I want you all to review with questions you have about the story…I'm thinking of answering a few each chapter.

Also, tell me the top 3 OCs whose face claims you'd like for me to reveal.

Part 1

she wore ice on her skin as diamonds while the heat in her veins kept her from freezing

When the girls reached Vitoria's rooms, she had already called their brothers. Bran and Jon were by their table, with Leila on the latter's lap playing with his shirt while Alia and Artos played with Dawn on the floor. Sansa and Arya quickly took their seats on the table and looked to Vitoria and Robb, who were standing by the fireplace, Grey Wind sitting next to them with Magnus by his side.

"First of all, this is not a punishment. I am educating you, all of you. Some of the blame lies on me. I should have had this talk with you before the Royal party arrived. I should have prepared you all better." Vitoria spoke, crouching down to move Dawn away from Artos, ignoring the look of dismay Arya shot her when she saw what was happening. The younger Stark girl had proved to be quite enamored by the wolves and it broke her heart to see the wolf forcefully moved away from her nephew. Yet, try as she might, Vitoria was not fully comfortable with the beasts near her children, considering how young they were.

"Vitoria…" Sansa began, not liking where the talk was heading.

"Let my wife finish, Sansa, this is important" Robb said sternly, immediately making the younger girl lower her eyes submissively, understanding the importance of the situation. Robb never scolded them, he left that to their parents or to his wife. When he did, it was because they had truly crossed a line.

"It is a significant distance from here to King's Landing. This trip is not without reason," Vitoria sighed, brushing a stray strand of hair back. "The King would not have come here with a great host simply to reunite with your father. He wants Lord Stark to go down to the capital and act as his Hand as we told you before. There has been no announcement, but Robb and I are confident he will accept. And the most likely scenario is that your mother will go South with him, along with most of you. Robb and I will have to stay here to hold the North with our children and Rickon, since they are all too young to travel such a distance. So, you must learn how to survive in the court. You must be smiling and graceful, paying compliments to other members of the court, but be wary of the Lannisters and use your reason when speaking to the royal children, rather than your heart or your daydreams."

Bran looked bewildered. "Vi…" he said in a weak voice."The Kingsguard is made up of knights. Knights are honorable and kind. Can't we trust them?"

"Not all of them, Bran," Vitoria's face softened slightly. "The South is different from the North. The Lannisters are very different from the people you are used to. Honor does not have the same meaning south of the Neck. Few lords and knights actually value their vows and their honor. During the Rebellion, Tywin Lannister ordered the Sack which killed countless dornishmen and women, so his daughter could become queen. The idea of knights and gold is very pretty, until you come face to face with it."

There was silence for a few moments, then Sansa stood up, her face flushed. "Prince Rhaegar had kidnapped and raped our aunt Lyanna."

"Countless innocents were murdered to pave the way for a new king needlessly. What crime had those in the Red Keep committed? Apart from serving the royal family, what had they done to deserve death?"

"Prince Aegon would have grown up to be as a bad as his father" Sansa all but spat. There was a glint in her eyes. She seemed to be searching for solutions to exonerate the visitors from the South that she had yearned to see, too blinded by the idea of going South to realize what she was saying.

"He would not have, Sansa. One man does not define an entire family and his actions should not have resulted in the murder of his wife and children," Vitoria's lip wobbled as she reprimanded the younger girl, though her voice was stony. "It became clear when your aunt was abducted that his father's madness had also affected Prince Rhaegar, but there was no way of knowing if it would also affect my cousin. Now we will never know, since his death was ordered by a lion."

Sansa looked as if she would say something more, but she flushed instead and she sat down slowly. Arya glared daggers at her sister. Bran seemed to find an interest on the floor and Robb looked disappointed.

"I sat us here together because I care for us all. We are a pack and together a pack survives. Be guarded and do not be swayed by carefully worded promises. If any Lannister asks anything of you, you must tell us. If you have questions you must ask them now," Robb told his siblings as he moved to wrap his arms around his wife, trying to ease the tension eating up her body. She smiled up at him in return.

"My brother sails North. I don't know when he will arrive, but it most likely will be a few days before or after the royal party sets off back south. Sansa, Bran, Arya, if he gets here before you leave, we will all talk about how the capital truly is. I already asked Luna and she agreed to go with you. Sansa, she'll be acting as your handmaiden. And don't even try to find a way for her to stay here. I'm perfectly fine having Rena and Lexa with me," she warned when Sansa opened her mouth to protest. "We talked to your parents about me going and staying until you were settled in, but your father prohibited it, so Luna will help you understand how the life at court works."

Cersei Lannister watched with curiosity as Vitoria Martell sat down with her ladies, goodsisters and children for a picnic near the training yard.

She herself was sitting at a table in her room, overlooking the gardens, a goblet of Arbor Gold in her hand. Robert was off on another hunting trip, Ned Stark, her brother and their sons accompanying him.

