Chapter 49: Part XLIXNotes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I own nothing, just borrowing for a while.
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"Lies don't cause problems, but someone finding out the truth later does."
The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister – 325AC
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The Red Keep – King's Landing – 299 AC
Edric Dayne was a little taken aback by the reaction to what he had assumed Lady Arya would have already known. He had politely struck up a conversation with the girl in the reception room of the Lord Regents chambers while he waited for Lady Alys to do something with her hair that she insisted upon prior to them taking a stroll together through the gardens, but now he was wishing he hadn't. "Jon never told you?" he asked, nonplussed.
"Jon doesn't know either!" Arya exclaimed, throwing up her hands. "Father never told him. How do you know?" she asked suspiciously.
"My father told me, I've known for years, I didn't know it was supposed to be a secret or anything" Edric replied awkwardly. "She was a servant at Starfall, when I was born my mother had no milk so they gave me to Wylla to nurse in her stead" he explained. "Perhaps I should have talked to your father before mentioning it but honestly it never occurred to me that he didn't tell your brother who his mother was. I suppose my Aunt Allyria would have known not to say, perhaps she assumed my father had told me not to but he didn't."
"I'm glad that Alys wasn't ready when you came calling, or the subject might have never come up" Arya told him. "It's good fortune" she observed happily.
"Perhaps" Edric responded with rather less conviction. He certainly hoped that he hadn't earned the ire of Lord Stark by talking about it, perhaps it would have been better if he had accompanied Lord Beric today after all, he wondered?
Edric hadn't been present when the White Walker was dispatched and was therefore not required to attend when requests were made to give an account of it for the umpteenth time. At first he had accompanied the knight he squired for nonetheless, but it all became so dull and repetitive after a while that Beric had told him it would be a far more useful employment of his time to practice his swordplay or jousting, clean something or perhaps spend some time with his sweetheart. Edric had practised with his sword until his arm hurt, rode at rings to practice his jousting until his horse got tired and had cleaned and polished everything that needed it, so much of his time was his own, or rather Alys's perhaps.
"Is she still at Starfall, Jon's mother I mean?" Arya asked him hopefully, perhaps Jon would get the chance to meet her. Not knowing who she was must be awful for him she knew.
"No, I think she got married and moved away but I was only little at the time so I'm not sure" Edric told her apologetically. "Allyria might, we could ask her when she arrives at King's Landing, she should be here within the fortnight" he suggested.
Arya nodded then idly wondered what Jon's mother looked like. If she was Dornish like Edric she likely had the same skin-tone, a little darker than that of northerners, like they had a permanent sun-tan. If not for his blond hair Edric might even be mistaken by some for Rhoynish, the people that followed Queen Nymeria from Essos to Dorne seven hundred years ago, but she knew his House was descended from the First Men like her own.
Alys finally appeared, along with Eddard Starks older daughter who seemed to be fussing with the collar to Alys's dress as they entered. "Lady Alys, Lady Sansa" he greeted them formally with a bow.
"My Lord" Sansa responded, with a smile.
"Edric" Alys greeted him rather less formally with a kiss on the cheek that made him blush. "You look very handsome today" she told him.
"He looks lilac, he always looks lilac" Arya interjected, it was not the first time she had made comment that near every outfit he seemed to wear was made of cloth dyed in the colours of his House. "He knows who Jon's mother was, or is, he doesn't know where she is, but he does know who she is" she gushed to Sansa.
Sansa raised her eyebrows. "You do, Lord Dayne?" she asked in surprise.
Edric nodded. "Yes, she was a maidservant and wetnurse for House Dayne" he confirmed. "Her name was Wylla."
"A common servant, how surprising" Sansa responded sarcastically, her tone more than a little scornful to boot as well. She had never liked Jon, adopting much of her attitude towards him from her mother, and having it confirmed he was birthed by a lowborn lackey pleased her a great deal. It was only a shame Jon wasn't here to torment about it, she thought to herself regretfully.
"She was very nice, and very pretty" Edric felt the need to defend the woman. "My father always said she was as hardworking and conscientious as anyone that ever served our House and he was sad to see her go."
"I knew she had to be pretty, Jon is pretty" Arya observed with satisfaction.
"I've never met Jon, even though he's my milk-brother, but I'll wager my castle that he would prefer to be called handsome rather than pretty. My Lady" Edric advised her seriously.
Alys giggled. "You're pretty, Edric" she told him.
"I am most certainly not pretty" Edric replied with great feeling on the matter. A cousin from House Dayne of High Hermitage had once described him as adorable, and it aggrieved him so much at the time he nearly called her a bad word. It did not behove the future Dawn of the Morning to be described in such demeaning terms, he was most adamant indeed on that subject.
