The Long Winter | Jaime Lannister X Stark OC | GOT/ASOIAF

Things We Do For Love

A month. One dreary, unbearabley long month. It had felt like a year, locked in his chambers with guards standing outside, waiting for the royals to leave. Normally Edrick never spent any time in his room, unless it was to sleep. He spent his mornings training in the yard, the afternoon with the Maester in lessons, and the rest of the time doing whatever he liked about the castle and Wintertown with his cousins, Theon Greyjoy and the other young boys of Winterfell.

It was like being a caged animal. He was quite probably going mad being confined within the same four walls, all day and all night. After the initial scolding from his mother, she had tried to ease his punishment as best she could, understanding why he did it but berating his recklessness. Having told the Queen she had suitably punished him, Mother had Aileen bring him his training sword to practice with inside, and let him have visitors if they were discrete, which was better than nothing. But there was little she could do about letting him out.

Today, however, the castle was mostly deserted. Everyone had gone hunting; the King and his men, Uncle Ned and his men, Loreon the king's bastard, Ren, Robb, Theon, Jon, maybe even Bran, and possibly his mother. It seemed like all the men in Winterfell were gone, and some of the ladies too, meaning there were fewer people to catch him.

Edrick had put on a roughspun tunic and breeches as a disguise. He slipped out of the window, climbing down the thick creeper that sprawled up the wall to the ground; he had done this several times, years ago, just to prove that he could; not being as good a climber as Bran, he had fallen, fracturing his wrist and not attempting it again. Desperate times, however...

Enjoying the fresh air on his face, Edrick quickly ducked into a doorway and kept to the shadows as he snuck around, for the most part staying out of sight, keeping his head down. Not that there were many people around to see him. He smeared some dirt on his face and rubbed straw in his hair just to make sure. No one would look twice at a grubby stable-boy. Well, the Winterfell servants and guards would probably know him, but they would hardly tell anyone.

Now, where to go now? The downside to everyone being gone was that there was no one to keep him company. He would go and find Aileen if he could, but she and Morganna would be trapped with the other girls doing whatever dull things ladies did. There was no point seeking out his cousins; Sansa would give him the cold shoulder for attacking her precious prince, if she didn't turn him in to her mother, whilst Arya would be impossible to find as ever, having fled from embroidery and polite chatter.

So Edrick was alone. That was fine. At least he was out of that hateful little room.

He ran to the Godswood - gods, it felt incredible to run - as that was the only place where he would be able to practice with his sword in secret, out of earshot. None of the southerners dared go in there. They found it unsettling.

But the Godswood was not as peaceful as he had hoped. As Edrick moved deeper and deeper into the trees, he heard the faint murmur of conversation through the undergrowth. Cursing under his breath, he was about to turn around and find somewhere else to go - the First Keep, perhaps, no one would be there - but then he recognised one of the voices.

"Something is wrong," His mother was saying. Edrick froze; she might actually cane him if she caught him out here where he could be seen. "Between Jon Arryn suddenly becoming best friends with Stannis, of all people, then the pair of them questioning Ren about his father - whilst insisting Loreon was there - only for Arryn to drop dead overnight, and his widow to flee in the night back to the Eyrie, sending a cryptic warning message to Catelyn in secret..."

"Arryn was seventy odd years old, and his wife has more than a few screws loose," A man drawled. "I wouldn't fret too much," A pause. "Though the questions to Ren are strange, I'll grant you that,"