i.

Arthur caught the flash of light colour mainly because it was a bright spot in a sea of dull greys and monotonous browns. He immediately looked at Rhaegar who was busy pounding his opponent into the ground. Likely, he knew nothing outside his match at the moment.

Turning slowly towards the newest arrival, Arthur walked to the column and sat down on the first step leading to the dais. "He shan't be pleased with you being here," he warned. The rustle of skirts behind him alerted Arthur that the girl was moving. He felt something poke him in the back. Arthur looked over his shoulder.

She held towards him a small bow, one of those that were more a toy than a weapon. "Rhaegar will probably tan both out hides for this." So of course he happily accepted to help her. "Let us see if we can surprise him, aye, Lady Lyanna?"

ii.

The glare his friend threw him was telling. Arthur grinned back, still very much at ease. "She's a good shot," he defended his actions. "Look."

Lyanna Snow did indeed know how to wield her weapon, small as it was. The arrow leaped forth, sailing through the air until it met its target. She turned to look over her shoulder and upon seeing Rhaegar, her whole face came alive with excitement. The girl pointed to her accomplishment, beaming at the silver-haired bastard as if he might reveal to her the secret to gaining immortality.

Rhaegar looked between her and the target silently for a few moments before stepping towards her and stroking her hair with a gentleness Arthur rarely saw him exhibit. "Well done. Let us see how far you can shoot." He turned his head from her. "Dayne, move the target further away."

"Just the words I was waiting for."

iii.

Since it had been a departure that lost Lyanna her voice, it seemed only just, in a poetic sort of way even, that another departure should compel the child to make use of her lungs after such a time that no one had expected it. The strange miracle was partly due to the intervention of one Shaena Targaryen. She had found Lyanna at practice with bow and rushed to her, exposing news of great importance without preamble.

"Father wants to send Rhaegar away," the Princess had begun, catching Lyanna by the shoulder. Disbelief marred the Northerner girl's features. She shook her head. "I do not lie," Shaena assured her. "He truly is. Come see."

The moment she understood the Princes spoke the truth, Lyanna had rushed headlong through the throng of people, a howl of refusal upon her lips. Her arms had locked tightly around Rhaegar's kneeling form, her cries filling the room.

Even the King was stunned into silence mid-speech at the scene.

iv.

It took the combined efforts of the Queer, two Kingsguards, the King and Rhaegar himself to make Lyanna let her. Heart-warming as her attachment was, orders were orders. The girl had not remained silent through. "Do not go," she begged for the hundredth time at least. "Don't go. Don't go. Don't go!"

Amusement played upon the Queen's features as he knelt down to explain why he had to, again. "I have to, Lyanna."

"No!" she disagreed, shaking her head vehemently. "Stay here." The King, who was standing in the doorway, looked as if he might challenge the child. Thankfully, his wife's glare disabused him of such notions. "Or take me with you."

And there he had to put his foot down. "I cannot. 'Tis no place for a child. But I shall come back."

A protest started emerging past her lips, but, Rhaegar shook his head. "Nay, I mean it, Lyanna. You are staying."

Loud, shrill caterwauling followed the pronouncement. It was nearly enough to make him reconsider.

v.

It was supposed to have been a few moon turns. Rhaegar looked at the King's order, written on the parchment. He suspected, for one brief moment, that His Grace wished to be convinced or at the very least asked to call him back. Rhaegar would not do that. Never.

"That magpie of yours shall be disappointed. I've no doubt she had been patiently waiting for a chance to chatter at least one of yours ears off," had been Arthur's unhelpful comment upon the matter. "Don't look at me so. Did you forget she can talk now?"

And it was a truth universally acknowledged that if one allowed a female to start talking and kept at it, said creature would not stop. "Dayne, don't say such nonsense." Rhaegar willed it to be nonsense anyway. "I've other matters to think on."

"Aye, like what to send the girl next. I still maintain that she would like a dagger."

vi

Lyanna Snow never prayed in the godswood. Shaena had asked her once about that with innocent curiosity. "I thought you kept with the old gods in the North," the Princess had said.

To that Lyanna had given a nod of her head. "I prayed to them," she'd spoken back softly, "I prayed to them to spare mother and Lady and Lord Stark. I begged them to bring Benjen and Ned back. I even asked for Brandon back." And after she would not talk of the matter again.

