COURT OF SNAKES, oberyn martell *EDITING*

IV, HER FACE ON A COIN

( SALTSHORE, DORNE )
MID 284 AC

          SHIERLE PRAYED TO THE GODS THAT THEY WOULD RETURN TO SUNSPEAR, as to meet her lover again. She'd become enamoured with a gallant and handsome knight from House Sarsfield, and was already composing letters for him whenever she got the chance, slouched over the bureau with a raven feather quill.

          ℳy dearest Gwendys, Ellaria had paced back and forth and read the neat penmanship aloud, regarding our betrothal, Doran would like me to invite you to his nameday celebration, set to commence within the sennight, she had giggled, and I promise it won't be too busy. I'll make sure to keep the guest list minimal.

          Lady Yale tugged the canary yellow pashmina over her shoulders, a chill in the air from where her granddaughter had opened the window as far as it could go. Gwendys glared out of her solar mullions, playing the fool as the saltwater breeze caught in the flyaway hairs from her braids. Gargoyles brooded, squatting hunched and watching in a formation around the apex of Yellowbed Keep.

          "Get back from there, you daft girl. You'll catch a chill!" Her grandmother scolded, steering her away from the open window. She babbled on, "Oh Gwenny, I don't think I've ever felt more proud. Not even of your parents, not that they did something so spectacular in their lifetimes. I simply cannot wait — I've never been filled with so much anticipation over the birth celebration of a Dornishman. My love, you will soon be a married woman. Do you know what that entails?" — She didn't wait for the young girl to respond — "All men want is children, you don't even need to be in love with him, Gwenny, just bear through it, whatever he makes you do, and birth his heirs. He'll leave you alone, then. That's what Glynn did with me. I never loved that oaf of a man with one ounce of my heart. And you don't have to, either. Once you're done, you can come back home ... and you can live in Saltshore as a princess!"

          "No, Nana, he is not like grandfather. Oberyn is ... he's a kind man," she winced, trying to boost the prince's reputation. If not in her own eyes, at least she could make her grandmother believe she was to wed an honourable man. "He's brave, and passionate, and wilful, and I don't believe ... I don't believe that he'd do anything to purposefully hurt me."

          "But you barely know him, Gwendys," Ellaria spat, her silver eyes round and her lip curling cynically, "All you've been talking about since the funeral was how much you despised him, and you've been spitting on thought of being a princess, and now you're suddenly power-hungry and adamant that you're in love with him!"

          "I never said that I loved him," Gwendys rasped, anger curdling and festering inside her chest, "I am simply defending the prince as you sit here and badmouth him, just because you're jealous! Just because you're — you're not as desirable as me!" She spluttered out fiercely, blood rushing in her ears.