AN- I think this story has gotten enough love for me to post another chapter, I haven't written anymore yet so still not certain this will be a story I finish. This chapter will mostly be character and relationship establishment, as well as being introduced to the Martells and also learning more about the Cataphracts.

Reviews.

theIrishWriter- the Maesters as an organisation pre-date the andals arriving in Westeros,

also you missplet sons as Suns in the intro section.

apart from that it seem interesting. - Thank you for the correction, I actually didn't know that about the maesters, there might be a few other things you spot that could be off as well but most will be for convenience and to lessen confusion, also thank you and to the other person who said the same. :)

"So you're getting married… want me to do all the work… and didn't bother to tell me." Ashara asked as she stared at her brother opposite her. She nearly grinned as she saw her usually calm brother shift uncomfortably in his seat.

"Well yes, but I only learned about it a moon ago."

"Oh aye, that makes it so much better." she snarked.

"But you would have gone into a panic too early and started pestering me." replied her brother petulantly

"Oh no my prince, may the gods have mercy on you if your 12 year old sister was to pester you, a mighty prince of the Torrentine, how ever would you survive." She said in a fake sad tone.

"Gods, you are so sarcastic, Mother would be proud of that at least, but she'd kill you if she found out about those letters you've been sending to Jayden Lott." said her brother and she blushed. Their mother was notoriously sarcastic and her humour was as dry as the red mountains, and Ashara had been her favourite child and as such she was extremely protective of her, saying Ashara would remain a princess forever and never marry.

"How did you find out about that?" she asked, trying to fight the blush on her face. She was obviously unsuccessful as her brother continued to grin at her.

"Professor Scott told me, after all it would not do for a princess to be caught writing something inappropriate to a vassal." replied her brother, she gaped at him.

"I'm 12!"

"Yes, well as much as I love the old professor his age makes some of his decisions… strange." said her brother and she laughed, professor Scott was in his eightieth year and was prone to forgetfulness and mutterings. He would be retiring at the end of the year.

"Anyway, when are you getting married?" she asked.

"In a year's time, it will be here, the betrothal is being announced today." he said.

"So thats why youre telling me now, do you have any idea about are betrothals?" she asked nervously.

"Well Arthur wants to join the kingsguard, and it's not like I need any alliances, there's more than enough options around your age, the prince, Robert Baratheon, Brandon Stark, Eddard Stark and the sons of some of our vassals, you can pick who you want, or if you really want to make mother proud you can remain a princess forever, I don't mind at all." he said.

"Well I do want to marry, I just don't know who."

"That's alright, you're only 12 you have plenty of time, besides most of them will be coming to the wedding, even the Starks I would say, after all after the Martells they are our closest allies." replied Ayden. It was true as the two first men and Old Gods kingdoms they had married into each other's houses quite often. Their great grandmother was a Stark.

"Fine, how big does it have to be?" she asked.

"I don't know, I'll think about it but at the moment I have a trade deal with Bravos to finish up." He said and she nodded and leaned over and kissed his cheek and left him to his work.

Nymeria Martell laughed as she watched her younger brother and sister, Oberyn and Elia bicker about who would have more children, a weird thing for a boy and a girl to fight over but Oberyn seemed to have it in his head that he would be the father of a army and Elia took that as a challenge by her younger brother. Nymeria was the second oldest of the Martells, seven years younger than her older brother, Doran, and two years older than Elia who was in turn a year older than Oberyn. Doran was the quiet and severe one, Oberyn was the wild and rash one, Elia was the kind and sweet one and she was the mixture. Aspects of all her siblings could be found in her and as such she was quite close with all of them.

Those thoughts brought her some sadness though as soon she would have to move away, to Star Isle and the Daynes. She would miss her family but the little girl who always wanted to marry a handsome lord was still excited at the prospect of marrying Ayden Dayne, notoriously Handsome and smart. She had met him a few times, of course she had, Dorne and the Torrentine were right next to each other and the trip barely took a week. He was the exact same age as her, barely a month older, and she remembered them both being teased for blushing at each other, though on their last visit, two years ago, she did remember having a good conversation with him about the histories of their Kingdoms and how the world could have shaped up if his namesake did not expand their territories. They had both agreed that the Daynes likely would have come under the Dornish banner and either the Grey Kings or the Gardeners and Tyrells would have ruled the Reach and the Wynelands (The area that's part of the reach in canon, Its to much of a nuisance to call it the lands of the old grey kings.) She shook her head and cleared herself of those thoughts, she was to be married in two months she had plenty of time… well no she didn't but she didn't feel like admitting that at the moment.

"What's wrong sister? Scared you might permanently turn red when you marry Lord Dayne?" joked Elia, for such a kind girl she could really jest.

"No, if I recall, she turned a pleasant shade of maroon." Joined in Oberyn. They were sat at the table in the family hall eating breakfast with the rest of her family including her brother and his wife, Mellario.

"Yes, Daynes are rather fond of that colour I think." joined in her mother, Princess Dorea of Dorne.

"Can I get no refuge?" she asked dramatically.

