Raven's Beak
"What in the world are you doing outside?"
"I was reading… in peace."
"In the cold more like it."
Darya scoffed from her sited position. Her back was to the largest root jotting out from below the little mound where Bear Keep's large weirwood tree rested on and she had her ass sitting on a smaller root. By the slight decline of it, Darya probably guessed she wasn't the first person sitting on this particular spot, having several Mormont's across the ages found that spot just as surprisingly comfortable as she did. At her feet several books were opened, their carefully written letters on display to the slow beginnings of Winter which were starting to assail the North.
Still looking to the book on her lap and trying to ignore Dacey, Darya pretended to continue her reading. Of course, to her (fake) disappointment, the brash she-bear continued to insist on disrupting her peace.
"What are you even reading?" Dacey's soft dark brown locks suddenly blocked all of Darya's field of vision as the Stark girl felt the book being taken away from her lap. Dacey closed the book with a heavy thump, ignoring the offended yelp from her silver-eyed friend. "Justice and Injustice in the North: Judgments of Three Stark Lords? Are you really reading this for fun?" Dacey spoked with the incredulous tone in her voice getting progressively stronger and louder as she carried on reading the title of the book.
"Of course, I am." Darya rose from her spot and took the book back with ferocity. "It's like you don't know me."
"Look, it was fun reading Watchers on the Wall with you but that is a completely different beast from that dry thing." Dacey pointed at the large tome now being opened by Darya who was trying to find the page she was previously reading. She looked down to the ground and picked up another book, this time purposefully minding the page it was open on by putting a finger in between the pages. "Passages of the Dead by Maester Kennet? Do you have your eyes set on a Dustin, perhaps?" She snorted in jest, wiggling her eyebrows at Darya.
The Stark's sharp nose wrinkled in disgust as she sat back down.
"Ewww. No!"
Dacey chuckled and continued her inspection of her friend's books.
"Annals of the Black Centaur. Lies of the Ancients… The Edge of the World…" Dacey's eyes roved the rest of the small collection on the ground. "All these are about the Watch."
"Hmhmm." Darya nodded. She moved her legs, putting her feet on top of a nearby root, and tried to continue her reading.
Dacey harrumphed, faking an offended look at being disregarded. She was just about to continue making a nuisance of herself when Darya spoke, stopping her planned tantrum in its tracks.
"Aren't you supposed to have lessons with Ser Marik?"
She was, of course, referring to the old castellan who won his southern knighthood during his stint in the War of the Ninepenny Kings. Like it was tradition in the North whenever there was a war, the old, the feeble and the desperate went South to die a warrior's death with sword in hand rather than make themselves a burden to their families in Winter. Poor old Marik who hadn't been exactly young even then, joined the war under a band led by a stormlander lord, who knighted Marik for saving his life by pushing him away from an enraged war elephant's path. And so, old Marik came back home to the North having failed to properly die only to be made castellan of his home island. Now, he tutored the Mormont children in their arms training and, since her arrival, was also training Darya.
"Uncle called a general gathering in the hall. Marik had to go there. Even Astrid was called, so I don't have any lady lessons, either."
"Why?" Darya questioned, confused. Lord Jeor called all of his retainers very rarely, so something important must have happened to spur such a meeting.
"I don't know. Something about a message from your father about business in the capital." Dacey shrugged. "But he told me he would talk to us later."
Somewhat disquieted after hearing it had something to do with Rickard Stark, the man who banished her to Bear Island because he was too emotionally stunted to know how to deal with his daughters, Darya had a hard time concentrating on her book.
"Hey."
Darya looked at Dacey's honey brown eyes.
"After dinner, I'll show you a secret of mine. If you can keep it."
Darya suddenly snorted in amusement.
"You, Dacey Mormont, have a secret?" Darya chuckled. "I don't think you can keep one even if you are the only one to know it."
Dacey made a face, looking properly outraged.
"I can definitely keep a secret!"
"Yeah? Who told Betha I was the one who ate the lemon cakes she made?"
"That was Alysane!"
"Dacey, Alysane is five years old."
"Doesn't stop her from babbling about everything." The she-bear grumbled.
"Fine. If you have a secret, I'll keep it."
"Good. Now come on, I want to spar with someone and Jorah's with Uncle, so you are the only one available."
"Wow, really feeling the love here." Darya deadpanned.
