AN:GAHH! I honestly thought writing this chapter would be easy but fuck it was so difficult because so many parts of it were distracting and it not as romantic I was hoping... Honestly If it were a child i would feed it to a dragon or sell it for a hotdog. I didn't really try editing it because just looking at it made me grumpy. Seriously you deserve better and i swear it will get better I mean we got a long way to go like 9 more chapters here abouts! Try to enjoy ;)
Chapter 6:
" That is great news my Lady." Arya held back the urge to bit her lip and smiled for the sake of Alla.
"I've been wanting to leave this gods forsaken capital for months now." She gushed and then remembering Vionnya , she added, "Oh if only I could take you with me. We could travel horseback and you wouldn't have to serve, you could be your true self."
Arya had never heard that option in her six years since she left the capitial and her father left the living. Being her true self with anyone seemed as though it would be hard when all else found it simple. She didn't even know who Arya Stark was how could she possible be her? Ayra found herself biting her lip and wrapping her arms around Alla. She felt Alla freeze, caught off guard by this gesture of warmth she only kept for those she truly loved. She thought in that moment of Jon, her father and Sansa- though as they got older and Arya got dirtier their hugs decreased- and she hugged Alla tighter.
"You were very good to me." She said as way of excuse. She hadn't hugged someone in so long and it felt so good; like something fragile inside of her was aching, but a good ache, an ache that everyone got, that made us all the same. This ache could only be healed with an embrace that told you you're not alone.
" Maybe I can find a husband finally before I am an old withered matron." She giggled into Arya's hair. They both laughed and Arya went to collecting her things and helping pack though she was terrible at folding and putting the clothes away , she resigned to simply collecting the items Alla called for and handing them to her. When they were done, Alla summoned for two blushing guardsmen to carry her trunks of clothing down to the carriage to depart. While they sat in Allas room, utterly undisturbed, Alla looked about.
"If I stay here any longer Cersei might have tried to wed me off as she did to the two Stark girls." Alla added in a harsh whisper that made all the hairs on Arya neck stand up.
" The Stark sisters? Aren't they dead?" Arya stuttered out, the words felt heavy in her mouth. She had not heard much of her sister or what people thought happened to her. She assumed they were dead as Sansa was not here.
"Oh no. Lady Sansa- I knew her, the poor girl. She was suppose to marry Joffrey though she didn't want to after what he did to her father but she was married to his uncle."
"Jaime? But he's…" Arya's head was swimming the last time she saw her sister she was crying about how perfect her and Joffrey would be. This sister married to the kingslayer made no sense.
"No, the imp, lord Tyrion. They say the two conspired to kill King Joffrey and Lord Tywin. After the wedding it's said she grew wings and flew away. Although I heard through gossip she is captured by the hound who longed for her." Alla swooned.
" What that can't be-" Arya started but Alla was so full of scandalizing details she could not stop.
"They allowed the younger sister to marry the Bolton bastard, but she ran off with some nasty fellow to King Stannis. Though more people believe she was an imposter. The guards were saying she was raped and killed the day her father died."
Arya's head was pounding an awful lot. This was too much information and most of it didn't make sense? Why would they marry her to Roose Bolton's bastard, a lady couldn't marry a bastard; her mother told her that, Gendry went so far as saying they shouldn't even be travelling together. Thinking of him made her remember how he and the other were still locked up in the cells below. Licking her lips she tried to sound cool.
"And what do you believe." Alla looked at her with a coy smile that made her teeth a crescent moon.
"I don't know. She could very well be dead." Alla said rather nonchalant but then leaned closer to Arya that she could smell the perfume on her collar bone, "But if I were her, I would have escaped and stayed hidden until the right moment."
Arya's heart stopped. Had this blond Tyrell girl so cleverly seen through her disguise? She was about to ask when Alla pulled her up, off the bed and took a few steps away from her. The door knob turned and in came a plumb septa. She eyed the two girls condescendingly as only a septa could and then put her attention to Alla.
