This was stuck again.
Whenever this stayed within the darkness for too long, its found that it's eyes refused to open. It had happened before, but This still couldn't figure out a way to leave.
So as before, it spent its time going through each memory that had been forced into its mind.
This figured out why the human from before had seemed so familiar. In Sansa's memories, that human was what she called a brother.
Although everyone called him Jon Snow.
In her memories, Sansa's thoughts of Jon felt distant. Not in a bad way, more like, the human was someone she was meant to keep away from.
Thinking of the relationship between Sansa and her brother, This heard a soft click followed by the loud creak.
"…Ahh! My lady!"
This couldn't see, but it could hear multiple humans speaking as they entered the room.
"Really, my lady? Sleeping on the floor? Don't you know how dirty it is?"
The soft-voiced human spoke from beside This. It contained the same slightly angry tone Mother often held.
With its eyes still sealed shut, This felt multiple hands gently lift itself from the floor, and with the movement, This felt its eyes slowly open.
Looking around, three different humans had entered its room, quickly opening something, allowing light to shine in the room.
Before standing around This with Awkward expressions.
"Why did you sleep on the floor, Lady Sansa?" A brown-haired human spoke, though it could understand only a little of what was said.
Something about "Why floor?"
Instead of answering the human, for a moment, This thought about trying to move, but thought better of it.
Not getting a response, This watched as the humans shared a look and then awkwardly bent down, slowly lifting its body.
The humans lifted This back to the soft bed and laid it down. The warmth of the bed was a stark contrast to the cold floor.
This savoured the difference for a moment.
"...Lady Sansa, please keep your eyes and mouth shut for a moment." Another human said.
Before This could react it felt something warm wipe across its face.
The sudden feeling made its body flinch, but it remained silent and let the humans continue touching its body.
Over time, This felt that the warm, damp thing had its own uniquely good feeling.
The humans continued moving the thing across all of This, removing the stickiness from its eyes as well.
This let them.
When they finished with its face, several humans moved lower. One quickly pulled away the thin covering over its body and did the same along its arms and legs.
Afterward, they guided This to a seat in front of the shiny thing that had the other Sansa inside it.
Not wasting a moment, as This sat, the humans began moving something repeatedly through the long strands on top of Sansa's head.
This watched closely as the long strands on the other Sansa became smoother and smoother with each movement.
This looked deeply into the shiny thing from before.
After its confusion earlier, This had deliberately looked through Sansa's memories to understand why there was another Sansa.
Although it couldn't find an answer, it did find the human word for it.
A mirror.
The Sansa inside the mirror continued to watch This back, although This felt further confused as it could see the other humans in the mirror too.
The humans around it smiled and spoke. This wondered if that was what made them human.
'Could This do it too?' This watched intently at the shapes the humans were making with their eyes and mouths. This wanted to attempt it too.
This focused on its mouth and, with conscious effort, lifted one side upwards, then the other.
Looking at the other Sansa in the mirror, This felt something was subtly wrong with its smile, unlike the memories of people making the same expression. This's smile didn't have the same happy feeling.
While making adjustments to its shape, This felt the movement through its hair stop.
Looking away from it, or Sansa's face, This noticed the movements of the humans around it had frozen, staring intently at the other Sansa in the mirror.
This's smile had been further changed to make a happier shape, but somewhere along the process, it had come out wrong.
One side was lifted higher than the other, the mouth stretched in a way that did not match what it had intended.
Watching the mirror, This saw them glance briefly at each other before a larger one, from before, with mother, said something.
However, This was too focused on correcting its smile to listen.
The humans quickly looked away from the mirror and continued working, but their hands were no longer quite as steady.
This kept practicing anyway.
Every so often, the humans would sneak short looks.
Appearing beside the other Sansa in the mirror, the same large human, spoke again, her voice firmer.
"Lady Sansa, you must not lie on the floor like that again."
Instead of listening to her words, This watched the human through the mirror.
Earlier, Mother had referred to this human as "Septa."
The word also appeared many times throughout Sansa's memories.
This wasn't entirely sure what a Septa was.
But the word seemed to belong to the human.
Finishing with whatever they were doing, Septa spoke, directing This to stand, but moving its body was still difficult.
So, with help from the humans, This was lifted to its feet. Leading This to the exit, This found that each step was unsteady and wobbly; although it had been practicing, it still took a lot of focus.
The humans seemed to notice, Septa moving closer and letting This rest its body on her.
"There now, my Lady. Lean on me. It must be from running in the snow last night."
This did not understand, but allowed the human to pull it closer anyway. Her arm was very solid.
Leaving the bland, yet familiar room. This, along with the humans, moved through a long room.
This hadn't moved far from its room when a smaller human with darker hair appeared in the hallway.
