Maya Mormont comes in to the world kicking and screaming. According to her father that was just exactly the way a Mormont should be. The Mormonts were fighters. They always had been and they always would be.
Her mother isn't quite so pleased about it. Lysene Mormont had been born a Hightower. She had always been beautiful and delicate and a perfect little lady which was exactly what she wanted her only daughter to be. In fact, Maya grows to be fairly sure that her mother only had her because children were expected after marriage. Maya thinks Lysene might have loved her father, but she certainly didn't love the Mormont family home on Bear Island.
Bear Island is rough and tumble. Maya's father likes to say that it had an abundance of trees and bears and not much else. Maya loves it. She spends as much time as she possibly can wandering the woods and knows the island and it's people better by age seven then many of the full grown men who served her family.
However, Maya is also her mother's daughter and she wants her mother to love her and be proud of her. So, Maya learns to read and learns her numbers and bits of Dornish and High Valyrian and studies the Seven Pointed Star. She studies the history of Westeros and how to play the bells. At her mother's insistence she even consents to dance lessons where her septa forces the son of the stable master to practice with her.
When Maya is eight her life begins to change and change drastically.
Her father gets caught selling poachers to a slaver to try to pay to keep up with her mother's wealthy and company filled tastes and they all leave in the middle of the night on a ship bound for Dorne. Later Maya can remember that her mother begs her father to allow the two of them to go to her family in Old Town, but her father is insistent. Their family would stay together.
Maya is afraid of the sea when the journey begins but her father sinks down to be at her level and tells her to think of everything as an adventure like the kinds in the stories she likes to read. Soon after she manages to find her sea legs and the journey immediately becomes infinitely more fun as their captain has given her the run of the ship. Her mother spends the whole trip inside their cabin quietly embroidering, stitching, fretting over their new situation and seemingly refusing to truly speak to her husband.
They do eventually arrive in Dorne but they don't stay for long. In fact, Maya can't remember being there for more than a fortnight before they have moved on to the free cities. Her mother had wanted to stay there, but her father had argued that the city would be too expensive, and was still technically Westeros whose laws he had broken.
The city of Braavos is bright, warm, and full of color and people talking and singing and merchants trying to sell their wares. Maya's favorite pastime is to wander through the markets by the sea. The smell of the ocean and salt air has become one of her favorite things over their journey to Braavos and she is glad for the winds that sweep the smell through the city. Her mother doesn't like her wandering and here even her father takes the time to warn her to be careful, mind her mother, and stay inside when he can't go out with her, but that makes going out even more enjoyable when she gets to.
Maya has her ninth name day in Braavos and her father brings her a necklace with a wooden charm carved in the shape of the bear of her house and tiny topaz eyes as a present. Her mother manages to smile but their is a subtle tightness behind it. At that point her parents have been fighting for months already and have all but stopped truly trying to hide it from her weeks before.
A fortnight after that Maya's father leaves them for the fighting pits. The boat had been sold long ago and the money they had had run dry. Maya knows it but her father will not talk about it and her mother denies that it is even true in the first place. She is pretty sure that that is their key problem but has no way to say it.
Not long after that their has had no word from Maya's father for quite some time and her mother seems to have given up on him. She quickly takes up the offer of a rich man from Braavos to become his paramour and is immediately gifted a pleasure barge. Maya sees lines of them going up and down the rivers and canals of the city from time to time and wonders which one her mother is on.
She has been summarily left behind, and tries desperately not to think about it too much. If she does she knows she will crumble in despair.
The wife of the man who they had been renting rooms from later takes pity on Maya as a girl abandoned by her parents, not crushing the fragile hopes that Maya still clings to that her father will return for her soon. The woman permits Maya to stay in a small room and her husband continues to allow it as long as Maya helps with chores like mending, cooking and embroidery. They have even begun to teach Maya the language of the free cities and she catches on quickly.
The man's wife is a woman named Britta. The woman brings in extra money for her family by serving as a healer. She makes cosmetic creams and tinctures for the wealthy men and women of Braavos and is paid by them in gold and silver coins. She helps women give birth and stitches and treats cuts for many of the men who fight for money. Britta also helps the peasants and common folk of the city in exchange for small gifts like loaves of bread, and knitted lace.
Maya quickly becomes fascinated by how Britta can take a broken person and put the pieces of them back together again. One day Britta notices Maya watching her see to a young man with a long gash across his shoulder and with barely more than a blink has ushered her in to help. By the time they are done Maya's hands have been covered in blood and her hands are shaking, but she manages to clean the cut as directed and piece the skin back together. If she removes herself from the situation a little bit it really isn't so different from mending a rent in an old sheet.
Britta then takes one look at her neat, sure, stitches and declares that she will teach her. When Maya asks what she would be learning in her hesitant and newly acquired Braavosi Britta's simple response is "everything Girl. I will teach you everything."
And Maya learns. She soaks in all that Britta can possibly teach her with quiet desperation. For nearly two full years learning and helping Britta to help others is all that she truly has. That she can be busy and have a positive affect on the lives of others is enough to keep her distracted from the truth that she is little better than an orphan now. An orphaned daughter of a convicted traitor living on the wrong side of the world. Those are the thoughts that creep in on her at night when she has nothing else that she can think about. Sometimes it is enough to make her cry. But she makes sure that it never happens during the day when other people can see, and covers the signs as best she can in the day time.
Her life changes again on her eleventh name day. She is sitting in the herb market near the fountain of the gods eating her lunch of bread and salted fish before completing her errand for Britta who has sent her to collect willow bark and Witch Hazel. She is dressed in the light, flowing, died cotton clothes of a Braavosi common girl, her skin has tanned in the last two years of being in the sun, and her brown hair has become streaked with lines of gold and grown in to long waves which have been twisted in to braids. to keep it up off of her neck.
A boy a little older than herself is running through the market and trips over a loose stone, gashing open the skin on his knee. He cries out in pain and then immediately bites down on his own lip to keep from crying. Maya runs over as quickly as she can, dodging carts and shoppers in the process and sinks down beside him on the sun heated cobbles.
