"Tell me the truth, Princess, are you happy here?" Tyrion asked Sansa after he had tea with Myrcella and PrinceTrystane. She was finally out of the company of Oberyn or Ellaria, who seemed to be her bodyguards even more than Brienne of Tarth. Even Lady was content to just lay at her side, wide awake, fully watching. A few rashers of bacon had been enough to stop Lady from growling at either him or Bronn when they came near her, and he was glad that it had done the trick.

"I am, Lord Tyrion," Sansa replied. "What makes you think that I'm not?"

"I..." Tyrion tried, "You're right, I don't."

"I know what you're thinking," Sansa said. "I was a caged little dove in King's Landing and I was desperately trying everything I could to survive there. Everything the Queen and Joffrey threw at me, they were nothing compared to what I would do to finally get out alive." Judging by Tyrion's expression, she had more or less spoken his suspicions. "Well, you are right. I did take this chance to get out of King's Landing. I did offer myself for consideration to marry Ser Loras, and I did entertain the thought of leaving for the Vale with Lord Baelish."

Tyrion noticed that her courtly face was coming back as she spoke. He was now asking himself whether the Sansa that he knew in King's Landing or the one right before him now, who smiled and laughed with the Martells was the real one. "So, when Prince Oberyn came you took the opportunity."

Sansa nodded. "I did," she said. "Was I afraid? Yes, I really was. Frankly, I wouldn't have been as afraid if I left with Lord Baelish." She had neverspoke such words to anyone before. Not Oberyn orEllaria, and not even to Lady. But there was something in Tyrion Lannister that made her inherently trust him. The fact that she would not have survived to this day without him was one that she never forgot. "You know what the funny thing was? The person that made me lose all my fear was Ellaria."

"Ellaria?" Tyrion asked. For a bornlady like Sansa, such an answer came as a large surprise. Strictly speaking, Ellaria was Sansa's direct rival. She was Oberyn's paramour, who had known him far longer than she ever did. Such a woman should have been a threat to her, even in Dorne.

"I don't know," Sansa shrugged. "After we first met in Lord Tywin'soffices, he introduced me to her and... we just got along very well." Oberyn was an honest man. A philanderer at best, but an honest one. Now, she knew that he would have made it very clear that he would not be giving Ellaria up unless she wanted to, and the latter held no signs of doing so at all. He would have allowed her to have a paramour of her own to counter his arrangement, but she did not need to. "If not for her, I would not be so happy here. Ellaria taught me everything there is to know about Dorne,Oberyn and their daughters."

Tyrion heaved a sigh of relief. "Well, I'm glad that you have found a suitable... way of living here," he said. "So... you three..."

When Margery asked the very same question of her, Sansa's cheeks had turned into a color that was very similar to her own hair. But now, she nodded her head confidently. "Yes," she confirmed. "But a lady does not kiss and tell."

"Oh, I wasn't going to probe," Tyrion reassured her, although he knew that Bronn would have kicked him in the shin for daring to omit such a good opportunity for some juicy gossip. He was a cutthroat, but an extremelynosy one. "You know, Cersei's not very pleased that you've gained so much good from this marriage."

"I know," Sansa replied. "I don't understand, really. She's the Queen and I'm a traitor's daughter, married far off to Dorne. I can't touch her in any way."

"Well, being quite beautiful and a Stark helps, I suppose," Tyrion said. "You are, after all, the key to the North. It took great courage to send thatdirewolf back up North. Father was seething in rage for weeks."

"Cersei tried to have Nymeria hunted down and Lady executed," Sansa said. "It's a good thing that my father didn't listen to her. Oberyn and Doran advised me against sending Nymeria back home, but... I knew that I just have to."

"Oh, please," Tyrion tutted when he detected that hint of apology in Sansa's voice. "It was quite enjoyable, seeing her so angry over so small a thing," he told her. "If anything I should thank you for such a sight." Sansa gave him a light chuckle in reply, it was a sound that he had never heard before. "It's good to see you so happy here. I'm sorry that there might never be a way for you to see Winterfell again, but at least your new family loves you."

Sansa nodded. "And I love them too, with all my heart," she replied. "It's strange, you know. In the North, nothing is closer to us than our family. But I've come to realize family is not merely what you are born with. My family now was given to me, either by the Gods or politics, and they chose to love me. Not only Oberyn and Ellaria, but Doran andTrystane, evenTyene, Obella, Loreza, Sarella, Doreah and Elia. That is why I choose to love them back, and I am happy here."

"That's beautiful," Tyrion praised. "You've taught me more things about family in fifteen minutes than what I've learned my whole life. I've to thank you now, Princess."

"You don't have to, Lord Tyrion," Sansa said with a kind smile. "I've done nothing but tell you my boring little story."

"I think, to celebrate this, we should start being friends," Tyrion said. "You will call me Tyrion and I'll call you Sansa and we'll drink to this once we get our hands on your husband's marvelous vintage."

"I'll drink to that."

"You drink now?"

"Well, only a little."