"Lady Alla it is in good form that we must be on our way." Arya almost laughed at the humourless high clipped sound of the woman's voice but instead turned to the beside table and pretended to polished the flat surface. She waited until she heard the two women leave before stopping and then gathering the laundry. It wasn't heavy but from the moment she left the room her arms were shaking.
It was strange to hear that she was married; but if an imposter took her place would she have to fill it if it were discovered who she was. A shiver crawled down her spin as she realized that no one could ever discover her. This wasn't a simply game of wolves and rabbits that she used to play with her brothers; this was a game of life and death.
She kept her head down as she went to the washing fountains. Many of the other maids were there already. Arya settled beside two withered old women that cackled like crows and paid her no mind. Arya plunged the soft sheets into the water and watched the bubbled form under the creamy sheets. They lost some of their opaqueness and Arya thought about people; some were see-through and others weren't. Her thought were shaken away with a claw-like hand on her shoulder. She turned to look over her shoulder and saw the same old woman who had brought her here.
" You will now be serving wine to the Queen Regent. Put the damn sheets up on that line there and get on with ya." Still shaking, Arya got up from her spot and realized that she must have been here for a longer time than she thought. Many people had already left to get to their other chores. Arya stumbled up from her wobbling stool and grabbed her wet laundry. She didn't mind how wet the sheets still were and how wet the front of her dress was. When the old woman saw she made a gurgling sound and chastised her for ruining her clothes.
"Well I s'pose it for the best. The Queen is not much to like green on her serving girls. We'll find you some red clothes." She grabbed Arya's wrist and led her back into the servant's quarter and to a large ornate cupboard. It had chipping paint and gold leaf but she could still see the details of a design of interwoven rings and knots.
The old woman pulled a large key from her bosom and, with a clink, unlocked the cupboard. Without the lock it swung freely on its hinges and she realized how old the wood really was. There were shelves that went from the bottom of the cupboard to the top with multiple colours of fabric folded over.
"You're so tiny a child's garb could fit ye." She chided before pulling a vermilion stained fabric that turned into a sleeveless wrap-around dress. She held it out for Arya and waited. Arya waited too. "Well no time for false modesty take that soaked thing off- you're messing the floors." There was no one around and she did not had much to hide so she slipped out of her dress and quickly her arm through the new dress and let the old woman wrap it around her and sash it up with a simply brown a scarf. The dress was made of some worn cotton but it felt like the dresses she wore in Bravos.
When she went to the second floor of the lords and ladies with her pitcher of wine she saw Harrys and Kip.
"Kip I think dear Vionnya is in love with me." Harrys hooted. Arya stopped a few feet away from them and smiled.
"Is that so? Thought it was the other way around." She teased. When she was with the two knights she could smile easily. Sometimes it felt like the smile would curl over her entire head it was so big.
" Aha Gods bless the man that falls for you ,he will never have a moments peace." Kip added in that soft and patient voice of his. He still couldn't make eye contact with her though.
" And what is the true reason for you up here? Wanting to join the kingsguard?"
"Lady Alla's gone up to Highgarden so I've been made a cup bearer for the Queen Regent." She felt a chill as she spoke the truth and the key to her getting close to Cersei. Harrys tilted his head and squinted his eyes at her.
"And who did you have to fuck to get that?" He turned to Kip who turned almost the same shade of red as her new dress.
"Ha! Might be that would make you jealous?"
"Nah! Kip would pick me over the likes of you always." And at they Kip's mouth gasped open like a guppy for air. A painful laugh took her over and she almost dumped the Dornish red all over the well polished sandstone.
"I best get going." She said, gradually containing her smile. She could just imagine Cersei's reaction to the serving wench with the over the edge smile.
