The girl on the brink of womanhood squeezed herself between
Brandon and Lyanna. The latter shooting the blue-eyed girl a
contemptuous look. "Lady Catelyn." Brandon said quite formally.
The now named Catelyn beamed at him. "Call me Catelyn or Cat,
after all we are to wed soon." as she said that she took Brandon's
arm into her own. The slight twitch of Brandon's face wasn't noticed
by her.
Now Lyanna snorted, while Ned hid a grin and Benjen had a laugh in
his eyes. "Very well, Cat. However, I was just talking to Fleur here."
pointing to the Veela, who right now was sitting on Harry's left leg
with Gabrielle sitting on the right. The former was snogging her
husband in front of everybody. The latter occupying herself with
kissing his jaw and neck and waiting her turn as well as pouting her
full lips to convey her displeasure.
The eldest of the Tully sisters took one look at the people opposite of
her, taking in the clothes and appearances a surge of jealousy and
envy took over her. Jealous of these women, because they had the
attention of Brandon and envy since she knew that they were more
beautiful than her by a large margin.
A typical response was formed "Why did you bring whores at this
table?" she demanded pompously from Harry.
The reaction was immediate as the air grew colder. Oberyn couldn't
hide his grin, while Ellaria shook her head at the girls attitude. Elia
sucked in a sharp breath together with Ashara, while the Kingsguard
tensed up. The Starks and Tully's were oblivious to the change.
Fleur disengaged, while Gabrielle and the rest turned their attention
to the little girl and with that their glares. "There are no whores at this
table, little girl!" Fleur replied calmly. The word whore was equally
bad to them as was the word Freak for Harry. Too many silly little
girls had accused them of being such, when they felt inferior or when
their boyfriends or husbands where only drooling idiots.
Obviously Catelyn bristled at that answer. Her nose upturned she
demanded "Then why do you all dress like whores?" her eyes going
over their clothes and flashing again in envy and anger. Her sister
mirroring Catelyn's actions. Their uncle just looked concerned to
Elia, while Edmure stared at the Peverell women. The small boy just
nodded along with Catelyn.
Before the inevitable happened Ned went to speak up, trying to
pacify the situation.
However, Elia beat him to it. "Do you think I would allow whores to sit
at my table, Lady Tully?" she said with a dangerous calm and
continued "Or do you think I am dressed like a whore, too?" Elia
wore after all a dornish dress that revealed more than the typical
Westerosi one. Her dark eyes were slits as the dornish woman's
eyes bored into the blue ones of the Tully girl.
She was a bit envious of these women as well, but at least had more
self-control than this girl. Not to mention that she wouldn't allow such
talk in her presence. That she was possibly saving the girls life from
an irritated witch ranked below those reasons. After all Catelyn
hadn't invoked guest right herself at the moment.
Not giving the now stuttering girl a chance to even reply Elia
ploughed through. "These are the Peverells, a prominent, influential
and wealthy family on par with the Targaryens from far east of
Essos. So naturally their customs and clothing would appear a bit
strange to us. I am sure our traditions and customs seem strange to
them as well. I advise you treat them with respect!" Her brother may
think her without thorns, but that wasn't true. The difference was that
hers weren't visible.
'That he thinks such even though he knows that I killed women that
would've killed me without a second thought isn't entirely surprising.'
the princess mused in her head. Probably because she never was
as promiscuous as her brother or Dorne in general. Or maybe,
because he still saw her as his to protect.
Properly chastised Catelyn apologized properly, though it was
without spirit. Afterwards Elia left with the two Kingsguard and
Ashara in tow. The prince apparently just showed up and she only
now could join him with his father at the head table. Not that Harry
blamed her. The king looked like madness warmed over. He wouldn't
want to be alone with that guy either.
With the arrival of the king the feast officially began. Servants poured
in from the kitchens and served many meals of different kinds. Plenty
of fish was present, which was understandable with them being near
a big lake and in the Riverlands. Different kinds of meat, soups,
stews, pies, vegetables and fruits all arranged in many meals. There
even was a suckling pig stuffed with mushrooms. All was served
together with sweet wine from the Arbor or sour ones from Dorne.
