Oberyn in the Vale at 5th day of the ninth moon 296 AC

Lord Yohn Royce was certainly very Valeish, thought Oberyn to himself, already bored by the older man who would accompany them on the upcoming journey, though at least his daughter Ysilla was actually quite promising, which gave Oberyn hope that his nephew might enjoy the shackles of marriage enough to ignore the droning good-father which came with it.

At least Jasper had two more years being a free young man before he and his bride had to speak their vows, while Elia's oldest daughter would have to leave her home the day after tomorrow, only to become the wife of the young trout.

This betrothal still felt wrong in Oberyn's mind but Elia and her good-Uncle had not asked him five years ago for his opinion, back then when the betrothal was decided upon and neither Elia nor Meria, nor her siblings, asked him now of his opinion about it, even though Oberyn had told Elia already weeks ago, that the young trout was not good enough for such a good and smart girl like Meria.
And besides that, nobody needed such an annoying man as Old Hoster Tully as a good-father, an opinion which even the Old Hand, Lord Jon Arryn, Elia's good-uncle had carefully uttered from time to time.

Alas, his beloved sister and her children did not listen to him and so they all would leave the Eyrie tomorrow and travel to Riverrun.

It was not something which Oberyn looked forward to, not even a single bit. His poor niece, shackled to the young trout and with the old trout shadowing her every moment till she delivered him his first grandson.
And in this situation, the old fish would not even have to write demanding letters all the time like Hoster had done in the first couple of years to his younger daughter Lysa.

Oberyn had never thought much of the middle Stagbrother, but one could say what one wanted about him, Stannis Baratheon had certainly made it quite clear to his goodfather that he had a very strong dislike of outsiders trying to dictate anything in his own household, even if the outsider happened to be his own goodfather.
Rumors had been in the capital back then that little Lysa Baratheon was nearly worshipping her husband since then and these rumors only became stronger afterwards, after Stannis and his household had finally been allowed by his brother, to return to his own lands and the formerly unlucky and always miscarrying Lady Lysa started to bring one healthy child after another into the world and to quickly fill the nursery of Storm's End with a new Child around every year.
But all that had only happened after the Stag had pushed the old trout out of his own and his wife's lives...

"Food for thoughts" , mumbled Oberyn to himself, "food for thoughts."
Maybe he would get rid of the old trout as a wedding gift for his dear niece?
He would observe the behavior of old Hoster Tully very closely during the wedding feast and would then decide on the next and best step.

The next had started with a surprise, for Elia received a letter per Raven from the Knight of the Bloody Gate.

Apparently there had arrived a Delegation from the North at the Bloody Gate just in the last night , not to travel further towards the Eyrie though, no rather to act as a sort of additional escort against the always unruly Mountain Clans.

Three hundred and fifty men-at-arms, clad in the white and grey of the Starks of Winterfell, commanded by Artan Stark the younger brother of Lord Eddard Stark and accompanying him was his nephew, Robb Stark the heir of Winterfell.

It had been known, for House Arryn had a few spys in Wintertown, that Lady Catelyn had left Winterfell with her daughter Sansa and half a dozen maidservants and a Septa in all together three Wheelhouses and that they were accompanied by two lieutenants of the Winterfell Guard with a hundred and seventy men under their command, but this had been no cause to worry for of course Catelyn as the older sister of the young trout would have wanted to watch her only brother getting married and to show her pretty daughter off.

But these new information were unsettling, for not one of the spys had mentioned anything about a second department of men-at-arms and certainly such an amount of men should have been noticed.

The should have went down Southwards like the entourage of Lord Eddards wife, should have went over the Frey bridge and then to Riverrun if they had wanted to bring the boy to his mother's Home Keep.

But instead they had gone East with such a far larger amount of men-at-arms and then had somehow entered the Vale without being detected as soon as crossing the borders.
How did they manage that , especially with so many men?

Oberyn liked this not one bit and he could see it in Elia's face, that she too was not happy about that at all and Bronze Yohn Royce, who had been given the letter by Elia and was reading it now, looked like he was about to spit fire.

