𝕋𝕙𝕖 smell of pine resin and wet bark filled my nose as my feet crunched over the wet leaves. It was warm in the Kingswood, despite the morning sun being mostly blocked by the thick canopy except for a few light patches. But I was restless, something was wrong, I knew it. Something about this didn't feel right. I kept going, kept walking toward the edge of the woods, to where I could see the red castle walls emerge. The guards gave me a wary look before letting me pass. My head felt so fuzzy, I couldn't quite recall what I was doing. I knew I had to get to my room, that something was wrong there, that this was wrong- Servants moved out of my way as I made for the stairs quickly, taking several steps at a time as I bounded upstairs. Left or right? Left, that was where my room was. But why did the castle halls I knew so well feel so foreign, so unfamiliar? It felt like there were two images layered on top of each other, both wrong and adding up to my confusion. There was the door, dark wood embellished with golden swirls. But how to open it? I could not figure out how to get inside, why it wouldn't budge when I pushed against it. This is wrong this is wrong this is wrong. Suddenly, the eyeslit above me opened, a pair of green eyes looking down at me in surprise, and a moment later the sound of wood scraping on wood came from the other side of the door, which swung open. The feeling of wrongness was overwhelming in here, and I followed the golden-haired woman back to the bed she had been sitting by, and there I saw-

"Vallery!", I heard Cersei exclaim when my eyelids fluttered open, and was greeted by a passionate kiss pressed to my lips. "Thank the gods, you're awake." I sat up slowly in confusion, groaning when I felt my throbbing head. What had happened? I remembered sitting on the throne beside Cersei, falling asleep while her father entered... no, not falling asleep. Dying. I had drunk poison. How was I alive? The next thing I remembered after the throne room was crouching in the forest, over the savaged corpse of a deer. Bile rose in my throat at the memory of the dream, and I turned around just in time to vomit into my chamberpot. "How", I croaked. Cersei understood. "I had you brought to the maester immediately. He counteracted the Essence of Nightshade in time to save you. But you took your sweet time waking up. When I saw you pass out, I..." She shook her head as if to clear away the memory. "I'm glad you're back." I eased myself up a little further and took her hand. "I'm glad we didn't die. Does this mean... are we safe? Did we win?" Cersei nodded. "My father joined the battle and defeated Stannis' forces. Stannis himself escaped, but without an army, I doubt he'll trouble us again anytime soon." So I hadn't hallucinated it. My eyes fell on Rhaenys, sitting beside my bed. "Hey, girl", I said with a slight smile. "Still watching over me?" "She was acting really strange earlier", Cersei remarked. "She was supposed to be outside in the Kingswood, but then she suddenly came up here, pushing against the door and all, so I let her in, and she just sat and stared at you with empty eyes for about a minute until you woke up." The hairs on my neck stood up at her tale as an incredulous idea dawned on me. "Cersei... I think... I think I was Rhaenys while I was gone." "What?" Cersei laughed. "Vallery, do you realize how that sounds?" "I know", I sighed, "but I remember what you just told me. After Tywin came... I was in the woods, there was a dead animal in front of me. Gods, I was eating it. And then I felt like something was wrong, and that I had to get back to the castle, but something about that entire sequence felt so strange, like I wasn't myself... And I think I truly wasn't." "Are you sure you didn't just dream this?", Cersei said, but I heard the self-doubt in her voice. She, too, had grown up on the stories about the people of the North and their animals. "I went to the castle, and the guards gave me a weird look when they let me in - like they knew me, but were scared of me, and the servants inside the Keep all looked equally afraid. I was fast, so fast, and everything was a little higher than usual. And then I got to the door and I couldn't remember how it opened, until someone - you - looked at me and opened it for me, and then I saw myself and woke up." Cersei had paled. "All that I saw of the story happened exactly as you said", she said flatly. "If this is true... Vallery, I think you're a warg."

