A/N - This one's only little, and seems a bit of a filler, but I promise it will be relevant later!

Tell me what blessings I have here living
That I should fear to die – Hermione, The Winter's Tale

"Kingslayer. You have to stay awake, do you hear me? Stay awake."

Jaime groaned. I'm not dead, then. Everything hurt, and her chest was bound so tightly she could barely breathe; the beat of her heart was indistinguishable from the throbs of pain which throbbed against her bandages.

"Go away," she muttered. Let me die in peace.

"I'm afraid that's rather impossible." His breath ghosted against her cheek, and she shuddered, the ropes binding her against Bryn's chest tightening infinitesimally. She just wanted to sleep; he had kept her awake for hours pouring boiling wine onto her wounds and shouting for something to bind her chest with. Now, the rhythm of the horse's plodding was oddly soothing, and her forehead was resting lightly on Bryn's shoulder and she was slipping back into welcoming darkness,

"Kingslayer."

"Bugger off."

Bryn twitched his shoulder, forcing her head up.

"If I am going to die, I'd rather not have your face be the last thing I see, thank you." Jaime muttered, letting her head fall forward again, and she felt rather than heard Bryn tut.

"Well the best solution to that would be not to die."

"Why do you care?" You wanted to kill me not one day ago. Let me die; it's what we both want.

"I doubt your brothers are going to be willing to swap the Stark girls for your corpse." He replied brusquely, "So I'm sorry but you are going to have to stay awake, just until we stop for rest. I need to make sure you aren't running a fever. Look at me."

It felt like a colossal effort to raise her eyes to his; he looked tired, the dark circles beneath his eyes visible even under the layer of dirt, but his eyes were bright and alert as they searched hers.

"You seem focused enough, which is a good sign. We just need to keep you that way. You can put your head back down if you want, just keep your eyes open."

Jaime obeyed him; her head felt heavy as she propped against his shoulder once again, and Bryn shifted his position slightly.

"Can you see my chain?" Bryn asked, and Jaime murmured in response.

"The silver link, do you see it?" Jaime murmured again and Bryn nudged her head with his chin.

"Speak to me. Yes or no?"

"Yes." Though I fail to see how this will help me. It will not matter if I have a fever or not when I've been bored to death.

"That is for healing. Repeat that; silver, healing."

"Silver, healing."

"Good. Now the one underneath it; do you know that metal?" Jaime blinked and tried to focus on the links; the silver one glinted as the sunlight filtered through the leaves, but the one below it remained steadfastly dark and dull as she studied it.

"Black Iron."

"Yes, that one is for ravenry. Now tell me about both links." Jaime groaned; it was like being back at Casterly Rock with her wizened old maester repeat the words of the great houses, except then her body hadn't burned and her head wasn't swimming and she wasn't tied to a stupid, brave, bastard of a eunuch who seemed intent on torturing her.

"Silver, healing. Black Iron, ravenry."

"Right. And the one beneath it is iron for Warcraft." He said nothing more, but nudged her head with his chin again, and Jaime huffed out a breath. She felt him shiver.

"Silver, healing. Black iron, ravenry. Iron, Warcraft. Must I do this?"

"Well, I could keep you awake by periodically pressing on your bandages but I imagined this might be preferable. If I was wrong…"

"I hate you."

"I know. Now tell me again." Jaime felt sure that, had she been awake enough, she would have been constructing a vivid fantasy in which maester eunuch was being executed in a variety of increasingly gruesome ways, but as it was she repeated,

"Silver, healing. Black iron, ravenry. Iron, Warcraft."

It went on for hours, or it felt that way to Jaime. When she had finally memorised all the links on Bryn's buggering chain, he made her repeat them backwards, then in alphabetical order, until she wanted to scream. If she had been able to, she would have screamed the forest down, just to make it stop, to welcome the darkness and feel the pain slip away, just for a while.

"No more." She whimpered, turning her face into Bryn's shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut and praying for oblivion.

"Come on, Kingslayer. Who's going to abuse me if you're asleep?"

I'm sure Hoat would be more than willing to oblige you, Jaime thought, but by then she was past speech. The sounds that surrounded her became vague, and the black of her closed eyelids began to swim. She knew that she has slipped away into a dream when Bryn's desperate voice rang through her head;

"Please… Jaime."

A/N - Reviews are as ever very much appreciated :)