"Why would a woman want to go to Castle Black?" Orivel spoke through a loud laugh. The way he spoke made it seem that he guessed her answer would be just as stupid as the thought of a woman roaming Castle Black was.
"Because it is the last place any...
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A Lannister always pays their debts.
Somewhere in the North of Westeros, 301 AC
When Elyana lived in Dorne, she was plagued with a restlessness that put fear into even her bravest brother. In the beginning, it was only an uneasiness that made it difficult to fall asleep. Doran had named it to be a problem when she laid in bed too afraid to sleep until the sun came through the windows of her chamber. Oberyn assured that she was just an energetic child who wished to do things at all hours of the day until she passed out from exhaustion.
Then it shifted to something darker; nightmares that crept up so slowly she didn't realize they were there until she was awaking with a scream that ripped through Sunspear like a blade. A scream that awoke everyone from brothers to the old Maester who lived in a separate building.
She was five when she had her first nightmare, a woman with stone skin and empty arms looming over her sleeping figure. Elyana was left paralysed beneath her bedding, watching as her mother's cold eyes bore into her own and threatened to melt out of their sockets. She never knew the woman, but she sent a terror deep into her bones.
Ser Allar was the first in the room after a scream escaped her tiny frame, and he slammed the door open so harshly that the doorknob was dented by the cement wall. He had his sword drawn at the ready, but he only found a scared little princess in sweat filled sheets and tear-stained cheeks.
He dropped his blade at the sight of her and it made a loud clang as it hit the floor. He moved quickly to crouch at her bedside before her brothers moved quickly into the room. Oberyn slid into the empty spot of the king-sized bed, taking her small face into his larger hands and wiping away the tears. He was met with a look of only terror and emptiness, and he had never been so afraid.
Doran was standing just behind Allar, this being long before the gout had taken his legs. No one spoke for a long moment, only Elyana's heavy breaths filling the air. When Maester Caleotte was helped up the stairs by a guard, her eldest brother began to speak to him in hushed whispers.
Eventually, they all returned to their own chambers—all but Oberyn, who remained sleeping over the covers right beside his little sister. A precaution, he had called it. This way, if you awake you will know you are not alone. When the sun rose, Maester Caleotte met her after breakfast and asked her for every detail of her dream. Elyana told him, but he only assured her that it was normal. Everyone had nightmares, but when they continued nearly every night that week, the maester knew it was no normal nightmares that the princess was suffering from.
When she left Dorne, the nightmares had vanished. Whether it be because she was not able to sleep nearly as much as she had in the safe walls of Sunspear, or because she realised she needed to grow up, and grow out of the childish affliction because it would put herself and Allar in danger if she was to awake screaming in the forest.
