In the Westerlands, in the castle of Casterly Rock, a broken young lord was trying to make his way through his castle. Casterly Rock was not so much a castle as a cliff that rose high over the horizon, overlooking the ocean and the city of Lannisport. It was said that the cliff looked like a roaring lion when you looked upon it at sunset from the west. Over time rooms, tunnels, and stairs had been carved out inside out of it, and towers and walls had been built atop, making the whole cliff a castle in itself. This was the place House Lannisters called theirs. This was the place Tyrek Lannister was now the reigning lord of.

The young lord should be in bed, letting his injuries from the battle at Highgarden heal. But Tyrek couldn't sleep. When he tried he just saw blood in front of him and heard the screams of men dying. So instead he hobbled out of his bedroom on his crutches. He needed to get used to using them anyway because the maesters had not been able to save his injured left leg. The wound had become infected and the leg had to be amputated right below the knee.

Tyrek was so tired of being in his room at this point. Looking at a leg that wasn't there anymore. Having his wife look at him like he was broke beyond repair. Which he in fact was. So even though he was still weak from the fever that had come with the infection, he wanted to try to get up to the garden in the courtyard of the castle. Because he needed to see something else than the walls of his room.

There was one massive obstacle in his way though, the stairs leading up from the tunnels where his bedroom was located to the garden in the upper courtyard. Tyrek had never even thought of these stairs before when he made his way through the castle. But now they seemed impossible to conquer.

He realized suddenly how many damn stairs his castle had, the place was riddled with them. Stairs, narrow tunnels, and uneven rock paths, none which were made to be traversed on crutches. It made him feel trapped, to know that for the rest of his life just getting around his own castle would be a challenge. Although since almost all of his armies had been annihilated at the battle at Highgarden he might not be able to hold Casterly Rock anyway.

But right now Tyrek just needed to get up those stairs. He needed to get out of the dark tunnels, he needed to be able to breathe, he needed to see the sky above him. So he put first one crutch and then the other up on the first step, then moved his remaining leg up as well. This method worked for quite a few steps, he could almost see the sky above him. Then he must have placed the crutch wrong and it fell as he leaned on it. And Tyrek fell too. His crutches slid down to the bottom of the stairs again. He managed to stop his fall with his right leg after a few steps and was left sitting in the middle of the stairs. Not really knowing how to get up or down.

Tyrek cried. Because he hated being so helpless and crippled. Knowing that he would be for the rest of his life.

His wife Talla must have heard the commotion from his crutches rattling down the stairs because she was suddenly standing down below.

"What are you doing up, Tyrek?" Talla asked.

"Being useless..." was heard in a trembling voice from halfway up the stairs.

Talla picked up his crutches and made her way up the stairs and sat down next to her young husband. Who was currently crying uncontrollably. She put her arm around his shoulder and pulled him in close to her, kissing the blonde curls on the top of his head.

"You're not useless," she said.

"I'm a boy, pretending to be a lord, who just lost all my forces and my leg because I walked into a trap. I would say I'm pretty darn useless."

"It was your cousin who sent you there, it wasn't your choice. If anyone is useless it's him. You fought as well as you could."

He looked up at his wife. Her hair was in a messy braid instead of in an intricate hairstyle and her face was without any makeup. She was still so pretty. And so confident and assured. Even when her teenage husband was crying in her arms about his life-changing battle injury. Even when they had basically no armies left to defend themselves and their castle. Even when the world was shattering around them.

"Well, I won't listen to Tyrion again," Tyrek said. "I won't be his pawn anymore. I know that's why he put me here. He thinks he can tell me what to do, and look where that got me."

"I won't listen to them anymore either," Talla replied. "Not to my brother Sam or your cousin. They arranged our marriage but they don't control us."

"You can leave me if you want, Talla. I wouldn't blame you. No one would. You didn't marry a cripple. You married a pretty boy who could sire children."

"Why would I leave you? You're the same man I married. You're still pretty darn pretty, even when you're this sad. And I don't think you need your leg to sire children."

