﹫𝒯𝙷𝚈𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝑺

⊱ ░ ❛❛ even as children ━━ a link has bound us, one to the other. ❜❜

among the oldest records preserved beneath silvermere lies mention of a phenomenon so rare that even within house silverlance it has appeared only a handful of times throughout the centuries. it is said that before dragons became the pride of valyria, there were those whose magic did not command flame, but blood. sorcerers who forged covenants not only between dragon and rider, but between kin; believing that no power surpassed two lives willingly intertwined. the oldest scrolls do not describe such children born of this as merely twins. they are two bodies, one soul, born beneath the same stars ━━ and bound by blood older than the freehold itself. though the rites themselves were lost long before the doom, proof of its existence remains within the blood of house silverlance.

when these children are born, they are recognized immediately ━━ both bear the royal mark, both inherit the same bond... and neither will ever truly walk the world alone. their connection is neither telepathy nor prophecy. thoughts cannot be read, nor words spoken across impossible distances. instead, it is something far older, far simpler. instinct. recognition ━━ a shared thread woven into flesh itself.

pain belongs to them both. if one suffers injury, so too shall the other.

a knife drawn across one twin's palm opens the same wound upon the other. a broken rib steals breath from both alike. distance dulls neither wound nor ache... only death severs the bond. for this reason, these children are seldom separated for long during youth. should one fall ill, the other is watched with equal care ━━ should one require a maester, two beds are prepared.

lord nuada silverlance and his twin sister, lady nuala, are the first of their kind in nearly two centuries. throughout childhood, neither understood the significance of what they possessed. scraped knees, split lips, fevers, and fractured bones arrived together so naturally that they believed all siblings shared the same burden ━━ only with age did they come to understand that what united them was not merely blood, but something ancient; a remnant of valyria's oldest sorceries lingering stubbornly within a dying line. it is this bond that renders every campaign a quiet horror.

whenever lord nuada marches to war, lady nuala prepares alongside him; despite never leaving silvermere. the castle maester remains constantly at her side, fresh linens laid ready, bandages folded, milk of the poppy within arm's reach. victories are not awaited by raven alone ━━ they are measured by whether the lady has remained standing. there have been evenings where she has collapsed without warning as a spear found her brother hundreds of miles away... there have been mornings where she has woken bleeding from wounds inflicted before dawn on some distant battlefield.

every sword lord nuada raises risks not only his own life, but hers. among the smallfolk surrounding silvermere, old women whisper that the gods mistakenly divided one soul between two children. the maesters dismiss such stories as superstition... but house silverlance has never seen reason to argue, for they have watched the blood answer for itself.

torwyn harlaw was born a lesser son of house harlaw — noble enough to bear the name proudly, but far enough from succession that little was expected of him beyond strength, seaworthiness, and loyalty to the house. as a boy, he was restless to the point of exasperation. he climbed where he shouldn't, fought boys older than him, stole wine before he could stomach it, and disappeared aboard ships without permission and returned half drowned and laughing. he learned more from sailors than septons; more from storms than lessons. his father considered him unruly… his kin called him a humiliation. but men liked him. that was always the problem.

the boy possessed the sort of reckless charm that turned punishments into stories and disasters into victories. older sailors taught him cards, knots, dirty songs, and swordplay. captains tolerated him because he was useful. smallfolk forgave him because he remembered names. and though he tried to hide it in youth, torwyn carried a dangerous curiosity for things beyond the iron islands. maps, mainland customs, books he pretended not to understand. he was never meant to matter politically, so nobody truly bothered shaping him into a proper heir… that changed when death began thinning the men ahead of him. the isles had a way of burning through their men young.

a brother lost at sea. an uncle murdered during a raid. a cousin dead of fever, and another gutted in some pointless blood feud. and suddenly the troublesome younger harlaw — the wandering embarrassment — became useful. important, even. by then, torwyn had already spent years becoming something difficult to define: too ironborn for the mainland, and too worldly for the iron islands.

"inspire in me the desire in me to never go home."

"screaming at the moon... another past time."

"one more day like today and i'll kill you."

"i think it's dark, and it looks like rain."

"your trust, the most gorgeously stupid thing i ever cut in the world."

"i never said i would stay in the end."

"can't you see i try? swimming the same deep water as you is hard."

"the further i get from the things that i care about, the less i care about how much further away i get."

"it's easier for me to get closer to heaven than ever feel whole again."

"it's so cold, it's like the cold if you were dead."

"i must've been asleep for days."

"it still took you a while to get it out of me, i thought you'd do it easily."

"the way the rain comes down hard, that’s how i feel inside."

"it's torture, but i'm almost there."

"i never thought that this day would end."

"any love you once felt for me, has turned into this travesty of selfishness and jealousy."

"why can't i just let you go?"

"i miss the kiss of treachery."

"there was nothing in the world i ever wanted more than to feel you deep in my heart."

"i didn't feel a thing when you told me that you didn't feel a thing."

"don't struggle like that or i will only love you more."

"i've got blood on my hands."

"i've got hands in my brain."

"your face, i'll never see you this way again. i captured it so perfectly as if i knew you'd disappear away."

