"Why would a woman want to go to Castle Black?" Orivel spoke through a loud laugh. The way he spoke made it seem that he guessed her answer would be just as stupid as the thought of a woman roaming Castle Black was.
"Because it is the last place any...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
There's a beast in every man, and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand.
Castle Black, 301 AC
Elyana sat in the dining hall; men pushed in on either side of her. Her eyes were fixed on her food, which remained as horrible, in both taste and smell, as it was on her first day.
Her reaction to the ale was much worse, but she drank it despite the putrid taste. She would scrunch her face with every sip, but always managed to swallow a mouthful of the liquid without sticking her tongue out in disgust. Over the days she grew better at hiding her distaste for it, and if she was to remain in Castle Black for much longer, she was sure that she would get used to the taste.
When a man cleared his throat from the front of the large room, Elyana looked up with only her eyes instead of her whole head.
"Brothers," Jon addressed, but no one paid him any mind as they continued to eat chat amongst themselves. Elyana sighed and dropped her fork, waiting with Jon for everyone to quiet down.
Finally, a loud series of bangs sounded from a few tables in front of her, and she found the source to be Grenn with a hand over his cup as he continuously brought it down on the table. He turned and made sure that everyone had their eyes up, and when he briefly met hers she looked to Jon.
It was foolish—he thought her to be a scrawny, bastard boy—but Elyana found herself thinking of the man or searching the yard for him while she sat and dug at her hole in the stairs. He was kind, and he was the only man in Castle Black apart from Suller that she could see herself trusting.
"I'm going beyond the Wall the Craster's Keep," Jons words captured Elyana's attention immediately, and she sat up straighter in her seat. "I'm going to capture the mutineers holed up there or kill them. I'm asking for volunteers to come with me. There's sixty miles of wilderness between here and Craster's, and Mance Rayder's has an army bearing down on us, but we have to do this. Our survival may depend on us getting to those mutineers before Mance does," he continued, and Elyana took a moment to look around the room, trying gather the brothers thoughts on the proposition.
When her eyes met Ser Orivel's, he was already watching her. He knew what she was thinking, and he slowly shook his head to dissuade her from volunteering.
She made no movement to reassure him, instead looking back to Jon. "They know that Wall, they know our defences. If Mance learns what they know, we're lost."
Going beyond the Wall was enough reason for Elyana to want to go, in fact, it was enough to set her decision in stone. She had spent hours looking at the land over the Wall since she arrived, and perhaps this trip was her chance to see just how survivable it was. If they kill the mutineers at Craster's, perhaps she could take up residence in the newly empty keep.
