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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Because I can untie things; I can do that much. But the defence died on her lips because what good would it do her now? He'd already considered the non-offer with a non-committal sort of reply. To say anything else -- to promote herself, or even only to argue -- would be heavy handed. Crass. It was enough to simply make him aware that she would entertain the task and that he could request the help if he wanted to request it.

A lighter touch was best. She knew that already.

"It can't be far; I think I hear a trickle."

He paused, because his own armor was louder to him than it was to her. Now he could hear it and he followed the source. Mud gave way to faint puddles, and then blessedly to a creek, and further up he could see water trickling down from it. The trouble was that the creek was in a small ravine that dipped into the ground a distance of about his own height. A twisted path of roots, trees, and stones presented a crude path down. One he could easily make, once he shed his armor.

So he reasoned it was time to do that first. Again, he tilted his head for her to follow and he found a log to sit on. "I'll fetch us some water, m'lady, if you'll help me with this armor." He paused a moment, remembered her admonishment before, and added as an afterthought: "Please."

"--Where do I start?"

She walked to his side. And in doing so she gathered all her courage into one ball. Into one place. For all they'd talked on the road and for all she'd already depended upon him, she'd been conspicuously distant. Warmer, always, with the wolf than she was with him. And so she should be.

Sansa spared a glance for the creek -- felt the dryness of her mouth -- but decided that if he would wait until his armour was off, then so would she.

"Here." He lifted a pauldron so far as the armor would allow, so that she might see the way it was strapped to the chestplate. "Then the chestplate next. It's strapped together here, here, and here." He indicated the places. "The gauntlets and greaves I'll manage on my own."

But first, he loosened the strap for his helmet, which had dangled behind his head like a strange metal hood. He set the finely crafted bull's head on the log and waited for her to do as asked.

Gingerly -- tentatively -- her fingers hook on the metal. And Sansa wrinkled her nose because close quarters brought on the realization that they were the both of them beginning to smell like the road: dust and mud and hard journeying. She tossed her head so that her braid fell down her back and would not interfere as she plucked at the strap. Tugged. Worked it until it loosened. It was slow going; she feared that to pry too hard might lose her a nail. Or might ruin the strap itself. In either concern, her pace was born of inexperience and mild paranoia.

"No wonder knights have squires," she muttered -- as if to herself.

He heard her and answered anyway. "I don't have one. Wouldn't much know what to do with one if I did, on account of never having been one either."

But he had seen squires. Once, from his place in the forge, he'd envied those proud looking boys who stood behind their armored knights, learning and observing all they could. But now, he was a knight and had accomplished what all those squires could hope to be. Except for knowing what he should be doing. For now, he turned his left arm over and played with the strap there, loosening it until the armor slid free. He flexed his freed hand, wished that he would be doing the same with his right, and then waited. He could feel her delicate fingers at work. Not perhaps by contact, but more by imagination. He thought it a pity it was Sansa Stark behind him now and not Lucrezia instead.

"I should have known they did this." She prised the pauldron from its place and sat it gently on the end of the log. She was remarkably careful and respectful of these pieces of metal doomed to be abandoned and forgotten. "Lord Tyrion's squire only ever seemed to pour wine and deliver messages and -- mumble, really. He always mumbled and watched the ground."

At least, Podrick had only ever done those things around her. Like as not he was embarrassed to be around such a vowed traitor. But now she had to wonder where the squire had gone -- had he fled the capital with her husband? She could not imagine Tyrion getting far in the world without some help.

And then, on further reflection, she found that a cruel thought indeed. Sansa shook her head.

"The Lady Brienne had a squire like that. Not pouring wine, that is. He mumbled and watched the ground." He placed his right hand over his bare left arm and squeezed his flesh. It was a strange motion to make, but it brought to mind how the poor boy must have been strangled at the end. He felt hollow inside. Guilty for a crime he knew he was not wholly accountable for.

"But he's dead now."

"--How?"

Sansa wasn't certain what compelled her to ask. Really, she ought to have mumbled her regrets and moved along and changed their topic. But there was something in the way Gendry moved and the way he spoke that made her want to question it. And this very moment -- a Lady of Winterfell undoing some minor knight's armour -- seemed to permit the question.

"His lady had orders from the king. From the Lannisters. So they hung for it. It's what the Brotherhood does, these days."

Were it Freys, he might show pride in it. But he still could only remember how bravely Brienne had fought, his awe to see her face enemies alone, and how pointless it had been for him to save her life.

