The Unyielding Stag (Game of Thrones AU/Invincible)
Chapter 29: Cersei’s Visit

A/N: Axel gets a visitor while he's 'recovering' from his 'grievous injury'.

-x-X-x-

Slowly, ever so slowly, Axel brings his thumb down on the rippling metal blade in front of him. He watches curiously as his skin splits along the impossibly sharp edge, blood welling up from the cut. Pulling his thumb back, he looks at the injury for a moment, watching the blood stop seeping out and the flesh repair itself in real time over the course of the next minute or so.

Technically, he's supposed to be resting right now. He's not allowed to do most of his normal day to day activities because he's still 'healing' and 'recovering' from the Trial. After all, it's one thing for him to miraculously survive what should have been a death sentence to any normal man. It would be another entirely for him to not need any recovery time whatsoever.

That's the truth of the matter in the end though. His thigh is completely healed and has been since before he even walked off the battlefield back at the Trial. The Valyrian Steel had been able to cut him like nothing else ever had before, but the wound it left hadn't lasted long at all.

Funny, Axel had never been hurt badly enough before now to find out just how quickly he healed. Now he knew… it was pretty damn fast.

Wiping his bloodied thumb on a cloth, Axel doesn't even bother looking to know the skin comes away completely pristine and blemish free. Instead, he only has eyes for the Valyrian Steel itself. Rosethorn, as Ser Loras had named it.

Terrible name, honestly. He was definitely going to have to rename it as soon as possible. After all, it was his now apparently. Renly wasn't being entirely forthcoming about where he'd gotten it and nobody else could tell Axel either. Somehow, his uncle had just happened to 'find' a Valyrian Steel Sword to gift to his paramour on the eve of battle.

… Yeah, Axel wasn't buying it either, but frankly, he also found he didn't really care. Since they could at least be sure Renly hadn't borrowed it from any of the lesser houses in Westeros, that meant there was nobody in the Seven Kingdoms who was expecting to have it back any time soon either. And that meant it was Axel's by rite of conquest.

His very own Valyrian Steel Sword. The first Ancestral Valyrian Steel Blade for House Baratheon in living memory as far as he knew. Exciting stuff, to be sure, and naming it something better than Rosethorn was high on his priority list, to be sure. But also… he was terribly bored.

Cutting himself with Valyrian Steel and testing his newfound vulnerability could only really entertain Axel for so long. Being cooped up and confined to his quarters for hours on end… it left him at his wit's end.

Hmm… maybe it was time to sneak out. Nobody would expect him to leap from his balcony at the back of the Red Keep. Get a proper grey cloak, and he was sure he could blend in fairly well.

He could find out how the smallfolk were taking his victory. He could see how his people were doing now that the siege was over and everything could hopefully return to some semblance of normal.

Yes… yes, that sounded good to Axel. Jon might be cross if he found out, but that was only IF he found out. Rising from his chair, Axel quickly sheathes his new Valyrian Steel Sword and sets it aside. However, just as he's going for the plainest cloak he can find… there's a knock at the door that makes his shoulders slump and draws a quiet groan of disappointment from his lips.

"… Yes? What is it?"

"The Queen Dowager, Your Majesty. She wishes to see you."

Ah. Well damn. Now he's even more tempted to flee via the balcony, hah! But… no. There's no hiding from this. He might as well take his lumps and get it over with.

"Send her in."

The doors to his chambers open and Cersei Lannister comes sweeping in only to stop dead in her tracks with wide eyes when she sees him standing there. To her credit, she recovers swiftly enough, approaching him at a sedate pace with her hands hidden away in the voluminous arms of her dress.

"I heard you were injured in the Trial. I thought you'd be in bed resting. Should you be up and moving quite yet?"

Axel grins and shrugs.

"What the Grandmaester doesn't know can't hurt him."

He makes sure to give her a cheeky wink too, to really sell the idea that maybe he's still weak and injured but just can't stand lying around. Cersei bites her lower lip and then reaches out, placing a hand on his chest.

"They're saying you should have died. That the Seven protected you, blessed you, saved you."

Hmm, she must have martially minded sources then. Even Axel hadn't known that the wound Loras dealt him was almost always fatal to a normal man. Apparently, there were places on a man's body where if a sword cut, then the blood would flow and flow so fast and so vast that the man would die in mere minutes.

