The history of the Riverlands had long been defined by feuds, but the Targaryens had changed that with the Conquest. After the war, House Blackwood, once a kingly house, had been weakened by their long-standing rivalry with the Brackens. Queen Visenya, in her efforts to stabilize the realm and unify the Riverlands, had arranged this double wedding to bind the future lines of the two houses together. With the new Lord Paramount of the Trident, Edmyn Tully, watching over them, the event would take place in the neutral grounds of Riverrun’s sept, away from the anger and pride of both houses.

Elinda stood tall beside her brother, Tytos, at the front of the sept. Her heart beat faster, both from the solemnity of the occasion and the strange knot of apprehension in her stomach. The cold stone walls seemed to press in on her, but she stood firm, her eyes occasionally flickering toward the Bracken heir. She could feel the cloth now being tied around her hands, binding them to his, a combined sigil of both houses embroidered into the fabric.

Across from her, the Bracken boy stood, his face calm and composed, an expression far gentler than she had expected. He wasn’t the brutish, arrogant man she had imagined, the one her family had described in their endless stories. No, this boy, this man looked at her with respect. Consideration.

Behind them, the septon’s voice echoed through the room, speaking of duty, of bloodlines, alliances forged in necessity and of course the gods, controversially including the old gods to respect the Blackwood belief.

"By the power vested in me," the septon said, "I now bind these houses, these men and women, to one another."

Elinda swallowed hard, waiting for him to wrap his cloak around her. Seeing her brother in the corner of her eye do it to his Bracken bride.