Snippet #1503125

"Why..." She began to wonder, her mind trailing back to those eyes – to the realization that all she had pretended had been only and just that – a pretense. Tears swelled in her eyes as her head pound from the ale she had indulged in the night before, the past day when they had broken camp for the night within the forest. She remembered it all in slow motion, and she shook the memories from her head.

"... Didn't you stop me, Leli?"

She looked down at her hands, and she noticed that there was still blood crusted beneath her fingernails and quietly cursed at herself. Overwhelming guilt washed over her, and her heart beat faster. She knew she was going to be sick, but just swallowed the lump in her throat.

She gathered her weapons, putting them on in a frantic rush. Then suddenly, in the middle of strapping her quiver to her back, she met her own gaze through a small hand-mirror in her pack. Her hair was tangled, laying waved on her shoulders and face. Her eyes staring back at her with remorse, and confusion.

"I hate you..." She told the face in the mirror, and continued to tighten the strap of the quiver. The face grinned back up at her in a wolfish leer. “I wasn’t the one who asked you to come by, you know. You came of your own accord.” The leer turned into an angry grimace, “so you can just go ahead and leave me alone, you annoying bitch. You’re just ruining everything. I don’t want to think about those eyes – you’re forcing me to.”

“Why am I even here? I shouldn’t be – shouldn’t be…” she demanded her answer, tears slipping down from her eyes to pitifully roll down her cheeks.

“I love him. There’s your reason.” The face snarled and wiped away at the tears. “Don’t you get emotional on me.”

“I followed because I was too stupid to know otherwise…I-I thought – I don’t know what I thought…” she felt fear grip her from the inside. “I don’t think I can – they’re still my family – I…I don’t…I just want to go home…”

“Oh – would you shut up? You’re making my head ache, Leliana.” She watched as the face in the mirror rubbed her forehead, glaring at her with those bright blue eyes. “This is no place for you – just leave and let me handle things. You already had your turn when you talked to Walter, that should be enough for you. By the Drowned God, you force your company on me and I do not need you here right now.” She took an inhale of the crisp air and felt herself safe, surrounded by those tall trees and the quiet whisperings of the forest.

~

“I think it’s Leli you would rather see, not Leliana,” she joked – those words making little sense to anyone but her – as she strolled into the tent. She had been walking through the forest with the ease of someone who had been born in these parts and had spent many days hunting and running through the densely-packed trees. Inside the tent she felt strangely claustrophobic, but she ignored the feeling. Leliana shot Reuben a grin as a ‘hello’ before turning back to Lionel.

“You wanted to talk plans and strategies, I am assuming,” she said and sidled up to him, playfully bumping him with her hip before taking a seat. “The Keep is very well fortified and I cannot imagine we won’t suffer losses if we lay siege – even if we choose the options to sneak about like thieves in the night.”

Leli, I – I fear I’m going…

Already are, love. Already are.

---

Finally. After several more days of riding as if there Wildfire was roaring after them, Ammon and Sirena had arrived at King’s Landing. Now that they were finally within the city – riding atop a pair of horses that looked very ready to collapse and die on the spot, the one thing that was left for Ammon and Sirena to do was to get into the Red Keep and convince the King of their pretend intentions.

The two of them had planned out their strategies throughout their whole journey and they knew exactly how the situation ought to be handled – or so they hoped. It would be tricky business, but oh-so worth it in the end. Ammon was honestly very eager to get inside the Red Keep and get himself involved in the fascinating series of events that he was sure were transpiring within its walls.

There was nothing quite like a little courtly intrigue to get one’s blood pumping.

Their first ‘setback’ – if one could call it such – met them when they had ridden through the city and up to the gates which barred the Red Keep from the general populace. The first step now was, of course, to get through and the guards who were in the way looked like they were going to make things difficult. Ah, I do no suppose the group of them have half a brain between them, this should not be too hard. Ammon exchanged a discreet look with Sirena before the two of them forced their tired, plodding horses closer.

“And what business do you two beggars have, prancing around the gates of the Red Keep?” The guard barked at them, his pockmarked face twisted into a sour frown. “I ought to have the two of you thrown in the dungeons for parading about like you own the place.”

“We mean no harm,” Ammon said, and though he was acting the part of the beggar his tone still carried with it undertones of his arrogance and dominant personality, “we’ve only come to speak with the King.”

The guard let out a guffaw and so did his friends. “And why, pray tell, would the King ever wish to speak to the likes of the two of you?”

“Ah, and here we were – my fair lady and I, thinking that His Majesty would wish to hear of how we escaped from the clutches of the Winslers and have new for him appertaining to his son,” Ammon sighed and made himself look the very image of the downtrodden messenger who had clawed his way through sharp briars – only to be turned away. Dramatic, but good enough to fool a bunch of guards. “You know the one, I assume. He wears an eye-patch these days – though the last time we say him, he was in bad shape…”

He knew that he and Sirena would have to play a much more delicate game once they were before the King. They would have their audience with the King soon enough, in any case, judging by the way one of the guards had slipped inside of the gates and was off hurrying towards the Keep – without a doubt going to relay the news to the King. So far, so good.