(Untitled)
I want to do a D*C post but it's like I can't even wrap my brain around the amazing weekend I had so it's still all settling in my mind. I will tease you with this: the highlight of my weekend was Tricia Helfer, model extraordinaire and quite literally the most beautiful woman on the planet, told me I was prettyInstead, I am shamelessly stealing
( Read more... )
She was as beautiful as he remembered, and though her beauty was sang of far and wide across the Seven Kingdoms, it had never been exaggerated. There was no need of it. The queen was blessed with a fair countenance, golden curls, and brilliantly blue eyes. If one merely looked at her, she seemed only sweet and harmless.
Bill couldn’t help but feel ill at ease with her, as he always had. Even on the eve of her wedding, when he had been introduced to the then-seventeen year old queen, there had been something about her that had struck Bill as strange. He was certain that she had never had the innocence that his Anastasia or Kara possessed, though he supposed that as a Cylon, she might not have had the chance to cultivate any. No other family was as proud as the Cylons, as evidenced by the bright golden banners that mingled with Saul’s own silver. He also noted that Prince Liam’s doublet was embroidered with both the stag of Tigh and the lion of Cylon, an unusual practice.
Introductions were made between the Tigh children, Prince Liam and Princess D’Anna, and the Adama children, Billy, Anastasia, Kara, Felix and Brendan. Bill’s other son, Lee, wasn’t present to be introduced to the royal children, as Laura had pointed out that the queen would certainly be against her children meeting a bastard. He had gone cold, as he always did when he heard the ice in his wife’s voice when she spoke of his son, but he had agreed. Queen Caprica was unpredictable that way.
“Take me down to your crypt, Bill,” Saul said as soon as the children had made friends, “I want to pay my respects.”
Caprica turned to her husband, her expression cool. “"We've been riding for a month, my love. Surely the dead can wait.”
Saul looked at her silently, and to her credit, the queen met his gaze, uncowed. Without a word, Saul walked away, calling back for Bill, and Caprica’s twin Leoben took her quietly by the arm.
Bill loved that Saul always remembered, and led his almost-brother by torchlight down into the Adama family crypt. There were times when Saul might have used this opportunity to make jokes, but he was solemn now, as he was whenever Bill’s sister was mentioned. “She’s down here, Your Grace.”
Though he would never kneel to anyone in life, Saul Tigh knelt before the statue of Ellen Adama, dead before he had taken his crown. She was to have been his bride. “She was more beautiful than that,” Saul said with difficulty, looking up at the lovely stone face in front of him, as though he could bring her back by wanting her enough. He rose with some difficulty, and then shook his head. “Dammit, Bill. Did you have to bury her in a place like this? She deserves more than darkness.”
“She was an Adama of Winterfell,” Bill said quietly. His grief at losing his sister was almost as strong as Saul’s. “This is her place.”
Saul touched the granite of Ellen’s cheek, reverent and gentle. “She should be on a hill someplace. Under sun and clouds and rain to wash her clean...”
“She wanted to come home.”
“I vowed to kill Richard for what he did to her.”
“You did,” Bill reminded him, remembering the day they took the Trident, and the holy fury with which Saul had dispatched Richard Adar to the Seven Hells.
“Only once,” Saul said bitterly. “In my dreams, I kill him every night.”
Reply
“To hell with my wife,” Saul said, taking his hand back and turning to leave Ellen. “And if I hear one more ‘Your Grace,’ I’ll put your head on a spike. We’re more than that.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” Bill told him, though it was more difficult when your friend was the king of the Seven Kingdoms. “Tell me about old Lee.”
Saul shrugged, looking pained again. “The damndest thing, Bill. One day he was fine, and then the next... the fever burned right through him.” He shook his head, his crown reflecting the dull light of the torch. “I loved that man.”
“We both did.” They had spent years in his care.
“Bill,” Saul started, putting an arm around his brother’s shoulders, “You must be wondering why I’ve come here.”
“Your inspection of the Wall is overdue,” Bill suggested, though he had a feeling this was not the case. The Wall was seen now as more of a guardian against nothing, though winter was coming. It was long overdue.
Saul waved the very idea away. “The gods-damned Wall has stood for eight thousand years, and it’ll keep a while longer. Eight thousand years longer. No, Bill, I’ve come north because these are dangerous times, and I need good men around me, men like Lee Nagala. Men like you. I want you down in King’s Landing, not up here where you’re no damn use to anybody.” Taking his arm back, Saul faced him. “Lord William Adama, I would name you Hand of the King.”
As he often did when he was not in a rage, Saul gave his command like he was vaguely embarrassed to be giving it, and wished to hurry it up. Bill couldn’t say he was very surprised, and dropped to one knee.
“I’m not worthy of the honor.”
“If I wanted to honor you, I’d let you retire. You’ll hate this more than you know. I want you to run my kingdom while I drink and whore my way into an early grave.” Saul smiled, happy with his circumstances, as he had every right to be. “You know what they say, about the king and his Hand.”
“‘What the king dreams,’” Bill said, “t’he Hand builds.’”
“Or, ‘What the king eats, the Hand shits.’” Saul threw his head back with raucous laughter, and it rang down the halls and around the dead Adamas, cloaked in darkness. Bill did not join in.
“Dammit, Bill. You Northerners are too cold for jokes. You helped me win this damn throne, now help me keep it. We would’ve been brothers long since had my Ellen lived, bound by affection as well as by blood. It’s not too late, dammit. I have a son, you have a daughter. We’ll marry Liam and your Anastasia and bound our houses, as Ellen and I might have done.”
The idea pleased Saul, though it startled Bill. “How long have you been planning this?”
Saul looked at him. “How old is your daughter?”
This did earn Saul a laugh. There were worse things than having his daughter wed a prince, though Liam looked entirely too much like the Cylon side of his blood for Bill’s taste. And for Laura’s, he knew without asking.
“Say yes, dammit. Come to King’s Landing. We’ll teach you how to laugh again down south.”
“If I could have some time to consider these honors,” Bill trailed off. Laura would not be pleased with this at all.
“Of course, of course.” Saul clapped an arm around Bill, “Mull over the honors, talk it over with Laura. But don’t keep me waiting too long. Caprica’s itching to appoint her brother, and there’s only so long you can hold off a Cylon. Tenacious, the lot of them.”
That was one word for them, though not the one Bill would’ve chosen.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
I'm glad you enjoyed it! :D
Reply
Oh Bill! Oh Saul! Oh Ellen! And even Richard! WHY ARE YOU SO GENIUS!
Reply
I'm so glad you enjoyed it, bb! I know it's not super heavy on Lauros, but I wanted to include so many things that this seemed the best way to go about it.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment