Hey. You didn't know. [ Jaye is also biased, because she'd rather it was whoever Alayne's father is than Alayne herself, but she's at least smart enough to keep that to herself. ]
Lady is my responsibility. [ My father is my responsibility. Protecting those I care for, as proof of my love. And in this, I have failed. ] King Robb and Lord Bran asked me watch her until Lady Stark returns. Had I held the leash more surely—
Perhaps my father would not suffer as he does now. [ In the end, he will bear scars, and those will serve as her reminder.
Alayne considers visiting Jaye, considers taking a moment or two of time for herself. Only after a long moment, she tells Jaye: ] I do not wish for him to wake and his bedside be vacant.
If you'd held it any tighter, she might have turned on you. She was afraid and the gas meant she wasn't in her right mind. It's possible she wouldn't have known you, that she would have attacked you too, even if it was just to get away.
[ Jaye has been a frightened animal.
She considers pointing out that it was Alayne who asked if she would like company, but she's restless. Alayne could possibly calm her down but she doesn't want to be calmed down. She wants to fight and scream and she wants to stop waiting like a target, like an animal in a cage, so she just nods. ] Guess that makes sense.
[ Part of Alayne wants to tell Jaye that the direwolves are different, that they are not tame and are not domesticated like normal hounds but their wildness is somethings that belongs to the Stark children as much as it belongs to themselves. There is part of the animal in the master's heart, just as there is a morsel of the master's heart inside the beast (and it frightens her that some portion of herself would allow Petyr Baelish to come to harm).
But that is Sansa Stark's secret and not Alayne's. It belongs to Bran, to the heart of a warg, and Alayne is neither Stark nor child of the forest. Just a girl with a leash and the song of a bird.
Quietly she nods, considering. Yes, she had thought to give Jaye company but she hadn't thought to leave Petyr's side and so she offers, self-concious that the offer may be rebuffed: ] Would you care to meet my father? And, perhaps, the Lords Stark? [ Neither Robb nor Bran is far from her. And neither are their wolves. ] Or— or the wolves?
[ Her first instinct is to say no, to go and find Sulu who says he can handle it if she doesn't pull her punches, to work on what needs to be done before she and Bass and Stefan go to explore the bowels of the ship in search for missing skeletons. But Alayne says wolves and part of her is fairly certain that the girl knew that would do it while the other part of her just wonders if Alayne could see her forming 'no' before she says 'yes'. ]
... Yeah, sure. [ She doesn't say that she ran into Robb and Grey Wind, because she was a wolf then and she's not a wolf now, though she knows the direwolf will remember. ] I guess I've never met a king before. Gods, sure, but no kings.
[ Jaye excepts, perhaps with a touch of reservation and Alayne wonders if perhaps she has misspoke and Jaye is simply being polite in humoring her. But Alayne has seen Jaye speak to others over the devices and knows that her tone can wax brash as any sellsword. (It had startled her, at first, but then began to warily endear her; like Tommy, who was a brute capable of courtesy, the juxtaposition of a hardness against the softness they showed Alayne was welcome and wondered at and considered precious.) ]
You've met gods, [ she says, repeating. A question couched in a statement. ]
[ There's little point in hiding it anymore, not when the fact that she can shapeshift was given up to the ship when she was paranoid and frightened. ]
A lot of people have met gods, where I'm from. They just usually don't know that's who they met.
[ Pardon her, Jaye, if her level of conversation has slipped into the bemused and amazed parrot phase because this is, truly, a little beyond her reach. The lift of Alayne's eyebrows just lifts higher and her mouth forms a very small 'oh' shape before she speaks. ]
You work for a god? [ It's almost visible, the way her brain seems to search for some kind of foothold or context to place this possibility in and the closest it manages it something akin to a Westerosi nun. ] Like a Silent Sister or perhaps a septa? Are you sworn to your god — in both fealty and love?
Yes. [ Her head tilts, one hand tucking some hair behind an ear as she tries to figure out what those are and... completely fails. ] I have no idea what either of those are, though. But I'm sworn to him -- I'll be his minder until I die, if he doesn't fire me first. [ Or until Coyote dies, which she didn't think of as a possibility in her lifetime until recently. ] And when that happens, my apprentice will take my place.
