What.
[Pause]
No.
You have to come to Lannister street.
I’ll come when I can. There’s a roadblock at the corner of Hyde Park and I can’t even get to Mayfair unless I walk. You don’t want me to walk do you? With the city this crazy? I’ll be eaten alive!
So change of plans - your mother’s sending me down to Downing Street to make sure your brother doesn’t get in any trouble. I’ll try and get back up to Lannister Street soon as I can.
[Her voice raises, with anger] Well they will have to, won’t they? Perhaps you’re underestimating the power I still have over my husband when it comes to my children. [She pauses and breathes slowly] Arys, you should be glad I am this forthcoming, especially given it’s been hours since this whole stadium mess happened and you’re nowhere in sight. Traffic or not, you’re not here doing your job, Myrcella was home and we were lucky enough, but if something of this sort ever happens again, I’ll make sure it is the last time you work for my family. [Her voice is almost shaking, and it’s fury she feels, not fear] Now, please do as I asked, or we can consider our contract terminated.
[He’s quiet for a long time. This could be the moment it happens, that he quits and relinquishes his duties from Lannister claws. But Myrcella, his mind snags on her name. He wouldn’t have said goodbye, and even a clean break like that would never leave him satisfied she’d be okay in the long run. Especially with the world turning out the way it has now.] Very well, Ms Lannister, I’ll get there as soon as I can. [As it is, he’s still standing in Arianne’s hallway, trying to be discreet.] I can’t promise timeliness, but I’ll try my hardest to be there by the morning. Nothing will happen to him, I swear it.
Go to Downing Street. Joffrey is there and I need to know he’s safe. Myrcella is in the house, so I am positive she will be looked after, but Joffrey is alone with Robert. And Robert is not…Robert can’t…Just, consider this a reassignment. Consider Joffrey your new…whatever you call it, client, protegè, I don’t care, just make sure nothing happens to my son. Understand this, Arys, I don’t care for Robert Baratheon or anyone else. Just Joffrey. Just my son.
M’am, do you really think- [he struggles with how exactly to phrase his inexplicably continued faith in Robert to his estranged wife] I don’t… [want to follow Joffrey, he adds, silently] I don’t think I’ll even be allowed near Downing Street…
Yeah- No, don’t ditch the car, are you out of your mind? I need you alive, Arys, just- stay in the car. Myrcella is fine. I mean, I think she’s fine, she is…around. She’s not going anywhere, the family was in the house when it happened. I need you to do something for me instead, something important.
I’ll do what I can with all this traffic seized up. It’s not as if I can just flash my government credentials anymore. It seems like they’re closing up Knightsbridge until at least the morning. What can I do?
Hello, m’am? - it’s Arys Oakheart. I’m afraid I’m caught in the roadblock at Hyde Park Corner before Mayfair coming from the south. I could ditch the car and walk but it’ll take me another thirty-minutes to get there. Is Myrcella alright?
I was asleep before - I’m sorry. I’m on my way there now, even if this cabbie’s going to bankrupt me.
I’m coming. Everything… will be fine. Its probably just… I’ll be an hour. Less if I can.
[Arianne smiles and her mind whirls with the possibility of having someone on the inside.]
Thank you. [the gratitude is audible] Do you want to come round? I have a bottle of wine open and I am dangerously close to drinking this all on my own.
Can you let it breathe for twenty minutes? I’m taking Myrcella back to Lannister Street after she gets out, but I’m going to need a drink after today.
You make it sound like I’m telling you to storm the place or something! I like Myrcella too, I wouldn’t want to do anything that would bring harm to her.
All I’m asking is that you—keep tabs. Comings, goings. Who’s doing what with who. Low-key stuff, y’know? Arys, they hate us. They hate me. I’m trying to keep my brother safe, my cousins safe.
[pause again, Arianne collects herself]
Please?
[He’s not so sure why he called now if the idea hadn’t been lingering in his mind all along. Arys is in the car, waiting for Myrcella, but he knocks his head back against the seatrest and passes a hand over his face, trying to stretch his shrinking moral code around the issue.]
Yeah, alright. Alright.
Cersei Lannister?
[a pause]
God, that bitch hates me. Thinks I’m trying to steal darling Myrcella away from her talons or something. Has a superiority complex larger than most Targaryen’s put together—but hey, we know all about her little Parisian romance, yeah? We could do with—
No. You’d never agree.
What? What I’d never? You think she’s leaving him for the kid on the tape?
