A Twist to the Game

As Helena stared at her hands in silent contemplation, there was some movement in her surroundings, a figure shook and found the man who had tackled her to the ground and his breath hitched, while the other ha began to roused from their unconscious states or tot their feet clutching their wounds, though one continued to lay against the ground not a sound escaping him…

Voices picked up in the surroundings as Helena was lost in her contemplation, once again losing focus of her surroundings, a terrible habit she would need to break herself of…

A heavy sigh pulled Helena from her thoughts, "Haa, he's still breathing…"

As Helena turned, she found herself shoved to the side, a face pressed up against her own morphed into a scowl, "What the fuck, Theo?! You nearly killed him!"

She was shoved further back as the man began to lose himself in his anger, though before things could escalate, Jeoffry hopped over and pulled the man back, his voice sharp, "Leave it be… Harold was the one who tackled her to the ground before he could even find his footing… He's nearly double the size of Theo, and was wearing armor, he's got no room to complain when he's back to his feet."

The man's scowl only deepened as he spat to the side, and pull away from Jeoffry's large hand, which lifted off his shoulder as Jeoffry turned to Theo, "You need to calm down… I don't know what crawled up your ass and died, but you need to figure it the fuck out before you end up killing someone in a brawl."

Helena didn't give any words in reply, only a noncommittal nod before moving to gather her things with a few heavy gulps of a wineskin to end her night. Which would prove to push her well beyond her tolerance…

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Helena sat up with a pained groan, as a pounding pain washed through her conscious mind, her hand went to her forehead to soothe the ale—ache only to realize that she had slept among the horses in the stables, her gaze fell to find that she had lost her tunic through her drunken escapades leaving only the tightly wound cloth that bound the majority of her torso, pinned into place with a network of hooked needles she had forged from the arrowheads she had scavenged from her parent's village… Helena could only let out a pitiful whine as a brilliantly bright beam of sunlight momentarily blinded her as the thick layer of clouds overhead parted for a brief instant, her whole body was sore, and her arms laden with deep foul looking bruises. Her face felt swollen beyond belief, and the lightest touch was followed by a stinging pain…

For a while she just laid there, uncaring that her tunic was missing, and that the tightly compressed mounds upon her chest were evident enough despite their bindings… The night before had brought Helena to her breaking point, and Helena decided that she just didn't care anymore. If they wished to pull her into a game she didn't wish to play, a game she couldn't refuse…

She'd bend, beat, and break the game until she was satisfied…

As Helena found her way to her room, with two heavy buckets of water, she filled the trough that laid in the corner, uncaring of the chill of the water she sank into its embrace and slowly began to scrub the filth from her body and hair, before moving through the room and pulling out a linen roll that held everything she'd need to show this camp who she truly was… There was no more hiding behind the masculine veil she had built for herself.

With a polished sheet of bronze to work as her mirror, Helena meticulously plucked her eyebrows shaping them into a faint arch that she found suited the frame of her face, before moving onto a small and thin brush dipped into a mix of powdered charcoal, and a tin layer of oil that was used to line her eyes and produced a faint shadow… By the time she had finished, her hair had mostly dried which brought her to use her comb to tame her wavy hair into a loose bun that rested atop the lower half of her hair… Luckily the swelling in her face seemed to deflate rather quickly thanks to the cold water… Though the bruises laid upon her arms, chest, and sides remained…

Eventually Helena settled upon the most simple of dresses she had… A bland linen thing that hung loosely atop her frame, only to be tightened around her thin waist with a rather long thumb wide strip of leather tied into a pleasant bow to further outline the figure she normally kept hidden… Let's learn how that maester, Lord Tully, and whomever else works around this…

With a straightened back and a delicate balance between sultry and elegant; courtesy of her Mother's recalled painstaking efforts to woo Helena's Father, Helena stepped out of her room with her hands clasped at her front. Slowly, with a presence not expected of a lowborn bastard, and a beauty sought by the alleged King of the Rebels; and perhaps the Seven Kingdoms, Helena moved through the camp ignoring the heated, confused, hungry gazes that followed her all the way to the forge… Where her Grandfather stilled upon her arrival, though she paid him little mind as she wetted her hair and began to work…

