Torrhen Karstark Au: Survival Is Oft Harder Than Death - Tumblr Posts

King Robb​:

hamilton starters. pt. 1 II “ i imagine death so much it’s like a memory. ” -Torrhen for Robb in an AU where Tor survived the Whispering Woods II @neithergodsnormen​  

TOO close of a brush with death far too many times.  torrhen would have died for him, robb is sure, if it had come down to it, but he does not let himself linger on the what-ifs and the full weight of the casualties or else he would never find the strength again to stand.  it had been luck, but every victory has been for the boy king who had never known battle a day before his first, and had not yet lost since – it had been precision and planning and the perfection of capturing the kingslayer before he could get through and add another to his list.

ROBB’S hand rests upon torrhen’s shoulder and he squeezes.  he sees the faces of their fallen, and his father who sansa had to witness in his place; he sees the purple bags beneath his tully blues in his own reflection and reminds himself why they must go on.  “i know,” he says, “and one day, it will be only memory – when the fighting is done and we’ve gone home – but not this day.  you live, and though i know i already ask much of you, i must ask you to keep living still.”

seeing the sword part the flesh and go into daryn’s skull replayed again and again in his mind, daryn, who should have been his good-brother at this time next year. if it wasn’t daryn’s demise it was eddard’s, the sight of the lion’s sword burying itself into edd’s neck. he could still see the look of shock on his brother’s face, and fear… gods forbid… fear in edd’s eyes as he gasped for breath that would never reach his lungs for the sword that was in his throat, blood welling around it. he’d near lost his own hand that day as well, saved only by the maester that worked for riverrun..

tor takes a deep breath and dark grey eyes flick to meet blue and he finds his throat is tight once more as he looks at his king. vulnerable, he felt more vulnerable than he ever wished to feel again. robb’s words wring true, however, and he knows that he would be doing edd and daryn a disservice to not keep living and hold their memory alive with himself. “you can ask anything of me, my king, and i will gladly give it.” and he would, until his last breath. “for you, i will keep living, even when i wish not to.”