Only A Northern Song ~ Game of Thrones / Willas Tyrell ~

Chapter Thirty Five: Threat

It had been at least three weeks, and Eddmina was certain Winterfell had never been quieter.

She was sure she'd rather be in Highgarden, a place that still felt new and unknown to her, rather than be in Winterfell while it seemed to echo in silence. She missed hearing Arya's footsteps as she ran from their septa, she missed Sansa's quiet voice calling down the corridors as she hummed pretty songs, she missed listening to Jon training with the other boys in the yard, she missed the sound of Bran's laughter as he climbed to escape their mother. Their absence was a painful, cutting silence, and it seemed to carry a sense of dread that Eddmina hated; the dread that it would be a long, long time before she heard those sounds in that castle again.

Every so often if she was in the courtyard, or the Godswood, or a specific corner of the library, she would expect to see her father, and his absence was also jarring. She'd missed him a great deal when she was down south, but it felt worse knowing he was the one gone from Winterfell. It felt wrong, for him to be so far away from his home. He was always the one who said it was bad luck for Starks to leave the North, yet he was the one who had followed honour over superstition, and now she was left feeling his absence deeply, like he was a ghost who's influence haunted all over the keep. Every day as she went about her business, working on the duties of Winterfell's running, she was constantly thinking about her father and what he would think, every action she made met with the consideration of whether he would approve of what she was doing. She wished her mother would be of more use helping her understand if she was doing the right things, but of course Lady Stark was yet to leave Bran's bedside.

Eddmina couldn't really blame her. Though Maester Lewin had practically guaranteed his survival, reassuring the Starks that he would wake soon, every night Eddmina struggled to sleep as her mind raced with the dreaded possibilities that came with Bran's injuries. Perhaps Willas telling her of his turbulent recovery hadn't helped as it gave her never ending worries regarding how badly things could still go for her little brother. Eddmina knew that he wouldn't walk again, and so even if he did wake he wouldn't be the same little boy he had been. He'd never be a knight, nor would he ever climb again, or hold a sword or ride a proper horse, and so the thought of his mental recovery as well as his physical made her worry endlessly. She wondered if her mother had considered all of that, or if she was too concerned with the prospect of Bran simply surviving, and if Robb thought the same, he was yet to tell Eddmina, the two of them still yet to speak.

With Robb's avoidance of her - and so, Theon's too - the only real company Eddmina had was Rickon, who spent most of the time following her around like a shadow, and Leonette, who acted as a constant reminder for how much Eddmina missed Willas. At least Leonette was the only one who attempted to make things seem normal, as everyone else accidentally reminded her of how uncharted the situation was. They spent as much time together as possible, and though both of them were bonded together over how much they missed the Tyrell men, she was the only one to bring a smile to her face. To avoid feeling Willas' absence Eddmina moved up to her old childhood bedroom while he was away, and Leonette joined her in the Stark famiy tower, taking one of the spare rooms nearby. Leonette provided a nice distraction from everything else happening around them, and was perhaps the only person to regularly remind Eddmina to take it easy and look after herself.

The days passed quickly and while Eddmina took over any sort of jobs that were usually her mother's, it was getting harder to ignore the fact that she was actually pregnant, especially when her bump began to grow more pronounced. She wasn't as sick as she had been, much to her relief, yet the other symptoms that came with it were just as hard. She was exhausted all of the time, but didn't feel like she had the right to complain, not when everyone else was rightfully concerned over her brother's health. She didn't want the attention, so she kept any sort of upset or concern entirely to herself. She wanted any sort of struggle to go unnoticed, keeping with the northern tradition of stoniness, but she wasn't nearly as successful as she intended.