!PLEASE READ!
I wanted to warn you readers: I am NOT gonna follow the L+R=J theory. For personal reasons and reasons linked with the future of this fanfiction. Please, don't hate me for this.
Also, I am going to change the title of the fanfiction because, when I first started to write it, I wanted to write a lot very fast and I chose the most banal title I could find. So the title is gonna change!
Please rate and review, it means a lot to me!
Enjoy this chapter!
Riverrun, 283 AC
The room is quite big, enlightened by candles burning, placed on each corner of it. A little bed is placed against the stone wall; a wooden desk stands against the opposite wall, by the window. It is dark outside, and the moon reflects on the water of the river that runs by the castle. On the bed, three girls are sit one behind each other. The eldest is plaiting a younger one, herself plaiting a much younger girl, sit in front of her. Catelyn winces a bit, and stops plaiting Lisa's hair suddenly, getting pale. Lysa turns to her:
"Are you okay, Cat? You are so pale."
Feeling nauseous, Catelyn rubs her stomach gently: Aylis has turned to her as well, and her sisters look worried. Cat mumbles:
"I'm fine", and goes back to her plaiting.
For a moment, the room is silent and the only sounds we hear is the ones of the soft swishing of the hair and the ribbons wrapped around it to hold the plait back. Aylis turns to her sisters, grinning:
"How does it feel to be married?" she asks excitedly.
Lord Tully has not said anything to his daughters about the arrangement he has concluded with Robert Baratheon. Firstly, because he wants the war to be over to talk about it. Secondly, because he highly doubts Stannis will make it to the end of the war. He does not know the boy very well, but he is besieged for months already, and if, until now, he has held on, nothing says he will not die tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Nothing is certain. Thus, none of his children know about the arranged wedding of Aylis and Stannis.
Lysa shrugs, when Catelyn smiles:
"It is very pleasant… Would be more if the marriage did not occur in the middle of a war", Catelyn explains, placing a lock of hair behind her ear and blushing slightly.
"I can't wait to getting married!" Aylis clasps enthusiastically.
"You have time", Lysa says to refrain her joy. "And you say that because you think you're gonna marry your Stannis."
She says his name with so much disdain Aylis clenches her fists to not jump on her and slap her. Even if she's little, she knows she would beat her easily. But what Lysa says first calms her down immediately:
"Us girls don't marry the man we love. We marry the man we're told to marry."
There is so much sadness in her voice when she says that that Aylis looks down and feels tears in her eyes. She should speak to her father and tell him, for once and for good, that she will never accept to marry another man than Stannis. She will leave to the Silent Sisters if she must, but it will be him or no one. Anyways, she is the youngest. Edmure will inherit Riverrun and Lord Tully will give him a great bride, Cat and Lysa are already allied to the greatest house of the North and the invincible knights of the Vale. The future of the Tully blood look bright, she could not bring much more to it. She looks at Catelyn, who frowns at what Lysa has said, and decides to cheer them up a bit:
"And how is the first time?"
They both wince:
"Bloody painful", Cat says and Lysa, for once, nods approving.
"Oh… Really?... How does it feel like?" she asks.
She has always imagined it to be very romantic and pleasant. Cat frowns again:
"You are too young to think about such things, Aylis. Father will not marry you before you first bled."
"I know! I'm just curious", she protests but barely stops herself from blushing.
Lysa lies down on the bed and shrugs:
"Nothing to be happy about, really. It is painful, it feels like someone is tearing your guts in two. Awful…"
Aylis shivers with horror but then holds back a smile: she is sure Stannis will be sweet and gentle, and would never hurt her. She has already seen Edmure's willie, and there is nothing to worry about. She just nods and Catelyn leaves the bed:
"I don't feel well… I'm gonna see Maester Kym is still awake."
"Alright", Aylis says and they watch their sister leaving silently. Lysa leaves the bed in turn:
"She is pregnant", she softly says, almost sadly again.
"Really?" Aylis grins huge, before losing his smile when Lysa nods slowly.
"How do you know? " Aylis asks suspiciously.
Lysa looks away and quickly invents a lie:
"I remember how Mother was when she was expecting you. She had felt sick at first too, and barely ate. Just like Cat."
Aylis looks like she believes her and she sighs with relief. Lysa looks out by the window, wondering how life is in the Eyrie. She does not love her husband, he is old, pretty ugly and smelly, but at least, with him, she will be far from Riverrun and from her father. Will she stay in touch with her sisters? She does not know, honestly. They would remind her of her father, and she does not know if she could stand it. It is hard enough to look at him, be in the same room than him, pretend being happy with this awful marriage, share his food, and having to hear they owe him everything. In a way, she understands Aylis's haste to get married, even though she knows it has nothing to do with her own motivations. She turns to her little sister and suddenly hugs her tight, which is quite unusual from her. Aylis, after a moment of surprise, wraps her arms around her:
"I will go to bed. Goodnight, little sister", she whispers with the softest voice she has ever used to talk to Aylis.
"Goodnight Lysa. I love you", Aylis whispers with a smile.
Lysa kisses her head, and walks out of the room to join her bedroom. Aylis waits for Cat for a while, but she does not come back, and she walks through the corridors to join her warm bed. She pushes the door of her room and steps in. Moving the white sheets away, lighting a candle; she slips in and shivers slightly when the warmth of the bed touches her cold feet. She stares at the weak flame on her candle and wonders, as every night when she goes to bed, if Stannis is okay, if he is alive, if he does think about her. He probably does not, she knows it, he is a man, he is at war, and has to protect his castle and his people from his enemies. She admires him so much for doing so, she admires men in general. People say women have to cope with a lot of things, but men have to as well. She closes her eyes when tiredness becomes too strong to fight, and whispers "Goodnight, Stannis", before drifting off to a sleep filled with dreams of him.