Carliene Stark

II Chapter 15

Carliene

The sudden change of the dream made my whole body twitch, which awoke me in a burst of confusion. As I sat up and looked around I realise that I could have slept no longer than quarter of an hour, but it had felt like a day. I rubbed my eyes and pushed myself off the bed. Only the redhead servant girl was left, silently scrubbing the now empty tub.

Freeing my face from stray strands of hair I rose and pulled myself off the bed. I walked over to the small cabinet where my possessions still lay, my bare feet making small noises on the marble steps. I slipped the neckless back on, running my finger across the smooth ember. Then I unfolded the parchment, some paranoid part of me fearing that maybe it had been replaced while I slept. But it still held all of Queen Daenerys' titles and her three headed dragon sigil and my name. 

It doesn't much matter, I thought clenching my jaw. I won't be a Stark for long.

But there was also some buried part of me that felt like this war may never end. I folded it back up and carried it over to the bed, were I stowed it in a drawer of the bedside stand. 

"If it is too cold, we have a robe here my Lady"

I turned to the redhead who was raising a thin looking white fabric. I accepted it thankfully, slipping my arms through the long sleeves and tying it in the front. It was a decent enough cover and had this been Winterfell I might have even left my rooms looking like this and no one would have bat an eye.

Mother would have, besides, it is way too cold for such clothes there, or have you already forgotten?

Passing the hours until my dress was ready proved rather tedious. I had soon explored all there was to the large chambers and realised that their greatest flaw was that all the windows were so narrow and so high up on the walls that they could not be reached, not even while standing on a chair. I thought it a tremendous waist, I was in the Hightower after all, why would they even have rooms without windows to look through when the view was guaranteed to be immaculate.
No one came to see me either, which wasn't a bad thing given my poor appearance, but I had still expected for the old rose to make an appearance and give me some shrewd advice and some demands on how to behave myself and how to act. 

I was able to request a book from one of the serving girls and spent the good part of the morning reading Archmaester Cassander's Song of the Sea: how the lands were severed. It was not the most interesting script I could have imagined, and I felt like I had heard parts or even read it before but that must have been a very long time ago. In the north we had tales of the children of the forest and how they broke the arm of Dorne to keep the First Men out of Westeros.

It must have been midday when Darron of the Dawn returned, half bursting through the doors again with his following. He was slightly out of breath and I as not sure if it was because of having to walk up so many stairs or because he had been arduously working on my dress all morning.

The first thing I noticed about the how were the colours and I was surmised to see no gold or green as I had expected. Instead the skirt of the dress was a muted sky-blue, while the bodice and sleeves were a darker grey. 

I placed the book aside and rose from the cushioned chair as the tailor loudly proclaimed how successful he had been.

"Come come, quickly now" he ushered the serving girls. "Get the Lady dressed" 

They guided me behind the safety of a dressing screen, where I was disrobe of my small-clothes. There was a new undergarment, made of the same dark grey material which felt almost as smooth as silk to the touch and hugged my features quite flatteringly. When they helped me slip into the main dress, the first thing i noticed were the long sleeves, hanging down below my hips. They made me think of Sansa and how excited she had been the first time she had received a dress like this. It had been all she wanted to wear anymore because she was convinced that it made her look like a real noble Lady. Oh Sansa, you would have never survived as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, you were far too gentle.