She was terrified. Forgive me! I'm sorry! She kept repeating those words in her head and she kept shouting them as she birthed this child. She knew that either her babe wouldn't survive this, or that she would die. And she hoped for the latter.
If only she wasn't so stupid. If only she had not allowed jealousy to blind her so. But every time she laid her eyes upon Jon Snow her eyes would water and her heart would sink all the way to her belly. He looks more trueborn than any of my children. The bitter taste her mouth would have each time she saw him playing with Robb was too much to bear.
But she still bore it until one day, she saw them learning to spar. And her blood went cold when she saw the bastard knock her son to the ground.Did his mother bear a boy more worthy of the Stark house?
Catelyn visited the sept since the gods have answered her past prayers most dutifully. She kneeled in front of the smith and asked him to fashion her a son that looked like his lord father, and she waited.
When that didn't work, she asked the mother. And when that failed too she asked the father, then the crone and finally she asked the warrior and the maiden again.
Twelve moons have passed and none of the gods have answered her prayers, no matter how much she prayed and no matter how much she had wanted it. She watched her husband's son grow another year. The boy was fine and solemn and so much like Ned it hurt just to see him from afar. Action had to be taken.
The next day, Catelyn Stark kneeled in front of the stranger and asked him for a son that looked like his father. A son that would be Stark through and through. A son who was good with a sword. A son that would draw a smile on her beloved's face. She prayed and hoped that he would hear her since no one every prays to the stranger. The day after that she found out that she was with child.
She screamed in apology as she clung to her sheets. One of them would die she was sure of that. For the stranger must have his due and the warrior was to keep Ned safe at the rebellion. But she had to be strong if she wanted to give her son a chance, even if she would die doing it. Take me instead!
Cat saw her daughter. Not a son. Healthy and strong and so much like Ned, she could finally breathe and rest. The gods are good; she has the child she wanted. Jon Snow's mother was no better than her. But the stranger must have his due.
Her child wasn't exactly a lovely girl but she didn't mind. She didn't mind as she much as she should have when Arya would go running around dirtying her clothes, when her daughter would sneak to watch the boys sparring or when she fought with her septa, when Ned told her about the sword she had hidden, a smile playing on his lips. She was just glad that her Arya was alive and well.
Although she did mind, just a little bit, how she made the bastard laugh as well. But she supposed that this is why the stranger didn't have his due. He wouldn't give her all that she wanted. After all he didn't give her a son.
And now she sits there, trapped inside this hateful being. She supposed that she deserved that one. She dealt with death because she was jealous of a little boy. Isn't that just vile? Isn't that pathetic? Stoneheart they called her. How funny, her heart was the only thing still alive. Just like her wolf pup that dragged her out of the river.
The stranger had surely had his due, in hundreds and thousands of lives. Wasted by battles and intrigue.
She sat there and marveled at her girl. For someone claimed by the stranger, her daughter surely had a strange way of eluding him. Her daughter should have been dead from the day she was born. The stranger always has his due.
But just when the flames pulled her out of the stranger's embrace, at that infinite moment when she was looking upon his many faces. She knew what happened to her Arya, what will happen to her Arya. There was more than one way to claim her daughter, and in the eyes of death a girl and a boy were no different.
Oh, oh, oh if she'd never gone and acted so stupid. Oh, if only he would leave her child and take her instead...