"Are you alright?" she asks. She speaks first in the language of the free cities as has become her habit but the boy just looks at her blankly with his eyes welling and shakes his head at her. Maya frowns and thinks hard for a moment. It is difficult to think through and she has to fumble for a moment before the Common Tongue comes to her lips. It frightens her a bit that she has such a hard time no matter how brief to remember how to speak the language of the land of her birth.
She repeats her question and the boy nods hesitantly. "Yes I think so," his accent is the soft lilting one of Dorne. "But my Uncle will be angry. I wasn't supposed to go far away from him and now I've ripped my clothes and cut my knee."
Maya examines the injury critically. "I can fix it," she offers. "Clean it at least. And cover it. I have clean cloth and the fountain is there. What's your name?"
The boy looks at her with puzzled brown eyes as though he is confused that she doesn't know who he is. "I am Tristane Martell. Prince of Dorne," he explains plainly.
Maya gapes at him for a long moment and then scrambles to her feet. "I'll go find Britta. She's the woman who taught me. She knows more. She'll be more able to help you your Grace." Calling on long and nearly forgotten curtesy classes Maya bobs a curtsy and begins to turn and dash away.
"No wait," Tristane says, reaching out and gripping her hand. "I want you to help me. My Uncle says i'm not to leave the market and you are interesting. Who are you?"
Maya knows better than to deny a Prince, even if he is a prince that she has never heard of. "I'm Maya," she murmurs. She slowly sits back down and digs a clean cloth out of her bag. She soaks it in the clean, cool water of the fountain and uses it to clean the cut on Tristane's knee. As she works she answered his questions about where she has come from, what she knew, and how she has learned it. She describes Britta and the friends she has made in Braavos. When Tristane ass about her parents, Maya freezes for a moment, her blue-green eyes wide before she manages to stutter out that they are dead. She isn't sure if it is true, but the lie seems more pleasant than the truth.
By the time she's finished talking the sun has moved in the sky and Maya knows that she is late and Britta will likely be furious with her when she returns. But Maya hasn't talked, really talked to anybody for a very long time and Tristane is a very good listener. He doesn't interrupt, he laughs only if something is funny, he pursues the right details, and he seems to not be pretending when he says that the story is interesting.
When she's done Tristane stands up and pulls her up after him, beginning to drag her through the market. "Where are we going?" she asks.
"To find my uncle," he replies. "I have an idea."
They find Oberyn Martell fairly quickly. As it turns out the man has been looking for his nephew for the better part of the last two hours. He scolds Tristane for making him worried but catches sight of Maya over Tristane's shoulder and his face breaks in to a smile. "I see," he says. "Well a Martell can always be distracted by a pretty face. It's one of our great weaknesses. Come here."
Maya goes forward shyly and Oberyn looks her over carefully before turning back to Tristane. The two converse briefly in Dornish and Maya feels apprehension building in her stomach. Oberyn looks back at her. "My nephew tells me you are an orphan. Perhaps in need of adoption?" Maya merely stares at him before nodding slowly. The world seems to stop for a long moment before Oberyn straightens up. "Come then," he says. "We must find your herbalist woman and then an appropriate name day present. Tristan tells me you are eleven today. That deserves something rather special."
It doesn't seem possible but it really all does happen almost exactly that quickly. Oberyn buys her a honey cake and a book with truly beautiful illuminated pages and then pays a visit to Britta and her husband and announces that Maya will be leaving with them. Looking back Maya is fairly sure that he must have paid them or perhaps made threats. Either way she packs her few remaining possessions in to the small trunk she's managed to keep and some of the Martell's servants carry it away for her. She lived in the Martell's royal accommodations until they leave and Tristane keeps her company and promises to teach her Dornish which he begins to do when they board their ship back to Dorne.
The Dornish royal family meets her, heres of her family history, and seems to fold her in amongst them without ever looking back. The Martells are fiercely protective of their own and they have decided to make her one of their own. Tristane's father is kind but stern and often tired but one of his greatest regrets is that he could never bring himself to remarry when Tristane's mother died to give him any siblings. Maya is happy to fill the role of little sister and when Tristane's father sees that she makes his son happy when they learn and play together in the gardens he makes Maya's adoption official.
It is easier to transition from being a Mormont to being a Martell than Maya ever thought it could be. The family engulfs her completely. Oberyn likes all things pretty and has missed his little sister Ellia since the day she died. These two factors come together fantastically and Oberyn turns in to the kind of fun Uncle who brings presents for no particular reason. The Sand Snakes are unsure and guarded at first but eventually they decide that she's interesting enough to stay around when she proves that she can cleanse and patch their cuts and scratches with the plants in the Water Gardens. This earns her their lessons in self-defense and like a true Mormont Maya takes to it like a fish to water.
True Mormont.
True Martell.
Eventually Maya comes to terms with the fact that she is somehow half each and not necessarily either. She learns the Dronish language and loves the music and all of the stories that the Dornish tell that will never make it to Westeros. She wears the light-weight silks and styles her hair the Dronish way. Her medical knowledge is refined and enhanced by the Maester in residence at the royal palace. She lives the life of a Dornish Princess. She is liked by the common people of Dorn and boys tell her that she has become beautiful. Maya will forever be grateful for the life she's been given and for the luck and all the gods old and new who made such a thing possible.
However, what makes her a Mormont is still there in her bones. She misses the cold that cleanses the air and the late summer snows that coat Bear Island like powdered sugar on a cake. She sometimes longs for the comfort of curling up in front of a warm fire with mulled cider and a bear skin pelt. Memories like that and of other things like the sound of her mother's voice teaching her to sing and the way her father had taught her to ride creep in to her dreams and idle thoughts in the quite moments before going to sleep.
Maya thinks that somehow she has managed to blend the two versions of herself together the way that some women manage to weave tapestries. It's clumsy and irregular in some places, a smooth and seamless picture in others, but she has made it as bright and as vibrant as she possibly can and though the Martell's have helped, weaving her past and present selves together is something that she has done herself and she is incredibly proud of that fact.