A warg. The words still sounded through me when I stood beside my sister in the throne room half an hour later, watching Tywin Lannister ride in on his white stallion toward the dais where Cersei and her son were sitting, receiving the heroes of the battle. "I, Joffrey of the House Baratheon, first of my name, the rightful King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm do hereby proclaim my grandfather, Tywin Lannister, the savior of the city and the Hand of the King." Joffrey's enumeration of titles had taken so long that his grandfather had made it all the way through the hall to stand in front of the throne on his horse, where he now received the signature pin of the Hand. He bowed. "Thank you, Your Grace." Dismissed by a curt nod by Joffrey, he turned his mount around and left. Joffrey continued the honors. "Lord Petyr Baelish, step forward." Baelish knelt before the king. "For your good service and ingenuity in uniting the Houses of Lannister and Tyrell, I declare that you shall be granted the castle of Harrenhal with all its attendant lands and incomes, to be held by your sons and grandsons from this day until the end of time." "You honor me beyond words, Your Grace", Litlefinger responded, rising. "I shall have to acquire some sons and grandsons." Scattered laughter became audible throughout the hall. Joffrey chuckled placidly, then waved his finger to beckon another man closer. "Ser Loras Tyrell", he said, and a man with heavy armor and curly blond hair stepped forward. "Your House has come to our aid. The whole realm is in your debt, none more so than I. If your family would ask anything of me, ask it, and it shall be yours." Cersei's expectant smile told me that this was a rehearsed conversation, and I leaned in closer to hear what Ser Loras would demand. "Your Grace. My sister Margaery, her husband was taken from us before-", he interrupted himself to swallow hard, and I remembered where I had heard the name Loras Tyrell before. He was rumored to have been Renly Baratheon's lover, while his sister had been his bride. "She remains innocent. I would ask you to find it in your heart to do us the great honor of joining our houses." "Is this what you want, Lady Margaery?", Joffrey asked. As if he had ever cared about that with Sansa. As if reading my thoughts, Cersei looked over at us with an unreadable expression. "With all my heart, Your Grace", Margaery replied, standing beside her brother. "I have come to love you from afar. Tales of your courage and wisdom have never been far from my ears, and those tales have taken root deep inside of me." 

The king considered. "I, too, have heard tales of your beauty and grace, but the tales do not do you justice, my lady. It would be an honor to return your love, but I am promised to another. A king must keep his word." A horrible suspicion dawned on me. Had they planned this all out to discard of Sansa? "Your Grace", Cersei interjected. "In the judgment of your Small Council, it would be neither proper nor wise for you to wed the daughter of a man beheaded for treason, a girl whose brother is in open rebellion against the throne as we speak." You are in love with such a girl, I thought angrily. My traitorous family didn't seem to bother you the last time I fucked you. "For the good of the realm, your councilors beg you to set Sansa Stark aside." She looked at us again, as did everyone in the hall. Sansa's face remained set in stone. Joffrey rose. "I would like to heed your wishes and the wishes of my people, but I took a holy vow." "Y-Your Grace", Grandmaester Pycelle voiced in his stammering, sickly manner, "th-the gods do indeed hold betrothal solemn, but your father, um, blessed be his memory, made this pact before the Starks revealed their falseness, eh." I felt my cheeks grow red with anger flaring up at the insult. "I have consulted with the High Septon and he assures me that their crimes against the realm free you of any promise you have made to them in the sight of the gods." Cersei was smirking at us. Hadn't she told me just last night that she didn't truly hate Sansa? My sister, though, seemed eerily calm, despite her shocked face. "The gods are good", Joffrey announced. "I am free to heed my heart. Ser Loras, I will gladly wed your sweet sister. You will be my queen, and I will love you from this day until my last day." The hall erupted in applause while my sister turned to leave, me following her after throwing one last lingering look at Cersei. We are not done with this. But as soon as we were out of sight of the various ladies in the gallery, Sansa began smiling, even laughing softly, and I understood. She thought she would be free of Joffrey now. But he would never let her go. Before I could start speaking, though, Littlefinger strode after us. "My lady", he said to Sansa, completely ignoring me. "My sincerest condolences." "They're right, I'm not good enough for him", my sister said, her face sad again in an instant. "You shouldn't say that. You'll be good enough for many things", Baelish confirmed what I had just thought. "He'll still enjoy beating you. And, now that you're a woman, he'll be able to enjoy you in other ways as well." "But... if he's not marrying me..." Oh, Sansa, you sweet fool. "He'll let you go home?" He shook his head. "Joffrey's not the sort of boy who gives away his toys." The look of shock on Sansa's face was real this time. "You have a tender heart, just like your mother did at your age. I can see so much of her in you." So that was why he didn't care to acknowledge my presence - I was a Stark through and through, not an ounce of Tully in my appearance. "She was like a sister to me. For her sake, I'll help get you home." Sansa seemed at a loss for words for a moment. "King's Landing is my home now", she finally said. From her, it was a lie, from me, it would have been the truth, I realized. Home didn't mean what it once had to me. Home was Cersei. "Look around you. We're all liars here, and every one of us is better than you", Baelish said and walked past us, still not bothering to take note of me, being so wrapped up in Sansa.

