"What about some smelling lavender and I can make you some ginger tea to help the nausea?" Willa said softly.
"Mm," was the only sound a whimpering Dany could make. She was lying on her side on Willa's bed, face straight into the bed, after having virtually collapsed there once she made it to Shadowedge that morning with Rose. Jon was finishing up the new barn roof with some of the other villagers, and the thought of any sounds louder than her own breathing made Dany feel like she would vomit and pass out at the same time.
So, naturally, she made the trek to with Rose to the only place potentially louder than her own home, pretending to not feel like utter shit until she had reached her friend's house. It had been over a month since most of the Southern Northerners (as Dany had begun to call them in her head) had left, with Tormund as their guide, to walk back south of the Wall in search of garrons as Tyrion, Sansa, and a few others were left behind.
This was not without good reason, seeing as the storm after which they had set off most likely made the journey quite treacherous. Nobody wished to risk the Lady of Winterfell, and, seeing as there has still been no return of the travelers, it was with good reason. That is not to say that the party was doomed to failure, but only that the journey was taking much longer than if it had been spring and if there were any settlements left north of Winterfell (very few, Dany had been told, after the Night King had turned any living thing into a wight).
Despite the continued visitors, the village had turned back to relative normalcy. The Southern Northerners integrated well into being a helpful bunch, although Tyrion's wit rubbed a few the wrong way. Trade had picked up again after the storm, though Willa had still been unable to get any more nutmeg. The children rowdily played outside as a band of laughter and destruction. And Dany was sick.
She'd been waking up with regular headaches for the past couple of weeks and expected that it was just her body fighting something off from the sudden changes in weather. But yesterday, and even more today, the headaches had come coupled with horrible nausea and Dany decided that it was time to seek Willa out for help. The healer was skeptical about "just fighting something off," but nobody else had come down with a sickness so she was quite intrigued.
As Willa approached the bed, Dany turned her head to face her friend, her eyes only half open. She could barely see Rose seated on a woven mat underneath the loft ladder, playing and babbling happily to herself.
Willa held something flowery under Dany's nose. "Just smell the lavender for me," she encouraged.
Breathing deeply, Dany pulled in the perfumy scent of plant, allowing it to flow through her nose and imagining a purple hue dropping deep into her body. Although it was not a cure-all, it did feel very calming and, though she may have imagined it or just hoped, her headache and nausea seemed to relax its grip.
Willa's door banged open and a shrill voice that could only belong to a four-year old, redheaded Myl sounded. "Willa! Have you seen Dany?"
And the headache was back again.
"Myl," Willa hissed, "What did we talk about with you stomping in here when my door's closed?"
Myl's feet slapped across the floor and he stopped right before the bed. "Oh," he said, finally processing what had happened when he saw the scene on the bed, "Sorry, Dany."
"It's fine, Myl," Dany said, trying to suppress her groan, "What were you looking for me for?"
"A story!" Myl said proudly, not lowering his voice in the slightest, "Thistle said she saw you this morning. And then we went looking for you! And I comed here!"
Simultaneously while putting the lavender back under Dany's nose, Willa suggested, "Maybe you could just tell everyone that you didn't find Dany?"
"No," Dany said, bringing up a heavy hand to move the lavender away and ignoring Willa's glare, "No, it's okay. Tell everyone that if they come here and sit nicely outside. I'll tell them a story."
Myl beamed. Barely able to contain his squeal of joy in his tiny body, he raced out of Willa's house without closing the door and they could hear him shouting to the other kids as he ran.
Finally, Dany looked up at Willa, who was still crossly holding the lavender and pursing her lips. Dany sighed. "If I don't tell them one now, they'll be pestering us every hour until I do," she justified, rubbing her head while blinking to try and look more alert.
"You said you've been feeling better in the afternoon," Willa chided.
Dany shrugged. "And you always say that fresh air is the best remedy. And you'll be right here. I'll even drink the ginger tea from you," she said.
"Two cups," Willa agreed, "And a third if your story's that long. Stay in bed until everyone gets here."
She turned around to boil some water over the fire and Dany sunk back into the bed, not unwilling to listen to Willa's last advice.
Dany didn't truly regret what she said to Myl until she was blearily emerging from Willa's house, squinting in the sunlight that seemed like it was beating down in the Red Waste rather than Shadowedge. Is it too late for Myl to pretend he didn't find me?
It was, for a little crowd of children already squatted in the snow by Willa's table. Their eager faces shone with admiration for Dany as she stepped over to her favorite chair, closely followed by Willa and Rose. Sitting down and blinking very hard, Dany tried to push her feelings of aching and nausea away, instead hastily planning out a story for her audience.
