Different Paths to Destiny [Game of Thrones]

21: By The Throat

" if I could catch you and cut your ties
I would leave you every time "

I woke up to Aylward shaking me. "Gods, Amina, wake up!" He shouted. I sat up. My stomach churned and I ran for my chamber pot. I dropped to my knees and threw up my lunch.

"Are you alright?" Aylward asked me. "Were you with your sister? Did something happen again?" He looked quite afraid. The last time he'd had to try so hard to shake me awake, I had just barely escaped the House of the Undying.

"I was...trying something new," I told him. "It worked. However, I'm not keen on trying it again any time soon."

"You're wearing your clothes from yesterday," he realized. "How long have you been asleep?"

"Yesterday?" I asked. "I went to sleep right after you left. It's still light outside, I couldn't have been gone that long."

"You missed dinner with Doran, he had a tray sent up but it's sitting in the hallway."

"Alright, yes, I definitely will not be trying that again." I ran my fingers through my hair. "Did you come here to tell me something? Or were you just checking on me."

"Jaime Lannister is here," Aylward told me.

"What? Why?"

"Something about rescuing Myrcella," he said. "Prince Doran asked if you could speak to him, I thought you might want to anyway." He looked at me sitting on the floor next to my chamber pot. "Then again, maybe you should just rest."

"I've been asleep for an entire day, I've had enough rest." I stood up, and the room started spinning. Aylward grabbed me. "Maybe if you could just...bring me some water and something light to eat. I'll change clothes."

He nodded and let me go slowly. Then he went out into the hallway. I steadied myself as I went through my new closet for something to wear. I struggled to untie the laces on the dress I was wearing. The door opened again and one of Myrcella's handmaidens stepped in. "Ser Caswell asked me to assist you. Are you alright, my lady?"

"Just a little under the weather." She helped me change into a different dress, and then she brushed my hair and arranged it so it was out of my face. "That will be all," I said, dismissing her.

She opened the door just as Aylward returned. The two almost collided and the girl giggled, he smiled at her. "Why are you always so nice?" I groaned.

"I beg your pardon?" He asked.

I didn't repeat myself. I took the water and chugged it. Then selected an orange from the tray and set about unpeeling it. "I'm in a very terrible mood."

"I can see that. Are you going to tell me what happened?"

I ate a piece of orange, taking a moment to chew and deiced how much to tell Aylward. "A woman in Meereen helped me to speak to Jon. I had to go, I needed to talk to him in person, there was too much to put into a letter. But now he's Lord Commander and he told me he couldn't be with me, and-"

"Amina, please slow down. How did you get there?"

"Blood magic," I admitted. "I suppose that's why I'm so sick." He nodded as if he understood perfectly. "Can you please be angry, or scared, or something besides calm? A person cannot be calm all the time, it's unnatural!"

He sat on the side of the bed next to me. "Why would I be angry with you?"

"Because I put myself in danger, time after time," I said. "And I drag you with me. But you never get angry with me, you just do what I say."