"You have done well, sister," Doran told Sansa when she reported back to him and Oberyn. "Tyrion Lannister is... might we say disillusioned from how his family has treated him. His father despises him, his sister wants him dead... who else but you, dear sister, to remind him that all is not lost?"

"And I didn't need to lift anything but a wine glass," Sansa replied, shooting a mischievous look towards Oberyn. Her husband had the audacity to even suggest that she should start seducing him, but she brushed him off. "Not everyone is like you, my love."

Oberyn cocked an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I am sure that he was famous for whoring and drinking..."

"But I am neither a whore nor one who drinks," Sansa shot back. "Besides, Tyrion doesn't see me in such a manner."

"How do you know?" Doran asked her. "You are a beautiful woman, Sansa. Any man would not dare to refuse a beautiful woman."

"He already has a lover," Sansa said, as if it was the plainest thing ever. "And he's fiercely loyal to her."

Even Doran widened his eyes at the very mention of the possibility of such a thing. "Oh, and who might that be?"

"Shae," Sansa answered. "She was my handmaiden before we married, Oberyn, don't you remember her?"

Oh, Oberyn remembered Shae. From her accent, he deemed that she came from Lorath. She was a pretty one, fair-skinned with a head of dark hair and large eyes. She was also fiercely protective of Sansa. The two of them had a strange rapport where Sansa and Shae would speak meanly to one another, but they actually cared for each other.

"But Shae betrayed him at his trial," Oberyn reminded Sansa. "She told the whole court that she was his whore."

"Maybe what she said was true," Sansa said. "Maybe she was his whore, but she could have also been forced to speak against him. They are all liars there in King's Landing... So, to make the story short, yes, I think that Tyrion was in love with Shae."

Doran nodded. "That wouldn't be too out of logic," he agreed. "So, this is how you know that Tyrion Lannister was never interested in you?"

"More or less," was Sansa's reply.

"Alright, let's leave it at that," Doran added. "Keep this friendship going. Let it thrive, Sansa. For all we know, there must be strife within the Lannister family although they tend not to reveal it. We will find a way to break them."

"We would only be replicating their methods," Oberyn told Sansa when he noticed that she had not fully steeled herself for the task at hand, or that she had not fully gotten used to the brutality of politics. "They have broken many more families and lives with their malice."

"I know," Sansa said. "It's just... sad. But maybe we are doing Tyrion some sort of justice..."

Oberyn kissed her forehead and said, "You are too kind, Sansa. But maybe you are right. Perhaps your new little friend could help us in taking his family down..."

"... if they're not doing it to themselves already," Doran added. "By any means, be careful. I know that you want to have a hand in everything, but you need not do what you are not willing to.

"I'm perfectly willing to do anything I need to," Sansa returned. "You don't have to worry about me, Doran."

Doran nodded. "Then I wish the best of luck to you, dear sister. Remember, do not hesitate to come to us if you have any troubles. I mean it." Sansa was a willing associate, but he sensed that it would be harder to remind her that she was only human. She and the rest of the world would think that she was already a grown woman, but Doran remembered that she was only sixteen going on seventeen. In a perfect world, she would not have needed to even participate in the scheming and plotting around her. None of them would have needed to, actually.

"You're pathetic," Bronn told Tyrion. The two of them were drinking in a random tavern in Sunspear before their departure to the Water Gardens with the Martells. "She was right before you and you said that you were going to be friends."

"I would have you know that friends are crucial," Tyrion said. "I am more than blessed to have Sansa as a friend. She would bring many benefits to my mission."

"Have you sent your report to your father?" Bronn asked. Tyrion duly nodded and he asked further. "So, what did he say?"

"'Make sure she stays there.' My father is a very succint man, and I think that he wants me here, out of his sight."

"Aren't you the Master of Coin?"

"That wouldn't matter as long as the Crown is in debt by the millions," Tyrion replied. "It would be the same no matter what we do."

Bronn acknowledged the sheer... hopelessness of Tyrion's situation. "So, we're stuck here in Dorne, at the mercy of your father and the Martells."

Tyrion nodded. "Yes, more or less," he said. "But it won't be so bad, acting as politcal hostages. We get to eat, drink and sleep all day, while doing nothing." They toasted one another and took hearty gulps of the Dornish wine that they had ordered.

"You know, with how much of a... libertine Prince Oberyn is, wouldn't you think that the Princess would be given the same freedoms as well?" Bronn stated. "What do you have to lose?"

"I... can't," Tyrion said. "Oberyn might think that she's a grown woman, but I can't. Besides... Shae..."

"You made sure that Shae was sent straight across the Narrow Sea after your bloody family freed you," Bronn explained. "Do you think that she'll really want you back? She was always after your money."

"But I hardly gave her any!" Tyrion exclaimed. "She found work as Sansa's handmaid under the Cersei's payroll, didn't she? She didn't even take the money I gave her."

"That's because your father paid her more, most probably," Bronn continued. "Look, all I'm just saying is that you should take a stab at it. You've always been taking care of her in the capital, and she's not disgusted by you in any way."

