Chapter Text
Elia Martell & Oberyn Martell, anger
It was the unspoken rebuke in her eyes he minded the most. How could you? her eyes were saying. How could you, Oberyn? I expected better from you.
“You should have taken more care,” Elia said, with a great deal of asperity. “You should have minded the costs and the consequences, to yourself and to others.”
“I did not think it would –“
“You were not thinking at all, at least not with your head, that is the problem.”
This, her anger, he could bear so much better than her disappointment. When roused to anger, Elia was magnificent, like the hottest, deepest core of the sun on the warmest day of the year. Her disappointment, on the other hand, came with a heavy dose of melancholy, and there was already far too much melancholy in his sister’s life, thought Oberyn.
“Doran tells me that I must remain in Oldtown for a time, showing my sincere repentance as a humble novice of the Citadel, until the Yronwoods’ anger is spent and their pride is appeased.”
“Is that their price to forgo a rebellion, that you must don a maester’s chain and serve House Yronwood?” Elia asked.
“No, even the Yronwoods dare not go that far, sister. I need not swear the oath to serve, when I am done learning. Do not think of it as exile. It will be an adventure, a grand adventure.”
“You have had more than your fair share of adventures lately, I would have thought. How many more duels do you wish to fight, pray tell? Will you bed Lord Hightower’s paramour too, while you are busy repenting in Oldtown?”
Elia’s tongue could be as sharp as his own, even sharper than their mother’s at times, when she chose to deploy it in that manner, which happened very rarely. This was one of those rare occasions. Oberyn could not hide his smile. Elia frowned, seeing that smile. “This is no laughing matter,” she admonished him.
“I am smiling, not laughing.”
“You are incorrigible!”
“And yet … so very charming.”
Elia sighed. “What are we to do with you, Oberyn? Mother, Doran, myself … we have run out of remedies.” After a pause, she added, more softly this time, “What will I do without you?”