A/N: Hi! This is my first attempt at a series. I don't own A Song Of Ice And Fire and please be warned that there may be spoilers for series 1-4 of Game of Thrones.
Nina
It was her nineteenth name day, and the only celebration she had was that she passed Margaery in the corridor, and she had smiled at her. Margaery was the only one who talked to her anymore. Willas and Garlan had been forbidden from speaking to her by their father, and Loras did not even know that she was his sister. Margaery had also pressed a small gift into her hand. It was only a bag of gold coins, but it was the only gift Nina had ever received and it meant a lot.
Later that day, Margaery came down to the kitchens and asked if she might "borrow Nina". Most of the staff turned a blind eye to this improper friendship, although the implacable head cook highly disapproved and had to be avoided whenever possible.
"Our cousin Clemaria is coming to stay for a few weeks," she told Nina, " she is no more than ten years of age. She is said to be very kind, do you think she will speak with you?"
"I doubt it," was Nina's reply, "few care for the baseborn, least of all those who have all that they want in life."
"You dishonour me, sister," Margaery replied, clearly hurt by the comment.
Nina blushed as she realised the implications of what she had said, and quickly explained that she had not been thinking of Margaery, who was clearly the exception to the rule. Margaery accepted the apology graciously and they continued to talk, of how Clemaria was the grand-daughter of their father's uncle, of how when her visit to Highgarden concluded they would travel on to King's Landing and visit King Robert, of Willas' lame leg and Garlan's achievements in the tiltyard, of Loras' studies and Nella's bad cough. Margaery was just offering to visit the Maester and fetch a tincture for the woman she affectionately called "Stepmama" when they heard their father's heavy tread on the stairs nearby. Margaery blanched, knowing that if they were discovered she would be beaten and Nina turned out.
Nina turned to rush back to the kitchen, but it was too late, Mace had already seen her. He grabbed her arm and twisted it until tears came into her eyes, but she bit her lip and made no sound.
"I'll be having words with you, you stupid girl, getting ideas above your station! And as for you, Margaery, I thought better of you. I thought you were intelligent enough to know these people were beneath you!"
Then he turned Nina out of the house, without even letting her say goodbye.
Nina wrote two letters, one to her mother and one to Margaery, and sneaked them in with the help of a stable boy. Then she found a blacksmith in the town and gave him the gold coins, with the words:
"Make me the sharpest, strongest, fastest sword you've ever made."
When it was complete, she buckled it around her waist, (for the money had been enough for a belt and scabbard too), and looked at the money that the honest blacksmith had given her back, saying he had no use for it. It was enough, he told her, for passage to Essos. And the kindly man also found some old clothes of his son's for her to wear, meaning she could move more easily. When she tried to pay for these, he refused, telling her that he believed in the old Targaryen Kings, and if she went to Essos and sought to further their cause, he would consider himself well paid.
"What will you name your sword?" he asked her. She smiled slightly and brushed her fingers over the hilt.
"Sleepbringer," she answered, "because all who threaten me will meet the sleep of death."
The blacksmith told her it was a good name, and then she travelled until she came to a port from whence she could take ship for Essos.
The blacksmith had got from her a solemn promise that she would find the Dragon King and help him, and she intended to honour it if she could, although where she would find a means of transport once her voyage was done, she could not say.