She could hear voices on the other side of the queens parlour room. The Queen was languidly sitting on a cushioned chez. She was with a man dressed almost like a measter. She didn't achknowledge the lowly serving girl in Lannister colours , she only held her cup out. Arya walked towards her coolly as she was taught in the House of Black and White. Walking on the balls of her feet with her shoulders back. She moved so smoothly, the wine in her pitcher barely shifted. She watched the deep red fill the glass gauntlet that looked so much like blood.
" I don't care whether she wants to or not. Dorne must prove its loyalty. I haven't seen my daughter in years!" Her voice still sounded silky and deep like bath water. Arya could tell that it matched with her beauty was a lethal weapon of persuasion. Izembaro had taught her that for women this was their greatest weapon; suggestion. He told her that the amount of wars that began from the poison of lips to the ear were uncountable. Arya was sure that many people had died from the words of this queen's lips.
The man had taken Measter Pycelle's old position, though this was seemed more alert he looked cheery but Arya was taught to see, she saw the cruelty in the slash of a smile and the wicked cleverness etched about his eyes.
"Yes, I can't say that the Dornish have earned our trust but they do fear us perhaps the treat of a royal visit will be enough to get them to send your daughter to us. I have heard that there is unrest in the North it might be the time to take a closer look at what can be salvaged."
"Perhaps they should have selected their bannerman more wisely." She sounded almost bored. She reached over and grabbed a peach, looking at it with more focus than she had offered the measter Qyburn.
As she ate her peach, Arya focused more on what she saw then heard only listening to brief words that would get the queen's attention. She would let her mouth fall slightly to a pout when she was told to be patient or what she couldn't do. It was a challenge to her pride. When brought up the Queen from beyond the sea her golden brow would scrunch up. It was weird reading this queen so openly with out her knowing. It was unnerving how Arya could see her own self in some of the lioness features. They were both trapped with in their fragile shells of femininity. Internally, she cringed. The kindly man had taught her long ago how deadly emotions can be how compassion and empathy were merely human gods did not bother with such trivialities and that was what made them truly divine. She must be the muse of death; a shadow. Something hit her in the temple.
"I said you may leave now." Cersei said with forced manners.
Quickly nodding, Arya bowed deeply and grabbed the object that hit her before quickly turning out the door. Kip and Harrys were waiting on the other side of the door. She could tell a bruise of blossoming on the side of her head or that it was at least quite red.
"What happened to you?" Kip asked
Arya opened her hand and looked at the offensive object. A peach pit. She traced the rough shell feeling the woody texture on her finger tips.
" I don't think she likes her new serving girl." Harrys added. Arya closed her fist and walked to the serving stairs not caring if she splashed the stupid wine now. Plopping the wine on the cutting board with an almighty splash, Arya halted infront of the unamused Wallas. He muttered something about stupid young sluts before turning on her to get the jailors and prisoners their meals.
"'Ere take 'em down to da' boys, slut." Wallas growled, shoving the tray into her arms as was his custom. Arya took the tray with out complaint and almost ran down the stairs. It was when she reached the bottom step that she put the peach pit into one of the stews.
For the rest of the week Arya went from pouring wine for noble lords to feeding the guards and hiding from more tedious work. Cersei had had her removed as a cup bearer and so she now served a sniffling lord from the south with not a lick of hair on his face and barely a wreath of hair on his head. He was not very commanding and she was almost tempted to command him to pour his own wine if it weren't for the ten guards he kept. The difference between the lord and his men was so vast it was almost comical.
When Arya entered the lord's chamber she was being entertained the city's tailor, a man she had not met before but was known for his fanciful designs- as well as his ridiculous outfits, so colourful that even one from the Summer Iles would feel overwhelmed. He also claimed to be a great great grandson of the great warrior from Illyria, Comaryo Hartoiyte', the Father of Bulls as legends went. Every button on the Tailor's suit had on it the rough engraving of a bull's head. Arya decided what here next ingredient to the soup would be.
