Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter Twelve

Elia hummed as she put the finishing touches on her new needlework, Ashara was sitting in a chair near her with Lauryn sitting in her lap humming to her daughter gently.

She had found that she hadn't been short of things to do in this last month in Winterfell, while Catelyn may have been the one who would become the Lady of the castle Elia had taken it upon herself to familiarise herself with as much of the history of Winterfell as she could as well as the servants.

Thinking of that made her remember an even that occurred during her first week at Winterfell, she and Ashara had mainly been keeping to themselves, aside from her new family and Catelyn, for the most part but eventually they had decided to introduce themselves for lack of a better word.

They had started off in the kitchens and met the cook and scullery maids, the cook had been a large woman with curly ginger hair and missing her two front teeth named Agatha, her voice had been loud and she spoke bluntly and to her staff as if they were a bunch of particularly dim children but see seemed to be a fairly nice woman aside from that.

After saying goodbye to them they had gone to met the stable master, Hullen, a man with long brown hair and leathery looking skin and calloused hands. The man had spoken gruffly and seemed a bit offset by Elia and Ashara's appearance though wither that was due to the fact that he didn't think that the new ladies from the south would bother to visit him or because he was taken back by Elia's skin they couldn't be sure.

Elia had been glad to see her horse though, she had ridden in the wheelhouse after she promised Doran that she would but he had sent Swift Ash with them and she was glad of it, she loved her horse and while horse-riding was never high on her list of interests she still enjoyed it and she would rather do it on her horse than any other.

Swift Ash was called that because he had an ashy grey coat and he was a swift runner, Elia never claimed to be a very creative person but the name worked for him. She actually got quite a bit of amusement out of the look on Ashara's face when ever she told anyone that she had named her horse after her friend.

Swift had seemed glad to see her as she hadn't been able to find the time to visit the stable and the last time she had rode him was during her wedding and she promised him that she would take him out for a ride soon, even though she knew that horse couldn't understand her.

After leaving the stable Ashara and Elia decided to go and introduce themselves to Ser Rodrik Cassel, a man in his early thirties who Elia had seen from a distance many times before but had never spoken too. They didn't mange to make it to the sparring area however before they could get there they were side-tracked.

By a giant who could only speak a single word over and over, when Elia had bumped into him she nearly had a heart attack. The man who at least as tall as her good-father if not taller and looked down at her with a blank expression for a moment before a wide smile appeared on his face and his eyes light up. "Hodor." He had said.

To say that both she and Ashara had been confused would be an understatement, they had never seen this giant before and now he had seemed to appear out of nowhere and could only seem to say one word. It did not take either of them long to realise they were dealing with someone of simple wits.

They were both a little unsure of what to do as while the man did not seem threatening he could only say the one word and neither of them had ever interacted with anyone like the man before. Then thankfully, and strangely, an old woman who was slightly bent over seemingly appeared out of no where and shooed the man away, telling him not to be silly.

The woman turned to face them and looked them over, Elia specifically and spoke in a voice that was rough with age. "So, you're the one who married sweet Ned."

The woman was clearly a servant and Elia imagined that if cared more about social status then she would be offended by the old woman referring to her husband as Ned and not as Lord Eddard but she was never too fussed about status to be honest, she had wanted to marry Rhaegar because she loved him not because she had wanted to be the queen, and the woman clearly spoke in good fun and had much affection for her sweet Ned.

The woman referred to herself as Old Nan, apparently she had been looking after the children of Winterfell for a very long time. Well, at least that's what she thought she was doing, according to Ned most of what Old Nan did was tell a lot of stories, mostly about things north of the wall like the night king and the others.

Still Elia had grown fond of the old woman in the past month, listening to all her stories had not only allowed Elia to learn a great deal more about the north but she also had a great deal of stories about her new family. The two women actually had something of a tradition, every day when Elia had some free time and she wasn't spending it with Ned or with Ash then she would go and visit the old woman with a pot of peppermint tea and lavender biscuits and the two women would spend their time telling one another stories.