"Why didn't father tell him, I wonder?" Arya pondered aloud.
"Perhaps he didn't want him running off down to Dorne to find her?" Sansa suggested.
"I was going to tell him about his mother the next time I saw him" a familiar voice interjected. "I told Jon that when he set off to join the Night's Watch" Eddard Stark told them as he entered the room. "I would appreciate it if none of you tell him before I can" he requested. "I apologise for listening in on your conversation but when I heard Wylla's name being mentioned I had to."
Edric tried not to wince. "Lord Regent" he greeted the man. "I am the one that owes an apology if I spoke out of turn regarding her, I did not know it was supposed to be kept in confidence."
"There is no reason why you should, Lord Edric" Eddard Stark told him without anger. "Sansa had the rightness of it when she said I didn't want Jon running off to Dorne to find her before he was a man full grown."
"Are you going to tell him now?" Arya asked him.
"Jon has more than enough on his plate already right now" her father told her.
Arya pursed her lips. "Yes, I suppose so, what with him getting married and all" she reluctantly agreed.
"Jon did not get married, and how do you know about that?" Eddard Stark wanted to know.
"Don't look at me" Edric said quickly.
"I heard from Lady Alys" Arya explained.
"My father mentioned it in a letter a raven delivered to me from Karhold" Alys told the Lord Protector. "I didn't know it was supposed to be kept in confidence" she added awkwardly, intentionally copying the phrase Edric had previously used.
Eddard Stark looked from Alys to Edric. "I don't know if you're made for each other but for my part having you both hundreds of leagues away down in Starfall where you can't blab everything you hear to my daughters would uncomplicate my life immensely" he told them.
"Perhaps we should go for that stroll, Lady Alys" Edric suggested quickly.
"Excellent idea, My Lord" Alys wholeheartedly agreed, turning so that only Edric could see the grimace on her face.
"I might see you there presently, I need to take Lady for a walk" Sansa told them as Edric bowed to his hosts and then made a hasty exit with Alys.
"Nymeria needs a walk too" Arya told her sister.
"Well I'm not doing it" Sansa replied coldly.
"I walk Lady for you sometimes" Arya protested.
"Lady behaves herself and obeys a command to heel when instructed, Nymeria drags you through the flower-beds and bushes" Sansa replied flatly,
"One time she dragged you through a pond too" Eddard Stark recalled.
"Why are you always on her side?" Arya complained.
"I'm not but your sister's argument for not wanting to walk your direwolf for you has merit" Eddard Stark responded, amused as ever by Arya's exaggerations of the truth. "If nothing else your clothes are cheaper to mend after being dragged through the bushes than your sister's dresses are."
Arya frowned. "I thought that being the Lord Protector paid really well?" she queried.
"You've clearly never seen the bills from the seamstresses and shoemakers she single-handedly employs" her father joked.
"I'm going to be the queen. I have to wear the finest garments available" Sansa defended herself.
Eddard Stark chuckled. "The king himself spends a fraction on clothes that you do" she pointed out.
"He's a boy, that doesn't count" Sansa retorted. "It's easy for boys, they can always wear armour if they can't find a full matching ensemble that doesn't clash, or looks like something another girl is wearing to the same event."
"Properly fitted armour's expensive though" Arya observed thoughtfully.
"Thank you, Arya" Sansa responded, giving her sister a smile.
Arya shrugged. "I wasn't trying to help, just stating a fact" she said, the thought that she might have inadvertently helped Sansa irritating her a little.
"If you want to wear a chainmail hauberk to your next feast I'm more than happy to lend you one of mine" Eddard Stark offered. "Watch out to wear something suitable underneath it though, it can chafe" he advised looking pleased with his jesting.
"Very funny, father" Sansa replied, tone indicating she thought it was anything but.
"Can I wear your hauberk to the next feast?" Arya asked hopefully.
"If you put on a man's hauberk it would reach all the way to the ground and scuff the floor when you moved around" Sansa told her. "You have to wear stilts to look out the window."
"At least I'm not a freakishly tall camel-leopard like you!" Arya defended her stature.
Eddard Stark chuckled at his daughter's antics while also inwardly smiling at managing to get any more talk about Wylla side-lined for now. He couldn't postpone the inevitable conversation with Jon forever though and realised he needed to put some thought in how to handle it, truthfully or in Jon's best interests. Scheming, plotting, deceit and misdirection were definitely coming to him easier than they used to, when he thought about it he blamed being in the south too long.
