eachdraidh | (second lemon cake) video ✧ locked to seelie

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(second lemon cake) video ✧ locked to seelie

Dear fellows and members of the Seelie court -- [ the voice which addresses the locket is composed and clear and perfectly conscientious. but the girl whose image accompanies the voice looks a little less than all those things. her dark-dyed hair is fastened in an uncommonly simple braid...and if one looks very closely, she can be seen to have a haggard look about her. she's somewhere outside and all her caution is bent at hiding a panic she doesn't want to share with strangers. nor with those few genuinely waiting on her return. ]

I don't want to alarm any of you. Indeed, I speak to the very opposite of that effect. It's -- [ her gaze flickers 'off-screen' for a moment ] -- it's Alayne Stone. Those of you who are acquaintances [ not friends ] ought to know that I've found myself...left behind. I'm sorry. It should not have happened. But I suspect I won't make Caer Glaem again for some time. [ the fault of the matter is a little trickier than that, but she knows better than to play with implications. so after a steadying breath, she presses onwards. ] Or we won’t -- because I'm not alone. [ i have nymeria, she thinks but doesn’t dare to say. just like how sansa wants to speak directly to those who know her for who she really is -- but instead: ] I have a knight with me.

Don't I, Ser Gendry? [ and she twists her locket, letting it capture the surly blacksmith who stands a few paces away from her with an irritated expression. his armour is dented and blooded and the man sags with an obvious exhaustion. ser gendry is a man who looks and feels beaten, but it does not stop him from standing tall. he is a talisman of sorts: a warning, to any sansa fears might prey upon what would otherwise be a journey fraught with vulnerability. ser gendry is here; she is protected, albeit not happily so. he at last looks towards her and her locket and grumbles an unhappy agreement to her statement, which is accompanied by a nod. ]

A lady needn’t despair when she’s so well accompanied. Instead, my thoughts are with the returned; I pray the High Queen’s desired prize was taken without steep costs or losses. [ following this, there is no formal farewell. no official sign-off. her attention lingers, perhaps waiting for one or two responses in particular. ]

( ooc; sansa and gendry are now officially stranded and making their long way back to caer glaem -- and it’ll take them at least two months, though they’ll be reachable by locket at their respective ic inboxes. but for now, responses to this post will receive replies from one or the other or both!)

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[ Dany responds to the broadcast without her usual commanding attitude, tone soft. She thinks of Alayne as more of a cat than a wolf, easily scared, and knows that she holds no fondness for Daenerys (for reasons unknown). ] I am pleased to hear that you live, Alayne. [ then, more pointedly. ] And Ser Gendry, too. [ though it is a precarious life, indeed. ] I bid you both heed the Elvenking's advice, for he is as wise as I know. [ and without the lust for power in others like him, the undying. ]

And, perhaps, there are those that would ride to you and lessen the dangers of the remainder of your journey. [ perhaps she would do so herself, though it is not quite an offer, on her part. ]

Edited 2014-05-23 19:36 (UTC)

[Ah, the dragon queen. His anger is again tempered, because she's earned his respect. Perhaps she's yet to prove worthy of it, but her intentions and confidence have certainly left him thinking. He wonders if she'd wish him well if she knew he was Robert's bastard.]

Might be there is, m'lady. There's those that might meet us at Station. But the further we are from the Unseelie castle, the safer we'll be.

[And so he reckoned, no one would arrive fast enough to see them through the most dangerous leg of the journey.]

Edited 2014-05-24 03:20 (UTC)

Of course. [ They have truly gone to war, it seems. ] How far is the journey?

Two months, to hear it told. With Lady Sansa, it might be longer. Likely those who say two months are able to make better time.

[But he has no illusions of being able to make Sansa walk all day long. Hell, he certainly knows he doesn't want to march all day either.]

I see. [ Her voice drops slightly, disappointed despite her efforts to feign neutrality. Gendry's counsel was honest, if nothing else, unlike that of the other Westerosi. ] You need only ask, if there are duties I might fulfill in your absence.

The only duties I have are in a forge. Do you work a hammer well, your grace?

[His tone is mocking, but not cruel. He simply thinks it ridiculous that a queen should want to do the work of a laborer.]

[ in an equally mocking tone, with a slight roll of her eyes. ] Mayhaps better than you.

I meant your other duties, Ser, as a knight. After all, if there are those you've sworn to protect here... [ she trails off. They're without a protector, as things are now. ]

I've sworn to protect no one. [Except, perhaps, Sansa. And he swore that only to Arya to shut her up.

