Written for the gameofshipschallenges on Tumblr for the prompt Betrayal.
"You and your friends were playing at treason. I might have had their heads off." "You might have, but you didn't. Dayne, Dalt, Santagar... no, you would never dare make enemies of such Houses." "I dare more than you dream... but leave that for the nonce. Ser Andrey has been sent to Norvos to serve your lady mother for three years. (A Feast for Crows)
Doran wrote to Mellario about sending Andrey Dalt to Norvos, and about Arianne's betrayal. Mellario is reminded of Doran's own betrayal, long ago.
You might remember Andrey Dalt, he who used to frolic in the Water Gardens with Arianne when they were children. He has done a thing he should not have done. As his punishment, I am banishing him to Norvos to serve you for three years. He is departing for Norvos this very morning.
Doran's first letter on the matter was very short on details. It surprised Mellario not at all. Doran Martell was a man used to keeping his own counsel, careful with his secrets, miserly with his confidences.
And the gall of the man, sending Drey to Norvos without even asking Mellario first if she wished to accept the young man into her service. For of course Mellario remembered Drey, one of the members of Arianne's charmed circle of five; Spotted Sylva, Garin the Greenblood Orphan and Tyene Sand being the other three.
What, pray tell, has this young man done to incur your displeasure? Murder? Daring to be too close to our daughter? I do not think it impertinent of me to ask, if you are sending him to serve me. Even now, after everything, I am certain you would not wish me to be murdered in my bed. Or are my certainty and my faith in you misplaced?
Her reply to him was far more civilized and polite than what she was truly feeling. And yet he seemed to take a great offense even at that - though his reply was couched in terms of hurt feelings, instead of indignation.
It saddens me to know that you could harbor that sort of suspicion about your own husband, Mellario. I would never have sent the young man to serve you if I have any concern that he might present any danger to yourself. You are, after all, still my lawful lady wife, and the mother of my children, despite the distance you have chosen to put between us. What Ser Andrey did is a grave offense, but he did it because he is a faithful and loyal companion to our daughter. But I cannot afford not to punish them, and -
Punish them? Was Arianne also involved in this offense? Was she being punished as well? Suddenly Mellario dreaded reading the rest of Doran's letter. But read it she did, to the bitter end.
That our daughter, our Arianne, our sweet girl who used to come running to us for comfort when she fell and skinned her knee, that she could see fit to betray her own father in this way, my heart grieves, Mellario.
I have had concerns and suspicions about Oberyn's older daughters for some time now, and had taken steps to curtail any schemes they might be harboring. But Arianne, my own daughter, it did not occur to me that she might -
Now you know, Mellario thought. Now you know how I felt, when you betrayed me. When you sent my Quentyn away.
At the time, Doran had taken exception to Mellario's use of the word betrayal. "How is this a betrayal? How did I betray you? I like it no more than you do. But it is a promise, Mellario. A blood debt that must be paid. Quentyn is the only coin the Yronwood would accept. Breaking that promise and refusing to pay the debt would be a betrayal."
"You betrayed me when you failed to mention this blood debt, this promise, as you were wooing me. Or when you were asking me to marry you. You could have told me then – when we have a son, he must be sent away when he is a child still, because once my brother killed a lord over a quarrel about some woman."
"Would you still have married me, if I had told you?"
"That's not the point! You promised me one kind of life, and now you're forcing a different life on me. One I never wanted, one I never consented to. That is a betrayal."
"But you have always known that we Westerosi foster our children away. You knew you were not marrying a man from Norvos."
"I didn't know that your people make it a habit to send your children away when they are barely out of the cradle. And you are a prince, Doran. I didn't wed just any Westerosi, I married the Prince of Dorne. I thought I was marrying a powerful prince. But who is this helpless prince who must pay his brother's blood debt to his bannerman using his own son as coin? Who is the true ruler of Dorne, Doran Martell or Lord Yronwood?"
"I am a prince who wants to keep the peace. That is all I want. That is all I have been trying to do."
And he would punish their daughter now, all in the name of keeping the peace. Arianne had been behaving rashly and recklessly, however. Mellario could not deny that, much as she wished to. A war with the Iron Throne would be a disaster. She shuddered thinking of her sons. Trystane was too young to go to war, but Quentyn was old enough. And Arianne herself would have been in grave danger, as the prime mover of the plot to put Myrcella Baratheon on the throne. Her head would have been the first the Lannisters wanted to see mounted on a pike.
Mellario's next letter to Doran was more conciliatory, and she strove to write in a friendlier tone to her estranged husband.
Our daughter has been behaving very recklessly, treating her lord father in an unjust manner. Perhaps you should send her to Norvos along with Andrey Dalt? I will endeavor as best I could to make her understand the error of her ways.
Doran's reply was both a relief and a disappointment to Mellario. A relief, because it seemed that Arianne and her father were now reconciled. Doran had even hinted that perhaps he was also at fault in some way, for failing to bring Arianne into his confidence, causing her to harbor doubts and suspicions regarding her father's intention about her future and her inheritance.
A disappointment, because -
Arianne is sorely needed by my side at this time, and I cannot spare her to go to Norvos. Perhaps you could come to Dorne to pay us a visit instead?