In her mind, Maya says the words of her House. Of both of her houses. Mormont and Martell together. She thinks that put together they sound strong, and her strength is something that she clings to fiercely. Here we stand. Unbowed. Unbent. Unbroken.
When most of not only her father's House, but also her mother's, commit to fight and die in what they are calling the War of the Five Kings the word reaches Dorne on a bit of a delay but it does get there eventually, and it comes in the form of Myrcella Baratheon. The blonde is shy but quietly stubborn and she and Maya manage to coax each other out of their respective shells. Myrcella soon calls her sister and Maya returns the words. It makes Tristane beam with happiness as he says that his two favorite women in the world are friends so he is blessed and cursed at the same time.
For nearly three months Maya debates what she should do with the information she has. When she learns that both houses are being slowly obliterated she can't help but make her choice.
Doran Martell comes to her before she can go to him. He sends her on her way with a father's blessing for his daughter, several wickedly sharpened knives, a hunting bow to her measurements, fine clothing suitable for winter and travel, a full stock of medical herbs and supplies, a trunk to put it all in, and a fast ship to carry everything. He tells her that it will take her to Eastwatch by the sea where she will be able to refuel and get to Bear Island.
"Come back my girl," he tells her, planting a kiss to her forehead. "A piece of my heart will go with you and I imagine your brother will be inconsolable for a time."
Maya tells people goodbye one at a time but she promises that she will return and the Sand Snakes each give her a new piece of weaponry, poison included and insist that they will come to her aid to fight beside her even when Maya insists that she is going only to see what remains of her family, not to fight anyone.
Tristane just hugs her tightly and forces her to promise to send ravens always and says that if she doesn't come home quickly enough and he decides that he misses her too much he will journey to Westeros himself to drag her home.
Myrcella shyly hands her a written letter sealed with the Baratheon stag and another with the golden lion of Lannister and tells her to use them if she ever needs help in Westeros. Maya accepts them gratefully and hugs her back, neglecting to mention that House Mormont at least has certainly sided against both portions of Myrcella's birth family. Bear Island knows no king, but the king in the North whose name is Stark.
Maya goes the next morning at dawn and once again she is crossing the narrow sea. It feels strange. In name at least she is going home, but Bear Island was her home for a very scant seven years, several of which she was too young to truly remember. She realizes faintly that she has lived more of her life calling Dorne her home than the rest of Westeros. It is in that moment that she promises herself that she will check on her family in Westeros, convince herself that they will be alright without her, and then return to Dorne to be with her father, brother, uncle, and cousins.
That is her plan, but things don't exactly go that way.
She arrives at East Watch and is immediately hailed with the news that the King in the North, Robb Stark, has been massacred at his own wedding. This comes with the attached meaning that almost all of her family is dead. Maya doesn't really know how to process that. She goes to the nearest inn for the night and works out her next move. Eventually, she decides that it should be to move to Castle Black.
She had decided not to take any guards with her from Dorn. Doran had offered them but Maya had declined. She hadn't wanted to travel across the narrow see with an armed hoard. Bringing a foreign army to a war torn country would only make things harder. All Maya wanted from this visit was to check on her remaining family. Maybe she would be able to find some of her younger cousins and bring them back to Dorne with her to grow up safe and happy in the warm sun. If any of them were still alive that was.
Anyway, Maya had traveled without guards and that had just became a vary dangerous thing. Her House of Brith was still her House of Birth, no longer how long it had been since she had last truly been a part of it, and her House of Birth had been branded as traitors. Her grandfather had been Lord Commander of the Watch last she had heard. Her memories of the man are of a kind though strict man with a firm demeanor and very particular tastes in spiced wine. She thinks that maybe he will provide her with a small escort with which to journey to Old Town. If he will not Maya knows that she will be able to hire sell swords, Doran gave her more than enough money as a parting gift, but she would rather not risk the implicit dangers that involves.
She spends an extra few coins for a hot meal to be brought to her room and for a hot bath to be drawn. She knows that no matter what happens in regards to help from the Black Brothers she will have at least a fortnight of hard riding ahead of her and the comfort of the hot water is incredibly worth it.
The wife of the innkeeper doesn't bat an eye when she requests her meal in her room and inquires as to where she can purchase a fast horse. After all, she is a fairly young girl, obviously alone, and dressed in fine clothes. The woman probably thinks that she is fleeing abuse, or possibly pregnant and going to elope. Maya doesn't care what she thinks. She hasn't been in the North for eight years and she was a child then. Even if her family had been more prominent then, she wouldn't be recognizable. She gives no family name and she becomes anonymous.
The next morning she goes to the nearby stable she was directed to and purchases the fastest horse she can find and the best saddle and set of tack she can find. The stable master is initially skeptical when he sees her but changes his mind when she asks every question she is meant to and carries the entire discussion. Oberyn and Tristane both loved horses and like most Northern children she learned to ride almost as soon as she could walk.
By the end of their conversation the Stable Master has cut her a better deal than she deserves and offers to prepare her chosen horse to ride himself. She thanks him with all the courtesy and kindness he deserves and after a brief delay all of her things have been strapped to the horse and she has a good supply of food and water. She knows how to get to Castle Black. Follow the wall North until it gets much, much colder.
In the end it takes her twelve days to arrive at Moles Town. The journey had been incredibly hard. Her entire body is sore from constant riding and sleeping on the ground but she is pleased with the time she's managed to make and the fact that she never came across a single other living soul on the road. The fewer people she has to interact with the less attention she will draw to herself. Until she knows what exactly is happening in Westeros that's the smartest option.
That's when she meets Jon Snow.
He rides in to Mole Town like every beast in all seven hells is chasing him and stops at the Inn for a new horse. He's wearing the armor of a man of the Watch and the cloak of a Wildling. His dark hair is in whirling corkscrew all around his face which is brightened red from the wind and the cold. His eyes are deep set and rich brown and he has the long, drawn, Northern face of a true Stark.
What Maya notices is the blood.
