Chapter 22 - Chapter 22

𝓐𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓪

In all her life, Antea had never met someone so scared and obsessed as her aunt Lysa, Lady of the Eyrie, was. Of course her husband had been killed and of course she couldn't trust anyone, but the way she acted almost made it look like her aunt Lysa wasn't in her right mind anymore. 

Because of her order, Antea and her mother had to climb up the Eyrie at late night, because Lysa wanted to talk to Catelyn just to tell her that she didn't want to get involved in the Starks' quarrel with the Lannister. But they had killed her husband, how could she want to just hide in her high castle with her son?

Robyn Arryn, Antea's cousin, was now lord of the Eyrie. He was few years older than Rickon and in comparison Antea's little brother already seemed ready to go to war. Robyn was thin, as was his mother, thin and pale and he didn't make a move if Lysa wasn't with him. He was a lord, being young sadly didn't matter for them, not in times like those they were living. But Lysa didn't want for Catelyn to speak of political problems in his presence as much as she didn't want Shadow in her castle. Antea tried to convince her aunt that Shadow wouldn't even look at Robyn, but she wouldn't have it. So now Shadow was locked in a room far away from theirs and she was escorted out by three guards every day, as a prisoner who had committed some kind of crimes, as Shadow was a person. Not that the black pup listened. She had disappeared many times, arriving somehow in Antea's chambers. But the young lady had always brought her back for her mother's sake. 

Shadow was as much of a prisoner as the Imp was. The man of Lannister was locked in the Eyrie's cells. Lysa and Robyn kept saying that the man would have flown, but Antea really didn't know what that meant. She wanted to go home and be with Robb, but she had to be strong. She had promised her father that she would have helped her mother and she would have.

"Was she always like this?" Antea asked her mother an evening while brushing her hair.

"Antea" her mother said with a warning tone.

"I wasn't meaning anything by it" Antea shrugged her shoulders "Just she seems so…"

"Antea"

"Worried" she finished "I was going to say worried" her mother shook her head returning her gaze out of the window. Antea really didn't want to offend, but she wanted to know more about her aunt. That was the first time she had met her in her all life and she couldn't help but wonder if being so distant really changed people. She and her brother would have their own lives sooner or later, they were already so far from each other, someday could she really look at one of her siblings to find them different?

"She had been through a lot" her mother spoke suddenly and softly "People can change"

"How can you not change?" at Antea's question her mother looked towards her.

"I'm afraid that it's impossible not to change" Catelyn spoke again "Life it's not easy" 

She was right life wasn't easy, but if she was going to change, who would have she become? And her brothers? And her sweet sisters?

"But you don't have to forget. You can't forget" Antea looked at her mother.

"Forget what?" the girl asked.

A faint smile appeared on her mother's lips "What had been important for you and stay strong for them" Antea nodded her head in silence looking down at her hands resting on her lap. She already felt like changing, just few months back she had never thought of leaving Winterfell for a jurney like the one she was living. 

I want to go home, she thought. She wanted for things to go back like before... but it couldn't be. She was fighting for her family. She had to protect her family. And I will. 

Suddenly a knock came from the other side of the door. Antea's mother got up fixing her dress before walking to the door. She opened it to let a man of the Vale enter their room.

"Good evening, my ladies" he said bowing his head "Forgive me, but my lady Lysa requires your presence"

"What for?" asked Catelyn with a frown, but still with a kind tone.

"The Imp, my lady. He decided to confess" at his words Antea got up and walked to her mother, who was clenching her own hands. And nodding her head she spoke.

"Shall your lady receive me in her chambers?"

"No, my lady. In the main hall" Antea noticed her mother frown.

"The main hall?" it seemed that her mother wasn't very pleased with those words, but after a moment she spoke again.

"Very well" she said "I will be there in a moment" 

The man bowed one more time before exiting the chamber. As the door was closed Catelyn let out a deep breath that she was holding. Antea bit her lips. He was confessing. Tyrion Lannister was really going to confess his crimes against her family? What was going to happen now? If the little lord of Lannister confessed his crimes, did they really stop the war from happen? 

"What is wrong mother?" Antea asked while following her mother in the hallway of the castle.

