"You love me," Zakary says, simply.

"Nevertheless."

"Love does not preclude the urge to strangle someone," she says with some amusement, sounding like she has personal experience in the matter.

Zak opens his mouth,

but Alis covers it with his hand. "Must you?"

Then he pulls his hand back as if shocked, blushing terribly, and wipes it against his shirt.

And Zakary just grins. "Truly I did not actually think of a way to turn that into something that would embarrass you but apparently I did not need to."

Anavett snorts, then pats her husband again. Poor husband, look at him, so easily riled.

"I have to say, seeing you two together puts things quite into perspective. And is terribly entertaining."

"Oh? What things, if I may ask?"

"Mm... Why Alis has been handling his title with such grace? And why he's been so..." she waves vaguely, "open with me. I'd sort of expected to be... not quite resented, but something in that vein."

Zakary grins even more widely. "I am glad to have had a positive effect on him. Sometimes I wondered."

"If I didn't think you did I wouldn't like you," Alis grumbles.

"And I feel the same, my lord." Then he eyes Anavett again, a bit more assessingly. "And I think the two of you will likewise be very good for each other. Our relationship is... complicated by the fact that it must remain a secret. In yours, though, I believe he can find the joy in not having to hide. He is deliriously happy, you know."

She beams, pleased. "Well, good. I'm very glad. I think we'll be good together." Likely better than she would have been with Brandon, actually, though that's something she has trouble assessing right now.

(And, some pained echo from deep within her heart whispers, if he lives.)

Something in Zakary's expression shifts, in a way that Alisander seems to have a somewhat less-subdued reaction to. "Milady," he says, slowly. "You watched yesterday's spar between Lord Stark and Lord Umber, yes? You've seen his performance?"

Something in Ana's expression shifts, too. A bit more defensive, wary.

"... Yes. He's very good," she says, sincerely but carefully. "It - was very reassuring."

"He is, even in that inebriated state, better than all but twelve of the men I have seen fight on our side." And when he's not drunk only three of those twelve are still better than him and even then it's a tough competition.

Alis blinks a few times as it dawns what, exactly, it was that Zakary picked up on, there, and then he turns a concerned frown in Ana's direction. "Milady, I will be safe—"

"So it will not be straightforward combat that will pose the greatest risk to his life. It will be me."

"—what?"

".... Pardon?"

Because that sounded like Zak just threatened to assassinate her husband, which doesn't make any sense at all.

"My failures," he continues, smoothly. "Me not being a good enough commander and strategist and tactician. My missing something. Anytime where the only thing that matters is his prowess, he will win. So the only risk to his life is when other factors weigh more heavily. My best weapon, and our best armour, is information. Information about supply lines, information about loyalties, information of the sort that does not always make it to commanders and Lords, not without them digging very deeply.

"I believe that I am good at digging, but part of being good at digging is in knowing where to dig. It seems to me that..." He takes a deep breath. "It seems to me milady feels powerless in this situation, like she cannot help but watch from afar and hope for the best. But it also seems to me like milady is probably mistaken about this. The woman I see in front of me is resourceful and intelligent, and she has two advantages I do not: she is a woman, so others underestimate her, which she has used to her great advantage in the past; and she is a woman who has been much closer to the heart of the realm, the great Houses and their nobles, than I have been, sequestered away in the Vale.

"All of this is to say that I think milady Stark may actually be able to provide me with invaluable information that I can use to create better plans, to better use the resources I have at my disposal, so that I can better safeguard my men."

Well now she's in danger of beginning to cry again. Not that she does, but she has the urge. Damnation, she'd just been thinking about how she'd found it impossible to cry for so long, and here she is about to start at the slightest brush of, of. Of someone trusting her and asking her opinion. Telling her she's worth something more than just as a very well pedigreed broodmare. It's all she's ever wanted, really.

"I-I," she begins, and she has to pause and try again because there are far too many feelings in the way. But she will try again, because damn it, she is not going to be unable to speak now. She won't let it happen. She will be well enough to seize this opportunity before her, she can do nothing less. "- Yes. Absolutely, I. What do you want to know."

"I believe milady will actually have a better sense of what will be useful to me, but for some concreteness: what can you tell me about Tywin Lannister and his children? He has been stonewalling me, but he has as far as my spies have been able to determine also been stonewalling Aerys Targaryen. There are many things that would suggest he should be a staunch ally of the Targaryens—he was Hand of the King and has been a friend of Aerys for years; his eldest Jaime is Kingsguard, and a truly honourable man besides; and he wanted his daughter Cersei to marry Rhaegar—so the fact that he hasn't immediately rushed to the King's side suggests to me that there are things I am missing, here, which might be useful to us."

Oh well that picture is all wrong. Or, well, it's missing key details, and -

"... I think to say Tywin is a friend of Aerys is... a dangerous oversimplification. Friend though he might have been, Aerys was no friend in return. Lord Lannister tolerated every indignity at the Mad King's hand without so much as wavering, but I am truly astonished at the patience of the man. He wanted Cersei to marry Rhaegar and eventually become queen, as logical reward for his dutiful service, and Aerys did not just refuse, but insulted her. Long before then, Aerys drove Tywin's beloved wife," now deceased, from the dangers of childbirth, isn't that cheerful, "out of court and into exile at Casterly Rock with his lust for her. And a thousand other little, little ridiculous slights to prove his power over the man, over and over again. Wanting to be greater than him, by tearing him down at every opportunity. And Tywin weathered them all, in service to his house and to the realm." She shakes her head. "And it was naming Jaime as Kingsguard, removing his right to marry and inherit, taking away Tywin's heir that caused him to finally break. To finally retire and leave court entirely. I would... view the Lannister's situation as more of a hostage situation than one of loyalty, as I understand it Aerys has kept Jaime quite close in a bid to keep his lions in check."