Fitz looked at Rickon who was perched on his workbench. "Don't y-you have l-lessons?"
"Sure, but they're boring and everyone keeps calling me 'your Highness'. Or 'Prince'. It's odd." Rickon's nose wrinkled. "And I spent the whole morning listening to them talking about their plans for the dead."
He rolled his eyes, honestly, kids were the worst. Even if this one was a magic wolf kid, and honestly brighter than his last six lab techs. "S-so you want to h-help make paper s-screens?"
"Yes? I mean it's got to be better than Wolkan's lessons on the Faith of the Seven." The absolute disgust the kid felt about the religion from the south was humorous.
Fitz nodded. "F-faith doesn't m-make better people. Lot of c-crap."
Crann who'd been quietly working on putting together the frames for the paper screens looked up with a jerk. "You're god touched though! A god claims you as theirs. How can…" He frowned, seeming unable to even articulate his confusion.
"W-well yes it's a-all very impressive." His head tilted as he tried to think of how to put it. If he mucked it up for Daisy she'd talk to him and after...well he had a lot to think about before they talked again. "My w-world was...there's a l-lot of different s-sorts of gods. I h-haven't met a s-single one that was w-worth praying to." His nose wrinkled at the thought of the Asgardians and shit. "Most are m-more monster than g-god though."
Rickon frowned. "But what about Daisy?"
"She's…" Fitz frowned running a hand through his hair. "H-her people are...dangerous. Some a-are good people, s-some aren't. But prayer? I t-think Gordon was t-the only one w-who could hear it." He licked his lips nervously. "And he was k-killed in a w-war."
Crann set his work down. "I don't understand that. Why can't she hear prayer?"
"I-it's not her power." Fitz shifted awkwardly. "M-most gods are j-just assholes though." He swallowed bile at the crimes he was capable of committing. "S-so are people."
Rickon picked up the small hammer and turned the frame over in his hands. "People can be awful. I feel like my skin's going to burst when there's ...everyone around. Too loud too."
"Know w-what you mean." Fitz twitched, but reached out and patted the kid's head. Social anxiety was a bitch. "J-just make your o-own way."
Crann gave a slight nod, as he went back to gently tapping small nails into his frame, securing the mesh. "It's better here than at the Dreadfort. Never thought I'd get a position like this, but it was a god who brought me here." He made a sound of conflict. "I've done my best, worked hard, but I'd 'ave been living in the shadow of the Dreadfort my whole life if her Holiness and our Queen hadn't acted."
Fitz looked at his assistant. "You've e-earned your job. B-best assistant I've h-had in ages. Which is s-sad cause like education h-here sucks. If w-we were back h-home you'd have like a d-doctorate by now. That's y-you, not Daisy, or Sansa. Y-you."
"That's...that's the nicest thing you've said to me." Crann looked rather gobsmacked.
Fitz winced...right...he was… "Sorry, I...I'm b-bad at noticing people. I n-need to work on t-that."
"You are kinda rude." Rickon agreed while happily working on his frame.
He gave an actual twitch at that, turning to look over at the kid. "Thanks." His voice was dry, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Is talking about nonwork things something we do now?" Crann asked, shifting awkwardly as he was looked at.
Fitz looked down at his hands. He'd so easily attacked the people he loved. The voice of the Doctor whispered, or maybe it was his own thoughts? Told him it was obvious, no one here was at his level. What was the point of connection or care for idiots? But...he wasn't just that. Or he had to believe that. "We p-probably should. It's not l-like making paper is t-that interesting."
"I don't know, it's funny watching people shred horse shit." Rickon snickered. He'd spent hours happily whacking the muck with the sharpened rakes.
He shook his head, lips twitching up. Poop experiments had been funny to him as a kid too. "It i-is, isn't it?"
"Yup!" Rickon grinned only for his head to tilt to the side slightly as he looked at the door. His smile grew as the door opened. "Ser Swann!"
The knight stepped into the room. "Your Highness, what are you doing down here?" The man shut the door behind him as he tromped into the room.
