The journey to the Wall was uneventful, and might have been pleasant if not for Ygritte's constant grumbling. However, she seemed to calm under the watchful eyes of three captors, apparently finally realizing that she would be going to Castle Black despite her own desires to the contrary. Once presented to the commanders, she told them little and rumours surrounding her capture and the arrival of another woman with Jon Snow seemed to fuel the most talk among the commanders and the rest of the men. Only Jon's friend Sam regarded their arrival with a kind of humble acknowledgement and understanding of the circumstances. Aurelia wondered if Jon had told Sam of her, as the way Sam intently observed her spoke of some preconceived ideas about her relationship with Jon. While this perhaps should have worried her, Aurelia felt assured in Sam's loyalty.
After their first night at Castle Black, Aurelia and Ygritte were allowed to dine in the main hall, but not until most of the men had finished eating, and always with multiple guards. Though the guards were mostly for Ygritte who had several with her at all times, while Aurelia was accorded all courtesies befitting her station. On their fourth night, Ygritte's guards had absented themselves to stand outside the hall while the women finished their food.
Ygritte had been terse with Aurelia since leaving the cabin, and rarely spoke to her. However, tonight she seemed itching to say or do something. When Aurelia rose from her seat two tables away from the wildling woman, Ygritte eyed her. She mumbled something Aurelia couldn't hear. Aurelia paused mid-step and turned to Ygritte.
"What was that?"
Ygritte glared at her. "Just don't know what he sees in you. All proper and wound tight."
"You're speaking of Jon," Aurelia replied.
"Who else?"
Aurelia gave her a cold smile. "I'm not wound as tight as it may seem, though I'm not as loose as some."
Ygritte stood, stepping around the bench and trying to conceal the small knife used for cutting her meat.
"He doesn't know how good you play your part, does he? Pretending to be just for him."
Aurelia's smile faded as she took a few steps closer to Ygritte. "Who else would I be for?"
Ygritte flung herself at Aurelia with violent fury, her arms flapping as her knife plunged toward Aurelia's face.
"You can't take him!"
"I think you'll find I always had him," Aurelia quipped as she dodged the woman's attack, spinning around to ready herself for another attempted blow.
The wildling spun as well, swift but with less grace. She faced Aurelia, smiling her crooked grin. Aurelia noted how the woman flexed her heels, trying to find the best way to leap at her competition again.
"He weren't no man when he took me," she snickered. "Don't know how you would have had him before me."
"Language is a peculiar construct," Aurelia remarked without a hint of malice or jealousy in her voice. "There's 'having,' by which one asserts 'knowing' someone... experiencing them in all manner of naked physicality." The woman stared blankly, and Aurelia sighed. "'Fucking,' you mean to say."
At this the woman grinned again. "I mean to say. Well and complete fucking I've had with him. Many a time."
Aurelia smiled, a dark look crossing her eyes. "Aye, and though you have more knowledge of him in that sense, and therefore by your standards I should rightly be the one coming after you with a knife, you're the one angry at me. Why is that do you think?"
Ygritte brought her knife down, still bobbing on her feet and ready for another strike, but Aurelia's tone and words seemed to give her pause. She studied Aurelia, taking in her entire person from the long, chestnut waves plaited in two braids and rolled onto the back of her head, to her eyes of ice, to her petite and fit form laced into well worn leather riding clothes, to her firmly planted stance on the stone floor of the hall.
"I don't like how he looks at you," she finally said, her sad eyes betraying her fighting stance.
"How does he look at me?" Aurelia asked without emotion.
"Like a... I don't know." She threw her hands up in the air and started pacing in front of Aurelia before seeming to remember the two women were meant to be fighting with fist, foot, and blade. Her eyes narrowed as she replied. "He looks at you as though he was drowning and you pulled him from the water. Like you was the sun after an endless night."
Aurelia fought against the smile forming, "Now I think you understand my meaning of 'having.'"
She sauntered away from the woman, weaving around a couple tables before facing her again. When she looked back, the woman seethed, though she had not raised her dagger again. "Which do you think matters more: your 'having' or mine?"
Ygritte screamed, and threw her dagger at Aurelia, who dodged it. Anger did not help the woman's aim.
"That is why you're the one who is angered," Aurelia remarked as she glided out of the hall, leaving the woman heaving with a burden of emotions she was not equipped to carry.
Stepping outside into the crisp air, Aurelia glanced at the guards. "You might consider not giving her food that necessitates sharp utensils anymore."
Their eyes widened for a moment before they turned and rushed inside.