#arcnes.

it  had  been  too  long  since  she  had  been  in  the  south.  it  wasn’t  nearly  as  long  as  she  had  built  it  up  to  be  in  her  mind,  of  course,  but  all  of  her  traveling  seemed  to  be  running  together  and  the  weeks  on  the  road  from  winterfell  to  king’s  landing  had  proved  to  be  rather  …  not  awkward,  as  she  rather  liked  the  majority  of  her  soon  to  be  in  laws,  but  there  was  a  trepidation  in  traveling  for  the  first  time  away  from  the  family  of  her  birth  with  the  starks.  

her  stomach  had  been  rolling  since  they’d  passed  through  the  riverlands  but  it  was  undeniable  that  aryanna  had  been  a  rather  lovely  person  to  travel  with.  she  might  have  preferred  to  ride  her  own  horse  for  some  length  of  the  journey,  but  she  would  have  missed  out  time  with  aryanna  and  the  development  of  what  alerie  thought  was  a  lovely  friendship  that  had  taken  root  and  bloomed  quite  quickly  over  the  journey.  

as  the  pair  strolled  through  the  gardens  of  the  red  keep  —  something  alerie  was  more  than  excited  to  do  outside  of  the  glass  confines  of  the  gardens  in  winterfell  —  she  gently  looped  her  arm  with  aryanna’s.  the  winds  whispered  through  the  trees  and  offered  that  there  was  no  one  around  to  hear  what  they  might  discuss  and  even  though  there  was  likely  nothing  of  major  value  to  be  exchanged  between  the  stark  and  stark-to-be,  it  was  reassuring.  they  were,  after  all,  in  the  home  of  people  who  had  made  themselves  enemies  of  house  stark.