Fitz twirled his newly made metal pen between his fingers. It helped reduce the tremors to use the smaller muscles in his hands. With a slight hum, he looked back to his latest blueprints. Once he had paper without getting guilt looks from Daisy, he was making a proper telescope and looking into making a proper lamp. Baby steps to maybe being able to do something. He easily droned out the sound of Rickon talking to his knight. It was only built in years of paranoia, training, and instinct that let him roll out of the way before a sword embedded itself into his work table.
"What t-the hell?!" He spluttered, eyes wide as he realized the fucking knight had just tried to kill him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Crann grabbing Rickon, and hauling the kid away from the murderous knight. And something...settled. His face fell serious. This fucker just tried to kill him.
Ser Swann jerked at his sword where it was stuck in the table. The whole table scraped towards the man at his effort. He dropped his sword's hilt, reaching for his dagger.
Fitz grabbed his oil lamp and chucked it straight into the man's face. It exploded into flames, Ser Swann screamed, his hands reaching for his face.
Fitz didn't even consider letting the man recover. He strode forward and stabbed his pen, nib first, straight through the man's ear. Yanking his hand back he stepped to one of the nearest buckets of wet, soaking manure and shoved his hand into it, putting out the burning oil that had caught onto his hand.
He looked up, meeting the eyes of Crann and Rickon as the corpse of the knight collapsed onto the floor. "What. The. Hell. Was. That?"
/
Daisy watched as Joran was helping Lyanna with pull-ups. It was...kind of adorable. Not that she'd say that...probably. It might be worth it just to see Lyanna puff up like an angry cat. She crossed her arms. Shaking her head, she leaned against the archery target and looked down at Duncan's writing. "So what's up down there?"
"Recording everyone's progress, Holiness." Duncan dipped his quill into the ink, before making little hatch marks after the names of the various men working on pull-ups. He paused looking up at her. "How many can you do Holiness?"
She frowned, head tilting to the side. "Before the serum around five hundred a day, not at once, but like, do ten, drop. Do another ten, drop. My...knight I guess, left me for a month with some special forces...the training officer owed her a favor and she wanted me to know what the people I'd be fighting were capable of. I kinda wanted to die. But I never died from falling off the edge of a building, so ya know."
"Before the serum?" Duncan looked at her in some awe.
Daisy reached out and flicked his forehead. "When I was mostly human, back before the powers stuff."
"I find it odd to think of you as powerless, Holiness." Duncan's face scrunched up slightly.
She offered her hand down to him. "Eh, it's a thing."
He set his writing table aside and accepted her hand, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet. It took him a second to catch his balance and adjust to being on his feet. "Thank you, Holiness."
"No problem handsome." She passed him his crutches with a wink. "Come on, let's go free the poor suckers from their pull-ups."
Duncan adjusted his grip on his crutches, his cheeks flushed at the attention. "Shouldn't I be recording more?"
"You need a break or you're going to turn into a statue. Full gargoyle or something if you just keep sitting there." She laughed at the look on his face. "And really, recording everyone's numbers every day is a bit excessive. Once a week is more than enough, like seriously."
His shoulders slumped. "But it's how I can be useful."
"You've been doing great with the writing lessons, and I know you're the one organizing everyone's reports." Daisy barely resisted shaking her head, what was in the water? No one should be this eager to work in excess of ten hours a day. It was weird. "And I know you're working with Wilber and Hogg on the whole writing books thing. You're fine."
He puffed slightly, pride and purpose radiating off of him. "Recording your words is important, Holiness."
"Well good thing you boys are so good at your jobs then, cause I'm not sure what I'm doing with the whole god thing. Never had actual followers before." She patted the man on the back as he gaped at her. No doubt if she left him to it he'd start blathering about her godly qualities and she'd want to sink through the ground. So she proactively escaped.
Lengthening her strides she reached where Joran was awkwardly flapping by the tiny, furious, and panting Lyanna Mormont. "You're improving."
"I can only do twelve." Lyanna glared at the bar like it'd personally insulted her.
Daisy snickered. "While adorable, your outrage isn't going to get your numbers up. But twelve at a time is good for your age."
"Adorable!" Lyanna puffed up like a cat. "I'm a Mormont! We are not adorable! I am a warrior of the North!"
