They took a ship to Silversheet. Jon was not as good at ships as Kailasa was. She kept having to feed him ginger and honey. He had terrible sea sickness. She would bring him above deck and make him look over the horizon to see something steady and did not rock.

Her favorite captain and his family were going with her to run her navy. It elevated his position and gave her a trusted friend to rely on in his family. And Kai loved their family so much. Him and Emma, and the many children they would have. The children they have. If she died without having a child, she would leave Silversheet to them. She knew they could care for the people there.

"Were you this bad on your way to Goldenbirth?" Kai asked, rubbing his back as he focused on the horizon. "Now I feel even more loved."

"I'm not one for the ocean." He said. "Unlike you. You seem fine."

"I grew up on ships." She told him. "I'll make sure to keep you off them from now on. We only have one more day."

"Thank the gods." He said. "I think I'll stick to land, Kai."

She smiled. "That's fine. We have much to take care of on land anyway. If the need arises I can handle the sea parts.

"I will definitely hold you to that."

"Is it helping?"

"No." He said.

"Then keep staring." She said. "We can do this all day. And night. It's not like you sleep on this ship anyway." She kissed his shoulder. "You'll be okay."

"Were you ever sea sick?"

"No, but my brother was." She told him, a soft smile on her lips. "He isn't so much anymore. I think he got used to it. I won't make you have the same cure, however." She laughed quietly. She had fallen for a man who cannot handle the sea. But as long as he could handle her, that was what she needed in this world. She needed someone to be able to handle the land. She could always be able to have the sea.

But while he would return to dry land, and never wish to step on a boat again, Kai always had better sea legs than land legs.

XXXXX

Kai couldn't sleep, though Jon slept in their cabin quite soundly. She would not wake him. He hadn't slept the rest of their trip and he needed his rest. She slipped away, going onto the deck and seeing that they were approaching land. Approaching their new home, Silversheet. She could not wait to show it to him. To show them the beach that their children hopefully would grow up playing on. Learning to sail, and fight, and all the skills that came with it. Show him the solar that they would learn to read and write and do their arithmetic in. But that could all wait until later. They had the rest of their lives to explore their home. The rest of their lives to care for it and the town.

Kailasa climbed onto her usual perch at the bow of the ship, a rope tied from her waist to the foremast as always to keep her safe from falling overboard. She could tell the wind was with them, but that and the clouds on the horizon, it also meant a storm was coming in. Not a bad one, but a storm nonetheless. She hoped they would make it to the dock before the rain started to pour, but she was sure they would. They would make it to land by noon, and then her poor husband would have the rest of the day to rest while she would begin taking over their duties. She had it all planned in her head.

She stayed up on her perch the entire morning, one of the men bringing her something to drink after an hour of seeing her peacefully still up there, riding the waves as if riding a horse. She did not see her husband until they were docked, and she took him by the arm and kissed his cheek.

"Hello, Husband. Welcome to our new home."

And it was theirs. It looked much like Goldenbirth, but smaller. The same white stone built the walls and the same red roofing kept the sun and rain out of the building. There was walls surrounding the town, with a good bit of space between the wall and the nearest building. The wall went all the way to the sea.

"In case of siege, we must be prepared." She explained. "The space between is for farming or the animals to graze on. Goats eat anything, you know." She told him. "Grain is farmed outside the walls since that will be for the winter, and we are not under attack at the moment. I sure hope we will never be."

"As do I." Jon said as he looked at the town. It was cooler here than it was in Goldenbirth. The sea air had a chill he hadn't felt since the last time he was on this ship. He liked it, even if it wasn't quite the chill of his home. "This is ours?" He couldn't quite believe that either. Of all his time wishing he could have been a lord and now it was a reality. He was her lord, and she was his lady. This was their home now, as she said before.

She nodded, looking at her husband. "Yes, it is. For the rest of our days, Jon. This is ours."

He looked at her a moment before leaning down and kissing her. "There's no place I would rather be." And there wasn't. This was the only place in the world where they could be together. This would be their safe place, their home. No one could touch them there. They were home.