There isn't as much as there might be, but there's enough of it mixed in amongst the grime he's gathered on the road all over his clothes that Maya knows he's very hurt no matter how well he's hiding it. There are three arrows sticking out of his chest and Maya moves with an instinct born and nurtured in Braavos and under the Dornish sun.
She goes to him as he attempts to explain his need for a horse to the owner of the Inn and pushes him in to a seat in the main hall. It takes very little effort though Maya can feel the lean muscles in his arm and shoulder and knows that if he was less hurt and felt more like fighting back she wouldn't have been able to budge him an inch. At that moment though, he sits without even asking her name and only gets around to it after Maya has managed to pull his cloak away and is preparing to cut off the arrow heads and remove the shafts.
"What's your name," he asks, voice thick with the accent of the North.
"You can call me Maya," she answers. It's her real name which she doesn't mean to give but it's out before she thinks about it and then it's too late to take it back. Still though, she hasn't given her last name and that's enough to ensure some decent anonymity. "Sit still," she commands, grasping the arrow shafts. She pauses a moment before warning, "this will hurt."
Jon nods once and Maya takes that as a sign to keep going. She pulls the arrows out, cleans them, and patches each one one at a time to minimize blood loss. Ideally she'd put in stitches but Jon is in too much of a hurry. As she works he warns the entire inn that an army of Wildlings are on their way to attack Castle Black. He asks for any supplies the people can spare as well as any men able to fight and tells the women to take their children and run.
Too few people listen to him.
However, Maya learns something important. It's very simple. Jon, whoever he is, is a good man. By Westerosi standards anyway. he wants to save as many people as he possibly can. It's a whim but Maya decides to help him do it.
As Jon is leaving Maya brings her own horse up next to him fully loaded and ready to go. "I'm coming with you," she announces.
"No you're not," Jon replies immediately climbing on to his horse and begin to urge it to move.
Maya steps in front of him and stares him down. One of the other things the Mormonts and the Martell's have in common is that they are stubborn, and maya has that particular trait in spades. "I patched your wounds myself," she tells him. "I assume that you are planning to ride hard and ride fast. In two hours you'll have bled through the bandage and here we are still at least four hours away even riding the fastest horse in the North and that," she gestures to his mount. "Is not it. Besides, if there's to be a war their will be wounded and I am a healer."
Maybe the argument sways him. Maybe Jon just decides that arguing with her will take too much time. Either way Maya can see the moment that he relents and he buckles the rest of the way with a sigh and he gestures for her to mount her horse. She does and Jon looks at her seriously. "You'll have to keep up," he warns. "It'll be a hard ride and I won't be stopping."
"I can handle a difficult journey," Maya tells him dryly and kicks her horse in to a trot that just verges on the edge of a gallop. She turns a bit in the saddle to look back at him. "Perhaps you ought to ride in front," she suggests. "You know the way." It's hard to tell if Jon is frowning, his face is so serious to begin with, but his mouth seems to twist just slightly and he brings his horse ahead of hers to lead.
He wasn't lying, the pace he keeps is a hard one. But Maya is also right. Before they're half way to Castle Black he has begun to hunch over in pain. Maya can see blood beginning to leak down his arm, out of his sleeve, and onto the reins. With a growl of frustration that's barely audible Jon switches the reins over to his left hand and manages that way for a while until it appears to prove too painful.
"We should stop," Maya suggests. "I'll put on a new bandage."
Jon grits his teeth and shakes his head once. "No time. We need to reach Castle black before nightfall."
"Which we won't do if you bleed to death," she replies.
Jon gestures ahead of him with one hand. "I'll pass out before that. If i do you tie up my horse behind yours and ride that way until you reach a fork in the road. When that happens go North until you reach the castle gate. They'll let you inn so long as I'm there behind you."
Maya is too smart not to recognize what Jon has done. In theory he has opened the door for her to cut and run, leave him behind to either bleed to death or make his way on his own. He's also provided her a lifeline if he dies. She decides in that moment that Jon is either very trusting or very honorable and she doesn't quite know which option would be more troubling.
They continue on at a swift gallop though by the time they have reached the fork in the road that Jon mentioned and have taken the turn North his pace is flagging. Maya ensures that she keeps her horse close to the side of his. If he falls, Maya isn't sure that the saddle will be enough to keep him on his horse. To be honest she sin't sure she will be able to catch him either if he truly falls, but she won't let her only ally be trampled.
As the Castle comes in to view Jon manages to form words again for the first time in at least an hour. "Keep-" he begins and then has to stop and swallow. "Keep your hood up until we get through the gate."
Maya draws up the hood of her dark blue cloak without comment. There are no women at Castle Black and there never have been. By keeping her face and hair covered until they are through the door Jon is bypassing the possibility that they will be stopped at the Gate to answer questions.
It turns out to be a very good move because when they canter up to the gate they are not halted even for a moment. The horn blasts to signal a brother returning and the Gate opens before they can even reach it. Once through Maya jumps down from her saddle before her horse stops and in doing so just manages to keep Jon from cracking his head open on the frozen ground when he collapses.
Three men rush forwards to help Jon as cries of recognition are uttered by many voices. Maya ignores them and has already begun to try to peal open Jon's cloak where blood and cold have begun to seal the fabric shut. She curses in a way that would shock her mother but make Oberyn and Tristane smile and reaches for her dagger, intending to cut the cloth apart.
The brother who arrived first is overweight and soft looking but he seems to know Jon better than the others. "It's alright," he says. "It's alright Jon. You're home now. You're home." He turns to the other two men, one with large ears and the other an impish looking mouth and says. "Bring him inside to Maester Aemon."
Maya is relieved to hear that there is a Maester present and follows the three men as they begin to move Jon inside. The soft looking one goes ahead calling for the Maester and opening doors, clearing the way. The more muscled of the other two men takes the weight of Jon's upper body and the other his feet. None of them takes the time to look at her carefully and she doubts that they've really noticed her at all in their worry for Jon. Clearly they are friends.
