Chapter V: Brienne I – Those Left Behind
It was a sad turn-out for a funeral, Brienne thought, but she wasn’t surprised. It had been a strange couple of days – weeks, really – traveling along the Gold Road with two coffins and a morose dwarf. And then there was Casterly Rock, a castle emptied by years of war and a successful siege. The red stone corridors were haunted by ghosts. Brienne had spent the last two days visiting different parts of the palace, only to see Jaime everywhere – joking with his brother in the main hall as a younger man, playing with his sister in the garden as a young boy, training with his master-at-arms in the training yard. She was tired of it and just wanted it to be over. By tomorrow, it would be.
“Sad, isn’t it?” Tyrion Lannister moved to her side once the septon had made his excuses and the graves were sealed. “A queen of the Seven Kingdoms and a Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, and the only people who mourn their passing are a dwarf and a swordswoman.”
Brienne sighed. “I don’t mourn her,” she pointed out. And she didn’t. That he’d chosen Cersei over her still hurt, even if she understood, in a way. Would Jaime have been the man she had fallen in love with if he had abandoned his sister and queen in her hour of need?
“Well, I do. I hated her, but she was my sister. I could never fully resign myself to her hatred, and now I have to bury all the impossible, foolish hopes I had with her. A feeling you’re quite familiar with, I presume.”
Except it had been more than hope. For a few glorious days, it had been her life. “Jaime made his choice,” she said levelly. “And I respect that.”
“Doesn’t make me miss the idiot any less.”
“No, I suppose not. But we still have our duties.”
“Not all of us love our duties as much as you, Ser Brienne.”
“You don’t need to love them. They just need to fill our days while time does its work.”
Lord Tyrion didn’t answer, and Brienne tore her eyes from the twin sarcophagi – as entwined in death as they had been in life. She found him peering up at her curiously.
“You have lost much over the years,” he said.
Brienne nodded, remembering her mother and brother. She remembered Renly and Lady Catelyn. “It hurts, and it never really stops. But those left behind will keep on living, and it gets easier.”
Tyrion snorted. “It’s never been like that for me.”
Because he didn’t let go of grudges, Brienne supposed, and because he wore his pain like a badge of honor. A Lannister always paid his debts, and in order to do so, he needed to keep a tally.
“Maybe you can change that, now that they’re all dead.”
Tyrion frowned and stared at the coffins while Brienne looked down on him. He’d lost more than she had, she remembered. Brienne still had her father, Queen Sansa and Pod. Tyrion only had his sellsword friend. For a moment, she pitied him.
Finally, the tension drained from his body and he awkwardly patted her arm. “You know, I bet there’s still some good wine left in the cellars. Let us drink to lost friends today, and tomorrow, the Hand of the King and the Lady Commander will ride out to start a new life.”
Fin