Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun
Chapter Fifteen.
Elia smiled brightly down at Lauryn who was babbling happily up at her, the girl was growing like a weed and she seemed most suited for the cold of the north, she was happy and more active here then she had ever been in Dorne, and she had been very happy and active in Dorne. Given who Ashara had reviled who her father was it did not come as a massive surprise.
Through the child's newfound energy had continually tired her mother out as was to be expected, speaking of Ashara she was sitting in the chair next to her bed and was watching her daughter and her friend with a deep fondness but it was clear that she was exhausted from trying to keep up with her daughter.
Ashara and Lauryn had been keeping her company while she recovered from her collapse for the past three weeks and she was glad of it, there was nothing worse than recovering and being left on her own to deal with it. Having Ashara and Lauryn was a great help and stopped from climbing the walls out of sheer boredom.
They had not been the only ones to keep her company of course, her husband had been spending a great deal of time with her, some days they simply laid there spending time talking to one another and others times they did more than talk, quite a great deal more than talk.
Ned had been worried as he did not want to hurt her or hold back her recovery but she had managed to convince him when she told him that she was feeling a great deal better and any complaints had died in his throat when mounted atop him and rode him like a stallion to completion.
As time had passed the love they shared had grown, while they had not said it again since that day she had woken it was clear that she was not the only one who still felt that way, the way he smiled at her when he walked into her chambers, his sullen face brightening up. the way he held after they were done and kissed her forehead. The love they shared grew ever day and that realisation made her more happy then she ever thought possible.
Brandon and Lyanna had not made any appearances but that did not surprise Elia much as, as far as Elia was aware, Lyanna had still been confined to her room and Brandon did not seem the type to come and check on his brother's wife and Elia was glad that he didn't bother to visit her, they didn't have much in common and she wasn't sure if she would be able to stop herself from blurting out something that would make Brandon suspect about Lauryn and Ashara.
Catelyn had also come to visit her as well, most of the time they had simply spoken about how things with Brandon were going, the poor girl clearly need and most of their talks ended with younger woman crying and Elia trying to comfort her but she did not mind at all.
Lord Rickard had visited her a few times to make sure that she was well and to tell her that he had sent a letter to Doran to inform him of what had happened, when he told her that Elia had felt a surge of dread, not that she was worried about Doran's reaction as he was a reasonable man who knew that something like this would probably happen at some point and would trust her new family to look after her.
No, what worried her was Oberyn's reaction.
Oberyn was a viper and he acted before he thought his actions through properly, when he found out that she had collapsed he was likely to ride day and night with an army of men at his back to make sure she was well and that the Starks were looking after her properly.
And while she appreciated that Oberyn's actions would've been done out of love she truly didn't want to be the cause of a diplomatic incident when a large force of Dornish troops tried to pass through the neck, and if he found that Lyanna was partly the cause of it then he would more than likely try to kill her.
Thankfully Doran had sent a letter back and it arrived a few days back, Oberyn hadn't even been in Dorne when the letter arrived as he and his three daughters had gone to King's Landing and Doran had seen it wise not inform him of her collapse. Elia couldn't help but grin when she had seen that written.
Though she did have to admit that she was more than a little confused as to why Oberyn was in King's Landing, Doran didn't say and Elia got the sense that her brother would not tell her if even if she asked so she had simply sent a simple reply back.
She could write to Uncle Lewyn and ask him as to why Oberyn was there, Uncle Lewyn always had a soft spot for her and he would likely tell her and even if he didn't then she could ask Ashara to write to Arthur to see if he knew as she knew that her friend's brother couldn't deny her anything.
More than anything else she didn't want her brother causing trouble and she didn't want him doing it in her name, she may have wanted to marry Rhaegar once, she may have loved him once, she may have wanted to be queen once nut she had made her peace with the fact that ship had sailed and she didn't want her little brother to open old wounds and cause more problems.
Elia shook her head, she didn't want to think about this anymore. Doran wouldn't risk this alliance or her for anything and she trusted that he had everything in hand.
Aside from Lord Rickard, her husband, Catelyn, Ashara and Lauryn however the only other person who came to visit her was young Benjen Stark.
Benjen had always struck Elia as a sweet boy but they hadn't really spent much of anytime together but ever since she had been confined to her room to recover Benjen had come to see her every single day and since then a solid bond between the two had been formed.
