my sister
what made you fall from grace?
I’m sorry that I was not there to catch you
what have the demons done?
with the luminous light that once shined from your eyes
When he rescues her, finally, like a princess in the tower, she does not look him in the eye, and does not even weep, but asks to be taken out of the city. He grants it, and leaves the Iron Throne for rose-thorned stags.
It is months before she will tell him of what her golden prince did to her, and when he is alone he beats his hands bloody on the stone walls.
(Sister, I won the war but failed you.)
(Do not blame yourself.)
Years (lifetimes) ago, they had been so perfectly matched, summer children meant to inherit it all. Now, he was a king, badly fitted for the role, and she a princess, badly mended from her breaking.
He finds Grey Wind gone one morning, curled next to his sister with her hand tangled in the thick fur. In sleep she smiles, and seems happy, and he wished he could fix it, fix everything.
She wakes to find a wolf (Lady? but no, Lady was without a head, like Father, like-) and her brother sitting on her bed, shoulders slumped and eyes red from weeping.
It does not take much to sit up, launch herself upon him and wrap her arms tight. He takes her into his arms so she sits like a child on his lap, and they stay there, silent and shattered.