The Unyielding Stag (Game of Thrones AU/Invincible)
Chapter 6: The Feast

A/N: Jon Arryn is feeling really good about himself. Let's see how long that lasts.

-x-X-x-

The feast celebrating Axel's legitimization and ascension to the position of Crown Prince is a paradoxically somber but also jubilant affair. It's not quite to the level of carousing and revelry that Robert had preferred… but there are more smiles on faces than Jon has seen in any other setting since the tragedy that took the lives of the King and his sons.

Frankly, Jon feels like he's the happiest he's been since their deaths as well. Sure, it's not perfect by any means… but Axel has agreed to become King. That was the toughest hurdle and now they've passed it. There's a glimmer of hope in these otherwise tumultuous times.

On the morrow, they'll leave for King's Landing and get Axel's butt on the Iron Throne as soon as possible. Robert's death, nor the death of his sons, would not soon be forgotten, but at least it wasn't the complete and utter disaster it could have been.

Glancing over to his side, where Axel is sat next to him, Jon does a double take as he sees just how much food the young Crown Prince is putting away. Indeed, the future King of Westeros is currently consuming whatever's put in front of him and he's doing so at such a rapid speed that the servants are barely able to keep his plate occupied with each new dish before he's completely demolished the last one.

Jon shakes his head in amusement and somewhat stupefied awe at the sight. Truly, Axel is his father's son. Back in his day, when Robert was closer to Axel's age, the far younger King could have handled the same amount of food… probably. On the other hand, that hadn't served him well once the Rebellion was over and he needed to rule the peace that came after.

Kings were Kings and therefore allowed to do whatever they wanted to a certain extent, especially to themselves. Robert had drowned himself in wine and whores and ate enough food that he quickly went from the towering, imposing warrior of a man he'd been in his youth to the large, fat king he'd become in his later years.

… But it hadn't been Jon's place to tell him off for that. Or at least, that was what the Hand had always thought. Such thoughts had only been solidified by his first few attempts to do so back at the beginning of Robert's reign. The King had rebuffed him each and every time, and Jon had learned quickly to hold his tongue on such matters.

Axel was different though, or so Jon hoped. The similarities between the young Crown Prince and how Robert had been at his age stopped at the physical. Mentally, Axel and young Robert couldn't be further apart, mostly because of the difference in their upbringings. So perhaps he would listen to Jon a bit better. Perhaps watching his weight and slowing down a little bit was the first of many pieces of advice that the Hand could give his new King and actually have it listened to.

However, just before Jon can lean over to tell Axel he might want to slow down with the meat pie he's currently consuming… the Heir Apparent of the Iron Throne begins to choke. Jon's eyes widen a bit as Axel's hand goes to his throat, the younger man coughing and going a bit purple in the face.

Alarm bells begin going off in Jon's head as others begin taking notice of Axel's distress.

"Axel? Axel, are you alright?"

Rising to his feet, Jon reaches for the younger man… only to pause when Axel suddenly recovers with a large gulp, the color in his face swiftly returning in what feel like some of the longest moments of Jon's already long life. The future King slams a fist into his chest a few times… and then laughs.

"Hah! Spicier than I'd thought it would be!"

There's some scattered laughter at that from those who had noticed the choking, but most are confused more than anything. Jon shares their confusion, though relief is the greatest thing he's feeling as he slumps back down in his chair. That incident might have just taken years off of his remaining lifespan.

… Still, it's a little strange. Spice… wasn't something that was often used in dishes made in the Vale. The kinds of spices that Axel was talking about was more the domain of further South, mostly in Dorne with some creeping up into the Reach and the Stormlands. But the Vale tended to keep to the honest seasonings like salt and nothing else, usually.

Things calm down… until Axel takes another bite of the meat pie. Then, he starts choking again. Jon is nearly as alarmed as last time, except the younger man recovers faster this go around, coughing some more and hitting his chest to make the food go down. Staring at the meat pie in question, Jon is just about to suggest that Axel should maybe move on to something else when the lad goes for yet another bite!

