Lya sits with her father at the God's Wood as he cleans his sword in the black waters. The pond is so reflective that the Stark girl can see every feature of herself as if it was a mirror. She notices the change she's had in the last few years. You're a woman now, Lya's mother had told her the day she had her first blood, and a beautiful one at that. Lya didn't see it.
She thought she was too boyish. With the wide jaw and high cheekbones from her father. Along with the curly black hair that blessed her head and fell long down her back. The only thing she could say she got from her mother was the Tully blue eyes that graced her face. The only brightness in the solemn Stark look. She didn't even share her mother's petite figure. Instead barring wide hips and a much stockier build that she felt make her look more like a man than a woman.
But even so her father never lost the chance to tell his firstborn that she was beautiful. He told her anything he could to make her see that stern beauty. The Rose of the North. The Princess of the North. That she was more beautiful than a thousand Queens. She only laughed, telling her father not to call her those silly things. Though he meant every word.
Ned usually sat alone in the God's Wood after a beheading but today he decided to bring his daughter with him. They sat in silence as he cleaned off Ice. Lya gleamed at the precious sword. It would be passed to Robb after their father's passing but that didn't mean she couldn't admire it. Lya was skilled in archery and small daggers though she could never really pick up a large sword. It was the thin short swords that she had mastered at the age of 15. Catelyn refused to see her daughter fight in the pits like her brothers but Ser Rodrick trained the girl in secret under Lord Eddard Stark's orders.
"You're a woman now." Lya's father finally spoke. "As much as I wish you could stay here with me for the rest of my days, you will have to marry soon enough." Lya nods. She understood this. Knew that she wouldn't be able to be locked away in the keep forever.
"I understand father." She says, as dutiful as ever. Lya loved her parents as much as she loved to fight and compete and raise all seven hells. But she knew her duty as much as Sansa loved the thought of it. Lya dreaded it. The day she must leave Robb and Jon behind to go meet another man. She could never love a man besides her brothers and her father. How could she?
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"All these years and I still feel like an outsider when I come here." Catelyn speaks up after a long silence between the pair. Neither had heard her silent steps on the mossy forest floor.
"You have six northern children. You're not an outsider." He promises his wife, handing Ice to Lya and beckoning his wife over. The Stark girl lays the heavy sword on her lap, holding in the smile that pulled at her lips.
"I wonder if the old gods agree." Cat Stark smiles softly at her husband. The man she was never supposed to marry. In a way she thanked her seven god's for the rebellion. Because if all that would not have happened she would have never had Ned, the man she called her only love.
