Chapter 2: Forbidden or Unrequited
298 AL
Season 1, Episode 1: Winter is Coming Pt.1
Plio Lonmouth
What was expected of Plio was making her life progressively harder. Yes, the young women was still allowed to train in swordplay and archery but, she was expected to act elegant and dignified like the other ladies in Winterfell. She no longer ran around with the boys, clashing swords and beating them in duels more often then not. Instead she spent what little free time she had reading historical texts and learning about her homeland, The Stormlands.
However today started a little different. Instead of starting the day with needlework like the other girls, she was reading a tale about her grandfather Sir Rhygon, known as Death's Hand. He was a skilled warrior and assassin, but was also known for his charm and poetry. She was leaning against one of the wooden posts that held up one of the open hallways of Winterfell when her train of thought was broken by Robb, Jon and Rickon's laughter as their brother, Bran, missed the archery target. Plio looked up and shook her head at the boys just as the bellowing voice of Lord Eddard Stark spoke.
"And which of you were a marksman at ten? Keep practising Bran. Go on."
"Don't think too much, Bran." Jon coached.
"Now relax your bow arm." Robb continued.
"Quick Bran! Faster!" Rickon piped in.
The smiles on the boys faces quickly disappeared and they went back to work. Before Robb and Jon could instruct their brother further, an arrow flew past Plio's right. It landed in the dead centre of the target. Everyone, including Plio, looked round.
The archer turned out to be the youngest Stark daughter, Arya. She smirked at her brothers and gave them a small curtsy, mocking Bran. Her brother's face quickly changed from frustration and stress to anger as he dropped his bow and chased Arya around the courtyard. Giving a frustrated grunt as he did so, making his brothers and father laugh once again.
"I bet you can do better then that, my Lady." Robb said to Plio, a cheeky grin on his face.
Plio rolled her eyes and grabbed her own bow, positioning two arrows. She smiled back at Robb and closed her eyes. Plio took a breath and let the arrows go, one splitting Arya's arrow and the other piercing the target above it. She curtseyed to Robb before smiling shyly at Jon.
Lady Plio's affections for Jon had changed since they were children. She had began to have romantic feeling's for the Bastard of Winterfell, feelings that were inappropriate for a young women of her title. Jon Snow made her feel giddy and nervous in a way no other man or boy ever could, and probably would. Plio knew what she felt, how she felt.
What she didn't know is whether or not Jon felt the same, or at least similar to how she felt. Jon never really paid any women any attention, not even the red headed prostitute he was rumoured to spend a night with.
Plio was bought back to reality by Sir Rodrick Cassel's voice and a nudge from Robb.
"Robb and Jon, you are to join your father in the pursuit of a deserter. As are you Bran." Winterfell's sword master commanded, "Theon and Plio, the two of you are to join as well."
Plio was used to being asked to hunt with the men, but to pursue a deserter? Sir Rodrick must have seen the questioning look on her face as he continued.
"My Lady, it has been requested you attend too."
Lady Plio looked up to the balcony to see Lord Eddard, Lady Catelyn and her father, Lord Caelan, watching their exchange from the balcony. She curtseyed to Lord and Lady Stark and bowed her head to her father before making her way to the stables to saddle her horse.
Lord Caelan Lonmouth
Seeing his only surviving child and first born daughter grow up into a beautiful women was a constant light in Lord Caelan's life. Despite the misfortune of not having a son, Caelan felt gifted to have a beautiful family. His wife was his childhood sweetheart and the daughter of the Lord who and fostered him in his youth. Despite coming from one of the leading families of Westeros, Caelan's own parents had found his desired match to be an ill made one. The family were enemies of the crown at that point as Robert Baratheon had just taken the crown from the Targaryan's.
Lord Caelan spent every night haunted by his youth. If he had married a women accepted by his family then maybe he would have had the large family he wanted so much, the large family he saw everyone else have. Maybe he would be Lord Lonmouth and maybe his mother wouldn't have drank herself to an early grave the evening he married his beloved.
But if he had, his beloved would belong to someone else and his treasured daughter would not exist. Lord Caelan wanted to make sure his daughter had no regrets in life and no reason for her youth to haunt her.
Caelan saw the looks Jon gave Plio when his daughter did not. A look of longing and wishing in his eyes. Caelan was watching the Stark boys from one of Winterfell's open hallways, his daughter reading a book below them. He was joined by Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn when Sir Rodrick Cassel joined them with news.
"Lord Stark, my Lady." Cassel started, nodding to Lord Caelan. "A guardsman just rode in from the hills. They've captured a deserter from The Nights Watch."
Laughter erupted from below them as Bran began to chase his sister, who had escaped from her needlepoint class, after she shot the target. Lady Plio also took a turn, further beating the two children by shooting two arrows at once.
"Get the lads to saddle their horses and Lady Plio too." Eddard replied nodding at Caelan.
Eddard and Caelan had been friends since they were boys, along with the now King Robert. The three men had grown together trained together and fought together, despite being raised in two very different areas of Westeros. Back then the boys were known as Ned, Rob and Cai. Caelan was also one of the very few people who knew the truth about Jon's parentage, due to Ned feeling like he had to tell someone in case he didn't survive to tell the boy himself, and now Caelan knew possibly even more so then Ned himself.
"Do you have to?" Catelyn asked her husband, knowing what was about to take place.
"He swore an oath Cat." Ned replied calmly.
"Law is law, my Lady." Cassel further insisted.
"The boy made his choice."Caelan said, avoiding eye contact.
It wasn't that Caelan feared Catelyn Stark, even though the women from the Riverlands was scary at times, it was more the fact that he hated seeing the fear that was no doubt apparent on Lady Stark's face. His own wife made the same face each time their daughter was asked to accompany the men outside of the gates of Winterfell. Caelan knew if he looked at Catelyn's face, he would regret it.
"Tell Bran he's coming too." Ned said at the last minute.
"Ned! Ten is too young to see such things!" The fear for a stranger from the Wall quickly became the fear for her child's capability to sleep soundly at night.
"He won't be a boy forever." Ned started "And winter is coming."
The two lords made their way to the stables. Before the left the stone staircase leading to the courtyard, Caelan stopped and placed a hand on his friends arm.
"I want to ask a favour." Caelan said, looking his friend dead in the eyes.
Ned nodded in reply.
"We've both seen the way Jon and Plio look at each other. I want to create a marriage pact." Caelan hopped he seemed confident, inside the man was shaking in his boots.
"I can't do that, Cai. Jon has not made his feelings known and I am not at liberty to force know that." Ned replied just as calmly.
"You're turning me down?" The words came out of Caelan's mouth before he could stop them.
"And you're going on a few secretive glances. The kids are growing up, a crush isn't enough. Jon has nothing to offer Plio and your daughter's name will be tarnished if she marries a bastard." After that Ned smiled sorrowfully at his friend and Caelan knew he was beat.
"I'm sorry Caelan, but I can't."
