Crowns and Cruel Intentions || Game of Thrones

26| 𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔦𝔞𝔫𝔫𝔞

the riverlands

— MARIANNA FOUND HERSELF OFTEN WORRIED THESE DAYS. Her family had become her enemy, her betrothed would charge into battle against them, never certain of who would return alive and who wouldn't, and now her best friend and the closest thing she had left to a mother were missing after the murder of Renly Baratheon in his own camp. So much to fear. So much to lose. And yet when she was with Robb, she found that her worries slipped away like water off a wing. The guard that growing up in King's Landing had taught her to always keep high would crumble away. For likely the first time in her life, she would feel entirely at peace.

The pair of them walked through the woods together now, just beyond the Stark camp, and with all other prying eyes gone, Marianna felt calm. No longer the princess, not the sister of the Bastard King, the daughter of Cersei Lannister, or even the girl expected to marry the King in the North. She was Marianna and he was Robb.

"You know," she mused, a smile tugging at her lips as they walked. "I should have known you would be a troublemaker from the start."

He raised a brow at her, smiling. "Oh? Do tell me what kind of trouble you thought I was."

She grinned. "The first night I met you, you and your brother were making jokes about ending the royal line. Who knew it would turn out to be true? The future Lord Stark with great aspirations to steal away a princess and become a great rebel!"

He laughed. "So I'm a rebel and a thief now am I?? I guess you'd better run then, Princess. Come here, I need to fulfill my promise to end the crown's bloodline!" She tried to dodge away from him, but it was pointless when he lunged forwards, arms snaking securely around her waist to pull her in, and spin her around as if he meant to attack her despite the wide grin on his face. She laughed, the sound music to his ears. Even as he slowed, he did not let her go, and she let herself fall limp in his hold like a damsel, still smiling.

"Mmm. Oh dear. However shall I escape?"

"Not an option." he informed her merrily, right before she snapped back upright to press a kiss to his lips. It was over far too quickly and left him blinking, dumbfounded as she drew back. He thought she could kiss him every day for a thousand years and his heart would never cease to leap as if it was the first time all over again. "I mean..." he managed. "I suppose I don't know how I'll keep my guard up if you keep doing that."

They continued on deeper into the woods for a little while before they eventually stumbled upon something unexpected. Ivory bark, leaves red like rubies. It stood tall and proud, wider and taller than any other tree in sight.

Marianna blinked. "Is that..."

"A weirwood." Robb nodded. "There aren't many left this far south."

"I read that nearly all of the Weirwoods south of the Neck were cut down by the Andals when they first came here."

"You know your history." He said with an appreciative look.

She chuckled. "Are you really surprised?" Marianna knew how she appeared. It was intentional, looking like a soft damsel of a princess. But Robb knew her better than that. She may not have battle skill, but she was clever and sharper than a knife, and that was how she fought. "Strange to find one so close to camp." Almost as if it means to tell us something.

He tilted his head at the slight undertone in her voice. "Do you believe in the Old Gods?"

"I don't know." She replied honestly. "I don't know if I ever believed in the Seven either. I never prayed to them."

"No?"

She shook her head. "My grandfather used to say that the gods can hear us, but they do not care to listen. That they have no mercy, and that is why they are gods." She shrugged. "I never doubted him. I used to go down to the lower streets of King's Landing, and what I saw... If the gods are real, how could they let something like that happen?"