#enlightenment hurts sweetling

[melchinafan]

So, I was gathering ak'ab references in the Monster Gallery for potential eventual anthropomorphizing purposes. (They look like moths, so they're prime Mothman inspirations.) But as I turned them about, I had some...cursed, spicy Realizations. *pats ak'ab* This bad bug can fit so many fetishes. Sure, there's tentacles on a whole bunch of stuff in Secret World, but there is just...so much in the design for the ak'ab that can lend to all sorts of shenanigans.

So buckle the fuck up, sweetlings, we're going on a deep dive analyzation of ak'ab anatomy and observing the wild potential for fetishes along the way.

[Image ID: concept art of an ak'ab, a bizarre monster from the game Secret World Legends. It's quadrupedal, but has extra bug-like digits on the sides of its torso. It also has what appear to be bat-like wings, but the membrane connects in the center to a long digit that's sprouting from the center of its back, which results in a single, triangular wing. Its head is large and bulbous, and transitions directly to its shoulders with no neck. It has two pairs of eyes on the front of its head, with a vertically-slit mouth below them that contains two rows of humanoid teeth, and multiple thin tongues extend from it. Below that are another few pairs of eyes, and a large proboscis hanging downward. It has multiple sets of gills in the space between the lower set of eyes and its shoulders, with another set of humanoid teeth inside the gills closest to the eyes.]

I'll open with the general observation that ak'ab are surprisingly mammalian for something that otherwise looks like a fucked-up eldritch moth. By and large, they have a standard recognizable skeletal structure, even in the forelimb sections of the weird wings. Granted, they do also have bonus finger-like "limbs" coming out of their ribs like short insect legs. Plus another large digit on the center of the back, which connects the membranes of what would normally be a pair of wings into a single, triangular wing. And their head is...its own Thing. But they've got fingers/toes on their feet, with black finger/toenails on the digits that don't have claws, and joints generally in the same number and placement you'd expect from a mammal.

But it's not only the apparent arrangement of their bones that's oddly mammalian—indeed, arguably even strikingly humanoid. When I turned the ak'ab model to see what its underside looked like...I found something I would have never noticed in-game. Did you know they have nipples, sweetling? No? Now we know. Together.

[Image ID: a screenshot of the ak'ab model from the Monster Gallery. The camera is angled from below, which makes it possible to see the fact that the monster has a surprisingly humanoid torso, including two pairs of pecs. And, by extension, four nipples, though the set on the left are hidden by the reflective lighting of the model.]

I mean really, all you need to do to anthropomorphize an ak'ab is make it bipedal, slightly less top heavy, and...well, there you go. It's overall surprisingly in line with the cenobite-style shenanigans I might have pulled in an intellectual exercise to try to make a moth using human bits. Besides the nonsense middle wing digit, that part baffles me.

But, with that revelation, several questions are raised. Do ak'ab only have nipples because their form is based on mammalian bodies, nightmare-warped into an otherwise insectoid format? Or do they actually serve some function? Is it possible for an ak'ab to lactate, and if they do, do they carry their wee young around with their rib-digits so they can feed frequently? How cute would that be? Like a mama opossum. If it's not for lactation, nor a holdover from their nightmarish inspiration...well, we know ak'ab can cocoon prey. Is it possible that what appear to be "nipples" are, in fact, spinnerets? In which case, are the rib-digits what manipulate the silk as they wrap their prey? Whatever the case, the mere presence of (presumed) nipples (and/or spinnerets) has potential for oodles of fetish shenanigans, whether they're functional or not.

But let's move on, because boy howdy is that not nearly the end of it. Another obvious potential fetish-feature is the fact that they have five long, thin tongues in their primary mouth. Sure, that mouth has two sets of humanoid teeth in it, but what's that in the face of pseudo-tentacles? Especially when the vertical mouth slit is, well...I mean, real moths do indeed have rather labial mouthparts. But when it's embiggened and fleshy, it's just a bit more blatant, no?