Tyrion sighed. "So you want me to... divert her from her husband and paramour because..."

"Because you wanted your cock in her ever since you knew that she'd be a good ride."

It was not the crudeness of Bronn's words that caused Tyrion to balk. It was the sheer honesty of it. Sansa was not only beautiful, but she had the brains to match with that beauty. Her intelligence came not in the form of Shae's cynic wit, but from her survival instincts and adaptability. She knew what to say to survive, and the pain that she had suffered was only a way of buying time. She had the patience that Cersei could never have, and quickly shed her desires to be a princess from the stories that she had read of. What an irony it was that at the very end, Sansa was the princess in the tales that she had read of.

"You're going to get me killed," Tyrion said. "And you're forgetting something else. Sansa still has the North behind her. She might have been cut off from her family, but if they hear anything has happened to her, they will have anyone who harms her thrown to the other side of the Wall for the wildlings and White Walkers."

Bronn slapped himself. "That's holding ya back?" he demanded. "I'm beginning to wonder if you're really Tyrion Lannister."

"Politics and diplomacy aren't your strong suit," Tyrion shot back.

"Well, suit yourself," Bronn said. "I'm not the one missing out on some prime...ladies."

"If you want to come with me, you'll have to very, very quiet." Arya told Nymeria, wrapping her hands around Nymeria's muzzle. "If you make a sound the two of us will be dead, you understand?

Arya could have sworn that Nymeria nodded at her words. "Good girl," she said, petting her direwolf. "Now come on, we have to know what Littlefinger's behind."

Winterfell was not without secrets of its own. Arya knew every one of its passages by heart, and her mother had precisely housed Littlefinger in the room where there were peeping-holes beneath a certain portrait. She noticed that the room was relatively quiet, and all Littlefinger was doing was reading some books and then going to bed. Arya hoped that there would be anything interesting, but there wasn't. For whatever reason, Littlefinger was a light sleeper. Throughout the night, he would alternate between sleeping and reading. It would always be the same book though. Arya realized that she needed to know what that book was about if she was going to have anything to report to Talisa in the morning.

Her eyelids were getting heavy. "Nymeria... you keep watch..." she told her direwolf, before she shot her eyes open when she sensed another person coming down the passageway.

"You've been here all night?" Arya heard Robb whispering towards them.

"Yes..." Arya yawned. "Talisa and the Hound told me to keep an eye on him so..."

Robb shook his head. "Come with me," he said. "If you're too tired, you can ride on Nymeria."

"But..."

"No buts, Arya."

Within the span of minutes, Arya, Robb and Nymeria entered their family's private dining room and Talisa immediately tended to Arya. "Stop spying on Littlefinger," Robb told Talisa. "I know that it's the smart thing to do, but we can't let him know that we don't trust him."

"Why not?" Arya asked, washing her face with the basin of water that the maids had brought them. "I mean..." In truth, Arya did not understand why they could not trust him other than the fact that he had the audacity to propose to Catelyn just after her sister had died.

"He's our uncle by marriage," Robb told Arya. "We can't be seen to be openly hostile towards him. Also, he'll know if you're spying on him. He has an entire network of spies that roughly equals to what the Spider has."

"What are you planning, then?" Talisa asked Robb. "What would you do with your uncle?"

"We can't do anything," Robb replied. "We can't provoke him and nor can we harm him. He is now Mother's intended, and we can't touch him because he might be our step-father in the future." He then turned towards Arya and clasped both her shoulders in his hands. "Arya, I know that it's frustrating. Trust me, I share the exact same sentiments. But you have to follow my lead. Petyr Baelish didn't become a great lord from being a completely small one in the span of twenty years just because he's lucky."

Arya knew that there was completely no choice for her but to obey Robb. "But you do have plans for him, right?"

Robb ruffled Arya's short hair and said, "We'll have to wing it this time."

Arya's jaw dropped while Talisa only shook her head. However, the Queen in the North understood that by forcing a mourning period of two years onto Littlefinger meant that there was a hint of a promise that he would sooner or later marry Catelyn, while they were able to keep him as far away from them as possible. "So, what are you going to ask him to do? Force him back to the Vale?"

"Yes," Robb affirmed. "And we'll have a little bit of a deal with him as well, now that I think of it."

"Seriously, you're going to wing everything?"

"Are we really going to have this conversation, Arya?"

"We're at war, Robb!"

"Listen, it would be lovely if we could have an extensive network that knows everything before it happens, but as it turns out, we can't. We have Wildlings coming down on the Wall and Stannis to deal with. We can't afford to have the Vale breathing down our necks too."

With all of Westeros encroached in war, Robb knew that only the North had the strength to dispel one enemy at any given time. His priority now was to secure the North before he could descend upon his enemies. He would not make the mistake that he did when the war had just started. Only if the North was truly strong would they have any hope in surviving the coming conflict.

HAN: It must be very, very tiring for the Starks and the Martells, plotting and scheming their way around Westeros, what with Littlefinger thrown into the mix.

I like this politically-savvy Robb very much. It makes him less... dead, no?

Enjoy!