He hesitates a moment.] ... I do have some jewels, though. The king and queen gave it to me. I'd been keeping in in the forge, but it might be better kept with someone else.

[ A simple task, then. Jewels are far easier to protect than people. ]

Many have told me stories of dragons guarding jewels. [ which is hilarious to her, as dragons have no use for such things. They seek only food and sport — and to please their mother. ] And I would do so gladly, as repayment for your information and counsel.

[He'd never heard that. If not for the fact he'd brought a quarter of his wealth with him, he'd be worried she'd just steal it all. But this, perhaps, is better. He's been wondering about her a lot. Any penniless queen who would return a fortune to a wayward knight would be quite the person.]

Then you'll find it in the forge. There's a barrel towards the back exit, with a saddle on top of it. Take off the saddle and inside the barrel is spare horse shoes. You'll have to go through a number of them before you find the sack at the bottom.

[He realizes that's quite a bit of work to collect them, but he'd had little cause to go after them until now.]

[ Dany does not think much of this. Even in Qarth, she never considered stealing what they would not give. She takes what is hers or what (she thinks) others have no right to keep. ]

I shall write you when I've found them. [ text. she means text. ]

Don't. That is, I can't read. So it wouldn't do no good if you did.

[He feels no real shame admitting that. He's made no secret of what he is, after all. A lowborn bastard smith, why should he need to be able to read? Certainly in a land like this, he assumed he was not alone in this deficiency.]

[ Oh, that's surprising. She had thought all knights were learned, even baseborn ones like Gendry. Still, it does not bother her.

Drogo couldn't read, after all. ]

Then I will [ what's the word? ] call.

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My lady. [ alayne speaks dutifully: ] I would not want anyone else to risk themselves for me. It's humbling enough that Ser Gendry does.

A kingdom that abandons its people is nothing. [ every person is important and worth saving #votedany4equality. ] Do not underestimate your worth.

[ abandonment is all she knows from her kingdom. no -- that's not true. abandonment would have been a thing devoutly to be wished. instead, she's been terrorized. ]

I know what my worth is, Lady Daenerys. [ she resists the rightful title. she knows she shouldn't -- she risks a lot, she thinks, in belittling the silver-haired queen down to a mere lady. ] Or I know what it was. Here? It's harder to say.

[ The slight has her smile set stiffly and her tone shift into something more commanding. Dany will not correct her, but instead remind her that she herself is more queen than girl. ]

You do not, if you think it dependent on your location.

Beg pardon, my lady. But in Westeros I have a father. A brother by marriage. [ what else is she to call robert arryn? she cannot name him her cousin. ] These things make me what I am meant to be, and without them...

[ alayne stone has no one here; sansa stark is brimming over with allies. but she cannot tell that truth. ]

[ lifting her eyebrows. ] Even without them, you are still Alayne Stone, are you not? If you have a family, you have a legacy, certainly, but you are a person all your own. I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the last of my family, Queen by right and yet, without a kingdom. I have earned my place through mine own actions. I have done without a brother, husband, and father. When all the rest was gone, I found my strength within. [ and though she also had Ser Jorah and her bloodriders, it was through her own strength that she burned, she thinks. ] I became a dragon, a mother, a slayer of lies and breaker of chains.

You are something, when all else is gone. And I hope you might learn what that is.

[ a liar, she thinks. when all else is gone and the stone is chipped away -- she is a liar. a liar and a fugitive and a traitor, now. with blood on her hands. blame in her mouth. it tastes bitter. ]

We can't all be strong, my lady. We aren't all of us built for it. [ as the hound had said -- there are wolves and there are sheep. ]

[ Well then. There seems little reason to push the point. If Alayne does not think herself strong, then she might not be strong, after all (though Dany remembers a time when she thought herself weak, too). ]

Then it is fortunate you have Ser Gendry's strength -- for you will need it until you find your own.

How are you, my lady? How is the castle? I hope things are well.

[ demurely, she shoves the topic far and away from herself. ]

We Seelie, as they call us, have fared the battle well, I think. I've seen far bloodier conflicts in my time.

[ dothraki life. ]

I had never been so -- so a part of a battle, before.

[ she hesitates. after all, certainly it must not count to have witnessed the blackwater from behind the holdfast's walls? ]

[ her heart pangs, thinking back to her first days with drogo. the first battles she witnessed. the same men who protected her ruining others. ]

It isn't like the stories, is it?

[ although that was long ago, before many of her trials. and she must not look back. if you look back, you are lost. ]

Edited (grammar :')) 2014-05-29 13:33 (UTC)