"Sush, you should feel honoured you have my attention." Dacey proclaimed as she went to gather the books on the ground. "Not everyone would be such a good friend and keep you from freezing in the cold."
Darya ignored the gathering warmth in her belly as she tried to deny that she would ever freeze to death.
The two girls continue to bicker with each other as they made their way to the sparring area of the mostly wooden keep.
After putting the stack of books on a secluded and dry corner of the open area, they went to the armoury to get themselves outfitted. The training armour was old, very old, used-by-Lord-Jeor-when-he-was-young old but it fitted just as well and then they picked the wooden versions of their preferred duelling swords. Dacey grumbled as she wanted to train with her morning star but stopped after Darya told her that if she was going to use a battlefield weapon than so would she and then she'll have to be subjected to a rant by Lord Jeor for making Dacey need the Maester again.
Dacey knew when she was outclassed not just from prior experience but also because Darya was already renowned throughout the North for almost killing Jon Umber, barely a man but already twice her size, in one of the few duels for her hand in marriage with her modified Warhammer and spiked shield. One of the main incidents that, when put all together, led to her "exile" in Bear Island when she was five and ten, in comparison with the majority of her siblings who went to other Houses simply for fostering. Oh, sure, she was here "fostering" too, pfffff as if, she knew better.
Just as they got outside, they noticed a woman just barely out of teenagerhood out in the sparring area blocking them from their entertainment.
"Lady Glover." Darya greeted with a respectful nod instead of her usual courtesy.
"Astrid." Dacey grinned.
"I thought you said she was occupied." Darya whispered to Dacey as Jorah's wife approached them.
"She was!" Dacey whispered back.
"Lady Stark." Astrid properly greeted Darya with a courtesy since she wasn't wearing ring mail and leathers that would hinder her from doing so. "Dacey." She greeted with a small smile. "I see you are about to train. May I stay and watch?"
"Of course, you are free to do so." Darya allowed, relieved they weren't being called out for lessons, but then… "Perhaps it may be best I get you a chair for you to sit first, however."
"Oh, thank you, that would be lovely." Astrid smiled gratefully, resting her hand on the baby bump protruding from her belly. Darya smiled back, melancholy filling her heart at the gentle girl in front of her. Her black hair had gone a lighter shade since her new pregnancy and with her blue eyes, common to House Glover, she made for a very pretty girl if not for the fact that, despite the pregnancy, her figure was even slender than before. It made the poor girl look bloated.
Chair in place a bit far away so no thrown weapon may hit her, and with Astrid comfortable on it, Darya and Dacey finally got to fight.
Although swords weren't the preferred weapon of either of them, the majority of their arms training had been done with them, mostly because for a long time they couldn't handle the weight of the weapons they chose.
To Darya it was also because her idiot twin would take no other weapon than his longsword (in preparation for Ice, he said), Ned was taken in by a bastard sword and Lyanna took to her hand-and-a-half sword like a fish to water, baby Ben had tried for a longsword but the last time she saw him he had just started with a normal sized sword and since all the Stark children trained together, all that Darya knew was sword training for a long time. That is until she found that a raven's beak suited her far better and she decided to modify it a bit, turning her weapon to a one-handed mutant crossed between a raven's beak and a Lucien hammer that looked like a war pick with the bird's beak looking blade on one end, a flat edge of the hammer on one side divided into four spikes and a medium sized spike on top of the weapon. Took a while to find a proper tutor for it, though.
Dacey, on the other hand, trained with her morning star since she could walk and only trained with her sword when she was weight training and when she was obligated, because some training was needed in the most utilized weapon in the Seven Kingdoms, just in case she needed a weapon and the only thing she had in hand was a sword.
It was practically doctrine for castellans outside the North, Dorne and the Iron Islands that, for a highborn, too much specialization in any given weapon beyond a sword could get the user killed just as easily as it could prove deadly to their enemies, so swords it was. And then there was Highgarden where if a knight didn't use a sword, he was called no true knight and ridiculed. A bunch of summer knights...
The difference in experience between the girls was quickly felt in the practice duel.
Dacey and Darya were both tall, even for teenage girls and both had gotten strong muscles, mainly from the amount of weight exercise they had dared each other to do, so when the blows came, they came quick and heavy.
They kept their footwork both as fluid and even as possible, not too rooted to the ground to remain still but not too light that they could be pushed by a strong blow.
