Tyene
Life in the Water Gardens had carried on without changes during the war: the trees kept bearing fruit, the children went on playing in the pools, the lessons continued without exceptions, and if something had happened out there, Tyene hadn't noticed. She had seen her father off when he left to fight, and she had seen him return some days ago, when the war had finished, but her father's absence was the only thing that had changed for her during the conflict. However, as she splashed with her sisters, her cousin and their friends under her uncle's sad gaze, she couldn't help wondering if there was something she hadn't been told.
She hadn't asked her father if they had won: she had learned from his vacant and desolate eyes that they hadn't. Prince Oberyn had greeted all his daughters quickly and unenthusiastically upon returning to the Water Gardens and immediately after that he'd locked himself in his room, from where he hadn't yet come out. Tyene didn't understand why he was so sad. She knew they had lost, but that meant the war was over, that they were in peace and that he didn't have to go and fight again. Nobody of her family was dead, as far as Tyene knew: her sisters, uncle Doran, her cousin Arianne and her little cousin Quentyn were all safe and sound.
Her uncle seemed downcast too, and he spent most of the time sitting in silence, watching as Nym, Tyene and Arianne played in the Gardens with their friends, Garin and Sylva. At the beginning she thought her father and uncle had had an argument, and that their moodiness would go away soon, so she didn't worry too much about it. However, now three entire days had happened without her father ever leaving his room, and Tyene understood that something serious had happened. She decided to go and find out what it was.
"Where are you going, Tyene?" Arianne asked her when she went out of the pool without saying a word.
"I'm going to see my father," she answered as she put on the dress she had left just out of the pool. "I have to ask him something."
"All right. Will you come back after you talk to him?"
"I think so," Tyene didn't know how much time it would take her to persuade her father to talk to her, or how much time the conversation between them would take.
She walked quickly to her father's room and knocked the door. She waited for some seconds for Oberyn to answer, but as he didn't she knocked again, a bit louder. That, however, didn't work either, so she tried once more, knocking so loudly it was impossible for him not to hear, but he still didn't answer. Is he still in here, or has he gone away? She wondered.
"Father!" She called him, in the loudest voice she could produce without shouting.
"Go away. I don't want to see anyone now," a raspy voice that sounded as if he hadn't said a word for a long time replied from inside.
"Father! Please!" Tyene insisted, despairing. What has happened to my father? She wondered, worried.
"I have said I don't want to see anyone. What do you want?" The voice asked then. It didn't sound unfriendly, but it was expressionless, and that apparent lack of affection nearly hurt the girl, who had come to her father to comfort him.
But she reminded herself that it was her father the one who was suffering, even if she didn't know what was happening to him. Tyene wanted him to trust her, to tell her the reason for his grief and let her comfort him, but how was she going to accomplish that if he closed himself that way? She couldn't think of any way to do it, so frustration soon took over her and she felt her eyes go moist, partly because of her father's sadness, but also because of lack of attention she had gotten from him. However, the tears inspired Tyene, who quickly made a plan that would surely not fail her.
"I want my father!" She answered, and her voice broke when she said that. "I thought you loved me, but it seems you don't. It seems that during the war you have forgotten me, because you haven't talked to me since you came back," she sobbed, and then she sat on the floor, leaning against the wall.
Some seconds after that the door opened and Tyene knew her father was by her side. She didn't look up, though, but she turned her back on him instead, hiding her face from him.
"Tyene?" Her father called her, but she decided to ignore him, as he had just done with her. "Tyene? Please, forgive me," he asked her, sitting on the floor, by her.
"Do you want me to forgive me for not loving me? Or for forgetting me?" Tyene said, still without looking up.
"I do love you, and I haven't forgotten you. I want you to forgive me for…" Seemingly, her father didn't know very well what he had done wrong, because he couldn't finish the sentence. "Please, Tyene… you know I didn't do it on purpose to make you angry…" Oberyn looked very sad and sorry, and it made Tyene forget her own anger, worrying again about her father.
"I'll forgive you… if you tell me what happened," Tyene promised, looking up and into his eyes.
"What are you talking about?" Her father asked, stunned.
"I'm talking about the reason why you are so sad. Why haven't you talked to me since you came back? I know we have lost the war, but it's over now, and we are alive. Why are you so troubled, then?"
"Don't you know it yet?" Her father seemed astonished, as if Tyene had just asked him what her own name was. "Hasn't anyone told you what happened to Elia?"
Tyene shook her head. She hadn't heard of her aunt Elia since the war started. As far as she knew, her aunt was living in King's Landing with her children Rhaenys and Aegon, while her husband Rhaegar had had to go to war.
"The Lannisters killed her," her father sighed. "She had nothing to do with the conflict. She had done no wrong, except being married to Rhaegar. But they didn't care. They killed her baby in front of her, and then they killed her too." At the beginning, her father's voice was that of a stricken and resigned man, but as he spoke it gained strength, and in the end Tyene could perceive an intense anger in both Oberyn's tone and expression.
"I'm so sorry," Tyene said, feeling guilty for getting angry at her father when something so terrible had happened.
"You have nothing to apologize for, child. You didn't kill Elia and her children. It's the Lannisters who should be sorry, and one day I'll make sure they do," he vowed, hugging her.
Tyene remained silent, because she didn't know what to say. She hadn't wholly understood what her father had said: the only thing she knew of the Lannisters was that they had a castle called Casterly Rock and that they ruled the Westerlands. As far as she'd been told, her father had gone to fight a man called 'The Usurper Robert Baratheon', and the Lannisters had never been mentioned as the Usurper's allies, so she didn't have the least idea of what they have to do with the war.
"Tyene, do you want to do something with me?" Her father suggested, after being silent for a while, hugged, sitting on the floor.
"Something like what?"
"I don't know," her father shrugged. "I can teach you how to fight, if you want, or we can go for a ride. Or I could tell you a story. Tell me anything you want to do and we'll do it," her father's eyes now sparkled with the emotion his daughter's visit had restored him.
"I would like you to teach me about poisons…" Tyene suggested shyly. Poisons had aroused her curiosity since she could remember, but her father had always forbidden his daughters to play with them. He usually let them do whatever they wanted, but in that he was firm, and that was why she had never asked him that, thinking that he would certainly say no. Even now that she dared do it she felt insecure. However, Oberyn didn't get angry with her or denied her wish, but he just smiled (for the first time since his return to the Water Gardens.)
"So you like poisons? I wonder who you've taken after!" He joked, making her giggle. "Well then. Come with me, I'll teach you a little about some poisons I have here. But you have to promise that you won't use them… without my leave," her father said confidentially.
"I promise," Tyene accepted solemnly.