Stopping in front of Sansa, the small human stared.
"Sansa? You look… weird today. What's wrong with you?"
This did not respond; it didn't know many of the words the small human had spoken.
Seeing no response, the smaller human moved closer, looking at its face closely.
This studied her back.
It had seen this human in Sansa's memories before. It wanted to understand her better.
So it also looked.
The girl's eyes narrowed.
"What's wrong with you? Why are you staring like that? Stop it.. It's creepy..."
Then Septa spoke, gently urging them both forward. "Come along, ladies. Sansa needs to eat."
The smaller human's voice carried a strange note. She kept stealing looks at This, her eyes narrowing slightly whenever she thought This wasn't paying attention.
With no grasp of whether what it did was good or not, This continued leaning on Septa until they reached a larger room filled with a strong and fragrant smell.
In the room was a large table, covered with various objects; some were shiny, others were not.
But what caught This's attention was the smell. Just by breathing, This could feel a strong urge rise throughout its body.
Food...!
This instantly recognized the smell. It had seen many memories of Sansa spending a lot of her time doing what humans called "eating".
It was the most unique of all the memories This had seen.
The action seemed simple from what it had observed. Although it reminded This of the disgust it had felt before, when mother had forced something into its mouth.
But in her memories, Sansa had treasured these moments.
This looked at the table.
It was covered entirely in things This had no names for.
Large, round, flat things held piles of something dark and glistening that released the strongest part of the smell. Beside them, tall thin objects filled with something deep red that caught the candlelight. Smaller flat things held pale stacked shapes. Others held darker ones. Something in a large deep bowl let off a thin curl of smoke that drifted upward and disappeared.
This could not name a single thing on the table.
But the smell coming off all of it together was unlike anything it had encountered since arriving here.
It was warm and heavy in a way that this couldn't explain; the smell made something deep within This pulled toward it without asking.
This stood very still and breathed it in.
Then breathed it in again.
Only after a long moment and a slight nudge from Septa did it look away from the table and notice the other humans already seated around it.
Mother was already there; seated beside her were two smaller people. This had seen them as well, in its memories, Bran and Rickon.
On the other side of the table was another person.
This recognized him immediately; it was Jon Snow.
The human who had wanted to enjoy the cold floor, but had been stopped by a "bad time".
As This moved into the room, he continued to watch it intently rather than focusing on the food in front of him.
Avoiding his gaze, This was guided into a seat by Septa. The helpful human adjusted Sansa carefully, then left.
For a while, silence settled over the room. This didn't mind and stared calmly at the shiny things in front of it.
Then a heavier sound approached. Looking in its direction, This didn't need to recall any memories to know who the human walking was; it was Sansa's father, Eddard Stark.
By his side, another familiar face entered with him, Robb Stark. They both looked around the room before a warm smile settled onto Father's face whilst Robb took a seat beside Jon.
Father gave a light laugh as he took his seat at the table.
"Well, now, Sansa looks much improved this morning. The colour has returned to her cheeks. That's good to see after yesterday's adventure." Looking at This, the man spoke.
Not knowing much of what was said, This hesitated for a moment on whether to close its eyes or not.
It had no intention to speak to humans yet.
But eventually decided not to. Simply staring back.
Seeing no response, the man gave a slight chuckle and spoke again.
"Well then, let us eat! That's why we're here, correct?" After picking up two small objects, Father focused on the food in front of him.
Not long after, everyone followed his lead, picking up the two small objects and focusing on their food.
This waited a moment and watched. It had seen Sansa use these objects before, but, clenching its hands lightly, it felt it wasn't confident it could control them well enough to eat.
However, this felt like it didn't have a choice. This was how humans ate.
Grabbing hold of one metal thing, This briefly felt glad it could at least copy the humans, but as it attempted to lift the second one, its other hand's grip loosened, dropping the thing against the table with a loud clatter.
This keenly felt like something was looking at it, but chose to ignore it, focusing fully on holding the metal things, like a human.
This tried again; however, as before, it did not work well.
Eventually, This looked up, intending to watch how the humans used the strange things and copy them. However, it caught the small human, Rickon, who was using his hands to pick up the food.
The movement looked simple. Hold, lift, and bring the food toward its mouth.
Not hesitating, This copied that instead.
Slowly, This held and then lifted a large piece of food with both hands towards its mouth.
Slowly, This opened its mouth and put as much of the food as it could inside. Having already seen how humans ate, it then bit down as hard as it could.
Before This could even think about how to chew, a sense of bliss had coated every inch of its being. This had never felt anything like it.
The good sensation from running through the snow or lying on the ground returned, but much stronger than before.