Ale was also served, but apparently no water.
Curiously enough all the things present were only things found in
medieval Europe. Potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, corn, peppers,
chilli, avocados, rice, tropical fruits and many others weren't present.
Which served Harry just fine, even though he was a bit confused at
first. After all he was used to having nearly all ingredients he needed,
it also would only serve to make them richer when the time came to
make trade with Westeros.
Another thought was that he maybe should introduce the people
present tomorrow to some meals they had never seen or even heard
of.
All further musings were interrupted by a question asked by Lyanna.
"What differences are there that the Princess spoke off?" she asked,
being the only one curious enough or blunt enough to ask the
Peverells something after the chastising from Elia. However all the
others at the table were obviously listening in.
Putting the spoon that was bringing the venison stew to her mouth
down Narcissa replied. "Well, there are quite a few. Which ones do
interest you the most?"
Brimming with questions the wolf maid queried "Are women allowed
to fight?" she could remember all to vividly how she dispatched the
three squires. Lyanna herself had no training in swordsmanship,
even when she bested Benjen she knew that he let her win. After a
few more years her little brother would be taller than her and
stronger too. Lyanna knew she couldn't beat grown men without
training of any kind. Even then the style in which knights fought was
heavily reliant on strength. Something that men naturally had more
of than women.
Narcissa nodded her head. "Yes, they are. In fact our complete army
of roughly fifty-thousand is compromised of exclusively women. The
navy is entirely made out of men at the moment." the explanation
was met with a wide-eyed Lyanna, who couldn't believe that so many
women were allowed to fight.
"Your entire army is made out of women?" the she-wolf asked awed
at that bit of information.
Now Andromeda answered as she noticed that Narcissa wanted to
continue eating the stew. "Indeed, however that is not because we
find women to be better at fighting, but it has cultural reasons."
taking a sip from the sweet Arbor gold the middle Black went on. "In
the society we come from taking a life was seen as something, that
only someone who could give life was allowed to do. So, naturally
only women were allowed to kill."
"Was?" inquired Oberyn from where he now was being fed by Ellaria
in his lap. The woman having copied Fleur's and Gabrielle's action.
All three women ignored the glares send from the Tully women. It
wasn't important to them that it was seen as improper behaviour.
Andromeda just answered. "Yes, it changed in the last two years as
we discovered some new facts as to the process of how children
were conceived. Due to those insights men and women both are
allowed to serve in the army as equals as well as in every other field
in society." she took another sip "In the past only women who had
children were allowed to fight, the female children in turn were
trained from the moment they could walk in all manner of combat.
Effectively turning half the population into warriors."
"And what of the boys?" Ned asked kind of dreading the answer to
that question. The urge to protect his manhood came up, but he
fought it off.
That Melisandre answered, but not after getting a taste of beef.
"Hmm, that's good... " having chewed and swallowed she said "Well,
before Harry here happened they were mostly scribes, priests,
servants, cooks, farmers and craftsmen." now she too had
Narcissa's smile. A smile that all would remember told nothing good.
"Then when they came off age most were gelded."
All the men at the table, expect Harry and Oberyn spat out their
drinks or choked on their food upon hearing that. Some even let the
cutlery fall out of their hands.
"What?" that question came from the Blackfish. His pupils shrinking
to pinpricks.
Flipping her hair elegantly back Marcella gave the man a brilliant, but
fanged smile and answered. "Well, where we come from women
take the making of offspring seriously. Only the largest, strongest,
most comely and intelligent men were allowed to have children.
Besides..." taking a sip of her dornish red she continued smiling with
a mocking brow raised. "Do you really think we we don't notice how
most men stare at us here? At home we at least don't have to deal
with that." hoping to convey the message that if they didn't let up with
the rude staring she would geld them. She wouldn't, but when they
thought such maybe the group would be left alone. Rumour would do
the rest.
