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Mother had taught her the recipe a lifetime ago, before the storm and shouting and blood that felt like it had never entirely washed off her hands, before the chair and the bitter memory of laughter.
Honey, lavender, mint, and a pinch of sea salt, no magic like it had been when Rhaenys had dreamed as a girl, but the memories it brought up were worn smooth now, less prone to hurting.
She poured two, handing the second to the wide-eyed redhead. Sansa Stark, who had been hiding in libraries and the museum for the past three days, since Ned Stark was killed in cold blood.
(And how the hell was she supposed to hide a six-foot redhead until they finally brought down the Lannisters? Jokes aside, her brothers did realize that she wasn’t actually God?)
"The boys are off playing in their capes and cowls," Rhaenys said lightly, remembering long nights working because she couldn’t sleep for fear her brothers wouldn’t come back. The tea was working its not-magic, Sansa breathing more evenly and her eyes no longer darting at corners.
"They took Arya with them," Sansa added, slightly… jealous wasn’t the right word, but Rhaenys knew it well enough.
It was why Meraxes was spoken of in whispers and the depths of 4chan.
(Okay, her trollish nature, which she had inherited from Mother and her family, was probably a part of that too. Not to mention her sense of ethics, which was possibly a bit more flexible then the boys’.)
"You are a journalism major, right?" she asked, tucking her hair behind her ears and wondering where she left her ponytails.
She could use a spare brain every so often, and from her research she knew the girl was clever…
Sansa looked at her, curiosity and annoyance in her features. “Yes, why?”
‘“Someone has to be the brains of this operation,” Rhaenys said, wheeling out of the kitchen and motioning for Sansa to follow, “and neither of my brothers are suited to that role.”
The click-clack of the Stark girl’s heels sounded a bit more purposeful as it fell into place.
Clever enough, Rhaenys decided. And she really did need the help.