Arthur

He had not been pleased to see Azalea on the battlefield. She was not supposed to be there. It wasn't her job to protect the Kingsguard.

He was heartened by it all the same. And somewhat worried. Rhaegar and he had discussed her tendencies to put other lives before hers. While her generosity made her a uniquely benevolent ruler, it also made her a little foolhardy.

More than that, he was concerned about how Rhaegar would react to her entrance into the battlecamp. He knew Rhaegar had missed her and would be utterly relieved to see her, but he would also be furious at seeing the love of his life in the battle.

Creatures in love were so paradoxical with their feelings.

Rhaegar's moodiness had been predictable. He had been surprised by Azalea's coldness towards Rhaegar to be this palpable. No sign of surging affection to see her husband, so calculated and pragmatic, as she took charge of directing them away to the war tent.

"Brother, thank goodness," Lord Whent began as soon as he saw Oswald make his way inside, but then his eyes fell on Azalea, "My queen?". He hastily bowed to cover up his faux pas.

"Well met, Lord Whent." Azalea gave a small but generous nod, "I will need you to arrange a few things for me. Heir Umber was severely injured. I would like you to step in and offer the crown's support to Heir Stark. He can be belligerent without supervision. We also have a prisoner and I need a Kingsguard on him at all times but give him all rights as a prisoner. I will also need you to send a raven to the capital on my behalf and inform Lord Mormont of my arrival in the camp. You can take your men and delegate some of these tasks. And please find Prince Lewyn and have him wait outside the tent as well."

She wanted him out of the tent, and she had been diplomatic about it as well.

Azalea took command like she was born for it. Rhaegar did not seem irritated. He seemed glad to have some privacy.

Arthur suddenly felt like he was intruding on something very private and wished that one of them would send him and Oswell away.

The minute the flap of the tent fell in place after the last man left; Azalea looked at Rhaegar, "I did not leave the capital lightly, so you can lose the scowl."

"I think I am more concerned that you look wrangled in a battle," Rhaegar shot back.

Azalea tilted her head, "We are in between a war. Battles shouldn't startle you."

Arthur really wanted to leave. He felt like an unwanted spectator. He had no clue as to why Azalea had gestured for them to follow.

"It isn't…" Rhaegar began but was cut off by an irritated noise from Azalea.

She calmly articulated, "If I did not reach when I did, we would have lost the heir to Winterfell, not to mention two of your closest friends. Now, I need to ask you which nincompoop let them go away in such a small party and why in the world would you make the catastrophic mistake of letting them make that decision. You can also remember to be grateful before you become patronizing."

"I believe if we have to choose the patronizing person here, you would win." Rhaegar shot back.

"I reserve my barbs if I have to abide by your decision to stay behind," Azalea turned away.

"I trust you to know that I did not decide that lightly," Rhaegar's tone grew softer.

"Then you should trust that I did not go against that decision lightly," Azalea's voice grew graver and she fixed him with a penetrating gaze.

Rhaegar took a step forward, took her palm in one hand, and plopped a kiss on her mangled hair, "I have missed you, love, my apologies for taking my misery out on you. I have been worried about the party that left with Brandon. I had no idea that I should have been worrying about you too. It caught me by surprise. I trust your judgment calls."

Azalea's posture did not change much. The fire in her eyes got a little subdued. She did not shake away his hand but she turned to address them instead, "I did not question you with the Northern party, but why don't you all fill me in? Lord Whent is not a great strategist but I did not think him foolhardy."

Rhaegar turned to them as well.

Oswell did not seem cowered by Azalea this time, "There was a difference in pieces of intelligence. Brandon Stark wanted to chase his lead. Jon Connington disagreed. His sources placed Robert elsewhere. He did not want to send a party at all. Stark decided to go regardless. Jon insisted that he would not spare men but he does not have power over Kingsguard so we decided to march with the Northern men. We were still asked to keep it small lest we attract attention so…"

Azalea was still looking at them expectantly. He supposed the role of Jon Connington did not make sense to her.

It was Rhaegar who completed the rest with a sigh, "Jon Connington is a friend. I left Lord Whent as the Castellan but Jon arrived here sometime after I left. He is a little too brash, too eager for glory, and used to getting his way. I appreciated his candor in challenging authority at one point, but now I am not sure. He managed to drown any original thoughts from Lord Whent and became the acting Castellan. I took care of it once I reached camp and realized the disaster he fueled."

"Well, the intelligence Brandon got was not wrong. Robert was near Haystack Hall. We barely missed him. We will have to do something about the Daughter of House Errol. She not only sheltered him, but then directed us to Antlers as per a trap set by Baratheon. We were ambushed by a huge party. We probably would not have made it if the Queen did not intervene with dragon fire when she did." Arthur added.

"Well, shortly after I got Arthur's raven, I got another one from the Maester of Haystack Hall. Mary Errol, bless her idiocy, also threatened the maester with his life and kept him away. The entire keep celebrated once you left so he used the inebriated states and the cover of dark to slip a raven to the capital. I directed Lord Massey and Bar Emmon to take care of Haystack Hall and sent word to her Father. Lord Massey is going to play Regent until Lord Errol can present himself to the crown with his daughter. I could not very well do nothing while the entire party was massacred so I took Valor and flew to intervene. Lord Mormont , Ser Hightower, and Ashara are aware. Valor dropped me after demolishing a good number of sellswords and flew back to the capital. We handled the rest. The party had already lost 4 men, likely from the north." Azalea filled in.

Arthur affirmed the loss.

"I patched up Umber the best I could and decided to travel with the group to see you," Azalea added.

Rhaegar was still encasing her palm but he addressed his friends, "You both should wash, rest, and eat. You have had grueling few days. We will see about the prisoner on the morrow. Tell Ser Martell to supply warm water and supper for two to my tent on your way out."

"Take care," Azalea's expression softened as she bid them farewell.


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