entranceway | (first gallop) | accidental video + action

...Benjen? [ when lyanna stark pushes herself into a sitting position a few twists and turns away from the maze's centre, her instinct is to call for one of her brothers: the youngest, first, and with a lilt of concern. with a groan, she brushes detritus off her palms and straightens her skirts (simple; in the northern style). and she tries to figure out why she might have been preparing her palfrey to ride in one moment, and sitting in dirt the next.

not that she minded the dirt -- not really. but she did mind the conspicuous absence of her kin. panic mounts: ] Brandon? Ned?

[ she scrambles to her feet and finds the strange small brick only a few feet away. lyanna picks it up and can now be seen peering suspiciously at its every angle. ] You're a funny thing. [ she mutters, tapping it gently and fingering (but not pressing) the buttons. but then she holds it loosely in her fist and raises her voice. ] By all the named gods and the unnamed gods -- Brandon Stark! If this is some trick or a mummer's game, I will have your hide. And without it, you can hardly hope to woo any pretty --

[ she stops abruptly because the brick chirrups like some odd precise bird. surprise catches the breath in her throat and she's forced to ask -- staring straight at the device: ] ...Are you alive, little brick?

[ grab her attention on the funny little brick-bird or else find her wandering the maze and the gardens. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lia is adequate. Titles always have been so strange to me.

You might find a horse, but it would not take you anywhere else. You are well and truly trapped here. I hate to be the bearer of such news.

I see no bars. No chains.

Not in any literal sense, mademoiselle. If you try to swim away you will be killed. You can simply...never leave. You must live here.

And so we are hostages.

[ disappointed. ]

Hostages that no one will ever random, as far as I have seen. Well kept hostages as well. This place provides all we could need except the ability to leave.

Though in return, strange things often happen here.

How strange?

The mansion itself once broke into pieces, standing people in different rooms of it. There are often murderers on the loose and a monster in the sea.

Often? [ godsdammit. ] You speak of it so plainly. So casually.

Unfortunately, Mademoiselle, you do get used to it and rather swiftly.

[And then it's like noting it has rained outside.]

I would rather not. If I don't make it back soon, my brothers will worry. My father will worry.

It will be as if you never left. Time will stand still until you return. Or if it continues, it will continue as though you are there and behaving normally. People may have memories of you. Things you do not remember because you have not yet lived them.

You speak in impossibilities. Of Magic.

Magic is not an impossibility. You will find that out shortly enough, being in a place that is entirely magic. Your wardrobe will give you nearly anything you wish for. Food will appear in the kitchen without servants.

There must be servants.

[ somehow, this is the most unbelievable. ]

No servants. It is quite strange and I admit it was quite the adjustment for a lady always used to servants.

[Which she's still trying to figure out if Lyanna is.]

Quite. And yet I suspect myself capable of managing it.

[ it'll be an adventure. at first. until she realizes just how much she'd depended upon the help. ]

I have found it is little things you miss. Someone who laced your corset properly or always knew how you took your tea.

[And she's smiling gently, still, but trying not to be patronizing.]

May I ask how old you are?

Old enough to be married off.

[ a vague answer. she doesn't want to be too candid with these strangers. ]

(first gallop) | accidental video + action

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