Its after the third bout of choking that there's a sudden commotion down the length of the hall.

"MONSTER! He ain't human! It ain't right!"

Blinking in stupefaction, Jon watches as a man, one of his retinue from King's Landing in fact, comes rushing up the length of the hall, pointing a shaking accusatory finger at Axel. The Crown Prince pauses in his meal and stares nonplused at the man in question, who looks like he's seen a ghost.

"S'not possible! You should be DEAD! I put enough o' the Strangler in that pie to kill a hundred men! You shouldn't be BREATHING!"

What?! Jon rises to his feet again, words on his lips… but the Captain of his Guard is already moving. Ser Vardis Egen kicks off of the far wall and is halfway across the hall before the man in question is done speaking. By the time he draws a dagger from his belt and tries to lunge up the steps to the high table at Axel, the Captain is there to grab him and disarm him, forcing him to his knees in a swift and efficient motion.

Silence falls over the hall as everyone stops eating and stares at the unfolding situation. Jon, meanwhile, looks between the half-demolished pie and the kneeling man, his heart in his throat.

"… What did you say? The Strangler?"

Looking up at Jon almost plaintively, as though Jon would somehow vindicate him, the self-admitted poisoner whimpers.

"A-Aye milord… I poisoned the bastard with the Strangler, I swears I did! He should be dead! They'll kill me if they find out it didn't work but it's not my fault! He ain't human! He can't be human!"

There's a pause as everyone looks over to the future King at that accusation. Axel looks remarkably calm for having just found out he survived a poisoning attempt. In fact, his face is expressionless as he stares down at the kneeling man without a hint of pity.

Finally, in the midst of the silence, Axel reaches down, grabs a handful of the meat pie… and puts it in his mouth. Slowly, in front of the entire hall, he chews and swallows. The reaction is still there, but it's greatly diminished at this point. He barely even chokes and his face goes pale for a brief second rather than fully purple.

A grunt from Ser Vardis has Jon whipping back around just in time to see the poisoner has managed to break free of the Captain's grasp and lunge up the steps in the middle of everyone's shock. He's not armed anymore though, and in the end… his target isn't Axel anyways.

Thrusting his own hand into the center of the meat pie, the assassin stuffs it into his mouth and down his throat as fast as he can. His intentions become obvious a moment later as he immediately starts to choke far more violently than Axel did.

"No!"

Sweeping around the high table, Jon curses as he reaches the man just in time for him to fall onto his back, his entire body convulsing from the poison coursing through him. The Strangler… Jon has heard of it before. It was a rare poison, and an extremely deadly one to boot. It killed swiftly by doing exactly what its name implied, making anyone who consumed it unable to breathe.

"Who paid you?! Who hired you to try and assassinate the King?!"

Blood pours out of the assassin's nose as drool trickles from the corner of his mouth. He looks up at Jon, a flicker of recognition in his eyes… but it's already too late. He can't speak. He can't muster the strength to get the air from his lips.

A few moments later… and he's gone.

Ser Vardis stands at the top of the steps, looking pale himself as Jon straightens up and sighs.

"Lord Arryn, I'm sorry I should have had a better grip on the knave. I can only offer my sincerest apologies for my failure."

But Jon just shakes his head. He knows why the Captain of his Guard let the other man escape… he was stunned by Axel's continued consumption of poison, just like everyone else. And now that it was confirmed that the meat pie WAS indeed poisoned Jon had to run damage control. For a long moment, he doesn't know what to do or say… and then it hits him.

"… The Seven Who Are One watch over our new King!"

People jolt and shift in their seats as his voice carries through the hall. Gesturing from the assassin's corpse and then to a wide-eyed Axel, Jon doesn't bother with anything less than laying it on as thick as humanly possible.

"A miracle! The Father and Mother have blessed Axel Baratheon. They would not let him be taken on this day! They would not let the Stranger have him! Praise be!"

There's a brief pause and then Ser Vardis, perhaps in the hopes of making up for the blemish on his otherwise sterling record, cries out at his side.

