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Post by Lysette Starling on Dec 26, 2019 17:10:10 GMT 1
Lysette couldn't sleep.
For the past few nights her rest had been tormented, haunted by emotions and thoughts that swirled and pounded inside her head. Pain filled memories she was determined to suppress and loss filled futures that she hoped would never come true.
She was sick of waking up in a jolt; tears staining her face and pillow as she silently wept through the night, sweating whatever liquid she didn't pour out of her eyes. She was sick of passing out from the lack of sleep, only to be gently shaken awake by her husband or a handmaid as she sat face first in a book or wherever her body had decided was its resting place.
Most of all, she was sick of staying quiet about it all.
The war that was coming wasn't what she wanted, by any means; it was foolish and unnecessary. Change on the Iron Throne wasn't going to happen through bloodshed, especially when the side of Fire wasn't as massive as Ser Daemon's supporters boast it is.
Men always have a way of overestimating their size.
But her mind is troubled on her cousin tonight: Wildfyre. He had a claim to the Throne as well, and was an excellent swordsman, no question about that. But he was also brash and brazen, and her dreams forewarned of a fate unfitting for the man that she knew he could be.
She would do what she could to make sure that fate wasn't a reality.
Tossing her covers to the side, she quickly wrapped herself up, grabbing one of the nearby candles as she briskly travelled the halls of Kingsbridge to her cousin's quarters, knocking on the door with urgency but quiet enough to not stir the entire hold.
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Post by Daeron Wildfyre on Dec 27, 2019 4:37:42 GMT 1
Perhaps to Lysette's surprise Ser Daeron is still up as he opens the door. His room is relatively simple compared to her own quarters, but it has become more lavish than many of his fellow Companions, a sure sign of his successes at the jousting lists.
Maps of the Reach, Westerlands, and several of the Riverlands are strewn across his table, clearly what he's been up so late studying.
"My lady, your presence is a surprise. Please come in." He invites her in showing her a seat, but is keen to keep his door open. Although she was his cousin (and sister-in-law too), she was a virtuous and married woman who could not be seen coming and going into the chambers of other men at night. An open door would at least protect her from any whispers of impropriety.
"What might I do for you at this late hour?"
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Post by Lysette Starling on Dec 27, 2019 6:42:42 GMT 1
Though subtle, a wave of relief washed over Lysette's face as he opened his door, tears already forming in the corner of her eyes again. She knew it was all a dream, and that there was no truth to the lies that her worried mind showed her, but the comfort that was found in discrediting it was certainly unmatched.
She smiled subtly, slipping past her cousin as she brought her hand to her face, wiping away the sadness from her eyes, "Forgive me, Daeron, for the hour." She moved to the table, not looking at him as she spoke, her eyes instead filing over the maps he had lain out, "I was worried that I would have woken you, but it appears that neither of us could get any sleep tonight." Lysette's tone was thick with hesitation, though remained masked with the warmness she was expected of; something was on her mind, but she was having a hard time getting it out.
"You know, for how long you have spent in Kingsbridge and how often we see each other, I cannot for the life of me recall our last conversation," she let out a gentle laugh, turning back to look at him, "Hopefully it wasn't anything too important, or at least, not important enough for you to remember either." Her smile faded slowly as she looked away again, hand brushing over the maps before she sat down, pulling one closer to her. She didn't speak for a moment, the subtle popping and crackling of the candle filling the air as the only indication of sound.
Finally, she started, voice remaining at almost a whisper as she continued to scour the map, her fingers tracing over the rivers and roads that segregate the realm into its many parts, "I had a dream. Have, for a fortnight at least. Its iterations vary, subtly, but they all share a common theme; one that I imagine has kept you up tonight as well," her eyes glance up at him, staring from beneath a furrowed brow, "War. It has crept in from my every waking moment and haunted my slumber. I've gotten no rest and no comfort because my mind has wandered to nightmares of pain, loss, and grief that I cannot bare to watch or dare to allow." Lysette's voice broke slightly as a tear dropped onto the map, her eyes pulling away from him as she bit her lip, shaking her head. She managed to shrug off the emotions, a trick she had mastered after years of study and practice, looking back to her brother in law with a hardened stare, though given through glossed eyes, "I fear for House Starling, and all its members. This endeavor you and many good men have pledged yourselves to will not meet a painless end. Though, I fear that your prides and arrogances have blinded you to it, and the loss is greatly overshadowed by the chance, the chance at glory."
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Post by Daeron Wildfyre on Dec 29, 2019 16:51:59 GMT 1
Lysette's tears were a surprise and made Daeron more than a little uncomfortable. It wasn't that emotions made him uncomfortable, he was perfectly fine dealing with the masculine feelings of others like anger, rage, or fury, but he always found himself a little less adept navigating anything that involved tears. So he handled it the only way he knew how, by letting her say her piece and hope that she would stop crying before he responded.
"We probably haven't spoken at length since your wedding day, and nothing of substance since that fateful tourney at Highgarden, but we've both been busy securing the future of House Starling, both in our own ways. You by securing a strong husband and alliance with House Florent, me by warding off Longtable's aggressions and helping to secure a future in which the noble traditions of the Companions are to be preserved."
He allows her to finish examining the map before gently sliding it away from her and rolling it back up and depositing it in a small basket with the rest of the neatly rolled pieces of parchment.
