#minor miracles

(hopes and dreams and the shadowed things beneath)

If Darby ever slows down enough to think about it, she would have to admit that their mother probably didn’t mean to endanger their lives out of greed. It wasn’t ambition, or a lack of shame, or even stupidity that led to the situation. Unfortunately it may have been due to sentimentality, of all things, which Darby almost considers even more frustrating. Because their mother, despite her profession, had been educated enough to name her twins Deer and Nobility — as blatant a declaration of Baratheon bastards as could be — but she had lacked the foresight to know that doing so would spell Darby and Gendry’s doom. And if Darby slows down even further, lets herself acknowledge the shadowy part of her mind, then she’d have to admit its a little bit funny how she has been reborn as the a secondary character’s twin sister named deer girl not just once, but twice.

~

Kinda long for summary, mostly because I was rereading some of my old stuff in a sort of narcissistic / nostalgic fit because I don’t understand how I was so prolific before and I yearn to write again. So I attempted to write a thing for Minor Miracles (my A Song of Ice and Fire SI!OC anthology) and then realized that, oh no, I accidentally just copy and pasted Shikako Nara. BUT THEN I realized that, well, technically, this also could meet the criteria for an addition to Hail To The Queen (my Shikako becomes Hokage or the real power behind Hokage or sometimes literally queen?) since if I just leaned into Darby being Shikako again, then her being one of Robert Baratheon’s bastards would put her PRETTY CLOSE to the action in the, you know, titular game of thrones.

Unfortunately, once I had the realization I could do that, I then got paralyzed in the TOO MANY paths this premise could take. Like, how powerful would I want her to be? Does she only have memories or does she have any holdovers from the Naruto world whether that be chakra or Gelel-given abilities or the Westeros nearest equivalent. And then there’s the whole Lord of Light / Brotherhood of Banners things and given the whole Nara shadows thing, does that put her at odds with them?

Or are Darby and Gendry, like the Starks, split up for the majority of the timeline and trying to get back to each other / fearing the other has already been killed and grieving before reuniting after being thoroughly but separately traumatized?

Minor Miracles “Christmas All Over Again” (2014)

Self Released Buy: Bandcamp (might come back) | Stream Tom Petty’s death is a bigger blow to me than George Michael, Prince, David Bowie or any of the other legends that have passed in recent memory. I likely have listened to more Petty than all three of those legends combined over the years… not to take away from how much I loved them, just that Tom Petty was with me for a long time, and in…

Carlin Frey

(blood is one thing, family is another)

---

One of her earliest memories is of her sister, big brown eyes filled with tears, and the stinging pain after a blow to the face.

"Idiot child," says their brother or cousin or uncle, the Twins fill to bursting with so many Freys she's not sure how they are related, "Learn your place."

The House of Frey is not a family, there is no kindness here: Carlin learns never to ask for something when taking is much more efficient.

---

Roslin is gentle and beautiful and, if not loved, then regarded fondly by others.

Carlin is the exact opposite: rough and loud and brash and only loved by her sister, but she is satisfied with that.

She'd rather be brave than kind, would rather fight than cry, would rather have only Roslin than the dozens of other Freys.

---

When she and Roslin are six, Carlin dresses in clothes stolen from a brother or a cousin or an uncle, and lines up alongside the boys of her family who are beginning to train in swords.

Beside herself, there are four other Freys of age; the master-at-arms too busy to check if she should even be there at all.

Carlin gets callouses on her palms and scrapes on her knuckles and couldn't be happier.

---

Roslin doesn't approve, but she doesn't tell anyone else about it either--that early memory is one they share, after all--and she is distraction enough that no one thinks to borrow trouble in the form of Carlin.

As years pass, House Frey seems to forget that the lord's sixth wife had two daughters, not just one.

... until it's time for the newest generation of Freys to become squires.

---

This most recent blow to the face leaves her speechless not from pain--for she is a knight in training--but from shock.

Carlin thinks this is the first time Walder Frey has ever touched her, much less spoken to her.

Just like last time, she sees Roslin's eyes fill with tears and Carlin learns a new lesson.

---

Think fast, talk faster, and maybe she can turn shame into glory.

If she were a terrible warrior, then that would be one thing, but she has been trained well and is skilled besides--this can still be salvaged.

If she fails, then that would only prove Lord Frey right, but if she succeeds...

---

Women warriors aren't common in Westeros, but Carlin isn't the first: there are the Sand Snakes of Dorne, the Maiden Knight of Tarth, and the Lady Bears of the North.

Surely one of them will be honored at the idea of a noble born squire?

Roslin helps her write the letters and, for the last time, acts as distraction so Carlin can seal and send them off.

---

Ideally the Mormonts, Carlin thinks to herself at night, listening to the soft breaths of her sleeping sister.

Brienne's storyline intwines with the Baratheons and the Lannisters too closely for comfort.

And though the Sand Sisters would be good for her personally--the name Frey would not be a death sentence in Dorne regardless of the path their lord father chooses--Roslin deserves happiness; it wasn't fair that she should be used as bait in a trap.

---

The whole of House Frey could burn to the ground and Carlin would be fine with that so long as Roslin were safe and happy.

Carlin presses a hand to her throat, remembering the fates of those brothers, cousins, nephews, whose only crime was to be named Frey.

Nevertheless, Carlin goes North: she doesn't expect to be spared if it comes to that, she hopes to derail that future entirely.

~

A/N: I didn't want to write about whether or not Carlin succeeds because... that's not the point of this series...