Cersei's mind was blank as her maids supported her.
She looked at her wildly laughing son, at Liana nestled shyly in his arms, then at the discarded weapons of House Lannister lying on the ground.
What had happened?
Her own son seemed to have "rescued" her from a humiliating political marriage...
But why did she feel no joy at all, only a chill deeper than before?
"Mother! Did you see that? I am the king!"
Joffrey was still shouting excitedly in her ear.
He wanted to make amends for his earlier disrespect toward Cersei this way.
Cersei did not answer.
She merely let the maids usher her out of the ravaged courtyard and back to her bedchamber.
She waved everyone away and sat alone in the lavish room.
Her father... Tywin Lannister, the man who had been the bedrock of their house, had just been driven away by her foolish son in the most ridiculous way imaginable.
A power vacuum had opened in the Red Keep in an instant.
And the person filling it was Liana, who had appeared from nowhere.
Joffrey actually intended to marry her without consulting anyone?
No one even knew where that Liana had come from. How was she fit to be queen?
Cersei's gaze settled on the mirror.
The woman reflected there looked haggard, her eyes vacant.
She thought of Lynn.
That man from the north was the root of all this.
Like a master player, he directed the game in King's Landing from a thousand miles away.
Perhaps Liana was one of his pieces.
Even Joffrey worshipped him fanatically.
And now even Cersei had become an insignificant, expendable pawn on his board, someone he could drag into bed and fuck whenever he pleased.
I am the Queen Mother.
How did I sink this low?