"i would tell you that i love you if i thought that you would stay."

"for how much longer can i cry like this?"

"your tongue is like poison."

"the world is neither fair nor unfair."

"please love me."

"now that i know that i'm breaking to pieces, i'll pull out my heart and i'll feed it to anyone."

"i don't care if you don't. and i don't feel if you don't."

"i like you to scream."

"if you open your mouth, then i can't be responsible for what goes in or to care what comes out."

"let's go to bed."

"no matter how far away, i will always love you."

"how beautiful you are."

"sometimes i'm dreaming while all the other people dance."

"i will never be clean again."

"you're just like a dream."

"you promised me..."

"oh, kiss me, kiss me, kiss me!"

"its better to forget, than to remember me and cry."

"three long years and your favourite man, is that anyway to say hello?"

"you hold me like you'll never let me go."

"trust and be trusted, says the liar to the fool."

"in love and war, there are no rules."

"would you suffer eternally, or internally?"

"your hand in mine, i will be brave."

"i am your servant, may i light your cigarette?"

"i think she's falling out of love."

"let me kiss the curse away."

"she hates me."

"we'll burn together."

"i beg to serve, your wish is my law."

"i love myself for hating you."

"cast that spell on me."

"we'll make love by fire light."

"no matter what i do, it's never enough."

"will you leave me with your taste?"

"i'm searching for something which can't be found."

"everyone i love is dead."

"i don't want to be me anymore."

"the beast inside of me is going to get you."

"loving you was like loving the dead."

"if you don't kill me, i'm going to have to kill you."

"don't take her, don't take her away from me."

"did one say so cruel, 'tis better to love and lose?"

"your compassion became its own hell."

"i fought night and day, for my land and my king."

"be my druidess, be my everything."

"i pity the living, envy for the dead."

"you're unequivocally beautiful inside and out."

"blood, though thicker than water, is harder to clean up."

"hades i'm sure must be missing a demon."

"i live to war, it's in my blood."

"there are some things worse than death and one of them is you."

"ignorance is bliss, wish not knew your kiss."

"i'll do anything to make you cum."

"i hate the morning light."

"better to live as king of beasts, than as a lamb scared and weak."

"i see your face in every flame."

"why don't you love me anymore?"

"you are lust incarnate in the sweat of my bed."

"what makes you think that you have won when the battle has only just begun?"

"there is no pain like that of desire."

"how many times must i say i'm not sorry?"

"how many ways can i show i don't care?"

"i will never again know your sun upon my face, or the comfort of a grave."

"no more nights of blood and fire."

"as much as i love the night, i curse the moon's eerie glow."

"when i called her evil, she just laughed."

"i know you're fucking someone else."

"if i needed someone to love, you're the one that i'd be thinking of."

"patience is divine, but the virtue is not mine."

"did it give you pleasure to steal my soul?"

"this place is haunted."

"i hope that we meet in another life."

"your blood's not worth spilling."

"the distance kills me, but your presence is a threat."

"beneath all the pleasure, all you are is pain."

"why do i feel guilty for what you have done?"

"everyone that you love is dead."

"your love is just a frail disguise, to hide the pain behind your eyes."

"you're digging your grave, my helpless enemy."

"you know nothing of anger. you know nothing of pain."

"oh how the wind, it whispers."

"in this hell, you are my paradise."

"the curse you left, it ends tonight even if i have to tear out my insides."

"never again will this heart be your home."

"the marks on your neck would never lie."

"am i living or am i just alive?"

"it's all the rain that's putting me to sleep."

"i'm just a slave to how this feels."

"i know my suffering's what keeps you alive."

"are you the prey or spider in the web of all your lies?"

"he will not relent, as he comes for her again and again."

"criminal in how i crave the way you taste."

"i'm more than willing to rot in hell with you."

"you must realize that someday you will die and until then you are worthless."

"i'm the only thing inside of you that you cannot control."

"i want it dirty with the lights on, filthy, vile, and obscene."

"i hate that i made you the enemy, and i hate that your heart was the casualty."

"don't pray for me when you're the one to blame."

"i know i'm going to be fine... oh god, am i going to be fine?"

"i can't close my eyes, for it is there where you haunt me most."

"you know that if you knock, then i will always let you in."

"i don't care if i will miss you, please just fuck me 'til we disappear."

"nothing is like it was before, i know not who i am anymore."

"i own the grave from which i came."

"i was just a corpse you saw fit to drag around."

"you were in my dream last night."

"i feel a sickness for a home i've never been."

"shut your mouth before i fuck it."

"you cannot kill that which has no soul or life to take."

"can your heart still break if it's already stopped beating?"

"if i cut off my hand and gave it to you, would you hold it then?"

"i haven't slept in days, for i might not wake up."

"i may not have built this kingdom, but i'll make fucking sure that i protect it from you."

"i won't make you beg so just get down on your knees."

"tell me you need me and that you're dying to please."

"outside it looks like rain."

"do you fantasize of a much different life?"

"blood for blood, i'll cut you out with the knife you cowardly left in my back."

"i keep it all inside because i know that man is everything but kind."

"it's my life, my body, and my love to give."

"everyone's got a secret. what's yours?"