Nearly all of the children from the village, plus a few passing through newcomers, were gathered at her feet. Myl, in the front, was still beaming proudly. His little chest was puffed out and Dany could almost hear his thoughts of "I found Dany! It was me!"
"Okay," Dany started, making the children sit up straighter, excitement written across their young faces, "Who can tell me some of the last stories we heard?"
Although she had only asked the question to stall while she got her current story in order and forced herself to think of something other than her churning stomach, everyone began shouting out what they had heard from Dany in the past.
"Tyrosh!" "Naath!" "The Tall Men!" "Her-akkers!"
"It's her-akkares, Myl!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Is - "
"Actually," Dany said, breaking up the argument over the white lions, "It's hrakkars. But today we're going to go much more eastern than hrakkars ever venture."
"Where, Dany?" Nerell asked eagerly.
Dramatically, she looked around at all of the children, smiling. It was hard to feel sick with the level of excitement they showed, and she found herself able to push aside some of the nausea. Or it could have been the ginger tea Willa had placed in front of her. Stubbornly, she wasn't in the mood to admit that Willa's remedies were working.
"Yi Ti," Dany said, letting the name waft over the kids while she took a sip of the warm and spicy drink. It stung going down her throat, but was definitely pleasant.
Clearing her throat, Dany continued. "Beyond the Dothraki Sea, past even Qarth - which is the further I ever went east - and over the Bone Mountains lays Yi Ti, home of the Golden Empire of Yi Ti. The land is a great menagerie of lush, green farmland and thick, wet jungles. Instead of needles, trees have broad, green leaves and many grow thicker and taller than in the Haunted Forest. So thick that it would take two or three of you to wrap your arms around its trunk! It never snows, but rains often. And sometimes it seems as though the rainclouds touch the trees Basilisks stalk those jungles, so the YiTish must be very careful."
"What's a bas-liks?" Myl piped up.
"A very large creature with six legs. Its tail is like a thick whip and it has a horrible, ferocious face with many, many pointy teeth," she said, sipping the ginger tea again.
"Have you ever seen one, Dany?"
Nodding, Dany answered. "Once," she said grimly, remembering her experience at the Qartheen docks with some revulsion, "I don't think I would like to see one again. That being said, Yi Ti isn't just trees and basilisks. I have been told that its cities are a sight to behold. Greater, more numerous, and more splendid than any others. It has been said that below every YiTish city, three older ones are buried.
"Now, remember, I said that Yi Ti existed in the Golden Empire of Yi Ti. Just like magnars and kings and queens, the YiTish used to be ruled over by one emperor: a person whom the YiTish believed to be both god and emperor. Today, that emperor is Bu Gai, the seventeenth of the azure emperors. He is much less powerful than the god-emperors of old, but foreigners believe that he is the current rightful emperor of Yi Ti. I have heard that there are two other men who contest Bu Gai's rule. Since we are foreigners and not YiTish, however, we'll recognize him for now. According to the YiTish, he is the only one allowed to wear gold - could you imagine that? Being the only one allowed t- "
Dany paused as a flash of red hair behind the children caught her eye. Sansa had come to listen.
Having shut down any ideas about leaving to help the North with their slaver problem, Dany felt that she had potentially scorched any surviving link between herself and the Lady of Winterfell. She never did hear exactly what Sansa's reaction had been when Tyrion inevitably told her about their conversation, but it can't have been good since Sansa had stopped speaking to virtually everybody except the few children that liked to braid hair with her. It can't be easy, Dany reasoned, to have been left behind by your people until they returned with horses and know that the entire reason you came up here was a failure.
She seemed, however, from what Willa had said, to be in all right spirits whenever she was around the village girls. Many of them now sported very Southern-looking braids. Otherwise, Sansa very quietly drifted around Shadowedge with not much more than a few nods a day. More than angry or sad, she just seemed resigned. Dany had caught her peering out from far away some days when there were gatherings in the village, but this was the first time she had ever actually openly joined a group.
The children quickly made a gap for her to sit, and it wasn't long after Sansa had sat down that she had a few of the girls crawling over to be next to her.
"Being the only one allowed to wear a certain color or item of clothing?" Dany repeated, taking her eyes away from Sansa to scan across her audience, "What if you never could wear brown again? Or if only Willa was allowed to wear shoes?"
"No way! We wouldn't have any feet left!" one of the children shouted, shaking her head.
"Do they have feet, Dany?" another asked very solemnly. The other children's mouths opened in shock at the question. People without feet?