Shaena, with a woman's intuition, no doubt, had understood not to ask about the customs of the North or her family.

Instead, Lyanna visited the Sept with her. "I am not convinced they are any better," she'd said of the Seven, eyes narrowing searchingly at the statues and altars.

"I do not think they are," Shaena had replied. "They never answer either." Her hand had wrapped around Lyanna's.

vii.

She was one-and-ten when Robert Baratheon came to court with his parents at the request of the Queen. Shaena had nearly swooned at the sight of the boy. He was tall and handsome, well-mannered enough and a bit short of temper.

"He has the depth o a puddle," Lyanna had observed in the privacy of the Princess' bedchamber. "Besides, he's been ogling half the court ladies."

"Oh, hush Lyanna," Shaena had giggled. "A man can look."

So long as looking was all he did. Lyanna shrugged. The Princess did not need her for such decisions.

It was a discredit to her that it took another day to find out he'd brought another brother along.

Stannis Baratheon's somewhat sullen face reminded her of Ned in one of his bad moods. Lyanna liked him instantly. So she made a point to give him the space and peace he needed.

"Do you like him?" Shaena had asked, obvious concern in her voice.

"Not in the manner you ask."

viii.

When Prince Daeron was betrothed to little Arianne Martell it became an imperative necessity that the King and his court make for Dorne. Lyanna had perked up at that instantly. Rhaegar was in Dorne. The Princess had laughed at her reaction for a few moments before falling on the bed. "The way you looked when I told you, Lya."

What did she care about that? She'd been waiting for years, and in no metaphorical sense either, to see him again. That established, Shaena did not became any less merciless. "Rhaegar is someone you might in all fairness settle upon." That particular smart comment from the Princess' mouth was a reminder enough of her position. "I meat no insult," had been what followed.

"Of course," Lyanna had accepted with a small, forced smile. She had forgotten, for one moment who and what she was.

"I really do think–" Shaena had continued undeterred.

ix.

His magpie was hardly of the chattering kind, Rhaegar found the day he woke with an armful of Lyanna Snow slamming into him with alarming strength. For a moment he thought he might lose his footing, but regaining his bearings his not prove that much of an impossibility.

The shock of it, however, was not so easily washed away. He was not holding the small girl that had followed him around with a bright smile on her face. It was that particular discovery which made him reel back and stare at her with silent incredulity.

Colour rose to her cheeks and she looked down at her dress. Rhaegar was sure she did not mean what his mind was trying to convince him she meant.

"I thought you would be pleased to see me," she murmured. "It seems I have been forgotten."

He surprised even himself with the vehemence of his answer. "Never."

x.

He was still scowling after she'd left. Arthur gave him a knowing glance and downed his ale. He just knew too much, that one. "It's better than it was," his friend continued, as if unaware. "At least now they pay their taxes without us having to send soldier to take it. Say, Rhaegar, you do not seem pleased at all."

Ignoring the jab, he took a sip of drink. "That is good. The merchants of the far east next. They might be more difficult to convince."

For a moment Arthur said nothing. Rhaegar looked up expectantly. His friend shook his head with a mumbled, "Never you mind." Then he shook his head. "We've worked on harder cases before. Besides, is there anything the sharp edge of a sword hasn't been able to win before?"

Quite a few things, Rhaegar thought to himself. "This is the last assignment, according to His Grace."

xi.

It rankled, Rhaegar decided, that he was more used to seeing her shoot arrows than he was to seeing her dance. "Be at ease," Elia murmured, laughter still in her voice. "My brother's preference runs to experience. Anyone with eyes can see she'd just a girl."

Rhaegar looked down at Elia solemnly. She raised one eyebrow at him questioningly. "You are too serious by half. Where there is a will, there is a way," she reminded him helpfully before disengaging to catch onto her next partner.

When he turned, Lyanna stood before him. "You dance well," he found himself telling her.

"I like it. But I like shooting better." She looked up into his face expectantly. "I haven't had the time to since arriving," Lyanna added.

It had to be a conspiracy. "On the morrow then, let us go together."

She beamed at him, nodding her head empathically. "I should like that."

He did not know how to react to the strange rhythm his heart adopted at that.