All was right (Lena)

[Lord Luthor Arryn]

"Cousin...we need to talk." There was a time for japes and jests, Luthor was very fond of them. He rearranged his life to have as many of them as possible, now was not one of those times. His beloved cousin had expressed...perhaps not love but an attachment for her husband, giant sack of golden shit that he was. In Luthor's hands was another letter from King's Landing, an update on the attempted siege of Dragonstone.

"It would appear an arrow caught your husband and he was put underwater. He did not re-submerge, the fleet pulled back and have started scouring the small islands hoping he washed up but there was no sign upon this letters writing." he held it out for her so she might read the details for herself but there was little else of note contained after what he had relayed. Luthor wasn't fond of the man, but Lena held a certain affection for him that was not insignificant. He was the father of her unborn child. She would need her dear cousin.

[Lena Arryn]

When Lena heard the heavy footsteps of her cousin entering the room she turned half heartedly and noted him with calm eyes, until she saw the look in his blue eyes. Lena looked him over own cold eyes taking his features in and finally coming to the parchment in his hand. A raven must have come.

Breath caught in Lena's throat as Luthor relayed his message, she could hardly believe what he was saying. One hand felt to her stomach the other to her mouth as a wave of nausea hit her and passed before she could truly understand what was going on. "How- how could this have happened?" SHe said hastily taking the parchment and reading every word as if it would change to reveal her cousin had played an elaborate ruse. "Luthor... does this mean he's dead?" the chances of it were certainly greater than his survival.
Suddenly she wished she wasn't pregnant, she would have been free do go and choose and be as she wanted but now she was still tied to the Lannisters, she'd be Tywin's surrogate for a new heir and would be cast aside as soon as her child was born. Forever she'd be tied to them unable to move on ward with her life. That was what grieved her most, dropping the letter she rushed forward towards her cousin pressing her face against his chest. "Oh Luthor... am I really trapped?"

[Lord Luthor Arryn]

"It is a distinct possibility." his cousin ran to him and placed her face to his chest. For all the times Luthor had seen Lena adorned in armour and speaking of matters of war and commanding the respect of all those around her, she seemed like a very small, frightened woman at that moment in time. "Do not be daft, we Arryns of the Vale, in the Vale. We are never trapped. We are High as Honour, too high for any to catch up." he held his cousin close and placed a gentle kiss upon the top of her head. Any little act he could to show his support.

"I took the liberty of sending word to the Bloody Gate, refuse all those that seek entrance. If Robb Stark or Tywin Lannister wish to pull us into their war, they can break themselves against the gate trying to get us. The Arryns will choose their own destiny." That was how they'd proceed. If anyone wished to make themselves a foe of the Arryns, they'd exhaust themselves trying to take the Bloody Gate and meet the Knights of the Vale behind it. They would be cut down with great zeal. "We have all the time we need to plan our next move."

[Lena Arryn]

Lena leaned back from the warmth of Luthor's chest and nodded gravely. "I won't let the Lannister's have this child, not to become the next pawn of Twyin Lannister." She looked at Luthor carefully before taking a step back from him. "I will not be bound to them- yes... let them break upon the Bloody Gate if they wish to make us their enemy, we shall decide what is best for our own people now."
It stung something to terrible to think of the last year wasted, her marriage over and she'd never have the chance to grieve the body being gone. It was like he'd left her almost, went to sea and found something better, that was what hurt the most, he was dead but it felt like he'd replaced her.

Parting her lips Lena felt her jaw set. "Do you think they'll summon me to mourn at Casterly Rock?" She wouldn't want to go if they sent for her, by the time the long journey ended she'd be clearly pregnant and Twyin would probably force her to stay. "How should I refuse?" She may not have wanted a child, surly now she still feared the idea of being a mother but she wouldn't just give the child up to Twyin, she wouldn't give up the heir to the Vale.

[Lord Luthor Arryn]

"Tywin Lannister will be dead before that babe is grown to age, or an infirm old man." But the damage Tywin Lannister could still do was not an insignificant thing, the golden ghost of Tywin would haunt Westeros for years. Luthor didn't need to be some mystic to know that. He was a powerful man that manipulated events beyond what a single man had a right to do.

