o1 // voice

[greenstark]

[The voice feed starts with a half a minute of silence, almost as if some accident has caused it to be turned on. And then--a quiet sound, almost like a dog's yip, but with a rougher edge. Another yip, coaxing, and finally, something more human, a breath--]There’s a tale of a scrying glass that was used to talk across leagues and oceans, but it was

Comments

voice;

[danceswithwater]

[Unlike her (some may say) more sensible siblings, Arya tended to never be too close to the wagons. With the fear of simply losing them by wandering too far gone due to magics, she hardly saw much need for it. When she wished to wander off, she did so. And a night of sewing and watching sewing was not on her list of entertaining evenings. So when Bran's- what sounded like Bran's- voice suddenly crackled from her wrist, rather than look up from the fire by the wagons, she nearly fell out of the tree limb she'd been balancing bare foot on. She swiftly swung a leg over to sit on it before she replied.

No.]

Who are you?

[Bran was dead. The magics had finally turned against them to taunt rather than help. Ans Sansa...no, Jon and Robb were there. They'd stop her from doing anything stupid with this changeling.]

voice;

[greenstark]

[This is a voice that he knows, this is Arya, and hearing her is like having the wind knocked out of him. A little older, maybe, fiercer, but Bran knows her voice.

He swallows. Unless this is a dream. Only a dream could be this sweet. He brings the enchanted bracelet closer, as if it can bring her closer, or prove something.]

Arya?

voice;

[danceswithwater]

I know who I am.

[She bit her lip hard once she'd said it. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair to do this. Death was a cruel thing, but to then parade the voices of the dead before them was too much. If it were possibly for Bran to be here, she'd be shamed by this kind of a reaction, but she knew the truth of it- they all did. She only had two brothers.]

Now tell me who you are. Who you really are. Don't think I'm that stupid.

voice;

[greenstark]

[She couldn't have forgotten him, not even if she was older. Was there a magic that made people to forget? But she wouldn't. Not even if there was a magic that tried to make her. Or else it was a dream--Arya might not know if if it was a dream--or perhaps it was a different Arya, an Arya that he didn't know?]

Arya, it's me. It's Bran. Your brother, Bran. You know who I am, too.

voice;

[danceswithwater]

I know who my brother is, and my brother's dead.

[She's have attempted to toss the bracelet aside with that, if it weren't for the fact it was firmly attached to her wrist. What creatures were these to attempt this?]

voice;

[greenstark]

[....oh. She had heard news of Winterfell--wherever she was.]

No, Arya-- I'm not. I'm here.

We thought you dead, after-- [He doesn't finish that, though; his stomach twists. Stupid baby.] We didn't hear any news of you.

Where are you?

voice;

[danceswithwater]

Liar. I won't tell you that.

[Her lip was going to start bleeding at this rate. Still, what if...what if...]

Say something only Bran Stark would know. The real one.

voice;

[greenstark]

[I'm Bran, but insisting on it won't convince her. She should believe me. He's quiet a moment.]

I don't know what you want me to say.

voice;

[danceswithwater]

[I don't know either. She could feel tears gathering, and she was thankful to the gods this was simply over her bracelet rather than face to face. She couldn't have stood that.]

You died.

voice;

[greenstark]

I'm not dead. I swear it, Arya, I'm telling it true. [He stares down at the wristlet, uncertain.]

I called my direwolf Summer. He's here. Yours is Nymeria. [And, again:] I'm not dead.

voice;

[danceswithwater]

Then tell me why everyone thinks you are.

voice;

[greenstark]

I don't know.

[Because they have to think that. He isn't sure, yet, if he should all of it.]

Come and find me. I'll show you.

voice;

[danceswithwater]

I told you, I'm not stupid.

[Face-changers are nothing new to this girl...but there's the sound of her climbing down out of the tree anyway.]

Looking like him doesn't count.

voice;

[greenstark]

I don't have any other way to look.

[Perhaps he should be more suspicious, just as she is. She was thought dead--but no one could be Arya, not this perfectly. It is her, just as it is Jon and Sansa and Robb, too.]

There's a wagon--that's where I am, with Summer.

voice;

[danceswithwater]

[That causes her to doubt her own suspicions for a moment- it's hard to fake a direwolf, and if Ghost and Grey Wind approve...]

I'm coming. Don't do anything.

voice;

[greenstark]

I won't. I'm waiting.

[And he is, in the back of the wagon, with Summer lying next to him, his head resting on his paws. He had gone off with Ghost at first, too eager to be contained, but came back after a bit. Bran keeps one hand on the direwolf's back, waiting for Arya. His throat feels queerly tight.]