Most of the time they simply spoke with one another about anything that came to mind, the boy had several different interests to her but they had bonded over two things. Sword play and horse riding.
The boy had been extremely impressed that she had managed to beat his sister as he had never been able to do that and she had surprised him with how well she had ridden.
She was more than a little surprised that she had been able to beat Lyanna if she was going to be honest, she had only agreed to train with the use of a sword to please her mother. She would much rather having tea with other ladies and study to become a great lady or play Cyvasse with Doran than train in the sparing yard.
But Ashara was her friend and Catelyn was a sweet girl that she liked and she wasn't going to let Lyanna speak ill of either of them without doing something about it and while originally she had actually planned to challenge her to a game of Cyvasse she realised that not only did Lyanna not seem like the type of girl who knew how to play Cyvasse and that even if she did beating her at a game wouldn't leave the deserted impact.
She hadn't actually touched a sword since she was at least twelve and she didn't honestly think she was going to win, she had spared with Oberyn and Doran in the past but only a couple of times between them but what she had said to Lyanna had been true, neither of her brothers had ever let her win.
She could still remember the look of surprise on Oberyn's face after she managed to disarm even after all this time.
And while Lyanna might've been a decent swordsman she was nowhere near as skilled as Oberyn, compared to him beating her was easy.
When it came to riding however the two of them had a great deal to talk about, Benjen's favourite mount was a large black stallion that he was positively dwarfed by but he rode it easily and they talked about places they could go riding too, there was a lake that was almost always completely frozen and it looked beautiful when the sun shinned on it.
As they talked however Elia couldn't help but notice that the boy seemed to have an unspoken sadness about him and Elia realised why. Lyanna often called herself a better swordsman and rider than Benjen and it was clear that her little brother was starting to believe it.
That's why he was so interested in talking with her because she was proof that he might one day be able to beat his sister, one day.
Aside from swordplay and horse-riding something did bond over was Cyvasse, apparently it wasn't a very well known game in the north but Benjen had proven to be a natural at it and there had been quite a few games where he very nearly beat her.
Lauryn suddenly whimpered which brought Elia out of her thoughts, the girl had tears in her eyes and she was sucking on her thumb. "Are you hungry little one?" Elia asked as she gently rubbed her back. "Tired?"
"She's tired, she only whimpers like that if she's tired." Ashara said as she stood up from her chair and yawned. "I understand how she feels." She said as she scooped her daughter up.
"Well, why don't you take her and you can both have a nap?" Elia suggested as she adjusted her blanket.
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Ashara said as she cuddled Lauryn close to her, the little girl's head buried into her mother's neck. She didn't like the idea of leaving her friend on her own, she knew how lonely it could be for her.
"Go." Elia said firmly with a smile. "You are exhausted and you probably need to sleep more than she does, I am capable of amusing myself for an afternoon, I've got some needlework to catch up on anyway. Now go."
Ashara laughed and did a little bob. "As my princess commands." She said mockingly before she turned on her feet and made her way to the room door and pulled it open, when she saw who was on the other side of the door the amused grin on her face slipped away and was replaced with a heavy frown. "What are you doing here?"
Elia looked up and saw Lyanna standing in the doorway, the normally proud girl seemed to be slumped and she suddenly seemed a lot smaller, she had a thick book held under one of her arms. "I...I'm just here to apologise."
"And what if she doesn't want to here your apology?" Ashara hissed at the other girl and Elia never knew her friend could be so nasty but she realised that she had always been protective of her, almost as bad in Oberyn in some ways, and normally there was no one to punish for her being ill but now there was someone.
Lyanna looked like a mouse in front of a lion and Elia couldn't help but feel a surge of pity for the girl, it was so odd to see Lyanna like this but she understood why she was like this, her father and Eddard had been angry at her for what had happened and had blamed her.
"Ashara, let Lyanna come in and go and get some sleep. You need some." Elia said and she stared at her friend firmly as she turned her head to look at Elia with disbelief but sighed as Elia simply kept looking at her and left the room, pushing past Lyanna.
"Thank you." Lyanna said as she stepped into the room and set the heavy book down on to the table next to the bed and sat herself down on to the bed. "I am sorry, I didn't mean for to get sick."
