❈ | 025 | Voice

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[Private to Arthur]

Stop yelling at the people teaching me. I asked them to.

[Private to Rumpelstiltskin]

[She's been torn over saying anything to him, because he kind of went to bat for her, but she thinks he did it all wrong.]

I'm not a baby, you know.

Comments

Spam.

[takeyouapart]

[Merlin glances cautiously at Nymeria but doesn't make eye contact with the wolf, looking to Arya instead. And he knows all this is Arthur's to say but he says it anyway.]

No. It makes people worth saving. How do you think this is going to end? If the promise of strength is enough for you to not care that you might lose the use of your hands, how much further will you permit that to go? How much more would you risk? Nobody is asking you to stop training but strength is not the willingness to throw yourself away in its pursuit.

Spam.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[Wasn't it, though? Throwing herself away is what she'd been doing since she walked into the House of Black and White - only they wouldn't let her do that here. They wouldn't let her become someone who could change her face.

But they let her do other things, other training. Was she no one, clinging to Braavos and all it could teach her, if she ever made it back - or was she someone else? The girl who'd traveled through the riverlands had changed for every situation she encountered.]

I'll stop. Nymeria, [the last was muttered, as she stuck her sword back in her belt, and tugged the direwolf back again. Her eyes shifted back to Arthur.]

If you'll talk to her. She didn't ruin her hands. Ask how.

Spam.

[onceandfutureprat]

I'll speak with her. [He doesn't promise any more than that, because from what he gathered from their earlier conversation, was that Beatrix was simply lucky that her hands weren't crippled.

She said she'd stop and he's willing to give her a chance to prove he can still trust her.]

Will you let Merlin look at your hands now?

Spam.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[She hesitates again; if Arthur talks to Beatrix and, as far as Arya's concerned, sees sense, she'll have to break them all over again, and it had hurt, so much more than she'd expected it to. But it still hurt, and she wasn't allowed to do anything about it now.

So, reluctantly, she sticks out her left hand toward Merlin, still bandaged and bruised and a little bloody.]