But I didn't really lie, when I said I work with animals. [ Normally she wouldn't care, but... well, this is Alayne. ]
[ She may be a medieval princess, but let's not forget she's still a fifteen year old girl. Amazed parrot phase is a go. ]
Does your god mind animals? [ A pause, then a realization, followed by a poorly-hidden enthusiasm. ] Do you serve the children of the forest? They served the Old Gods and gave the North the weirwoods. [ Alayne's nose crinkles in embarrassment; did she sound a fool for being so eager, for prattling off Old Nan's stories as if there was some hope they were true. ] And they say the skinchangers and greenseers were among them.
[ A sudden color rises to Alayne's cheeks and it's unclear as to why that is. Unclear to anyone but Alayne herself as she feels a sudden rush of something like giddiness and relief fill her, like a pressure pushing against the inside of her chest. She knows; Jaye knows, she thinks. Perhaps she will understand. ]
[ Her brow furrows before Alayne even asks the question. She's noticed that color in the girl's cheeks and she's not sure why, which means there's something she's missing. ]
Wargs? [ There's a thoughtful hum, fingers rapping on something in the background -- probably a wall. ] They're related to wolves, right?
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I'm in 138, if you wanted to come over.
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Perhaps my father would not suffer as he does now. [ In the end, he will bear scars, and those will serve as her reminder.
Alayne considers visiting Jaye, considers taking a moment or two of time for herself. Only after a long moment, she tells Jaye: ] I do not wish for him to wake and his bedside be vacant.
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[ Jaye has been a frightened animal.
She considers pointing out that it was Alayne who asked if she would like company, but she's restless. Alayne could possibly calm her down but she doesn't want to be calmed down. She wants to fight and scream and she wants to stop waiting like a target, like an animal in a cage, so she just nods. ] Guess that makes sense.
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But that is Sansa Stark's secret and not Alayne's. It belongs to Bran, to the heart of a warg, and Alayne is neither Stark nor child of the forest. Just a girl with a leash and the song of a bird.
Quietly she nods, considering. Yes, she had thought to give Jaye company but she hadn't thought to leave Petyr's side and so she offers, self-concious that the offer may be rebuffed: ] Would you care to meet my father? And, perhaps, the Lords Stark? [ Neither Robb nor Bran is far from her. And neither are their wolves. ] Or— or the wolves?
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... Yeah, sure. [ She doesn't say that she ran into Robb and Grey Wind, because she was a wolf then and she's not a wolf now, though she knows the direwolf will remember. ] I guess I've never met a king before. Gods, sure, but no kings.
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You've met gods, [ she says, repeating. A question couched in a statement. ]
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[ There's little point in hiding it anymore, not when the fact that she can shapeshift was given up to the ship when she was paranoid and frightened. ]
A lot of people have met gods, where I'm from. They just usually don't know that's who they met.
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You work for a god? [ It's almost visible, the way her brain seems to search for some kind of foothold or context to place this possibility in and the closest it manages it something akin to a Westerosi nun. ] Like a Silent Sister or perhaps a septa? Are you sworn to your god — in both fealty and love?
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Yes. [ Her head tilts, one hand tucking some hair behind an ear as she tries to figure out what those are and... completely fails. ] I have no idea what either of those are, though. But I'm sworn to him -- I'll be his minder until I die, if he doesn't fire me first. [ Or until Coyote dies, which she didn't think of as a possibility in her lifetime until recently. ] And when that happens, my apprentice will take my place.
But I didn't really lie, when I said I work with animals. [ Normally she wouldn't care, but... well, this is Alayne. ]
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Does your god mind animals? [ A pause, then a realization, followed by a poorly-hidden enthusiasm. ] Do you serve the children of the forest? They served the Old Gods and gave the North the weirwoods. [ Alayne's nose crinkles in embarrassment; did she sound a fool for being so eager, for prattling off Old Nan's stories as if there was some hope they were true. ] And they say the skinchangers and greenseers were among them.
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[ No, not foolish. Jaye likes to hear the stories, likes to know that there are some other gods somewhere that are being kept alive by them. ]
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Does that mean you know of wargs?
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Wargs? [ There's a thoughtful hum, fingers rapping on something in the background -- probably a wall. ] They're related to wolves, right?