A Vow Without Honor

The Divide

"And the ability to make people listen means nothing if you sound like an idiot," Myra replied, standing up as well. "I didn't happen to know everything about White Harbor. I read about it yesterday, while you were out hunting with Theon. You wouldn't have had any trouble if you'd just taken the time to know your men rather than ignore your duty."

"Ignore my-" Robb paused, taking a breath. She could see his jaw clenching. "Every day, that is all I hear. Do your duty. Remember your duty. You'll be lord one day, don't forget that. You can't know what it's like, Myra."

"Of course I know what it's like!" she shouted, exasperated. With a huff, she sat right back down, and distantly wondered what the point of getting up was. "Because every day that passes is one less day I get to be here. No one has to tell me anything, because every day I feel it, from the moment I wake up until I go to bed at night, there's this pressure on me saying that one day I will have to leave.

"It's easy for you to complain because this is all you're ever going to know. You'll have Father and Mother to look to for years to come, gods willing, and where will I be? Somewhere I know nothing about, because that is my duty. I have to go to some other keep and be a wife and a mother, and maybe my husband will listen to me, or maybe he won't. Maybe I'll just be this quiet figure in the back of the room for the rest of my life, and so I just desperately don't want to be one now."

She hadn't meant to make it about her, but she'd just needed to vent her frustrations at her brother. He had so much to look forward to in his life, and she very much less so. Because that was what women did: sacrificed their safety and security to keep the peace through marriage.

Of course, she would perform that duty because she was a Stark, and to shirk one's duty was practically the worst of infractions a person could commit, but that did not mean she had to do so with happiness in her heart.

Robb was sitting beside her in the next moment, a sort of stunned look on his face. "I'm sorry, Myra. I didn't...I mean I should have..."

"No, it's alright, Brother," Myra replied, cutting him off. "I really shouldn't have interrupted. Perhaps I'll pass you notes next time."

"I don't know about that. With how poorly I did, I doubt there will be a next time in the near future."

The two laughed awkwardly.

"But Myra," Robb started, looking over at her. "If you ever feel unwanted when you're married, you come straight back here. I don't care what the consequences are, no lord who is content to ignore you deserves you."

"Careful, Brother," Myra said, trying very hard not to cry. "I might hold you to that."

"I hope you do."

Their father would come to find that his plan hadn't really worked on making them more independent, yet somehow he could not quite call it a defeat.

Sometimes, she wished things could be so simple again; to just yell at her brother for a few minutes before they both realized how foolish they were and forgave each other before the day was through.

But they had both been painfully ignorant then, and Myra did not wish to live in the dark as she once had, not when she knew of the machinations that surrounded her at every moment, ready to scoop up unwilling participants at a moment's notice.

She supposed simplicity was the victim of knowledge.

Talisa, however, seemed to be a good indication that things may just turn out. If she could have one person on her side, she could get others. In the meantime, Myra thought it best to avoid Robb altogether. Their arguments now would only end in more anger, and they did not need to risk more regrettable things being said, or the chance that someone may overhear them. They had enough on their plates in Harrenhal.