Such a wound COULD be treated, but only if done so immediately and in the right manner. Continuing to fight in such conditions was tantamount to suicide. Especially since everyone knew how fighting made one's blood pump all the more fiercely, and that would in turn make the injury bleed you out all the faster.

That was why, when Loras managed to bring him to his knees, both the Knight of Flowers and Renly had assumed Axel was done for and offered him the chance to surrender. To anyone with years and years of experience in battle, it was apparently obvious that the fight was over right then and there.

Of course, then Axel had gotten back up and proceeded to win, disarming Loras (literally) and surviving what shouldn't have been survivable.

Letting his grin turn into a softer smile, Axel reaches up and takes the hand Cersei has on his chest, winding his fingers through hers.

"Is that a note of concern I hear in your voice, Queen Dowager? Honestly, I thought you were going to be furious at me."

She gives him a confused look, prompting Axel to explain.

"I know how much you wanted me to kill Renly. I know you counseled me to make sure he died time and time again."

Really, he'd thought that Cersei had come here to scream at him. The Queen Dowager certainly had the lungs for it, and the disposition too. He'd expected her to be quite wrathful over him allowing Renly and Loras to take the Black. Instead, she seems more worried about his health than anything else.

Blinking, Cersei shakes her head and steps forward, pressing herself against him.

"Oh that… I don't care about that. I suppose finding out you'd been hurt helped me put my priorities in order."

Huh. Axel finds himself moving his hands to the Queen Dowager's hips, grinning a little as she smiles up at him and lifts herself up to find his lips. Well now. He really shouldn't be partaking in any strenuous activities to sell the illusion that he wasn't fully healed… but to be fair, he wasn't supposed to be fucking Cersei anyways.

It should be fine just so long as nobody else found out~

His hands move from Cersei's hips to her ass, squeezing her buttocks through her dress as they kiss. She surges forward, wrapping one arm around his neck and pushing her lips insistently against his. Meanwhile the other arm…

Axel furrows his brow as he feels something oddly pointy poking into his side. It's nothing more than a little irritating, but it's still distracting enough to make him break his lip lock with Cersei and look down to see what's gotten between them.

He's expecting some piece of Cersei's jewelry to be pushing against his chest. What he's not expecting is to see Cersei wielding a rather sizable dagger (at least for her) in her free hand and trying to slip it up under his ribs and straight into his heart. Only, while she's cut through his shirt and left a hole in the cloth, she's finding it impossible to penetrate his skin. The dagger is just normal Castle Forged Steel, after all.

For a long moment, they both stare down at the dagger in disbelief. Axel is having a hard time processing, truth be told. The Queen Dowager… was trying to kill him?

Cersei, meanwhile, goes from shocked to her face twisting into a hateful, angry expression in moments. With a scream, she pulls free of his (admittedly loose) grip, taking a step back as his hands fall to the sides, only to then come in again with the dagger held up in an overhand grip.

Axel takes a step back as the first blow lands on his chest to no avail… but the he stops and stands his ground. Screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs, Cersei Lannister attempts to drive the dagger into his chest over and over again… with no effect except to continue perforating and damaging his shirt.

Finally, with a cracking sound, the blade shatters against his impenetrable skin. Metal shards clatter to the floor as Cersei is left holding nothing but a hilt. Her and Axel both stare at it for another long moment, before she tosses it to the ground and comes at him with her hands like claws.

"You B-BASTARD! How dare you wear that c-crown! How dare you stand where my sons should have stood! You should have had the decency to die from the poison!"

What follows is Cersei trying to scratch him to death, which doesn't really work any better than her attempts at stabbing him in the heart. It's only when one of her nails hits one of his eyes that Axel actually feels some measure of pain and finally breaks free of his stupor. He catches Cersei's wrists in his hands in moments, holding her fast even as she tries to break free in her maddened attempt at killing him.

Then, it hits him that she just admitted to being the one who had him poisoned. And if she was behind the Strangler, she was probably behind every other attempt too, throughout his entire life.

… He's never been so thoroughly repulsed by anyone than in this moment. As she continues to fight him and struggle in his grasp to no avail, Axel clears his throat.