"I would have preferred for a private meeting, not one in front of everyone" she said visibly tense. Antea frowned a little no understanding her mother's worries.

"Why?" her mother stopped before turning to her daughter.

"This is a very difficult situation" she almost whispered making sure no one was around "This man is no common man, Lannisters are very powerful as you know. In this moment Jamie Lannister is marching in the Riverlands to take back his brother. We can't make mistakes, especially in public"

"I don't understand" Antea said "We brought him here, why are you so worried?"

"Tyrion Lannister is my prisoner, yet Lysa is treating him as if he was hers and she is... instable right now" so she was thinking that too "We can't make mistakes" 

Antea didn't like that situation, she didn't want for her family to be in danger, she didn't want war. And moreover she couldn't help but think that all of that was so sudden. Tyrion Lannister had been with them for many days now and he tried to convince all of them that he was innocent. Surely he knew that confessing his crimes would have lead him to death and Tyrion Lannister didn't seem eager to lose his life. But maybe her aunt's prisons, the Sky Cells, could have been very hard to leave in. There was still something strange though.

When they entered the main hall Antea's aunt, Lady Lysa Arryn was sit on her high sit with a pleased expression on her face, surely eager to hear the little Lannister confess. The girl looked around but her eyes didn't spot her cousin, Robyn. He is probably already sleeping, Antea thought following her mother.

"See Cat" Lysa spoke with a grin "I told you it would have worked. He is going to confess" 

"Yes, Lysa" said Antea's mother nodding her head. 

The hall was crowded with knights and the lords of the Vale, all summound to hear what the lord of Lannister had to say. And not just them but even Ser Willis Wode and Ser Rodrick. Antea's heart ached to see the man, he was still pale from his wound, all of that for protect them and now he was in that room to fullfill his duty. The young lady smiled at him as Ser Rodrick looked at her and her mother. But not just them, even Marillon was there and he seemed very eager to listen to whatever was about to been said, of course for very different reasons from them, and Bronn the who was present at the back of the hall.

As the door opened all of them looked at the Imp entering. Antea's hands were sweating and she couldn't understand why. She wanted to hear that confession, how he tried to kill her little brother. It had been him, it had to be him. She felt nervous, she had always thought it was him, but now that he was about to confess was making all of that real and Antea felt like she had no control over her emotions. What would she has done if he spoke the worlds 'I tried to kill Brandon Stark'? What was to feel really angry? Wrath? She had never felt that, how was Antea Stark's wrath? 

Antea's eyes never left the little man of Lannister as her mother spoke "You wish to confess your crimes, we are told"

"I do, my lady" his answer was.

Lysa smiled at her sister "I told you. This is all thanks to the sky cells, the gods can see them from there, they can't hide. They always got broken"

"He does not look broken to me" Antea agreed with her mother worlds. He wasn't desperate, he was there looking at them with confidence. He didn't seem a man ready to confess his terrible crimes.

"Say what you will" Lysa paid not mind at Catelyn's words.

"Where to begin? I am a vile little man, I confess it. My crimes and sins are beyond counting, my lords and ladies. I have lain with whores, not once but hundreds of times. I have wished my own lord father dead, and my sister, our gracious queen, as well" someone in the hall chuckled but Antea could just look at the Imp with anger "I have not always treated my servants with kindness. I have gambled. I have even cheated, I blush to admit. I have said many cruel and malicious things about the noble lords and ladies of the court." other laughters could be heard around her and Antea couldn't help but feel anger rising. He was playing, those people were laughing while her little brother was crippled and she didn't even know if he was alive. She was tired of his games, of his words, of his attitude. She felt to tired and frustrated to being made fun of "Once I-"

"Silence!" Lysa roared. Antea felt a hand on her shoulder and when she turned she saw her uncle Brynden Tully with a concerned look. The girl had just realized she was shaking.

"What do you imagine you are doing?" Lysa asked with visible anger on her face.

"Confessing my crimes, my lady" the Imp answered simply.

At those words Antea's mother step forward "You are accused of sending a hired knife to slay my son Bran in his bed, and of conspiring to murder Lord Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King." 

"Those crimes I cannot confess. I know nothing of any murders" he said scrolling his shoulders. Antea's hands clenched on the fabric of her dress. She was doing everything she could not to talk, it wasn't her place.