"I know you didn't, you're not a bad person Lyanna." Elia said as she placed her hand gently on her shoulder, Lyanna glanced down at it but she didn't pull away. "But I would like if you aplogise to Ashara and Catelyn, especially to Catelyn. You were rather cruel to her."
"I know, I know that I was." Lyanna said, her voice barely more than a whisper and tears welling up in her grey eyes. "I don't know why, it was just...you're all clearly smart and you're just...accepting everything, accepting that this is all you could be when it's not and...and it's just not that as well its-"
She couldn't continue, the girl's face crumpled and she began to sob harshly and Elia's heart broke for her as she pulled Lyanna into a hug, stroking her back when it was clear that the other woman wasn't going to pull away.
After a few minutes Lyanna started to calm down and after a few more whimpers she pulled away. "Sorry." She said again as she rubbed at her eyes.
"It's alright, now what were you going to say?" Elia said as she kept rubbing her back. "Tell me, please?"
Lyanna sighed, it was so heavy that it nearly made her entire body shudder. "It...it feels like I'm losing my brothers."
Elia didn't say anything, letting the other woman speak.
"You're marrying Ned and you are not going to stay here with him, you'll be given a hold fast somewhere. Benjen's going to marry someone as well, probably a girl from the south as well and Brandon is going to stay here with Catelyn and I have to go and marry that whoring bastard." Lyanna said but there wasn't the normal heat in her voice when she spoke of Robert, she sounded more tired than anything else.
"I'm going to have to leave my home, to marry a man like that be hundreds of miles away from all the people who love me." Lyanna said as she played with a loose thread on the sleeves of her dress, all her dresses seemed to have loose threads on them somewhere. "Father always, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives. But I am going to be a lone wolf, so how am I going to survive married to man like that as well as being alone?"
Elia felt her heart break once again for Lyanna and she understood now why Oberyn sometimes cursed how gentle her heart was, all she needed was to see someone upset and she would always try and make them feel better even if they had been cruel to her.
But she couldn't help it, she had always had a gently heart. It was who she was for as long as she could remember, she couldn't stand to see anyone suffer. Like that poor little baby boy that was locked away by his family and tormented by his cruel sister, even after all this time her thoughts still sometimes drifted to Tyrion Lannister, she prayed to all the seven that things had changed for him, that he had all the love he deserved even though she knew the gods weren't that kind.
She gently took Lyanna's hands and looked straight into her eyes which slowly starting to fill with tears once again. "Your brothers love you a great deal, there is no distance that they would not travel for you. Nothing they would not do. No war that they would not fight for you. So even if you do marry Robert and have to be his wife, do you honestly think that they would not come for you if you asked? That would not kill him if they thought for even a moment that he was mistreating you?"
"Ned wouldn't, he hasn't spoken a word to me since you fainted. He hates me." Lyanna said with a hiccup as tears rolled down her red cheeks. "I never thought that Ned could hate anyone, certainly not me."
"He is your brother, he does not hate you. He loves you a very great deal." Elia said as she brushed the tears away with her thumb. "He is very angry with you and I think he will be for a while longer but he does not hate you, I will ask him to speak with you to make it clear that he does not hate you."
"Thank you." Lyanna whispered. "And I know I've no right to complain, you came all the way here, thousands and thousands of miles away from your family but at least you got to marry a good man, one who would never leave your bed." Lyanna shook her head. "I just do not want to marry him."
"I know you don't." Elia said gently. "But...he is young, give him a chance he may surprise you and did you know how you said that part of the reason that you were angry with I, Ashara and Catelyn was because you thought that we simply giving in to the way things were?"
She waited for Lyanna to nod before she continued. "We aren't. You can't change the world over night and you can not work against the system, sometimes you have to work in the system and when you do that you can learn how it works, how it really works and when you do that you can learn to take advantage of the flaws."
"I know that isn't for you, I know you would rather be a warrior and fight and make your own way in the world, but do not make the mistake of thinking that we are weak." Elia said as she gave Lyanna's hands a gentle squeeze.
"I know you aren't weak, you've already proven that to me." Lyanna said with a laugh. "I am really sorry, I mean it."
"I know you are, and I accept. Now, just apologise to Ash and Catalyn and it's in the past." Elia said with a smile and she couldn't stop it from widening as the other girl smiled back.
