🐉 ─── when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.
in which alisa snow is raised in winterfell and treated as lesser than compared to the starks she is raised around.
when the starks leave king's landing, a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Growing up as bastards, the pair had always been an afterthought compared to the children of Lord and Lady Stark. While Jon had found comfort in the company of Robb and Theon, Diana always felt like an outsider, an unwanted stain upon the Stark name.
The Lady of the House, Catelyn Stark, had a permanent glare etched into her face whenever they made accidental eye contact. It was as if she looked at Diana like she was a demon possessing her child, or even a monster.
Although they were fraternal twins, Jon and Diana couldn't have looked more different. While all the Stark children shared similar dark hair and grey eyes, Diana stood out. Her blonde hair, lightened by the sun to almost golden, contrasted greatly with her brother Jon's dark locks. And while his eyes were a deep shade of brown, hers shimmered like sapphires, a rare sight in the North.
When Catelyn Stark refused to stay by her brother's side when Jon contracted the pox, cursing for the poor five-year-old child to die, Diana stood by her brother's side all night.
Despite not being his mother, just his sister, Diana took some weaving from their wetnurse Wylla and began knitting a prayer wheel for her brother.
On that night, when her brother's voice was frail and wheezing Maester Luwin told Diana to pray for the worst, Diana stayed by his side. She didn't sleep and she didn't rest, just continuing to knit the prayer wheel for her brother.
But when Diana left to get another cold compress and clean his blood-ridden clothes, she overheard whispers coming from beside Jon's bedside.
Catelyn Stark's voice was soft, almost desperate, as she spoke. "So I pray to all seven gods, let the boy live. Let him live and I'll love him. I'll be a mother to him. I'll beg my husband to give him a true name, to call him Stark and be done with it, to make him one of us."
There was a brief pause, and Diana heard the rustle of fabric as Catelyn shifted.
"And Diana too," she continued, her voice trembling. "Let her live and be healthy. I will love her as my own. I will see her not as a reminder of betrayal but as a part of our family. I'll beg my husband to give her the name of Stark, to make her one of us."
Diana stood frozen in the doorway, her heart pounding. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Lady Stark, who had always treated them with such cold disdain, was now pleading for Jon's life, promising to accept him as her own. The words struck a chord deep within Diana, a mixture of hope and scepticism filling her heart.
Quietly, Diana stepped back, her mind swirling with emotions. She knew better than to trust easily, but in that moment, she allowed herself a sliver of hope. But as the day turned to morning, and then a week passed by, Diana realized that Catelyn Stark would not keep her promise.
Diana vowed that day to be both her brother's interim mother and his sister. As she cared for Jon, tending to his wounds and comforting him through his fevered dreams, she felt a fierce protectiveness swell within her.