"You're eleven." Daisy considered patting the kid, she figured it'd be best not to if she didn't want to get bit. It didn't stop the laughter in her voice or the delighted grin on her face. So worth it to call the kid adorable. "Come on. You need to stretch out your arms. Then Joran can work with you on shield defenses."
Lyanna narrowed her eyes, shaking slightly in the frustrated desire to argue. It was hilarious to see her desire to snap and argue fighting against her belief that she was facing a god. Finally, she gave a sharp nod. "Very well." She turned on her heel and headed for the shield rack.
Daisy made eye contact with Joran. He was clearly biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. She winked. "Good luck."
"Aye, she's going to try and murder me with that shield." Joran managed to get out without laughing.
"Jonson!" A deep voice called from just behind her shoulder.
Daisy turned and looked behind her as Joran jogged off after Lyanna. "Ser Musgood, right?"
"I'm honored you remembered." He gave a respectful tip of his head. "My companion and I had hoped you would be willing to spar with us?"
She glanced at the knight standing just behind the man's shoulder. Damn the dude was rocking some muttonchops. "Sure?" Her head tilted slightly, something was...jittery about the two knights. "You two ok?"
Ser Musgood huffed. "Not looking forward to losing badly, but it's the only way to become stronger."
"Get that, May can still kick my ass." Daisy smiled slightly at the thought of May, she missed her team like a limb. "Come on, I promise to hold back some."
The knight with the epic mutton chops gave a nod. "Thank you kindly for that at least."
Daisy set her hand on the wooden fence around one of the sparring rings, easily using it to half jump, half swing herself over the wooden rail. Landing lightly she caught a bastard sword one of her boys tossed to her. "So, points or till the yield?"
"Ten points should be sufficient I think? If that's agreeable to you." Sur Musgood stepped around the railed style of fence, his friend and fellow knight right behind him. He drew his sword, taking a step to one side, his muttonchop friend mirroring him.
She raised a brow. "Live steel? Raising the stakes there."
"Is that a problem?" Musgood asked, but there was a faint challenge to his tone.
Daisy sighed, fucking male egos. "No, have fun resharpening your edges I guess." She raised her sword, time to punch some idiots in the face again. "Ready when you are."
Muttonchop knight took the initiative, his stance was strong, the handling of his sword skilled as he struck out.
She caught his blow and lightly spun out of the way of the follow up by Musgood. They were good, it was easy to fall into the rhythm of it. One of them would strike, drawing her attention and sword as the other attempted to take advantage of any openings it might open. Her training to use her whole body allowed her to flow around their attacks, but it was exciting! Daisy's blood was pumping, the familiar thrill of a real challenge humming through her as she focused entirely on her two opponents. A breathless laugh in her throat as the steel rang from swords clashing.
Daisy kicked Muttonchops back as she caught a strike from Musgood and something pinged in the back of her head. She barely registered she'd noticed...something, she was already twisting on auto-pilot before she'd even processed something was wrong. It wasn't fast enough.
The impact hit her in the back of her left shoulder. Pain didn't even register as the impact slammed into the front of her left shoulder even as she instinctively lowered herself, already avoiding before registering the threat again. Out of the corner of her eye, she realized Musgood's sword was flashing for her throat. Bending backward, she snapped her sword up, slapping the incoming sword away with a ringing clang.
Daisy realized as Muttonchop came for a strike aimed for her left side they were actually trying to kill her. And that...that was an arrow sticking out of her shoulder she realized as a third impact slammed into the back of her shoulder again. Time seemed to freeze as she realized exactly what was happening. And then she acted.
A simple burst of vibrations sent the two knights in front of her flying straight out of the ring. As they flew she turned, two arrows turning to dust mid-air as she spotted three men up on the wall with bows looking down at her. Absently she realized there were several arrows in the dirt she'd managed to avoid. She raised her right arm, dropping her sword she sent the three fuckers flying straight off the wall. Spinning she glared at where Musgood had crashed through the railing. "What the fuck?"
Musgood's face was curled in hate. He tried to move only to fall back against the ground and splinters of the railing he'd gone through.