Now the striking, parring and dodging was different. Dacey liked to commit to her strikes and to parry the attacker, dodging only when truly needed, while Darya preferred to dodge and feint, while keeping the parrying to only when she saw that such an action was necessary or advantageous.
Such as now.
With an unexpected parry to Dacey's sword, Darya continue to push the other sword back, leaving an opening straight to Dacey's chest and, with a shoulder check, she sent the she-bear back first to the frozen ground.
But that didn't stop the duel.
Because fool me once… Darya thought, as she went to hit the downed girl.
Dacey, immediately noticing that her friend wasn't going to try to pick her up by her forearm so she would make her fall down, rolled out of the way of Darya's strike, and jumped out of the ground and back up to a fighting stance.
The duel continued for a while, now with Dacey playing mostly at defence.
It was only when Dacey overreached a strike did the match end with the wooden sword thrown from her hand by Darya's strike.
Smiling at each other, giving each other pats on the back for the fun duel and exchanging quips between them that it was only when a clapping sound was heard through the training area that they woke back to reality.
There, standing by Astrid, was Lord Jeor Mormont, applauding their fight. At eight and forty, the man stood lean and resolute, with laugh lines marking his face hidden beneath a growing beard. His dark brown hair was receding, giving away to a bald spot on the top of his head. He dressed in warm furs and beyond the good make of clothes the only sign of his lordship was the old valyrian sword Longclaw strapped to his waist.
With a hand on the back of the chair where Astrid sat, was his son Jorah who, at four and twenty, was already matching his father in height and built. But although his father had a certain rough charm, Jorah was not particularly handsome. He was also currently dressed in armour.
"Uncle." Dacey greeted formally but no less warmly.
"Lord Mormont." Darya greeted as well and just as warmly as Dacey. She had never met her own grandfather and for her this stern but warm man was the one she would love to call her own.
"Well done, the both of you." Jeor proclaimed in a steady tone of voice. "Although some extra lessons would not be amiss." He said giving an evaluating eye to both of them. "But now is not the time to speak of this. Darya. May I speak with you in my study? Dacey, your mother was looking for you."
"Of course, Lord Mormont." Darya spoke. A feeling of trepidation started to climb her spine.
The walk inside the Keep was short. The Mormont Keep was small, with only the ground floor made of white stone while the rest of the stout fortress, including the majority of the defending walls, was made of a combination of strong woods like ironwood and weirwood with more mundane woods like oak and pine. The Lord's room was on the right side of the main hall where an hearth had been made in the middle of the large feasting room that strongly resembled the type that the Vikings had for their longhouses.
Lord Mormont opened the door and entered and then closed after Darya entered the room.
The long table in the middle of the spartan study hid a desk behind it. Jeor sat in it and pointed for her to sit on the opposite chair on the other side of the table.
After she did as he bade, the Lord of Bear Island spoke again.
"I have received news from your father, Lord Stark, who has, in turn, received news from the South."
Darya felt herself hold the arm of her chair tightly.
"What news does my father wish me to know?"
Jeor eyed her serenely and spoke again.
"Lord Steffon Baratheon and his wife have passed away in a tragic shipwreck in sight of Strom's End."
"Oh." She said mutely. "My condolences for the family. But…"
"What does it have to do with you? Lord Steffon's mission was to find a wife of proper valyrian heritage in Essos for Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. He not only did not find one but has not returned at all and now news has already come that Tywin Lannister has brought his daughter with him to court."
Darya blinked. Oh… oh.
"Father wants me to marry the Crown Prince." She said with certainty.
"You are seven and ten. There have been many marriages with brides younger than you. In the South, there are only two sons from any of the Great Houses you can marry: Jaime Lannister, son of Tywin Lannister and Elbert Arryn, nephew to Jon Arryn. The rest are too young like Willas Tyrel or already married like Doran Martell." Old Jeor kept speaking gruffly. "The only other match worthy of you is to the heir of the Seven Kingdoms, Prince Rhaegar. Which is, admittedly, your father's aim. Mayhap he may even use the unfulfilled Pact of Ice and Fire in his favour."
"And how does father…"
"He has a sent a message that in a month you are to make your way to Winterfell to reunite with family, before Winter settles, and then he shall discuss his plans with you." Jeor looked at Darya serenely. "Do not worry, child, the prince was knighted two years ago and people say well of him, that he is nothing like his father is."
