Noah [Game of Thrones] ✓

Riders

Noah finished the last sentence and set her signature under the letter, then holds it out for the old lion to read.
He takes it from her hands and does just that as she simply waits, feeling a certain smugness.
"You address the king simply as Joffree. Why?" "He asked me to.", she shrugs and the man nods slightly. "Do you have a sigil, Lady Mars?" "I do, actually." Lord and Lady Stark had it made for her as a gift for her first year working for them. It had been precious to her ever since. She takes off the sigil ring and gently places the golden piece into the old man's hand. "What symbol is yours?" "The Winterrose, milord. The blue Winterrose." "And why so?" Noah smiles. Because blue was his colour. It was Zach's colour. "That is what they decided to name me. Cool Northern beauty. The Winterrose.", she carefully answers instead. "Your cup bearer..", Noah says softly, making the man look up. "What about her?" "I'd like to take her with me." "To the capital?" "Not quite. I have friends in Essos where she can be taught to be an intelligent self-sufficient lady that may not need to marry and depend on an idiotic male to keep her warm and fed." "Who are your friends?" "They work at the temple of the faceless god and are all very intelligent." "How did you manage to befriend them?" Noah smiles. "Knowledge is a bridge that crosses oceans, Lord Tywin. And I possess enough to round the world." "Aren't you thinking a bit too much of yourself?" "No. I am still quite humble for what I can do and for what knowledge I possess." "Intriguing." Noah gets to her feet. "May I borrow a horse for the rest of the way? Either way it'll stay in the possession of the south, won't it?" He nods slightly. "And the girl.. take her with you. But tonight you may stay here. I'll have a room prepared for you." Noah bows slightly and takes back the ring he had used to stamp shut the letter. "Thank you. I shall now go and continue my conversation from earlier. Apologies but.. your soldiers are immensely entertaining when irked." Tywin laughs at that and watches as the woman swiftly leaves the room.

She walks over to Arya and the nameless man, stepping up to his side. "I am glad to have found you here still. I thought fate would not grant me this." The man looks at her as she closes in the last steps. "You are leaving here tomorrow. With us. And I am sending both of you to Essos. Train her. She is a good and fast learner." The man looks at her with interest. "How does a woman know what a man is?" "I know everything. For I have not been born and bred on this land or this water." Arya hardly understands what Noah had just said but the man did. He nods slightly. "We shall meet at the shore. You know where." Noah nods but before he can leave she presses her hand against his chest. "Do not leave before we did. It would look suspicious." Her voice is low as she says it but he understands her and nods, taking her hand and bringing it to his lips. "As you wish, Lady Mars." Arya glues herself to her teachers side. "WE leave?" Noah nods with a smile, looking down at the girl. "I'm taking you with me and sending you to Essos where you can learn a lot of things you'll find are helpful for completing your list." "How do you.." "We shall speak during the ride. Alright?" Arya nods. "Good. Come now. Let us see who we can annoy enough to have their head cut off by Lord Tywin when they try to strike us." Arya giggles and quickly follows.

The next day she saddles up the horse under the watchful gaze of Tywin Lannister and pulls up Arya in front of her. "Goodbye, Lord Tywin.", she says softly, although she knows she'll see him again. Too soon for her taste. Perhaps she could make use of being in the South with Joffree by simply having him learn just how to do exactly as his grandfather. How to be the king behind and under the crown. It would most certainly be better than nothing. And angering the old man had become a pleasurable thing to her in little to no time.
They had been riding for long enough when He joins them. "A woman may speak now. How does she truly know of a man?" "You need to listen closely to understand..."
And Noah explains it. About detailed as she had explained everything to Jon and not just about as detailed as she had described to Benjen.
"If Sansa will be saved anyways, why are you going south?" Noah takes a shaky breath. "Because I can't be around to watch them die." "Who?" Your brother.. his wife. Your mother." Arya gasps and pulls the horses reigns. "We have to warn them. We have to..." "Arya I can't change the whole story. I don't know if there will be a Westeros left if I do. I can not warn them. I can not save them. I can't do anything. I can protect from little harm and fill the roles of others but I can't stop what needs to happen.", Noah says softly, a tear leaving her eye. "You can! It's easy! Just send a raven and.." "Arya!" The girl looks at her. "I can not return home if I do change fate." "And for that you sacrifice my family!?!" "If I wouldn't have come here this all would have happened anyways. What am I supposed to do?! I am not even truly existent in this world. I'll be stuck here forever while my world where the man I love is still frozen in time!! If I change this world and stay here forever my old one will cease to exist. Billions of people will be wiped out for a family I adore, yes, but still I can not save. If it helps you to know this you will kill the entire Frey family. Every last one of them. And Littlefinger who has betrayed your father, aunt and mother to their death. And the nightking himself. And every single Lannister but Tyrion himself will die. Bran will be king over the six kingdoms as the three eyed raven and Sansa will be taking the throne of the independent North while Jon will go beyond the wall with the free folk." Arya is quiet. "Do you love me still?" The girl asks softly and Noah smiles, pressing her lips against the girls hair. "Like you were my own. Trust me. It hurts so much to know Robb will die. To know Catelyn will die. I adore them. I adored your father. I wish I could change everything. I wish I could have had him survive and King Robert still on the throne so they could unite the forces of the seven kingdoms and destroy the nightking and his forces. I wish I could have everything be as perfect as it was two years ago. But I can not. And I am sorry. There are only minor things I can interfere with. Like the way I killed Bran's attacker when it really would have been Summer. There is nothing I can do. Neither can you."
"Is he worth it?" "What?" "The man you love. Is he worth all of this?" Noah takes a deep breath. "If I had the choice of dying in the most gruesome way after seeing him one last time and never seeing him again I'd prefer to die if it meant I could hold his hand for one last time. He is worth everything to me." Arya nods slightly, hugging herself close to Noah. "Good. Because I trust you that everything will happen the way you said."