"By the way, what is that?" Elia asked as she tilted her head to the book that Lyanna had set down on the table when she had come in.
"It's the castle ledger, part of my punishment is that instead of riding I have to spend all my free time overseeing the money of the castle and making sure that everything is stocked up." Lyanna sighed as she laid down on the bed and crossed her arms. "I've never been very good with figures."
"Would you mind if I had a look?" Elia asked and when Lyanna shrugged she took that as a yes and reached out for the book, grunting as she realised how heavy it was.
She flipped it open to the last page that had writing on and she noticed that some of the figures did seem a little...off, to say the least. Now she didn't know how much Lyanna had been involved but she, Catelyn and Ashara had all tried to get involved with the running of the castle in someway and all of them had took a turn at managing the castle's finances.
The page before this one she recognised as Catelyn's handwriting and comparing the pages suddenly everything seemed off, last month there were fifteen bushels of grain with another ten ordered but according to the page written by Lyanna there were thirty bushels of grain left, where did the other five come from?
Not to mention Lyanna's writing was terrible, letters were spilling over into over columns and quite a few words were misspelt, almost all of them.
"Lyanna, could I just ask? What is ten plus fifteen?" Elia asked as a thought came to her that could explain what was wrong.
"It's thirty isn't it?" Lyanna said and her voice held a tint of what sounded like nervousness in her voice and that just gave more evidence to Elia's theory.
"No, it's twenty-five." Elia said with a sigh as she closed the book. "Lyanna, please don't be offended when I ask you this because I do have to ask, do you know how to do maths, adding? subtraction? multiplication?"
"No." Lyanna admitted as she sat back up. "Mother died before she could teach me and since I was a girl I could attended lessons with the maester and Old Nan is lovely but she is useless unless it comes to stories about others and ice spiders or making pies."
"What about writing? Reading?" Elia asked gently, she didn't want to make Lyanna uncomfortable but she did need to know.
"I can read my name and write it but that's it, when father gave me the ledger I just decided to copy what was put in last as best I could." Lyanna admitted with a shrug. "I knew it would be close enough."
"And your father and brothers don't know?" Elia asked.
"No, and there not going too!" Lyanna shouted and for the first time since she had come into her chambers Elia saw a shadow of the girl that Lyanna had been when Elia had first arrived. "I'd never live it down, I'm already enough of a disappointment to my father as it is."
"I won't tell them anything, I promise you." And Elia meant it, she wasn't going to betray Lyanna's trust over something like this. "But, if you would like I would be willing to teach you."
"I don't need your pity." Lyanna said as she crossed her arms and looked away from Elia.
"It isn't pity, I want to help you that's all." Elia said as she placed her hand on Lyanna's shoulder. "Listen, we are sisters now. I admit I don't know much about having a sister, the closest I have had to one is Ashara and I did not see her all the time. But I would very much enjoy being your sister I think, please? Let me teach you to read and write and help you with your maths, you'll find you'll need them."
Lyanna looked back at Elia and sighed heavily. "You must think that I'm thick."
"Now listen to me, I've met people who couldn't read or write a word and still be some of the smartest people I know and people who could write a book who are thick as shit. You aren't stupid Lyanna, you simply have not been taught and that is a very big difference." Elia said firmly before she held out her hand. "Now, what do you say?"
Lyanna stared down at Elia's hand for a long moment and Elia thought that she definitely was going to refuse her, and that was why she couldn't keep the smile of her face when Lyanna took her hand and shook it.
This was the start of something good, she could feel it.
End of Chapter Fifteen
So, first of all Lyanna being illiterate and not being able to read or do maths comes from that normally it would be up to the woman of the house to handle any and all female children's education and given that Lyanna's mother died when she was very young and there was no septa and the only other woman was Old Nan it always seemed to me that Lya's education would fall to the side.
Now, there have been some questions as to wither or not I hate Lya, I'll answer now that I don't but that doesn't mean I think that she is a perfect human being, none of us are and we all have our flaws. Most of Lyanna's do come from her desire to be free to make he own choices which is perfectly natural but it doesn't change the fact that she still makes mistakes.
If you enjoyed this chapter, then please leave a review, a favourite and a follow and thanks to those that all ready have.
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