Just as this fragile alliance was forged, a heavy footsteps sounded behind them.
The footsteps were not fast, but they carried an undeniable weight.
Lynn and Jaime turned around simultaneously.
Ned Stark.
The Warden of the North had ascended the city wall at some unknown time.
He was alone, without a sword, dressed only in a simple grey overcoat.
His resolute face was etched with deep fatigue.
Jaime Lannister almost instinctively released Lynn's hand, his body tensing slightly.
He looked at Ned Stark.
That handsome face once again wore a mask full of sarcasm and wariness.
"Lord Stark,"
Jaime's tone was flippant, as if he was deliberately concealing something.
"So late, not at the feast with your drunken King, but out here on the city wall catching a cold wind?"
"Or are you here to give me a pre-sleep moral judgment?"
"About honor, or about oaths?"
Jaime paused, the curve of his lips becoming even more mocking.
"If so, I advise you to save your breath."
"I've heard your platitudes so many times my ears are practically calloused."
Ned ignored his provocation.
His gaze swept from Jaime's feigned casual face, then glanced at Lynn, who stood calmly beside him.
Finally, it returned to Jaime.
Those grey eyes were like a winter's overcast day in the North.
Deep, oppressive.
But surprisingly, without the usual disdain and hatred?
"I just heard, you're going to the North with Lynn."
Ned's voice rang out.
It was not a question.
The smile on Jaime's face froze.
He hadn't expected Ned to say that.
He had a belly full of retorts ready, but found that the other party hadn't made a move.
This feeling was like he had swung a punch with all his might, only to hit empty air.
"So what?"
Jaime raised an eyebrow.
"A Lannister always pays his debts. I'm just going to collect the favor Myrcella owes me."
"We can't have her widowed right after marriage, where would that leave House Lannister's face?"
Jaime continued in his cynical tone, trying to regain control of the conversation.
But Ned just watched him quietly.
For a long time.
So long that Jaime began to feel a little uncomfortable.
"I've never asked you."
Ned finally spoke again, his voice devoid of any emotion.
"Back then, why did you kill him?"
This question completely stunned Jaime.
He had imagined countless confrontations with Ned Stark.
He thought the other party would curse him, despise him, nail him to the pillar of shame with the word "honor."
He had never thought.
Nearly twenty years later, on this ridiculous night, Ned Stark would ask him "why" in such a calm tone.
Jaime suddenly wanted to laugh.
He had already repeated it a thousand times!
Ned had never listened seriously once!
He never let him finish his words!
Jaime looked at Ned's serious face, at his grey eyes, now devoid of any prejudice.
A sense of absurdity and grievance, suppressed for nearly twenty years, instantly broke through all his pretenses.
"You want to know?"
Jaime's voice held a tremor he hadn't noticed himself.
"You, 'the embodiment of honor' Ned Stark."
"Now you want to know why I, 'the kingslayer,' broke my oath?"
Jaime took a step forward, closing in on Ned.
Those green eyes burned with a wild fire in the darkness.
"When you found me, I was sitting on that ugly iron throne."
"My robes, my sword, the floor of the Throne Room, all were covered in Aerys's blood."
"What did you see then, Lord Stark?"
"You saw a faithless traitor, a wretch who defiled the honor of the Kingsguard!"
"You didn't even... bother to ask me why!"
"You just judged me with your self-righteous gaze!"
"Then turned around to pursue your greater military exploits!"
Ned listened in silence.
His weathered face showed no expression.
Jaime's chest heaved violently.
He was like a caged lion, pouring out all the anger and resentment accumulated over the years!
"You want to know, fine, today I'll tell you!"
"Do you know how the Mad King spent his last days?"
"He was even afraid of his own shadow, afraid of his son's shadow!"
"He cut off his own hair and nails, because he thought they were assassins sent by Jon Arryn to kill him!"
"He became obsessed with wildfire!"
"He loved to hear the screams of people being burned alive!"
"He thought it was the most beautiful music in the world!"
"He thought that only the screams of people before they burned to death could stop the incessant voice in his head!"
Jaime's voice became fearful, as if he had returned to that hellish night.
"When Robert and your army were at the city gates, he called for his chief alchemist."
"He told me that he wanted to bury wildfire throughout King's Landing, in every street, every house, even beneath the Great Sept of Baelor!"
"He wanted Robert Baratheon to be a king of ashes!"
"He laughed and told me, 'Jaime, go, bring me the head of that old dog Tywin!'"
"He, he damn it!"