The similarities between her process, and Theo's brought her Grandfather to a quick realization that the woman before him was the very same fledgling blacksmith that he had been working beside from the last few moons. He was lost at the revelation, unsure how to voice his thoughts nor what to think at the revelation that sat before him… A woman was more skilled and meticulous than nearly every blacksmith that had been put to work in the Rear Encampment… Then his thoughts wandered the numerous drunken brawls she had been a part of, the number of men who had crumpled under her fist…

He wondered how the pride and egos of those she met would react to the very same revelation that left him dumbfounded, but his greatest curiosity was whether Lord Tully had known this whole time…

All throughout the camp, rumors of a fine maiden spread through the camp… Whispers of her plump lips curled into a sultry smile, of almond shaped eyes shaded a steel blue winking at those who caught her eye, of hips wide enough to bear children, and a rear plump enough to ripple with every step…

Most were exaggerated, some even going as far to claim to know the woman only to stutter their way when the pressure laid upon them testing their claims. The camp had been lit aflame within a few hours of Helena's arrival, and none were more shocked than Theobald… Who had never expected Helena to reveal herself.

"You pushed her too far, and now she'll seek any manner to retaliate!" Lord Tully sternly scolded as he stared out the window of his temporary estate, overlooking the camp, "You've said yourself that her mind was riddled with illness, and yet you've continued to poke and prod at the very same woman we've been ordered to watch over. What would you have me do, now that the disguise she had built for herself—THE VERY SAME DISGUISE THAT WE STRENGTHENED—" Lord Tully snapped around with his anger visible in his gaze, he hadn't wished to be part of this scheme in the first place, but who was he to deny his 'King', "—Has been TORN OFF BY HER OWN HANDS! What of all the men down there that had their pride trampled upon, only to find that it HAD BEEN DONE BY A WOMAN!"

Theobald held Lord Tully's gaze, a deep set frown rested upon his face, "I didn't expect—"

"Of course you didn't! You speak of this young woman, who had watched her village burn down around her, and only the God's know what else, as if she was an ignorant child! You've said it yourself that she is learned, most probably by a member of the order such as yourself…" Lord Tully took a deep breath, stopping himself from yelling once more, "We speak of a woman, who is a capable blacksmith, who is capable of brawling with the soldiers, who has mended gods know how many weapons and armor… Who forged the nails of the buildings we had rebuilt…"

Lord Tully once again took a deep breath to calm himself, "Those soldiers who have been lied to… Won't see me the same, they will come to doubt my words henceforth… Every order I give will be met with HESITATION!" His fist slammed into the table, his jaw tense as he barely found a semblance of calm once more, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Oh, great wise maester what will you do now…?"

Theobald's frown deepened, yet he had no words…

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Billy held his head as he gawked at Helena, who sat across from him with her left leg laid over her right slowly sipping from a wineskin, "You mean to say, that you've been a woman this whole time…? I—I pissed in front of you… Oh gods…" His head fell deeper into his hands, as he began to recall all the stories he had shared in her presence, an incredible heat rose to his face as he recalled Theo—Helena dragging him to his bed when had gotten far too drunk… The number of times she had saved his ass in a brawl…

As for Helena, she kept a faint smile upon her lips, as she could practically feel the incredible number of gazes locked onto her frame, many in disbelief, some in wounded anger, others with less than goodwill hidden amongst their gazes. Yet, they all shrunk away when her eyes wandered… It seems they haven't forgotten that fear they held a day prior…

Her smile grew a sense of truth, as Helena was truly content with herself in this moment, she had shaken the board upon which the game was played, and while the impact was minimal… It was only the beginning. None here could deny her abilities, and they've been forced to accept that… The story would spread, embellished and exaggerated with every whisper, until it could no longer be recognized, but with those whispers her name would find every corner of the Seven Kingdoms… Her influence would swell, and while that swell may be miniscule in the grand scheme of things, it would grow… Helena would see to it that it would.

