lady stark.

of course his mother would notice, at this point and age in his life you’d think robb would have known by now that his siblings nor he could ever get away with anything or do anything without their mother knowing. he idly wondered that if he ever had children of his own would he be as observant and all knowing? was that a trait shared only by parents? he halts the shaking of his legs, the corner of his lips barely upticking in an apologetic smile. father was busy speaking to some of the bannermen, and apparently now truly was the best time for his mother to interrogate his apparently obvious behavior. “ nothing as important as this. ” he replies back in a jesting tone, copper curls bouncing when he nods across the table at the different northern lords. ever since he was old enough he had to partake in meetings such as this, the future heir had to listen in while his lord father spoke with wisdom and power, and his mother controlled her duties that partook for the actual care and daily happenings in the castle, a job that would eventually go to his future wife. however he was slightly lying, he had plans to go for a ride with jon & theon and… the desire to get away from the burdens of being the heir and perfect perfect lord was all too tempting. “ i promise it can wait. ”

“the meeting is nearly over, robb.“ she smiled and patted her son’s hand on the table. she understood, of course - she and lysa had spent most of their teenage years teasing poor edmure for having to sit through the same boring meetings back in riverrun, and he’d reacted the same way robb was: he did his duty, albeit with plenty of fidgeting, while his friends watched through the window and waited for him to be finished. it wasn’t something she would have ever said out loud, but she was proud to see that spark of tully mischief in robb; as much as she loved ned, the stark somberness wasn’t quite as much fun. 

Jaime opened his eyes to darkness and realized he was still alive, but under rubble. He had no idea how he survived this. Realizing he had been holding on to Cersei, he tried to kick away some of the rubble. He had already been in pain before this so clearly he was in more now. Managing to get out if the rubble, he started moving some more, trying to find his sister. It didn’t help that he could only use the one hand. Finding her, he knew that he had lost her. It was just luck that he had survived this. It would have been too much to ask to have Cersei survive as well. He kissed her before getting to his feet and trying to make his way out.

The wound from his fight with Euron was still bleeding. He needed to get that sorted out before he lost too much blood. Reaching the streets, he glanced around. He never thought he would see the place like this. Jaime was clearly in a state of shock by not only what happened but losing Cersei as well. Leaning against a wall, he closed his eyes as the pain was so bad from the wound. He didn’t even know if he could make it out of here. Pushing himself away from the wall, he carried on walking. He may have lived here for so long but in the state it was in, he was kind of getting lost around here. He needed to find someone. Anyone.

He couldn’t find anyone around. The place was like a ghost town. He had to get away from here. Especially if he was going to get caught by Daenerys’ guards again. He tried to stop the bleeding. He didn’t have the energy to row on the boat Tyrion had mentioned before so he went by horse. He could just about manage that. He needed to get away from here. He decided on Winterfell. He got on the horse and just rode away. His injuries taking a toll on him and his wounds had started bleeding again. Jaime managed to reach Winterfell and at this point, he wasn’t doing well at all and was so close to falling off his horse.

@matristark

when the guards announced that jaime lannister had returned to winterfell severely injured, it had taken a remarkable amount of self control to tell them to let him through. really, if she were being completely honest, catelyn had wanted to just say “good riddance,” mark him down as another casualty, and leave him there in the snow. but at that point, with so many of the great houses suddenly obsolete and so many sons and brothers (and daughters and sisters) lying in piles of ash by the godswood, it just felt too petty to allow another person to die for the sake of a dead rivalry.

letting jaime bleed out at the gate wouldn’t bring back robb, or ned, or rickon, or talisa, or lysa, or theon. 

if nothing else, she couldn’t do that to brienne. (though, after hearing about how he’d ridden off on the poor girl, she was almost tempted to do it for brienne.)

it wasn’t that cat particularly liked or trusted danaerys - between everything she’d heard about the girl and her closeness with jon, she really had no reason to seek out the girl’s company. but she was a child; in the stubbornness and courage of danaerys’s youth, catelyn saw robb and talisa and renly and margaery and loras, and before them brandon and leanna and rhaegar, and all of the other young people who had died trying to fix a broken world that had cruelly left them behind. 

and, if what sansa had reported from their meetings was any indication, the targaryen girl was headed down the same path to martyrdom. 

the banquet had gone about exactly as planned, for what it was worth - before the royal family had even arrived, cat had known that the evening would take a petty turn, especially once the wine had been flowing for a bit. truth be told, everything had gone exactly as expected: ned and robert had caught up, robert drank too much and flirted with serving girls, the queen made snide comments about just about everything, and cat did her best to hold her tongue. 

until the queen made a comment along the lines of how honored cat must have been to be given the privilege of entertaining such esteemed guests at her humble northern home.

“give up, we needed the company,“ she snapped, though when ned caught her eye and gave a tired, disappointed sigh, she bit her lip, rolled her eyes, and raised her glass to the queen. “let’s drink to your health.“