Rhialta Tully

Rhialta Vance is the eldest daughter born to Lord Perceon Vance, the Hand of the King, and his wife, Shiera Velaryon. She is the second of the five children born to them.

Appearance
Rhialta has been blessed with long, often tempestuous, dark hair that falls long in curls to her waist and appears more auburn in the sunlight, no doubt due to Tully heritage on her father's side of the family. Her eyes meanwhile are rather striking due to their curious colors: the right iris is hazel, a mix of brilliant sea-blue and wildfire-green hues - and depending on the day has been known to appear more one than the other - while the left is a far deeper, darker indigo. She has a fair complexion, save for the few freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose, and high cheekbones kissed by the natural blush afforded by youth and vitality. Rhialta is often described as a 'slip of a girl', petite creature that she is, standing only a few inches taller than five feet, with a willowy frame, small breasts, and a narrow waist.

Early Years
Rhialta Vance is the eldest daughter and the second child of five born to Lord Perceon Vance and his wife, Shiera Velaryon in the year 389 AC. With dark hair like her siblings and curious eyes bearing different colors, it is said that the girl was a beauty right from the start.

In her infancy, Rhialta could not be settled by either her mother’s voice or her nurse's song, but instead was only ever happy being cradled in her father’s arms. And from thereafter, once she’d found her footing, she never failed to stray terribly far from him or her older brother Preston if she could but help it, toddling along behind them through the massive keep as well as the grounds.

From an early age, it was discovered that Rhialta had little patience for most things becoming of a highborn lady. Embroidery threads tangled and knotted whenever she attempted to sew, harp strings broke, and she had no desire whatsoever to learn how to sing. Histories of Harrenhal, her father's predecessors, the Green Men, or the Targaryen dragons were but some of the only subjects which might keep her contented and sitting still for hours on end inside at lessons, when otherwise she'd much rather be left to her own devices exploring both in and out-of-doors. Rhialta had a knack for finding her way, even as a child, and could wander for hours on end without ever setting foot outside the great curtain walls of the keep.

When she wasn’t satisfying an innate curiosity that led to exploring the supposedly cursed and no doubt haunted keep in which she'd been born, she could be found curled up with a book in an effort to sate other curiosities, and often in the most curious of places—like the stables, for instance. While some young ladies might have spurned a seventh name day’s gift of horseflesh, calling the gelding a smelly beast, it was love at first sight for Rhialta. Though she’d been learning to ride from a very early age, having her own horse meant far more time dedicated to becoming quite the skilled horsewoman. Her mother frowned upon a young lady learning to care for the animals, but as Rhialta tended not to be a particularly demanding child, her father was prone to indulge her wishes otherwise.

The Scarlet Winter
A fever brought on the harsh winds of winter pervaded the ruins Rhialta Vance called home in early 402 AC, taking hold of the girl, three and ten at the time, and her grandfather within its chilling grasp. While Lord Perwyn made his escape only through death, Rhialta remained firmly within the fever's clutches for the better part of a few moons. Delirium delivered the ghosts of Harrenhal regularly into her waking nightmares as she babbled incoherently between screams. At one point, she woke to darkness that lingered for weeks while the maester wondered if the illness had robbed the youth permanently of her eyesight. Colors, however, returned as the fever began to break.

Weakness, however, followed. Initially, the maester proclaimed it natural following moons spent abed, while onlookers awaited the Stranger's visit. Strength returned, little by little to prove the learned man right, though fainting spells following any exertion brought only more questions. Frail, the new descriptor that followed close in the wake of any mention of the Vance girl's name or health, as the maester explained that the fever's lingering presence had undoubtedly done some damage to her heart.

Nurses became more constant companions than ladies-in-waiting while her parents insisted that previous ventures out-of-doors were not off-limits. The black walls of Harren's halls became the youth's prison cell; painting soon became the only escape allowed beyond it. As the years passed, Rhialta's talent for capturing details upon canvas grew exponentially, while her health slowly, but very surely, returned.

407 AC
Presently, her zest for life and living it rather than being confined indoors is often cause for worry to parents wont to be more protective than not. But they have borne no witness to further spells, and find it increasingly difficult to deny a daughter who appears, some five years after the fact, to have made a full recovery.

With the arrival of the Tournament of the Red Comet to Harrenhal, Rhialta is bound and determined to make up for the past two years she's been kept at home under strict supervision, rather than living at court with her father, the Hand of the King.