✓ | 𝑾𝒐𝒍𝒇'𝒔 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒆 (R.STARK 1/3)

Chapter Thirty Seven::Lady Catelyn

Raina's mouth ran dry, her lungs restricting her breath at what had just been uttered by the man in front of her. She couldn't very well disagree with his observation, as, presumably by now, she looked quite like herself again, and arguing otherwise would prove futile. Yet the natural instinct to persist against the man was almost a reflex, Raina finding it hard not to lie to him in an instant. "By the gods...Raina it is you!" The man spoke again, once on his feet, steadily approaching the young Glover, who was entirely petrified by the man's presence. She tried prying her eyes to Robb, unsure of what help that would do but still, in a desperate attempt for help, she looked to the King. He looked almost as scared as her, though there seemed something that lacked shock in his returning gaze, something that had all but predicted something like this to arise. He, apart from the unsettling leer he cast to her, provided no assistance in the matter, and instead remained at his desk. Catelyn, also, did nothing. She was practically a bystander in all of this; observing the scene unfold, a slight glimpse of entertainment in her expression as she merely stood aside, watching as the man approached his daughter cautiously. 

"F-Father," Raina mumbled, trying hard to keep her head held high, and act as though her father's presence did little in swaying her courage, despite the real depletion of it. Galbart's hopeful expression dropped again, his eyes catching sight of the clear hatred that lurked upon Raina's face as she glared back to him, no 'pleasant' runion as he'd hoped for.  "I...We...We thought you had been taken from us..." Galbart tried, his voice wavering as he attempted to address the daughter that bared nothing but hatred for the Lord of her own house. "By who? A monster? A madman? Like Ramsay?" Raina barked back instinctively, each of her words dripping with a distasteful venom as she addressed the father whom had tried to sell her off. "Raina," Robb hushed, going to approach her, yet the intervention of his mother prevented him from moving any further. "You must know that I-" "I don't care for your excuses," Raina stated without feeling, her hands gripping even tighter around the parchment still lingering in her grasp. "You've been here all this time?" Galbart question, a hesitant yet vicious glance being thrown to Robb over the Lord's shoulder, going unnoticed going by the King and his mother, but not by Raina. "Yes. With Robb. And Finn." Raina replied coldly, again showing no emotion to her father what so ever. Her father's eyes grew darker, the mention of his second born son, whom had assisted is daughter's hiding for this passing year, plaguing his otherwise decelerating mood. Raina felt no remorse for the man stood in front of her, whom had lost a daughter and the love of his remaining children, she felt nothing at all. She was almost pleased that her siblings felt similarly about their father, whom had proven to be lacking any fatherly traits in all the time he had raised them. 

"Raina. Perhaps your father needs some time, will you walk with me?" Catelyn finally spoke up, moving from her previously frozen position. There was something cool in her aging eyes, something that let on to feelings that the woman kept concealed from the others in her company; something that had Raina unnerved from the moment that she entered the tent. Raina nodded slowly, her gaze falling to Robb, a spark emerging in their eye contact for a brief moment before his mother was quick to drag her as far away as they could get. The woman, not forcefully, held Raina's arm in her own, and began to stalk out of the shelter and out to the fields behind where the camp had been sprawled across the landscape. 

The air was bitter,  nipping at bare skin, despite the misleadingly beautiful sunlight that still enlightened the land around them; the wind, though it was harsh against the pairs' faces as they walked against it, was still, in a way, refreshing to feel through Raina's growing hair, and the cool breeze contrasting her heated mood. "The man made a mistake," Catelyn was first to announce, referring, obviously, back to Raina's father, from moments before. "But you must understand, as I have told you on many occasions in your life, we must all do our best for our children. Perhaps, in your father's eyes, securing an alliance with an equally influential house in the North would do well in ensuring your safety, and comfort, later in life." Catelyn continued, her voice lacking the same sentiment that it had on earlier dates. "He pushed us all away, not just in this one instance, but in our entire lives, everyone of us. Even Delvin, his eldest child and first born son, his heir, he neglected him as he neglected us all. This was the breaking point for me, him shipping me away like cattle, that pushed me away. He'd already ruined Delvin, and later Finn, to the point in which they'd not only abandoned him, but their siblings who had endured it all with them. How am I supposed to forgive, or at the very least, how a father can so easily bully or abandon his children, for no gain at all?" Raina argued back, the overwhelming emotions she'd been forced to subdue all this time, finally being free, with no constraints. Catelyn nodded, as if she knew all about what Raina had said, and what she had felt all this time, yet gave no reply to Raina's persistence. Instead, she turned to admire the view for a moment, contemplating, presumably, the next topic of their continuing conversation. 

"You heard of Robb's declination to Walder Frey," Catelyn said bluntly, her head only turning fractionally to acknowledge Raina; whom merely nodded her reply. "Then you can imagine my concern." The older woman proceeded, her hands tangled around the other, irritation prominent in her obviously agitated actions. "As I said, we parents must do what we can to secure the best future for our children. Thus why I have aided Robb in many of his decisions in this war. However, you must know that I argued this one strongly. A defiance of a Frey cannot assist the King at all, in fact it will surely wound his efforts, if anything. I have known Walder for a long time, and would bet my life that at Robb's disagreement, he will not be pleased. He is a sly man, and I would not put it past him to do something vengeful, to prove his dislike for defiance. And for something as petty as Robb's reasons behind his decision, you could understand my concern. At this, Raina, I must make a request." Catelyn, sighing disappointedly, turned to face Raina. Her expression cold, and hinting little to what she would ask of the young girl next. Something had switched in Lady Stark, something Raina could only place as a result of Robb's actions as King, which had spawned from his relationship with her. Which would explain Catelyn's obvious, and new, dislike for the young Glover. "I must request that you do not see my son again. In fact that you do not see any of us again. I implore you, leave as soon as you can. Leave the war, leave the King's company, leave your father, and your family, behind, and go. Spare Robb the loss of this war that would be you own doing if you stay. You are the reason he has so willingly rejected a proposal previously agreed to, a proposal made by a Lord that should not be tempered. With your leaving, the void that will come from my son's decision may be mended quickly, as long as you are not here to witness it. So as a mother, of a King and your dearly loved friend, I am asking that you be gone by nightfall, dawn at the latest. And you have no further interference in my son's efforts in this war. Or you, I am sure, will be the downfall of the North."