"He actually told me to kill my father!"
"I just ask you, if the Mad King told you to kill your elder brother, to kill your father, would you agree?"
"Would you, for your honor, kill the one who gave you life, kill your most respected brother?"
"Or, kill the one who ordered you to kill your father and brother?"
"You only have two choices, no other option."
"Kill your father, and you are a patricide!"
"Kill the Mad King, and you are a kingslayer!"
"What do you understand, Ned!"
"You've always cared about honor, have you ever considered the problem from my perspective?"
Jaime's eyes were bloodshot, and he stared intently at Ned.
"The Mad King gave his final order."
"'Burn them, burn them all!'"
"I watched that alchemist run out to deliver the order, I listened to Aerys's mad laughter, I smelled the rotten stench on him..."
"Tell me, you noble Stark!"
Jaime was practically roaring.
"What the hell was I supposed to do?!"
"Uphold my oath, and watch half a million men, women, and children of King's Landing be burned alive into charcoal by that green fire?"
"Or... draw my sword, plunge it into the madman's back, and personally end this fucked-up mess?!"
"You saw it, you witnessed it with your own eyes, yes, I chose the latter."
"I killed the Mad King, then I found that alchemist and slit his throat too."
"I hunted down every madman who knew of that order, not one was left!"
"I saved this city, saved your King Robert, saved your life!"
"But what did I get?"
Jaime let out a laugh uglier than a cry.
"kingslayer."
"A villain scorned by the whole world!"
"And you, Ned Stark!"
"You brought your honor, your army, into that blood-soaked hall, and you didn't even deign to look at me."
Dead silence fell upon the city wall, only the howling of the night wind.
Lynn quietly watched this scene unfold, his heart also stirring with emotion.
He knew this history.
But to hear it firsthand from the person involved, the impact still left him shaken.
Jaime Lannister.
A hero misunderstood for twenty years.
A tragic hero who sacrificed his own reputation for the life of a city.
Ned Stark remained silent for a long time.
He just turned around and, like Lynn just before, looked down at the city below, its lights twinkling.
He could imagine.
If not for Jaime's sword, the prosperity before him would have long since turned into scorched earth, a realm of ghosts.
He thought of Lyanna.
He thought of the secret she whispered to him at the Tower of Joy, in her dying moments.
The secret that he had carried his whole life, the secret that made him deceive his best friend.
"Promise me, Ned..."
"You must protect him!"
Some oaths are destined to be broken.
Some honors must be defended with lies and blood!
Even he himself had also broken oaths.
Ned looked at Jaime Lannister, the man he had despised for half his life.
At this moment, he suddenly felt that they were so similar.
"I judged what I saw."
Ned's voice was low.
Jaime's body trembled violently.
"I was wrong."
Three short words.
Yet they exploded like a clap of thunder in Jaime Lannister's world.
He looked at Ned Stark's back in disbelief.
He had waited for this sentence for nearly twenty years.
Twenty whole years!
He thought he would never get it.
But it came just like that.
From the most unexpected person, spoken in the plainest way.
Jaime's eyes reddened without warning.
He sharply turned his head, not wanting anyone to see his weakness at this moment.
"The Mad King is dead,"
Lynn's voice rang out at the opportune moment, breaking the suffocating silence.
"But the madness, it seems, still clings to the iron throne."
Ned and Jaime both looked at Lynn simultaneously.
They both saw the same determination in each other's eyes.
Robert's suspicion, Robert's madness, Robert's order that was almost tantamount to murder... all of it was like the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Ned Stark's heart, which had been loyal to Robert Baratheon for twenty years, had long since died.
He was a father first, and then a Hand.
He would never allow anyone to use such despicable means to harm his daughter's future husband.
This was exactly the same as Jaime's choice back then!
Honor be damned!
It couldn't protect everything he cared about!
Ned now knew deeply.
"The King wants your head."
Ned turned around, his gaze piercing, looking directly at Lynn.
"I cannot, and will not, let him succeed."
Ned's words held no hesitation.
It was a declaration.
An open rebellion against the iron throne.
Jaime wiped the corner of his eye, resuming his Lannister-like arrogance.
"My father's army will reach the Twins within three days."
He looked at Lynn, then at Ned.
"Now, shouldn't we discuss how to give that madwoman Lysa Arryn a dignified death?"
"No."
Lynn shook his head.
Ned and Jaime both showed expressions of confusion.
"We won't just let her die."
"I'm going to make her pay back the entire Vale, with interest!"
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