XXXXX

Kai sent Jon to rest the moment they got back and she sent servants to go draw him a bath as well. She just wanted him to relax. When she got off journeys she was always exhausted. She had a few days to rest at Goldenbirth, Jon however, did not. They were married and then shipped off quite quickly. He needed some rest. And she needed to get reacquainted to the place she hadn't been since her mother was alive.

She met with Maester Raign, and he took her around and showed her what had been done. He told her of the wealth that had been brought to her town through trade. He showed her what was now hers. They went over the accounts, and as rain began to fall outside she sighed.

"I think this is enough for today." She said. "In the morning would you send a raven to Goldenbirth and tell them we have arrived safely? And then I would like to get a tailor here for a few new sets of clothing for both Lord Merrin and I."

"Of course, Lady Merrin." He said. "Should I expect you in the morn?"

"Sadly for you, I say so." She smiled at him kindly. "Thank you for taking such good care of this place."

"And thank you for giving this place a lord and lady." He said. "Goodnight, Lady Merrin."

"Goodnight Maester Rhyn."

She left him, going in search of her husband to show him around properly. She found him in their rooms. A large canopy bed with their colors draped around it. The windows were closed from the rain, but it was still cool in the room. Jon was getting dressed when she came in.

"Can I show you around?" She asked.

"Is that what you've been doing all this time?"

"Sadly, no. I met with the Maester. He has taken good care of this place while we have been gone. We will find it quite easy to slip into our roles."

He nodded. "That's good. I wasn't raised to become a lord, you know."

"Good thing I was." She smiled. "We will figure out how to do this as we will figure out everything else." She said, walking towards him and taking his hand. "Together."

XXXXXX

Kailasa had a bath drawn for her after sup. Jon sat with her, watching her from the bed as she slowly cleaned her body and hair with a lump of soap and rising herself with the scented water. They talked about the household.

"We should make sure rooms are ready for guests." She told him. "There is a rumor of the King going North, and we are on the way so they may stay here for a night. We will get at most a fortnight's notice if their maester sends a raven when they leave. At least we will get a few days notice since they will probably stop at Goldenbirth first and no matter how upset my brother is with me, he would not like our family to look bad in front of the King."

"How long would they stay for?" He asked.

"A night at most." Kai told him. "We only have to be hosts for a night. Then they will be on their way at dawn."

"Does it happen a lot?"

"Not for the king. Passing banner men and other lords or their sons happen every so often."

"Is that how there started being so many rumors about you?"

"The girl who sailed across the Narrow Sea to save her mother?" She shrugged, relaxing back into the warmth of the water. Her skin was shining in the candlelight. "I would guess. Other than that I only saw other Westerosi lords at tourneys and festivals."

"When did it start?" He asked. "Because there seemed to be many stories when you came to Winterfell."

"That was also after I had been traveling for a year." She said. "Before that mostly it came from this one lord that stayed at Goldenbirth when I was thirteen. There was a hurricane, so he had to stay for a few days. He was so confused why we let the orphanage stay in the Keep. He wondered why I was reading to them and caring for them. He asked my father to marry me. I rejected him. That's when the rumors started." She laughed. "They're never going to end. Now there will be rumors about us."

"You don't seem very put off by that."

"It's not like we can help it." She said. "Might as well enjoy that people want to be in our business. It takes a thick skin, but when you get it, it sure can be fun."

"Is that why you enjoyed Winterfell?"

"Well, for me at first it was a game. Get you all to like me enough that you wouldn't take it out on my family if I wanted to leave. And at the beginning I did plan to leave."

"When did you decide you wanted to stay."

"Honestly, it was when I was in the yard with Rickon and you and Robb were arguing above us. You didn't know I could hear you, did you?" She said as she looked at his face. "Neither of you are very quiet. And it was also the moment I knew that you could see through me. That had never happened anywhere else."

"And so you decided to stay."

"Yes. Otherwise instead of telling my father I wanted to be courted, I would have asked to be sent to the next place. And then the next place after that until he had given up or I had."