Tyrek freed himself from her arms and looked at his wife with a slight smile on his face. It was the first time his wife had seen him smile since his injury.

"I guess that might be the only thing I am good for these days."

"Whenever you're ready I'm here."

"I'm just not... there yet. I'm too broken, how could you even want me?."

"You're not broken, Tyrek. It's only a leg. You'll get use to living without it. The doctors said you'll probably be able to use a wooden leg eventually."

"I know... but fuck! I'm still so young and I will have to live the rest of my life without my left leg. I won't ever run again. I won't be able to go to battle. And apparently stairs are now my constant enemy. Even with a wooden leg, I'll still need crutches most of the time."

"But you're alive. Which is more than I thought you would be by now when they brought you in. You were soaked in blood but still somehow so pale. And you were burning up with fever. They told me taking your leg could save your life and I let them do it."

"And I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful I'm still alive. Because I didn't think I would be when I stood on that battlefield. I thought it would be my last day in this world."

"But it wasn't. So what's one leg in exchange for a whole life? You get to have children, you get to be happy, you get to live."

"Thanks to Robin. I owe him my life. If he hadn't come and we would have all died on that battlefield."

"I'm very grateful to Lord Arryn for that. I'm grateful that you're still here with me Tyrek."

She patted him softly on the upper part of what remained of his left leg. He winced as she did.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It doesn't really hurt, it's just... weird. Like I can feel the leg that isn't there still. And touching it reminds me of the surgery."

"I heard your screams."

"I felt it all. I didn't really know what was happening because of the fever and the sedation but I felt the pain. And I couldn't move since they had strapped me down."

Tears were starting to well up again as he thought of it. Talla saw this and put her arms around Tyrek again, embracing him from the side.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, my sweet husband."

"It's what had to be done for me to live."

She nodded and leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Now let's get you up these stairs, we can't sit here all night."

She took his arm and put it around her neck. Then they got up together and step by step they made their way up to the garden.

As the sky opened up around him Tyrek immediately felt much better. He felt free up here. Where willowy trees with deep red flowers surrounded a small pond. Cicadas were creaking and the leaves rattled in the wind. The moonlight reflected in the pond and made the whole garden shine brightly.

Talla helped Tyrek sit down on a bench and went to get his crutches from the stairs. Then she sat down next to him on the bench.

"I guess getting up was only half the battle," he said and looked towards the stairs. "I have a feeling getting down those stairs will be even worse."

"We'll do it together, one step at the time," she said. "And that's what we'll do with everything. We'll figure it out, together. We won't let ourselves get led into another trap."

Tyrek nodded and reached out his hand towards Talla. She grabbed it and squeezed it tightly.

"Maybe we should start by moving our bedroom up here, there are unused bedrooms in the towers. That will solve one problem at least... I can't avoid all stairs but at least I won't be trapped in those tunnels. I am the lord of this castle, I'm quite sure I can decide where I sleep."

Talla smiled at her young husband.

"Then that's where we'll start. One step at the time."

Tyrek squeezed his wife's hand back. He might have lost his leg and most of his armies. But at least he had her.

***

In the Vale, in the castle of the Eyrie, a disarmed young lord was sitting in the High Hall. It was the middle of the night and the hall was cold as the wind kept streaming in through the moon door. Candlelight lit up the hall and created eerie shadows on the walls.

Robin Arryn was staring at the moon door. Contemplating if he should throw himself out through it. Crying about what he had lost.

Robin had lost his father and the idea of who he himself was. He was just a pretender, a bastard, a usurper of a title and castle he shouldn't really hold. He wasn't Robin Arryn at all.

But no one could know that. So he had given away half of his armies. He had let the king kill his wife's father without avenging him. And he had walked away. All to hide the horrible truth of who he actually was. The son of the man who killed his mother.

Robin had done what he did not to lose his wife. But it seemed like he had lost her anyway.

Desmera had locked herself in their bedroom after Robin told her what had happened to her father. It was several days ago and she hadn't left the room since. He could hear her crying if he walked up to the door. But she wouldn't let him in. She wouldn't talk to him. She wouldn't acknowledge him.

