enthraller | ic

[...shit.]

Who are you? How did you get that device?

[At least Sansa had always seemed discreet. What the hell was she doing leaving this thing where others could get at it?]

I am Sansa's dear friend and her successor.

Answer my question!

[Why didn't Sansa leave damn notes.]

[Why didn't Sansa leave damn notes...]

I'll answer your question when I'm sure it's safe to do so. "Successor"?

Lady Sansa is no longer with us. I am now Lord of Cothromach, as I was her second in command.

[...Ugh. Dammit. He really didn't need this now on top of everything else. He'd had no love for the girl, but at least she was a known element in this whole game, and one that was obligated to cooperate with him if necessary.]

And how much did she confide in you, Lord of Cothromach?

She was like a sister to me.

Though apparently even sisters have secrets.

So again, I ask, who are you.

Which makes me wonder why she chose to keep this a secret from you specifically.

[Perhaps she didn't think it wise. Or perhaps she was just overly paranoid. To be honest, Saralegui hadn't thought much of her judgement. So yeah, maybe he'll throw this poor confused guy a rope.]

...Did she ever tell you the whole story of her near-engagement here?

I doubt she told anyone.

[So excuse you.]

Yes, she did. At least, that it was thwarted by her family.

[Okay no she hadn't told him the whole story.]

[The briefest little scoffing sound can be heard before he muffles it, remembering himself.]

Thwarted by her love-struck knight and her own stubbornness, rather.

[And that's one of the nicer ways he could put it.]

I was the one she was being set up to marry. And by that, I mean that the High Queen decided on this and made the veiled threat of an offer to Lady Sansa without my knowledge.

She never told me who she was to marry. Do you have a name?

[Still trying to sort this out, after all.]

And I am proud of her stubbornness, and her refusal. No one should be forced into such a thing. It's...it has never ended well, in my own world.

[Well. No point in keeping it quiet now.]

Saralegui. Lord of Redgate.

[He doesn't sound thrilled, but that might just be exasperation over Loras' blind pride for Sansa's decision.]

I'd respect it more if it were just Morla's offer that she refused. I wasn't any more interested in the arrangement than she was, after all. But our...mutual mentor had come up with a solution. He'd wanted us to cooperate anyway, so he suggested that she formally accept the arrangement and we maintain the appearance of a very long-term engagement until something better could be worked out. No one would have actually had to marry, and Cothromach would have been saved Morla's wrath.

I agreed to that arrangement, to protect those in Cothromach whose lives might have depended on it. But Lady Sansa decided against it, in the end. Apparently, she preferred to subject her people to a siege than pretend at a farce of an engagement for a while.

[Loras frowns, even if the man cannot see it. He is silent for a few moments, then speaks.]

Because of what Sansa went through, in Westeros...such a arrangement would be abhorrent. She had been played by such ideas, before.

[Still.]

My own sister has often married people she wasn't particularly interested in, to play the game. Tyrells--we know how to deal in arrangements.

Starks never have.

A family name isn't much excuse for leaving your people to suffer in your stead.

[Especially when he himself was prepared to deal with it too. He doesn't sound at all swayed by that justification, but he carries on even still with every ounce of politeness.]

Regardless, I took Redgate instead, and we made arrangements so that we could keep in contact quietly and cooperate when needed. You're holding the result of that.

Edited 2015-06-20 18:51 (UTC)

It's more than a name. You would have to understand what Westeros is truly like.

[Those who have never lived there, can't understand.]

Something that could get us both punished for treason.

[That's not an argument he feels like having, so he lets it go. There's a greater concern here right now anyway.]

Mm. So what will you do with that information, Lord of Cothromach? Report Lady Sansa's treachery to your queen? Or mine to my own, perhaps?

There is no point in reporting treachery of someone no longer here.

And to report yours would also gain me trouble.

I think the collaboration should remain, still.

[A pause, and when he speaks again it's with a carefully neutral tone, revealing nothing but perhaps just a hint of curiosity.]

...And what are you basing that decision on?

[It's one thing to acknowledge the pointlessness of reporting anything to anyone. But it's something else entirely to choose to continue with this despite the risk it carries. After all, it would be a simple matter to just toss this point of connection and drop the matter entirely.]

Sansa saw it best to keep the connection between you two. As did you, apparently.

There may be times when things greater than either court might arise.

This would be instrumental, in situations like that.

ic - inbox

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice

voice