Quiet as still water... (Introduction)

[winter_came]

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[adoe_adeer]

Faraday is out in the forest, touching the trees, communing with them, drinking in the peace they give her. She knows she shouldn't, but so close to the edge -

Then she sees Ned, and starts, violently, almost leaping. "--oh!" Her eyes widen a bit. "Pardon - I did not see you there."

[winter_came]

Ned looks up at her - a non-threatening young woman, perhaps an envoy, then. "I come in peace," he tells her, reassuringly. "Pray not fear me."

To demonstrate his good will, he steps away from Ice, enough that it would be a stretch to reach for the sword.

[adoe_adeer]

She bites her lip and hovers, a moment, frozen very like the deer she is, wavering. And at last decides not to bolt. "No - not at all, only - I am told these woods are dangerous," flushing, a little, "I expected to see no one." She might have bare feet, her dress tied up around her knees for ease of movement.

[winter_came]

He gives her a reassuring smile. "Then forgive me for intruding," he tells her, gently. "In truth, I do not even know where I am."

She makes him smile, a little. Something about his little girl with the brown hair and the long face, and his wildling sister. But she is not Lyanna, as pretty as she is.

[adoe_adeer]

She shakes her head. "They hardly belong to me, these woods," and she might touch a tree, just for a moment, almost in a friendly, companionable way. "I was only surprised...I imagine you are as well, then," a bit guilty now, at her reaction.

[winter_came]

"Everything is a surprise," Ned tells her. She really does remind him of Lyanna, but she is not. "But forgive me. I should introduce myself, I suppose. Eddard Stark, lately Lord of Winterfell."

He doesn't bother with the Hand of the King bit. After all, he's a traitor, now - and such titles do not matter in death.

[adoe_adeer]

Faraday looks at once sympathetic. She understands. Death arrivals are hard.

And curtseys. "Faraday, only," she's lost all her other titles. "But be welcome, lord."

[winter_came]

He gives her a little smile. "Thank you, Lady. What of -- what of this place?"

Where am I getting judged? It's really not what I expected.

[adoe_adeer]

She hesitates, a moment, and then says, carefully, "What of it? There are...a number of things that might be said."

[winter_came]

"What is it, then, to start?"

[adoe_adeer]

"A house, or - rather, a place. It seems to...draw people to itself."

[winter_came]

"What manner of sorcery is it?" He's asking Faraday and just gasping at it at the same time.

[adoe_adeer]

She shakes her head a little. "I do not...I have no idea. I know little of sorcery."

[winter_came]

"And neither do I," Ned replies tiredly. "Are you a spirit of the woods, then?"

He's noticed of her touch on the trees, the way she walks barefoot. The maiden of the weirwoods, perhaps, or a sprite, or a spirit, come to guide him, perhaps.

[adoe_adeer]

She blushes, a bit, and almost says no, but then hesitates a moment. From what the Mother said, she thinks - but no. No use on that train of though. "No," with a quick shake of her head, "not I."

[winter_came]

He doesn't insist, but he does eye her bare feet, though. "And yet you are here, in the middle of no known place, feet bare and walking as though you were among friends," he says, not unkindly.