All in all Elia thought that she, and Ashara, had managed to find their place in Winterfell.

Elia looked up as the door to the room opened and Catelyn walked in, the woman smiled at Elia and Elia returned it gladly, Catelyn was a more than agreeable companion and Elia and Ashara had enjoyed her company greatly. At the moment however the woman seemed to have a sense of melancholy around her.

"Is everything alright Catelyn?" Elia asked as she gestured at the chair next to her and Catelyn sat down in it.

"I'm fine, I just..." Catelyn sighed heavily and looked down at her. "I do not think that Brandon likes me."

Elia quickly shot a glance at Ashara who was looking down at Lauryn who was currently in the middle of dozing off, more specifically she was trying to look at anywhere other than Catelyn. Elia looked back at Catelyn and placed her hand on her shoulder. "I am sure that is not at all true, and if he doesn't then he is the stupidest man to ever live."

Catelyn looked up and her blue eyes were swimming in tears and Elia's heart felt a stab of pity for her. "But I am to marry him! And he doesn't even like me! My father ordered me to stay here so we could get to know one another but he always avoids me or he finds other things that need his attention or when we do spend time together he simply ignores me!"

Elia didn't know what to say that could be of any comfort so she simply reached forward and started to rub Catelyn's back, hoping that would offer her even the slightest comfort. Catelyn did seem to take some solace in the comfort as she did not burst out crying but it was clear for all to see that she was still upset.

And then Lauryn, brought out of her doze by Catelyn's shouting and crying, hopped out of her mother's lap toddled over to the grown woman and gently patted her on the knee. "Feel better!" She said with a bright smile.

Catelyn's eyes went wide as she stared down at the little girl for a moment before she looked up at Ashara, Ashara held her gaze for a moment before she nodded her head and then Catelyn reached down and picked Lauryn up and placed her in her lap. "Thank you Lauryn, I am sure I will."

Elia smiled proudly at her friend, she knew how difficult that was for her considering who Lauryn's father was and how protective she was of Lauryn.

The door opened again and this time Lyanna walked in, her long dark hair wad pulled back into a messy pony tail and she was dressed in a simply grey frock. "My father said he wanted to talk to you Lady Catelyn, so please dry your eyes and come with me to see him."

"Lady Catelyn was quite upset a moment ago Lady Lyanna, please give us a moment." Elia said diplomatically but Lyanna simply looked annoyed.

"Father said I was to bring her to him directly, I do have better things to do than wait around here for you." Lyanna then smirked. "What exactly is the problem lady Cat, did you drop a stich?"

"What is wrong with you!?" Ashara said as she jumped out of her chair, her violet eyes glowing with anger. "I can understand why you might not have liked us at first but we've been here a month and you haven't even tried to get to know us while we have tried with you. You could at least try and be courteous to us, we've been with you."

Lyanna reeled back for a moment before she got closer to the other woman. "There is nothing wrong with me, I just don't see the point in getting upset over every little thing! Letting your emotions control you, it's pathetic! I won't ever be anything like you! It's pathetic! And I certainly won't open my legs to any man who gives me the slightest interest and ended up with a babe in my belly-"

Before Lyanna could continue Ashara reached out and slapped Lyanna straight across the face, Lyanna held her cheek and looked at Ashara with wide eyes and Elia and Catelyn stared at both of them in shock, neither of them knowing what would happen next. Lauryn whimpered and cuddled closer in to Catelyn who wrapped her arm around her.

Then Lyanna slapped Ashara across her cheek. Then Ashara slapped her back. Then Lyanna. Then Ashara. This threatened to go on for awhile until Elia got in-between them and pushed them both away from one another. "Enough! Both of you! Are you women or are you children!?"

"Now, Lyanna. You seem to think that being lady-like makes you weak?" Elia asked and for a moment Lyanna was quite, her lips pursed together before she nodded. Elia nodded. "Then I shall prove you wrong, please show Lady Catelyn to your Father's solar and then meet me in the training grounds."

