Loras stared at the stones of the floor of his small room. He felt something, really felt something dangerous bubbling underneath. His arms were braced on his legs as he sat hunched on the edge of his bed. The knock on his door received no answer from him. If it was one of the men they'd leave. If not, his answer would not matter.
The door opened.
He looked up, his voice hoarse. "Are they dead? Is my sister and father dead?"
"Yes." Sansa's voice didn't waver as she allowed the door to shut behind her. No doubt Brienne and one of the Order of the Shield blokes standing guard outside. She took the single rickety stool as a seat and waited before speaking. "Do you want to know?"
Did he? It wasn't a want, he needed to. "Did they suffer?"
"No, from what the men of the Vale know they likely didn't even know what was happening. Everything from within five to ten buildings of the Sept of Balor was turned to rubble, there was nothing but ash and some large boulders left of the Sept itself. Your grandmother survives, as do your two brothers and mother." Sansa's voice was without pity, a certain…she simply was giving him the information without cruelty or kindness. Which was its own kindness. "Cersei was to stand trial before the Faith for her crimes of incest. It would seem she knew of or had access to large supplies of wildfire. They were lit, everyone in or near the Sept of Balor was killed almost instantly. It took three days for the fires to be completely extinguished in the city itself. Tommen killed himself as the city burned. With the nobility dead, hiding, or in chaos Cersei seized power and has crowned herself Queen."
Sansa's voice was cautious as she continued. "House Tyrell has not declared war on the Lannisters yet, but that alliance is done. The Westerlands, the Reach, and Dorne are the only realms left with fighting men and leadership in the south. With the Vale now pledged to fight the dead it will be a long winter."
"It doesn't feel real." He found himself saying, though his mind was already filled with the image of his sword plunged through Cersei Lannister's heart. He should have done it years ago.
Sansa didn't reach to touch him, she rarely touched anyone. Instead, she folded her hands in her lap. "I am sorry for your loss Loras, truly." She let out a sigh. "When you return to your family I will have some letters for you to carry, but with things, as they are now you are not a prisoner in word or deed."
"Do they ever feel like they're gone?" He interrupted, what did it matter to interrupt a Queen in private anyways?
She considered his words. "Yes, the numbness fades. It never lasted very long for me."
"I think it already is." He could feel a chasming loss waiting for him. Margaery was…she was his mirror. The person he had been closest to in all the world. "I can't go back." Back to his kind but crippled older brother lost in his hunting and horse breeding, his silly but happily married second brother with his jolly laughs, or his bitter and ever plotting grandmother. They would…they would fight against the Lannisters for this. But they wouldn't, couldn't win. He knew it in his bones. They weren't warriors.
Sansa was soft then. "Loras riding straight at the Lannisters will only get you killed. Your sister asked I keep you safe, I have and intend to continue to do so. She was in her own way dear to me, she would not want this for you."
"No." He shook his head. "You could take the Iron Throne from Cersei if you wanted to. Already you have the North, the Vale, and the Riverlands would hardly be difficult. And your navy, well the Ironborn are weak already anyways. If you had the Reach as well…" He could picture it, it'd be possible.
Sansa laid her hand over his fist. "I'm not going to take the Iron Throne. Not because I can't, but because it would get us all killed."
He breathed out. "The Dead."
"The Dead." She agreed.
Loras stared at her face because she'd no sooner leave her family unavenged than he. "You'll make Cersei come to you, in winter, through miles of Riverland country, all the way to the neck."
"I am Queen of the North, and that's a battle the North can win." Sansa replied. She didn't need to say that only Cersei would be mad enough to do it.
He slipped forward, dropping to one knee. "Then I will be by your side on that day, your Grace." He met her shocked expression. "I offer my services Sansa Stark. I will shield your back and keep your counsel and give my life for yours if need be. I swear it by the Old Gods and the New."
"Loras…" She hesitated.
His mouth tightened. "I swear it."
Sansa's posture straightened. "Then I vow that you shall always have a place by my hearth, and meat and mead at my table. And I pledge to ask no service of you that might bring you dishonor. I swear it by the Old Gods and the New."
Loras felt a grim purpose settle over his shoulders. He would serve Sansa Stark, and when the day came, he'd bring her Cersei's head. He was a knight, and he'd chosen his path.
