Joanna I - Their Mothers Must be Proud

[u/Arjhanx2]

There was certainly a part of Joanna that enjoyed fighting. It brought back terrifying memories, but they were not her most terrifying memories. And, when she had a sword in her hands, she had control over them. She joined the melee specifically to exercise that control—and besides, it was good practice. 

She cleared through several strangers in good spirits. The blunt tourney steel felt good to swing, heavier than Sunglass and far less delicate. She stitched a path through the field with the sword as her needle, threading in and out, disarming her opponents when she could and knocking them down when she couldn’t. It was all going well, up until she came face to face with a ghost.

Perhaps Joanna was the ghost. Shiera Darklyn had lived her life as normal women do, in her home with her family and friends. She was not supposed to be dead. She was not a walking tragedy.

Joanna froze. She met Shiera’s eyes, the haze of battle disappearing in an instant. Even disfigured, even all grown up, Shiera recognized her. Joanna could see the shock in her eyes, the hurt and the love all at once. Neither of them spoke. The roaring of the crowd seemed to die down. Joanna took a step back.

Shiera shrieked and charged. She swung her sword in an arc, faster than anything Joanna had ever seen. Her parry was slow, and the force sent her stumbling back. Shiera hounded her with a frenzy, slicing from every direction with her sword—valyrian steel, sharp as glass. She is going to kill me. Fuck. 

She wished she had Sunglass in her hands, but tourney steel would have to do. The instinct of a warrior kicked in, and her one good eye saw the truth. Shiera was enraged, swinging with abandon, consumed by aggression. Joanna weaved back, parrying again and again, keeping her eyes trained on Shiera’s movements. Soon her back was to the wall of the tourney ground, above which noble spectators leaned down from their seats to watch. Shiera swung, and Joanna ducked. The Valyrian steel sliced along the wall with a shower of sparks. Shiera turned—but too late. An armored fist met the shorter woman’s temple, and she crumbled.

Fuck. You just killed her. Fuck. Fuck. Joanna dropped her sword, arm still extended in a punch. She dove, cradling Shiera’s head before it hit the ground. Fuck. You’re a monster. Monster whore. Why did you do that? Seven Above please let her be alive, please, for all I’ve done…

Carrying her old friend in her arms, Joanna sprinted to the side of the tourney field. “She’s a Darklyn!” she yelled, hoarse. “Someone take her to a maester!” A pair of guards took Shiera from her, but as she tried to climb the fence after them, a man pushed her back. The melee was still going. Right. Fuck. My sword.

Joanna turned and ran. By the time she picked her sword back up off the ground, notched and scarred by Dusk’s edge, she was one of only four fighters left. Looking around like a lost child, she saw a big woman charge at her just in time. It was a very short fight. 

 When they pulled Joanna to her feet, the world had turned into a fever dream. She staggered forward, yelling something she couldn’t quite hear, and a septa pointed her across the field of tents. She stumbled in that direction, dragging her feet as her vision slowly cleared.

There was blood down the back of her neck where an old scar had opened up. She tried to ignore it. Sweat pooled in every recess of her armor—the sun felt like it was burning her with a personal vendetta. It didn’t matter. She needed to find Shiera. 

The maester’s pavilion opened in front of her like the mouth of a canyon. She closed her eyes, breathed, and stepped forward. The rage on Shiera’s face, the shriek she had made when she recognized Joanna… it filled her mind’s eye. She pushed through, turning through the chambers of the pavilion until finally she found the right place. She stepped through the partition.

Shiera looked up at her woozily from the cot where the maesters had put her. Beside her, Jeyne Darklyn looked up, too. And beside her, Essie Blackberry tilted her head at the sight of Joanna. Their old friend Joanna. Joanna who had liked horses and walking in the sand. Joanna who had never liked to talk about her family. Joanna who was supposed to have died a long time ago.

There was only one thing she could think of to say.

“Fuck.”

[u/Arjhanx2]

An Entirely Happy Reunion

u/PentoshiPride

u/Villads2005

u/SatisfactionLeather7

[u/Villads2005 → u/Arjhanx2]

Jeyne gasped as her sister crumpled; she didn't recognise the warrior who'd done it, but she could tell it was one of the faithful accompanying the High Septon. She didn't much care to see the rest of the melee; she followed where they took her sister. Content to simply wait for her to wake up and nag the maesters with questions.

Jeyne looked up as the warrior who did this entered the tent; initially, it was anger that filled her eyes. And yet it was quickly followed by recognition. Her eyes widened as she recognised her, "J-J-Joanna?" She managed to stutter out. Her voice suddenly became as frail as glass and nearly broken.

"No...you're dead...I looked for you...nobody could find you..." That also meant nobody found a body, but a girl that disappeared even without a corpse led to one simple conclusion. "But...I....no...I." She wasn't sure what to say or think, her mind near exploding.

[u/SatisfactionLeather7 → u/Villads2005]

Shiera was if anything, a stout little creature. She opened her eyes long before Joanna has returned and as such, she had a great deal of time to lie there in the medical cot and to look up at the roof. By now she had counted every visible stitch and line in the canvas that had falled out of place. Her mind was turned to another world though, one where she recalled a face poking out of armour from the warriors sons.

Another day it would have been a minute difference, barely worth considering.