"What sort of orders are the Lannisters looking to see carried out--?"

This was no longer mere curiousity. A flash in the pan of her mind reminded her that Lord Baelish would value such information, and so she must value it as well. She crossed behind him and pulled carefully at the second pauldron.

"She was looking for someone. A highborn girl, of five-and-ten, with blue eyes and auburn hair." How many times had he heard that? It seemed as if she'd asked him more than once. She'd also confessed her love to him as well, but he'd scowled, because she'd called him Renly at the time. But he cast Sansa a knowing look, because somehow he'd found Sansa instead of Lady Brienne.

"She was in with Ser Jaime Lannister. They wanted to bring you back to King's Landing. And she had a lion's sword. But it was a sweet piece of steel, that. Valyriain steel, I think. I wanted it for myself, but they wouldn't let me keep it. Mayhaps I should ask the High Queen for it."

Her hands stopped. Who was this Lady Brienne -- some new enemy crawling out from the stonework? Working with the Kingslayer, taking Lannister orders abroad. And looking for her. Gendry's brief words outlined a horror story for Sansa Stark. But this time, the nightmares wouldn't be new ones. Back to King's Landing -- oh, she suffered that sentence with a shudder.

"A-and the squire? The one with her? Did you learn his name?" Because she felt a dreadful net closing in on her thoughts. Their two mild descriptions matched, and she could only imagine why -- her husband's squire aiding in a search for her so he could...what? Clear the Imp's name?

"He was a Payne," he answered. He now turned to look at her, puzzled. He could sense in her words that she'd been frightened by all this. But while there was much to be worried about in the wilderness, this was not cause for it. "They're dead, m'lady. They're no threat to you now."

"No threat at all."

And yet even she could have hardly imagined that Podrick Payne would have ever been a threat. He'd seemed to tremble so -- and he'd always gone flush whenever she spoke to him. It made her heart ache now to realize she would never be able to beg that tale off of him now: the one about the gold coins on purple and white chequy. Perhaps she may be grateful that this strange Lady Brienne was gone. But Pod--

"If you're right, then he was the same squire. Podrick. His name was Podrick Payne." May the Gods look after him now. Sansa pulled a little harder on the next strap and sought to inflict her frustration on the leather. Of all the enemies she'd want to see under the heel of vengeance, timid Podrick Payne had not been one of them. Like her, he'd only been trying to survive the deadly game being played around them.

He turned to look ahead again with an uncomfortable feeling at this strange connection of fate together. He did not like her greatly, but he felt worse now in his confession. She knew Podrick the boy and if she did, then she knew he was undeserving of his fate. And now, he reckoned she knew him to be no manner of decent knight.

He nodded his agreement, but remained silent until she was finished.

Whatever his Brotherhood did, it was no cut and dry fight for the people -- not like how it had been sold. Perhaps Podrick had been from a noble house but it was minor in its own right. And he was (if possible) a gentler soul than her. Aside from the rumours from during the Blackwater--

Sansa shook her head and bent to the work and swore that she would not cry for him. Gentle soul or not, he'd been loyal to Tyrion first. That was evident enough if he was now searching for her. No -- not now. Had been. The past tense tore at her resolve and she breathed in, shook her head once more, and set the second pauldron aside.

She moved behind him to pull next at the backplate.

He wondered what Sansa might say if he told her the truth of it all. It was not Gendry that had executed this squire she once knew. It was the Lady Stoneheart. It was Sansa's own mother who ordered the deed. Gendry did not have the stomach to see it carried out, but he knew the conclusion so well that he did not need to know how it would end. They would swing, they would die, and a dead woman's thirst for vengeance would not be sated.

So he reminded himself of Willow Heddle and of the little orphans. He fought for them, even if they were scared of him. He protected them foremost and Lady Stoneheart...

She was a world away. One day, he'd have to tell Sansa about her. Maybe then, something might be done. Perhaps the High King and High Queen could help the dead woman be more alive than Beric Dondarrion had.

But all of that was just idle thinking. When he felt the last buckle unloosed on one side, he pulled the front part of his armor away, so that it pull forward like a hinge.

And soon they had a pile of metal. It looked so less impressive sitting as it did, off his body and in a half-mess on the log. "I'm sorry," she at long last had the grace and good sense to say -- although it was done in a voice that made clear how she was not pleading for forgiveness but rather fulfilling a duty. "...Sorry that so much hard work must be abandoned."