Curiously, the mouth slit (at least the redder flesh of it) continues downward, past four more pairs of eyes, to the underside of its head where it also has a proboscis. This is, presumably, what the ak'ab use for bloodsucking, as suggested in their Bestiary lore/legends. (Which also mentions that they're a hivemind, so. Pretty sure that's also a Thing, as a quick side note.) One might then assume that their rib-digits can also be used to help hold small prey in place while they use their proboscis to drain its blood, and their lower eyes could be used to spot tiny prey on the ground.

But is blood the only thing they consume? They do have mouths and omnivorous teeth, after all. Did you ever notice the extra sets of teeth they have in their gills, sweetling? I was so excited when I first spotted them, it's my favorite design detail about ak'ab. I've cooed quite a bit over their gill-teeth, they're so fantastically gnarly, what a disturbing design. So many potential implications. A little silly that it's horizontal sets of teeth in vertical gill-slits, but whatever, they're chittering nightmares. Only...now that I'm thinking about their anatomy, and trying to make sense of it...perhaps, if we assume ak'ab ever eat particularly large prey, the three sets of teeth are each part of functional mouths? And maybe they just. Shove their faces right on into the carcass, while they breathe with the further-back gills. Do the mouths then connect to one large stomach, or do they have separate ones for each mouth?

An extra thought, regarding how they eat (or not). What if some, or all, of their toothed mouths are connected to a different type of digestive organ, and that's what they use to make Broodmarks and such? Between the front mouth and the pair of gill-mouths, there's a number of potential combinations for consumption of animal/plant matter, partial digestion, and regurgitation vs. regular digestion. If that is something they can do, that could be how they source the various gooey structures they create.

In any case, given that the Buzzing also suggested that ak'ab might be "ravenous" and tunnelers, with many strange limbs and bulbous eyes, and now I'm reminding myself of taxxon from Animorphs...they do have fairly loose skin at their bellies. So it's certainly possible they might, when food is plentiful, have their bellies become distended with blood (or flesh, or etc.). Which is an entire list of subtly enabled fetish potential on its own, pretty much just from the design of the belly.

But another thing occurred to me, in realizing that the gill-teeth might be fully functional and not just for nightmarish visions. Something rather more specific, that sort of requires context of ak'ab behavior within the game. You see, stranger who may have wandered in here unfamiliar yet remain reading despite the ache developing in your brain—the ak'ab have a telegraphed charge attack that stuns the player. It's possible to dodge and avoid the stun, but they're quick as sin, and prone to swarming. They're a hive, as you'll recall, and they'll call in close-but-out-of-sight friends if you attack one. So it's easy to get overwhelmed by two or three (or more), and become stun-locked by a group of ak'ab if you wander in the wrong part of the forest. You also run across them quite early in the game, so it could be quite a shock as a newBee. (This is significantly less of an issue now, because their propensity to pull in distant friends is much lower than it used to be, and the telegraph is shown for much longer. But the Old Bees know.)

So you see. There is a not-insignificant number of people who came to instinctively resent ak'ab, and tried to avoid encountering them because of that frustration. And that instinct and spite might linger, despite things being much more manageable now. And so...in my brain, some things clicked, and it made a couple curious connections when I realized ak'ab might have three fully functional mouths. If a few frustrated Bees were inclined to "get back" at an ak'ab for the stun-locking they suffered...well, that could be a spicy monsterfucker fic prompt, right there.

And that's the super cursed, spicy thought that I couldn't just leave stuck in my craw. I had to inflict it (or gift it) to other Secret Worlders.

