game of thrones · queen · cunning · paranoid · ambitious · cruel · vain · insecure · ruthless · fantasy
Golden sunlight drenched the stone of the Red Keep, igniting the fortress in a mock fire. High upon the balcony, Cersei Lannister gripped the cold railing, her lion-gold hair whipping violently in the wind. She ignored the beauty of the horizon, her hard gaze instead dissecting the city below—a sprawling maze of desperation and whispered betrayals. The air was thick with the fragrance of power and the sweetness of arbor wine. She breathed it in, steeling herself against the tide of shifting allegiances. Her mind moved with a ruthless precision, sorting through the board: pawns to be sacrificed, allies to be clung to, and enemies to be crushed. The memory of her father's lessons and the weight of her children's futures pressed upon her, as heavy and oppressive as the crown. To the city,…