PART ONE-CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Happiness would lose its meaning if it is not balanced by sadness."

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She was on her way to her mother's chambers, feeling unusually cheery upon the prospect of meeting her mother for the first time in years now. After sending a raven with her letter to Robb, which as estimated might reach Winterfell sometime this eve, she was just eagerly waiting for Robb's response. And the fact that she and Robb don't have to stop talking even if they aren't together made her happy.

She reached the door to the chamber and was about to ask the guard to open the door, but she abruptly stopped him when she heard a little bit of the conversation, and put a finger to her lip, asking him to stay as quiet as he can.

"So you agree, the Starks are enemies." Joff's voice unmistakably.

"Anyone that isn't our family, is an enemy. And you keep your family close to you, no matter what. Remember that." Her mother said.

She then heard the footsteps coming and made her best effort to make it look like she had just arrived when Joff suddenly opened the door. "I shouldn't have snapped at you last night." he said. But before she could say anything, he turned and walked away, and Rhea couldn't help but realise that he didn't mean his apology at all.

She then went inside the chamber. " You called for me, mother?" She asked, and when her mother asked her to sit, she sat on the chair, which had some ointment on it, with a little cotton dabbed in it. Upon instinct, she reached to her mother and asked, "Are you hurt, mother?" 

But her mother just maintained a stony face and gestured for her to get back to the chair, and said "I was just cleaning Joff's wounds from the direwolf's attack. That's all, I'm fine."

"You're probably wondering why I called you." her mother said, and Rhea nodded. "I just wanted to ask you about your relationship with Robb Stark. After yesterday's events, I don't feel very safe about them, and I just want to make sure I'm not making a mistake by sending you to a place where you have nobody to trust. And of course, even Robb Stark, as chivalrous as they claim him to be, could set his direwolf on you one day, as his sister did to your brother." All this she said, without even looking at her face, but at the window behind her, which showed another tower of the castle.

Rhea wanted to point out the fact that Arya did not set her wolf on Joff, but years of experience screamed at her from the inside that it would end badly so she, for the sake of maintaining the civility in the chamber, had just agreed with her mother.

"Robb..he's not like anyone I've met before. Sure he has his own rough edges, but he's a good man, and you don't find many of those in this kingdom. He treats me better than most and is very sweet to me too. The time we spent at Winterfell has also made his family accept me into their lives, and I could tell you for sure that his direwolf likes me too. So you have no reason to worry, mother."

Her mother listened to her with intent and sipped on her wine as she did so. "Very well then, Rhea. Run along." she said, but she wasn't so okay about the fact that her mother had expressed concern for her, without a reason. "Is there a reason you wanted to know?" she asked her mother, and her mother smiled a little, that smile she smiled when she was calculating and processing her thoughts.

"Tell me, Rhea, have you ever seen myself and your father together anytime without wanting to tear each other apart?" she asked, and Rhea nodded her head no. 

"Well...." she said, and her mother got the point that she didn't want to say anything that would offend her mother or her father in absentia.

"It requires a certain amount of strength to go through with a marriage like that, for not a year or two, but eighteen years, and possibly for the rest of my life. I will be honest with you, my dear girl. You are too naive and vulnerable to even go through a marriage like that and come out unscathed. I just had to make sure. I might have not expressed it, but I do care, and my children would be treated nothing less than what they really are-Princes and Princesses-even when they wouldn't be later on."

Again, all this she said while looking at the window, at the bloody tower. How hard has looking people in the eye become?

"All right." Rhea said and walked out, but she didn't fail to notice that her mother said that she cared.

She walked through a passageway and saw Ned Stark and Sansa, along with her septa, having their food. "I haven't played with dolls since I was eight. Can I leave now?" she asked and walked away, positively angry.

She then entered the chamber and said, "Sansa isn't in good spirits today. Do I have your leave to go after her, Lord Stark?" with worry on her face.

"You don't have to ask Princess." he said.

"I might be a Princess to everyone else, but I was hoping I would be a daughter to you, Lord Stark. And if you see me that way, then you would see why I asked your permission." she said and smiled.

Then, she saw Ned Stark smile, and he said, "You are a daughter to me, and I'm sorry if I made you feel otherwise, Princess."

"Then you could start by not calling me Princess." he said, and smiled a little.

"Very well then, Rhea. As for your request, yes child, you can. And I'd like you to know that you don't need permission from me for all this." he said, and kissed her forehead.

"Old habits are hard to break." she said, and the septa said, "Winterfell will be a good home to you, Princess. The old habits that you've wanted to break, however constraining they are, can be done." she said, and Rhea laughed.

"That sounds good. But please septa, it's Rhea for you too." and she gestured to go after Sansa, and left.