Her part in it was done. And so she could step away, retain her shade of personal space, and try not to reflect on what the Brotherhood might have done to poor Podrick. Even if Gendry had killed the boy himself (which she was not yet certain he hadn't done) it would be no reason to stop trusting his protectorship. The Hound had done worse and some of that before her eyes.

Before she could hamstring herself by giving another apology, Sansa turned away and walked to the creek's edge.

It was not armor he had made, which made him all the more sorry to be abandoning the craftsmanship of someone else. He nodded silently and stood. He now carried only a chainmail shirt, a gauntlet on his right hand, and the bull's helmet which he repositioned so it rested against his chest. He watched her go, then quickened his pace to overtake her.

He did not seek to stop her, but instead to risk the rough way down first. He stumbled and twisted around root and stone until at last his feet crashed into the water. He leaned down, cupped his hand, and filled his dry throat. Then he waited for her to follow. He curled one elbow around a young tree and then offered a raised hand to steady herself on the way down.

She watched with envy. She watched with a throat that ached and with lips that were chapped and she nearly thought to follow him down the rooted and rocky incline. Caution stayed her step and then -- and then -- he held out his hand and if the moment had been under different circumstances she might have smiled. Instead, she put her fingers 'round his wrist and held on tight while her heels stepped (and sometimes skidded) down to the water's edge.

His support allowed her to merely perch on the last bit of solid ground before the water. Her skirt-hem started to soak, but her toes were dry. And she crouched -- her one hand still a vice on his -- so she might gather water with the other. She drank four full palms before standing straight. Sansa dabbed at her lips with the inside of her arm.

"Today, this tastes sweeter than honeyed ice milk."

She had soft hands, he'd noticed right away. But he waited patiently as she had her fill. He was still terribly thirsty for that one mouthful had done little more that wet his tongue. But with her filled, he crouched and dipped his hands into the water four times before he used the last to wet his face and neck and free it off sweat and dirt.

He looked up at her, in better spirits than he had been since they'd become stranded. "I'll take your word on that. I ain't ever had any."

"Never?"

She was sad to lose his hand. Or -- no, not sad. But her existence felt poorer now that she was a solitary thing, disconnected from him. It hadn't been Gendry and his hand that had cheered her in that moment, but the twinned satisfaction of clean water and successful teamwork. When it came to usefulness and achievement, Sansa had so few examples to draw upon. But she would add this brief moment to the list -- the very work of sharing someone else's strength. Gratifying.

"I'm sorry to hear it," she voiced her vague sympathy, understanding that it wasn't a make-or-break experience. But iced milk with honey was a delicious treat and right now she supposed they needed all the fond memories they could muster. Memories sweet enough to carry them across a continent.

She wrung her hands together, thinking that her own palm made a poor substitute for someone else's. And she thought she might want to copy him and splash water over her face. But it had looked clumsy enough when she'd watched him do it from the corner of her eye. She didn't fancy looking like that when she did it.

"Still. Today, the water is better. King Thrandruil said I ought to wet my sleeve and therefore have water to drink as we walk farther. We have no bowls or cups or skins, after all."

Her sympathy washed over him, largely unheeded. Were she not present, he'd be submerging himself in the water. As it was, he took the liberty of removing his boots so he could sit on a large rock and let his tired feet cool. He looked up at her, vaguely wondering how it was she could manage to keep herself from seeking more water or doing the same as he was. He supposed, perhaps, he was simply just more tired. She'd not been wearing armor for the miles they walked.

"Wet your sleeves?" He asked dubiously. "It will just dry out, won't it?"

The problem of carrying water was one he'd been thinking about for awhile now. They had found the stream now and he had the notion that maybe they should follow it. People often lived near water, so he thought perhaps following it would lead to a village or farm. But he had no notion of what the countryside was meant to look like in this strange, perverted land. Besides that, he did not know if it would be wise to go upstream or downstream.

If he had but a simple canteen, things would be easier. Her talk of sleeves was, for the moment, the only solution they had. He did not like it much, for it seemed to be one that would only last them a few more hours along the road.

"Maybe. But not immediately."

She gave a shallow shrug. And still she watched him enviously. Her feet ached, and seeing him dip his in the water made her desperate to do the same. But it wouldn't do, it wouldn't do, it would not do. She crouched instead and kept her precarious balance while dipping her hands back into the creek. She did not splash her face but she did gently press her damp palms against her cheeks. It was a partial relief.

"O-or maybe I misunderstood him," she said, admitting that the fault could once again be with her.

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