was still foul. "That wretch would have slit my throat like a pig and hung me from the walls whilst you watched and laughed!"

"What would you have had us do?" Tya lost her temper, even as his grip tightened in her hair. "We had sieged this town for six months - by the look of you, you'd have starved to death if we waited any longer! How would you rather die, weak and rotting in a cell knowing your army sat outside the walls, or perhaps out in the open with a chance of escape?"

Aerys laughed, high and cruel.

"As if you cared, so long as I was dead! You and my treacherous son planned for me to never make it out alive,"

"You know that's madness," She said coldly. "Rhaegar has little love for me. Besides, surely you realise that if I wanted you dead, you wouldn't be standing here now,"

There was a beat of silence after that, and Tya wondered if she'd gone too far. She didn't care. Aerys still had her by the hair, and she was focusing on not wincing.

"Your Grace," Jason had reached his limit. "Come, let us bring some servants to draw you a bath and get some clean clothes. Perhaps a meal, so you can look yourself when we deal with the Darklyns and Hollards - their fate is up to you, after all,"

Her husband's voice was almost as cold as her own. She had never seen Jason so openly angry, not in front of the king, though Aerys didn't seem to notice. It occurred to her that he had never seen how Aerys was at his worst with her before now, only heard of it after. She was thankful he had kept his temper and listened when she bade him not intervene earlier, waiting for a lull in the argument.

"A blessing that I never agreed to wed a pit viper like you," The king hissed at her. It's as though I begged for it. He released her hair, though, and she immediately stepped away, resisting the urge to brush herself down, though she did wipe the spit from her face. "For if we shared a son, you'd have killed me years ago to rule with him as a puppet," A fair assessment.

"A blessing for everyone that we do not," She replied, her fury at how he had disrespected her rising to such insurmountable levels that it was an effort to not shake with it. But she couldn't push her luck any further, or perhaps never again, not with the king so damaged and... and mad.

Aerys left with the guards and Ser Barristan, who shot her an almost apologetic look. Why was it men only ever showed sympathy when she was made weak and vulnerable in front of them, but were happy to glower at her the rest of the time?

Tya started to shake the moment the tent flap closed - in fury, not fear - pulling her robe back over her shoulder. She wanted nothing more than to grab the sword that lay on the table and run the king through with it, have him beg on his knees before her, make him regret every single time he had slighted or disrespected her.

"Seven hells," Jason came to embrace her, and she resisted the urge to throw him off out of pride, instead letting her head settle against his shoulder, though her eyes remained wide open. "He'll pay for that,"

"Yes," She replied, already planning how. "He will,"

*

Denys Darklyn surrendered as dawn broke, clearly knowing that all was lost. He begged for mercy on his knees outside the walls of Duskendale, lips spilling apologies and pleas for his family to be spared. Aerys ordered him beheaded with a manic glee, having described exactly what awful deeds he was going to do to his family.

The king was clearly going for the vengeance of legend, his own version of The Reynes of Castamere, though even Tya would admit that what he did at Duskendale that day was far worse than what she did in the west all those years ago.

Though the townspeople were spared the worst of it, every single soul in the castle was put to death, servants and guardsmen too. It made for a gruesome scene as Tya swept through the now eerily-silent castle, though her stomach was strong and she did not flinch from the countless bodies piled up in the halls, nor the foul stench of death. Blood, sweat, smoke, tears, burst bowels...

The members of House Darklyn and House Hollard, their allies, were rounded up and beheaded in front of a cowed audience of townsfolk. Men, women, children, old folk all met the headsman's axe, their crying and begging falling on the king's ears, who delighted to hear it. Barristan Selmy had to plead for the life of the youngest Hollard boy, a child named Dontos, to be spared, but the rest were slaughtered.

And Lord Denys' wife, Serala of Myr, suffered the worst fate of all. Her tongue was torn out first, then her womanly parts, before she was burned on the stake, screaming and screaming. The woman had insulted Tya, and she would've been glad to see her hang or beheaded like the rest, but unlike Aerys she took no joy in such gratuitous brutality.

Nor the fact that too many people were eyeing her as Lady Serala burned, as though this was what happened to all women who rose too high.

*

Anndddd the Mad King is fully fledged.

If you're wondering why Tya essentially let him disrespect her like that, she knows that he is dangerous and it's better to go along with it if she wants to keep her position and her head. I doubt Aerys ever acted that way with Tywin, but obviously this dynamic is a bit different. Tya doesn't have Casterly Rock to fall back on, being Hand is all she has, and she refuses to be irrelevant.

Not to mention she has already started plotting, which can only be to Aerys' detriment.

Please let me know what you think, and anything you want to see in the future! Thanks so much for all the reviews/comments/kudos, it really means a lot.