#tsw #the secret world #swl #secret world legends #ak'ab #ak'ab anatomy and the implications thereof #I accidentally went full (cursed) dissertation again #I am asexual and 'do not go here' as it were #I just have approximate knowledge of many things #I have stared into the middle distance so much today #as thoughts occurred to me and I tried to parse what various features indicate #they're nightmare creatures they don't need to make sense #but it's fun to ponder how they might #gently stretching out my skull with cursed thoughts #enlightenment hurts sweetling #taste and see

[agentrouka-blog]

Sweet Lady - a Sansa key phrase

The wonderful @esther-dot was so kind as to introduce me to the precious resource that is asearchoficeandfire.com and I have been down a rabbit hole ever since. Or more so than usual. (As far as quarantine with toddlers and work, both, allow me, anyway.) It's marvelous for letting you do unfocused word combinations, which really does wonders for finding text parallels and such. But that is a post for another day.

It did inspire me to search all my book files for an exact phrase, though. "Sweet Lady". It doesn't count all the other instances for sweet, lady, my sweet, sweet queen, sweet XYZ, sweetling or what have you. We already know that "sweet" can be a code for falseness. So I didn't want to confuse the issue. Only the exact phrase. "Sweet Lady". It's enlightening.

There are 23 instances in all 5 books, the TWOW sample chapters and all the other searchable publications. They appear as follows:

Sansa: 9 (3 x Joffrey, 1 x Ser Loras, 4 x  Dontos ("Florian"), 1 x Marillion)

Catelyn: 5 times (3 x Varys, 2 x Petyr Baelish)

Jonquil: 1 (Florian the Fool, "The Hedge Knight")

Lysa: 2 (1 x Morton Waynwood, 1 x Marillion)

Shae: 2 (1 x Varys, 1 x Symon Silver Tongue, ironic)

A mare: 1 (Jon, soothing a mare, about to betray the Watch)

Daenerys: 1 (Hizdahr, her "loyal" husband)

Asha: 1 (Quarl the maid, murky lover)

Lady Taena Merryweather: 1 (sneaked in, traitorous lover to Cersei - Everything there a big spotlight for Political!Jon and such, btw.)

To make it short, the phrase is a direct reference to Sansa. 9 direct references, 10 if you account for the fact that Sansa = Jonquil. (22 Jonquil mentions in all searchable publications, only 5 are not in Sansa's chapters: Jaime referencing the song or the puppetry in The Hedge Knight. Sansa is Jonquil. Case closed.) The rest of the usage concerns foils, mirrors or other characters deeply connected to her. It's a spotlight for Sansa.

In most instances, it is a marker for erroneous or "false" knights (Dontos, Florian, Loras, Waynwood), or "false" Ladies (Shae,Taena Merryweather, Alayne), immoral singers (Symon, Marillion), rape (Marillion), Rescue (Sansa/Alayne and Tanselle), political scheming (Cat, Varys, Littlefinger, Lady Merryweather and Cersei) and betrayal (ALL of them, save the true Florian and Jonquil). Also, curiously, the injury of hands. (Symon, Marillion, Catelyn, Jon, Tanselle the Jonquil puppeteer).

So now that we do know that when the phrase shows up, it's a marker for Sansa and that what surrounds it concerns Sansa, let's look at when it's used to see if we recognize anything or if it reminds us of anything. (This is where the rabbit hole comes in because there's a jumping off point for more references in almost every example.

 First Mention: Sansa I, AGOT

“Leave her alone,” Joffrey said. He stood over her, beautiful in blue wool and black leather, his golden curls shining in the sun like a crown. He gave her his hand, drew her to her feet. “What is it, sweet lady? Why are you afraid? No one will hurt you. Put away your swords, all of you. The wolf is her little pet (!), that’s all.” He looked at Sandor Clegane. “And you, dog, away with you, you’re scaring my betrothed.”

The Hound, ever faithful, bowed and slid away quietly through the press. Sansa struggled to steady herself. She felt like such a fool. She was a Stark of Winterfell, a noble lady, and someday she would be a queen. “It was not him, my sweet prince,” she tried to explain. “It was the other one.”