Lyanna stared at her for a moment before she let out a mocking laugh. "You...you want to fight me, really? Are you stupid or just suicidal?"

"Just confident." Elia said with a smile.

Lyanna sighed. "Fine, don't say I didn't warn you." Lyanna turned on her feet and left the room, Catelyn sighed and stood up and left the room but not before handing Lauryn back to Ashara.

"Are you sure about this?" Ashara asked her friend as she sat back down and picked up her needlework, she wasn't worried about her because she knew that Elia was more than capable of taking care of herself but she was slightly worried about how it would look to the others, especially Lord Eddard.

"I am more than capable of dealing with her and besides, do you honestly think I would let the little cow speak to you and slap you like that?" Elia asked and Ashara shook her head, she knew that Elia was just protecting her like she would do for her.

Elia nodded and focused back on her needlework, she wasn't going to go until she finished this.

Lyanna stood in the middle of the training ground and picked up her favourite sword to use, she had always beat Benjen with this sword. She didn't know what Elia was thinking but it would be fun to beat the snooty little princess.

At the moment the training grounds were empty as Ser Rodrik was helping Maester Cussul teach Benjen about war tactics, she was never taught about anything like that and only because she was a woman. It didn't matter how much stronger or faster or smatter or how much of a better swordsman she was than her baby brother all that mattered to the world was that she was a woman, that she had a place to fill in the world.

That's why she was so angry at Elia and Ashara and Catelyn, they clearly weren't stupid but they had given in. They'd given up and made peace with only being wives and mothers, it made her sad and that made her angry.

A moment later she was drawn out of her thoughts by the sound of a sword being taken out of it's stand, she looked up and saw Elia but how she was dressed struck her. Instead of the red or yellow dresses she usually wore she was now wearing a set of brown leather armour. Ashara was standing a little ways behind her, holding her daughter in her arms and glaring at Lyanna.

"Are you sure you really want to do this? I'm good with a sword, I'm a much better swordsman than Benjen." Lyanna said as she and Elia began to circle around one another.

"Congratulations, you are a better fighter than a ten year old I am incredibly impressed." Elia said and she couldn't help but laugh at the dumbfounded expression on her face.

"Alright, enough talk!" Lyanna shouted and swung her sword at Elia, the swords were blunted but a blade was still a blade so she had to be careful. Elia bought up her blade and blocked all of Lyanna's blows.

"I've beaten Ned and I've beaten Brandon before! I can beat you as well!" Lyanna shouted as she kept up the pace she was attacking but no matter how fast she swung or how hard she hit Elia simply kept blocking every single blow like it was nothing.

"Lyanna Stark! Stop this now!" The loud voice of Lord Rickard Stark echoed around the training yard, Lyanna and Elia looked to see Lord Rickard storming towards them with Brandon, Ned, Benjen and Catelyn following behind him. Lyanna realised with a glower that Catelyn must have told her father about what was happening and now she was in for a bollocking.

"Good-father! Wait!" Elia shouted and Rickard turn to look at her. "Let us finish! I do not ask you to approve or understand but know that this is important to me and I must finish, please!"

Lord Rickard looked at his good-daughter for a moment before he sighed and stepped back, both Ned and Brandon looked surprised, and Ned worried for his wife, that he had given in so easily. He almost never gave in.

And so the fight continued, Lyanna kept up her aggressive approach but Elia kept easily blocking every blow. When Lyanna got in close Elia swung as hard as she could with her sword and Lyanna's sword went flying from her hand, Elia then held the point of her sword just an inch away from Lyanna's throat.

"We are more alike than you think Lyanna, the only true difference is I never needed to have my brothers let me win." Elia said before she threw her sword to the side and began to walk away.

She only managed to take a few steps before she suddenly started to feel dizzy, she realised with a start what was about to happen and by the look on her face and the fact she began to walk towards her so did Ashara, with a violent upheaval Elia emptied the contents of her stomach on to the muddy ground and fell down to it.

The last thing she heard before was dead to the world was Catelyn screaming and Ned and Ashara calling her name.

End of Chapter Twelve

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