There's a price to every decision we make. There are consequences to our actions. And there is a trail our thoughts lead us down that ultimately shows us our fates like the crone leads the little children of the world. Men and women, young and old, common and peasant, all are alike in that they have a fate within their thoughts.

House Tiran was a house in the far north, one hundred miles northwest of Winterfell. They were known for their brutality and battle prowess, in fact, their words were "we show no mercy." Their sigil was a black bull on a dark grey background. The house was founded nine hundred years ago by Tiran the Brutal, who served House Stark well in battle. They were not a house to be mocked, despite their low population and lack of immense wealth.

Mica Tiran and his daughter, Alica, were on their way to Casterly Rock. Tywin had called upon Lord Mica to Casterly Rock, for what reason was still to be determined, probably for a offer of thanks for their efforts protecting the Lannister gold interests in the north. But Alica, smart for her age of twelve, knew that her father wasn't going to bring her along unless if she were to be used for something. She wondered if she would become Tywin's ward, as a benevolent thank you from House Lannister.

Alica rode in a carriage by herself. She often got lonely during their month long journey, but she was easily able to distract herself with the books she brought with her. She was an avid student of history and in her free time could be seen with her nose in a book. She did not like girly things like poetry and sewing too well, but she tolerated them without much complaint. While her father tried to push her into what was feminine, she simply had her heart other places.

Alica was not a pretty girl, and no one expected her to ever be, even though she had features that held potential, no one ever thought she would be able to grow into them. She was mousy looking, had black, uncontrollably curly hair which matched her eyes, pale skin with no blush to her cheeks, and thick, wild eyebrows that she avoided getting tweezed to the best of her ability. She did not care for her lack of beauty, she cared more for what Visenya Targaryen did to contribute to her brother-husband's rule and more historical facts of the sort.

The carriage came to a stop. Alica was surprised at how unused she was to being stationary and not moving after the past month of traveling. After a minute, there was a knock at the carriage door, Alica saw the door open and her father's squire, Elsen, smile at her. Elsen wasn't much older than her, and he was the closest she had to a friend.

"My lady, we have arrived at Casterly Rock." Elsen said, offering his hand. Alica smiled, put down her book, and took his hand as he helped her out of the carriage. Alica stretched, feeling her bones pop in all the places she needed them to. She looked at Elsen and smiled a crooked, toothy smile. She was feeling relieved that she was finally at her destination, she had read and reread several books and needed something new to sink her teeth into.

"Thank you, Elsen." Alica said. Her voice was at the stage of transitional awkwardness, part of her transforming from a girl into a woman. She had gotten her first blood a fortnight into their journey, yet she still looked so much like a little girl. She paid no mind, she didn't feel different, she didn't even feel anxious about the idea of marriage, it seemed like such an abstract concept to her.

Mica Tiran walked up to his wild-looking daughter and smiled. He was a proud, tall man, only twenty nine years of age. He looked much like his wild daughter, thick eyebrows, black hair, pale skin. Mica loved his daughter, while he didn't exactly approve of her being so distant from what was feminine, he also found it endearing.

"Father?" Alica inquired "I only have child's dresses. Will I be getting a maiden's dress at Casterly Rock?" Mica was shocked to hear this from his daughter of all people. She never cared for clothes! He smiled and patted her curly mess of hair. He reached in his cloak and gave her a leather wrapped package.

"It's all the essentials that a maiden needs in order to be beautiful." Mica told his daughter.

"Thank you, father." Alica said as she opened the package. It revealed a dark grey dress with black floral embroidery. There was also a black corset in the bag, along with a pair of heeled shoes and a new book about the Baratheon-Targaryen wars. Alica smiled and gave her father a hug, almost dropping her new things on the ground.

"You're welcome." Mica paused to embrace his daughter. "We must get going, Lord Tywin is not a man who likes to be kept waiting." Lord Mica said with a grin much like his daughter's. Alica nodded and the two of them looked into the distance, where they saw Lannister guards approaching them on horseback. Alica was excited to meet Tywin Lannister, the one man more brutal than her father. There was a part of her that wanted to impress him, but she knew there wouldn't be much opportunity to do so, and that a man like Tywin wouldn't be easily impressed.

"Lord Mica, Lady Alica." One of the guards said when they finally approached. But after a good glance, Alica recognized that this guard was no guard, but Lord Tywin himself. Alica smiled and curtseyed, daringly looking Lord Tywin in his green eyes while doing so. "Welcome." Tywin said. Alica knew he didn't mean it, but was saying it out of duty. Alica enjoyed his words of welcome despite their insincerity.

"Lord Tywin, I thank you for calling upon me. It is an honor." Lord Mica told him.

"I will need to search your men. We, as you may have heard, have had some unrest, and precautions need to be taken." Lord Tywin said.

"Of course, Lord Tywin, I will see to it that my men are compliant." Lord Mica replied.

Lord Tywin glanced down at Alica with a curious eye. He saw the new dress in hand while she was wearing a child's dress. He then realized that this girl had flowered recently. He pitied whoever would be her husband, for she was not the prettiest of girls. He afterwards noticed the book she held.

"You're daughter is a student of history, I take it." Lord Tywin asked.

"Indeed." Lord Mica said. "If she were a man, she could be a maester." Lord Mica laughed.

