(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. ]

Comments

[steeledskin]

"Very good."

She was careful not to tell him it was much better. Praise was sweet, but she would not give it at the cost of his previous phrasing. Sansa knew all to well the tricky power boxed up in words and the ways in which even kind ones could cut like knifes. So she was particular. She was warm. She was protective.

[rube]

Try all she might, Sansa will probably never truly get Ben to change his way of speech. He was nice back to her because she was being nice to him, but it wasn't going to go past that. He had more to worry about here, much more than settling down and focusing on schooling. He would rather work.

Maybe, some day (perhaps sooner than later) he will stop by while she is in the library and ask her a few questions about words and spelling and even learn a few things, but until then, he would rather ignore it.

"You said you got somethin' to tell me," it was why he sat down. He was starting to become uncertain of where their conversation was even going, or how it was going to end up."

[steeledskin]

Oh. Her eyes lifted. She was not accustomed to Ben pressing a matter -- but this press was fair, considering she'd promised an answer and then had done her best to avoid it.

Sansa pressed her hands onto the table. "There is a House in Westeros who hate my father's House. I am scared, Ben, that if my family does not do enough here and now they may overrun us once again. There are impediments; a lawyer might help unimpede us."

[rube]

"What?" Ben was never good with politics. He didn't understand her necessity to help her family here, because this should be neutral ground. No one had much power over anyone else here besides the queen, and even she didn't impose too many rules over the people.

"Why does that matter so much here? Who are they and what are they tryin' to do?"

[steeledskin]

The reality was hard intractable for Sansa Stark: it always mattered. So long as there were Starks and Lannisters and Tyrells and Baratheons and anyone else in the Drabwurld, it mattered. But she did not know the first way in which she might explain that desperation to Ben. Except, perhaps--

"The Lannisters. Have you spoken to anyone with that name?"

[rube]

He shook his head, but he did recall her speaking of the name briefly to warn him of them, but he didn't recall much else on the subject. In fact, he hadn't even seen any of them around on the network as of late.

"You told me about Jaime Lannister one time. He still around?" He didn't remember the last name of another family, but the name 'Joffrey' had stood out at the time.