Warning: this article contains spoilers for the seventh series of Game of Thrones.

There’s no point denying it: there aren’t too many people in Westeros who love Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). Her complicated relationship – because, yes, incest is complicated – with Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) aside, the people who are fondest of the queen tend to be the people she pays to stick around.

Well, and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), of course. Sansa is one of her biggest fans.

Out of all of her staff, however, there is one character who has proven the most constant and loyal throughout all seven seasons of the show – you just might not have noticed her until now. We’re talking, of course, about Cersei’s maid, Bernadette, who popped up ever so briefly during The Queen’s Justice – just in time to catch Jaime in his twin sister’s bed.

Bernadette’s reaction, though? Well, see for yourself:

Her eyes widen, ever so slightly, but Bernadette takes her mistress’ incest in her stride. Indeed, she even politely heads off to fetch fresh bedlinen. And, to be honest, her blasé reaction isn’t all that surprising – especially when you pay close attention to her hair.

Bernadette, in a bid to emulate her queen, has a neat little pixie cut. But she hasn’t always looked that way, oh no: earlier this week, aa Reddit user posted a collage of photos, revealing that Bernadette’s look has always been influenced by Cersei’s own inimitable style.

Check it out:

Yup, there’s no question about it: Bernadette is Cersei’s biggest fan – and she’s definitely proven herself to be a worthy friend to the queen over the years.

Back in season two, as a lowly handmaid, she found Sansa trying to hide evidence of her first ever period, in a desperate bid to avoid sex with Joffrey. Bernadette immediately rushed to expose her secret to Cersei. In the third and fourth season, Bernadette spied on Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) for Cersei in order to find out the identity of his secret lover – and, again, gave up this information of her own free will.

Read more: Game of Thrones finally gave us the feminist sex scene we deserve

Nowadays, Bernadette serves Cersei personally – and was there to help Cersei into her clothes just moments before wildfire tore through the Great Sept and killed off a cool 75% of the queen’s enemies.

Most important of all, though, is the fact that Cersei trusts Bernadette. She trusts her not to expose her and Jaime’s sexual affairs, she trusts her to be at her side almost constantly, and she trusts her to put her needs above those of her own.

Unfortunately, this trust could lead to Cersei’s inevitable downfall.

As we all know from the very first episode of season seven, Arya (Maisie Williams) has picked up the habit of wearing other people’s faces. She posed as Walder Frey in a bid to poison the entire Frey clan – and she’s always been determined to “kill the queen” who executed her father, Ned Stark.

As one redditor points out, Bernadette could be the key to Arya’s assassination plot.

Comment[MAIN SPOILERS] Cercei never need fear Bernadette

It goes without saying that this makes perfect sense to us: after all, Bernadette isn’t mentioned once in George R. R. Martin’s books, so HBO bosses must have kept her in the show for a reason.

Plus we have Maggy the Frog’s prophecy to think about, too.

In the novels, a young Cersei sought out fortune-teller Maggy and asked her to look into her future for her. And the future that Maggy saw for her was grim indeed: she revealed that Cersei’s husband, Robert, would become a father 20 times over by bedding a number of mistresses – a prediction which has since proven to have come true. Maggy went on to warn that Cersei would outlive all of her own children (again, true) – and that “another, younger and more beautiful” will come forth to cast her down.

Could Arya be that someone?

Read more: Have you seen Game of Thrones without the CGI effects?

Then again, there’s another theory which suggests that Jaime will murder his sister/lover himself.

Why? Well, in the final part of the aforementioned prophecy, Maggy reveals that Cersei will be murdered by the valonquar (which is High Valyrian for “little brother”).

“And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you,” she told her.

For years, Cersei assumed that Maggy had been referring to Tyrion – but what if she meant Jaime?

The pair of them may be twins, but we know that Jaime was born shortly after his sister, grasping her foot in his hand. And, sure, he may be her right-hand man now – but, in the books, we know that the two suffer a devastating blow to their relationship when Jaime learns that Cersei has been unfaithful to him. 

Either way, the future doesn’t look bright for Cersei. Then again, does it ever look bright for anyone in HBO’s most bloodthirsty show?

Images: HBO