FORGED » t. greyjoy

vii

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WINTERFELL,
298 AC

MALLIE FLOWERS HAD FINALLY RETURNED to the stables of Winterfell. Many guardsmen and knight stood lounged across the yard. They definitely had been preparing for the upcoming feast; they were confused as this girl came atop a horse through the stable doors, ducking to avoid the top of the entrance to the building. Mallie found an empty stand for the horse and set it there. Lady Catelyn must've been furious at her for being so late.

She rushed to the castle of Winterfell, up the stairway to the chambers of the Stark family. Mallie brushed down her dress before entering the Lord and Lady of Winterfell's shared chambers. Catelyn was waiting there, staring outside her chambers into the yard where tons of soldiers had been lounging about.

Mallie Flowers curtsied and let out a greet: "Lady Catelyn, I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting. I had lost track of the time."

"You should not fret — it is long before the feast is to start. I wanted to speak with you, dear," Lady Catelyn nodded, turning towards the girl who still stayed in a curtesy. The Lady of Winterfell shut the door behind Mallie, "You may stand."

"What is it, my Lady?" she brushed the end of her skirt where dust had promptly been collected there. Mallie looked up at the face of her stern lady.

"It is about your history, dear ..."

"What?"

"You are not from here. And frankly — Ned and I do not know how a girl from the Reach came this far north," Catelyn comforted the girl by resting her hand on the girl's shoulder, careful not to startle her. Mallie's eyes wondered past the walls of Winterfell and behind that skull of hers: Mallie began to wonder. Lady Catelyn sat Mallie down at the cushions at the end of the bed and sat down beside her. "Ned and I ... we were thinking of telling you later but — now that the king and his followers have came here ... I am afraid that you will have to be told earlier than expected.

"Ned found you wondering the Kingsroad, as you may or may not remember. His honor got the best of him. Ned told me later that day when he arrived with you and Theon at Winterfell that he knew you were a noble-born," Catelyn paused.

The lady continued, as Mallie stared into the distance, past Catelyn's face, "I could tell too. You could always tell, especially if it's a girl who had known of eight name-days. Ravens had been sent out across Westeros, mainly as far as those ravens could reach those cities. You are a highborn, Mallie, not a handmaiden in the North."

"Lady Catelyn —"

"I had just wanted you to know that, Mallie," the lady sat up from the bed, where Mallie sat there — with tears beginning to form in her eyes, and her face donning a rosy red. Lady Catelyn walked to the large chest full of dresses that Mallie had always knew that filled it. Lady Catelyn opened the chest and pulled out a pale green dress with sleeves that one could see through and a bust with the same fabric as the green sleeves. Small little golden flowers were decorated at the skirts and sleeves and at the collarbone.