𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄 ━━ robb stark

𝐱𝐢. a distraction

❝ build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night. set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. ❞ 

             ━━━━ 𝐈𝐍 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐍'𝐒 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌, Vhaehrys brushed her good-mother's hair as the woman still sat beside her comatose son. For the past few days, Catelyn was sat beside her son, creating small things for him, things that were said to protect someone in times of need. It hung over his bed, the small circular thing, beautifully made by Catelyn's master hands. Maester Luwin walks in, "It's time we reviewed the accounts, My lady, you'll want to know how much the royal visit has cost us."

Perhaps a lot of wine, Vhary thought, sighing as she sat the brush on the trunk next to her. 

"Talk to Poole about it," Catelyn puts it off.

"Poole went south with Lord Stark, My Lady," Luwin responds, shaking his head at it. "We need a new steward, and there are several other appointments that require our immediate attention. . ."

"I don't care about appointments!" Catelyn yelled and Vhary immediately put her hand on her shoulder, making sure she calmed down a bit. Catelyn put her hand on top of her son's wife's.

"I'll make the appointments," Robb waltzes into the room, heads turning towards him. "We'll talk about it first thing in the morning." 

"Very good, My Lord," Luwin bows a bit to all three high-born people. "My ladies." He walks out, leaving them to talk about personal issues he felt arise as soon as the eldest son had walked in. They all watch him go, wanting to make sure he had truly left before turning back to their new conversation. "When was the last time you left this room?" Robb asks his mother, who shakes her head and turns back towards Bran. 

"I have to take care of him."

"He's not going to die, mother. Maester Luwin says the most dangerous part has passed."

"What if he's wrong?" Catelyn asks. "Bran needs me."

"Rickon needs you," Robb almost yells at her. "He's six. He doesn't know what's happening. He follows me around all day, clutching my leg, crying. . ." The direwolves howl in the distance, the dragons long asleep by the window sill, and Catelyn couldn't stand the wolves. "Close the windows! I can't stand it! Please make them stop!" Vhary rushes over to the windows, ready to close them when she spots the fire in the distance, crackling high into the night sky. "Fire!" She calls out to her family, pointed at the flames. "Over there!" Robb rushes over, takes one peek, and begins barking orders, "Fire. You'll stay here. I'll be back."

"You're not supposed to be here," an assassin tells the two women in the room after the eldest Stark son leaves the room. "No one is supposed to be here. It's a mercy. He's dead already." The dragons awake at the commotion, taking a look at their surroundings, and glare at the man before them. An assassin, all of them - including the humans - realized. When he draws his blade, Catelyn begins to fend him off, in which both her hands are sliced open at the palms. He walks within inches of Bran and Vhary quickly thought of something. 

"Dracarys," she orders her dragons quietly. They glared at the man with their beady eyes, and open their mouths, breathing in and when they breathe back out, a flume of fire strikes the assassin, who begins screaming in pain. Robb rushes in after seeing that no one was at the burning building and sees a burned body contorted on the ground. He looks up and sees Vhary with her dragons, looking up at him and then at the body. "I killed him." She steps out of the room.

♛ ━━ ( ♛ ) ━━ ♛

CATELYN HOLDS COUNCIL IN the woods with Robb, Theon, Rodrick, Luwin, and Vhary, who was currently feeding her dragons some meat. "What I am about to tell you must remain between us. I don't think Bran fell from that tower. I think he was thrown." 

"The boy was always sure-footed before," Luwin agrees. 

"Someone tried to kill him twice," Catelyn announces. "Why? Why murder an innocent child? Unless he saw something he wasn't meant to see." Theon shakes his head at the accusation. "Saw what, my lady?"

"I don't know. But I would stake my life the Lannisters were involved. We already suspect their loyalties to the crown." 

"Did you notice the dagger the killer used?" Rodrick speaks up. "It's too fine a weapon for such a man. The blade is Valyrian steel, the handle dragonbone. Someone gave it to him." Theon looks at Vhary with a sideways glance, seeing her listening in intently but keeping her eyes averted to her children. Robb notices this and quickly comes to his wife's defense. "She loves Bran too much to do anything to hurt him, let alone kill him," he growls at him. "And she's never had a blade like that before."

"But she has carried a blade, yes?"

"Yes, but she gave it to Arya after seeing her admire it," Robb shook his head. "Arya took it with her to King's Landing." 

Theon raises his hands in defeat, "Alright."

"They come into our home and try to murder my brother? It's war they want."

"If it comes to that," Theon says, "you know I'll stand behind you." 

"What, is there going to be a battle in the Godswood? Too easily words of war become acts of war. We don't know the truth yet. Lord Stark must be told of this." Vhary stands up, Aegon flapping his wings at his mother, wanting her to pick him up. Catelyn shakes her head, "I don't trust a raven to carry these words." 

"I'll ride to King's Landing," Robb says, and Vhaehrys puts her hand on his shoulder, wanting him to acknowledge her so she can quietly tell him that she'll go with him. He takes her hand in his and holds it against his heart, letting her feel it beat against her fingers, and she relaxes into him, the others watching the happy couple together. "No," Catelyn couldn't break up this marriage. "There must always be a Stark in Winterfell. I will go myself."

"Mother, you can't."

"I must."

"I'll send Hal with a squad of guardsmen to escort you," Rodrick says, but Catelyn shakes her auburn head at him.

"Too large a party attracts unwanted attention," she seems to have thought this out. "I don't want the Lannisters to know I'm coming."

"Let me accompany you, at least. The Kingsroad can be a dangerous place for a woman alone."

"What about Bran?"

"I have prayed to the Seven for more than a month. Bran's life is in their hands now."

They all depart.