"It isn't your hero persona that upsets me, you realize?" Sansa's words are quiet, and firm.
Nemuri can admit that the words from the child made her jump. She blinks. She is in her own room, and- Sansa carefully puts down the swipe key on her bedside table. She sits primly on her bed, and all Nemuri can do is continue to towel her drying hair. She is glad she is in a robe, and not starkers as is her usual mo at home.
"It isn't?"
Sansa's lips twitched.
"Not entirely," she replies, honestly.
Nemuri can work with honesty. She sinks into an armchair in the corner of the room. Sansa watches her carefully.
"Why then?"
"You told the Pack of the Bread Riots without my leave. I have not done well with people betraying my confidence before. People died. People I cared for. People I hated. But people died nonetheless. In Westeros, information is power. Whispers made the great Wheel spin. "
Nemuri frowns.
"Trust is fragile for me," continued Sansa, voice firm and regal, far too much for the baby she actually was, "The Stark Queen's was full of betrayal. I do not want the same in this life. I cannot have the same in this life."
Nemuri sighed.
"It was a trauma your parents needed to know. Sansa, you're four."
"Almost five," she quipped.
Nemuri crossed her legs, hands dropping her hair towel in her lap.
"That's still too damn young, sweetheart. You… I know I reacted badly. We all did. But I can't say I won't bring stuff like that up again if I think your parents need to hear it. They have to make decisions for you. We don't understand Westeros, that's true. But you don't understand Earth, nor Japan the way we do."
Sansa stared.
"I'm learning."
"And you have to have room to do that healthy and safely, Sansa. You shouldn't have to carry these burdens alone. You don't have to."
Silence reigned. Sansa looked at her hands.
"If I give you another thing in confidence, something that is not… Horrible as that, will you keep it?"
Nemuri saw a test. One she was determined to pass.
"Of course, Sansa-Joo."
A small smile.
"There was a woman that did not have to be kind, knew better to be kind. Her name was Shae if Lys. She sold her body to the man that was forced to be the Stark Queen's husband. But she never was cruel to Sansa Stark of Westeros, and she tried to help her in the ways she could. Sansa thinks she was one of the kindest people she had ever known, in any of her lives. It takes someone of fortunate circumstances little to act kind. It takes a person who knows the cruelties of the world much more to help a frightened girl with no benefit to herself."
Nemuri breathes.
"What was she like?"
Sansa smiled slightly more.
"She was brusque. She was ill-tempered. And a bit of a terrible handmaid. But the Stark Queen loved her, and was impossibly sad when she learned of her death."
"How'd she pass?"
"She was murdered. Unfairly. In a fit of self-righteousness. I do not think the Stark Queen ever forgave her former husband for that act. Because he was buying her, and she would have died if she did not turn on him. Ironic, I know, after I speak of betrayal. But Shae was just a prostitute, a commoner and House Lannister would have killed her regardless. She took a silm chance at living. And Tyrion murdered her for it."
Sansa blinked. Tears dripped.
"Oh. Is that still horrible? Forgive me."
Nemuri swallowed.
"Yes. I am so sorry about your loss, Sansa. But- But I won't tell anyone of Shae. That's between you and me. I promise, sweetheart."
"See too it, Nemuri-Oba."