Helena's smile was beautiful, warm, and her soft rose tinted lips only continued to curl upwards as her thoughts deepened…

Truly, Helena was the child of two Greater Beings… and for a moment it showed as her beauty seemed flawless for the time she was lost in thought… Having once again lost focus of her surroundings, a truly terrible habit…

She was only pulled from her thoughts, as an arm draped around her shoulder, "Hey, Theo… How about—"

"No," Her smile faded into contempt, as she curtly denied his advance before it fully left his lips, shaking his arm off his shoulder she lightly waved her hand in a manner akin to wafting smoke, and the man's expression devolved into a frown only to deepen as Jeoffry broke out into laughter…

It seemed Jeoffry was able to take the revelation with stride, and despite the awkwardness knew she was still his Drinking Buddy.

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The next day was met with much the same disbelief, as if they had deluded themselves into believing that they had been mistaken or that it had all been a dream, but they were all forced to realize reality as Helena showed up for weekly training in a tunic that rested firmly against her breasts, tucked into a pair of fitting leather breeches slipped into a pair of leather boots. An oddly feminine outfit that had once blatantly been one of masculine design, and of the scabs littering Helena's fingers were anything to go by… She had spent quite some time tailoring them from the clothes she had on hand… Those perceptive enough realized that it was an outfit that Theo wore quite often…

No longer were her breasts bound, nor were her thighs and rear allowing the full form of her figure to be revealed. By no means was her figure incredibly voluptuous, or filled with weighty curves that left one wondering if her back could hold such weight. Instead there was a lithe roundness to her figure, one that didn't seem overt but was blatant enough to define her figure through her clothes. A gentle curve to her rear that seemed far too contained in her breeches, an article of clothing that every man wore but hadn't envisioned on a woman.

It was a shattering of their world view, one that took those with a lesser strength of will and restraint effort to pry their gaze away from. Even as she moved to grab a spear, and join the line a number of gazes followed, the most complicated of which was that of the instructor… He didn't know how to proceed for a moment, before reminding himself that the woman before him was the same one who joined such training before just… disguised as a man… Why Lord Tully had approved of such a thing was beyond his comprehension, but eventually training continued with minimal difficulty.

Yet, as he watched, he found that Theo—Helena's movement looked far more free, fluid than he had seen before… The curves of her body briefly became more pronounced in his mind, before he shook the thought from his mind. It seemed she had been restricting herself, how much had she struggled to keep her feminine self hidden…? Though, it took a while for him to embolden himself enough to return to teaching her properly without being overly conscious of the distance between their bodies, of the scent that occasionally wafted through the air, a truly pleasant blend of different hints of floral natural musk brought upon by the extended exertion of her body. One that wasn't new, but one he only just became overly conscious of…

It would have been easier to deny her than deal with all the looks receiving. It didn't help that Theo—Helena had a casualness about the situation that he could commend…

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Though, could he even deny her after training her all this time, though her participation was lesser compared to the soldiers, he still taught her for a considerable time when he believed she was a male… Did it truly make a difference at this point, let alone the fact that Lord Tully was obviously sheltering her, perhaps the rumors about Helena being his bastard were true…

As Helena wiped away the sweat from her brow with a damp soot stained rag, before taking a ladle of water from a nearby barrel and soaking her hair whilst pumping the bellows on the forge bringing it to a roaring flame as she prepared to temper a blade she had finished shaping the day before. As the heat began to build, fueled by the heap of charcoal and influx of air, Helena took the time to lead a length of clay that would be used to fill the fuller that ran down the flats of the blade to help balance the rigidity of the sword. Laying the blade upon the edge of the forge, intent on allowing it acclimate to the building heat, Helena focus was pulled away as the clashing of metal against stone sounded out behind her…

Turning with a curious look in her eye, Helena found her Grandfather clutching his chest whilst knelt on the floor, his breaths were a heaving mess as a paleness saturated his face… The familiar fear of death clouding his eyes, the still red hot length of metal sizzling atop the damp stone. Helena quickly forgot about her blade, and moved to his side pouring cool water over his head in hopes that it would calm his mind and ease his pain…