The two stranger knights exchanged a look. “Payne?” chuckled the young man in the green armor. The older man in white spoke to Sansa gently. “Ofttimes Ser Ilyn frightens me as well, sweet lady. He has a fearsome aspect.”

Payne, the mute. Who else is mute? Ghost. A fearsome wolf pet. Where have we heard the word "pet" before… Oh, Right. ASOS.

“The good woman at the brazier,” Mance Rayder went on, “is Dalla.” The pregnant woman smiled shyly. “Treat her like you would any queen, she is carrying my child.” He turned to the last two. “This beauty is her sister Val. Young Jarl beside her is her latest pet.”

“I am no man’s pet,” said Jarl, dark and fierce.

“And Val’s no man,” white-bearded Tormund snorted. “You ought to have noticed that by now, lad.”

Aaaand...

Jarl was with the Magnar; Mance had given them the joint command. Styr was none too pleased by that, Jon had noted early on. Mance Rayder had called the dark youth a “pet” of Val, who was sister to Dalla, his own queen, which made Jarl a sort of good brother once removed to the King-beyond-the-Wall.

 And isn't that some precious phrasing. A "good brother" once, removed.

Contrast Dany, ADWD:

“What, o’ the queen’s little pets?” Brown Ben’s eyes crinkled in amusement. The grizzled captain of the Second Sons was a creature of the free companies, a mongrel with the blood of a dozen different peoples flowing through his veins, but he had always been fond of the dragons, and them of him.

“Pets?” screeched Reznak. “Monsters, rather. Monsters that feed on children. We cannot —”

“Silence,” said Daenerys. “We will not speak of that.”

So the Sweet Lady will have a pet wolf, literally and figuratively. *wink*

But on to other "Sweet Lady" instances. Two involving Catelyn:

AGOT, Catelyn:

“How could you know all that?”

“The whisperings of little birds,” Varys said, smiling. “I know things, sweet lady. That is the nature of my service.” He shrugged. “You do have the dagger with you, yes?”

Catelyn pulled it out from beneath her cloak and threw it down on the table in front of him. “Here. Perhaps your little birds will whisper the name of the man it belongs to.”

AGOT, Eddard:

Littlefinger smiled. “Leave Lord Varys to me, sweet lady. If you will permit me a small obscenity—and where better for it than here—I hold the man’s balls in the palm of my hand.” He cupped his fingers, smiling. “Or would, if he were a man, or had any balls. You see, if the pie is opened, the birds begin to sing, and Varys would not like that. Were I you, I would worry more about the Lannisters and less about the eunuch.”

We know who the Little Bird is (Sansa), so here we know our Sweet Lady will spill important Secrets to the vast dismay of some people.

Now for some sweetness in AGOT. Jon's foils Loras and Joffrey lay it on thick:

To the other maidens he had given white roses, but the one he plucked for her was red. “Sweet lady,” he said, “no victory is half so beautiful as you.” Sansa took the flower timidly, struck dumb by his gallantry. His hair was a mass of lazy brown curls, his eyes like liquid gold. She inhaled the sweet fragrance of the rose and sat clutching it long after Ser Loras had ridden off.

Awww. So sweet, so fake.

 Instead Joffrey smiled and kissed her hand, handsome and gallant as any prince in the songs, and said, “Ser Loras has a keen eye for beauty, sweet lady.”

Actually, we know Jon IS a visual creature. (Natural landscapes, handsome Kingslayers, Radiant Sisters, lovely Val, etc etc etc.) But we digress.

The mare whickered softly as Jon Snow tightened the cinch. “Easy, sweet lady,” he said in a soft voice, quieting her with a touch. Wind whispered through the stable, a cold dead breath on his face, but Jon paid it no mind. He strapped his roll to the saddle, his scarred fingers stiff and clumsy. “Ghost,” he called softly, “to me.” And the wolf was there, eyes like embers.

