Three Fates Bound By Scars

Who are you?

 In the upper rooms of a lofty palace, not far from the ballroom, flitted about a dozen attendants and a man. The room was polished and bright, the stone in the dressing room was cream colored and emitted a warm glow, illuminating the surrounding faces more than the slits of moonlight could through the windows. Arryn shrugged uncomfortably, shaking off the cold before picking up his chalice. He took another sip of wine as a nervous tailor's boy adjusted his tunic with pins and a bit of string. Stealing another glance at the door he twitched in annoyance realizing Elias probably intended to drag this out. He seethed and the boy with the pins fumbled at his jerking, dropping the tin of pins that he held at Arryn's feet.

Arryn stepped away from the boy and the few other close attendants, raising his cup for another drink before asking, "Where is my brother?"

An older man skulked from where he was giving directions to a younger girl and bowed his head a little. "Your grace, Elias is still gathering himself for the ball..."

Arryn shook his head irritably at the man's poor answer and frayed tone of voice. They're still terrified of him - but then again, he doesn't make things any easier on me.

"I didn't ask what he was doing Mylar, I asked where he was." Arryn's voice took on that dangerous hiss that people shied away from. It was his father's tone for commanding obedience and terror, but Arryn rarely used it when not influenced by drink or incompetence.

Mylar cleared his throat before giving another gravelly answer, "My King, the servants last saw your brother at sundown. He told us he would come to you soon so we thought to leave him be."

Arryn glared at the old man who shrank beneath his ire. Couldn't he have just said he didn't know where Elias was to start with rather than waste his time? He wasn't in the mood for this tonight nor most nights, especially after today's dreadful council meeting. Another sip of wine. Don't get emotional - you are King, not some tantrum throwing little boy.

He threw a glance toward his reflection, he had the golden hair of his mother, though far brighter in nature thanks to his father's white hair. It was in lazy waves, spilling out over his back with a few locks covering one scarred eye. The public had no right to a King's scars and that eye, his left, was quite scarred with a jagged line through the eyelid. People often said where his father's eyes were chips of dark ice, his were the gentle seas of the westernmost continents. He wondered for a moment if his father's eyes had once been described that way too, a warm summer sea.

The younger boy had picked up all his stray pins and was nervously swaying in place with his things, unsure what to do now that the King seemed markedly less pleased. Arryn beckoned him forward with a hand and lifted his arms, "Finish quickly so I may go find my wayward brother."

The boy was motivated by Arryn's quiet displeasure, he didn't mean to exude the cruelty they expected of his father or the bitter apathy of his mother. It was rarely intentional when he wasn't dealing with the court and their attempts to take power from the boy King. Father's loyal dogs had become hounds when he died, and a seventeen year old seemed easy prey. He hadn't been but it had been a close thing and the dozen men in this room right now- most had been troublesome.

Elias was a larger problem than father's pets licking at their wounds, if only you'd try to rise above the whispers little brother. They'd hardly love you but you'd have a chance of tolerance at least.

The boy finished adjusting Arryn's regal black tunic, long sleeved with a sash of pale blue around his waist. He nodded a polite thanks to the boy so he would not keep fretting all night about the King's anger. A serving girl refilled his glass of wine, he tied a regal cape, dark but with a light colored hem being a throughline, around his shoulders before leaving to find Elias. It hardly took any time at all, he knew his brother well enough to know where he went to wait out unpleasant news.