05/03/2026 18:58

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There's something he's not saying. It is a moment away from ceremony and courtiers. We were so few that all wecould do was harry their rear, but we told each other that we'd join up withKing Robert when he marched west to crush Lord Tywin's rebellion. It was a judicial farce; but a necessary one, a predictable one, an inevitable one.

\parBut better to be alone during these crippling bouts than to endure the prinking of the courtiers, their lavish sympathy, their soft, condescending dullness. “Y’know, people have been pretty supportive. Elsewhere two bearded youths in boiled leatherwere sparring with staffs, leaping at each other over the flames, gruntingeach time one landed a blow. “You said you were twelve years old when you got married?”“Earth years,” she said.