video | Open to both courts

[kingsdaughter]

[Sigrid is looking fairly haggard and pale. Behind her is the rugged green wilderness surrounding the Station, though the Station itself is not in sight.]

I'm in the middle of nowhere at all and I've got a bad leg. I couldn't find my locket and I had to ask a thrush to find it for me. A thrush. I'm talking to thrushes and they answer me. Anyway I need help. The thrush said he'd go and find someone, but I don't know who he meant. Does anyone know if thrushes are wise birds or silly birds? If he brings back a bear or something, I've got to hide now.

Comments

[kingsdaughter]

I'll take a helpful thrush over a useless man.

[reticence]

And now it is you who is quick to judge. Whatever gave you the impression that I was useless? Or that I was reprimanding in the first place? Facts are facts.

Ah well. If nothing more, at least I'm entertainment until that bird returns with its bears, or whatever else a thrush might find useful in such a situation. [He may or may not be enjoying himself, here.]

[kingsdaughter]

If you're not close enough to help me, all you're doing is wasting air talking to me about why you're not useless. I'm not being quick to judge. Facts are facts, as you said.

[reticence]

So you would rather spend your time alone than speaking to the likes of me. [Blunt, but to the point. Faolan does not waste time with useless pleasantries.] Is what you're trying to say.

[kingsdaughter]

...No.

[For the first time, she feels a bit chastised.]

I just...don't like it when people talk like I'm a stupid, helpless girl.

[reticence]

[Faolan arches an eyebrow, but pauses, taking a deep breath in and letting it out slowly. Words. Did he say something rude in the first place, or is she just sensitive to this? Perhaps both. He's spent a while on his own, as of late. Gods, give him the strength.]

I'll offer you a trade. Fair? [He nods to his shoulder.] I was attacked by wolves. What happened to your leg? [Which was the question he was trying to ask in the first place. HONESTLY SIGRID.]

[kingsdaughter]

[It seems fair enough. Maybe he's not that bad.]

An imp tried eating it.

[reticence]

Ah. [That puts a bit more prospective on things.] They're nasty little bastards. I hope you gave him what he was asking for.

[kingsdaughter]

[His (probably faked?) encouragement and confidence in her ability to kick an imp's ass gets a brief, wan smile.]

Ghost got that one, actually. That's--sorry, that's Jon's direwolf. There were four or five of them at once. Imps, not wolves. That one was just the only one that made a mark.

[reticence]

[It's actually not faked, however rusty it might sound. That's just kind of the way he is? You get used to it after a while.

Faolan isn't going to point out that not only was she facing down one but five imps on her own in the middle of nowhere. Well, with a direwolf to aid her, whatever that was exactly. He gets the feeling that will just set her on the defense again.] And where is your canine friend now then? [As far as he's concerned, a trained wolf is far more useful than a thrush ever will be. Although maybe, given his circumstances, he might be prejudiced against birds, considering one stole the love of his life away. No, Faolan, don't think of it like that. You're an assassin. She is a lady. It was never meant to be.]

[kingsdaughter]

Probably still at Caer Glaem. Oh! [She realizes his misunderstanding.] I was at Caer Glaem when the imp bit me. That's been a couple of days. I've only just now found myself in the middle of nowhere after chucking a ball of yarn at a thing. Nothing slows down here for a moment.

[reticence]

['Caer Glaem'. So she must be of the Seelie court. Faolan files this away for later. He raises his eyebrows further at the mention of 'chucking a ball of yarn at a thing' and finding oneself in the middle of nowhere because of it.]

"A thing"...

[kingsdaughter]

Something that moaned and wouldn't stop. Horned sort of thing, but it was shadowy so I couldn't see it well.