"Father wants me to go to a pit of vipers and not get bit, that is what he's asking. Not even Baelor the Blessed got out of one unscathed."
Jeor harrumphed, and Darya couldn't help but think that the animal representing their house was well chosen because both Jeor, Maege, Jorah and Dacey all harrumphed like they were proper bears. Then the Old Bear looked kindly at her and spoke again.
"Darya, for the last two years you have grown well, here in my keep, and I can't help but think of you has the daughter I never had. I know you will follow your heart and do what is best for you, your family and your House. But I know that duty is a burdensome thing and we all must do what we are asked of it. For now, that means obeying your head of House… for now. Your father never told me exactly why you came to me but this rivalry with him… but, child, you should see that it does not corrupt what you what have with the rest of your family. I know, or rather I heavily suspect, that what happened with your siblings right after you came to me was no coincidence."
After the final incident that sent her to Bear Island, her father decided it was too suspicious solely for his daughter to go fostering at such an old age and cited her like of training her skill at arms and Bear Island's reputation for training their women for her reason to go. He also decided that Brandon was to make a progress across all Northern Houses to diminish suspicion and to foster good relations with the North prior to his Southern betrothal, which was announced shortly after his return to Winterfell for the Winter. Little Benjen, on the other hand, for keeping her secret had been sent to foster at White Harbour, her father citing his youngest dream of being a knight and wishing to become a Kingsguard as the reasons to foster him in the North among people of the Seven. Lyanna, wild bright-eyed Lyanna who shadowed her big sister in everything she did, was sent to follow Brandon's progress across the North, and then, after his final return to Winterfell, went to foster at the Karstarks immediately after her betrothal to Robert Baratheon was announced. All in a conceited effort from her father so that Lyanna would not follow in everything her sister did. Even the sword training had been something that she and Lyanna had learned solely because their mother had convinced father of letting them be taught and, after her mother's passing, he had forbidden it making them learn it in secret with their brothers as teachers.
The only one not affected by her incident was her younger brother, Ned, who had already been sent to the Arryn's to foster at the age of eight.
The only reason she wasn't sent to the Silent Sisters, like the damned Maester suggested, was because her father knew she would escape soon after and either become a Stark version of Saera Targaryen (just out of spite) or become a female version of the Wandering Wolf (new and improved with teats). The last more likely than the first mostly because, since she was a child, she wanted to join the Company of the Rose.
And now, now, he wanted to punish her again…
No… no, this would not do.
She wouldn't spend another life chained to what other people wanted of her.
Ω
The rest of her afternoon was spent with her mind in the clouds. She was quickly figuring out what she wanted to do and how she would do it.
Her daydreaming was interrupted after dinner, however. After the talk with Jeor Mormont, she had excused herself as soon as she could to her room and eaten her dinner there with her books being already by her bed when she arrived. She was about to go to sleep (or try to) when she heard knocking on the door. She opened the door expecting a servant only for Dacey to enter her room so quickly that Darya barely had time to close the door on the trespasser, closing long after the she-bear had already gotten through.
"Dacey!" She whisper-shouted in surprise.
"Darya!" the girl whisper-shouted in retaliation.
"What are you doing here?"
"I told you had something to tell you after dinner, didn't I? But you weren't there."
"I had dinner here. Dacey…"
"No, you'll come with me. C'mon."
"Where?"
"Do you not trust me?" Dacey harrumphed.
Darya looked at Dacey. The she-bear's dark brown hair framed the long features of her face, various thin braids fell to her chest, decorated with metal clamps that shined from the candle-light, and her eyes were the colour of honey and shined with determination and hidden defiance. Give a few more years and Dacey would be the most beautiful person in Bear Island. Right now, the girl was still growing into her looks and had her back straight, confidently, with her hand reaching for Darya's own. She thought back to the past where the lanky tall girl had received her with nothing but her own brand of gruffy friendliness since Darya arrived. For the past two years she-wolf and the she-bear had been practically inseparable, Dacey filling the hole that was left empty with her leaving Lyanna and with… with… Before she knew it, she had gripped Dacey's hand tightly.
"Aye. I trust you."
"Thanks." Said Dacey with an oddly relieved look.
They quickly got out of her room and sneaked out of the Keep feeling the frosty air of the night hitting her face and penetrating her clothes. Escaping from within the walls was easy thanks to the cover of the trees and the soldier's attention being conveniently caught by something else (a rock, he went to investigate the sound of a thrown rock hitting the ground).