/
Lady Dustin wondered when this had become her life as a man knocked on the door to a god's room and then opened it. Keeping her chin up, she swept into the room, if she was allowed then she was going to do it without second guessing her own actions. So she stepped into the room of a god and found…she probably should have expected what she found. It was rigorously clean, uncluttered, and simple. No tapestries, or anything to show this room was anything but the quarters of a well positioned guest. She raised a brow. "Very bare, your Holiness."
"Thanks." Daisy looked up from where she'd been writing…or from the look of it scratching at something. "Lady Dustin, what's up?"
She found the weirdness didn't even give her pause any longer. "The Small Council are cowards, but I assumed you'd have some interest in the safety of our Queen?" And yup, she had the god's undivided attention at that.
Daisy set her quill down, leaning back in her seat as she looked at her curiously. "Is this about the Queensguard thing?"
"We were thinking of calling it a Royal Guard. Separate it some from the ghastly abomination the southern version has become." Lady Dustin glanced at the bed, oh those were fine linens and furs but unadorned.
Daisy huffed. "Makes sense, branding and all that. So what stupidity are they pushing you want me to stop?"
"Five knights for the entire family." It was gratifying to see the god's nose scrunch in disbelief at that.
She shook her head. "Right, you want me to volunteer the Order members for her guard?" Daisy's head titled slightly. "An offer you want me to make after your men have settled on five candidates ensuring the guard is larger. Sneaky."
"Not necessarily. But your men suddenly swelling the ranks of the royal family's guard since the attack hasn't gone unnoticed, your Holiness. A fact I think you rather didn't want to go unnoticed."
"Fair." Daisy huffed. "Being subtle really doesn't work for you guys." There was an unspoken continuation of that 'and harming Sansa makes me very angry'.
Barbrey Dustin looked pointedly at the chair by the fire. "May I?"
"Of course, sorry." Daisy actually looked faintly embarrassed she hadn't offered sooner. "Do you want tea or wine or something?"
If it'd been anyone else she'd have cackled at that. "If I'm here long enough to justify it I'll think to ask. Now, I'm a woman of some age and experience, and with you as an actual warrior god, I thought we might come up with something useful for a royal guard."
"I'm down, sure." Daisy laughed fondly as she was up onto her feet and over to the chair near her. "And honestly five dedicated guards would work if the rest of internal security was managed accordingly. But not on its own."
Barbrey had come to exactly the right place. "Lord Glover was very fond of the number."
"Would making it ten keep him happy?" Daisy asked curiously, though her mouth was twitched up in amusement.
She laughed outright. "Lord Glover happy? The stars will fall first."
"He is a grouchy bastard isn't he?" Daisy grinned. "But let's be frank outside of formal stuff I doubt we need two Briennes following Sansa or Rickon all over a hundred percent of the time."
Barbery hummed. "The chief issue I see with this scheme is we'll end up with Brienne of Tarth, and Wagstaff, both of the Stormlands, taking two of the limited spots."
"Does it have to have a specific number of men? War is coming, a higher number now, and that can be reduced once the war is over." Daisy shrugged. "It's the most flexible option and lets people not just sacrifice their entire life to a single thing. Which seems smart."
Which…orders of knights were for life. But then, this god had been clear that those who served her were free to leave her service should they choose to do so. Her eyes flicked to the…not terrible but certainly not good handwriting on the desk. "An interesting proposition, do you mind if I write?"
Barbery sipped at her wine as she waited for the ink to dry on the very long list of advisement, including the volunteering of the Order of the Shield to fill holes in the defense of the royal family. "If I may, of all the gestures you've made towards her Grace, do you have something against simple tokens?"
"I got her a knife?" Daisy seemed surprised by the change in topic.
In that moment Barbery looked the god up and down. Beautiful, powerful, well spoken if weirdly so, and certainly a lot of titles. She actually felt rather bad for the woman for a moment, not that her gestures would have failed on anyone less closed off than their Queen. Damned being had easily dropped two to three king's ransoms worth of favors on their Queen. "You're accustomed to being courted, not courting aren't you?"
"Ah, that obvious?" Daisy didn't show any sign of insult. "I mean, not that I haven't gone after a person I was interested in before. But you're not wrong…also guys way easier."
Barbery sipped at her wine. "A bit, and seducing a man is as easy as showing some ankle. Honestly, it's fishing from a barrel. I think my greatest accomplishment as Lady Dustin was staying unwed for the entirety of it."