Jon is deposited on a cot in the Maester's chambers and Maya picks up the sharpest knife she can find and proceeds to cut open Jon's blood soaked clothes to reveal the gaping holes in his chest where the arrows used to be. She extracts a bottle from her bag which is filled with an almost pure extraction of alcohol and drenches the wounds with it directly after splashing water over Jon's chest to clear away the blood. Jon jerks and gasps and Maya knows that the alcohol must hurt like bloody murder but Sam tells the other two men to hold him still.
Maya dimly registers that their named are Pip and Grenn.
The other man, Sam, thrusts a needle already threaded with silk thread in to her hand and Maya begins to stitch faster than she ever has before. She makes the stitches close together and as carefully as she can but if she goes to slowly the blood will obscure her stitches. The fact that the wounds are on his chest and someone his back makes things tricky because the sin on those parts of the body is stretched taught naturally but she manages and by the time she is done Jon is gasping and white, and clearly in pain but he's alive and Maya is fairly certain that he will stay that way.
The Maester who had been quiet until then hands her a bowl of sharp smelling ointment and lays several bandages on the table beside her. Maya sees that his eyes are blind and staring and his hands shake slightly. It's no wonder he let her handle all of the stitching. The Maester grips her hand to place the bowl into it and pauses a moment, feeling the long thins lines of her hand. He nods as though something has been confirmed to him and says "There you are my dear. I trust our young Lord Snow will live to see tomorrow."
"Dear?" Grenn repeats in confusion.
Maya knows that at this point they have begun to notice things like her small stature, long cloak, and large hood. The game is up and Maya pushes back her hood. "Yes Maester thank you."
Master Aemon moves coser to Jon's bed and reaches out to gingerly touch her stitches, examining them with his finger. "Good stitching," he approves. "Now I think perhaps some milk of the Poppy and perhaps some willow bark tea for the pain to help him sleep. Rest is so very often the best medicine. Tarly? You know where those supplies are. Bring them here would you."
Pip and Grenn back out gawking and a shooing gesture from Sam who, though surprised, has managed to recover from the discovery of her gender more quickly than the other two. Sam Tarly walks back over holding the two liquids Maester Aemon asked for and pauses, seemingly unsure about who to hand them to. "Give them to the Lady Tarly," the Maester says with a touch of impatience and Sam does it.
Maya takes them and then turns to look at Jon. He's half unconscious already and dazed with pain but with Sam helping to prop his head up she manages to slip drops of Willow bark tea past his lips and down his throat. The pain relief seems more important than a drugged sleep so she does that before she attempts the milk of the poppy. She gets Jon to swallow a little of that too before he really does pass out.
She and the Maester both take seats on opposite sides of Jon and after a while Sam slips away at a word from Maester Aemon and returns with food for both of them and a pail of sand and hot water for scrubbing. He works to clean up the blood and mess from her rushed medical treatment and Maya relays part of her story to the Maester. She keeps things a bit vague for the moment, mindful that Sam is still in the room. He seems kind but Maya learned long ago not to simply trust that there is truth in how people seem. She says that she journeyed to Mole Town from Eastwatch Harbor and encountered Jon in there, deciding to go with him when she saw his injuries and told his tale about the Wildling Army. She's grateful that she manages to tell the entire tale without actually lying.
For the next two days most of her time is spent by Jon's bedside in the Maester's chambers. The fire there is kept burning day and night and Maya relishes in the warmth. She may have the blood of the North in her veins but Castle Black is still much much colder than the climate she grew used to in Dorne.
Maester Aemon seems to actually enjoy her presence. He tells her it's been a long time since he had such constant company that shared his interest in healing and medicinal herbs. Sam proves sweet and tries to be helpful however he can. Maya learns quickly that he loves stories and knowledge and absorbs all words the way the ground in Dorne absorbs water after a long drought.
For most of the day she is left alone. Maester Aemon has other injuries around the Castle that he has to treat and Sam has other duties to attend to as a Steward. Maya commits herself to helping Maester Aemon by preparing his herbs, organizing the shelves to his specifications, and taking a full and detailed inventory. She also asks Sam to find her something to read and it proves immensely helpful. An unconscious Jon Snow isn't much of a conversationalist.
He drifts in and out of consciousness for the greater part of two days before managing to wake up and stay that way. When it happens he tries to sit up and falls back with a gasp of pain. He keeps his eyes screwed up and tries to control his breathing. Even alone he seems to be refusing to truly show pain.
"Careful," Maya warns, pushing gently though firmly against his shoulder. "I made good stitches but they'll still tear if you pull too much. Keep still while I check them and in a moment we'll try again."
Jon obeys her and Maya bends forward to make sure none of the stitches pulled loose at his abrupt motion earlier. They appear to have held and she nods in satisfaction, moving to pour water in to an earthenware cup form a clay jug on the windowsill. She can feel Jon's eyes following her around the room as he takes everything in. "Castle Black," he says, voice rough with disuse. "Where's Maester Aemon?"
"Treating other patients," Maya replies. "Someone called Edd appears to have caught a bad head cold. Here," she places the cup on the bedside table and helps Jon prop himself up against the wall using a pillow. She picks the cup back up again and extends it to him but doesn't let go of it. Jon's fingers wrap around the cup under hers but his grip is weak so Maya shadows the cup to his mouth and helps him take a long drink. "Slowly," she warns. "Too much and you'll feel sick."
When the cup is drained she sets it aside and asks the question that has been on the tip of her tongue for days. "So who'd you piss off?"
Jon's brow furrows in confusion. "What?"
"You were shot three times and you aren't dead," Maya explains calmly. "Any archer who can hit you three times in the chest and not kill you doesn't really want you dead, they want you to feel pain. So..." she lets the question hang for a moment. "Who'd you piss off?"
"A girl," Jon says and then shuts his mouth. Apparently conscious Jon Snow isn't much of a conversationalist either.
Maya can take a hint and swiftly changes the subject over to the fact that she needs to change the dressing and his bandages. Jon nods and Maya lets him sin back in to his own thoughts as she works. When the smell of the dressing reaches Jon's nose he frowns. "What's that stuff?"
