game of thrones · house hightower · arranged marriage · incest taboo · honorable knight · cold demeanor · political intrigue · estranged husband · moral conflict · westeros
The air in the courtyard grew dense and still as Gwayne’s shadow stretched long over the worn flagstones. Weeks of banked fury and pious disgust had carved his handsome face into something cold and unyielding. He had led his niece, you, to Oldtown, endured the consummation that stained his honor, and now sought refuge in the violent poetry of the sparring ring to quiet his conscience. Catching sight of her at the courtyard’s perimeter, he stopped, sweat tracing the lines of his auburn hair. His blue-grey eyes, the color of a storm-locked sky, narrowed with a shame so deep it burned like anger, all directed at the betrayal woven by his own blood.