Queen of Ashes [ASOIAF]

―amina.

          𝓦hen Amina returned to the Crag, she felt hollow. She had lost her oldest friend, and now she feared she would lose Robb as well. The Undying had promised it. Those sights she'd seen, and the words spoken to her, haunted her dreams in fragments. But she could not bring herself to speak of it. To say it out loud would make it real.

          She stood in her nightdress by the window, twisting her crown about her hands. Her eyes stared out over the sea, but she saw nothing but those visions. An arm snaked around Amina's waist, and she let out a small breath. "I heard you get out of bed," Robb whispered in her ear.

          "We can still change our minds," Amina said quietly. She turned to face Robb slowly, before continuing. "Only Aylward and Brynden were there, and they will take our secrets to the grave. We can set this aside until the war is won, until the Freys are appeased." Robb's arm dropped from her waist, but she pushed on. "We were rash, and emotional. Renly was dead, and you suspected I was as well. The Gods cannot fault us for our mistakes."

          "Is that what we are, a mistake?" Robb asked. He was hurt, she knew, but it was best that way. The timing was wrong, there was too much at stake. Amina could not bear to be the reason they lost it all. "Tell me this is what you want, and I will take back the crown," he told her. "I will do my duty and marry a Frey girl. I will let you go, and you can sail across the Narrow Sea, or run to the Wall, or throw yourself onto the front lines of war."

          Robb's words took her by surprise. My sister, Jon, the battles. Does he know it all? There were so many secrets she'd kept over the years, and in that moment, Amina wanted to share them all with him. She wanted to tell him about Qarth, the dragons, and the things she'd seen. Like his death. Whether it was real or one of the Undying's lies, it had shaken her. The visions from behind the doors were blurry and unclear, but she remembered the way she'd felt. It had been as if her heart was torn from her chest.

          "Tell me you don't love me, and I will walk away," he said.

          Amina opened her mouth to say the words, but the lie wouldn't come. It hadn't with Theon either, though she'd found a way around it. I'm your sister, come home. It was all she needed to say, and he would have left Winterfell. But she couldn't ask him to walk to his death, so instead she'd been the one to walk away. She had walked away from her castle, her brother, and the only home she'd ever known. Amina shook her head. "I can't."

         Robb put his hands on either side of her face, and she looked into his eyes. They were so blue and full of love, and all she could give him was her fear. "Then trust in us, trust that we will find a way, trust that the Gods are good."

          "I want to," she whispered. As Robb pulled her toward him, the crown fell from her fingers. She pressed her face against his chest, and the tears came as they never had before. But the tears could not take her fear with them.

♔ ♔ ♔ ♔

          Amina had never felt so nervous in all her years. But she stood on the dais as Robb congratulated the men and tried not to meet Catelyn's eyes in the crowd. She was so focused on not looking at Cat, she hardly noticed Robb come up beside her. "Are you ready?"

          "Not at all," she whispered. Robb gave her hand a squeeze, and for a moment Amina's nerves were wiped away. Then Catelyn was before them. Of all the lords, Karstark was the most wroth with the Kingslayer's escape. He railed at Catelyn before Robb put a stop to it.

          "If I could wish the Kingslayer back in chains I would. You freed him without my knowledge or consent...but what you did, I know you did for love. For Arya and Sansa, and out of grief for Bran and Rickon. Love's not always wise, I've learned. It can lead us to great folly, but we follow our hearts...wherever they take us."