4 Chapter 4 - The young lord

Maester Pycelle was sweating profusely as he tried to calm the screaming woman on the bed. He had been summoned by Lord Jon Arryn to attend his second wife, Lady Jeyne Royce, who had gone into labor a month earlier than expected. The maester had hoped that it would be a quick and easy delivery, but he soon realized that something was terribly wrong.

The child was not coming out. It was stuck in the womb, and no amount of pushing or pulling could dislodge it. The maester feared that it was malformed or deformed, or worse, dead. He had seen such cases before in the King's Landing, and they rarely ended well. The mother usually died of blood loss or infection, taking the child with her.

The maester had tried everything he could think of to save them both. He had given Lady Jeyne everything he could to ease her pain and induce contractions. He had used his instruments and his hands to try to reposition the child or widen the birth canal. At one point he even prayed to the Seven for a miracle. But nothing worked.

Lady Jeyne was growing weaker by the minute. Her face was pale and her eyes were slowly but surely losing their light and focus while her breaths were shallow and her pulse was faint. With every passing moment, the poor woman was losing blood, and there was nothing the maester could do to stop it.

Pycelle knew he had to make a decision. He could either let Lady Jeyne die with her child inside her, or he could try one last desperate measure: a caesarean section. It was a risky and dangerous procedure, rarely performed and seldom successful. It involved cutting open the mother's belly and removing the child by force. It almost always killed the mother, and more than often the child as well. But it was the only chance they had.

With that in mind, the old maester looked at Lord Jon Arryn, who was standing by his wife's side, holding her hand and doing his best to comfort his wife. Then after a few seconds, Pycelle looked at Lord Yohn Royce, who had arrived from Runestone as soon as he heard of his daughter's condition. The man was a proud and stern man, but he loved his daughter dearly and only the seven knows what will happen if he ends up killing the man's daughter without his permission or Lord Arryn's.

"My lords, I have done all I can to save Lady Jeyne and her child, but I fear it is not enough. There is only one option left, but it is very dangerous and has little chance of success."

"What is it?" Lord Jon asked anxiously.

"A caesarean section," the maester said.

"A what?" Lord Yohn asked.

"A caesarean section," the maester repeated. "It means cutting open Lady Jeyne's belly and taking out the child by force."

The lords gasped in horror. Such a thing was unheard or at least not willingly known to the lords, after all who in their right mind would want such a barbaric treatment for their loved ones.

"Are you mad?" Lord Yohn exclaimed. "You would kill my daughter!"

"It is the only way to save the child," the maester said.

"And what of my wife?" Lord Jon asked.

"I cannot lie to you, my lords," the maester said. "She will most likely die."

"Then no," Lord Jon said firmly. "I will not allow it."

"Nor will I," Lord Yohn agreed.

The maester bowed his head in respect. His fears come true with both lords refusing to save the child. However, that didn't mean that he would not want to help Jon Arryn. Since if the man had a son, then the Vale will have a legitimate heir and that will only strengthen the Iron Throne.

"I understand your decision, my lords," he said. "But please know that I am only trying to help."

He turned to leave, but then he heard a weak voice from the bed.

"Jon…Father…"

Lady Jeyne voice was heard making all three men turn their heads at her.

"Jeyne, my love," Lord Jon said softly while slightly holding her hand just a tad stronger.

"I know… what you are thinking," she said. "But …both … of … you are wrong."

"I am dying," she said. "There is no hope for me." Jeyne paused as she touched her belly gently. "But there is hope for him. Please Jon… save our son…"

"But…" Lord Arryn tried to argue but his wife shook her head slightly.

"You… need an heir, Jon… one heir of the valley…"

Jeyne then turned her head slightly towards her father, who by now was fighting to keep his tears from falling. "Please, father… save your grandson…"

Lord Arryn looked at his wife, and for the first time in his life, he didn't know what to do. He loved her more than anything, and he hated to see her suffer, but at the same time, he knew more than anything that his wife was dying and because of that, he wanted to honor her wish.

He looked at Lord Yohn, who nodded slightly. They had been friends for a long time, and they trusted each other. It wasn't easy decision, but if this means that an heir of Vale was to be born, then by all new and old gods they will try.

"Save the babe, maester!" Both said at the same to the maester surprised.