"HOLINESS!" Joran came vaulting over part of the still standing railings, panic painted across his face. The rest of the courtyard erupted into action a half-second behind him.
Daisy looked between the crumpled forms of Musgood and Muttonchops. And it clicked in her head.
The Stormland knights always acted weird around her. But…
It was accepted she was a god. It was one thing to challenge her, it was another to murder her. That was...that was a risk. If they succeeded they'd be executed, it gained them nothing ….unless her death wasn't the only point.
She looked straight into Joran's face. "Sansa." And then she turned and took off.
/
Sansa handed over the scroll of meals planned for the next several weeks. "This is acceptable, if you need to change anything, or something comes up, speak with Ser Flint. If the two of you are unable to agree, then, and only then, bring it to my attention."
"Aye, yer Grace." The cook bowed before heading back off for the kitchens.
She held in a sigh. Gods be good she really needed to finish forming the royal court or she was going to go mad running everything herself. It wasn't helping everyone assumed she would be doing the Lord's and Lady's work of running Winterfell in addition to her duties as Queen. "Ser Peasbody." She acknowledged her guard for the evening as she swept towards the Great Hall.
As she was walking she felt a prickle up the back of her neck, from the corner of her eye she could see the faintest hint of how her guard was looking at her. Sansa tipped her chin up and kept her steps even and exactly as fast as she'd been walking before. Once she reached the great hall there'd be other guards and she could do something, the occasional passing servant or man at arms in the hallways would be of little help against a trained knight if he decided to stop eying her neck and a spot on her side she knew, thanks to Daisy, was where her liver was and actually attack her.
Walking gave her a chance to run through her options. The evening meal would already be being set out. Some portion of her court would already be there. Brienne certainly, likely a good half dozen or more Northern knights. A handful of her other Stormlander knights, likely twenty able bodied and armed men besides. Once there she could have Ser Peasbody removed. Whether he'd done anything or not she knew what a man planning violence against her looked like and she wouldn't wait.
Though it was concerning in its own way that he wasn't acting. He had to realize he wasn't even hiding his feelings. The sick shiver of his attention wasn't hard to notice. Unless he was waiting for something? Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed he had dropped his hand onto the hilt of his dagger. Shit.
The great hall was perhaps ten paces away, she could see the knight standing just inside the entrance. Safety was close, but if not she would have to buy her men precious time to get to her. Time she was ill suited to give, lessons from Daisy or no. A trained knight was not a person she could take. But...she did have a dagger.
Sansa's hand drifted smoothly, and without the slightest jerk or twitch, silently she slid her small dagger out of the hidden pocket in the folds of her gown, gently palming it exactly how Daisy had drilled into her. If Peasbody attacked she would have exactly one and only one chance.
Five paces.
Two.
Sansa couldn't have described the relief of walking past the guard at the door and into the great hall. She was just about to calmly call out for Brienne or Loras who were seated down one of the tables when she saw Peasbody move out of the corner of her eye.
Turning she stepped into his dagger's swing, stabbing her own blade into his forearm holding the blade. It'd been apparent she lacked the strength to physically block a trained man's blows well enough. However, the force of his own motion impaled his arm onto Sansa's dagger while her stepping closer had moved her neck pointedly not where it'd been a second ago.
He made a sharp sound as the dagger plunged through his flesh, his hand spasming causing him to drop his own knife.
Sansa stepped back and away from him quickly, one of her knights catching her shoulder as two other knights were instantly there. She should have been safe. She realized she wasn't the moment the hold on her shoulder turned viciously tight, hauling her inexorably closer to the knights rushing not to protect but to kill her.
Peasbody hadn't waited to attack till the great hall out of foolishness but with purpose. And she was now without her dagger, outnumbered, and true help too far to do more than watch in horror while leaping to their feet.
A dim hysterical part of her head likely would have found it darkly humorous if she'd had time to contemplate what was happening beyond sharp realization and sick horror. She'd spent her childhood dreaming of white knights riding to her rescue. Years in Kings Landing and she hadn't quite lost the last figments of the dream of someone rescuing her. But it had never happened. She'd saved herself, turned the ruins of the North into a unified kingdom. And this was how it ended, the knights she'd prayed for arriving, at last, only to kill her instead of save her.