"Why of course princess, I think it's rather cute." replied Mellario innocently, that made Nym swing around and glare at her, a favorite story in her family was of the time she and Doran had been walking down the streets of the shadow city and a brothel owner had called her 'cute' and asked if she was interested in work, obviously not knowing who she was. Of course the playful Norvoshi was sporting a trademark grin, obviously knowing she would get a reaction.

"Hush you or i'll have Areo kick you out, im his favourite now, isn't that right Areo?" she asked the towering Norvoshi guard who had made the journey back from the free cities with her brother and his wife. The man just smiled indulgently at her. "See." she said and the others snorted.

"Of course princess, my apologies." grinned the lady. How such a playful girl managed to fall in love with her kind but stern older brother she would never know.

After a few more minutes she rose, finished with her meal and retreated to her personal escape, the library. She had spent countless hours in here, with Doran, Elia and on the occasion she wasn't busy, her mother, though most of the time she found herself alone, not that she minded one bit, she could be quite the introvert when she wanted to be. Recently she had been reading up on Torrentine history, a fascinating subject if she was being honest, probably the most fascinating of the seven kingdoms. They had started off as a mixture of many different cultures and looks and now had one of their own. A martial and trade focused culture and their people had a distinct look to them due to the mixed races all breeding together to create their own one. Usually curly dark hair with colorful eyes, blue and green usually or in the case of the Daynes, purple. They had tanned skin, not brown like her own or the rest of Dorne it was like… they permanently had a tan. That was probably not the best way of putting it but they aren't as dark as the dornish but had a distinct difference in skin tone to the other seven kingdoms, they were usually lean and fairly tall, unlike the dornish who were usually quite small.

She was currently reading about the army of the Torrentine and the Cataphracts in general and how they differed from the rest of the eight kingdoms's armies and knights. First off all the Cataphracts weren't knights, or even close to it, not in the way they fought or in the way they were trained. A Knight was a noble's or a merchant's son. They were often used as ways for houses to form relationships with each other through becoming a squire. Of course they were well trained and elite warriors but they were not purely warriors like the cataphracts were.

Cataphracts were usually orphans or children whose parents couldn't or didn't want to raise them. They were raised as normal children, with a fair bit of arms training as well, until they turned 12 when they were given a choice, an apprenticeship for the smart ones, an orphanage for the others, or they could join the Cataphracts. If they choose the last option, and by far the most common option, they were initiated into the cataphracts order (For the history buffs out there I should point out that this is not how real cataphracts were trained, I simply decided to use them as the calvary force as they are an interest of mine.) and took pledge of fealty to the Daynes and the people of the kingdom of the Torrentine, in front of a weirwood that was planted on the exact spot Ayden Dayne was said to have slew Garth Hightower at the battle of Sunhouse. This was also the headquarters of the order, a fortress made of radstone from the dornish mountains decorated with silver from the Wynelands. They were given their first horse, usually young and were expected to care for it until they graduated training. They were trained in swordsmanship, spear wielding, tactics, jousting, formations, horse archery and archery in general and were given basic training in medicine and how to care for there gear which consisted of a lance, sword, and bow and arrows, they for the most part did not use shields, and there famous scale armour and the scale armour of their horses. Alongside that was the helmet, infamous around the world it was they wore helmets with scale neck guards hanging from a traditional nasal helmet but instead of it being open faced it had a mask made of a gold couloured, though not actually gold, metal, the face on the helm was famed for having a frown on on it, described as 'as though it had just heard a bad joke' the only thing visible on a fully armoured cataphracts were the eyes. They usually graduated at 20- 25, to graduate they had to have completed a test in each subject and also finish in the top ten in a tournament, which were held quite frequently, at least twice. If someone failed to graduate they were given a small house and some gold and from there they got on with their lives.

When a cataphract reached the age of 45 they could retire and get a sizable enough farm to live on and a decent amount of gold, however if they had survived a war they could retire at age 35 and get the same benefits. There were about 7,000 active cataphracts in the Torrentine, including 1,000 companion cataphracts. Along with the 10,000 or so professional household men at arms the Lords had that was basically 17,000 professional troops. And along with the 20,000 or so more levies, they had an extremely proficient army, though it wasn't particularly large, one of the smallest actually. She couldn't say she was an expert in the art of war but the use of the pike and Halberd by descent contingents of his forces and renowned elite archers made them a fearsome opponent on the open field, though one weakness she could identify was in a siege, there Cataphracts were competent on foot but not as good as on horseback, there Pike and halberd contingents were good for holding positions and killing heavily armoured opponents, but to assault a wall all they had were about 5,000 men at arms and levies, though mayhaps the cataphracts were better on foot then she thought, it wasn't as though the Daynes had ever assaulted a wall, usually they had been faced on the open field due to the smaller amount of men they usually had compared to their enemies and after a decisive win on the field the occupants of whatever castle they wanted to take surrendered.

She closed the book with knowledge making her head ache. She sighed, it wasn't as though the system was complicated, it wasn't really, it was actually quite smart, but it was just a lot of information. She shrugged and left the book bak where she found it and walked back down stairs to her lessons which would be starting soon.

Wedding in the next chapter, then we start to get into the real story, leave reviews so I know what you think, thank you.