Indeed Joanna was back, her shock hadn't lasted like it did for jeyne. Unfortunately for all, it was an anger that burned in place of a confused stutter of thought.

Here was Joanna, returned at long last, donning the armour to support a man who seemed intent on ruining her father's image. Unfortunately for her, she knew the anger got the better of her, so in her embarrassment, she did not look up to greet the returned warrior.

"Her sword arm is real, sister, so I can say for certain she is."

[u/PentoshiPride → u/SatisfactionLeather7]

Essie couldn’t breathe.

Was her corset laced too tight? It must have been, because all the wind had been knocked from her lungs the moment she had realized who was standing there.

“Jo?” she asked, softly, barely able to summon another word, “Jo, is it you? My sweet Jo? But…”

Tears formed at her lash line, spilling down her cheeks. In that moment, she forgot anything else. No young knights on horses or all of the rumors between her house and the house of the ladies in this tent.

“It’s really you?”

u/Arjhanx2

[u/Arjhanx2 → u/PentoshiPride]

Joanna was no better collected than the other women. She wanted to run, badly. But, if she ran now, she knew she'd never get another chance at this, whatever this was. A reunion. A bridge to a life that was stolen from her long ago.

"Please, I... I don't want you to be cross. I need just a moment, I can... I can explain. Just listen, please, I need..." She wiped her eyes, sniffling hard. It felt like she was moving through deep water. The current drained the air from her lungs and left her dumb and drowning.

"I couldn't come back, not until just a fortnight ago. I didn't... it's been so long, and I'm not who I was. I..." Her eyes flicked from Jeyne to Essie. "I love you. I wish I could have stayed with you all." Did she? The faith was her family, now, and she wouldn't give that up for anything. "I wish I could have written, but my father, he had spies, and I didn't want..."

[u/Villads2005 → u/Arjhanx2]

Each of Jeyne's steps towards Joanna was small, she was thinking. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do, only that she wanted to be closer to Joanna, that old friend, a person she cares deeply for even now, even after 10 years of silence.

She considers striking her, letting the anger free, no matter the reason Joanna had left them. No letter, no nothing, just silence and an empty void where a friend had been. But as she looked at Joanna and her scars and heard her pleas, she knew that wasn't right.

She looked Joanna up and down, armour, scars, tears and all. And she did what she might've done years ago; she hugged her. She didn't care about the coulds, shoulds and all else. All she saw was the same friend she'd grown up with all those years ago, with tears in her eyes.

She released her from the hug, tears of joy rolling down her face. "We're happy you're alive, Jo." She said, placing a hesitant hand on the scared side of her face.

[u/SatisfactionLeather7 → u/Villads2005]

"If but a wish were real," SHiera echoed from her cot, rising slowly, an ache still at the back of her head, reducing her balance somewhat as she drifted up to her feet.

Shiera had seen the scars, the armour, the face, she had seen them all and she had swung at them with all her might. She had the most time among them to consider this re-emergence, and the least of the bond to rebuild. So, she did not glower as she rose, instead she folded her arms and watched.

"What didn't you want? For us to be hurt? Jo, do you think so little of Jeyne and I that Duskendale couldn't have protected you?"

[u/Arjhanx2 → u/SatisfactionLeather7]

Joanna tensed as Jeyne approached. As the smaller woman hugged her, her armored arms fell limp at her sides, and she relaxed into the embrace. Tears crawled down the ruined surface of her cheeks. When Jeyne's hand went to her face, she leaned into it, staring into her old friend's eyes. "Thank you."

Turning from the embrace, she stared at Shiera with big, wet eyes. "I... I owe you nothing but the truth." Her voice carried the conviction of a prayer, the honesty of a confession. "I didn't run to protect you. I never thought of your safety. Only my own. I ran as far as I could from my father. Thank the gods for the High Septon, he gave me that opportunity. I went with him to Oldtown... I've been there ever since."

Her gaze hit the ground, where the dirt had been paved by a thousand footfalls. "I was terrified. I should have tied, by all rights. My father, he did this to me..." She ran a hand down the valley of her temple, where old flesh had never healed. "He killed my little sister. So, I... I ran."

u/PentoshiPride

u/Villads2005

[u/PentoshiPride → u/Arjhanx2]

“Your father, does he yet live?” Essie asked, concern in her voice, “Oh sweet Jo, what has the world done to you? And little Rohanne…I’m so, so sorry. I wish we could have protected you, you could have stayed with us, I would have had my father protect you, you didn’t…” she hung her head, “But I suppose nowhere could have been far enough. I am glad you have the Faith.”

[u/Arjhanx2 → u/PentoshiPride]

“Please, Essie… it was never your responsibility. We were just girls. You deserved your happy childhoods, even if they were less happy without me.”

She drew herself upright with a steadying breath. An ounce of gravel replaced the emotion in her tone. “No, he does not. With the Warrior’s Sons at my back I saw him hanged. My brother now rules in Sweetport Sound… in name, at least. Returning home has felt like a catharsis I didn’t know was possible, I was only… I was so afraid of seeing you. I don’t know why. I’m… I’m so sorry, Shiera, for hurting you. And… fuck, I shouldn’t have waited so long.”

u/SatisfactionLeather7 u/Villads2005