"We are needing more fabric for your dressing my lord." The tailor said, expanding a sheet of lilac fabric across the lord's boney body. She thanked the gods that he was in his night shirt.
"See it done. Maid, two cups of wine."
Arya poured the two cups of wine and went to hand them to the two men. The lord took it rather girlishly in his hands with his smallest finger extended. As Arya went to pass the cup to the grand tailor, her slipper caught on the silky lilac fabric on the ground and she reached out to him to stead herself.
"My apologize my lord!" She said as he pushed her away and cursed her softly. "I will get you a new cup and wash the fabric."
"And I am to trust Silk from the Summer Iles with a wench? I think not!"
She quickly poured his wine and was excused by the lord, who looked as though he might have shit himself. In all the ruckus no one would miss a single button…
She didn't know if Gendry understood what the peach pit was meant to signify. Perhaps it was foolish of her to try and make herself known in such a way, they could both be at risk if it was ever discovered. She clutched the button tighter in her hand.
Wallas didn't ever ask, he knew that if was her who would always take food to the prisoners. It was the only thing that was constant. The slop in their dishes was always the same brown mush and it was easy to slip the like tin button into the stew and watched it sink for good measure.
The guards seemed unbothered by her, they didn't really care who brought them their food, like trained dogs. She passed them each their bowl and then went to the prisoners. She was not so certain what to expect. In the best case scenario, nothing. A guard came up behind her.
"Alright you lot, line up before the little miss and get yer damn food."
Arya kept her head down and listened for the shifting of bodies moving towards her. She could smell them and hear them but she had to make sure not to see them. She needed to pass as impassive. She could see their feet and pass them their dishes, Lem, Anguy and Gendry. They said nothing and Arya left.
She should be relieved that the stupid boy-man didn't do anything stupid but she felt as though she wanted him to. To smile? Laugh at her as he did, with that warm smile and eyes that were so kind. But that was a long time ago. People changed, she had and so had he. The past was best left where it was it would only leave her feeling dull and missing all over again. No. She would leave her past behind her and go after a future.
That night she crawled onto her shelf again. Her mind forcing on her the insignificant memories. Her sister furious at her, her brothers laughing, Yoren cussing, Gendry being stupid. Stop! She groaned and new none of this would do her good. She needed someone. She need alcohol. Harrys.
His room wasn't hard to find but he was. As her eyes adjusted she moved on the balls of her feet to the shape of him. He was asleep, his hair was all about, thick brown. He looked like one of the knights her sister might have liked. Quick as lightning she had her hand on his mouth. His eyes opened all to leisurely. Was he used to this sort of thing?
"Shh." She took her hand away from his mouth, revealing a smug smile. "You got any drink?"
He nodded…
The path to the Palace gardens was an easy one for Arya at night but with alcohol in her limbs she had to depend on Harrys to lead her to a tree. It looked familiar she knew what it was but the alcohol was clouding her mind just as she wanted. It felt as though she was spinning and trying to walk straight.
Harrys laughed but supported her. She knew he wanted her.
"I think you near finished the skin." He laughed at her. They stopped moving and were under the tree. She looked up but it was spinning so she decided falling over was her best option. Her cheeks were warmed with drink and she forgot everything but this funny affect the wine was having on her. She was giggling.
"Here." Harrys offered her his hand and she pulled him down with her with another burst of giggles.
"Whoops! What a clumsy knight." She slurred at him. He laughed and brushed his hair off his face , he looked down at her with that smile.
"I'm the clumsy one? Is that the way of it." She nodded and pulled his face to hers. She kissed him. It felt strange was it suppose to? She bunched her hands in his shirt. It was smooth cotton. He broke off and was panting, his eyes wide and his smile gone as he moved to her neck. His hand travelled she her hips and the other pulled at the dress , pulling it up and revealing her bare thighs. She stayed completely still as his fingers danced up her leg.