She didn't hear Ned Stark when he said, "You think I made the right choice at least with this one?" And the septa said, "I believe so. The girl has a heart of gold from what I've seen, unlike her mother. All she needs is some company, and that she is ready to find in her future family. I think she is a good match for your son."

***

Dear Robb,

How's everything going on there? Better than here I hope. Not that any of what is happening here is bad, but, I suppose it could be better. Winterfell has left its mark on me well enough for me to yearn to get out of the palace, my home.

Things have been going well recently. I've been getting along with Arya quite a lot, which both of us believed to be quite tough. I would consider it my greatest accomplishment in all my sixteen years of living.

Arya had gone missing for a whole day, and when they found her, Joff and her had gotten into another fight, it ended up with Nymeria biting his arm-can't say I'm angry at both of them, after hearing both their sides of the story, I feel inclined to support both of them on their stance. Can't pick between one sibling and another, you would know. Anyway, it is a long story, something I intend to share when we meet next, or actually hold that thought. I'll watch as Arya tells you- she might not know it, but she is a gifted storyteller.

Otherwise, the palace is still the viper's den I described to you earlier, but I suppose that's what makes it home.

How's Bran? Is he doing well? I heard he woke up! That's excellent news!

All my blubbering and rambling aside, the whole point of me writing this letter to you is to you is for me to tell you that I've missed you and our pointless talks, which somewhere along the way has become one of the few things that matter to me.

I'm hoping to meet you soon enough, and I can only hope that you feel the same.

Your Princess,

Rhea.

Robb read the letter and smiled, and had occasionally laughed too. It was good to know that she wanted to talk to him, even when she has a chance to actually ignore him, and that made Robb feel good because he wasn't the only one who felt that way because that would be very awkward.

"Look at you, you look like Beth when she caught a butterfly months ago!" Sara said, her voice straining from the confines of her bed. She had woken up a little while after his mother expressed her desire to ride to King's Landing, and he couldn't have been happier. Bran had woken up too, and everything in the realm felt perfect, apart from his mother's theory. But yet, he still couldn't lift the weight off his shoulders that none of this would have happened to Sara if not for him, and that's what kept him in Sara's chambers even when she was conscious but asleep. But it's not just that, it's the worry of his mother going alone is what frightened him. She might be gone with Ser Rodrik, but Robb still didn't feel good. But all those thoughts came to a halt when Sara started talking.

She's definitely awake now.

"Shut up. I'm starting to wish you hadn't even woken up, now that you've gone back to teasing me." he said, and laughed. 

"No, you don't." she said, and gathered all the energy she could muster, and threw a  pillow at him, and then she laughed, that beautiful laugh that he thought he would never see again, after what his stupid brother had done to her.

"Letter from Rhea?" she asked, as she got up a bit, and sipped on some water from the nearby goblet.

"Yes." he said, and after thinking it over, he added "And I'm not letting you read it." and smiled.

She smiled too, a little, and looked out the window.

"He made a mistake, Sara. I love him, but I hope he comes to his senses soon enough." Robb said, knowing exactly what she had been thinking. 

"If picking himself over others for the first time in his life was a mistake, then I'm all for learning my common tongue again, for I seem to have forgotten what the meaning of the word mistake is. Now, not another word about Jon. Please." she said and tried to get off the bed, succeeding. Maester Luwin then came in, looking happy at her development.

"Looks like my little apprentice is up and walking!" he said, and Sara laughed. 

Robb then got up and said "I'm going to go see Bran. Catch you later, you big annoying piece of crap." She snorted and Maester Luwin laughed, more so when he took another hit to his back with another one of the pillows when he was nearing the door.

He walked to Bran's chamber and heard Old Nan telling him some stupid story again. He opened the door and asked, "What are you telling him now?" 

"Only what the little lord wants to hear." he smiled a bit, and said "Go get supper, I want some time with him." and Old Nan walked out of the chamber.

"One time she told me that the sky is blue because we live in the eye of a blue eyed giant named Macomber." he said, trying to lighten his brother's clearly distressed mood, which he doubted was because of Old Nan's story.

"Maybe we do."

"How do you feel? You still don't remember anything?" and he shook his head no. 

"Bran, I've seen you climb a thousand times. In the wind, in the rain, a thousand times. You never fall-"

"I did though. It's true, isn't it? What Maester Luwin says about my legs?" he asked, and Robb wanted to punch someone. It wasn't fair for his brother to have to go through this, at all. But he couldn't plant false hopes either, or having them dashed would feel worse. So he gritted his teeth and nodded his head yes. But what he said next was what got on his nerves.

"I'd rather be dead."

"Don't ever say that." he begged him, though it would have looked a bit firm.

"I'd rather be dead." he said again, with equal firmness.

And Robb didn't know what to do. He really didn't so he went to his room and started putting everything he felt into a letter to the one person who he knew would be ready to listen to anything he says.

Dear Rhea.....

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