(fourth lemon cake) voice ✧ open to both courts

[steeledskin]

Fellow Shardholders. [ of either court! ]

I would speak to a man of law -- should any find himself amid our numbers. [ such a profession is unknown to her, but stiles has explained some occupations and tenets of his world and this one in particular piques her interest. sansa stark could make use of such a man who might be bound by her confidentiality. of course, she does not quite understand the ins and outs of the arrangement.

but that's why she asks today: to learn; to plan; to piece together little patches of her defence. ] Anyone who would call themselves lawyer. I would speak with you. That is the word for it, yes? [ lawyer. ] My apologies if I've gotten it wrong; I'm only a simple girl and I am unwise in these matters. I want to learn about the things that are mysteries to me.

[ like whether a lawyer's strange binding powers of argumentation would even apply in these lands. once her conversations are finished, she snaps the locket shut and can be found in the library -- where she organizes books she doesn't care to read, because the practise soothes her and distracts her mind from its darker thoughts. or else come the evening she sits in her chambers, and allies of hers are welcome to stop and knock. ]

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[steeledskin]

We met first upon the Kingsroad when Father and Arya and I came south. I knew who he was the moment I looked at him. And yet I would not say I know him well.

[ at least, it seems the man harbours secrets she could never have anticipated. ]

[bullhorned]

I didn't know who he was when I saw him. Just some lord. You might claim to know little, but it's still more than I do.

[She was born to the same world Renly was. Gendry is just related to him.]

[steeledskin]

How strange it must have been -- to see a stranger so alike to you.

[ because she forgets that poor people don't have mirrors. ]

[bullhorned]

Even stranger to see someone clean. I'd seen even less of that.

[He hadn't seen the resemblance, in any case. It only became apparent to him the day Lucrezia had cleaned him up and dressed him up. Only then could he see the man that might be a Baratheon.]

[steeledskin]

"Come, now. Surely you speak with some exaggeration--?"

She would not so brazenly question another. But Gendry... well! He inspired honesty in her bones.

[bullhorned]

"Master Mott was the only important person I knew for most my life. But he worked the forge as much as we did. There were days he was clean, but most days he'd be as sweaty and dirty as the rest of us. When I sold armor, it was only ever to hedge knights and free riders. Master Mott was the one who dealt with high lords."

[steeledskin]

"You can't have always been dirty..."

Perhaps he'd never had proper baths, but she couldn't imagine anyone -- even stinky Ser Dontos -- going long without so much as a scrub.

"When we travelled, and at the streams...!" But she supposed King's Landing hadn't had many of those. She had seen the city's veins creep across one another from tower windows and there hadn't been much water before the sea.

[bullhorned]

He laughed at the thought of it. "There's streams in Fleabottom, m'lady, but you're likely to come out dirtier than you started."

It was a stream of shit from the Red Keep that defined his earliest home. He'd been lucky to live on the Street of Steel, where lords and knights actually would visit and had no desire to smell their own filth.

[steeledskin]

"From where would you drink? Wash your clothes? And surely even smithing requires cleaned tools.

Unless-- no. I apologize. It's not my place to question any of it."

[bullhorned]

"We had clean water, m'lady. Enough for baths, too. Though it usually weren't so clean once it was my turn."

But then, he'd already demonstrated a casual acceptance of that reality when they shared a bath on the road. Even in Caer Glaem he thought it was too much of an extravagance to have an entire bath drawn up for him each time he needed to clean. Even more so to do so daily.

[steeledskin]

"My apologies. It must be cruel of me to always inquire into your..." was there a delicate way to say this? Likely not. "Hardships."

[bullhorned]

"Does it bother you to hear about them? It makes no matter to me if I talk about them. It was what it was." He might have a chip on his shoulder and things that he resented, but there were many parts of his growing up that were just natural in his eyes. He resented his father not because he was denied a comfortable palace life, but because he was denied a father at all.

[steeledskin]

"Yes."

That was what she ought to say, wasn't it? She should acknowledge his position (or lack thereof) and express empathy. Except...

"O-or no. I am not bothered. Not inconvenienced. But I confess my mind is troubled by them... "

[bullhorned]

"Why's that?"

[steeledskin]

He would not believe her. Certainly not. Not if she told him she'd once sworn to herself she would be a queen not feared but one loved. That in a young and naive way, she wanted to see the Kingdoms happy. Or she had. In more recent days it took all her energy just to see herself pulled back from the brink of despair...what time did she have for kingdoms of any kind?

But Margaery-- "Queen Margaery inspires many to care more for what happens beyond the Red Keep. Our Kingdoms are troubled and therefore our minds hearts should be. I don't...Ser, it isn't as if I rejoice to hear of people hungry and unclean. I take no delight in it and so of course I am troubled."

It was easier to paint others as inspirational saints than to insist on her own virtues.

[bullhorned]

Gendry held the notion that Margaery had married the wrong family if she had any notion of helping the people. Though it felt rather unsettling to be lumped into such a group. Time and betrayal had worn away any sense of submission to highborns when their wars and greed had done nothing to instill any loyalty in those made to suffer their games.

He remembered the meal they had shared not so long ago. Much of the food had bee left untouched. He could only guess where all the food from the feasts went after the day's celebrations ended. "I was fighting against lords and kings before I came here, because the Red Keep was very far away from the Hollow Hill. Now I eat with them instead, like I'm some lord myself."

[steeledskin]

"They fought in King's Landing as well. The small folk. They took to the streets in mobs and riots...they were so hungry."

[bullhorned]

This news did not surprise him. How easy it would have been for him to be a part of that mob. "What was done about it?"

[steeledskin]

Sansa did not answer. Not with her words. Instead, the locket saw her shake her head and hold back upon a wealth of feeling as her gaze was averted.

Her meaning was plain: you do not want to know, and I do not want to say it.

[bullhorned]

There was meaning enough to simply know that she did not simply know of the mob, but had seen it. When one was angry enough with highborns, it did not matter how innocent or pretty a lady might be - she would still be reviled. She ate while others did not.

Finally, when the silence seemed too much, he spoke up again. "Common folk seem better off here. It seemed that way, don't you think?"

[steeledskin]

"There is safety and security found in one's alliance with a court, it seems. Their Graces of either castle understand they have a duty to their people, and that loyalty does not come free."

Lessons she ought to have learned at her father's knees, but was learning now instead. Never before had she cared so much about her father's rule and habits. But now she had to embody them wholly.

"Or else you and I were spared the worst of it as we travelled."

[bullhorned]

"Might be we were," he agreed. He had no great love for their new monarchs, but he could not claim that they were cruel. But he did not expect it would last long. If this war was to carry on, then he imagined those in between courts would suffer the worst for it. How long would it be until he was called to battle and expected to burn fields instead?

"We'll be on a different road this time. If it's different, we'll soon know."