"Please, maester… save my son…"

The old man nodded solemnly, and gave her a cup of milk of the poppy. "Drink this my lady. It would ease up your pain while I attempt to save your son."

But the old man did not tell her that it was a lethal dose, and that she would never wake up again. It was the least he could do for her since by all the gods this would be a painful operation, one that he was sure would kill her in a painful manner.

He waited for a few minutes, until he was sure that she was asleep. He then lifted her gown, and exposed her belly, before taking a sharp knife from the table. With the knife in hand, the maester made a careful incision along her abdomen, until he reached the uterus. Blood start flowing out of the wound, but the old man didn't flinch at all, instead he silently prayed to the seven while he gently sliced open the uterus, and reached inside.

As soon as he put his hand inside, Pycelle felt something soft and warm, before he grabbed and pull it out gently. The sevens know what in the man's head as he quickly cut the umbilical cord, and wrapped the babe in a clean cloth fearing that the milk of poppy might had some bad effects on it. Once the cord was cut, he checked his vital signs, and breathed a sigh of relief. Luckly the little babe was alive and from the looks of it, was quite healthy, but something was amiss.

His skin was as white as snow, his hair as pale as moonlight, and his eyes as red as the Lannister armor. No matter how Pycelle looked at it, the babe looked like a devil from the deepest hell. Never had he seen such a thing, and if not for Lord Royce quick reaction, the little devil would have been dead.

The old man was so shocked how the babe was looking that he almost fainted and because of that, his grip on the cloth loosened and the babe slip from his arms.

But then, a hand reached out and caught him in mid-air. Yohn Royce, who had been watching the whole scene from the begging… watching his own daughter dying so that her son could live, wouldn't had let this idiot of a maester kill his grandson. And Luckly for all of them, Bronze Yohn was fast enough to caught his grandson.

Once he had his grandson in his arms, Yohn took a closer look at it as well and to Maester Pycelle surprise, the Lord of House Royce smiled brightly.

"Maester Pycelle wh… what is wrong with my son?"

Pycelle froze for a second when he heard Jon Arryn's question, but as a veteran in both politics and maester arts, the old man quickly recovers before telling the man the truth.

"I don't know, my lords. In all of my years as a maester, I had never seen such a thing."

"Will that endanger my grandson in any way?"

"Once again Lord Royce, I have no idea. The babe seems healthy and while he did cry slightly, he is pretty calm considering the circumstances. My suggestion is to find a woman to feed him and to take care of him since, I doubt either you or Lord Arryn would have the time to do so."

Yohn Royce did not appreciate the way Pycelle referred to his grandson as a thing, making him quite angry at the old man who had failed to save his daughter. As strange as the young boy might look, he was a Royce and an Arryn and that alone deserve some respect.

"Grand Maester Pycelle, I suggest you watch your tongue when you speak of my grandson. He is not a thing, he is a boy, a Royce and an Arryn, and he deserves respect and dignity. Do not forget that you serve the king, and the king is indebted to these two houses for their loyalty and support."

He then turned towards Jon Arryn, who looked pale and weary. Jon looked like he aged a decade as he watched his now dead wife laying on the bed. The old and new gods were cruel that much he knew, but at the same time Yohn knew how much Jon loved Jeyne, and how much he wanted a son, so like a good a friend as well as family to the lord of the Valley, Royce held out the babe to him, hoping to offer some comfort.

"Jon, this is your son. He is the heir of House Arryn, the Lord of the Eyrie, and the Defender of the Vale. He is also my grandson, and I will love him as my own. He may look different, but he is still your blood. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Take him, Jon. Hold him. Name him."

Jon Arryn hesitated for a moment before reaching out his hands to take his son from his friend. He would lie if he were to say that he wasn't feeling a mix of emotions when he looked at the small bundle in his arms. As strange looking the pale babe was, Jon couldn't bring himself to even think about hating the little bundle of joy that his late wife gave to him.

"Welcome to the world, my son. You are Konrad Arryn, the future Lord of the Eyrie, the Defender of the Vale, the Warden of the East." Jon paused before turning to his friend, who by now was at peace that his lord and friend accepted the pale babe as his son and not follow whatever the grand maester might have planned to do with the boy. "Yohn, can you please send for Robert and Ned? I want them to see my heir."

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