And then the front doors of the hall exploded into a shower of splinters, every man, object, and item near flying backward as a great 'boom' echoed through the hall.
Standing there was Daisy, her voice cracked as she spoke but it was an unquestionable order. "NO!"
The man holding Sansa, as well as the two others surrounding her, were flung away from her with the raising of Daisy's hand. As they flew through the air they shattered into showers of gore finer than any butcher could have caused. They were so much sludge as their remains splattered out and away from Sansa.
Daisy was three quick strides forward before Peasbody, who'd somehow survived, but now covered in the sludge of one of his fellows cried out rushing towards Daisy, drawing his sword to attack the dark god.
The Destroyer of Worlds.
And that's what Daisy truly looked, for the first time since she'd arrived, a god who earned that kind of title.
The ground shivering beneath her, a half snarl on her face, arrows sticking out of her shoulder, blood soaking the fabric of her jacket, everything from her clothing to her hair caught up in the buffeting of her powers circling her.
This wasn't the tightly controlled violence Daisy had shown before. She didn't bother with mercy. Peasbody's sword strike didn't come anywhere near her before his arm exploded into frozen chunks. With her right hand, she snatched the hilt of his sword out of the air and thrust, catching him directly in the throat. He hadn't even hit the ground, wet gurgles coming from his ruined throat before she was flickering past him. It was a few steps at a speed no human could match, and she was at Sansa's side.
"Sansa! Are you ok? Did they get you at all!?" Daisy's eyes flicked across Sansa as her right arm hovered as if she wanted to start patting at her to ensure herself she was unharmed.
And Sansa...Sansa felt her shoulders soften, the stress melting off of her. She was safe. She swayed ever so slightly closer to her friend, the one person who'd ever truly rescued or protected her since she was a child. "I'm unharmed." She hissed as her eyes caught the arrows sticking out Daisy's shoulder, all suspiciously close to her heart. "You're shot!"
"Huh?" Daisy glanced at her shoulder as if just now noticing the arrows. "Oh right, no I'm fine. But you're sure they didn't get you?"
Sansa ignored the explosion of noise, the screams, the rushing of people. They wouldn't approach too closely with a furious god besides her. She looked up catching the eye of a panicked looking Loras just behind Brienne's shoulder. Her loyal lady knight had skidded to a halt just outside the range of splattered gore. "Loras, find Jon." She stared at Brienne. "Get to Rickon. Now."
Brienne opened her mouth, hands tensing as she clearly desperately wished to hover over Sansa's shoulder. But then her eyes flicked to Daisy. She swallowed. "Of course." And then she turned and ran out, Loras on her heels as they went to find and secure her brothers.
Sansa ignored the rest of her panicking court. Rather she focused back on Daisy who was clearly still riled to hell and back. The very air of the room felt like it was full of thousands of bees making the air nearly hum. The ground was shaking just enough to be noticed. Sansa caught Daisy's uninjured arm. "You need to see Maester Wolkan."
"No. The chaos immediately after an assassination attempt is dangerous." Daisy's face was set, a particularly noticeable vibration passed through the room.
Sansa swallowed...it was actually the first solid 'no' the other woman had given her in the near ten months they'd known each other. And she wasn't wrong. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the challenge in the god's face. "Fine, but you're sitting down." Sansa hadn't let go of Daisy's arm and used it to firmly escort the god to one of the long tables and gently pushed the woman down onto the bench. "Stay, please."
With a faint hiss at the movement Daisy settled, but her eyes were sharp as she turned her attention to the room.
Sansa shoved away the near glow of affection and relief she felt at Daisy remaining by her side. Instead, she turned her attention back to the court. "Flint, I want every former man of Stannis's in the dungeon now. No harsh treatment. Get Maester Wolkan here now, double the guard, and I want an accounting of every man, woman and child in Winterfell." Sansa barely noticed her hand was laying on Daisy's uninjured shoulder, she just knew it steadied her as she dealt with minimizing the chaos.