BERIC-BALDRIC

Baldric Dondarrion

The sun was shining faintly behind the clouds, and without its warm light the training yard in Blackhaven wast mostly empty. Best moment to train, thought Baldric with a smile as he lifted his sword to parry Tristifer's strike. Both blades rang with a loud metallic noise as they collided, and Baldric made a step backwards as he swung towards his opponent, using the wider range of his weapon to his advantadge and managing to disarm him after a short sequence of attacks. As Tristifer Cole went to pick his weapon up, Baldric saw his son looking at him with a gloomy face.

"We'll continue later, Tris".

The master at arms nodded and went to pick his sword from the ground as Baldric walked towards his son.

"What are you doing here, Beric? Shouldn't you be with Stannis?"

"The Maester said he was busy", answered his son with a distraught tone, "and mommy was tired. She is tired a lot of time now."

Worried by Beric's tone, Baldric sat next to him. His son's eyes, usually shining with life, were looking back at him with a worried expression.

"What's troubling you, Beric?"

"I-it's nothing, father."

"You've never been good at lying, Beric", said Baldric with a chuckle, "nor at hiding your expressions. What is worrying you?"

"M-mommy", he managed to say after a while, "I don't want to loose mommy again."

Baldric fell silent as his mind went back to that dreadful day, six years ago. The day in which his first wife and her newborn both died. Lysa... Trying to hide his concerns from his son, he smiled at him as he placed a hand on his back.

"Don't worry, Beric. Nothing will happen to Lyth."

"Septon Mycah says nothing bad will happen to her as long as you pray for her", answered his son, "have you prayed for her?"

Septon Mycah can go fuck himself with a bloody spear, thought Baldric as he tried to think of something to say. As much as he did not care about the Seven, Beric was too young to be bothered by his opinions.

"Whether we pray or not, the gods don't care", he started explaining after a while, "it's what we do that they take into consideration."

Beric thought about his father's words for a while, but he did not seem convinced and kept asking questions, his eyes begging for an answer.

"Does that mean my first mommy did something bad and got punished?"

For fuck's sake, Beric, stop asking these kind of questions. Being at a loss for words, Baldric found himself relieved when he heard a voice behind him.

"The only thing your mother did wrong was being attended by an incompetent maester", answered Stannis as he walked behind them. "But don't worry, I can take care of Lythene's child."

A chuckle came out of Baldric's smile as his son turned to look at his tutor. As blunt as ever, Stannis.

"I thought you were busy, maester."

"I was, my Lord", he answered, "but now that the ravens have already eaten I am not, so I came to find Beric."

"You say you're goot at taking care of people", said Beric, his eyes set on Stannis' links, "take care of Lyth, please."

"I don't have a healing link", answered Stannis, totally insensible to Beric's look of horror, "but I am competent enough to assist a woman during childbirth. She should be fine."

Before neither Beric nor Baldric could respond, a woman came running towards them. "Maester! Maester! It has started!"

"What has started?"

"Lythene! She's giving birth!"

Stannis nodded, and without a word to neither Beric nor Baldric he ran back to Blackhaven. Just before loosing sight of the maester, Beric made one final plea to him, one that despite not voicing Baldric made as well.

"Keep Lyth safe, please."

/r/qohorpowers Thread