Inbox (In the Night)

[chivalrouswench]

I... this is Brienne of Tarth.

[ Insert long, awkward pause here. ]

I am not available at the moment, but leave a message and I will respond as soon as I can.

Comments

[voktys]

⟪ In a way, Stannis' spirit is alive and well in this very room, and it's a thought that might amuse her later, but right now, there's no space for that sort of feeling. ⟫

That would have been unwise.

⟪ But she gets the point, and takes up a spoon to have a little bit of broth. ⟫

I know I –– we, Stannis and I –– did a cruel thing to you.

[chivalrouswench]

[ What can she even say to that? Yes, it was cruel. It was dishonourable, monstrous. She should be strangling this woman with her bare hands, not feeding her and listening to her troubles.

Then again: What would she have done, if Renly had given her the task to steal into Stannis' tent to cut him down? Would she have denied an order from her beloved king, even such a distasteful one? ]

War makes monsters of us all.

[ Mel, having witnessed Brienne's trial and death, might remember the words spoken by Thoros of Myr. ]

[voktys]

It is hard to be just in a war.

⟪ She speaks of her own, of course, the one she has fought for several centuries now, one way or another. After seeing Brienne's 'trial', she has little doubt the girl's own perception of justice has changed. ⟫

And that does not even consider how unjust the law itself can be.

[chivalrouswench]

I wonder if there are any laws here.

[ She feels as if there might be, and they simply haven't been taught them, and she likes that not at all. ]

[voktys]

I suppose much like with everything else, we will have to make our own.

⟪ The thought isn't a negative one, not really, but she still sounds as exhausted as she feels. ⟫

This is not unlike Asshai, which... There is a reason few adventurers return.

[chivalrouswench]

Stannis must have been... reassuring, by comparison.

[ From what she has heard, Stannis would never dream of making up his own laws.

Then again, he did stab a man in the back with a shadow blade. ]

[voktys]

All my life I watched my back. And yet him I trusted, fully armed in the dead of night atop a Wall of Ice with the Other approaching by the hour.

⟪ Reassuring doesn't begin to cover it. ⟫

This is what you thought of Renly, is it not?

[chivalrouswench]

[ Brienne nods, and while anger still lives in her, it is a little easier to contain it now. She knows what it is to serve one you love after all. She knows how all-consuming a thing it is. How much one might do for such a ruler. ]

It is.

[ Not an admission she has given to many, though Melisandre is not the first to know how Brienne felt about Renly. ]

[voktys]

⟪ Here is the funny part: while Melisandre fully understands that Brienne loved Renly, she does not in the least draw a single conclusion about herself. ⟫

I thought we might win the War for the Dawn this way. The armies of the Other are beyond what any of us can imagine. I spoke with ones who have seen them – they move faster than the eye can see, and steel simply bursts when it touches them, no damage done. This is what we are up against –– what we were up against. If they win this one war, they will leave no one alive in their wake.

[chivalrouswench]

[ Brienne might be able to help. ]

Then I suppose I must hope that you were right.

[ At least that way, Renly's death would be for something that matters. ]

[voktys]

It makes no difference. Stannis is dead. Azor Ahai is gone. This battle is lost before it started.

⟪ She looks at her broth as if it's personally responsible for the loss. ⟫

[chivalrouswench]

Dead by my hand, apparently. I must possess more power than I ever knew, to hang for treason and sit here with you, and yet somehow also be in Winterfell to execute Stannis.

[ She breaks off a piece of bread and holds it out for Melisandre to take. ]

If I can be alive and dead at once, why not him?

[voktys]

⟪ She makes a noise like a stifled laugh, and takes the piece of bread to eat and not question if Brienne has just unlocked a sense of humour in the both of them. ⟫

I did not mean to accuse you, I just –– I had to.

⟪ The way Brienne had to face her, when they both arrived here. ⟫

It's not the first, either. The Stark girl insists I met her when she was younger, accused me of buying a boy for some vague purpose, all manner of things, none which add up. Jon Snow says I rode with Stannis and his wife and his daughter to battle for Winterfell, when Stannis only ever rode for Deepwood Motte and I was left at the Wall. Selyse and the princess Shireen are at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, miles from either of us ––

⟪ She chews on her bread. ⟫ She says you told her of the execution at Winterfell, but where I saw you killed was nowhere near that.

[chivalrouswench]

I understand.

[ She privately thinks it was rather rich of Melisandre to come hunting her down considering her condescending attitude toward Brienne's own anger, but all the same she understands. ]

Jon Snow also expected me to be at Winterfell, together with his sister of all people.

[voktys]

But our stories align, don't they? Jon Snow and his sister seem to be generally in agreement ––

⟪ She stops, not sure where she is going. ⟫

This place is doing something, but it is unlike all I have ever seen.

[chivalrouswench]

It is far beyond what I am able to understand.

[ There are people in this place from strange times and places, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it at all.]

If they are not simply lying to us. That I am rather familiar with.

[voktys]

You have been lied to?

⟪ It feels like a dumb question –– people lie as soon as they open their mouths most all the time, but still, it feels... odd to direct such a habit at this girl in particular. ⟫

[chivalrouswench]

[ Brienne takes a piece of bread and starts picking it apart with her thick fingers. ]

You're surprised?

[voktys]

You brought me food. I am among the people you hate most in the world, and you are feeding me and talking me through the worst day of my... ah... death?

⟪ she fumbles with her bread. ⟫

To lie to you seems unusually cruel.

[chivalrouswench]

[ Brienne shrugs, dismissing her own kindness. ]

My actions have never counted for much in the eyes of most people.

[ She is ugly, and that is where the story ends. ]

[voktys]

How come? You are highborn, aren't you not?

⟪ Oh, right, she notices the glaring thing –– ⟫

It is your femininity, is it not? Westeros has a way of not acknowledging women.

[chivalrouswench]

In part.

[ She has not made herself better liked by aspiring to live the life of a knight as much as she can, that much is true, though it does not tell the whole story. ]