Stranger - hotd

24

The halls of Castle Black were dark, hiding even more light than those of Winterfell, and it made Valaena shiver with discomfort. She loathed the dark. Unlike the dark halls of Dragonstone the Northern buildings seemed to allow for barely any natural light, their walls were not as tall and the rooms void of any balconies. Slanted rooms and heavy shutters replaced the bronze windows and open air balconies that Valaena was raised with. She recalled how the sun had entered her bedchamber every morning, soft curtains flowing in the winds that graced Blackwater Bay, she could hear the city from some parts of the castle. Birdsong, sunlight. She had it all.

At Winterfell she could hear only sparring in the yard and lowly chatter as she could here in Castle Black. Valaena and Cregan had been taken inside, and offered drink besides the hearth so that they might dry their boots from the snow.

Cregan Stark had then been offered to join the Night's watch council within the hour, but he refused to join, urging that he needed to speak with the Lord commander first, so that they might settle matters more important.

Valaena watched from the shadows as her husband and Obert Caswell conversed. She stood perched behind the half open door. Cregan's eyes kept wandering back to Valaena as the two men spoke in hushed voices. She couldn't hear them over the howling of the wind, but she focused on the sound of their voices nontheless.

"It would not be appropriate for your Lady, My Lord." Commander Caswell's voice rose slightly, and it called her attention. Making Valaena raise her chin slightly.

"My wife is not a Lady, she is Lady of Winterfell, a Princess." Spoke Cregan back calmy.

"Forgive me my Lord, for I wish to do anything but insult you, my men are wary, not once in our history has a Stark married a-"

"You do not insult me but you insult my wife." Cregan's voice turned low again, so low that Valaena couldn't hear what else he said, so she frowned, trying to step closer to the door, only for Obert Caswell to catch her eyes.

He looked at her with great distrust.

"My Lady, let me ready the horses."

Valaena'a eyes caught those of Cregan, who nodded at her. "You are to refer to my wife as Princess, Lady of Winterfell."

Valaena fought of the urge to blush, she averted her gaze, she would be a stranger first, perhaps always. Obert Caswell bowed at her, showing his respect by adressing her by her proper title before he left the room. Shutting the door as he made way to retrieve horses.

"Horses? Where are we off to?" Questioned Valaena as she stepped closer to her husband, whose eyes remained fixed on the door which Obert Caswell had shut close. She could see him frowing at the dark wood. There were no intricate patterns carved inside of it, like in Winterfell. Castle Black was build with useage in mind, not splendor, like she heard the older castles near the wall were.

"Deserters, usually they're hung."

"And you're to deal with them as Lord of Winterfell?" Questioned Valaena as she tried to imagine Cregan Stark yielding justice. She couldn't, despite him appearing every bit the rugged Northernman, she just couldn't imagine him taking someone's head. She swallowed as he slowly nodded.

"They ran from the Wildings, despite swearing an oath, causing the deaths of almost an entire small village and that of both my bannermen, and then ofcourse my brother, Benjen." His name tastes sour on Cregan's tongue, he had to blink to fight of the stabbing in his chest.

Valaena's mind shot back to Benjen Stark dying in her arms, she recalled his smile in the morning, and then his hot reeking blood as it poured out of him. A most painfull dead, the man, or rather boy died in her arms, crying out in pain. She shuddered at the thought. Would he have lived? Had the men not abandoned their post in fear.