Jon is probably the only one outside of Florian the actual puppet fool to use the phrase honestly. Jon of the fool references is Florian to Sansa's Jonquil. Brienne is the True Knight she prays for, the Galladon, but Jon is the Florian, the fool knight. Also, "The wolf was there." Jon and Ghost will be a calming, gentle, protective presence in Sansa's life. Also "mare" is an occasional marker for Sansa.

Now for something else:

ACOK, Tyrion:

Varys glanced at Shae. “My lord, must we trouble your sweet lady’s sleep with such grim and bloody talk?”

“A lady might be afraid,” said Shae, “but I’m not.”

(ASOS, Tyrion:)

“You shall rise again, I am sure. A man like you. My sweet lady Shae tells me you are newly wed. Would that you had sent for me earlier. I should have been honored to sing at your feast.”

“The last thing my wife needs is more songs,” said Tyrion. “As for Shae, we both know she is no lady, and I would thank you never to speak her name aloud.”

Which all seems to lead to:

(AFFC, Alayne)

Up here where the slope was steepest, the steps wound back and forth rather than plunging straight down. Sansa Stark went up the mountain, but Alayne Stone is coming down. It was a strange thought. Coming up, Mya had warned her to keep her eyes on the path ahead, she remembered. “Look up, not down,” she said … but that was not possible on the descent. I could close my eyes. The mule knows the way, he has no need of me. But that seemed more something Sansa would have done, that frightened girl. Alayne was an older woman, and bastard brave.

and...

“Unhand me. You forget yourself.”

“Mercy. I have been singing love songs for hours. My blood is stirred. And yours, I know … there’s no wench half so lusty as one bastard born. Are you wet for me?”

“I’m a maiden,” she protested.

“Truly? Oh, Alayne, Alayne, my fair maid, give me the gift of your innocence. You will thank the gods you did. I’ll have you singing louder than the Lady Lysa.”

Sansa jerked away from him, frightened. “If you don’t leave me, my au—my father will hang you. Lord Petyr.”

“Littlefinger?” He chuckled. “Lady Lysa loves me well, and I am Lord Robert’s favorite. If your father offends me, I will destroy him with a verse.” He put a hand on her breast, and squeezed. “Let’s get you out of these wet clothes. You wouldn’t want them ripped, I know. Come, sweet lady, heed your heart—”

Sansa heard the soft sound of steel on leather. “Singer,” a rough voice said, “best go, if you want to sing again.” The light was dim, but she saw a faint glimmer of a blade.

The singer saw it too. “Find your own wench—” The knife flashed, and he cried out. “You cut me!”

“I’ll do worse, if you don’t go.” And quick as that, Marillion was gone.

There's a lot in this. There is yet another averted rape attempt, complete with rescue by a knight. (Lothor Brune.) Then, we have the implication that Sansa's virtue will be compromised ("Truly?" - Potentially by something horrible like on the show. The TWOW "Mercy" sample chapter is one big red flag.) and then we have the foreshadowing of Sansa losing her "innocence" by becoming a bad singer, a liar like Lysa, as we know she will when she lies about her death, or by "singing" loudly of secrets. Songs have the power to preserve and destroy, we learn, and Sansa will have to learn to weild that power benevolently. The fact that she is saved here, tells us that she will be "saved" from moral failure, as well.

Randomly, Marillion's Trial in AFFC:

“If I had eyes I should weep.” The singer’s voice, so strong and sure by night, was cracked and whispery now. “I loved her so, I could not bear to see her in another’s arms, to know she shared his bed. I meant no harm to my sweet lady, I swear it. I barred the door so no one could disturb us whilst I declared my passion, but Lady Lysa was so cold … when she told that she was carrying Lord Petyr’s child, a … a madness seized me …”

It may mean something, or it may not. But Sansa has a lot of bastard foreshadowing. Other characters have "madness" foreshadowing. And a history of miscarriages.