"If they summon you to Casterly Rock, we'll not receive the Raven. It was struck down by a hunter or a larger bird of prey. We never got it, don't know what happened to it. Terrible sorry." Raven's were usually quite reliable, but one never knew when a hungry belly would convince a man to shoot one down. "The Maester has forbade you to travel, least the journey upset the babe in your belly, too high risk after the last was lost. Take your pick of reasons, there's not a man in the Eyrie that would say otherwise when confronted from someone on the wrong side of the Gate." Luthor was quick to think of excuses to get him out of trouble. He had been doing it for years.

[Lena Arryn]

Lena nodded, she was never as talented a liar as Luthor and while in the past she'd scolded him for it now she relished the fact. "And what of the father?" She had spoken with Luthor and the Maester before about the possibility that Torin would not make it out of the war alive, she'd asked what her options would be to have her child be born an Arryn. But just short of hiding his parentage there was nothing they could do in the eyes of law, and barring the bloody gates for ever just to protect one child would not be wise.

Cold eyes looked at Luthor waiting for a response. She was sure he'd think of something, the thought crossed her mind not for the first time if only he was the father then it struck her. "We must let them all believe you are the father of my child..." She said slowly as if the realization had been beneath her nose all along. "They will all assume I had fallen from the oaths of my wedding when I came to you from Kingslanding." It would make perfect sense, no one had known she was pregnant when she left and by the time she gave birth who would recall when she'd last been with Torin? Surly no one.

[Lord Luthor Arryn]

"Then it is all solved, you unborn babe is a bastard by your dashing, charming, handsome, good spirited cousin and as such the Lannisters will have no claim. The bastard will be raised an Arryn and whichever King is about to win we'll pledge our loyalty to and bend the knee, requesting the babe be legitimized as a reward for service." It was the simplest thing under the stars! If needs be Luthor would tend to many of the meetings representing the Vale in court on behalf of his cousin that was ruling the Vale.

"Lord Tywin Lannister of all people will understand the desire to lay with your cousin, he was sensible enough to marry his." But Lena Arryn missed her chance on that one! Now Luthor had his beauty from the East.

[Lena Arryn]

It seemed far to simple- far to under handed. But that was the game they played. They were not born common, if that had been the case Lena would have been taken in by her husband's family and a child wouldn't have been a game changer, not like it was for a nobel house.
It made Lena's skin crawl, but she didn't flinch, not outwardly. "So it's settled..." She grabbed his hand. "I've been completely faithful to my husband, yet now your bastard grows within me."
It didn't seem fair that she should be now have a bastard child with a man she'd abstained from since she first flowered, but needless to say she wasn't about to give up chaste relationship with her cousin. She wasn't even sure what their relationship would be in the morning if she did.

The lady of the Vale folded the paper in her hands over and over again as her mind clouded with thoughts, it was in this very place that the letter from Tywin and sent she and Torin to Kingslanding, it was here when Torin discovered the first signs of her first pregnancy, then she had hated him, now in this same place she found out she'd never see him again, and suddenly she felt the tiniest twinge of guilt at love that could have been.
If only she'd not been so careless now she'd have an infant daughter and perhaps a husband still. She flinched at that thought and looked up at Luthor sadly. "I shouldn't even be allowed to bring a child into this world." She said quietly. "Not in this war, now with what I've done- what I am willing to do."

[Lord Luthor Arryn]

"Do not say such things, you have been in one predicament after another since Lysa Tully became a part of your life, you've made decisions that were not easy, lesser people may fault you for some choices but it is easy to criticize when you never need to prove your own wisdom in the matter. We are all True Knights until our morality is tested, then I find most reveal themselves to be closer to rats." His dear cousin was blaming herself, something he would allow this once as she was surely overwhelmed but Lena was, quite frankly, too important to be left wallow in self-pity. She needed to be strong to lead the Vale. Too many of Lysa's sympathisers just waited for a moment of weakness.

