WE MIGHT FALL (J.SNOW 2)

CHAPTER FOUR

HER SWORD FELL THROUGH THE AIR and began wailing down a storm of furious blows onto the helpless, wooden practice dummy, which had been the only thing worthy of beating that Cynthia had found upon entering the training ground outside of the Keep. The sword was blunt, much to Cynthia's disappointment, but beating the ever-loving shit out of the dummy was still a good enough form of catharsis for her. 

She didn't know where Livia had disappeared to, nor did she give it much thought, admittedly; she knew her sister well enough to know that when in distress, harassing Livia with your presence was one way to encourage her to bite off your head. Livia needed to be alone, she needed to think and gather her emotions before she overreacted, as she often did, she needed to heal properly. Of course their mother was doing very little in the way of helping that process, not that they'd really expected her to be a very good counsellor or anything as such, but it would have been nice to have had more than a couple of weeks to enable Livia to get over her tremendous loss. Perhaps in Frea's mind arranging a new betrothal like a new hobby was what she deemed an appropriate way to distract Livia from the pain, but to the rest of the sane world, it merely came across as heartless.

Lord Benedict Iris had travelled east to White Harbour over a month ago, and accompanying him had been the 2 youngest of the Iris children, Alyssa and Asher. Cynthia never thought she'd miss the twins as much as she found herself missing them now; she couldn't discern if it were due to the sudden tragedy that had crippled the north, and left in its wake a looming fear of people getting hurt, or maybe it was that she genuinely grieved for the presence of her siblings. In all honesty, however, with the news of Robb's death settling in over Stillwater, the lack of the younger members of the family had gone mostly unnoticed, at least by the older siblings as they'd had other things to occupy their thoughts. Now though, with Alec home and most of the mourning almost over, Cynthia was beginning to hope they returned soon and safely.

"Cynthia, love." Called a voice from behind her, one which didn't dare interupt her abusing for a lingering moment, "What could this poor dummy have done to deserve this?" Cynthia paused before her last hit landed, and let her sword drop to the muddy floor beneath her feet. "Leave him be." The last sentence came out in chuckles, and upon looking around, Cynthia came to find not only her beloved brother, but his surprising company as well. Both men stood laughing softly at Cynthia's brutish actions, and both were observing her carefully as she walked nearer.

"He looked at me funny." She said with a straight face, throwing her gloves - which she'd begun removing - straight at her brother's smug face. "Dickon," She bowed her head respectfully, but didn't give the third member of their group a second look; she didn't personally have anything against the man, but on the premise of what her mother was no doubt planning, she found it to be her duty to be as rude as she normally would be to strangers, for Livia's sake. "What brings you both here? Should you not be touring the Keep?" 

"As lovely as your home is, there is only so much of my father's company I can stand for any length of time." Dickon did his best to smile, no doubt sensing the tension between the trio, and on account of that, Cynthia found herself respecting him a little more. 

"The same goes for our mother, no doubt. I am sure she is quite full on." Cynthia did her best to be courteous as well, if he was being polite she should try and do the same, at least. 

"Besides, this show is far more entertaining." Alec chipped in, smirking once more. "Though, Dickon and I were just having an interesting conversation about the Night's Watch, were we not?"