Only A Northern Song ~ Game of Thrones / Willas Tyrell ~

Chapter Thirty: Fall

The days rolled on, and soon it had been a week since the Baratheons and Lannisters had descended upon Winterfell. There was a feast each night, none of them anywhere near as grand as the first, but there was still more effort in meals than there usually was. It had started to become a little irritating for Eddmina, who felt increasingly alienated. The Winterfell she knew wasn't a grand place, or a place that constantly strived to impress, and the sooner everyone left, the better.

Except it wouldn't just be the royals leaving. Her father would be going south too, and her sisters, and Bran. Lord Stark had agreed to become Hand of the King, and the King had also formalised the betrothal of Sansa and Prince Joffrey. The thought of her family separating made her feel sick, but Sansa's betrothal had practically brought her to tears, not that she dared cry in front of anyone except for Willas after they'd left everyone else. Jon had also managed to convince Uncle Benjen and would be joining the Night's Watch, and so with the rest of the family in King's Landing, only Robb, Rickon and Lady Stark would remain in Winterfell. Part of Eddmina wanted to cry thinking about it, thinking of her family so torn and separated, but at the same time at least she wouldn't be the only one away from Winterfell. At least her sisters would be so much closer, since Highgarden was only a week away from the capital. There were very few silver linings to the situation, but Eddmina was desperately trying to focus on them, much to Willas' encouragements.

A few days before the royals planned to leave the North a hunt was arranged, a hunt solely for the men. It reminded Eddmina of the hunt after her wedding, except this royal hunt didn't include lunching with any of the ladies while the men went off to kill things. In fact, she was actually a little surprised nothing had been arranged, since she'd thought the Queen would want to have an ego trip of a lunch where all the other ladies curtseyed around her and doused her with compliments, but then she recalled how much the Queen had seemed to dislike the North and the lack of lunch was no longer surprising. Instead Eddmina planned to spend the morning with her little brothers, since she knew Bran especially was disappointed to miss the hunt.

Yet, that morning, Eddmina woke up feeling awful; worse than usual in fact.

Once again she must have drank more wine than she realised the night before, except as she reached for the chamber pot she remembered she'd only drank water at dinner, because even Willas thought it was far too sweet to drink, even though the rest of the southerners seemed to rather enjoy it. That wasn't a thought she had chance to dwell on though, as she felt her head spin, heaving into the pot. She'd been feeling dizzier lately, and she had to force herself to keep her eyes focused to stop herself from drifting off into a daze. She felt so ill, and just wished she was still asleep. She'd been having such an interesting dream as well, it had been as if she was Honour, running through the woodlands hunting.

Despite feeling truly dreadful, the worst part of it all was Willas. He was usually so sweet with her, so concerned over her health to the point even she - who'd much rather be left alone - found it endearing. That morning though, he was already up and dressed ready to go on the hunt, but his attention was immediately torn from fixing his belt to his wife as he practically shot across the room to the bed to sit with her, rubbing her back and holding back her hair. If she dared look up to him she knew his face would be the picture of panic.

"Gods, Mina," he breathed out, as if he was trying not to sound so concerned.

"I'm-" she began, but couldn't finish the sentence, retching again.

"Don't you dare say you're fine, you're quite clearly not fine!" he snapped, before sighing, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pushing a kiss to the top of her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout, I just don't want you being stubborn and insisting you're well when you're not,"