"Witch Hazel, Boiled Garlic, and Echinacea," she tells him. "Not the most pleasant smelling poultice but certainly the most effective. It will dry in a few minutes and then the smell won't be so strong." She applies the poultice and clean bandages and begins to smooth them down to ensure that they are tied securely.
The next few days continue to pass in a similar manner. She helps Maester Aemon, talks about books and poetry with Sam, and once or twice even encounters Pip and Grenn who seem to have adjusted to her presence. For the sake of dodging the death glares and unpleasant leers of Janos Slynt and Ser Allester she keeps herself out of sight as much as possible and avoids eating in the main hall.
Most of her time is still spent with Jon in mostly silence. She tends his wounds and keeps track of how they are closing. The healing is going more quickly than she would have hoped and she thinks she will be able to take the stitches out soon. The more time they spend together the better she gets at reading his expressions and his body language. He's growing impatient with feeling weak and Maya knows that if she doesn't clear him soon for activity he will push himself too far.
News of the Red Wedding comes and that's the first time Maya ever sees Jon break. As Sam finishes telling him that his brother has been murdered he nods once and a moment later drives his fist in to the wall once, twice, three times, then he stops and tries to shake out his hand cursing. "He was my brother!" he spits out. "I should have been there. I should have been there to protect him!"
Maya picked up a cloth and moves to tie it around his knuckles, forcing him to bend and flex his fingers to ensure that he hasn't managed to break anything even if his left hand isn't his sword arm. "You'd have died to," she tells him.
"You don't know that!" he snaps at her with wild, angry eyes.
There's a fire there that Maya hasn't seen in him before and she suddenly knows that Jon Snow for all of his silence can turn deadly very easily with the right provocation, but she doesn't back down. Among the dead at the Frey slaughter were the last remaining Hightowers and all but a handful of Mormonts. She is furious and devastated and most of all she is exhausted. "I know that there was a bloody Northern Army at that wedding to protect your brother and he died anyway," she fires back. With a final tug to secure the new bandage she backs away. "If you'd have been there you'd have died to and your sworn brothers would have one more body to burn."
There's another long silence. Jon breaks it by saying "Where did you come from?"
She doesn't look up. His tone implies that the question is actually a demand and he won't drop the topic until he has an answer. She takes an extra moment under the pretense of checking the knot she's just tied. in her mind she flicks through different options of what to tell him and settles on the undefiled, unvarnished truth. "I rode to Mole Town from East Watch Harbor," she says. "Before that Dorne." Jon scoffs once which is about as much humor as she has ever seen from him and she looks up to meet his eyes which seem brighter and more engaged than they have been before though rage and anger boil below the thin humor. "What's funny about that?" she demands,
"Your hair," Jon tells her lifting a hand slightly, almost brushing a finger along the end of her braid, tracing a blonde streak. "I've never heard of a Dornish girl with light hair and blue eyes." After that his hand drops like a rock back down to his side.
Maya pulls a face. She knows it's true. Most of the people of Dorne have hair like Tristane's. Ebony black and curly with chocolate colored eyes. Her hair and northern complexion were both oddities. On market day when she would walk through the streets, old women occasionally would reach out and rub strands of her hair between their fingers as if it would bring them good luck.
"I only said I came from Dorne," she reminds him. "I never said I was born there."
"No," Jon agrees. "No you didn't." He paces to the end of the room and stands at the window for a long moment before turning back. "You're a Northerner aren't you?" He seems to take in her look of surprise and elaborates. "You don't look it. Not really. But I've lived in the North all my life. It sticks to you, in your skin, in your bones. You've got the North in you just as much as I've it in me."
Maya sighs and realizes she'll have to tell him something. Jon is quite because he prefers to watch everyone instead, and he's been watching her. "My Father was Northern," she admits. "My Mother wasn't. She went back North with my Father after they were married. She hated everything about this entire part of the country. I think she was relieved when we left for the Free Cities. I was seven."
Jon moves closer and sits down across from her. "What happened to them?"
She meets his eyes. "I don't know," she says honestly. "My Father went off to the fighting pits when we ran out of money. My Mother waited all of a fortnight before giving up hope that he would come back. Some rich Braavosi offered to take her away and she accepted." She shrugs "For all I know both of them are dead."
"How did you end up here?" he asks. Maya can see a new ridge forming in his forehead.
"I was adopted by a Dornish family when I was eleven," she tells him. "I came back to Westeros when I heard about the war of the Five Kings. I wanted t see if what was left of my family here was still alive." A few tears that she had been trying to hold back since the conversation started leak down her cheeks and Maya wipes them away impatiently. "Of course now I know that they are not."
It is in that moment that the truth of what she's said hits her. The entirety of her family is dead apart from a single cousin on Bear Island. Gods is she Lady Hightower now? Lady Mormont? Lady Hightower almost surely. Fuck if that doesn't complicate every single little thing in her life.
More tears leak out and at this point she doesn't even try to stop them. Jon sits with her quietly, shifting slightly in his seat as though he is settling in for a long wait. Maya knows that out of all people he won't judge her tears. They all have different ways to grieve their dead family. Jon will punch a wall and blame himself. Maya will sit and let everything to sink in and try very hard not to break down completely.
She tells Jon the complete truth of who she is just before he leaves for the excursion he has been granted to Crastor's Keep to rout the mutineers who killed her grandfather Lord Commander Mormont. He is just finishing saddling his horse when she approaches him. He sees her coming and turns to face her with that signature small smile that seems to so often be all that he is really capable of. "Any advice," he asks.
"You mean something other than 'don't die'?" she asks archly. Jon's smile grows the tiniest bit and Maya can't help but be a bit proud for a moment. She sobers quickly though, noting that Jon's hand rests on the pommel of a familiar sword. She nods to it. "May I see?"
