a plotted starter for @sunfyred
for the longest time, sansa had thought this day would never come. her position in the north had changed the day her father was imprisoned, her freedom no longer a matter that rested in his hands, but rather in the hands of her cousin, cregan. bennard stark's plotting had not ceased at just holding onto the lordship of house stark, but rather had extended far greater than his nephew could have ever imagined – a matter that had been kept quiet and secret still. long had he sought power and glory, long were the lengths he was willing to go to achieve it, even if it had meant sending his only daughter from winterfell's halls. she'd been raised as was befitting a highborn lady, prim – proper, exceptionally well - behaved when her brothers were not teasing her or drawing her ire, made into the perfect offering of a wife to viserys targaryen's firstborn son.
it'd taken an extended effort to free her from winterfell, a jointed effort between sansa's own lady mother and the hightowers, a planned trip to visit her mother's family in karhold, wherein sansa and lady margaret had boarded a ship and sailed from the shivering sea to blackwater bay. it'd not been an easy journey, so many days on board a ship that she swore her stomach had turned as often as the tides, but she had survived it. had survived the uncertain eyes at the port – and had been far more thankful than she had ever been when her feet had touched sturdy, dry land.
but if she were meant to feel less nerves, her stomach had not received the memo; freshly bathed and fed, dressed in a soft grey gown of lace and velvet, sansa had been directed into the throne room, directed forward to stand underneath the watchful gaze of far too many eyes. she hadn't known much of her husband - to - be; rumors from the south did not oft travel well north, and save for what her father had allowed her to know of aegon – that he was a handsome, targaryen king, named after the conqueror himself – she'd come into the room as uncertain and unsure as one could have possibly been.
good manners dictate that she sink into a bow, a graceful curtsy with steel grey hues downturned to the floor; she counts seconds in her head, soft, delicate numbers, until she finally exhales a breath and stands tall once more, allowing her eyes to flicker up from the floor to land on the man who sits the throne before her. her heart skips a subtle beat, a gentle flush of pink settling across the apples of her porcelain cheeks – the letters hadn't been wrong about aegon being handsome. his eyes a shade of purple that sansa longed to get lost in, the expression on his features one she cannot precisely read, but one she finds herself all the more intrigued by.
a smile curls onto her lips, warm and sweet, as her hands smooth out the skirt of her gown. “ it is a pleasure to meet you, your grace. although i fear my father's words may have . . . downplayed certain aspects of the capital. ”