Strength of the Realm Found in Bonds: Lysa and Robyn (290 AC)
Lysa woke up to the sound of her darling infant son Robyn laughing.
She had been awoken more than once by the sound of Robyn's cries of hunger or discomfort, so this by itself was a more than welcome change of pace. She smiled as she heard his laughter echo through the bedroom, and remembered still the exact moment when Robyn had laughed for the very first time. He had cried for so very long, she had begun to worry something had gone wrong despite the maester's assurances to the contrary. Thus when he had finally calmed, and she had coaxed a giggle out of the boy, she felt like the happiest woman in the world.
Lysa brushed her hair out of her face and sat up in her bed to get a good look at her son.
"Who's the cutest baby in the world?" Strength whispered as she slowly danced with Robyn as she held him up nose-to-nose. "You are!"
"GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU MONSTER!" Lysa screamed in fury and fear as she ripped the blankets off of herself and practically threw herself across the bed and the room.
Strength missed a step at Lysa's screech and readjusted her hold to keep the newly-distressed Robyn from falling.
"Ah, oh! Lady Arryn! I-"
"GIVE HIM TO ME NOW!" Lysa grabbed Robyn and yanked him screaming from Strength's arms before cuddling him to her bosom.
"Shhhh, shhhh, there, there, it's okay, Momma's got you now," Lysa felt and looked him over, finding no cuts or bruises upon him to her sweet relief.
"I- I'm sorry for disturbing you, milady," Strength bowed. "I just-"
"Just what?" Lysa hissed at her while bouncing Robyn. "Steal my poor little boy while I wasn't watching?"
"NO!" Strength denied. "Lady Arryn I would never!"
"How am I supposed to know?" Lysa's voice was venomous. "I know the people here, where they came from, and what they are. Guards, maids, cooks, knights and ladies, highborn and smallfolk. And not one of them is a monster."
Now Strength's anger was stoked. "That is unfair to me and you know it!"
"Unfair?" Lysa mocked. "Ever since your kind fell from the sky, you've brought nothing but death and despair everywhere you go! And it's only gotten worse ever since you Awoke. At least before you were just mindless Dolls, now you fight and kill like demons from the Seven Hells!"
"And whose fault is that?" Strength bit back, pointing a bare finger at Lysa's face. "We don't just go around killing the moment we Awaken, and why would we? We don't know anything about everything, and we latch onto the first person we see like a chick looking for its mother."
"Don't blame men for your own kind's evils, Strength," Lysa backed up, keeping hold of the whimpering Robyn. "You may share the metal of your weapons but you are not mindless swords that require a man to wield and use it in order to kill."
"But it is always men who are telling us to kill," Strength growled.
"And you always accept their commands when you could just as easily refuse them!" Lysa strode forward.
"I already explained that!" Strength said, her voice growing louder. "We Awaken knowing only three things, our names, our bodies, and the person standing right in front of us who we Bond to. I don't know why we work like that, you don't know why we work like that, but everyone knows that's how we work, and 'everyone' just so happens to include the monstrous, murderous idiots of the world whose only thoughts are to steal, rape and kill, and the only thing standing between those guys' Dolls and you and Robyn is ME!"
"WAAAAHHHHHH!"
Robyn's cries filled the room and silenced the bickering between mother and Doll. Strength, mollified that she had scared the baby, covered her mouth and backed away. Lysa, meanwhile, clutched Robyn even closer, shushing him as she sat on the edge of her bed and adjusted her gown so that she could feed her son. Upon seeing his mother's offering, Robyn quieted himself and began to partake of her milk.
Moments passed in quiet, as Lysa engaged in a most ancient and sacred ritual with her son, while Strength could only ever stand apart as a witness.
"I'm sorry, milady," Strength spoke lowly, "for scaring Robyn. I shouldn't have let myself get carried away, especially around him. I hope you can forgive me for this."
"You're forgiven," Lysa replied.
Strength perked up, a little surprised that it came so easily. "Thank you, milady."
"Although it's not as if I have a choice in the matter," Lysa mused.
Strength didn't understand what she meant by this. "Don't you?"
Lysa gave Strength a tired look of resentment. "What difference would it have made if I refused you forgiveness now? You would have told Jon about this, and he would have persuaded me somehow to give it you, despite how you threatened his son, his heir, with your wild antics."
"Wild antics?" Strength guffawed. "Are you talking about the dancing? Is that what you're so upset about?"
"You put my son in danger just by being in the same castle as him with just one wrong move," Lysa snapped.
Strength groaned with great exasperation. "Oh for gods' sake, that was one time, it was only my second day, and everybody walked away from it! I've had seven years to improve my self-control, so could you finally let that one go?"
"No," Lysa petulantly declared.
Strength massaged her forehead alike to how Jon would whenever he had to deal with a headache. She learned a long time ago that while she couldn't get physical ones like him, the metaphorical ones were just as much of a pain no matter if you were a human or a Doll.
Strength threw up her arms in surrender, walking away to the door and opening. "Fine, have it your way. I was just trying to be a good big sister is all."
Lysa was taken aback. "What-?"
Strength was on the other side of the closed door and going down the hallway before Lysa could call her back.
"Big sister?" Lysa thought to herself indignantly. "Just what does she think she is? Family? What could she possibly know of family? What could she know of love? She's only a Doll, after all."
She looked down at Robyn as he unlatched himself to look up at his mother with wide eyes. She smiled warmly as she brushed the thin hair on his head. "But you, Robyn, are the most beautiful little boy in the whole world. And you don't need a big sister, no, not when you have your dearly beloved mother right here for you. Always."
She leaned down and kissed him on the crown of his head.
He smiled at that.