Jon frowns in confusion but extracts the blade from it's sheath and holds it out for her to inspect. Hesitantly, she reaches out and closes her fingers around the hilt just above his own gloved hands. her fingers seem tiny in comparison, pale and thin. Jon releases the blade when she nods that she has a decent grip. She takes a step back and lifts the sword moving it and shifting it's weight experimentally. The blade is heavy, though not as heavy as it might be.
"This blade was forged for House Mormont a thousand years ago from the finest Valyrian steel. Forged in the fires of Old Valyria," she muses. "Passed through the centuries from father to son until it reached my Father Ser Jorah Mormont who left it behind when he went in to exile taking my mother and I with him." She holds the hilt out for him to retake which he does after a moment of being seemingly frozen in shock. "My Grandfather gave it to you, and they killed him," she says, her tone deadly calm and deadly serious. "Use that blade to cut them apart. Cut out their hearts, chop of their heads, I don't care. They murdered one of the only family I knew loved me." She hands over a small packet of herbs and bandages. "Make them bleed."
With that she walks away, and hopes desperately that she will see him again.
She does.
Jon returns and their is snow fluttering all around. It's the kind of gentle beautiful flurry that she hasn't seen since she was a little girl and she makes one of her few forays outside to stand in it for a moment. Normally both she and Gilly stay inside and out of sight unless Maester Aemon is with them. Sam normally tags along as well but Maya thinks that that is more to make himself feel better. Now Gilly has gone to Mole Town and this is a special case anyway. It means that she's in the courtyard when the horn blows to signal the return of other brothers.
Jon comes through the gate with fewer brothers than those he left with but seems to be mostly unhurt. A huge white wolf that Maya knows must be the Dire Wolf she has heard whispers about trots silently by his side. The wolf in question moves silently past Jon and straight for her, scaring the absolute hell out of her in the process. But the wolf simply walks up as she stands frozen and nuzzles his great black nose against her palm, ducking his head in to her hand in a self-administered stroke.
"Back Ghost!" Jon calls, but Ghost merely turns to gaze back at him before turning back to Maya, nudging his large head in to her stomach. The wolf is so large that he actually has to duck his head to do it.
"It's alright," Maya tells Jon, getting over her original shock and taking up the job of scratching behind Ghosts surprisingly sou and fluffy white ears. "My father and grandfather both used to keep hounds when I was a girl. None so large as this, it's true. But I have always liked wolves."
In the next moment Ser Allister has injected his normal nastiness in to the situation and has ordered Jon to remove Ghost from the yard. The Direwolf licks Maya's palm before leaving with Jon as he complies with Allister's orders. Maya notes that on his face their is very on Jon's face other than thinly veiled hatred as he does it.
Later after Jon has given his report on what has happened and things have settled slightly he comes to her and tries to return Longclaw to her.
Maya refuses, pushing the whole thing, sheath and all back in to his hands. "I can barely even lift it Jon," she tells him gently. "Valyrian Steel or not it's still too heavy for me to carry, much left wield correctly. The only thing I could do with it would be mount it on a wall someplace where it looked nice. That is not what swords are for."
"This sword has belonged in your family for generations," Jon protests. "I am nothing but a bastard from the North. I have no name, no land, and no inheritance that is mine. Longclaw is yours by rights."
"Then I give it to you," Maya insists. "The Mormont men have carried that sword in to battle. There are no more Mormont men. The last one was my grandfather and he is dead. You've used this sword to avenge his murder, far more than I could have done with it." She takes a risk and reaches out, place one of her hands over his. "My Grandfather chose you to continue to carry my Family's legacy in giving you that sword. Use it to defend yourself. Keep yourself alive for as long as you can. Fight for those in this world who are good in the name of my family."
She takes a step away but Jon grips her hand in his before she can remove it. "You know," he says hoarsely. "That the Wildling Army is coming. See Allister won't listen to me. I am probably going to die. And soon. Then what will become of this symbol of your family?"
Maya shrugs. "It will die in the hands of a good man."
"And what if you have sons?" Jon pursues doggedly. "You are a noble woman. A lady by all rights. Some day you will likely marry and have children. Children more worthy who will be a part of your true family."
Maya looks up at his serious dark brown eyes and takes a slow, deliberate, step in to him. She can feel the warmth he seems to radiate from his skin and smell the scent of leather and pine that marks him. "If it is true what you say, that you will be dead when the Wildling army comes, then they will not simply leave me here alive and unharmed. I may be killed or kidnapped or worse. But I will not live to happily marry and have sons who will carry my Father's sword. If you die and have no more need of the sword, then no one will ever come to collect it."
Jon draws in a shallow breath looking down at her. "And if we live?" he says quietly.
She shakes her head very slightly and bights her lip. "If we live," she repeats. "Then someday, when we have both grown old and grey, I will permit you to return Longclaw to me."
Jon releases a shaky breath and threads his fingers gently through hers. He takes a half step back. His hand turns in hers, cupping it from underneath and brings her fingers up, brushing his lips against her knuckles like a proper nobleman addressing a noble girl. "I look forward to that day My Lady," he says, meeting her gaze with steady eyes.
Maya nods. "As do I, My Lord."
With that she turns and moves quickly back along the hallway.
Soon Gilly arrives, fleeing from the sacking of Mole Town back to Castle Black and Sam and what she sees as safety. Despite the circumstances Maya is happy to see both her and Baby Sam. Sometimes when Maya has a moment free she plays with the baby to give Gilly a break and the Wildling girl seems to appreciate it. Despite their differences in upbringing and background it is nice to have another girl around to talk to as they go about their respective daily tasks. They don't get much time to enjoy the company before the entire watch goes in to overdrive preparing for siege.
Maya does so much running around to collect ingredients for poultices she thinks she may be wearing holes in her boots. Her fingers constantly smell of ground herbs and honey. She's nicked her fingers three times trying to cut enough bandages to be prepares for the substantial blood losses, and if she whales any more of the milk of the poppy she's been abstracting she'll never actually have to take any again in her life.
Sam just seems most worried about trying to keep Gilly safe no matter what the scenario and Jon has taken over trying to train the other Brothers so that they will be prepared to fight back against the Wildlings.
