at magicdraft; post may contain spoilers for ASoIaF

[kindlymeant]

It is not that I am ungrateful for your attention, my lady, though I cannot share in your renewed enthusiasm. I would have you remember, please, that even away from my lord father - especially then, perhaps - I must be careful to conduct myself as is befitting. I will not give him reason for disappointment, least not when I walk alongside such noble names.

As for - circumstances as they are, it is far better this way. That door may be closed now, as it should be, and so it shall remain.

Comments

[debtsrepaid]

Petyr Baelish? I never thought him the fathering type.

[ A little bit of eye contact never hurt anyone, you know... He does study her face when she says it, eyes scanning for any hint of deceit from what little he can see of her.

Such familiarity in those eyes. ]

[kindlymeant]

[And once more, she's looking away.]

You are not the first to suggest so, my lord. [She could explain more, certainly, but unless pressed will hold her tongue on such.] But he has been good to me, regardless.

[debtsrepaid]

[ He's not surprised at that, of course. Petyr Baelish was a curious man. He didn't trust the man as far as he could throw him, but he had his secrets. ]

I'm sure he has been. What of your mother?

[kindlymeant]

[It doesn't surprise her, that he asks for more. Sansa Stark's husband has a curious nature, after all.]

The daughter of a Bravoosi merchant prince, my lord, dwelling in Gulltown. But - she passed away shortly after my birth, and I was raised in a sept.

[debtsrepaid]

[ A bastard? Unsurprising, but even still. Petyr Baelish. It was hard to wrap his mind around the thought of him as a father, even so, a doting one. ]

Alayne, was it? You're enrolled in my class.

[ Her name was hard to forget. Alayne Stone. So many students, many of them with names strange to him, foreign and a bit rough off the tongue. But his eyes had been drawn to her name as he sought out an ounce of familiarity in a world he still couldn't say he knew.

An escape. A second chance. Or it could have been, had his past not chosen to follow him like his own shadow. ]

I remember you from the Inferi attack, but I hadn't caught your name then.

[kindlymeant]

[She nods meekly, offers a brief smile (which only makes her look less like Sansa and more like Alayne, for when did Sansa ever give her husband smiles?).]

Yes, my lord. Your class has been - most useful, in the circumstances.

[She pauses.] Thank you for the help you gave me then, sir.

[debtsrepaid]

[ True enough, Tyrion could never wrangle a smile from his Lady Wife... He chuckles to himself at the "most useful" comment, however. He can only imagine what having hexes would be like back in Westeros.

A thought that has amused him many a time. ]

Then I should also thank you for being such an inquisitive mind. Hard to find these days.

[kindlymeant]

[You and Alayne both, man.

She pauses, considering her words, and then -]

Surely it is the domain of Ravenclaw house, my lord, to possess an inquisitive mind.

[debtsrepaid]

Good qualities for a house to possess. I've found my...students from Ravenclaw house to be some of the most eager to learn. It's refreshing.

[ He looks her over again, still attempting to get a good look at her face. ]

Your studies are proceeding well, I presume?