eachdraidh | (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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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)

Nothing is, my lady. The stories and songs are lies. All of them.

[ all the stories and songs -- even the ones her brother told her.

no. ]

Surely, some stories are true. The ones of dragons and direwolves, at least.

[ for she has seen both now. ]

Direwolves?

[ she resists the urge to look 'off-frame' at the one in question who accompanies her on this journey. ]

[ at alayne's expression, dany's eyebrows lift. ]

There was a girl on the locket not too long ago. [ she taps the screen with her free hand. ] She had a direwolf.

Who was this girl?

[ and much do you know of her. gods, arya! her sister ought to be more careful. sansa frowns. ]

[ her expression falters, a flicker of conflict. she knows the answer. others called her arya of house stark. the girl even said as much a few times.

daenerys would never harm the child, though she cannot say the same for her parents.

still, her eyes narrow. ]

Why do you wish to know?

[ alayne is only a girl, true. of course, daenerys is also but a girl and all the more dangerous for it. ]

If she --

[ think, sansa! her teeth bite hard into her lower lip. ] Direwolves are from the north, are they not? I only marvel that I might find another Westerosi here.

[ dany purses her lips. alayne is far away now, at least, should she deign to harm arya for reasons unknown. ]

[ still, her tone adopts a warning edge. ] There are many Westerosi here. [ too many, honestly. ] Others addressed her as Arya of House Stark, and I should hope, for your sake, your reason for seeking her is as innocent as you claim.

[ you hurt children; you get burned. ]

[ sansa is a timid girl. she is not prone to boldness -- no matter how bastard-brave she wants alayne to be. but since reclaiming arya as her blood, she's come to feel a boil in her veins when the topic of her is at hand. ]

Why would you care? Lady Arya's father rode against your family. Perhaps it's your reasons that ought to be questioned.

[ the boldness shocks her, leaving her momentarily speechless, but she recovers, regarding alayne's fire with icy coolness. ]

What would I care, indeed, for a child to be punished alongside her father? It is not as though I have lost two brothers to the unjust slaughter of children. [ sarcasm. for viserys was lost to her long before he died. ] Or that I myself have lived in exile, poverty, slavery, and fear because a man like her father — mayhaps Eddard Stark himself, I do not know — sought to uproot babes just the same as men.

Tell me, Alayne, why should I care to repeat that injustice, when I know the pain of it firsthand? How could I inflict such sorrow on another? I should like to know what sort of monster I am.

[ so many words. so many implications. they threaten to drown her -- and she doesn't understand where the targaryen girl gets the strength and courage to say so much in one breath. all she can manage is a strained squeak and an unhappy, diluted: ] N-no. He was never like that. They say Lord Eddard was good and kind and honourable.

[ except they don't say that at all any longer. they say he's a traitor. and she is a traitor's daughter, rapidly coming close to revealing her sympathy. ]

[ she scoffs. in her ignorance, baratheon, stark, lannister — they are all the same to her, especially now that alayne's remark has woken the dragon. all the crimes of war blur together in her mind. the usurper and his dogs all harmed her family. the innocents. Elia, Aegon, Rhaenys, Viserys, Daenerys. ]

How honorable he must have been, when he abided the rape of women and murder of children.

[ she ignores the voices of her counsel that whisper the praises of eddard stark, that remind her that he, too, punished slavers. if she dilutes her cause any more (already allowing for children and temporary truces in the land of the fairies), she will truly be lost. ]

Edited 2014-05-30 13:54 (UTC)

You can't know that he did so -- that he abided anything of the sort.

[ her voice is now thick with threatened tears; she needs to stop. close the locket. anything. ]

[ alayne's distress gives her pause, but not enough to stop her tirade. ]

If he did not, I, too, would have a family!

[ if any of robert's dogs had been good, true men, they would have killed him before their king. him, before any of the targaryens. ]

[ and if rhaegar had never seen lyanna then she would have an aunt --

but sansa cannot let the truth show. she deflates, dejected, and her voice turns to frost: ] As you say, my lady. If you say it, it must be true.

[ because a targaryen once roasted a stark alive and she does not want to see it happen again. if only she could find some way to warn arya off from the sharp-tongued dragon. ]

[ if anything, alayne placating her (like she's still a child) upsets her more. immediately, she snaps her reply. ]

Don't mock me.

[ then, in an attempt to salvage her dignity (and avoid facing her problems), she continues stonily, returning to a simmering anger. ] You're dismissed. [ because she's the queen. she has the power. ]

[ and she hangs up. ]

(second lemon cake) video ✧ locked to seelie

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