DYING EMBERS || ROBB STARK

T W E N T Y - F O U R

"Lady Stark, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Victoria greeted her longtime friend with a bright smile as the women walked into her tent.

"I thought we could have our meal here for a change, perhaps chat. We haven't had one of those in awhile?" The queen mother urged and from behind her a group of women arrived, trays of food being set in the young women's tent all within a matter of short seconds.

Victoria turned her head, watching as everything was set between a manned of minutes and she still hadn't agreed or not. A sigh left her lips but she didn't protest, they'd once been so close and eating at first light was a weekly routine but that life felt so far away now.

Elaine bowed as the last of the kitchen maids left their tent and she stated, "I'll be right outside, your grace, should you need my assistance."

"There will be no need for that," Victoria shook her head, "go on and find a meal for yourself, Elaine, Lady Stark and I can attend to ourselves."

The blonde did not protest, quickly walking out with a brief smile and allowing making her way towards a certain Commander who's been casually waiting for her.

Victoria watched her long enough to see her disappear into the crowd before turning back to Lady Stark who's eyes had been set in the same place. "She's made quite the improvement since her first day."

"Elaine is special," Victoria admitted and smiled happily. "I imagine in another life she was perhaps queen, more so then I ever can be."

"I've noticed her when no one else is looking; she mirrors you, Victoria, admires you even. No one is more fit to be queen then you." Catelyn complemented her.

Victoria accepted her response with a nod and turned towards their set table. "Let us break our fast before the soups get cold, Catelyn."

The two women walked towards their table and respectively began to drink from their juice and sip on their steaming bowls of soup. A small silence presented itself until Catelyn looked her way, "I was told you received a raven from Dorne today, was it your uncle again?"

"Uncle Oberyn did send his own written letter but the longest scroll came from my cousin Amina." She relented, her eyes slipping to the bed where the words lay stacked, the emotion in them almost a heavy presence as she adjusted herself.

"Oh, and may I ask what she wrote you about." Catelyn inquired.

Victoria pressed her lips together and took a moment to bite into her bread before answering, the subject was tricky. Amina trusted her beyond words, she may have been a Sand Snake but the young daughter of Oberyn Martell was more like her cousin of Valiente blood. They'd been inseparable when they were young girls, Amina had even begged to come to the north once as she'd wished to travel so far but her father had outright refused. Since then Amina had taken a different path then her sisters and travelled, sometimes as a noble for Dorne and sometimes as a simple beggar. They kept in touch through scrolls and visits but now it seemed like even those would become a rarity.