House of the wolf

While Beth sews the cuts on my back together she explains “Sansa… I hope you don´t mind me saying this milord” 

I shake my head “Please just tell me, anything you say stays between us” 

“At first when Ned Stark was captured and Arya was missing and you were presumed dead, the way she acted… it was like she was unaware of how bad the situation was like she just expected everything to work itself out,” Beth says as she aggressively sows my wounds together while venting about her friend's mentality.

I close my eyes and think about my little sister and surprise myself with how easily I can picture Sansa going into Lala land. I mean she grew up hearing of nothing but knights in shining armor who fight for fairness and justice or thoughtful princes who ride on beautiful horses.

My personality was mostly set by the time I heard these stories in this world so I had a foundation to fall back on.

But for her, those were the stories she built her life around for that fantasy to crumble in the way it did for her, I can´t imagine the effect.

Beth continues “But after… what happened to Lord Stark happened, it was like she finally woke up. Even though she kept her polite manners and courtesy, her eyes were not as hazy they were… sharper somehow” Beth concludes.

Even though Beth does not give me a diagnosis on the level of a psychiatrist nor could I properly analyze such things, but her words shine a lot of light on my sister's previous mental state. It seems to have worked itself out but I will have to keep an eye out if she exhibits more serious delusions in the future.

“Turn around Beth,” I say as I rise from the bath

I look at the wound on my thigh and see although it's bleeding the stitching on my thigh is still holding and sigh in relief although Beth is reliable she is young enough that to stitch a man in such an area where I could do nothing to cover up it could be a traumatizing experience for her at the very least it would be a core memory. 

I dry myself up and start to put new clothes on I see that Brienne is looking at me but definitely not looking at my eyes, in a daze while clumsily scrubbing Catylin with the cloth.

“So Brienne, how did you enter the services of my mother?”

She snaps back to reality her face turning so red it changed the temperature of the room “I-I was in Renly´s Kingsguard when your Mother came to negotiate, that was when I met her” 

She goes on to explain how Renly died in an assassination she believes was ordered by his brother Stannis and she was framed for it leaving only Catylin who defended her honor and vouched for her, denying that she had anything to do with Renly´s death.

I listen to her speak of her journey for a while and the longer she speaks the more I realize I am listening to a truly kind person it´s almost insane how kind she is.

In her, I can recognize the virtue that very few women like my mother and Sansa have in their hearts and the honor even fewer men have like my father and Robb that they had rooted deep in their souls.

Because I recognize it in them, I can see the same things in her making me sigh in my mind. There is nothing the world loves crushing more than earnestness and she has that in spades, it must not have been easy. 

I mean the only reason she has not thrown her life away to avenge Renly is that she swore her sword to my mother, hell I knew Renly longer than she did, all he did for her was the small kindness of not mocking her and she goes to those lengths for him. 

“Well Brienne, I´m sold now that I´ve returned to Winterfell I can officially be considered the King in the North and accordingly I will need a Kingsguard but since there are almost no knights in the North it will not be called a Kingsguard but the purpose will be the same, whatever I will call it, mine will have about ten members and I will save a spot for you. You don´t have to answer right now just think about it for a while”

“Ok let's get her dry and back to bed” I finish as I scoop Catylin out of the water. The mineral-rich water from the hot springs has already done wonders for her condition her skin while not healthy looks much better. 

I dry her and put a gown over her to cover her then pick her up to carry her back really taking in how light she is right now making me say “Brienne whatever your answer is promise me you´ll at least pass a message” 

Pumped up from my words she jumps at the chance to do a noble act “I swear on my honor I will pass any message you want me to deliver” she says as we reach Catlyin´s room and I put her on the bed

“Good, when my mother wakes up have sent to her room grilled fish and a bunch of vegetables and tell her that if she does not finish every last bite, I will tan her hide until it is as red as her hair” She stumbles in the doorway looking at me gobsmacked.

“You gave your word don´t change a word of what I said either” I finish as I walk out now with a stylish cane that I use to walk off to see the prisoners Luwin mentioned.