Robb Stark tried to get up, felt a searing pain and spat blood twice, three times and gave up. He fell back on the sand and was supported by the unknown young woman. Then, she held his shoulders and smiled for no apparent reason before speaking to him for the first time.
_ You are a man! said the princess effusively.
_ I am? – Robb made an effort to make some sound pass his throat – Still… Am I still alive?
_ You are! The Gods... - and the former King of the North did not hear anything else.
Diana feared again when the brown eyes closed in front of her. She only calmed down and managed to reason when she noticed the rise and fall of his scarred chest. When Robb opened his eyes for the second time in his new life she felt something burn around her arms.
He was surrounded by very well-armed women, one of them sitting on a sort of throne with the one who saved him beside her. The northerner took a while to understand that they were talking directly to him.
_ Can you hear me, man? shouted one of the women holding him by the shoulders.
_ Where I am? – he tried to put the words together to make some sense.
_ You do not know? Don't know how you got here either? – the probable queen questioned him and he shook his head negatively.
_ I don't know, ma'am. The last thing I remember is being at my uncle's wedding and... - he resists the memory and the Lasso of Truth cuts his flesh - Betrayal.
_ Calm down and talk. This is the Lasso of Truth, resisting it will be futile and painful. Now, tell us: who are you, man? – the queen explains, while the noose continues to burn her skin until it gives way.
_ I'm Robb Stark, eldest son of Ned Stark of Winterfell and King of the North who used to belong to the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros... - The feeling of pain ceases with the confession and he can breathe normally again.
_ King of the north? Which side of the Great Wall of Ice? - asks General Antiope.
_ Do you know the North? - The Lasso of Truth marks you again - My reign ends on the Wall under the command of the Night's Watch, my lady.
_ You must only answer my questions or you will feel pain, Robb Stark of Winterfell. But who would attempt the life of the King in the North? – Hippolyta asks, demanding more details from the invader.
_ Anyone. We were at war... My father abandoned our home to serve King Robert Baratheon, but was betrayed shortly after the king's death. He was beheaded in the public square as a traitor. I tried to save him and gathered the Northern army, ended up crowned by my allies and never lost on the battlefield...
_ You were not defeated on a battlefield, but surprised at a wedding? Who would do something so abominable? This is unbelievable! – shouts Diana, dissatisfied with the reported cruelty.
_ I drank their wine, I ate their food, and yet they dishonored the Gods. They stabbed my soldiers, murdered my mother before my eyes and stabbed my pregnant wife... I shouldn't be alive...
Robb replayed the whole scene in his mind and felt the little strength drain from his body again. He shouldn't nor would he want to be alive. The two Amazons caught the body's fall and warned the queen of the newcomer's loss of consciousness.
_ Take this man to the healer. - Orders Hippolyta and the two Amazons leave to fulfill the queen's determination. She turns to her daughter – You made a serious mistake rescuing this man, Diana.
_ I did nothing. I just asked the Gods... He wouldn't get here if there was a reason, my mother.
_ You speak of the Gods, but life still belongs to that man who seems not to want to live it anymore.
The queen walks away and leaves her daughter alone in the throne room. She couldn't have failed that badly, could she? The good or bad done was already done. The man was fighting a war. Was it his war? She needed to hear everything the newcomer had to say.
Before that, what she wanted was to hear good news from the healer. "He shouldn't be alive and couldn't be on Themyscira." They were the first words Diana heard from the healer of the Amazons and the idea that the Gods had brought her back did not seem to be welcomed by the woman.
However, the sentence she worried about came when she hinted at settling down right there. "If you intend to wait, your vigil will not be for hours, Diana. It is not a simple mission to heal someone who does not wish to be healed."
Robb Stark. Winterfell. The Ice Wall. The North. Some of these words were not entirely foreign to the princess of the Amazons' ears, however, her mother made no effort to clear up her doubts.
Thus, Diana's only path needed to be the gigantic library of Themyscira in search of books with the histories of the tribes of men. However, the searches are not as encouraging as the man's recovery. So Diana returned to Aunt Antiope's training, swords, and teachings.