"Which good for you, because like the way you guys do marriage here is…so weird to me. It's insane, I don't get it at all. And you don't have divorce? Which wow it's different. Like super gross how the wife belongs to her husband." Daisy gave her an approving nod. "Like mad respect, you managed to be in charge till we came and forced you to surrender."
She was inordinately pleased at the praise, but then she received so little of it and this was a fucking god. She was allowed to feel smug. "Yes well, crushing marriage proposals and general manly stupidity gets easier with age. You learn their tricks."
"Still impressive." Daisy flicked her fingers and the tea she'd set aside and it began to steam, it was terrifying. "But what did you want to talk to me about? Cause you could have gotten my support for your royal guard ideas an hour ago." Her brow raised as she sipped from her tea, gaze focused on Barbery.
Her mouth felt dry at the attention, but she held her composure. "The knights of the Vale are sworn followers of the Seven. And you're not one of them, and you're courting our Queen."
"And you think I should do what about this?" The god asked.
"Fuck 'em." She gaged the casual profanity wouldn't insult let alone ruffle the god before her. "We're about to fight the dead, I could give a rat's arse about the sensibilities of the Vale. Fools the lot of them. But if you keep playing at humanity and being polite and respectful they'll get notions. And men and their notions are never a good thing. So, fuck 'em. Shock and awe. Make sure the fools are too scared to get any silly notions between their ears."
Daisy snickered. "Well that's certainly one approach. But doesn't Sansa need them?"
"If those cowardly shites refuse to fight the dead after refusing the call of everyone for years of war now, with a mad Queen on their doorstep they're worse than I'd give them credit for." Barbery drank from her wine. "And that's a very low bar. Any man of them turns back now and they'll be the laughing stock of the Vale. Might as well brand themselves cowards and be done with it. Besides, you might be a foreign god who appreciates the female form, but you're not the mad bint who blew up the Sept of Balor along with the High Septon."
"Huh." Daisy tilted her head. "And how would you advise I act more like what I am?"
Barbery was slower now. "I doubt any mortal, save perhaps your cracked companion, knows what you are capable of. But stop humoring the men. It gives them ideas. Also flowers are considered romantic gestures. And are very visible."
/
Sansa expected to feel…afraid, small, or trapped again when she saw Petyr waiting beneath the weirwood tree for her. She'd known he was there, Brienne's steady presence had accompanied her after all. But for all she'd expected she found…she was angry, but also…this monster of her childhood no longer loomed quite so large. "Lord Baelish, back in the North."
"You've done more than I could have imagined. You have no idea how relieved I am to see you unharmed." Baelish took a half step forward, his eyes flicking to Brienne. "Lady Brienne."
"Did you know about Ramsey?" She wondered that, she knew in her heart the answer already.
He breathed in slowly, his face showing his lack of answer, which was its own answer. "Sansa…"
"If you didn't know you are an idiot, and if you knew you're no 'friend' of mine." She had thought him her friend once, placed her trust in him, even with that gone she'd thought she'd known she was safe with him so long as he wanted her. But she'd been wrong. "Should I tell you about my wedding night? What do you think he did to me? He needed my face, the face of Ned Stark's daughter, but the rest of me? He did what he liked. So what do you think he did to me?"
Petyr's head twitched to the side slightly. "I can't begin to imagine." He silenced himself as Brienne's hand landed on the hilt of her sword. "You survived."
"I did." She could rake him over the coals for his betrayal, but no. She needed him to think she assumed him indebted to her. Give him a place to try and build where she knew his exact purpose. He needed her, so give him the route to her he was looking for.
His eyes flicked from Brienne back to her. "You're Queen of the North."
"I am." Sansa hated the faint tremble in her hands as she spoke. "And yet I bear scars from what he did to me. I will always carry those scars."
Petyr's arm moved faintly. "You made justice for what was done for you, you retook your home. Let me help you keep it."
"The only reason I haven't had you thrown out is because of the wars to come. But I won't forget who you gave me to, what you left me to." She nearly spat the last part. Leave him to grovel, she could throw something at him eventually. It was…steadying to know she could probably stab him and Brienne would help her hide the body.
Petyr took a step forward. "You wrote to me."
"I did, and you came." Sansa looked at the weirwood tree. She was..tired of this. Her anger and hurt felt old. "Mayhaps we'll survive the days to come."
Sansa was sitting by the blue roses in the glasshouse. She hadn't wanted to face her court after speaking to Little Finger. It was warm here, her fur cloak lay discarded by her seat on the raised wooden flower bed. This one place had seen little damage in the years since her childhood. Here and the crypts. And she wasn't so maudlin as to seek out the crypts, not today.