But his wife was still there, which meant Robin had not lost his child. And that was the one thing that kept him from jumping. The thought of the child his wife was carrying. He couldn't leave that child behind. He had to protect it. He had to make sure no one knew the truth.

Suddenly Robin heard a voice. The voice of his wife. She was suddenly standing right in front of him. He must not have noticed her entering the hall as he was covering his face in his hands.

She was as beautiful as ever, despite her hair being messy and her eyes being red from crying. But as Robin's eyes panned up and met hers he saw none of the love or care that used to be there. He saw only contempt.

"You'll freeze to death sitting here," Desmera said. She held a blanket under her arm and handed it to her young husband.

Robin took it. His hand brushed against hers slightly as he did. That small touch sparked a jolt through his whole body. Remembering how much he loved her. And realizing how much she hated him now. It hurt.

"I don't care if I freeze, " he said. "After what I did I deserve to freeze."

"You let my father die, Robin. So I agree. But you are still my husband, I can't just let you kill yourself."

"Lord Redwyne would have died anyway. No matter what I did."

"You say that but how I am supposed to believe you? You won't even tell me why you did what you did? You gave the king your armies and walked away. You looked on as he had my father beheaded. You could have told your men to attack, to avenge his death, to take the capital."

"I couldn't."

"Why couldn't you, Robin? You stood right there! You had 20 000 men behind you! You could have taken his crown for yourself!"

"The king knows something about me, something no one can know."

"How could he know something like that? And why can't you tell me what it is? I'm your wife."

"The king has powers... he can find out truths no else knows."

"And you expect me to believe that? That he knows a secret truth you can't even tell me."

"It doesn't matter if you believe me. It's still the truth and no one can know. For the sake of our child."

Desmera stared at Robin in disbelief for a moment.

"How do you know about the child?" she asked her tone suddenly a bit softer.

"So it's true then? You're carrying my child?" he asked back, looking up at her eyes that were suddenly not as hateful anymore.

She nodded in reply.

"How did you know?" she repeated.

"The king. He told me. Do you believe me now that he knows truths no one should know?"

Desmera nodded again.

"And he knows something that can hurt this child?" she asked.

Robin just nodded back. Desmera got closer to him as he did and sat down next to him.

"I believe you," she said. "I believe he knows something that could hurt us. But you need to tell me what it is."

"I just can't..."

"Then I can't forgive you, not until you tell me. I need to know what my father died for, and what might hurt my child."

"But will you take my child from me?"

"I won't. Because this child will need a father. It will need everything you can give it, your name, your title, your castle."

Robin just nodded. He wanted to tell her. But he couldn't. Because if he did his wife would know he might not be able to give their child any of those things. Then Desmera wouldn't just take her love from him, she would also take their child.

His wife got up from her seat next to him and she started to walk away from him. Her red hair moved in the wind blowing in from the moon door. Robin knew she would lock herself in their bedroom again.

"I love you, Desmera", he said as she walked away from him, in a desperate attempt to at least make her turn around and look at him once more. Before she disappeared again.

Desmera turned again and looked at him again, her eyes once again so full of contempt. But Robin was still was happy that she even deigned to look at him once more.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "It doesn't even matter that I love you too. What matters is what happened. Why you did what you did. What you won't tell me. Until you do I won't allow myself to love you anymore."

She had never told him she loved him before. But just as she said, it didn't matter now.

"Just please don't leave, Des," he said in a pleading voice as tears started to well up in his eyes once more.

"I wish I could leave, Robin," she said with a sigh. "I wish I could go home to my mother and grieve with her. I wish I had never laid with you. Because then I could say our marriage wasn't consummated, and I could walk away from you. But I can't do that. Because we did lay together and we will have a child because of it."

Desmera turned around again and as she did the wind blew her dress around her and made it cling to her belly, making the tiny bump that was forming there visible. Robin saw it and suddenly it all became so real to him. There was a real child there, a child that was his, and he would do anything to protect that child. Even if it meant his wife would never love him again.