paradisa | (no subject)

[ Arya doesn't know what led her here this afternoon. She has never been particularly religious. But that friend of her mother's said she was welcome here if she needed an escape from the castle and she really needed one. She isn't sure what she expected, but the simplicity of the building is a relief. Everything has been so complicated lately, simple is good. She hesitates at the door, wondering if she should knock. Finally, she just pulls it open and steps inside.

It reminds her of a sept somewhat. It has the feel of one. The Seven aren't on the walls here, but there are other figures. Like the sept, it's quiet. Arya bites her lower lip. It feels wrong to call out. She sits gingerly on a back pew instead. She's not much given to prayer, but in the silence she prays now. In case the Seven can still listen, in case the Old Gods can still see, she prays to both.

When she's done, she remembers her rules. Arya slides her journal out from where she pinned it against her with her jerkin. Still sitting on the pew, she lets it fall open on her lap and filters quickly to her mother. ]

[ Catelyn Stark ]
I'm in town. I'll be back soon.

[ With that filter out of the way, she stares at a blank page for a while. Jon was always the brother she loved best. He's the one she could tell anything to. She hates feeling so unsure about him, but after what she was told, she doesn't know if she wants to know more or if he will even tell her. You're being stupid, she chides herself and makes the filter before she can think twice. ]

[ Jon Snow ]
Could you come into the town? I'm in the church here. I want to talk to you.

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There are things you wouldn't understand. The last I saw you, the Hand was still Ned Stark. That name-- what the city taught me, I cannot go back.

I can understand a lot more than you think! [ Arya jumps to her feet, hands fisting at her sides. ] You're just craven! You don't care about us anymore!

There is no us any more. [She blurts out before stopping. She was acting far more like a Stark and that was far too risky. She swallowed. She could not tell Arya Bran and Rickon were dead, that she was missing, that Robb was dead. Their little family was no more, just as the name Sansa Stark was. It had to be.]

Arya, things are different, and it isn't safe. I am no friend to the Lannisters now. It is safer this way, and it must be. Sansa Stark is not the girl you once knew.

None of us are friends to Lannisters! They killed our father! Did you forget that?!

And their son is now dead. Joffrey is dead.

[ She almost seems to deflate, eyes wide, as the anger abruptly leaves her. ]

Joffrey is?

He is. [She confirms.] Because of me.

I had to flee Winterfell.

Because of you? Wh-what did you do? What happened?

A poison was smuggled in through me. He is dead now. [Granted she didn't know about it at the time.]

[ This is shocking. But Joffrey being dead... ]

Good.

Have you seen Robb?

[ At the mention of Robb, she tenses. ]

In the clinic. He was hurt.

He was, yes. [She knew very much what had happened the moment she had seen him.]

You know.

The Red Wedding has already happened for me.

That's what they called it?!

It is. News of it spread. The King of the North's demise. The Boltons betrayed the Starks, as they always have. Though the fault belonged to the Freys. [She dips her head. Now Arya knows of one brother dead; Sansa wondered about the other two.]