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I was sitting on my bed cross-legged, leaning against Cersei behind me. "Just try", she said. "I'm sure you can do it eventually." "But how?", I asked, exasparated. "I don't know how it works! I didn't do it on purpose the first time." Cersei was trying to get me to warg again, thinking it would be a great way to spy on our enemies - if I could control it. "Just slip out of your body and into hers", Cersei suggested as if it was a cloak to be changed, pointing at Rhaenys who watched me attentively from where she sat in front of the bed. "I'll catch you once you fall unconscious." "I can't-", I began, but sighed once I remembered that there was no point in arguing with Cersei. Settling back into her arms, I closed my eyes once again and imagined a cord connecting Rhaenys' and my consciousness. I envisioned myself traveling down that cord, moving hand over hand along it as if navigating through the tide. But on the other end, there was nothing, no mind to enter. I strained to feel anything at all, and for a moment I was aware of the two living bodies in the room with me, but there was no way to reach them. I let out a heavy breath and my eyelids fluttered open. "I can't do it", I declared, crossing my arms. "Just... try again, approach it differently." Cersei wasn't ready to give up yet. "Maybe we've been thinking too complicated. You said that in the dream, you didn't know that you weren't really her, and you didn't know that you weren't yourself, so convince your brain that you are her, that Vallery and Rhaenys are one and the same." "Fine", I said, if only to exhaust her ideas so she would let it go, suppressing the urge to roll my eyes. Once Cersei got her mind stuck on something... I sat up, Cersei's hand brushing my arm from where it had been resting on my shoulder, and looked at my direwolf. I am you. I am Rhaenys. We are one and I can be you whenever I want to. Nothing happened. Your body is mine. I control it. I am you. I am every bit as much a direwolf as you and I see through your eyes, hear with your ears, smell what you smell.

Suddenly, I felt a pull right behind my navel, the room shifted around me, grew bigger, and I watched my own body fall back onto Cersei, who caught it and gently laid it down before looking at the other, conscious me, excitement sparkling in her eyes. "Go", she said encouragingly. "Explore and see what you might watch or hear." Already, I felt my human understanding fade and quickly set off into the depths of the castle before I was left with just a wolf's perception. Sniffing the air for anything of interest, I wandered the halls until I tracked a familiar scent near the exit. I was momentarily distracted by a servant carrying delicious-smelling food to a nearby chamber and followed the uneasy-looking man until he disappeared behind a door. Disappointed, I stepped out into the sun, blinking to restore my vision. Amidst all the people, I caught the scent again, now coming from the ballustrade looking out on the sea. I crept closer, not yet able to identify the smell, but I knew that it was good. I saw a red-haired girl kneeling in front of the wall, her hands clasped together on top of a stone, eyes closed on a solemn face. I was about to go to her when I noticed another person's scent approach. Ducking into the underbrush, I watched a girl in a blue dress with chestnut curls greet the redhead, who got up quickly. They seemed familiar, probably also liked each other - although with people, you could never quite know. Their human sounds were indescernible to me, but there were a few words my wolf brain retained from the training I had received. Morning, winter, those were sounds I had heard being said many times, but had never needed to know the meaning of. Girl, I knew what that meant! My human called me that a lot. Pig was familiar, too, from my meals. As if in affirmation, the brown-haired girl made oinking noises. I was pretty sure awful meant something bad - humans usually said that word when something shocked them or made them sad. But these two burst out laughing, so maybe not? I knew what a castle was, and the sea. The girl in the blue dress took the familiar-smelling girl by the hands and said something about friends, twice. The ginger was my friend, so if these two were friends, the other would be mine, too, I decided. Suddenly, their tone turned serious, and I strained to listen, as if I would understand them any better for it. Queen. King's Landing. That sounded vaguely familiar. I always understood when my human talked to me, why couldn't I understand these people as well? Then again, my human was me, and I was her. In a flash of clarity, I realized I had overstayed my welcome in this body, I was losing myself in the wolven mind instead of working around its limitations. More and more, my thoughts of "I" and "me" referred more to the wolf than to the person. But I had to finish hearing this, what if it was important? I'd leave in a moment, I told myself. Joffrey. Loras. Those were names, I was pretty sure. Some human part of me remembered them, although hazily. I had to go or I'd have no human thought left to return to my original body. Sprinting back to the Keep, I hoped I wouldn't be too late. If I couldn't remember how to get back... Scratching on the door, I felt the pull of the other piece of me behind it. The golden-haired woman who smelled of lavender and wine and good things opened. What was her name? I couldn't remember. Once I laid eyes on the person sprawled across the bed, I felt myself being pulled back into her, vacating the body I was currently inhabiting so its own spirit could control it once again.

All my thoughts and impressions flooded back to me at once, and I jerked upright. "You were gone a long time", Cersei said by way of greeting, sitting down beside me and brushing my hair from my shoulder. "Too long", I replied. "I'm not used to this yet. The instincts are overpowering. I'll have to practice or I'll forget what it's like to be human, forget to return." "We'll figure it out", Cersei promised. "Your Northern blood was made for this." She paused for a polite amount of time before asking what she was likely dying to know. "So, did you see anything? Does this gift of yours work for gathering information unnoticed?" "Let me think. I can't really understand words as a wolf, so I have to process what I heard." I pieced together the bits of conversation floating around in my head, painstakingly reassembling them to make sense. "So you did hear something? Anything of importance?" When I finally realized what scheme I had witnessed, I almost flinched. I knew Cersei and I had vowed to be honest with each other, and I had been the one to demand that, but this... I couldn't tell her, couldn't betray my sister like that. Especially not after Cersei cast her aside to be Joffrey's plaything instead of his wife and didn't tell me a damn thing about it. So I shook my head. "Nothing."