❈ | 001 | Video

[dont_tell_sansa]

[Arya has gotten the basic mechanics of this thing worked out - mostly with Alayne's help, but okay also with general poking at and figuring wtf a space bar is for. So there's some garbled text at first - she hit the phone with her elbow - and then the video clicks on. Arya's turned away, and what's visible of her profile is distressed. It's hard

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( action )

[bastarding]

[ Alayne is in the recesses of the apartment, busying herself with the task of cleaning broken glass from a bedroom floor. The space in which she had slept previous to Arya's arrival was far too small for the both of them and so, with some reluctance and an equal portion of fighting, Alayne had agreed to let her little sister - no, brother - acquire new quarters.

This process had proven to be neither easy nor elegant and so, Alayne finds herself stooped over what remains of a bedroom window when her sister calls out to her from elsewhere in their quarters.

When she appears a moment later in the doorway, she looks cross, though this surprises no one. ]

Leave it to you to find the means to break a knife.

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[bastarding]

[ Alayne's eyes lift from the blade to find Arya's face. She tips her chin and again speaks in that voice, the one that had demanded spoken of the Lannisters, that had demanded gratitude for Petyr Baelish on Sansa Stark's behalf. ]

Father says.

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[dont_tell_sansa]

[It made Arya look up at her sharply. Then she was wrenching the knife out of the table.]

Your father.

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[bastarding]

Yes. My father.

[ Alayne dropped herself onto the seat beside Arya, her eyes still holding her gaze levelly. ]

And what of yours? [ Alayne had urged Arya to think on him, to conjure a lie she favored and would be best and easiest to tell. ]

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[dont_tell_sansa]

[Arya turned the blade over and over in her hand, frowning as she tried to remember the story she'd come up with.]

I never met him. I ran off to find him, after Mother died. To have adventures with him. I went to Saltpans, then to King's Landing. I never found him. [A name leaped to mind, though she scrunched her face at it.] His name was Tom. Mother told you, and you told me.

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[bastarding]

Mother told me, and I told you.

[ Alayne repeated the words. They were not hers, they belonged to her brother, for the tale she told was Artos' story. There was a part of her - not so small nor secret - that was pleased to be included in it. She nodded. ] Had I known you would run, I would have held my tongue.

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[dont_tell_sansa]

[Arya nodded, reaching for other details, trying to spin the like as Alayne had on the street.]

But I had to go looking. Because - because the Faith bored me. You said you thought he was a hedgeknight, and I wanted him to teach me.

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[bastarding]

[ It pleased Alayne in a private, knowing sort of way, to see Arya pick up the lie in attempt to spin it further. ]

But you'll never be a knight, will you.

[ There's something in her voice as she says it. It isn't a question. Alayne despises knights, though she has taught herself to smile at them as sweetly as she would anone else. ]

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[dont_tell_sansa]

No. [Maybe she spent too long with the Hound - maybe she saw too many knights at the Twins, at Harrenhal, and too few helping anything. But didn't care for that, either.

She's back to opening and closing the knife, uncertain where to go with the lie.]

I don't know what I want to be.

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[bastarding]

[ Alayne watches the knife and sees that restlessness as uneasiness. She wonders what other lies Arya Stark as told in the past, but she does not ask after them. ]

A sellsword? You've a love for blades.

[ There's a touch of distaste in her voice when she says it. ]

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[dont_tell_sansa]

[Arya pulls a face at her for that distaste, and rolls her eyes. But she can't say she doesn't like the idea.]

I was going to King's Landing, [she starts, then pauses, looking back up at Alayne.] Did we meet in the Eyrie?

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[bastarding]

[ Alayne's father has employed sellswords, to strengthen the men in his court as he vies for control over the Seat of the Vale. Most are churlish, and some are handsome, though Alayne has eyes for none of them. ]

You followed me there, upon hearing of Lord Baelish's engagement to Lysa Arryn. And you caught me, with your nimble feet, just before ascending the mountain.

[ Alayne imagines that Arya would have enjoyed that ascent. It was terrifying to her, of course, both up and down. But Arya is fearless in ways that Alayne is not. ]

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[dont_tell_sansa]

[Engagement to Lysa Arryn. That still sat uncomfortable with her; Alayne's father was Sansa's uncle. But Sansa was dead, a little voice whispered, and she pushed it away with a nod. A moment later, though, she lowered her voice.]

What was it like? Ascending?

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[bastarding]

[ Sansa Stark had found the thought terrible as well. But there was new use to struggle against it; father had made sure the story would hold before he draped it about Alayne head and shoulders like a cloak spun of lies and gold.

Alayne shut her eyes at Arya's question. She could feel the wind upon her face. ]

Terrible. But not near as terrible as the descent. Father had gone down ahead and had left me with Sweetrobin and the others. But the snows had come and there was no choice but to descend.

It was to me to make sure Sweetrobin did not fall from his mule.

[ I was not brave, Alayne thought. But I succeeded. ]

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[dont_tell_sansa]

Was it steep? I thought it would be fun. [But she eyed Alayne suspiciously; Sansa had never thought things were fun, either. Maybe Alayne was equally dull. But a glitch in their lie made her frown, and lower her voice.]

Who's Sweetrobin?

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[bastarding]

[ Alayne opened her eyes and looked at Arya again. ]

Sweetrobin is Lord of the Vale - son of Lord Jon Arryn and his wife Lady Lysa, both dead.

[ Sansa Stark's cousin. Arya's cousin as well, though Alayne does not say these things aloud. ]

There was girl there, brother. Her name was Mya Stone and she was keeper of the mules. It was her task to guide visitors both two and from the Eyrie and she was brave and beautiful and never once wore silks, only leathers and iron.

[ Alayne smiled, albeit faintly. She had liked Mya very much, though she had never understood her unwillingness to be pretty. ]

She told me something during our descent. Would you like to hear it.