A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

Twenty First Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC

"If you desire a place to slip away to in secret than I would offer my realm, and present circumstances as the moment to do so," you offer to Lady Fowler. "The best lies, after all, are leavened with some measure of truth. Claim that the same party that attacked Lord Dayne was also responsible for your kidnapping. Thus you could both seek refuge in the same sanctuary."

"So he could play the gallant knight 'helping me heal'," Jeyne snorts while shifting in her seat, though from genuine disdain or the need to keep her distance for her sister's sake you cannot say for certain. You make a note to have Tyene explain the nature of your laws on the matter and the reasons behind them. That is not a conversation you want to have among your first meeting with Andrew Dayne under your own name.

"Strange that you should look upon my suit with such displeasure now when you did not in the past," the knight says stiffly. You suspect that were the Prince of Dorne not a consummate diplomat he would be rolling his eyes at the tone. Jeyne, not burdened by the weight of a crown, does so without hesitation.

"Stranger still that you should call it such, I do not recall any talk of marriage passing your lips then," she replies after a moment. "If you wish to court her then His Grace's generosity offers you the chance."

The look of sheer bemusement on Lord Dayne's face is almost enough to be worth allowing the conversation to continue, but alas you have more important matters to attend to. "I would also offer what aid and insight I can provide into ensuring the child's safety in body and soul after the possession."

That silences both of them instantly. "It could have harmed him?" Ser Andrew asks, only a moment before Lady Fowler does.

It could be an unliving Winter-spawn bred to sow ruin and destruction, you think, recalling another troubled pregnancy you had been able to lighten years ago and what might have been made of it had you not acted. You do not share the tale aloud, merely nodding.


Lya, Vee, Softstrider and Qyburn make for an odd quartet. On the one hand there is the sorceress weaving lines of light and fire through the air as she seeks a measure of the unborn soul and the girl conferring with her belt, animate and slithering like the serpent it honors. On the other stands the child of the forest drawn from the stuff of fireside and sailor's tales listening for songs only she can hear and the former maester in his pale robes, the faintly musty odor of the Forge clinging to his robes.

"There is nothing beyond the norm in your physical form, nor in that of the unborn as far as he can be perceived," the flesh-smith says disappointed, though at least trying to hide it.

"It's a son then?" Prince Doran had taken having his private audience chamber being taken over by mages with surprising equanimity, but he did sound perturbed by this news. The reason is not hard to guess at. If the child had been a girl then she would have been far farther from the Dayne line of succession then the Fowler one as the Lords of Starfall had kept more to Andal customs of inheritance than most other Dornish Houses.

"Yes, yes," the flesh-smith waves the matter away. "Likely to be born healthy and weigh a stone even then."

Lya meanwhile had been looking at her instruments with an ever-deepening frown. "The child's soul doesn't seem to be entirely anchored to his body," she pauses a moment, looking at you. "Yes, that is definitely the soul of an unborn and not our 'friend' returned to trouble us, but the fact remains that souls are not supposed to be so venturesome so young."

"So just ask the Old Gods to fix it," Vee shrugs. "It won't even cost you a lot of blood since they'd be working against their old enemies."

"You want her to hang people by their entrails to call down a blessing on a child, on our child?" Lord Dayne asks horrified.

"I guess she could ask Yss too, he likes to swallow sacrifices so there's less of a mess," Vee replied after a moment's thought.

What do you do about the child's odd condition?

[] Ask for a blessing of the Old Gods to right things

[] Ask for a blessing of Yss to right things

[] Pledge to resolve the matter yourself
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: I hope this isn't dragging. There's just a lot of interpersonal stuff to handle before we get to the politics.