"Oh, my Kyra." Aksel smiled sadly and shook his head. "It is not fair for you. Others may marry and become their husband's family fully, but you are a better breed--and yet you are still needed here, and must act the part... I am sorry. I'd thought that having Gareth with you some of the time would ease the strain, as it were, but..." He looked intently at her. "It might be some time, sweet child, before things will be as before. Even with the hunt so promising as now. You realize that you might--that even if all goes as planned, you might still be needed in Highgarden? You are my truest heir, Kyra, but it would not have been to anyone's advantage to keep you in the North. ...Though I could surely see about sending your cousins to you, from time to time."
He heard the hesitation in her voice before she answered him about Lord Tyrell, but did not press her. "That is good. Selester is like that poisoned honey they eke from his lands. I needn't warn you not to trust him, nor that he must not suspect you overmuch. As for the king..." Aksel let his eyes rest blankly on the distant hills of Highgarden. "That is the puzzle of it, though. I'm sure you saw Princess Elia absent yesterday from both tourney and feast--I think her hardly one for shirking social duties if the king is as upset as he seemed. To be sure she is wilful, with her sudden jaunts across the sea, but she is not stupid--and now, during her friend and rival's tourney, is a very poor time to disappear. If she were a target or a casualty, it might make sense. Highgarden and Dorne still brim with tamped-down resentment. But the king..."
He stared ahead, brow furrowed. "I do not like to think of what this realm will do if Jaehaerys dies. Most likely we will be ruled again by suspicious, inexplicable Starks, while one canny old Tyrell pulls strings from behind."