Alongside Roseroad, Near to Highgarden
With mud, tar and pounded and pulverised charcoal, Lyra's masterpiece was nearly complete, and her rebuilt structure of who she was to become was standing strongly.
She dipped her hand in the black substance she was creating, and like her hand was a paintbrush and her face a canvas, she began to draw. She closed her eyes and coating her eyelids thickly, she coated up toward her forehead and the black covered to each of her ears. Down each of her cheeks, she drew jagged, feathery edges.
And then, when she was finished, she mustered up all the courage she could find and looked at herself in the reflection.
On her face, half now painted, were a pair of black wings.
Her eyes of ice pierced through the black that covered them thickly, and shot into the eyes of the beholder like a lance of ice. She was terrifying, but brilliant.
Lev, an owl, landed on her knee and gave her a look of approval.
"I am yours and you are mine", she spoke to him.
Always and forever, my sweet Lyra, Lev replied.
She stood tall and commanded the attention of the adults surrounding her, "I am an Outsider and I will not cower in the shadows."
The girl marched forward to a rock, and when standing upon it, succeeding in making herself appear taller, she shouted, "Man can think what they like, Man can hunt me, Man can shun me, and they can beat me to the ground, but I will never be ashamed of how I was born. I am, forever and always, one with my Soul!"
Then, when she knew all eyes were on her, she gestured to the painted black wings covering half her face.
"The Wings of my Soul will guide me toward the destiny prophecised. They are my personal symbolism of freedom - escaping from the cage of my Soul, but keeping the unity between my Soul and I strong."
Kaelo stomped forward, his face serious, but his eyes glistening with tears. He reached Lyra's side and dropped to his knee, Toothpick in hand. And there, with tears of pride running down his cheek, he pledged an oath of fealty. It was not the typical oath said by Liege Lords or knights, but then again, Lyra and Kaelo were not ordinary knights.
"Ser Lyra" he began, looking at his dear knight who stood so beautifully broken but brave in front of him, "When I look at you, I see all the ways this cruel world has tormented you, but I see all the ways your mind and Soul have endured. I know your world is in darkness, but, if you will allow me, I will light lanterns within your fragile body, so that you know that there is nothing but light when I see you."
The knight looked up and tears were flowing from his eyes, racing down his cheeks and soaking his beard. His eyes were ordinarily filled with kindness, and he always had an air of merriment about him, but now, as he surrendered himself to this little girl who deemed herself a nobody, his eyes were full of nothing but love.
"I will shield your back and keep your counsel, and give my life for yours, if need be", were the only words he attempted to keep similar to a typical oath.
Toothpick was extended horizontally in his hands, its shiny blade facing the sun, bouncing light off its face and shooting it into Lyra's eyes. Lyra thought of what to say, she thought of the typical response to one who was swearing an oath, but decided against it.
There were so many words Lyra wanted to speak to the man, so many she wanted to declare, but all of them escaped her. There were no words anymore. No words to describe the hell she'd been through, but the light of Chief, or Lev, and now Kaelo.
She had been dreaming of fighting side by side with Ser Kaelo since the day they met during an imaginary battle in King's Landing. That day had not escaped her, she remembered it fondly; she was slaying her imaginary foe, oblivious to the reality that one day it would not be in her mind. Kaelo had sauntered up to her, teasing her, but sweeping her off her feet with his smile.
She remembered, and the small remnants of a smile returned to her face.
"Ser Kaelo and Ser Lyra, I remember our duo so fondly", Lyra began with a suddenly soft voice.
Something caught in her throat and a liquid stung her eyes; it took Lyra a while to realise she were beginning to cry. With a raspy voice, trying to barricade her tears, she stuttered her way to an end of the pledge. "It would be an honour if we, at long last, fight side by side."
It wasn't much of a pledge, perhaps it wasn't even official; but it was perfect for them.
Kaelo had never stood with the great, but he had sat with the broken; that is what made him a great man. That, according to Lyra, is what made him the greatest man.
Words failed her, so she resorted to actions. The only action she remembered she and Kaelo had once shared. It was odd, the movement shocked her at first, but she embraced the peculiarity of it.
She stepped forward, and just as Kaelo looked straight into her beautiful ice eyes, she wrapped her arms so tightly around him and squeezed him into a hug.
It felt odd. It felt not like she remembered, but still she held him tight, and Kaelo held her back.
"Ser Kaelo" Lyra whispered, a stray tears escaping and charging down her dirt-covered cheek.
"Ser Lyra", Kaelo whispered back, retracting his head to plant a kiss on Lyra's forehead.
There, in each other's arms, they remained for the longest of times, until Lev's gentle coo broke through the silence.
The Wings of her Soul rested on her face, and the literal form of her Soul perched within her, so deep and secure.
She didn't want to be an emperor, nor did she want to be a ruler; she hated power, as she always had done. All she wanted was to be an Outsider.
There was little to her plan; all she knew was she wanted to get to the Land of Souls - the land of the Outsiders, the home of her kind.
She knew that when she departed the shore she was standing on, and reached the shore she longed for, she would not look back in fear or hesitation; she would smile and soak in all the goodness the new land offered. For then, at last, she would be home. She would be where she belonged.
One day, Lyra promised herself, the Wings of her Soul would lead her there.
One day.