Laughing, she nodded. "Yes, they have feet," she said, "And hands. They're very fine craftsmen. Beautiful silk like the kind the Tyroshi wear - so soft and light. They also trade in wine and spices. Particularly saffron, which, I think, Willa might have some for you all to smell?"
Pursing her lips and coolly narrowing her eyes, Willa regarded Dany. "See if I ever help your nausea again," she hissed before adding at normal volume, "Yes, I'll be right back with it."
Although they were quaking with anticipation, the children patiently watched Willa go into her house, chattering excitedly to one another. Even Sansa, Dany saw, was attentive. I wonder how many stories Sansa missed, Dany thought, remembering how young Jon said Sansa was when she left for King's Landing with her father as the new Hand. The same age as Enda, who still loved to listen to stories and play with the other kids (albeit, much more responsibly). Another childhood snatched away, Dany thought sadly, silently vowing that Rose's never would be.
Willa returned with the tiny purse of saffron to allow each child - and Sansa - a sniff, though she refused to let anyone hold it or pass it around.
"Now close your eyes when you smell it," Dany instructed, "See if you can imagine you're crossing along the stone streets of a YiTish city. Perhaps Yin or Jinqi. Far, far away from here. Warm, humid. With sounds of merchants and the jungle in the distance."
The children nodded, smiling as each one got a sniff of the saffron and began to imagine the strange land so far from their own. As Willa crossed over back to Dany, she jokingly held the small purse under her nose. "Many people would trade anything for a spice like saffron," Dany said, enjoyably inhaling deeply, "And - "
No! No saffron! her body protested, finding the smell utterly revolting. Dany was sure she had turned green as she gripped the side of Willa's table, knuckles turning white, while her stomach flipped inside out.
"And for the rest of the YiTish story, you have to come back another time," Willa quickly amended, placing a hand on Dany's shoulder and nearly pulling her up from the chair, "Now go imagine what it's like to be in Yi Ti so you can tell Dany when she does the next part."
She shooed the children away, who, a bit whiny that the story ended so abruptly, obediently did as they were told while Dany barely made it into the house before collapsing to her knees and vomiting into an empty basin. She was sure her feet were still sticking out of Willa's doorway.
Willa's hand was rubbing her back less than a moment later. "Just let it out, Dany. You'll feel better when it's over," she said nicely, though Dany could hear the "I told you so" in her voice.
She dry-heaved a few times more before flopping her head back and trying to breathe, feeling clammy and weak. At Willa's silent urging, Dany, unable to figure out where her feet were, crawled back into her friend's bed. Feeling better when it was over did not seem to be taking place, and she groaned as Willa placed a fresh basin at the bedside.
"Saffron made you sick?" Willa asked her in amazement.
"Are you sure it's not bad? It smelled horrible," Dany replied feebly, feeling her nausea worsen just at the thought of its smell.
"You love saffron!" Willa said, "If I could get you to - Sansa? Oh, gods, Rose!"
Sansa? They had left her daughter outside! Despite her protesting body, Dany shot up.
Sansa was blushing, holding a content Rose who was less interested in the people and more in the new braided toy Willa had started giving her a few days prior.
"Sorry, um, I saw you were sick and waited with her outside until it sounded like everything was...finished. To keep her off your hands for a bit," Sansa said, looking very wide-eyed.
"It's okay," Dany sighed, laying back down as she felt another wave of nausea, "Thank you."
Still holding Rose, Sansa took a few tentative steps closer. "Are you...all right?" she asked carefully.
Before Dany could answer, Willa's hand shout out and held a spice purse under Sansa's nose. "Here, smell this and tell me I'm not insane. Does this make you sick?" she asked bluntly.
Startled and still wide-eyed, Sansa did as she told. Dany watched as the woman inhaled the saffron, the tiniest ghost of a childlike smile gracing her face as she did so. Gently, she shook her head at Willa, looking back at Dany concernedly.
"There! See, Dany?" Willa said with a satisfied, and slightly smug, expression, "It's just saffron! And you like smelling saffron. As I said, if I could get you to smell - "
Her expression changed, a look of realization dawning on her face as she held her mouth slightly agape. She turned to look at Dany for a moment, scanning over her, and then to Sansa and then back to Dany again. A knowledgeable smile replaced the realization as she stared at Dany on the bed.
"Are you going to finish that sentence today?" Dany asked flatly.
"You're not sick," Willa told her.
"Really? Because I think the vomit in your basin says otherwise."
Shaking her head, Willa continued to smile. "No, Dany. You're not sick. You're pregnant."
Yi Ti isn't on the Quartermaester map (that one ends at the Bone Mountains so it's missing like a quarter of the known world); I had to look up a different one when doing research, just in case anyone's following along with that!