For something darker:

ADWD, The Wayward Bride (Asha)

A shy smile, strong arms, clever fingers, and two sure swords. What more could any woman want? She would have married Qarl, and gladly, but she was Lord Balon’s daughter and he was common-born, the grandson of a thrall. Too lowborn for me to wed, but not too low for me to suck his cock. Drunk, smiling, she crawled beneath the furs and took him in her mouth. Qarl stirred in his sleep, and after a moment he began to stiffen. By the time she had him hard again, he was awake and she was wet. Asha draped the furs across her bare shoulders and mounted him, drawing him so deep inside her that she could not tell who had the cock and who the cunt. This time the two of them reached their peak together.

“My sweet lady,” he murmured after, in a voice still thick with sleep. “My sweet queen.”

No, Asha thought, I am no queen, nor shall I ever be. “Go back to sleep.” She kissed his cheek, padded across Galbart Glover’s bedchamber, and threw the shutters open. The moon was almost full, the night so clear that she could see the mountains, their peaks crowned with snow. Cold and bleak and inhospitable, but beautiful in the moonlight.

Their summits glimmered pale and jagged as a row of sharpened teeth. The foothills and the smaller peaks were lost in shadow.

 At first glance this could be sweet-ish, but the surrounding imagery is kind of sinister and I get reminded of two other things:

Lysa describing her rape of Petyr (Sansa, ASOS):

...and Petyr tried to kiss your mother, only she pushed him away. She laughed at him. He looked so wounded I thought my heart would burst, and afterward he drank until he passed out at the table. (…) That was the night I stole up to his bed to give him comfort. I bled, but it was the sweetest hurt. He told me he loved me then, but he called me Cat, just before he fell back to sleep. Even so, I stayed with him until the sky began to lighten.

And Cersei's wedding night with Robert, (Eddard, AGOT)

Her eyes burned, green fire in the dusk, like the lioness that was her sigil. “The night of our wedding feast, the first time we shared a bed, he called me by your sister’s name. He was on top of me, in me, stinking of wine, and he whispered Lyanna.”

We already had a moment of deeply screwed up consent for Jon during his first time with Ygritte. Suddenly, the scene when Dany asks Jon if he's drunk on the show in 8x04 after the victory feast and then pushes him for sex seems even more sinister. Lysa's rape of Petyr ended in pregnancy. I hope I am wrong about this!

Lastly, this is from The Hedge Knight. "Florian and Jonquil" are being destroyed, i.e. Sansa's very favorite song is getting viciously attacked, her romantic dreams put to the torch. If my horrible suspicion is true, Sansa will live some aspect of her Ramsey storyline, if not with Ramsey, then with someone else. This following Scene festuring Duncan the fake knight and Tanselle, the tall girl playing Jonquil's puppet, however, is very reminiscent of Jon's final encounter with Ramsey. No?

The puppeteer's stall had been knocked on its side. The fat Dornishwoman was on the ground weeping.

One man-at-arms was dangling the puppets of Florian and Jonquil from his hands as another set them afire with a torch. Three more men were opening chests, spilling more puppets on the ground and stamping on them. The dragon puppet was scattered all about them, a broken wing here, its head there, its tail in three pieces. And in the midst of it all stood Prince Aerion, resplendent in a red velvet doublet with long dagged sleeves, twisting Tanselle's arm in both hands. She was on her knees, pleading with him. Aerion ignored her. He forced open her hand and seized one of her fingers. Dunk stood there stupidly, not quite believing what he saw. Then he heard a crack, and Tanselle screamed.

One of Aerion's men tried to grab him, and went flying. Three long strides, then Dunk grabbed the prince's shoulder and wrenched him around hard. His sword and dagger were forgotten, along with everything the old man had ever taught him. His fist knocked Aerion off his feet, and the toe of his boot slammed into the prince's belly. When Aerion went for his knife, Dunk stepped on his wrist and then kicked him again, right in the mouth. He might have kicked him to death right then and there, but the princeling's men swarmed over him.