"I will not be make fun of" Lysa roared "Brin him back to a smaller cell, with a floor more sloppy" Antea turned to her aunt. What kind of prison were the sky cells? 

"Isn't the Vale part of the Seven Kingdoms?" spoke the Imp "Where is the King Justice? You are accusing me of these crimes and I am denying them, you cannot throw me in jail and left me to starve and freeze. Am I accused? Very well, I demand a trial! Let me say my truth or falsehood be judged" murmuring rose in the hall. He was demanding a trial. Antea's thoughts went to her father and what he used to say to them, it was important to hear a man's words especially the last, a lord should look at him in the eyes and if he didn't feel that the man deserved to die it meant that the man shouldn't have died. It didn't matter how vile the crime was, it was important and honorable to listen to him. And it was undeniable that being a Lannister should help the Imp and his demand.

Lady Lysa's lips turned up in a petulant smile "If you are tried and found guilty you will pay with your blood. But here in the Eyrie we keep no headsman, my lord of Lannister. Open the Moon Door" People started to part and now Antea could see a narrow weirwood door with a crescent moon carved on it. As two guards opened the door a gust of wind entered the room. Antea's brow hair moved as the cloacks of the men in the hall and the young lady's eyes couldn't help but widening when she noticed that on the other side of the room there was nothing but the open sky. 

I want to see the little man fly, Robyn's words echoed in her mind. That was what he meant by that. They wanted to push Tyrion Lannister from that door. Antea looked toward her aunt in shock, it should not have been like that. That wasn't the right way. Tyrion Lannister was a lord and he should have been punished as one. There was no mercy in that death. Pushing Tyrion Lannister from that door would have made no difference from what Jamie Lannister had done to Bran. "Lysa" the voice of Catelyn made the young lady look at her "I think this is unwise" but once again the lady of the Eyrie ignored her. Antea could understand that she was in anger towards that man, but the Imp was Tyrion Lannister, son of Tywin Lannister, what would have happened if he knew that his son had been thrown out in the open sky? What would have happened then to Antea's father and her sister in Kings Landing? Tyrion Lannister was much more worth alive. 

"You shall have a trial, if you want one. My son will listen to whatever you wish to say, and you shall hear his judgment. Then you may leave... from one door or the other" After those words it was clear to all the people in the hall what fate was waiting for the little lord of Lannister, even the Imp himself.

"I thank you my lady" he said politely "But there is no need on troubling lord Robert. The gods know of my innocence. I will have their verdict. I demand a trial by combat" The lords in the hall snorted and begun to talk with each other. Antea's eyes fixed on the man of Lannister, he was a cunning man, there was no doubt on that, but who would have fought for the man who was under accuse.

How are you going to save yourself, lord Tyrion? Antea thought with a frown, trying to understand his plans. 

"You have that right" her aunt Lysa said looking uncertain. 

In the moment she gave permission to that trial, many lords of the Vale step forward to take the honor of gave justice to the lost lord Arryn. Antea looked at them, honor and loyalty was what let a realm to be safe, it was an honor to witness the most loyal action a lord could make.

At the end she chose Ser Vardis "My lady" he said kneeling down "pray give this burden to another. I have no taste for it. The man is no warrior. A dwarf half my size and lame in legs. It would be shameful to slaughter such man and call it justice"

At those words Tyrion nodded making Antea frown "I agree"

"You demanded a trial by combat" Lysa roared once again.

The man looked at her "And now I demand a champion, as you did. My brother Jamie would gladly take my part" Antea clenched her fists at that name.

"Your precious Kingslayer is leagued away from here" Lysa said.

"Send a bird" Tyrion said "I'll wait gladly for him to come"

But the lady of the Eyrie wouldn't have it "You will face Ser Vardis in the morrow" 

"You are denying me my champion, my lady" he said, but that made the lady even more angry.

"I deny you nothing!" she exclaimed irritated "Chose your champion, Imp... if there is someone who would die for you" Silence filled the room. Antea's eyes looked all the lords in the hall, no one seemed interested to step forward for the Imp. But suddenly someone from the back of the hall made his way to the front.

"I'll stood for the dwarf"

I should have thought about that, thought Antea as her eyes fixed on Bronn.