This couldn't explain what it was eating, nor what the flavour or texture of what it ate was, but it couldn't stop chewing either.
This ate with sudden, intense focus; somehow, it no longer needed to worry about controlling its hands, piece after piece, they fed its mouth without stopping.
This is life! Forgetting where it was, This compared the act of eating to a word it hadn't known until then.
'Never has the darkness compared to eating!' This thought.
Abruptly cutting off, This's deep bliss, a loud, sharp voice spoke.
"Sansa, Please! Have some manners! That is not how a lady eats."
Noticing something was wrong, This stopped chewing on the food and looked around.
The human, Mother, was staring at This with an angry look, whilst the smaller humans beside her had big smiles on their faces as they looked at This.
Letting This off the hook, at the opposite side of the table, father chuckled warmly, drawing the attention to him.
"Let the girl eat, Cat. She clearly has an appetite after her ordeal."
Looking away from mother, Father moved his gaze to This, and began smiling.
This didn't care; as soon as the humans looked away, it continued eating.
Understanding humans was important. Yet, This felt too lost amid the overwhelming new sensation in its mouth.
Watching Sansa intently, Eddard eventually leaned forward. "Sansa... Why did you run into the Godswood like that? Into the snow alone? You had us all worried."
Lifting its head, This paused. For some reason, it felt like something was expected of it.
Thankfully, This partly understood what the human said.
'Why.. run.. snow?' This thought for a moment, still deep within the bliss the meal brought.
Subconsciously swallowing the remaining food in its mouth, This looked around the table, subtly observing each human's face.
This wasn't sure whether it could speak to the human. It had never tried.
But being pushed by the bliss and peace, the food brought it. This thought for a moment before speaking quietly.
"Not nothing..." The words came out extremely flat with no emotions behind them.
This's words hung in the air, and for a moment, everyone at the table stopped what they were doing and looked at it.
"...?" Father stared at This with his eyebrows scrunching up slightly.
"What do you mean by that, daughter?"
This felt the tight atmosphere in the room, but simply couldn't understand what Father was saying this time.
Instead, it recalled the urge that had helped it before, not thinking twice. This looked away.
It had worked before. This hoped it'd work again.
If it were necessary, This would also close its eyes.
"...Alright then.. It's fine if you don't want to talk right now."
This could hear something in father's tone, it wasn't quite anger, but close. Turning its head again, This watched as father looked back at his meal after he spoke, seemingly deciding to let the matter rest.
With that, the conversation slowly drifted in other directions. Thankfully, nobody spoke about This again.
Once everyone had finished their food, Septa quietly appeared behind This, taking a small white thing and wiping its hands and face before guiding This to its feet.
"Come, my lady. It's time for your lessons."
Following behind Septa, This keenly felt it was a lot easier to control its body; it didn't need to focus as much, simply allowing it to move on its own.
This didn't understand what had caused the change, but accepted it regardless.
Moving behind Septa, This quietly left the room, following her back out into the long room, and eventually into another, quieter room.
Septa sat down at a table with large shapes covered in small dark marks, urging This to do the same.
Looking at the large shape on the table, This thought it knew exactly what it was seeing.
It was a darker side to Sansa's usually happy memories.
The shape in front of it was called a book. It was a large amount of thoughts put into one small box. Similar to the system that This had seen.
Letting its thoughts partially wander, This felt curious when the shiny box would next come back.
Opening the book, Septa began to speak and, as in Sansa's memories, pointed at the odd lines and made odd gestures while looking between This and the book.
This stared at the different lines, some curved, some straight, even large clusters that repeated.
This did its best to memorize the patterns by staring and tracing the lines with its finger.
But This couldn't yet connect them to meaning.
Septa continued speaking and pointing at the lines in the book, for a while longer, then slowly grew quieter and quieter. This didnt know why the human had stopped speaking, although it didnt understand her, it planned on using everything she said in its Mindscape.
Eventually, she stopped pointing at the book entirely and sighed softly.
"Haah, very well, my lady. Perhaps today you can simply look through the books."
After speaking a few more unknown words, she left This alone with several books lying around.
With the humans' departure, This began opening the books one by one. Studying the shapes and repeating their forms inside its mind.
This spent a long time turning pages, memorizing the strange shapes and lingering on the images that it couldn't understand.
Throughout its time in the quiet room, many humans had come to check on This. They often spoke, then waited, and then left.
This didn't mind each time; the more the humans came and spoke, the more This could understand.
Eventually, this felt its body begin to shut down, its eyes infrequently began to shut, along with its head repeatedly lowering.
Having enough unknown information to think on, This closed its eyes, allowing the darkness to return, entering its Mindscape.
Not wasting a moment, This went back to the very first word it had heard, fully intending to learn human speech.