Marcella didn't hate men per se, well not anymore. However, she
definitely preferred Harry over the rest by such a huge margin it
wasn't even funny anymore. As long as they only stared she could
ignore it and move on, after all she had dressed to impress. She was
also aware that she was in Westerosi society an object first and then
a woman. Hopefully it wouldn't escalate with some drunk lout that
had no inhibition trying something. Not that she needed Harry to
protect her, but it would be unwelcome indeed.
Most men flinched at that comment, while Oberyn chuckled,
remembering the Unsullied and most male slaves he saw in Essos.
After all it wouldn't do for the guards to fuck the Harem girls, so to
speak. Though, that was only true for most men, who took on more
women than they could handle. Harry with his eight seemed to
handle it admirably.
Benjen chimed in for the first time, remembering his brothel visits
and how it would be to live without his prick. He couldn't fathom it, to
be honest. "But not anymore?" the hopeful tone free for anyone to
hear. No matter where, every man had sympathy for his brothers
regarding their manhood. Be it flinching when he gets a hit in the
balls or something more drastic.
This time it was Narcissa who answered. Kind of annoyed at all the
questions. "No, not anymore. There was a plot in place against Harry
here," pointing to the still eating man "he uncovered it and was
forced to kill the remaining Great Fathers, the ruling council and only
men allowed to have children, as well as take control of the kingdom
to prevent the threat of an invasion from Qarth, Slaver's Bay and
Ghis. After all was said and done he changed the laws regarding
these matters."
From then on it came a few more questions regarding their
homeland and things. The women left out that Harry was worshipped
at home and had several hundred red priestesses, red graces and
thirty-thousand women as well as some men, hoping to be fucked by
him. Foreign Religion wasn't a well received topic in the eyes of the
followers of the Seven. Neither was buggery.
Further conversation was interrupted as the crown prince played a
song on his harp. It was a haunting melody with a deep sadness to
it. As it echoed around the hall most women were in tears, including
Lyanna, who got teased for it by her younger brother and promptly
emptied her goblet full of wine on his head. Same with Lysa and
Catelyn.
Harry's wives were unaffected. When someone had heard a Phoenix
lament that touched ones soul this music wasn't as strong. It was a
beautiful song, only with nothing magical about it. Simply not on par
with things they had heard before.
Harry disliked the prince. Sure, he was good looking and had
apparently all the qualities of a good ruler, but he looked and
behaved too much like an Emo. The sadness never left his eyes or
demeanour and Harry did not like people, who moped around
without doing anything about what caused them sadness and
instead whined. He himself had done so in the past enough. Only
that Harry grew reclusive and wallowed in guilt. Luckily, he had
grown out of that.
Before they knew it musicians began to play on their instruments.
Dancing began on the ground level, besides the many tables the hall
was still big enough to allow for a space to dance. Harry was
promptly dragged by Kinvara, Fleur and Gabrielle to the level below.
The rest soon followed. Catelyn dragging Brandon with Lysa doing
the same to the small, silent and still unnamed boy. The Blackfish,
Lyanna and Benjen stayed at the table for now.
Once more the Peverells singled themselves out with things they did.
Aside from the more intimate dancing the women also only ever
danced with Harry, each other Ellaria or Oberyn. The uneven
number working not in their favour.
Naturally, this also caused whispers to start. Many or all people
looked down on men or women, who liked their own gender a bit too
much. Disdained them even. Not that that was the case for them.
Every single one of them was as straight as an arrow, but
experiments weren't out of the question and do indeed happen,
seeing as they were all sister-wives. Besides, it keep idiots and their
hands at bay.
All the festivities were interrupted by something none of the guest
had anticipated. It was a roar, but not any roar. It was no Lannister
lion that did it, nor a shadowcat or any mammal at all.
No, all of Westeros and Harrenhal in particular had heard that kind of
sound before. It was a dragon, which only got reinforced as the
ground shook a little as what could only be the beast landing.
With that all of their hopes of keeping the vacation uninterrupted
were thrown out of the window.