Fortunately for Edric and Alys after their rapid departure from the scene it was a considerably quicker journey to reach the gardens on the way down than it would be on the way back up. Alys oft bemoaned the number of stone steps to be climbed and flights of stairs involved in navigating the Red Keep, but the downhill journeys were pleasant enough.
"It's warm today" Alys observed as they passed by a row of sculptures, they might have been holding hands if they were properly betrothed, or unobserved by others wandering through the gardens.
"We have very different perspectives as regards what a warm day is, My Lady" Edric told her, grinning. "Only northerner's regards weather as balmy if they're not suffering from frostbite."
"Only the Dornish regard weather as cold if you can't go around half naked, My Lord" Alys retorted, sticking out her tongue at him playfully.
"I fear you have been misinformed" Edric responded with a serious expression. "We're never out in public more than one-third naked" he told her deadpan.
Alys giggled. "Which third?" she asked, playing along.
"Depends on the company, and how sunny it is" Edric told her. "There are places you really don't want to get sunburned" he continued, sagely.
"Probably the same places you really don't want to get frostbitten" Alys replied, giggling once again. "Also I don't consider wearing Dornish clothes as covering up the remaining two-thirds all too well regardless" she told him. "A seamstress visited Lady Sansa bringing a selection of dresses for her to choose from and the one in the Dornish fashion was made with cloth so fine and lightweight you could almost see through it like it was glass. I can't imagine wearing something like that."
"Sounds… awful" Edric replied disingenuously, having immediately imagined her wearing something like that.
"Are you imagining me wearing something like that?" Alys asked, amused by the expression that had appeared on his face.
"No" Edric lied unconvincingly after an excessively long pause.
"You're a terrible liar, My Lord" Alys told him. "I find that very reassuring."
"You do?"
"Of course, it means you'll be inclined to always tell me the truth because I can see right through you like a Dornish dress" Alys explained her thinking on the matter. "If your Aunt doesn't object to our becoming betrothed will we formalise it straight away?" she asked.
"Probably, I mean I suppose we will, your father will have to give his assent in writing since he's not here" Edric replied.
"He might want to haggle over the size of the dowry when we're eventually wed" Alys warned.
Edric shrugged. "Most everyone does from what I've heard" he replied with seeming indifference as to whether it was going to be a generous dowry or not.
"You know we could do it the Wildling way" Alys suggested. "You tie me up and carry me off."
"Is that how they do it?" Edric asked, intrigued.
Alys nodded. "According to my father's letter that's how Lord Stark's son Jon did it, by accident in his case, he thought he was just taking her prisoner" she explained.
"I don't have any rope to tie you up with, sorry" Edric joked.
"Forget the rope, how about you just carry me back up all those stairs?" Alys suggested, tongue-in-cheek.
"Anything that my Lady Love desires" Edric replied chivalrously before suddenly throwing her over his shoulder and starting to walk towards the nearest exit from the garden. Once she got over the surprise Alys started to laugh uproariously, everyone in the vicinity stopping whatever it was they were doing and staring, some joining in the laughter.
"Put me down you daft 'apath" Alys eventually managed to say. "I was joking."
"As My Lady wishes" Edric replied, gently lowering her back to the ground.
"You Dornishmen are just as mad as they all say you are" Alys told him.
"It's the heat, fries your brains" Edric explained, grinning. "That and all the dragon-peppers in the food, makes you hot-blooded."
"Do that again and I'll push you in the water to cool you off" Ays threatened. "Back home I'd stick a snowball down the back of your neck."
"Considered me fairly warned, My Lady" Edric replied. "Shall we resume our stroll?" offering her his hand.
"We shall, My Lord" Alys, replied taking it. All things considered, worrying about being seen holding hands with him in public honestly seemed a tad redundant after being flung over his shoulder like a sack of flour in front of an audience.
Notes:
Note from the Author:
Jon Snow's mother was Wylla, a servant and wet-nurse who worked for House Dayne at Starfall, at least according to the official cover-story Eddard Stark concocted just in case. Although not mentioned out loud in Game of Thrones we might have seen her in episode 6x10 attending to Lyanna Stark and newborn Jon at the Tower of Joy. Wylla was later wetnurse to Edric Dayne, making him Jon's 'milk-brother' by Westerosi tradition. Edric told Arya about Wylla when they met in the books.
Arya calls Sansa a 'Camel-Leopard'. That's a very old name for a giraffe if you didn't know (or hadn't guessed).
Eddard Stark's life would be slightly less vexing if not for Edric and Alys telling Arya things about Jon (knowledge from both ends of Westeros converging inconveniently).