Though it did little as he toppled forward, and his body began to seize— She let out a shout as the other blacksmiths ran to gather help…

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Helena laid in her bed, staring up at the ceiling pondering upon the weight of emotion in her chest… Having watched her Grandfather collapse, life faded from his eyes, and his heart ceased in his chest, feeling a dull emptiness fill her being…

The last of her family had passed on, to join in the Stranger's embrace, leaving Helena truly alone in this world. With naught a connection to bind her to its people, which only further cemented the rough plans she had drafted in her mind. Whether they would ever come to fruition, Helena did not know, but Helena didn't wish to ponder on them at this moment. No, she simply wished to pray for her Grandfather's safe passage into the Stranger's embrace.

It was another sleepless night, as she stared at the ceiling above. Her mind rampaging with a flurry of thoughts once more, some were entertained, others wholly forgotten about, but they did not slow as they continued to bounce around her mind. Her focus dived deeper and deeper into the depths of her thoughts, eventually finding thoughts that had long come to a halt. Thoughts not of her own mind, but that of her parents. Thoughts frozen in time, clouding the depths of her mind. Helena's focus reached out, in a manner akin to grasping at a leaf floating in the air, and she was pulled into a memory…

The scent of burning wool blended with the scent of melting wax, as in the dim candle light hidden away in what seemed to be a storehouse, two figures tussled in the darkness seemingly atop a number of bags of flour—

A moan sounded out and Helena immediately pulled away from the memory, forcibly halting the recall with a strength she didn't even know she had… Not that she knew she could pull herself from a recall in such a manner, and while it left her with a mild headache, it was minimal when compared to the mental scars that would be left by watching her parents attempt to conceive her the 'old—fashioned way'…

Helena much preferred being born through Twinned Apotheosis… At least it wouldn't leave scars upon her mind if she watched such a thing… With a shake of her head, Helena rose from her bed, intent on resizing a few more outfits before sleep took her, or the sun began to rise.

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(A/NStats -

Main Level: 21

Strength: 8 [|||||||||||||-——-——] -

• Basic Knowledge [Leverage]

Agility: 6 [|||||||||||||—-—-——] -

• Basic Knowledge [Breathing]

Vitality: 7 [|||||||||||||||||||||-—-—] -

• Minor Uncommon Illness Resistance

Combat -

Defense: 3 [||||||||||||||||||||-—---] +

Warfare: 0 [|||||||——-—-——] +

Axe: 3 [||||||||||||||||||||||||—] +

Bow: 0 [———————] +

Hammer/Mace: 0 [||||||—————-] +

Spear: 4 [|||||||||||||||-—-—-] +

Sword: 3 [|||||||||||————] +

Unarmed: 7 [|||————-——] -

• Basic Knowledge [Stance]

Skills -

Alchemy: 0 [———————] +

Blacksmithing: 7 [||||||||||||||||||||||||--] -

• Basic Knowledge [Iron]

Bowery: 0 [———————] +

Carpentry: 6 [|||--—-——-——] +

• Basic Knowledge [Rough Building]

Drinking: 5 [||||————-——] +

• Tempered Gut

Herbalism: 3 [|||||||||||————-] +

Horsemanship: 0 [———————] +

Houndmaster: 0 [———————] +

Hunting: 0 [———————] +

Lockpicking: 0 [———————] +

Maintenance: 10 [||||——-———] -

• Basic Knowledge [Tools]

• Basic Knowledge [Weapons]

Pickpocketing: 0 [———————] +

Reading: 2 [|||||——————] +

Tailoring: 8 [———————-] -

• Basic Knowledge [Linen]

Stealth: 3 [||||——————] +

Total Level: 62

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(A/N: [~3.1k Words] A lot of lines break this chapter, and it bounced around a lot… but this marks the beginning of where the plot I had planned out starts to truly take shape.

Hope you've enjoyed, until next time,

White_Dog

)