"You shall bring a child into this world, he will be raised to be proud and noble and just and he shall be as High as Honour, atop the Eyrie." Not to mention he would surely provide his 'father' with plenty of opportunity to further swell his coffers with gold and live like a King in Gulltown.

[Lena Arryn]

Lena listened to Luthor carefully. "You always speak so highly of me cousin..." She let her voice trail off as she turned back to the birds she so carefully kept.

"What will your wife say when she hears you fathered my child?" She looked back at Luthor over her shoulder and she caught his blue eyes in her own. They could have been siblings from the way they looked, but Torin he was much broader than Luthor, with a mess of blonde hair and the eyes of a Lannister, it would be a terrible misfortune towards their lie if the child was born the spitting image of his sire.

[Lord Luthor Arryn]

"I rather imagine she'll be annoyed we had a good tumble without inviting her but some sweet words and expensive gold and she'll be my songbird again. Truth be told I think it would be best if we told her the truth. She's sweet and innocent at first glance but terribly devious, she would serve better if aiding our story." She certainly was a devious little thing, from making him promise to acquire her all sorts of trinkets and agree to hosting her events when she had him at his weakest to hiding things from him in his own home so that she may surprise him. She would have done well in King's Landing.

Luthor stepped beside Lena to take a look at her birds. Her husband wouldn't have known a falcon if one flew down and landed on its cock. Luckily for him one had. Still, they were most pleasant birds. Agreeable as a motif.

[Lena Arryn]

The Lady paramount of the Vale nodded as her friend and confidant spoke. Luthor's wife had been the subject of much tension between the two of them, she was a young and sly and Lena didn't like her very much at all. But still she just might be an asset to them now.
"And all the world will know that Lena Arryn is just as they thought." She said sliding a piece of meat through the slats in the cage to her bird. "A whore who wishes she was born with a cock."

She turned to Luthor and her face seemed drawn and tired, she wasn't sad for her own reputation she didn't have very much of one to begin with, but she was sad that she'd lost her only chance at honor. To be such a brute Torin was honorable in the eyes of the people, and he was sharing that glory with her, even if he did so begrudgingly.

[Lord Luthor Arryn]

"I have offered to share mine." Lena Arryn was a woman that wore armour and swung a sword, as such she was a laughing stock regardless of her station. If Luthor wasn't family he probably would have told her that behind her back nobody made jokes, combed her hair and told her the world was a lovely place. But that simply wasn't the truth, bitter as it may be to swallow the truth was what Luthor provided her. Or his humour to change the subject and lighten the mood.

"Let them think and say what they will, you will have your babe and the Vale. The Tully's don't run the Vale anymore through that wretched boy Lysa squirted out." 'Sweet Robin' had not been a sweet lad, he was selfish and self important and his willingness to see people fly was cruelty through his ignorance of his actions. Lysa had been a dry cunted shrew. He was glad they were all gone.

[Lena Arryn]

Lena slipped her arms beneath Luthor's and embraced him, letting out a long sigh. "If only you had not been wed before I was widowed." She said the words sounding foreign in her mouth. "Even if all the world think I have no honor I am still an Arryn of the Vale and I should remain honorable."

She held him tightly for a long moment the sound of birds moving in their cages was the only sound between them for a while until Lena pulled back looking at her cousin her blue eyes taking in his, they were close to the same height, and roughly the same build. She tried to force a smile for him but it wouldn't budge. "You are insufferable Luthor, an I am cursed to love you for it." One corner of her lips pulled slightly, she still tried to smile through her building pain.

[Lord Luthor Arryn]

"Do not blame my marriage, the blame lies entirely with that silly 'honour' creed you live by, which is conveniently devised to promore loyalty and duty to people above you, regardless of whether they deserve it or not." If the Kingsguard were tasked with protecting the Realm first and King second, there would never be a Mad King. Gerold the White Bull would have cut Aerys head from his shoulders and Barristan Selmy would have done the same to Cersei and Joffrey. But alas, they were all fools.

"Come then, lets get you some food. You'll need your strength." She surely would, she was eating for two and supporting the weight of leadership. It would simply not due if Lena Arryn was not prepared.