 So the wolf pet/lover will curbstomp her attacker in some way shape or form.

 Damn. To cheer us, let's look at some Dontos/Florian from ACOK, Sansa:

“I will,” she said. “Tell me who sent you.”

“No one, sweet lady. I swear it on my honor as a knight.”

“A knight?” Joffrey had decreed that he was to be a knight no longer, only a fool, lower even than Moon Boy. “I prayed to the gods for a knight to come save me,” she said. “I prayed and prayed. Why would they send me a drunken old fool?”

“I deserve that, though . . . I know it’s queer, but . . . all those years I was a knight, I was truly a fool, and now that I am a fool I think . . . I think I may find it in me to be a knight again, sweet lady. And all because of you . . . your grace, your courage. You saved me, not only from Joffrey, but from myself.” His voice dropped. “The singers say there was another fool once who was the greatest knight of all . . .”

“Florian,” Sansa whispered. A shiver went through her.

“Sweet lady, I would be your Florian,” Dontos said humbly, falling to his knees before her.

Slowly, Sansa lowered the knife. Her head seemed terribly light, as if she were floating. This is madness, to trust myself to this drunkard, but if I turn away will the chance ever come again? “How . . . how would you do it? Get me away?”

Ser Dontos raised his face to her. “Taking you from the castle, that will be the hardest. Once you’re out, there are ships that would take you home. I’d need to find the coin and make the arrangements, that’s all.”

“Could we go now?” she asked, hardly daring to hope.

“This very night? No, my lady, I fear not. First I must find a sure way to get you from the castle when the hour is ripe. It will not be easy, nor quick. They watch me as well.” He licked his lips nervously. “Will you put away your blade?”

Sansa slipped the knife beneath her cloak. “Rise, ser.”

“Thank you, sweet lady.” Ser Dontos lurched clumsily to his feet, and brushed earth and leaves from his knees. “Your lord father was as true a man as the realm has ever known, but I stood by and let them slay him. I said nothing, did nothing . . . and yet, when Joffrey would have slain me, you spoke up. Lady, I have never been a hero, no Ryam Redwyne or Barristan the Bold. I’ve won no tourneys, no renown in war . . . but I was a knight once, and you have helped me remember what that meant. My life is a poor thing, but it is yours.” Ser Dontos placed a hand on the gnarled bole of the heart tree. He was shaking, she saw. “I vow, with your father’s gods as witness, that I shall send you home.”

He swore. A solemn oath, before the gods. “Then . . . I will put myself in your hands, ser. But how will I know, when it is time to go? Will you send me another note?”

Ser Dontos glanced about anxiously. “The risk is too great. You must come here, to the godswood. As often as you can. This is the safest place. The only safe place. Nowhere else. Not in your chambers nor mine nor on the steps nor in the yard, even if it seems we are alone. The stones have ears in the Red Keep, and only here may we talk freely.”

“Only here,” Sansa said. “I’ll remember.”

“And if I should seem cruel or mocking or indifferent when men are watching, forgive me, child. I have a role to play, and you must do the same. One misstep and our heads will adorn the walls as did your father’s.”

She nodded. “I understand.”

“You will need to be brave and strong . . . and patient, patient above all.”

“I will be,” she promised, “but . . . please . . . make it as soon as you can. I’m afraid . . .”

“So am I,” Ser Dontos said, smiling wanly. “And now you must go, before you are missed.”

“You will not come with me?”

“Better if we are never seen together.”

Nodding, Sansa took a step . . . then spun back, nervous, and softly laid a kiss on his cheek, her eyes closed. “My Florian,” she whispered. “The gods heard my prayer.”

And just to add some sweet speculation…

Jon, ASOS:

If I could show her Winterfell … give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could bathe in the hot pools, and love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us.

I'm such a hopeful fool for these two.

#Jonsa #asoiaf #asoiaf speculation #jon snow #sansa stark