"Will I ever know everything about you?" He asked.

She looked at him. "Of course you will. I will know everything about you, and you will know everything about me. You already know me better than my family, I daresay."

"I would have to say the same." He said. "When will you come to bed?"

"Soon." She said. "But I want you to know something now."

"And what is that?"

"I am going to teach you how to swim." She said. "It's a good thing to know on the coast."

"I have honestly been waiting for you to say that." He said.

She stood from the tub, and Jon handed her a towel for her to dry off. She wrapped it around herself and stepped out of the tub, and towards her husband. "You haven't said what you think of it here."

"It's different." He said. "I don't really know what to make of it. I've never been anywhere but Winterfell."

"And this is nothing like there." She said. "It's foreign."

"Very." He said. "I'll get used to it."

She nodded. "Don't push yourself. I know it takes time." She kissed him.

He pulled on her waist, bringing her to sit on his lap, deepening the kiss. Her arms moved around his neck, and the towel dropped to around her waist. His other arm moved around her back, feeling her damp skin under his fingertips. Her wet hair brushing his hand. His other hand was on her thigh, pulling her closer away, though he pulled away from the kiss.

"I don't know if I will ever get used to this." He told her.

"I don't know if I will ever get used to this." Kai told him. "And I'm not going to try. As long as you're here I'm happy."

"I would not be able to be here if you weren't." He told her. "You are my home now, not this place."

"I must say the same." She smiled, leaning her forehead against his. "If my brother was not gracious with giving us our living, we would have run away together. I would not regret it. Not at all."

"Would we have gone to Dorne?"

"Probably." She said. "Then sent word to our families. Your father probably would have sent for us. Told us to come North."

"Would you have?"

"Only if we only stayed at Winterfell for a short time." She sighed, resting her forehead against his. "I do feel sorry for Robb. I would not want to rub our happiness in his face. It would have been cruel."

"You always know how to answer."

"I never lie, or well, I won't ever lie to you."

"I know, that only makes it better."

She pulled away from him, her fingers touching his lip where it was split a week before. It was healed, his lip no longer swollen. The only bruises on him were the ones she caused with her kisses.

"Kiss me again, we have better things to do than feel guilty about things we would never change. We get to live in peace now. Just you and me. " She told him.

"Just you and me." He repeated.

They kissed again, and Jon twisted them around and laid her down on the bed before hovering above her. "I love you my lady."

"I love you, my lord."

One Year Later

It was a peaceful morning. The sun was just shining through the window, warm in the cool morning. Silversheet's Lord and Lady had stayed up over half the night calculating what they needed in their stores to get through the winter, and telling the Maester what to do when they would go to Goldenbirth to meet their new niece in a month, what to get ready for the elder of her brother's children to come stay with them when they return. The Lord and Lady asked not to be awoken early in the morning, otherwise they knew they would be useless.

Kailasa had already awoken though, with her husband's arm around her with his hand resting on her breast, and his breath on the back of her neck. She was used to waking early, and it was hard for her to get out of the habit, though her husband has taken to the extra sleep well. She wouldn't dare move for fear of waking him. So she laid there, listening to her husband breathe and the birds chirp outside their window. She felt at peace there, her heartbeat was steady as were her breaths. She could have laid there forever. She wanted to lay there forever, but that was never in the cards for her.

The maester knocked on the door, and Kai got up and put on a robe before getting the door, all the while, not waking her husband, who seemed completely consumed by his dreams.

She returned with pieces of paper in her hands and tears in her eyes and went to the balcony, leaving the doors open behind her. The doors are what woke Jon in the end. The creaking of the doors.

"Kai? Why are you up? We are supposed to be sleeping." He said, rolling to his other side to look at her back. Her hair was in a messy braid from sleeping, and her arms were folded in front of her. He knew it wasn't good what was going through her head. "Did you have a nightmare?" He got out of bed and approached her. "Kai, what's wrong?"

She turned to him, tears down her face. "Your father has been taken prisoner and announced traitor. Your brother has taken up arms in the North and began marching South. Peace is over, Jon. War has just begun."