Hey again! I'm very happy that this is still being read by anyone, so I'm really trying to come back to more regular updates even though it's exam weeks. If it won't work out, I'm sorry, but at least I managed this one today.
It's a bit shorter and seems like a sort of interim chapter between the plot we had in Winterfell and what is now to come on Tarth. You know me, I'm more the person who writes ten chapters of dialogue and everything happens in one single night instead of indulging in descriptions to develop the storyline, but we had to go on with the plot now, I knew there was no way around it, so I did this to give you something but also not stretch it too much - we all want to get to meet papa Tarth as soon as possible, don't we?
So I hope you liked how I decided to put it and well, long story short, enjoy reading and tell me what you think, if you'd like!
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They had left Winterfell.
Brienne's heart skipped at the thought. Not long ago, she hadn't dared to believe that she would live to leave the North at all, let alone going home after years in the field, and with a man by her side. And the most unthinkable of all: This man was Jaime Lannister.
Saying goodbye had been hard, but as the days blurred into weeks, the memories that remained were those of a heavy but proud heart. She remembered Podrick's beaming face when the last words of the knighting ceremony reverberated in the Great Hall, felt Sansa's warm arms as she hugged her goodbye.
It wasn't easy for Brienne, leaving the Lady of Winterfell and her service, now that she had finally found someone who had been really worth her devotion and loyalty. Consoled had she noticed Tyrion Lannister standing not far behind Sansa and watching her with soft, attentive eyes. She didn't want to be presumptuous, but it hadn't been the only time that Brienne had asked herself if there wasn't more to their relationship than met the eye at first sight - and if not just now, then possibly in the future.
Brienne smiled to herself while the salty wind blew around her, playing with the strands of her hair. Tyrion was intelligent and kind. Both of them deserved happiness and she didn't think it unlikely that they might find it through each other. They had spent a considerable part of their lives trapped in the poisonous politics of the capital, had to survive between two-faced speeches and the rotten glamour of a city doomed to internal decay under a sparkling veil of riches and luxury. Those years had formed them.
Sansa had been far too young, too inexperienced with the ways of the world when they had first been thrown into each other's life by the powers of chance, arbitrariness and Lord Tywin Lannister's caprices of strategy. How should such circumstances produce anything but misery?
Now, however? Despite their differences, they were kindred spirits in mind and soul.
Brienne's gaze wandered over the deck until it found Jaime. He smiled when their eyes met and she could feel the corners of her own mouth curl automatically as well.
I found mine too, she thought. I had found him before I even knew.
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"There it is." Brienne gazed over the wide surface of blue into the distance. She heard Jaime's steps nearing her, coming to a halt behind her, just able to look over her shoulder when she pointed to the little spot of browns and greens that had appeared at the horizon a few minutes ago and kept growing bigger.
"It's beautiful." Brienne snorted, turning around to face him.
"It is", she smirked. "But you can't see that from here."
"Oh, I don't need to", Jaime told her. "I remember." His eyes lingered in the distance, recalling the picture in his mind.
"You were on Tarth before?", she asked honestly surprised, but he slowly shook his head.
"No, just passed it on my way to Dorne once", he explained, glancing at her with a strange look on his face. "It reminded me of you. These eyes of yours look just as if they had been filled with the Sapphire water surrounding your isle." He watched how her eyebrows rose and couldn't suppress a little grin.
"You're being ridiculous", she replied, quickly turning around to the sea once more, so he wouldn't notice her blushing.
Jaime just smiled to himself, knowing exactly what she was trying, and enjoying the new way in which they were now talking to and behaving around each other. It still seemed like a miracle to him that two people could show themselves so openly, didn't have to worry about any signs of affection and were free to wear their hearts on their tongue for everyone to see and hear. He knew she was still uncomfortable with compliments, but he delighted in expressing his feelings through those little teasing banters, and even more so since he was sure that she secretly did as well. After all, turning away in embarrassment was a huge improvement on suspicious disbelief.
"Are you excited?", he asked after a while, searching in her profile for any thoughts showing in her features as her eyes were fixed on her homeland. Brienne nodded.
"Very much."
"And...is it good or bad excitement?", he probed cautiously, causing Brienne to smile to herself. He knew her so well...
"A bit of both, truth be told", she admitted, throwing a glance at him.
"Should I worry?" His eyes sparkled, almost hiding the little hint of uneasiness.
"Maybe", she smirked. "My father can be a bit...difficult. Especially when it comes to me. He uses to be a little overprotective", she added with meaningfully raised eyebrows and Jaime laughed.
"As if you needed protection."
"I hope you won't be needing some", she countered with a grin.
"Perhaps you should have told me that your father's probably going to kill me before I agreed to accompany you", Jaime said in pretended indignation. "Because that's what it sounds like."
"He can try", she replied light-heartedly. "I won't let him."
"Now, that's a relief."
Brienne chuckled slightly.
"You wouldn't have abandoned me even if you had known for sure that my father would actually try to kill you", she said and Jaime had no choice but to sigh, yielding.
"No", he smiled. "I wouldn't."
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Evenfall Hall was seated right next to Shipbreaker Bay, but as its rocky coast was frequented by storms, it was known for its tendency to send everyone who tried to land there to the ground of the sea. It meant they had to enter the Isle of Tarth at the next possible bay a few miles away from the seat of House Tarth and therefore were forced to reach their destination on horseback.