After a while of walking in the darkness, she had to ask…
"We aren't lost, are we?"
"No!"
"Ah."
They finally reached a clearing that opened to the bottom of a cliff and there, hidden in between the shrubberies and fallen tree branches, was the mouth of a cave.
"C'mon. Mom showed me this place a while ago."
"What is it?"
"You'll see."
Entering the cave, Darya found that the place was warmer than outside, and the reason for it was quickly revealed as a hot spring lake the size of a swimming pool was inside the cave.
"Wow, your mom found this?"
Darya moved to inspect the hot spring. She dipped her hand in the hot water, slowly, and then, after acclimating, she started to enjoy the warmth. Her curiosity ended up getting the better of her and she scooped a handful of water and, after waiting a bit to cool down, she drank it only to find it pleasantly neutral. It tasted warm, of course, but didn't seem to have any impurities… and actually, considering this medieval-like world, that was the healthiest and tastiest drop of water she had ever drank here. Excited, she didn't hesitate to turn around, ready to extoll the virtues of the hot spring, only to choke on her own spit and freeze at the sight laid before her.
Dacey had taken her clothes off leaving her naked body opened to the warm air of the cave.
Darya at trouble lifting her silver eyes to Dacey's honeyed ones.
When she finally did, she saw Dacey gulping.
"It's a hot spring, you are supposed to bathe in it."
"Yeah…" Responded Darya blankly.
"So,…" Dacey fidgeted. "Aren't you going to join me?"
"Oh. Oh!" Darya blushed. "Yea-yeah."
Darya quickly divested herself of her own clothes.
Dacey proceeded to imitate Darya and had trouble looking anywhere else than the she-wolf's figure.
"So, let's get in?"
"Yeah."
Soon enough, both girls were inside the pool.
Dacey distracted herself exploring how deep it could go and Darya, having nothing better to do, joined her friend in exploring the hot spring. All shame and embarrass soon disappeared with the time spent exploring and talking about their findings. After a while, with all the pool explored, they simply relaxed in the most comfortable spot they found.
"Dacey?"
"Yeah?" The she-bear's only unsubmerged part responded as she soaked deeply into the hot spring.
"I am going back home." Darya breathed out. "In a month."
There was a moment of silence.
"I know." Dacey whispered. "Uncle told me."
There was the sound of water moving, being displaced, and Dacey was near Darya now.
Their faces were so close to each other that Darya could look nowhere else but her friend's eyes.
"I never did tell you, did I?" Darya whispered.
"Tell me what?"
"Why I was sent here."
"Oh… No. You didn't. You never said and I never asked." Dacey responded quietly.
"Well, I…" Darya swallowed dryly and blinked. Dacey put a hand on her friend's shoulder and what should have a been an awkward moment because of their close proximity and nakedness, for Darya it only felt right and helped her find her mental footing. "You see, it started with something inane. You know father and I never got along much, but our relationship got even worse after mom died. There was no mediator left." Darya stated with a self-deprecating snort. "I was speaking with Anne Cassel about running to hunt in the woods by ourselves because father didn't want me to go, but we were overheard by a new kitchen girl." At this point Darya had to move her look somewhere else. Dacey simply tightened her comforting grip. "Her name was Mina. She got into our conversation thinking we were just a pair of normal girls. I don't blame her; we weren't very well dressed to match our station at the time. I… I didn't dispel her notion. We became friends. We spent most of our busy days in different parts of the castle and Winterfell is huge so, for a while, we were… normal friends. And then well, I had to tell her the truth. And I did but she didn't care and we…" Darya had to clean her eyes from the humidity of the pool. "We kissed. Ben saw us one day, and we made him keep the secret, but we were dumb, and we were caught."
"Oh, I am so sorry, Darya." Dacey whispered.
"Father wanted to simply exile Mina. The fucking Maester convinced him to send her to the Silent Sisters! And father fucking did that! And then they had the gall to tell me I was lucky because any other lord would've killed her and sent me there instead!" Darya screamed her frustrations and her grief.
Dacey threw herself into a hug with the enraged she-wolf. The Stark hugged her tightly and cried.
"Do you know where she was sent?"
"Whi-ite Harbor. To-to the Se-ept of Snows."
"I am sorry."
