There were, he thought, quite a few different ways that he could spin the real tale so as not to upset his brother unnecessarily. He had become an expert at telling half-truths and casting subjects under different lights for the benefit of others. It was how he protected himself, and the people that he loved. But it was starting to get more and more difficult as the things that happened to him became stranger and stranger.
"I died," he blurted out after a long hesitation, stabbing at a piece of potato with his fork and shoveling it into his mouth so that he would have an excuse to be quiet while he chewed. It gave him a moment to think. "I was a king, and we were about to go to war. And then... I died. By a sword, right here." Renly lowered one of his hands to his chest and gazed out at the water, distracted, remembering how the point of the blade had looked as it stuck out of him.