Video | Forward-dated to June 2

[kingsdaughter]

[Sigrid has the locket propped up like a mirror on her dresser. Flung over the arm of her chair is a mass of scarlet wool she is sewing into a new gown. Everything else in her room looks, to her, rather sparse and unlived-in. She's never had her own room all to herself. Nervously, she brushes stray hairs away from her face even though they were never in the way.]

I've kept my own house these last six years.

...What I'm saying is I need work, and I'm willing to work. I'm good with children, if you need any looked after. Otherwise I can do chores as you need them. I read and write well, and I sew, cook, spin, and knit. And clean, of course, and do laundry and all. Da taught me ciphering so I could manage our money. Anything else, I can learn.

Thank you.

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[kingsdaughter]

[The Sigrid who replies to Gendry is quite different from the one who conversed with Sansa. She's all business.]

That isn't a promise to pay, you know.

[bullhorned]

It could be. Why not? My uncle is a lord as well. Lord Renly Baratheon. He's there in the same court as you.

[kingsdaughter]

That doesn't mean he'll pay, either. I'll not take credit. I want payment in coin on the day it's meant to come or I'll be my own maidservant and be happy with it.

[bullhorned]

[First, he makes this video so only she can see. Then, he reaches into his pouch and filches out a ruby, but as his thumb.]

There now. I don't have coin, but I have this.

[kingsdaughter]

It's not real.

[Not that she'd know one way or the other. She's just assuming.]

[bullhorned]

It's real. You think I wouldn't know the look of jewels? I was an armorer's apprentice. And not just anyone's apprentice, but the best armorer in the kingdom. He used jewels like this in his armor and weapons all the time. So I know a real ruby from a fake.

[kingsdaughter]

It's a ruby?

[Why that suddenly makes it amazing, she isn't sure. Having a name makes it real and lovely, perhaps. He's holding a real ruby wow is settling in, even though she's trying not to look awestruck.]

Not...not that I believe you. Where did you get it?

[bullhorned]

I fought for the king and queen. Slayed a number of these big, ugly snake things. So they rewarded me with jewels.

[Even more jewels than what he had collected from the bellies of those very same worms. Which had all amounted to a fortune he had absolutely no need of.

Until now, where he reckoned these jewels might be all that keeps him and Sansa well fed.]

[kingsdaughter]

[Okay that's really cool. She's never seen a real ruby before, not even through a magic picture. After a longing look, she shakes her head softly.]

It's too much pay. Especially if all you have is jewels. Perhaps we could exchange service for service?

[bullhorned]

Services? I'm a smith. What use do you have for anything I make?

[Likely plenty. But he wasn't really seriously looking for her help. He was merely hoping to wind Sansa up a little, but he's not even sure she's paying attention.]

[kingsdaughter]

[She thinks about orcs attacking her home. She thinks about the dwarves stealing weapons. She thinks about Fili being unable to fully protect them because they were caught and the weapons were confiscated.]

I...can think of a few things. Fire-irons, at the least, if I'm going to cook anything.

[bullhorned]

[Even though he's still technically an apprentice, he frowns at the suggestion. He's become accustomed to finely crafted armor! To swords! He made a knife for the daughter of Lord Paramount Tyrell!

And now he is asked to make fire-irons for a service he really didn't need.]

Fire-irons are... easy enough to make.

[kingsdaughter]

And a dagger, [she blurts out.] I want you to make me a dagger. A good one, not a paring-knife. I need a good dagger I can keep hidden on me somewhere.

[There's no question whether or not she can bring herself to use it. She can bring herself to do anything that needs to be done.]

[bullhorned]

A dagger? Will it have a ruby in it?

[His tone is gently mocking, because Margaery had shared a similar concern to him and he had vowed to make it as fine a dagger he could. And he had! He'd set emeralds into either side of the hilt, so it would be fitting for the so-called strength of the Tyrell family. But rubies for a common girl! Now there was a funny thought to share.]

[kingsdaughter]

[Maybe he means it lightly, but she finds it hard to joke about something like this.]

No--no, I mean, I want it practical. I need to be able to really use it, if it comes to it. Nothing fancy, just good. Fit for my hand. Strong steel, like the dwarves make.

[Maybe she should ask a dwarf.]

[bullhorned]

You'll have your dagger. [She seemed nice enough and it would make a decent apology for leading her on like this.] But not anytime soon. I'm with Lady Alayne.

[kingsdaughter]

Of course. Maybe once you get back I can pay you for your work.

Could you be sure Alayne is kept safe?

[She doesn't want to lose her first friend.]

[bullhorned]

[He resents the fact that everyone feels the need to ask him to do that, as if somehow he would not do it already. He answers testily.[ ]]

I'm with her, aren't I? If I didn't mean to keep her safe, it would be easier going for me to have left her behind already.

[kingsdaughter]

Don't take it like that. It's just something people say when they're worried.

[bullhorned]

[Though he resents the implication all the same, he grumbles an agreement.]

You've no need to worry. You and her will be knitting together before long.

[kingsdaughter]

...I'll make you shirts for when you return, and good stockings. You'll need them by then. What's your name, again?

[bullhorned]

[He's half tempted to tell her that he could have the fairies do that for him. But by the sake token, there's castle workers who man the forge, so she has no need to ask him for her tools either. In the castle, their skills have only so much value as the other allows them to. She's given his value, he reckons he owes her the same.]

Gendry. Ser Gendry. What's yours?

[kingsdaughter]

Sigrid. [She figures "ser" is some sort of title, like captain or sergeant.] Daughter of Bard.

[bullhorned]

Never heard of him. [Not that he reckon he should. But if she'd mentioned him, perhaps it implied some importance.] He some kind of lord?

[kingsdaughter]

No. He's my father.

[Weird weird weird weird.]

Not all of us have two names, you know.