Ned Stark's gooddaughter was an enigma to Cersei. The girl was as beautiful as her naive goodsister, but the gaze in her eyes told her she was not as sweet or aloof as Sansa. Had she been born to another Great House, she would have had no shortage of suitors, perhaps she would've been married to the Tyrell heir, in any case she would have certainly fit in in the licentious court of Highgarden. Her dark locks framed a beautiful face, her amber eyes were mesmerizing and her body was proportioned in such a way that even her small bosom looked enticing.

And as much as Cersei hated to admit it, Robert was correct in Vitoria's resemblance to her aunt. While she did not look so similar to think she was Elia reborn, the resemblance was enough that they'd have to worry about a rebellion if she still lived in Dorne. To make matters worse, it was clear that she was not affected by the illness that had plagued her aunt during her whole life, making her features more pronounced. Cersei felt a pang of jealousy. Why had Rhaegar married that weak, sickly girl?

Queen you shall be, until there comes another, younger, more beautiful to cast you down and take all you hold dear.

She was broken from her thoughts by the sound of a voice starting to sign. The dornish girl was singing in Rhoynish. Judging by the few words she understood and the melody, it was a song filled with melancholy.

Cersei found her eyes watering.

"She's almost as good as Rhaegar," her twin said from behind her. He moved to sit across from her, watching the girl's hands glide across the harp. He was trying to remain stoic and proud, but even the Kingslayer was not immune to the swirling emotions the girl's song conjured.

Cersei watched as Sansa wiped tears from her eyes. The girl her son was to wed was too stupid, too gentle to be her downfall, even though her namesake had been a fierce, black hearted Queen of Winter.

But Vitoria Martell…The girl had a name that meant victory in Rhoynish and she couldn't help but wonder what Doran had thought, naming his daughter so.

"I wonder who her mother is?" Jaime said aloud. "I met Mellario before she left Doran and she looked nothing like her.."

"Robert mentioned it was some whore. I think it was the sister of Arthur Dayne, they say she threw herself into the sea after losing her daughter and after the Sack, no one knew if she was alive or death." Cersei replied. It was a matter she had thought long and hard about. Prince Doran had said nothing about the matter, but many doubted she was actually his wife's daughter. Yet, at the same time, it made no sense for a bastard to be passed off as trueborn, considering that bastards were treated much better in Dorne.

Jaime's face darkened. "Vitoria doesn't have the Dayne look."

Cersei wanted to laugh as she took a sip of her wine. Her brother's queer devotion to the dead knight and his sister was always amusing. He would brook no insult to them, Aerys' dead pitiful wife Rhaella, or the vixen Elia Martell, even though the latter had stolen what belonged to Cersei.

"Her husband is quite lucky though. The princess is pretty enough to invite into my bed." Jaime said slyly.

"Would you really bed her?" Cersei asked, doing her best not to allow any jealousy to creep up on her voice.

"Oh yes. No doubt she would draw some sort of weapon. She would snarl and kick and scream, as I fucked her, but it would be so worth the look on dear old Ned's ever so stoic face."

Cersei laughed. "Would you really fuck her just for the look on his face?"

"Come on, sweet sister, we've both done worse things for less." Her twin said with a conspiratorial smile.

Vitoria smiled as she watched the scene before her in the nursery. Generally, she wasn't an emotional person, rarely showing what she felt but watching her husband with their children did not fail to bring a smile to her face.

She'd been terrified from the moment maester Vaith had confirmed her first pregnancy a few months after her marriage. Every kick brought a shiver along with it and she'd sworn on the birthing bed that if she had a son, she'd drink enough moon tea to tear her womb from inside her body to ensure she could bear no more children. In the end, she's borne two daughters and gave birth too early to a boy a few months afterwards. She remembered crying and trying to make her baby boy breathe to no success and then being told that Alia would die from a fever. That was the first time she had felt any sort of maternal love towards the girls. The first time she had fed one of her children from her breast as well. To this day, she remained convinced it was her milk that allowed Alia to gain the strength needed to survive.

The worst part, she thought, was that she had not even been worried about the lack of connection she had with the girls, thinking it was normal. After all, her father was distant to all his children, except Trystane. Arianne, Quentyn and herself were basically expendable to him, she was sure. And her mother had left them when her youngest was still a babe. Whenever she visited her grandparents in Norvos, she did her best to limit her interactions with the woman. She'd resigned herself to the fact that highborn parents could not truly be happy with their children, disregarding the thought that she could have what her uncle and Ellaria had with his daughters.

But seeing the Starks when she arrived in Winterfell had changed that for her. Ned was not distant to his children, rather he took the boys all under his wing, even Jon Snow. Catelyn was nigh on overbearing when it came to the love she showered on her children. Seeing them made her realize she did not need to be like her parents.