"Praise be to the Seven! Praise be to King Axel!"

The cry is taken up throughout the hall, everyone joining in now. Even the clergy in the hall, the Eyrie's own Septon and Septa, are forced to join in. Though Jon can feel the Septon's eyes practically burrowing into the side of his head. The Faith did not mind being co-opted by the Nobility from time to time, and in general they were more than happy to lay claim to anything that could potentially be construed as a 'miracle' by the Seven.

… However, on a more personal level, the men who lay claim to the title of Septons within the Church did not appreciate being co-opted without being consulted first. And yet, the Eyrie's Septon was not about to stand up and deny a Lord Paramount's words. All he could do was sit back and let it happen.

Which was good, because this… this wasn't something they could let fester. Not before Axel had even sat upon the Iron Throne.

-x-X-x-

"Why did you tell them all that I was blessed by the Seven?"

Jon sighs, resisting the urge to rub the bridge of his nose. Its an hour later, the feast done and him and Axel back in his solar for a little talk. The young man had the good sense not to try and say anything at the feast itself, but now that they were alone together, he had questions.

Rather than answer him directly, Jon asks a question of his own.

"Why did you think that the meat pie was merely spicy the first time the poison tried to strangle you to death? You've lived in the Vale all your life Axel, you of all people should know we don't spice our foods very much here."

The young man furrows his brow at that, tilting his head to the side.

"Truly? But I've been given spicy foods from time to time for as long as I could remember."

Jon goes still, silence falling for a long moment as he parses that statement.

"… How so?"

Axel just shrugs.

"Sometimes my food has not been agreeable, though it's never been rancid or anything like that. When I was younger, it wouldn't always stay down… and sometimes, it went through me too fast if you know what I mean."

A shudder runs down Jon's spine because he knows exactly what he means. And if Axel is telling the truth (and for what reason would he lie about this?!) then that meant…

"Axel, I have reason to believe that someone has been trying to poison you all your life."

The younger man blinks at that, looking baffled.

"What? But why would they? Until today I was just some bastard! A Stone of the Vale among dozens!"

Yes. Yes he was. To most of Westeros, pretty much everyone, Axel Stone was nobody special. However, there was the possibility that in recent years as he got older, Axel's familiar appearance had been noticed and those who realized whose son he might be had spread the information. But that wouldn't explain the poisoning attempts when he was just a tyke. No, that spoke of greater knowledge… and greater hatred as well.

Jon finds himself thinking of only a handful of people who might have had the resources to learn of Robert's bastard firstborn long ago… and the resources to try to do away with him as well. Many of them share the same house name, and one of them stands out among the others as particularly petty and vindictive.

… But he could also be wrong and given the circumstances, the Lord of the Vale doesn't necessarily want to whisper potentially misplaced venom into Axel's ears before they even make it to King's Landing. For the time being, Jon swallows his suspicions and moves the conversation along, giving Axel a somewhat dry look as he sighs.

"You must have a particularly powerful constitution, Axel. To be able to handle the Strangler like that… but did you truly have to keep eating the damn pie after everything?"

Axel has the grace to look a little sheepish even as he shrugs.

"Eh… it was pretty tasty, poison notwithstanding."

Finally, Jon gives in to the urge to cover his face with his hand, rubbing his palm against his forehead. It would seem that Axel was planning on being just as much of a headache as Robert had been… albeit in new and 'exciting' ways.

Still, one thing was absolutely certain. At least one person with powerful connections and deep pockets wanted the new King dead. Getting Axel to King's Landing and the safety of the Red Keep as fast as possible had become all the more important now.

Once Axel was sat upon the Iron Throne and acknowledged as Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, everything would be fine. They wouldn't dare try anything after he was coronated by the High Septon and officially crowned King.

Until then… they would just have to be doubly careful from here on out. No matter what, Axel could not be allowed to die.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Still think you got over the biggest hurdle to crowning Axel as King, Jon?

(The base price of my Patreon also increases from $3 to $5 at the end of July but if you get in now you keep the $3 price as long as you want, so now is a great time to sign up!)