"I know who you are. Don't move."
A dagger at her throat. Arya hyperventilates, her eyes searching frantically a way out.
"You tricked me. Stonemasons and daughters. Clever, but not enough."
"My lord, I'm just…"
"Stop, Arya of house Stark."
She freezes, her worst nightmare has become real, her stupid, foolish idea to kill Tywin Lannister using Jaqen 's promise of names.
All in vain. He's caught her.
It is not a dungeon, but it's still a prison. The food is warm and good, served on the same plates she saw on Lord Tywin ' s desk.
A guard outside her door, day and night, never Jaqen.
Tywin Lannister wants to taste, to savour, to drink her fear; she tries to resist, but in the darkness of the night she weeps. She calls her father's name.
She's just a stupid girl. Trapped by a lion.
Days are a series of light and darkness, Arya counts five of them, there is only sky from the window, she is in a tower. No weapons or iron tools to dig a way out, nothing to kill herself with, bars at the tall window, she can't jump.
An old septa, her face knowing all the sins of the world, enters during the sixth day, holding some new white linens, telling Arya she must collect her used smallclothes every day onward.
Dying by starvation is impossible, Tywin acts during her fifth day of hunger strike, he's with a maester and two soldiers, her limbs are tied after a feral fight and food is forced through her mouth. She must swallow or she'll suffocate.
Her mind refused to die.
"Don't you dare disobey me anymore."
Tywin 's face is carved in stone.
More than a moon in captivity, Tywin is angry her smallclothes aren't red.
The maester forces her legs open, probes her lower belly, inserts a long finger where nothing has been before.
Her body hurts, he is pushing and twisting her skin while his fingers – now two – are still inside, trying to meet his other hand.
"A maiden, Lord Tywin, I swear. Nothing is wrong with her womb."
"Shouldn't she bleed? She's enough developed."
With a fast gesture her tunic is ripped apart on the front, her bare breasts are exposed, two pink buds harden at the sudden chilly air. Tywin's eyes are wild at the sight of her naked body.
"Wide hips and good breasts, but she's too thin, my lord. I'm sure she has already flowered and her blood has stopped. It may takes time to fatten her up."
A gold and crimson new dress is on her bed, the septa tries to reason with her. Arya is getting crazy for the imprisonment. She's falling into his trap, wholly.
"You must wear it. It's fitting for a lady. Don't be stubborn, he'll call his soldiers. Resign to his will, please. Lord Tywin is too powerful."
Arya is bent in two by powerful cramps, her moon blood has returned and the lion has entered triumphantly into her room holding the stained proof as a war trophy.
For the first time in weeks Arya is outside her cell, the sky is dark, clouds gather foreshadowing a storm, another storm is raging inside her, she fights and kicks, four are the soldiers that surround her and her wrists are tied with a painful rope.
Harrenhal is a fortress cramped with soldiers and peasants, now the inner court is deserted, soldiers at every door and gate keep the folks away.
The door of the sept is a few steps from her, she shouts with all her voice she won't enter. Lord Tywin wears his armour and a heavy Lannister cloak. Arya knows what it means, she won't say the words, at whatever price.
"You aren't the first person to be dragged into a sept to marry. Nor the last. We have few time and many things to do."
The sept is full of Lannister soldiers, she spots Jaqen who refuses to meet her eyes.
Traitor, she thinks.
She is in front of the main altar beside Tywin, the septon is an old man with greasy hair and a dress stained with wine, he seems tipsy, if not already drunk.
Tywin is impatient, he tells the unholy man to go straight to the essential part.
Another girl speaks the traditional wows, another voice rises with the names of the Sevens.
It's the dagger on her back, slowly pressing between her shoulder blades, it's the iron grip on her bounded wrists, it's the hand holding her neck still so that she cannot kneel and ask mercy to the Mother. Her old gods would be ashamed.
"Repeat after me."
The septon orders.
"I, Arya of house Stark, take as my legitimate husband…"
The septon nods, picks up a golden ribbon and the dagger is slowly retreated. She is fucked up, as soon as lord Tywin will say his words she'll become his wife.
Married to a man old enough to be her grandfather, to the heartless and ruthless ruler of the most powerful house of the seven kingdoms after the royal house.
"Are you ready to write the declaration? We must be absolutely sure it is valid. No mistakes."
Lord Tywin asks the man beside the septon, who holds a scroll and a quill with dark ink.
"Yes, my lord, the raven is ready. We have received the royal one, everything will be registered in the book of marriages."
"So all is settled."
Lord Tywin turns to Arya, freeing her wrists with a sharp dagger - it scratches her palm, drawing blood - and grabbing her right hand.
The contrast between his weathered skin and her smooth one is revolting.
Arya refuses to imagine his naked body over hers in the marriage bed.
It'd be rape. Plain and simple. Rape until he forces a child on her.
"I, Jaime of house Lannister, former kingsguard, free to marry by royal decree, by the words spoken by my father Tywin, head of my House…"
It's surely a joke, her ears are betraying Arya. It's the father she is marrying, not the golden son. Not the Kingslayer. The man who betrayed all the most sacred oaths. The man who slept with his twin sister. The beast in a beautiful body.
"Surprised, lady Lannister? It's my heir you've just married by proxy. I don't need a new wife, it's for him I've kept you here. The young, noble and fertile bride I've dreamed of for ages."
She's glued to her spot in the now empty sept.
Tywin can command over her with his eyes only, so desperate ands scared Arya is.
"A raven for your family has already left its cage, they can't harm my son now. Freeing Jaime is their only option and when he'll be here he'll accept I did this for him."