THEON I

Elinor was a fabulous woman. Theon had slept with many women before, but none of them were noble, and none of them seduced him first. The prostitutes pretended because they only thought about money, the peasant women for their part were easily impressed. Elinor was different, as if she had needed her all her life.

Even so, they kept their relationship a secret. Although Lady Stark had left the castle, neither Robb nor Margaery could find out about their relationship. Even in the North, extramarital affairs were frowned upon, which Theon did not fully understand. The southerners had their septons who spoke of sin, but the North had neither holy books nor priests and yet a man could kill him if he slept with his daughter.

"Oh, Theon!" said Elinor. "We have to reduce the frequency of our encounters; it's not healthy for the body to drink so much moon tea."

"If you married me, you wouldn't have to drink moon tea", Theon replied, closing the door to Elinor's room.

"Theon, Theon. You know that's not possible; our families would never accept it.

"Then let's have a good time."

"I want to do that."

Days later, Brandon woke up. The event filled the gloomy castle with joy, which has been under fire since the accident. Theon didn't feel happy, only Robb was his friend, the other Stark kids were quite cold to him. Even so, he feigned joy and participated in the small revelry in honor of Bran, who was quite calm although he would never walk again.

The next few days were quite boring for Theon, as Margaery's pregnancy kept her ladies occupied more than usual. In a way I was jealous of Robb for having such a perfect wife, something he could never afford. When he was younger he thought that Lord Stark would grant him the hand of Sansa, then when he grew up, he realized how stupid it sounded, a lord would never marry his daughter to his prisoner.

"A prisoner, he is all I am", Theon thought bitterly.

"The gnome is here", Elinor laughed.

"Tyrion Lannister?"

"Do you know another gnome?" She scoffed.

Theon gave him a hostile look and went to find Robb.

When he entered the hall, Robb received Tyrion Lannister with a crossed sword on his knees, a symbol of distrust. Through the gossip he learned that the dwarf of Casterly Rock was attacked by the direwolves and understood that maybe it would be convenient to distrust him. Theon didn't believe in the Old Gods, but the direwolves were special, having a strange connection to their owner.

"Lord Stark", said the dwarf, "I beg you to allow me to stay, for I must keep the promise I made to your brother Jon Snow."

"What kind of promise?" Robb asked sullenly.

"Help little Bran", replied Tyrion Lannister. "I will help him so he can reassemble."

"Can you do that?" Bran asked, who was to Robb's left.

Tyrion was going to answer, but Robb motioned for him to shut up. It seemed that he was about to expel Tyrion from the castle when Margaery, who was to Robb's right, whispered a few words in his ear that seemed to soften his face.

Theon had no idea what the Highgarden's Rose said, yet he understood the situation well. In his opinion, women could lack strength, however, they had the facility to manipulate men.

"You can stay, Lord Tyrion. I will even offer you bread and salt. Thank my wife, who wants Brandon to be able to live a life similar to my brother-in-law in Highgarden.

"Thank you very much, Lady Margaery," added Tyrion Lannister, who was directed to a table to receive bread and salt.

After his departure, everyone left the great hall and returned to their activities. Brandon was happy because he was excited by the idea of being able to ride. Theon then came to feel sorry for the child, because he would rather die than lose an important member of his body or worse, have him immobilized without being manco. Even so, it drowned out his thoughts, too frowned upon by the greenlanders.

Notes

This chapter was too short, sorry. I had planned to introduce Osha in this chapter, but I think it would be too long a time jump. If I remember correctly, Osha arrives in Winterfell around the same time that Ned is attacked by Jaime and Catelyn needs time to get to King's Landing and then catch Tyrion.