“SOMETIMES i do as well, in truth,” bannen admitted with a light shrug, “but i may have mentioned when we first met that i had not traveled beyond my home in the north. though, in truth, very few of the northerners have ever journeyed into the deep south, and the same could be said for most southroners and the deep north… we don’t adapt quite well.” it was no lie, there was a reason that the direwolves never made themselves apparent in the south. “my dear sister and i were talking about this when we first docked, we both agreed that we would likely just spend our free time in the ocean, though apparently there are many pools around sunspear so i hope to visit those. or rather, intend to visit them if i have the time.”
BANNEN made a sound of understanding, his lessons clicking into place; “ah yes, the warrior-queen nymeria was of the rhoyne. it would have been foolish to settle into a place she was not comfortable with… my liege-lord, lord branden stark of winterfell, his steed is named nymeria. i believe his daughters are quite enamoured with the story of her. in fact, it is said that the stark ancestor, arya the faceless, had a direwolf familiar who was also named after nymeria of the rhoyne.”
“I believe you did mention that,” Velia said softly. “I can’t remember if it was you or a Stark, but someone told me that the only reason why northerners and southerners don’t marry each other is simply because of geographical differences,” she stopped to clear her throat before continuing. “The southerners would turn into icicles in the north and the northerners would melt like a candle.” She handed him the cold rag, feeling the sun slowly warm up the rag and she wanted to help Bannen get some sort of cold water on him to lessen the chance of heatstroke. “I’m certain that you would get plenty of time to visit the pools. If it doesn’t seem like you do, you can always make the time.”
Velia had to resist the roll of her eyes. Anytime she brought up the Rhoynar cities or vaguely of its history, there was always the mention of Nymeria and conquest to Dorne. “Excuse my words, Lord Bannen but I beg that you don’t give me a history lesson on Nymeria and her ten thousand ships, or anything named after her. Trust me, I’ve heard them all and I think if I hear another, I just might go back to Chroyane and drown myself in the Rhyonar River.” A sigh fell past her lips. “My apologies, but I’ve heard so much of Nymeria throughout my whole life, I could honestly forget my own name.”