"Interesting." Tywin looked Alica in the eye. "Don't girls like you prefer tales of knights rescuing maidens with flowers in their hair?"

"I prefer reading about things that have actually happened, my lord." Alica replied. Tywin let out a rare chuckle, the girl reminded him of Cersei.

He looked back at Lord Mica and while the two of them talked searching and business, a septa came to pick up Alica and escort her to her room.

After getting to the temporary bedchamber, Alica was dressed in her maiden's gown by the septa. Alica decided then that she hated it, especially the corset. Alica felt awkward. While she was a maiden, she still had a girl's body. A flat chest, and a straight-looking body, no one would have guessed otherwise that she was now technically a woman. The septa then applied powder and blush on her face, which felt almost as a bad as the corset.

Alica read her book, the septa sitting across from her, though Alica tried to ignore the woman who knocked the air out of her using corset laces.

She read intensely on about the beginning causes of the war that would end the Targaryen dynasty. She read for about an hour before there was a knock on her chamber door.

"Lady Alica, your father is here." An unfamiliar voice spoke. Alica stood up and smoothed out her gown and waited as the doors opened to reveal her father. Alica smiled and walked towards him, stumbling a little bit because her balance was not well adjusted to her new corset.

"Father, how was your meeting with Lord Tywin?" She asked.

"It went well. We have been given two hundred Lannister guards to help us protect the interest of Lannister gold up north." Mica told her. There was something he was avoiding though, Alica could tell.

"Father, what's wrong?" Alica asked.

"Sit down." Mica told Alica. Alica walked back to her chair and sat down, waiting for her father to come before her and kneel, taking her hand in his. "You're a maiden now. Lord Tywin has agreed to...terms I made with him." Mica paused. "We are the only family up in the far north that protects Lannister interests. We are a valuable piece to the Lannisters. Not only for gold, but for peace between the north and west as well. This is an expensive endeavour, and our house needs a binding agreement that the Lannisters will not turn on us if we can no longer protect their gold...What I'm saying is that I have given your hand to Lord Tywin." Alica's face darkened. "You will be married tomorrow." Mica said.

Alica stood up angrily and glared at her father.

"I'm to be married to a man I do not know? Only two weeks after my flowering?" Alica snarled. She stomped her foot like the child she was and ran out of her bedchamber crying.

Alica sat down after running the entire castle, she sobbed into her hands. She felt betrayed by her father. She knew what marriage involved, she knew what would happen afterwards. She was not only angry, but embarrassed, simply because she should have known. She had showed the signs of flowering soon before they left for Casterly Rock.

For the first time, she felt like the stupid girl everyone took her for.

Alica wore the dress she got the day before at her wedding. Her wildly curly hair was tamed and curled in tight ringlet curls. Her lips painted red and her cheeks blushed. Her eyebrows were plucked to a gentle, thinner arch, a painful experience for Alica. She didn't cry while she was getting ready, she had done her crying the day before, but her heart still felt heavy as the gold mined out of Casterly Rock.

"You look...erm...beautiful." Her handmaiden said. Alica sighed and looked in the mirror, seeing exactly what caused the hesitation in her handmaiden. It was the first time Alica felt bad about her appearance.

After she was ready, she was lead to the sept, she hung her head down all the way there, not seeing people look at her disapprovingly. She could hear their whispers though, about how she would never measure up to Joanna, and that whatever children her and Tywin would have would be hideous. Alica eventually looked up and saw the sept only a few feet in front of her. She stumbled back in shock. She didn't want to go, she wanted to run away. She took a deep breath, knowing that running was not an option. She was a Tiran, brutal and brave, not a coward. She stood up straight and walked right into the sept.

Lord Mica took her arm and lead her down the aisle, Alica didn't look at him, she couldn't bear to. She hated the father she once loved. She was blinded by her love to not see that her father would be brutal and use her for his own personal gains.

When they approached the end of the aisle, Mica let go of his daughter's arm. Alica paused a few seconds, looking wide eyed at Tywin, who was no more formal as her.

He also didn't look pleased to be doing this.

She eventually walked up to her place, looking up at the septon.

"You may now cloak the bride and bring her under your protection." The septon said. Tywin wrapped the cloak around Alica's shoulders. "My lord, my ladies, we stand here in the sight of gods and men to witness the union of man and wife, one flesh, one heart, one soul, now and forever!"

There was mediocre applause. Alica's stomach dropped. She knew what would come after the wedding. There was no feast planned, or festivities. She had a feeling in her gut that the bedding would commence immediately.

"I don't want to go." Alica caught herself whispering. She knew Tywin heard her, she saw his look of disapproval when she looked up. Alica started shaking, her head felt light, and everything sounded like it was in a tunnel.

Tywin roughly grabbed Alica's arm and lead her out of the sept. What Alica didn't realize was that earlier, men were trying to pick her up and take her to her wedding bed. She had simply come back down the moment Tywin grabbed her.

"There will be no bedding ceremony!" Tywin roared. as he dragged Alica along with him. Alica heard the groans of disappointment. Alica couldn't take anymore in her mind, and she passed out.

A few hours later, she was in her bed. The septa from the other day told her that Tywin refused to bed her, Tywin wasn't there, and that her father already left for the north. Alica's head hurt and she didn't reply to the septa, she simply went to sleep.