The march of winter turns Sunspear over to chaos. The city’s eternal war between what is fun and what is necessary becomes harder to fight when there’s so little time left to do it all. The harvest must be gathered and the roads must be cleared, but the ocean will only be warm enough to swim in for a few more months and it’s such a shame to dry the fruit of the orchard when it tastes so much better picked fresh from the tree.

Taehyung bites into a peach and feels the juice run down his chin, wandering amongst the market stalls and examining the last of the trinkets ferried down by northerners before they lose safe passage and are lost till spring. His sisters had asked him to attend to the city sept and be back before nightfall, but it’s unseemly for a prince not to be seen amongst his people.

“Everything changes during winter,” the sellers mutter to each other dispondently when they think their customers aren’t listening.

The truth is that people are always listening, and growing up a Martell gives you an ear for twenty conversations all at once.

“We mustn’t let winter change us, my friend,” Taehyung grins at them, every time. He passes them a peach and watches their eyes light up with the promise of summers to come.