Kings & Queens (and their eternal duty)

Learning

For Sansa, she was both aware and unaware of the first years of her new life.

At the start, her consciousness was still cradled in the protective and possessive custody of her gods without remembering or thinking about her own end.

(Oh precious child, there is a time and place for everything.)

Sometimes she would dream about colourful, blurry figures that reminded her of giants. However, these giants were different from the ones she remembered. They weren't as hairy as the ones she remembered and didn't wear furs or leather. They didn't talk in the Old Tongue but in some strange language, she couldn't make any sense of.

(You will learn -)

Oddly enough in her dreams these giants for whatever reason were taking care of her. They fed her when she was hungry, cleaned her when she felt dirty, dressed and undressed her and embraced her in their arms.

(-that sometimes it is okay to let others take care of you.)

It was an odd dream to have and if Sansa hadn't lived through many more humiliating experiences than being cleaned by someone else, she would have been thoroughly shamed by these dreams.

But she had so her predominating emotional response for these dreams wasn't shame.

(You will learn -)

These dreams were quite odd and Sansa was bewildered about where they might come but against logic what Sansa felt in those dreams were things she was sure weren't left in the unceasing darkness and the sharp coldness of the Long Night's curse.

(it is okay to feel safe,)

In those dreams, Sansa felt safe. She felt safe as if she was still a child, like when she was still a sweet, gullible little girl who believed there wasn't any monster her father couldn't slay.

(She had been her father's little princess, unaware of the world and its truths outside of the protection that the great walls of Winterfell and her family's guards and their perceived might.).

It had been a long time since those beliefs withered and the illusion of safety faded away.

(to feel warm again,)

Those dreams warmed Sansa in a way she hadn't felt since being forced to watch her little sister being killed by the Night King.

It was the kind of warmth that fended off the chill in her very bones and fought off the frost stinging her lungs.

The warmth of those dreams cracked the ice rooted deep inside her soul.

Those dreams...

(it is okay to hope,)

...fought off the settled despair in her core and with every dream, it cleansed the sticky and filthy taint which was left behind that same despair little by little.

(to be happy,)

It raised her from the swamp her grief turned that was trying to pull her to its darkness.

She had been endlessly struggling to make sure at least her head was above it for her people, for her kingdom, but it had been a losing endeavour she was trying to prolong. She knew that.

But for the people who had put their hopes on the Winter Crown, she had to extend her fight against her own grief, put away her sadness, and suppress each and every loss she felt until the last day of humanity.