Cautiously, she moved into the nursery, taking Leila from Robb's arms and pressed a kiss to her wild, auburn curls.

There would be another feast that night due to the royal visit.

Sansa sat in he room by her vanity as as her goodsister braided her hair in a Southern Style. Vitoria had not bothered much with her hair since the twins were born, preferring to wear it in simpler styles, but she had not forgotten how to do it. After all, she had been born and raised in a southern court before leaving for the North even if she had adapted quickly to life as a northern woman in order to be accepted by the Stark's vassals.

Vitoria had realized quickly that proving her fertility had not been enough, many were unhappy that the chance for their daughters or sisters to be wardeness had been ripped away. The only chance for them to accept her fully had been for her to shed her roots publicly. She had no wish for her future to be as Lady Catelyn, who had never truly been accepted, even with the birth of three sons. The older redheaded woman was unwilling to convert to the Old Gods and held ambitions for her family south of the Neck, not realizing how it could potentially jeopardize her children. Vitoria had learned from her goodmother's mistakes in the North and her parents' failed marriage in Dorne. So she had put the a façade of a woman who had been born and bred in the land of eternal winter, instead of a desert landscape.

"Do you think Joffrey and I will be happy?" Sansa suddenly asked and Vitoria gave her a weird look as she broke away from her thoughts. "What?" she asked, seeing her face.

"I have a bad feeling about him, that's all," Vitoria confessed, twisting some strands of Sansa's hair, her muscle memory acting up as she remembered herself and her cousins and sister readying themselves for some event at Sunspear or their fathers visiting the Gardens.

"You just don't like the Queen," Sansa muttered.

"True enough, but -" she was cut off by a yelp of pain from Sansa as Vitoria tightened her grip on her hair.

"Stop it!"

"I thought our talk a few days ago would have cleared things up Sansa."

"What do you think about Ser Jaime?" Sansa asked suddenly after a few minutes of uneasy silence. "He is handsome, isn't he?"

Vitoria scoffed, shaking her head. There was no way she would find herself attracted to such a man. "He's older than me by more than ten years and I'm not into Lannisters."

"Then who are you into, Vitoria?" Sansa asked, playfully this time as she smeared rouge across her cheeks gently.

"I think you should marry Willas Tyrell," Vitoria dodged the question.

"Marrying Lord Willas would not make me queen," Sansa complained, before adding bitterly, "and he is a cripple thanks to your uncle."

"The Queen of Thorns rules Highgarden in truth along with her grandson, while her son is only a figurehead. You marry Willas and would become the Lady of Highgarden in all but name. And the Reach is one of the largest of the kingdoms. There are rumors that Lady Olenna wishes for her granddaughter to become queen, which would make them the second family in the realm. You would still be powerful marrying him, Sansa," Vitoria tried to explain softly, but she was inwardly seething at how spoiled Sansa was acting. Clearly she had failed in instilling some sense of reality into the girl. She could only hope Luna would teach her what she would need to survive in the cesspit of King's Landing.

"My family would become the second family if I become queen. You just don't want me marrying Joffrey," Sansa rolled her eyes, annoyed.

"I want what's best for you. We are family and I want you to be happy."

"What about you?" Sansa turned around, "are you happy?"

"Yes," she answered simply, making the younger redhead scoff.

"Everyone tries to hide things from me but I know what's happening. Theon spends half his time at the whorehouse and Robb goes with him. Are you honestly saying you're happy that way? You're just a body to my brother."

"You want to talk about being a body? That's all you'll ever be to Joffrey. He'll bed you until your courses stop coming and once you give him his heir and his spare, perhaps he'll also want a daughter, he'll forget about you. He'll fuck painted whores and lie with noble virgins while you stay behind, forgotten with the children."

"He won't do that! He won't! Joffrey will love me as my father loves my mother!" Sansa shouted, making Vitoria laugh.

"Really?" She questioned. "It took years for your parents to love one another. Years! You'll never get that with Joffrey. Marrying for love is not possible for the highborn. We marry for duty. When we try to follow our hearts, it does not end well. My own parents thought they married for love and that was because they confused lust and love. My mother left before my youngest brother had even been weaned from the wetnurse. I'm trying to help you, but you're too blind to see it," Vitoria explained, waking towards the door, making sure to slam it as she left the room.

A chill came over Vitoria when suddenly Shadow appeared with Bran's dire wolf (still unnamed, sadly). The wolves were insistent, tugging at her skirts despite her ordering them to set loose and yapping sadly. She followed after them reluctantly, and her heart stopped at the sight she saw once she reached the courtyard.

A small body lay in the floor, still and unmoving.

"Bran?" Vitoria whispered as she hurried closer. She let out a sigh of relief once she felt his pulse beneath her hand.

"We need help," she said, looking at the direwolves who immediately set off, she hoped in search for help, but for all she knew they could have gone into the woods.