"Hey." The familiar, and soft voice came from the end of the row. The polite respect for her space and privacy, it couldn't have been anyone else, even if the list of people Brienne would have let through without announcing only numbered three.
She smiled, looking up. "Daisy."
"I come bearing gifts." She pulled out the distinctive wrapped bag of candied nuts. She recognized the fabric from the kitchens. "I had a hilarious conversation with Lady Dustin I thought you might be interested in, and I thought you might want a distraction."
Sansa's smile grew, she found she didn't care how dangerous this feeling was at the presence of the other woman. It was a warm balm she needed. Later she could box away the sensation, for now, she allowed herself this. "Well, I won't say no to the nuts." She considered the other part. "What did Lady Dustin want with you? I thought she was still too terrified to speak with you unless you initiated?"
"Oh, she's still terrified of me." Daisy grinned, easily dropping onto the planting box beside her, heedless of the dirt and offering out the bag of candied nuts. "But she really hates the Vale. Thinks they're a bunch of puffed up cowards. Pretty sure if she was a giant she'd take them over her knee with a switch. Lady is super intense."
Sansa laughed softly as she plucked a candied nut from the bag and popped it into her mouth. "She certainly is impressively vindictive when she wants to be."
"Yes well, she's going to be dropping a proposal for your royal guard on your next small council meeting, I helped. And you can have as many of my boys as you want for security. They'll be very excited about it actually."
Sansa hummed, it'd be useful, and a further show of strength. No doubt Lady Dustin would browbeat half the council into her idea before the meeting itself. "I look forward to what you two made."
"Hmmm. So, Lady Dustin seems to think I should go with shock and awe to prevent the Vale from getting any 'ideas'. And I can't say I didn't have the same idea myself." Daisy fidgeted with the end of her sleeve faintly. "But they're your people."
She reached out, laying her hand over her friend's. "Thank you." Sansa saw the words to lightly avoid the gratitude already forming on Daisy's lips. "No, you don't know what it means you brought this to me. That you always bring it to me. Thank you."
"Always, I got your back." Daisy winked. "So, thoughts? Should I make some clouds vanish from the sky? Blue fire? Cause I can do the dramatic thing if you think it'll help."
Sansa considered that, looking away from her friend and back to the various plants. She could see Barbery's point. All things considered, it wasn't the worst idea. "It might be for the best, what have you been thinking?" Because clearly, Daisy had been considering this before Barbery brought it up.
"Well just punching everyone who decides to be rude clearly isn't working." Daisy shrugged. "I make things vibrate, it's not exactly the…most safe power but I can make it flashy. Honestly messing with the air temperature and ensuring people feel it when I'm in a room. Some minor stuff for the wow factor occasionally and that'd probably do it. I figure anything more than that would be bad."
Her lips curled as if what she was discussing was nothing. "I would imagine so, if you could avoid structurally damaging anything that would be preferable."
"I can do that, and like just give me the judgy look you give Rickon when he's thinking about sneaking out of something and I'll dial it back." Daisy grinned. "Yup, that one. Just do that and I'll know it was too much."
Sansa rolled her eyes and took more of the nuts. "I don't have a look."
"Oh, you totally have a look. It says 'I will send you to bed without dinner and you'll be grateful for it'. Very devastating. I think you almost made that Hornwood guy cry with the sheer weight of your mild disappointment." Daisy nudged her gently, before reaching out and plucking a blue rose from the bush. "However, a further point was made that I'm failing at courting you properly apparently."
Sansa huffed at that, looking at Daisy. "Oh really? Pray tell how you've failed to do so. I think just living up to your example will keep me unmarried for years after you leave if I feel so inclined."
"Apparently I should have been getting you flowers? Which going to be honest, flowers would be expected in my world too." Daisy glanced at the flower in her hand. "Trust me?"
Sansa should have been terrified of how easy her answer was, but then this trust had been earned. "Yes." And it may have made her heart ache. It may be turning into something not so simply forgotten. It may be unwise. But that didn't change her answer.
Sansa ignored the looks as she walked to the high seat at the high table in her great hall. Upon her head was a woven crown of blue roses, a skill she hadn't expected Daisy to have but apparently, the woman was just good at flower crowns? Either way, it was definitely noted by the court, by everyone really. Daisy certainly knew how to make a statement.