"I'll see her again and free her. I don't care! It wasn't her fault!"
"You know what?" Dacey said holding the crying girls head in between her calloused hands.
"Wha-What?"
"I'll even help you."
"You will?" Darya whispered.
"Aye." Dacey nodded.
Darya couldn't help but feel reassured by Dacey's offered help.
"Thank you." She whispered.
They simply stared into each other's eyes.
Until…
A soft touch of lips.
Then they simply hugged, enjoying the ambiance of the dark moonlit cave inside the hot spring. They had an entire month. They had time and today was already filled with too much.
Ω
Of course, the Fates weren't content with giving Darya a moment of rest. Not even a week after the events at the hot spring, wildling raiders had hit Bear Island, like they had done since ages past, in an effort to raid from the South as much as they could before Winter fully settled. Darya and Dacey, eager to make a name for themselves, went to accompany the men and woman sent by Lord Jeor Mormont to push the raiders out of the Island.
Of the two only Dacey returned, slightly wounded but alive, crying and screaming of the kidnapping of Darya Stark, who was injured with not one but two arrows and taken by the wildlings in her moment of weakness. The news spread through the North and search parties were organized by the Watch and by her father. She was never found. In his shame, Jeor Mormont stepped down from his post as Lord of Bear Island and joined the Night's Watch.
After a year with no news, Lord Rickard Stark called his children home permanently and organized a funeral for his daughter. In his view, she would have either succumbed to her wounds or some other fate had befallen her, because for sure nothing would've stopped his daughter coming back to her family, so her long absence was a sign that it was time to move on. And so, with no daughter and the other already promised, any of Lord Stark's ambition to marry to the Royal House were buried with her.
In the year 279 AC, Rhaegar Targaryen was betrothed to Elia Martell and married her another year later.
And in the final throws of the year 280 after Aegon's Conquest, Winterfell woke up to the sounds of a horn being blown hailing a visitor with a singular eye coloured green, hanging scars around her throat and a damaged raven's beak warhammer clutched in her hand.
A/N: Hello everyone!
Should I be studying? Yes. But I got real tired of looking at manuscripts all day and had to rest my eyes and I did that by writting this One-Shot. WHICH, BY WODAN, WILL STAY A ONE-SHOT! If I make more of this it will go to a separate Work. IF.
This would follow the TV Series plot but with the Book's timeline (and some extra content to fill plot holes, loopholes, and other such holes), mostly because, altough I saw the entire series, I only read the first book and I can resort to the Wiki if need be.
Darya is a person from our world (full of psychological bagage), who only saw bits and pieces of the series and remembers her friends (who also read the book) discuss it, so it never was a big part of her life, and because of it she knows only the rough outline of the story. She knows that there's a supernatural big bad guy beyond the Wall, that Robert Baratheon will somehow become King, that Cersei Lannister is a cool character but a real bitch, that Jeor will become Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, etc. What she doesn't know is that Dacey dies at the Red Wedding, that Lyanna is kidnapped/"kidnapped" by Rhaegar and other important stuff that will be blind spots to her.
What she does know, from her friends, is that ASOIAF is a very dangerous high-fantasy world masquerading as low-fantasy, so she does what all good classicists do and starts immitating mythological/historical characters and she goes straight to Odin. She knows from the Red Witch parts that she saw and, again, from her friends, that sacrifice is an important part of magic in ASOIAF, so what greater sacrifice is there than *self-sacrifice*. It is so easy to bleed a pig, kill an animal, even kill a human, heck even a slave, but how hard is it to do all that to yourself?
When she frees herself from her captors she is led to the Wizard Under the Tree*tm*. Soon after with the Three-Eyed-Raven filling the role of Mimir she takes one of her eyes to better See and hangs herself from the same Weirwood tree that the Night King was created, with her favorite weapon piercing her chest for 9 days, drinking sips of water from leaves brought by the Children. She does all this ritualistically and magic answers.
That would be the early plot, later plot is her fighting in Robert's Rebellion on her own side (eheheh spoilers) and that would be the part where the story heavily diverges from canon. She would eventually become a sligthly more sane northern version of Euron.
Also her early path will be inspired by Julie d'Aubigny's path and she will at some point, join the Sisters, burn down the Sept and free Mina xd even if not romantically minded she still feels obligated to free her.
Tell me what you think in the comments below! Kudos if you liked it!