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“Your Grace, we’re ready for you.”
Your Grace, the term still sounded so foreign to her. She still remembered when her Father returned to the Sapphire Isle. It was her earliest memory, watching the boat approach from the Narrow Sea, only for all of their lives to be upended. She learned the full truth later, when the death of her brother had pushed Brienne to be her Father’s named heir. With the deaths of Robert Baratheon and his brothers in the Rebellion a Great Council had been called after the Sack of King’s Landing, and for a reason that not even the Gods knew, Selwyn Tarth had been chosen as King Aerys’ rightful successor.
And only tragedy had followed. Galladon had drowned in Blackwater Bay as a child and all other pregnancies had brought nothing but blood and sorrow. It was a cruel jape from the Gods, to leave her as the heir to the Iron Throne. She knew the stories, Princesses were meant to be beautiful, to have all the boys fall at their feet to win their favour, to beg for the honour to fight in her name. Instead Brienne was the one to fight, her status as heir giving her perhaps more freedom than she should have had, but her prowess in the yard brought only fear and loathing to her companions. Selwyn had always laughed it off, praising her strength, but Brienne saw the future clearer than the King, she could see the challenge brewing from the East while Selwyn I Tarth had closed his eyes, instead putting all his energy in finding the perfect King Consort…
And then he had died, and Brienne’s heart had broken. The temptation to run, to cover herself in armour and sail to Essos for the life of a sellsword instead of the inevitable, watching the lies in all of her new subjects faces… the dream still captured her now as her handmaids put the final touches to her dress, though nothing would stop the neckline feeling tighter with every breath, nor the crown, a beautiful mould of gold and sapphires, lying rigidly on her brow as she took the seat for the first time, the announcement ringing through the Throne Room.
“Long live Queen Brienne! First of her Name! Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men! Lady of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm!”