eachdraidh | Video | Forward-dated to June 2

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Video | Forward-dated to June 2

[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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[ there is greenery behind a chestnut-haired girl who now peers thoughtfully down at her locket. ]

You're a young woman of many talents.

[ sansa is nowhere near the castle -- but she is interested. curious. and (frankly) bored. the road is a dull place. ]

[Sigrid shakes her head, a tiny smile touching her lips.]

My amma used to say everything must get done even if no one wants to do it. That's all.

What wisdom!

[ a soft undercurrent of want flutters through her voice. the road has reminded her just how much work goes into simply existing -- and how much she depends on handmaidens even in the vale. even as alayne.

gently: ] What is your name? I would give you work but I'm far from any castle and I...

[ she trails off. for all she knows, this girl isn't even amongst her side of the conflict. ]

Not wisdom, only practicality. [It's hard to mistake an upper-crust girl, and it puts Sigrid slightly on the defensive. Girls like that usually don't give her compliments unless they're meant as sarcasm. But this girl seems sincere, and Sigrid isn't sure what she's meant to do with sincere admiration.]

Sigrid, my lady.

Can't they be one in the same. Sigrid? [ wisdom and practicality. this is not sansa stark speaking; this is all alayne -- patient alayne who keeps petyr's castle for him. who commands the cooks and bears the cups and decides which lord sits where.

sansa would rather neither wisdom nor practicality but she cannot have what she wants -- and so she settles for what is right. ]

...Anyway, it's what my amma told me, so it's not my wisdom.

[She offers the girl a little smile. Compromise.]

[ inherited wisdom, then. like what old nan would once tell her. or septa mordane. things she never listened to until it was far too late. ]

My name is Alayne Stone, Sigrid. And at the very least I would appreciate someone to sit and sew with me once I'm back at Caer Glaem. You are at Caer Glaem, aren't you?

[ because in this very second she thinks her heart will break if this obliging young thing is not a comrade of hers. ]

I am.

[And at the admission, something gives in her. She realizes she's hit the jackpot. She has found a friend. A kind, beautiful friend her own age, no less. Her face splits into a grin, and her eyes light up.]

I would love that, Alayne. I was only today draped for a new gown, and I chose the most beautiful red. I've never had anything of that color in my life.

[Gendry, who has lightened up some on his journey now and had been listening to Sansa in a kind of happy lilt with this new friend, decided to intervene. Perhaps cruelly, but largely because it was a boring thing to be on the long road.]

I could hire you. I've got plenty I could pay you with. It's likely I'm the richest man you'll find in Caer Glaem.

[ red. she hears the word and she thinks of lannisters -- and this is not fair to this girl. but in her thoughts, sansa decides to press something in a rich blue upon her. once she's back; once she's comfortable; once she's out of these boots and off of this hellish road. ]

Red is a bold colour indeed. [ a politic silence. ] I'm sure you'll have many more gowns still. The High Queen is generous with her fabric. A good thing, because my own skirts will be tatters before I return.

[To Sigrid, blue is indigo, cheap, plenty. She is over-tired of indigo blue, sick of it being the one color besides grey, brown, and off-white that she wears. Some of her clothes are madder-red, an earthy tone like bricks, but scarlet is different. Scarlet is luxury and beauty, neither of which Sigrid has ever had.]

How long will you be? I can make a petticoat in an afternoon.

[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.

Nearly two turns of the moon yet. My...companion and I were lost on the wrong side of one of their awful fairy rings. We are to make our own way home.

[ alayne must be light-hearted and sweet, now. if she wants to win the girl's friendship and stave off her loneliness. ] But you must wait for me, Sigrid. Or else talk with me during the long hours of the journey.

I can talk with you and work at the same time, my dear Alayne. [What a lovely little thrill goes through her at the chance to call someone "my dear!"] You shall have petticoats when you return, and there will be other things to make after that. Do you know ciphering? I could teach you.

[ sansa shrinks from this sudden burst of friendship -- as sweet as it sounds and tastes, she isn't yet certain she can trust it. it's fast and quick-blooming. but alayne, she knows, is bastard-brave. capable of reaching out and saying what needs to be said.

so she keeps the crutch of alayne stone still: ] Ciphering! [ hmm. sigrid had mentioned it next to money and so -- ] Is that...your sums, you mean? I know my sums. Not well, perhaps. But I know them.

Perhaps you can make them better.

[Sigrid hasn't had friends her age in a long time, not since Ma died. That was when she started to feel very different from the other children her age, and those willing to brave the drama that was her family life started to draw away from her for finding her suddenly a stranger to them.

And maybe she's digging her claws in too quickly, but her father taught her that's how she gets what she wants in life. And she wants Alayne.]

My da taught me enough to keep our money straight. Bookkeeping, he called it. It isn't very interesting, I'm afraid, but it helps us know what's gone where.

[ speaking of books being kept-- ]

And you said you know your letters, as well? There's a fine library in the castle. Until recently, I was trying to keep its spines in order. [ not because she likes to read all that much but because king thranduil had asked for her help once. and ever since, she'd found the stacks a quiet and solitary place. good for avoiding the stress of other people. ]

It's quiet there. If you ever want quiet, please find its doors.

[ if she has any piece of wisdom worth having, she wants to add it to sigrid's other inheritances. ]

Edited 2014-05-30 00:02 (UTC)

Thank you. [Quiet moments are rare and precious as scarlet fabric.] Of course I will.

[She suddenly thinks of Tilda, and how some of their fondest times have been snuggling close and exchanging stories made up off the tops of their heads.]

Would you...like for me to find a book to read to you, sometimes? Till you get back to the castle, I mean. Perhaps it will help pass the time, and give you something to look forward to every day.

[As soon as she says it, she thinks it sounds stupid. Alayne is older than Tilda, and she won't want to listen to stories like a little girl.]

Edited 2014-05-30 00:22 (UTC)

Sigrid -- [ a soft breath. almost sad sounding. ]

[ her thoughts race. she is checking the offer for any sort of hook or catch or unforeseen blemish. but what could it be but kindness?

sansa suffers herself to smile. ] It would be an undeniable pleasure.

[Her heart sinks at Alayne's sigh, then leaps at the smile.]

We shall be two well-dressed and educated women.

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

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.

[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.

It's not real.

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

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