The tree she knew what is was . She had seen it's fruit somewhere before. It was cute and capped. While she pondered where she had last seen the tree, Harrys stopped and hovered over her.
"What are you doing?" he asked. She wasn't sure what he meant and the alcohol was making it difficult to locate her tongue. She tilted her head in hope of getting her confusion across. Harrys sighed and rolled off her. She sat up and looked at him, waiting.
" You don't want to do this Vionnya. At least….not with me." Then with who? All she wanted was to forget and drink her problems away like a normal person.
"Wh-"
"Who is he?" he asked suddenly. Not harshly, just edged with curiosity and amusement. She was regretting her choice of company. At least Kip was easier to boss around.
"No one."
He just smiled at her and pulled her to him and set them both up against the tree. Her propped under his arm.
"Well I'm sure he'd be alright with me sitting with my friend."
In the morning Arya's head pounded. She wanted to shoot everyone of the gods forsaken birds chirping that day. She looked at Harrys who was just sitting there, smiling. He had been waiting for her to wake up so that he could get off to his duty. He stood then preparing to leave.
"Thanks." She mumbled. He laughed it off and walked away, leaving her under the tree by herself. She felt like her head would split in two. One of the fruits fell of the tree and Arya remember where she had seen it before; it was the same fruit on that stupid dress from so long ago.
You don't want to do this…At least not with me. In her hand it felt smooth and sharp at the end but rough and rounded at the top. It seemed like the stupid acorn couldn't decide what it wanted to be and so decided to fuck them all and be both. Could that be the same with people though? How could Arya survive in No one? Maybe Arya never left but, as Izembaro had told her, had stayed hidden in plain sight. Could she still be Arya after so long? And if so what would Arya do?
The sun was gliding to higher on some invisible rise. The weather was chilly and the leaves were drying on their branches but still they clung to their roots and branches. Winter was coming. She got up and took the fruit with her.
Somewhere in the castle their would be work needed to be done. Arya volunteered to clean the fireplaces out to most to the maid's relief. It was huge, five other people could most likely fit in it. Her arms were pulsing by the time she was done, heavy with effort. She shovelled all the ashes onto a rag to pull out on the door step. When she was finished all five fireplaces of the two adjoining dining rooms she was covered to toe to crown in dust. Her lovely deep red dress was now a filthy mess dulling the effect of it's rich colour and bringing a smirk to her lips.
It was evening by the time she was done and the acorn in her dress was weighing her down in the most unusual way. She had decided that whether he knew it or not, Arya would find a way to rescue her previous captors or friends or whatever they were to her- they were hers especially Gendry even if he was too stupid to see it.
The food was out on the kitchen counter for her to carry down. Wallas had become used to her habits and that made the smirk on her lips grow. This was her job and only hers. The stairs she climbed down that clanged her arrival were better than any nobleman's trumpet and the men below were hers to care for. The guards thanked her in their own ways and she walked with belonging to the prison cell where the men had already lined up. She felt only slightly uprooted when her eyes were met with the blues of the blacksmith and for a second she thought she might run or fling the lumpy stew in his face but she did neither, only stood there and looking at her feet as her took his bowl with the acorn in it. As he left, almost as a second thought he grunted a quiet thank-you.
AN: THANK-YOU FOR READING- God you're patient. :) I want to thank-you for your kindness and reviewing but one comment struck my overbearing contradicting side About Fairy tales... which I'l let you know i am obsessed with along with any myth or fables. No one really looks at fairy tales or their origin they only see the folly in them and not the morbid or dark nature that almost all of them contain. Disney sort of bastardized these stories into something cutesy but if you took away that childlike image you would have dark tales that would probably be banned in some libraries. The story of cinderella and snow white were erotic stories to entertain the courts. The little mermaid a religious story or jealousy and sacrifice. I would suggest you read some fairy tails of Grimm or Anderson and think about the loose words we use to catagorize literature. This chapter was slightly based off the story of Catskin retold the the Grimm Brothers.