Maya watches him train sometimes and she's honest with herself enough to admit that it's a sight to behold. Jon fights in a way that is really and truly terrifying. He's fluid but not pretty in his movements and at times he's completely vicious and unpredictable. Jon has also adopted Ollie in a way after the young boy arrives to them after his village was slaughtered. Maya tries to help keep him busy and the boy never seems to mind helping her do rounds or errands.
Then the night of the battle comes. To Maya the entire event is a blurring, flashing, mess of blood and gore. She uses every scrap of clothe she can find to stop bleeding. She relocates joints and sets bones. She patches up broken men and sends them back out to break again. It's grueling and heart wrenching and provides a million different sections of material for her cynical mind to pour over later.
The Wildlings breach the main gates sometime before dawn and it's at that point that trying to heal the wounded becomes pointless. They either won't check in or can't get to her anymore and she can't get to them. She drops her supplies, and picks up the knives she brought with her from Dorne.
The knives are long, gleamingly sharp Valyrian Steel which were handed down through a long line of Martells. They are thin and exceptionally well balanced. These are weapons made for women. Tristane had told her that family legend said that the daggers were first forged as a wedding gift from Aegon the Conqueror to the first Master Martell to bow to the Dragon King and become Prince of Dorne. Since then they had become traditional gifts from fathers to their first born daughters when they reached marrying age.
Maya had begun training with these on her twelfth name day. The first one she had celebrated as a member of the Martell House. The pommel was wrapped in a grip of thick, soft leather that conformed to her fingers and the shape of her hand. The knives were more than weapons, they were extensions of her.
Maya cut a quick and efficient path through the oncoming Wildlings. Where she can risk it she does her best to incapacitate instead of kill but often she doesn't have the time to make that kind of consideration. She takes them down as quickly as possible, and gods is she quick. Oberyn had taught her to strike like a viper. He had told her that she was simply too small to endure a drawn out fight and so had instructed her to move like lightning, and it was a lesson she had headed well.
For the most part she carries a slight advantage. Most men, even Wildling men who have their Spearwives and higher levels of equality than most of Westeros experience a split moment of hesitation when they are faced with the prospect of fighting what appears at first glance to be a small girl. Maya never fails to take these openings for all that they are worth, and in the end they are worth lives. Theirs for hers. She doesn't like killing, but Maya knows that in that deal, she will always value her own life more.
Over the course of the night she passes Sam running the other direction towards Gilly and the baby. She does her best to save Pip but in the end an arrow to the throat simply can't be fixed. She never sees Jon but she sees Ghost moving swiftly through the fighting as a white streak splattered with blood around the muzzle. She hears Grenn tell Sam that Jon has command of the wall.
At the end of the fighting when the sun rises the next morning Jon, Sam, Gilly, and the baby are alive as are Maester Aemon, Thorne, Slynt, Ollie, and a number of others. Forty Black Brothers are dead. Pip and Grenn are among them. So is a Wildling girl with bright red hair whose body Jon cradled for several long moments after Ollie shot her. Maya refuses to ask apart from taking his hand for a brief moment and murmuring "So that was her?"
Jon nods without looking around. "Yes," he replies. "That was Ygritte."
Maya doesn't try to comfort or placate him. It would be pointless to do so. Instead she tightens her fingers around his for a moment before moving away to see to the rest of the wounded. Gods, there are so many wounded. Maya has never seen so many hurt and bleeding men in one place before. She and Maester Aemon are busy all day and she enlists Ollie's help to grind herbs and cut bandages. No one else seems to have immediate use for him and she needs all the help she can get. Besides, the boy needs some kind of task to keep him safe and occupied. Maya never had a younger brother but she thinks she might have liked one like Ollie.
She's toweling crushed marigold and aloe vera plants off of her fingers when she walks past Jon and Sam debating Jon's orders to go beyond the wall to negotiate with Mance Rayder. It's a suicide mission almost beyond doubt and Maya attaches herself to it without a second thought, making her presence known to the two men in the process. "Think of me as a peace offering," she tells Jon to quell the protests she knows he's forming. "I'll go as an unarmed medic. They will have wounded as well. For all you know my presence will buy you the time you need to do what you must."
"And for all we know Mance'll take one look at me and gut us both like a pair of brooke trout," Jon points out darkly.
She manages a crooked smile. "Well he might gut you like a brooke trout," she tells him. "I've not done anything to him. Besides, I have a highly valued skill set as a prisoner. They'll probably leave me alive until their wounded are back on their feet. Maybe even longer if one of their valued members is sick or pregnant." She shrugs. "I may be the best option you have."
With that she has won. Or maybe lost. It's quite possible she won't know which until it's too late.
She changes clothes before she goes, dressing in thick stockings, warm boots, warm petticoats, and a simple dark green traveling dress with a grey cloak and rich fur hood. She takes the additional moment to brush out the long waves of her hair and thread it in to a long braid bound at the bottom with a scrap of green ribbon. A glance in a pale of water confirms what she suspected in her reflection. She looks the part of a Northern girl through and through. She slings a large bag of herbs and bandages over her shoulder and hangs one of her knives from a cord around her waist inside her clock.
The whole process takes perhaps twenty minutes before she rejoins Jon and Sam at the gate. She knows that the two have had some kind of fight over what they are about to do, but she resolves not to press. They have enough problems to try to deal with.
"Shall we go?" she asks, looking up at Jon.
His eyes flit over her once quickly, taking in the effect she has created with the alteration to her appearance that the new clothes and hair bring. Then he nods, checks that Longclaw still hangs at his side, nods goodbye to Sam and starts off. Maya gives Sam the same recognition along with a small, scared smile, and follows Jon out in to the wind and the cold.
It flits across her mind briefly that this is the farthest she has ever been North, and she's getting farther with every step.
A/N: So how was it? I have some of a part two in the works if you guys are interested. I've just watched most of GoT and read a bunch of other fan fiction so it was on my brain. I just thought maybe Jon needed a love interest that didn't involve incest, even if that is the norm for the actual show. If you want to see part two let me know. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo