"What else do you want?"
Lynn smiled.
"What do you have left that belongs to you, apart from your life?"
"Oh, no."
"Joffrey wanted to kill you. I stopped him."
"In other words, I gave you your life."
"Even your life no longer belongs to you. What else do you expect to gain?"
Lynn walked up to Cersei, reached out, and gently stroked her exquisitely maintained cheek, now etched with exhaustion.
"The question you should be asking isn't what you can gain."
"It's what you can offer me."
Cersei froze.
"You!"
Cersei slapped Lynn's hand away and sprang from her chair.
She wanted to rage, to scream, to curse the man before her with the foulest words she knew.
But when she met Lynn's calm black eyes, every word caught in her throat.
There was no desire in those eyes, no mockery, only indifference.
It was as though he were looking at an inanimate object-a piece of trash he could discard at any moment.
Cersei's heart turned cold.
She understood.
In his eyes, she no longer had any right to bargain.
"I..."
Cersei opened her mouth, but the courage she had just mustered vanished in an instant.
Helplessly, she bowed her proud head.
Watching her, Lynn did not press her further. He decided to strike while the iron was hot.
"Your father, Tywin, treats you as a bargaining chip for a marriage alliance with Highgarden."
"Your son, Joffrey, wanted to kill you with his own hands over a single secret."
"Cersei, it's time you thought about yourself."
Lynn's voice was quiet, yet every word pierced Cersei's heart.
"Is House Lannister really worth giving everything for?"
Cersei said nothing.
She merely hugged her arms around herself, trembling slightly.
She remembered Lord Tywin's face, forever as cold as stone.
She remembered the