Jaime usually enjoyed riding, the scenery was no less beautiful than Brienne had told him and the rhythmical trot had something comforting and calming.
But still, with every step of the horse, Jaime's nerves rose. He had been joking with Brienne about her father trying to kill him, but now that the meeting became more tangible with every second that passed, he grew more and more unsure. He had never met Lord Selwyn Tarth, but those who had described him as a just leader, devoted to his small but prosperous lands just as much as its people.
Just. One would call that a good quality, usually, but there was a fine line between justice and the rejection of mercy. And Jaime needed mercy.
He had no idea how much Lord Selwyn knew about him, or about his journey with his daughter, but he could be sure that he knew at least as much as everyone else in the Seven Kingdoms - and those universally acknowledged truths didn't really come to his advantage. He couldn't expect too much, his only hope was that Brienne's prophecies would turn out to be true, that Lord Selwyn would find it in his heart to meet him unprejudiced - for his daughter's sake - and that Jaime would manage to make him not regret it.
It was a matter of importance that Brienne's father accepted him. He didn't indulge himself in the illusion that he would even come to like him, acceptance might have to be enough for the moment, but that he would gain it was vital, for several reasons.
Brienne loved her father. After the early death of her mother and three siblings that had left her as his only living child, it wasn't surprising that Brienne and her father shared a strong bond. Jaime didn't want to endanger their relationship. He didn't want to put her in the need of choosing. It was not the fear that she would be going to question what they had - or that she would even decide against him - they were beyond that. He was afraid that she would suffer, knowing that she lived a life her father didn't approve of. He didn't want to be the reason there was a wedge driven between them.
Family was too important. No one knew that better than Jaime.
He watched Brienne riding by his side, lost in the contemplation of the landscape around them, a dreamy smile on her face. She looked so happy that he couldn't help but smile as well despite the worries that were troubling him.
Family. Another reason. Jaime wanted to have a family, a proper family. And everything that usually came with it - that was, to begin with, marriage. He intended to ask Lord Selwyn Tarth for his daughter's hand, and despite everything he might have done in the past, every vicious decision he might have made, Jaime felt a strange sort of need to follow the appropriate, the honourable path in this matter. He sought Lord Selwyn's approval, his blessing.
"Look", Brienne's voice ripped him from his thoughts. She pointed down a hill, on the right of their path, and Jaime followed her gaze to a heaving lake. The setting sun made the water sparkle and the surrounding trees cast long dark shadows over its surface that seemed to move on the water as they passed.
"Tarth is full of lakes", she told him. "My brother and I, we used to play in those near Evenfall in the summers when we were young." Suddenly, a shade flit over her face, even if just for a second, but she didn't say anymore. Jaime knew what she was probably thinking though. Her older brother had died as a child. Drowned. Probably in one of those lakes or the Sapphire blue sea the isle was known for, a tragedy overshadowing the happy childhood memories.
"Everything is wonderful", he said, trying to distract her, lead her thoughts to the beauty instead. "A perfect place to grow up." And to raise children...
Brienne smiled in agreement.
"I'm surprised you didn't return earlier", he said then, thinking about all the time she had spent travelling about Westeros instead. Riverrun. The North. Even some time in the capital after she had returned him there as she had promised. He had had no choice. His family and his duties as part of the White Cloaks held him there, and even if he had been free to go, Casterly Rock had never been a tempting thought. If there was a place like this waiting for you, however...
"Didn't you miss it?", he added, honestly interested, but she just shrugged her shoulders.
"Of course", she admitted. "But there was never much time to feel really homesick, was there?"
"Well, our journey has never been dull, that's for sure", Jaime confirmed and she laughed the way that made a wave of pride wash over him, pride that he was able to make her produce such a sound.
"No", she agreed. "And then you sent me to find Sansa. After being sworn to Lady Catelyn, how could I refuse?"
Had it been anyone else asking this question, Jaime's answer would probably have turned out differently, but it was her asking, after all, so it was easy. "You couldn't."
"I couldn't." They fell silent for a second, Brienne watching a bird that had been picking on their path flying away when the horse came nearer, and Jaime watching Brienne as her gaze followed the little creature.
"I'm glad to be here now", she said then, her eyes still lost in the equally blue sky where the bird had vanished. Then she suddenly turned around to Jaime, riding slightly behind her. "But I wouldn't change anything about the past", she told him, her serious gaze not leaving his face until he finally nodded and she felt safe enough to turn her attention back to what lay before them.
Half an hour later, half an hour of following the same path leading constantly uphill, they finally made it to the top - and there it was. Brienne stopped her horse, taking in the sight of Evenfall Hall in the near distance, and Jaime followed her example.
The stone castle was seated right next to the sea, an accumulation of wide towers, their edges studded with battlements, smaller ones with high pointy slate roofs, walls, bridges, windows, arcs - all arranged harmonically yet functionally on the cliff that was hit by the incoming waves in a steady rhythm. Their path, Jaime could see, lead down between the hills to the foot of a staircase that had been carved into the solid rock, climbing up and up in curves until it reached a gap in the wall surrounding the whole building.
"Home", Brienne said, driving the horse on as her voice got carried away by the wind.