"Guards!"

The doors to his chamber open and two of his new Kingsguard step into the room, only to stop and blink at the sight before him, their eyes going from their King to the hysterical Queen Dowager still shouting about how he should be dead and how she'd tried to poison him for years, to finally gaze down at the shattered dagger on the ground.

"… The Queen Dowager has just admitted to trying to have me poisoned. After attempting to assassinate me with her own two hands. Take her back to her quarters and lock her in. Put her under secure guard. Nobody visits her and she goes nowhere until I say otherwise."

Cersei howls as the Kingsguard move forward to take her off of his hands. She shrieks and screams, struggling in their grasp, but her nails find no more purchase in their armor than they did in his nigh impenetrable flesh.

Axel watches her go even as the irritation in his eye quickly goes away, the minor injury she'd actually managed to deal him healing rapidly. His eyes weren't as impervious as his skin it seemed. Though this was… he looks down at the metal shards and discarded hilt in disbelief, not quite sure how to feel in this moment.

… Jon. Jon would know what to do.

-x-X-x-

"This is a mess."

Huffing, Axel shakes his head in dry bemusement.

"I'm well aware of that, Jon."

His Hand grimaces, even as he looks down at the remnants of Cersei's murder weapon, moved from the floor over to the table.

"That's through no fault of yours, my King. Perhaps you shouldn't have allowed her to see you privately, but even if you'd sent her away, she would have just tried some other way. I… I had my suspicions about her and the attempt on your life up in the Vale, but I didn't want to make an accusation with no evidence. I'm sorry, I should have still said something."

Axel waves a hand dismissively.

"You did say something. You told me not to trust her from the very beginning. Multiple times at that. And I didn't listen, or at least I didn't listen closely enough. I'd figured out that she had some strange hatred for my uncles, but I didn't realize how deep that hatred went… or that it extended to me."

Wincing, Jon nods.

"Yes, going off of what the Kingsguard have said about her ranting and raving since the failed attempt… she desires the end of the Baratheon Male Line. You, Stannis, Renly… she wants you all dead as 'justice' for Robert getting her sons killed."

Sighing, Axel rubs at his forehead.

"You said it. This is a mess. What do we do now, Jon?"

Sitting down at the table, the Hand of the King grunts.

"Well, she's confessed her crimes to multiple people at this point, so at least there's no shortage of witnesses to her crazed ramblings. She tried to kill you after trying to have you assassinated all throughout your life. As King, you have every right to execute her… but she is the daughter of a Lord Paramount and the Queen Dowager besides.

Axel nods, gesturing for Jon to continue.

"… The normal answer for someone of Cersei Lannister's stature having committed such grave crimes would be the either the block or the Silent Sisters… but given just WHO she is the daughter of, I doubt either option would be tolerated."

That draws a snarl to Axel's face and he leans forward with bared teeth.

"I'll be honest with you Jon, I'm not sure I care what Tywin fucking Lannister finds tolerable at this point. If he has a problem, I'd be glad to go and take it up with him personally if I had to."

Chuckling, Jon shakes his head.

"I'm sure you would, Axel. But… there might be another way. The Old Lion is coming here to King's Landing, as are Lord Tully and Lord Stark. They'll send most of their armies back home now that the war is settled, but given they were on their way already, they'll almost certainly come themselves still to finally bend the knee to you in person. That gives us an opportunity to meet with Tywin Lannister in private. No letters to be intercepted, no go-betweens, no courtiers to overhear us."

Jon pauses before tilting his head and giving Axel a meaningful look.

"This might be a blessing in disguise, Axel. The concessions we could get out of the Old Lion for this… might be on par with the concessions we've wrung out of the Reach for their part in Renly's war."

Axel's brow raises at that, surprise entering his face before his expression becomes one of furrowed contemplation. Finally, he slowly nods.

"Make the arrangements then, Jon. Let's see what we can extract from Tywin Lannister for this… incident."

At least he never made the mistake of cumming inside of the crazy bitch. Small mercies, that.

-x-X-x-

A/N: As I mentioned long ago, Cersei did not last unfortunately. The more I write this Arc, the harder it became to imagine a world where she stuck around. In the end, she wrote herself out of the story lmao.

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