So many Guards and Knights and Keeps on the way till they had reached the Bloody Gate and not one had sent news and informations about the Stark delegation, how in all Seven hells was this even possible?

"They must have ridden across the ancient Mountain passes which are only used by the Clans nowadays, " grumbled Yohn Royce loud enough to be heard by both Elia and Oberyn.

"But so many men should have been noticed earlier," argued Elia.

The old Lord agreed with her but then he took a deep breath and gave her the letter back.

"They could have ridden at night though, even though it is dangerous already in the daylight, some Northern Horses have good enough abilities to be ridden on rocky Mountain passes, " admitted the older Lord.

Elia snorted at these words.
"Lord Royce, we all know that there are five Mountain Clans in the regions which these Stark riders had to cross and that not even six-times the numbers of this entourage would have made it unscathed through all the Clan attacks from the North West to the Bloody Gate."

Bronze Yohn agreed with her again but he did so with clenched fists. Oberyn watched the older Lord closely and when he looked towards his sister, he could see that she did the same.

"Tell me your thoughts Lord Royce," demanded Elia gently, "for I can see that something is on your mind."

The Lord of Runestone stepped closer to the Lady Regent of the Vale and then dropped to his left knee in front of her.

"As you know Milady, my youngest son Waymar had recently made his way to the North, to join the Night's Watch, for he felt the noble Call and I was and still am proud of him for taking the Black."

Oh joy, thought Oberyn with an eye roll to himself as the Bronze Yohn talked about the oh so great honor of joining this frozen up Order of thieves, rapists, murderers and delusional lordlings.

"Now it was not so that my son went straight to the Wall is soon as he had arrived in the North, but instead he first had been invited to Winterfell and to meet the Warden of the North. You see, it is a tradition of House Stark, to meet with free volunteers for the Wall before said volunteers make their way to the high North. The Stark of Winterfell treats the all like honored guests for about a week and asks them about their reasons if he deems them too young, though most of the time, like for my son, the Stark family just gives them a nice welcome to the North."
Seven hell's, but liked old Royce to talk.

Elia took a deep breath and Oberyn could see that his sister was biting her tongue to not say something unfriendly.

"Lord Royce, that is by no doubt a very friendly way by House Stark, to welcome the volunteers for the Wall, alas I do fail to see how this connects to the heir of the North and his uncle arriving with over three hundred riders at the Bloody Gate." Elia finished with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice.

"The most likely connection, my Lady, is that my son spoke of your son and my daughter are being betrothed to each other since last year and the Lord and Lady Stark being disappointed about such news, for they had wanted to see their oldest daughter as the Bride of the future Lord of the Vale.
I had received a very generous offer for my Ysila a mere three fortnights ago of I would agree to end the betrothal between her and your son and I think that Lord Arryn in King's Landing might have received an Inquiry about a possible dissolution of the engagement too.

And I might even bet that the large entourage of the Heir of the North is coming with many gifts to get you to agree to the same end for your son."
Yohn Royce sounded resigned after he had finished with his revelations.

Oberyn Martell had not often been surprised by anything since he had become a man but this was certainly something which was leaving him gobsmacked.

His beloved, smart sister though, his dear Elia looked only stunned for barely a few moments before she narrowed her eyes and bowed towards the still kneeling Lord of Runestone.

"And you have not seen these offers which had been made to you as important enough to tell me as soon as you've had received them, seeing as these offers are involving not only your family but also and most importantly mine?" hissed Elia coldly.

The old Lord of Runestone started to look quite uncomfortable...

... ...

.. ... ... Yeah, Bronze Yohn really handles himselfy badly here, but that is mostly because he had been absolutely surprised by the Starks here too.

As you have noticed, not only does he mention his own correspondence but also hints to Elia that Jon Arryn in KL might have received letters from the Starks too.

Yohn hints at that because he might...just might you know...have been corresponding with the absent Lord of the Vale and current Lord Hand too, over the head and without the knowledge of the Lady Regent and mother of the future Lord Arryn.

Mostly Yohn is so loose-lipped right now because he wouldn't have thought it possible that Ned Stark would be so openly bold in this...

But is it really Ned's idea and planning?