"I appreciate your concern, but I am a knight and skilled in the ways of war. It is what I have trained for my entire life. I'm not going to the Riverlands to seek glory, or riches, or any of those things. Plenty of that can be earned at the lists or in a melee.
I go to defend and ideal. The ideal that knights are the foundation upon which our kingdom is built and that we cannot be replaced with southron outsiders that don't share our history or northron peasants that don't share our faith. Bloodraven has assembled a private army with which he seeks to empower the Old Gods south of the Neck once more and House Blackwood's instigation of this conflict is just the opening salvo in a war that none of us can stop. I can choose to respond and go north to defend House Bracken against the heathen aggression, or I can sit idly by and allow men like Bloodraven and the Ironhand dominate the Riverlands.
It is not so dissimilar from Lord Eldon's rape of your handmaiden. I could have avoided pain and anguish by not joining in your father's challenge against House Merryweather, but to do so would abandon my ideals, a far greater loss than some blood."
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Post by Lysette Starling on Dec 30, 2019 17:12:18 GMT 1
Her jaw was clenched as he spoke, taking in his words carefully before speaking. At the mention of Lord Eldon, her brows furrowed together, and her tongue lashed out, "My father's challenge of House Merryweather was the right thing to do, and you joining him in that was the right thing to do. But you also had a responsibility to heed my father's order because you swore an oath to him. To do anything against his orders would be breaking that, and would be a tarnish on your morals and loyalty. Unless the command he gave was immoral, which I highly doubt will ever happen, you have an obligation to obey him, and one day, many years from now, me." As much as she was against the use of emotion, her passion and anger was certainly present in the words she spoke. "Those who side with Bracken are breaking an oath to their king, despite their opinions of him. He sits on the Iron Throne, and is a wise and just ruler. He heeded my plea to bring Eldon to justice, despite a lack of it received, and is wise enough to know who was the muck that your father crowded himself with. Breaking that oath isn't moral, it isn't anything but disloyalty to the Realm that they seem to care so much about,"
She took a moment to relax, letting out a deep and powerful 'hmph', as her nostrils flared, a long exhale following. Her head shook slightly as she bit her lower lip, chewing on a piece of skin before speaking, "The ideal you go to defend is a rhetoric I have heard over and over since I was a girl. I respect it because I have to, because the world we live in is established on that ideal." She looked at Wildfyre in his eyes, "But it is filled with oppression and prejudice. Distrust to a land that had done nothing wrong except refuse to be conquered by your ancestor. The King sought to end that distrust and finally put an end to a war we have been fighting for generations. He seeks to change the Realm because the Realm needs to change!"
Her voice is calmer now, "I seek the change he strives for too. Because that ideal of knights being the foundation of the kingdom has no place for a woman in power." She straightens up in her seat, "How many of the men on the Bracken front, excluding those who come from House Starling, do you think would obey a leader with teats? Would see her more than her body and value her for the mind she possessed? The strategies she made, the lands she ruled, the people she protected?" She opens her hands to him, "The morals you have are not in question Daeron, but the people you side with? The men that lead you? I don't think they are exactly the moral elite when it comes to the conflict,"
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Post by Daeron Wildfyre on Jan 2, 2020 4:13:55 GMT 1
To his credit Daeron listened patiently and allowed his cousin to speak without interruption. As she spoke he poured them some refreshments. They might hold opposing views, but he could still be hospitable. Passing her over a wooden cup full of a pale ale he patiently sips from his own as he waits his turn.
"On the matter of your father issuing an immoral order we can agree, he would never ask anything unjust of himself nor another.
However, to claim that the Brackens are breaking an oath to the king for defending themselves is a preposterous claim. Every nobleman has a right to defend his lands and rights against aggression and I see no reason why others cannot join them in their defense. Moreover, given that Bloodraven has been assembling a secret army for the last several months, solid evidence that he has been planning for this attack for some time.
As for the Dornish, you know well enough that their dusky skin and sour wines don't bother me. I wore the favor of Lady Shiera Woodwright at the Black Tourney and saved Esmerelle from a life in a brothel. However, I do not trust the Dornish. They murdered our king under a flag of truce and the late Lord Tyrell when he was a guest and for their efforts they were rewarded with a royal marriage and seats on the Small Council. That said, I don't condone the outright hate towards the Dornish expressed by men such as Lord Oakheart or Ser Balon Blackbriar, but don't pretend that the loyalists to the Iron Throne don't have their own number of villains and ambitious men who seek their own elevation at the expense of others."
He takes a small sip, not out of thirst but to give the conversation a small pause.
"Do you really think that King Daeron's supporters are going to give more of a voice to women than Ser Daemon's? Lady Helicent Cockshaw ruled Three Feathers in her own name was an avid supporter of Ser Daemon's cause and she was murdered for that support while Lady Melara Hightower seeks the regency at Oldtown with the support of Blackfyre's partisans as opposed to Ser Raymun. So you see that it's not that simple."
He looks his cousin straight in the eye, his gaze intense, but not unfriendly.
"I legitimately believe that we have the same goals. We both would like to see House Starling achieve security, wealth, and influence and we both desire to see Lord Eldon brought to justice. We just disagree on the best way to achieve those goals."
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