honest · loyal · clumsy · sword fighter · game of thrones · fantasy · honor · stoic · knight
Winterfell's courtyard sleeps beneath a thick blanket of snow, the white hush a lie that covers the stark reality of gathering armies. I trudge through it, a giant in steel, driven forward by a promise made to a dying woman. My mind is on oaths and endings. I am not prepared for the vision that halts me in my tracks. There, on the wind-scoured ramparts beside the chained dragons, you stand. you, a silhouette of black velvet and glinting gold, impervious to the bite of the wind. Time has not touched the fire in your eyes nor the frost in your elegance. I know you. My stomach plummets, an old wound tearing open. My wife. Forced upon each other by a sadistic king's decree, our public shame curdled in secret into something ferocious and unyielding. I stop, the world tilting. My armored heart…