paradisa | Twenty-Ninth House of Westeros ♛ Filtered ♛ House Stark

[Robb Stark]
I beg a moment of your time. When last you were here, nearly a year now-- [Has it truly been that long?] You and I were looking for lodgings here. Something more accomodating. I know you don't remember it, but mayhaps we can try again.

[Arya]
[There's a slow breath. They've not talked since their brother arrived. She hopes having him here has at least made it easier.]

I've not heard from you. I hope all is well.

King Robb--

[She paused.] Robb said he is staying with you now. I've come to ask you if you, that is if you would wish for me to stay with you as well.

[Sansa has never truly avoided them. She just thought it would make things simpler. Instead it's only backfired, and she hasn't meant to alienate Arya in anyway. She's still her sister, no matter what the castle knows to be true.]

When he was here last, we were looking for a place-- but you may be building?

[Mother]
[Well there seems little use for using a different filter. Not with the castle already destroying that time and time again.]

Are you well?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You need never to apologize to me. [And she means it, too.]

[ Robb believes otherwise. She has suffered much which could have been avoided if he saved her like he intended. If he had saved their father. ]

She will not change her mind. Nor would I be able to change it.

[A king may never say he is one, she tells herself.]

We-- managed before. I know not what happened. She returned home, and when she awoke here, it was like all the time spent here was for naught.

[And it's a dagger in her heart.]

They've taken all I have as Sansa, made me a Lannister. I hadn't wished to be alone here, too.

[As Alayne it is meant to be easier, to keep safe.]

[ More silence follows, though only brief. ]

She was traveling to the Twins before she returned. [ He inhales. ] I can only imagine what had happened to her since she escaped King's Landing. [ She must have escaped. Perhaps the Hound smuggled her out? Robb does not know, he has not asked. ]

You do not wish to be alone yet you forsake your name and done another to keep yourself safe.

[ There is a harshness to his voice he does not mean. He loves Sansa, and he always will, he tries to understand her reasoning but he struggles. They can protect her, she does not need Alayne. ]

She told me before, she thought herself dead. She had come right after-- right after Joffrey had our father beheaded. She said a man had a knife to her. But I told her she couldn't be dead. Littlefinger and all of the city had been looking for her, beyond even.

[She pauses, head bent.]

We talked a few times. [About what happened to them.] I was the one to tell her of Theon and Bran and Rickon.

[His harsh tone makes her flinch, and she is glad they aren't in person.]

I know. Pretending is all I have.

[ She is not dead, Robb will not entertain such a thought. Just like he will not entertain the thought of his little sister being at the Twins when the chaos began. He simply cannot. ]

I will not speak of Theon. [ He remembers the piece of flesh, he remembers his stomach churning. ]

You have more than that now, Sansa. You have Arya, you have me.

[She can understand why. She lets the subject drop. Besides this one is far more important at the moment.]

And if Tyrion comes again and lays his claim on me? If the Queen Regent and the Kingsguard come and demand my head for killing Joffrey? If Tywin and the Freys seek you ought?

[They have no army here. Her only defense has been what she's been taught. It isn't easy, and she would rather a different way. This isn't a no though. Safety isn't something she's been afforded, even in the Vale with Lysa dead, it can break at any moment. She wants more than anything to be with her family. But before Robb it was just three women.]

[ Dropped as it is, the subject leaves a bitter taste in his mouth and a boil in his veins. ]

I will kill them. [ The Young Wolf almost growls the words, anger rising as quick as a drawn sword. It is not her intent, he tells himself, her words are not mean to sting or harm. They are cautionary, born from her fears of lions and betrayers appearing before them. ] I will kill them all before they lay a hand on you, on Mother, or on Arya.

[ Everyone of them will fall to his sword, everyone will fall to his wolf. He swore as much upon their father's death, he swore he would kill them all, every last lion. It is simple task to add the Freys to that number. ]

[The harshness of his tone has her flinching. Her eyes close, and she breathes slowly. She's used to angering the king. Sansa swallows hard, hoping that it isn't directed toward her.]

Then what would you have me do?

[ Come back to us he wants to say, the words sitting on the tip of his tongue. But would she? She is so set on her armor that he cannot be sure if she would abandoned it for her family.

His anger dies down to a simmer and he almost feels ashamed. ]

I would have you be safe.

I am. [At least she can say that. Even if she's been terribly lonely for it. She's not the happy, young girl she once was. Much had changed.]

But no one from Westeros is here now.

[ If her safety is all he can have than he will take it, mayhaps one day she will come back to them of her own accord. ]

You are right, there are none. [ A beat. ] And you will remain Alayne, won't you? You will not abandoned your armor.

I... I have pretended to be Alayne for so long... [But there's a long pause. Everyone here knows her as the bastard of the Vale.]

I could. [If he wanted her, if they did, but--] Arya would not have me.

She may... [ He sounds hopeful, he cannot help it. The thought of having Sansa returned ─ ]

Would that I could speak for her mind completely, it is a stranger to me these days. [ A beat. ] Much like yours.

You need but ask, and I would tell you. [He is perhaps the only person she would be this open with in Paradisa.]

When I have the questions. [ He has so many already, but he keeps them to his chest. ]

Arya and I planted a weirwood some ways from the town, I have thoughts to building a place for ourselves around that sapling. Like Winterfell was built.

I await them then.

[She pauses with a smile.] Where did you get it? Sometimes I pray in the sept, but I have not been before the old gods since-- [Since King's Landing, praying for Ser Dantos with her father's old gods.]