He was bound to the ideals, devoted to them. So devoted in fact that he did not even realize they might very well be his greatest enemy. For while they were his moral compass and the prayer he repeated before the eve of battle, they meant sacrificing everything he cared for. And dear Oberon cared for much.

It had been a simple life—a straightforward one when an individual such as him committed themselves to a cause that made things seem so easy. Their ideals had color coded his life to help him see it better, their tasks had given him duties to perform and complete. Everything had been simple. And then he had been given the duty to protect her.

The Duchess -his Duchess- had been slow to let him in, but regardless of the oath he had taken Oberyn had been helpless to keep his eyes off of her. She who had stood proudly before her people, she who hadn't given him a smile until Oberyn had made a back-handed comment about some foreign dignitary. She who he had last seen with a blade to her throat.

She who had given him a child—His Sana had given him a precious girl. A daughter who he could not even claim as his for it would lead to them questioning not only him, but Sana herself.

And he had loved them both, even if his darling little girl called him by his first name and not dad. Even if his precious sunflower thought him to be nothing more than the knight that was not only her friend but her protector. Oberyn had been able to live with that.

But he had not been able to live when it had come to losing them both. Something that he blames himself for. For he had not been able to do anything but silence his little sunflower as she gasped at the sight of her mother captured. He could do nothing as he did his best to lead her away and somewhere safe. He could do nothing as he fought them off while they took her from him.