A Rose Amid the Stones
Twentieth Day of the Ninth Month 293 AC
The sound of hard leather soles on stone filled the room as the auburn-haired girl paced back and forth, occasionally glancing towards the writing desk then shaking her head in annoyance. Who would even carry the message to Highgarden? She could not trust a fey for this... Well, maybe one of the gremlins bound directly to Lord Brandon, but they could barely even fly. She could just knock on the lord's door and ask to be carried by sorcery there to speak with her father and grandmother in person, but she did not even know if she would have the courage to say all the things passing through her mind aloud now.
Margaery Tyrell collapsed on the bed hands tangling in the sheets as she still struggled against the nervous energy running through her. She still remembered how rustic the unadorned oak bed and simple green sheets had seemed to her when she had first arrived, but now they were a source of comfort. This was
her room, and no one would walk in here without a good reason, which meant no one would be around to see her fall apart like this or hear her curse through the iron-bound door.
"Damn the bloody Fey King and damn all bargains. I don't want to marry someone who's been asleep for longer than recorded history. I
won't."
It was definitely her voice that said it and it sounded firm, commanding like when she worked magic, but it still did not feel like something she could say back home. The magic and the battles, the hours spent pouring over enchanted ice to learn a scryer's craft, they did not belong in Highgarden with its stately sculptures and fragrant orchards. The girl flinched from the path the thought lead her on as one might as one faced when with the edge of a cliff, yet still she tumbled over...
Maybe I don't belong there.
Why else would her lord father want to send her off to another world entirely if not because she had grown odd out here at the edge of the world, staring at the
things that lurked beyond? And they did not even know about the worst of it, how she had spent weeks under a glamour pretending to be some fishmonger's get to help catch the influence of the Deep Ones, how she had trudged through dusty barrows and picked through bones with her own hands.
Margaery had been prepared to go to Sorcerer's Deep and be betrothed to the Dragon King, particularly since she had begun to hear more news from there than rumors carried, but not this.... not the sleeping
thing that was more god than man from what she had heard. She was glad Danelle would be moving against the marriage, she was even glad of Brother Lucan's meddling, sanctimonious fool that he was.
There was really no point in writing a letter, the girl suddenly realized. The marriage could not pass, not with two Chosen arrayed against Septon Kyle. '
Never argue about things you know the outcome of whether they favor you or not', her grandmother had said once, and it seemed a sound enough notion now.
Filled with newfound determination the girl strode from the room and headed down the winding steps and out the postern gate enjoying the fresh sea air... mostly fresh at least. The telltale trail of smoke rising from the castle's forge marked Ser Garth's successful return with sea-gold to spare.
The temptation to head out and try to figure out just what magics were being used to cleanse gold gifted by the Deep Ones was no small thing, but she held her peace. Such metal might not be as perilous here as in the hands of the damned souls who took it as payment from their new masters, but it still carried a heavy enough curse that Lord Brandon had specifically told her not to get near, and he usually erred on the side that got her into fights with trolls... not that she had minded it in the end. It was even funny now that she could laugh about it without broken ribs burning like fire.
So instead she wandered down from the keep and into the town, a glamour warding her features as she pondered how much it had changed since she had first seen it... and how much it had changed her.
OOC: Less character interaction than I might have preferred. Hopefully the character portrait works as is.
