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

[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?