Tales Before the Fire

Sansa and Yara

Queen Daenerys and her noble entourage had been successfully settled in their quarters in the best rooms Winterfell had to offer for a few hours now. This left Sansa with all the satisfaction of knowing she had sown the possible seeds of her own salvation and misery. The Dragon Queen might indeed save the North from their almost certain doom from the army of the dead, but the price for her aid would surely be Jon's heart, body and soul. And Northern sovereignty as well.

Get ready to be the Princess who kneeled Sansa.

Sansa took a sip of ale and sat alone in the solar that had once belonged to her parents and now belonged to her cousin and king. Surely he would go willingly to the Dragon Queen's arms. What man would not? She was beautiful. Mystically so. Surely the dragon that must reside somewhere within him would be called forth at last. Conquering the wolf. Her beloved wolf at last conquered. Or would he have to lay eyes on her dragons? She'd been unable to bring them to Winterfell because of the blizzard. The same reason Jon must wait for a few more days at the Last Hearth before meeting his glorious dragon aunt.

The same reason Sansa had had to take seven sleighs out to rescue the Queen's retinue as it stupidly languished lost four miles from the castle. Perhaps she should have let the Mother of Dragons freeze to death. She thought bitterly. If it hadn't been for her affection for Theon and Tyrion and the knowledge that the Reach and the Dorne had so much lovely food to trade that the North so desperately needed, perhaps she might have done just that. Though she doubted it. She was just a little bird after all.

Lady Brienne came into her presence with a bow, "Princess Sansa, Queen Yara of the Iron Islands requests a private audience."

Sansa motioned for her friend to sit and poured her a glass of ale. After formalities were observed, Brienne had accepted that her lady regarded her as her friend foremost and accepted the accompanying intimacies, "What does she want?"

"It was regarding your mutual brother, Prince Theon." Brienne said, kindly.

Taken aback, Sansa took a large gulp of ale, "She just told you it was about Theon. Flatly. Not in the form of a riddle? Not back to front? Not a lie? Not hidden in a poem about how my hair is a flame?"

Brienne chuckled, "You do talk to more people than Lord Baelish, your Grace, you mustn't assume all newcomers are like him."

Sansa smiled back, getting to her feet "It's safer to assume everyone is a liar, Lady Brienne. And this one? She's royal and Iron Born!" She gestured grandly with her cup, "My mother always said, "Never trust a Greyjoy!"" Sansa suddenly turned and frowned, "But my mother didn't know everything. Bring Queen Yara to me as soon as she is ready to attend me."

Brienne finished her ale, and got to her feet, "As you command, Princess Sansa."

Within the hour, Queen Yara and Princess Sansa stood face to face in the solar, "You must forgive the informality of the setting, your Grace, but Lady Brienne said you wished to speak with me at once."

"Yes, Princess Sansa, that's right." Yara smiled, almost sensually, "I have some questions for you, and our welcoming ceremony didn't seem the place to ask."

"The welcoming ceremony as you graciously describe it was slightly less grand than I'd hoped since Queen Daenerys, and the rest of the southerners were all almost freezing to death and practically starving," Sansa smiled back, "Also since the King wasn't here to receive them it lacked that festive feeling I might've hoped for."

"Theon tried to tell them it wasn't the time to set off from White Harbor, but sometimes Dany won't listen." Yara's smile didn't waiver, "I wanted to talk to you about Theon. Our brother."

Sansa's smile widened, "I am so glad he was able to return to you. I was frightened for him when he left me in the forest. It was a dangerous journey. But he wanted to go home."

"He wasn't able to do that," Yara snarled, "Our uncle put us out almost as soon as he put foot to the Pike."

"But he found you. Jon and I didn't get Winterfell back at once, but even living in Wilding camps, he was my home. I imagine it is the same for Theon. It's good to have someone to fight for and with."

"How did the Bolton Bastard die?" Yara asked, abruptly. Sansa arched a graceful eyebrow, "He cut pieces of my little brother, he unmanned him, I just want to know he didn't get some honorable Stark fucking death!" She seethed.

Something flashed in the beautiful young woman's eyes, something wolfish. It hit Yara smack in the chest and she almost growled. Theon always spoke about this one like she was made from milk and honey in a big mixing bowl. It turns out she had bit of red meat to her. The Princess turned to her lady knight, "Brienne, leave us alone for a while. Queen Yara wants a story."

Once the ale was poured and the two royal ladies were settled on furs in front of the fire, Yara observed, "This is a bit intimate, isn't it?"

"I am about to describe my first kill, your Grace. It's a proper setting," Sansa smiled raising her glass to her lips taking a small sip, "This isn't something I talk about. Even people who know the details wouldn't necessarily like to hear me speak of them," she cast her eyes to the fireplace demurely. "It was my vengeance. No one denies that I earned it, that I should have had it, but so few people want to think of a woman getting the vengeance she is due."

"Don't count me as one of those, sweet Sansa."

"You may not want to call me that long, your Grace. Sweet Sansa. Ramsay had hounds, you see. Perhaps Theon told you about them. He raised them to have a taste for the finer things in life. The flesh of men... well and maids as well, but that's a given, is it not? In anticipation of the Battle for Winterfell, I believe in the north they call it the Battle of the Bastards, he'd starved his hounds for seven days in anticipation of feeding our soldiers alive to this starving beasts. Most especially the lords of the houses loyal to us. Most especially, Jon while I was made to watch. He would have wanted me to watch. Ramsay loved to make others watch him at play. Has Theon never told you about things that he was made to watch? About my wedding night?" She paused. Sansa looked into Yara's eyes, "He never told you? My sweet Theon. How discrete."

She shook her head, "The story isn't about the battle, the story is about after the battle. When I entered the keep, Jon had Ramsay on his back. Jon, my honorable Jon was beating him with his fists, beating him raw. Jon was like a man possessed and Ramsay? His face looked like ground meat. I've never seen Jon like that before or since. But then he saw me and he leapt off him as if to say, "I left you a piece. I didn't eat it all."" She laughed fondly. He sent him to be tied in the kennels and there he sat while we dealt with the aftermath. I want you to know there was a passage of time. A passage of time where he sat in his own filth, his piss and shit, swallowing his blood and snot, with bones in his arms and his face broken. Chained to a chair in the cold and dark imagining what came next. Ramsay had designed the kennels so that the dogs could be released from their cages into other cages from outside the kennel. For just the purpose I had in mind. He told me his dogs would never harm him. They were loyal. I told him, they hadn't eaten in seven days, they weren't loyal, they were starving. He told me, he was inside me, I told him I was wiping the earth clean of him and his house. And then the hounds did the rest."

Yara tilted her head, "As you watched?"

"I watched the first bit, I am not going to stand around all day watching dogs eat, I am a busy woman, I had soldiers to feed." Sansa arched her brow again.

"Did he die screaming?"

"No. The first dog ripped off his jaw first. He died gurgling." Sansa smiled serenely. "You would have been satisfied."

"Did you find someone to fuck in his blood smear?" Yara asked feeling slightly disappointed.

"No!" Sansa make a face, "the only person who would have wanted to... you'll meet him. I would have wanted to feed him to the dogs as well."

"Of course. There was only one fucking man in the whole keep who wanted to fuck you." Yara grinned, "I had no idea the Unsullied had taken hold this far north."

"Of course." Sansa mimicked her, "I was supposed to go to the high wall of the keep, and yell, 'All right boys who wants to fuck me the dog cage?'"

"Who said anything about boys?" Yara grinned suggestively.

"My choice of lady companions were thinner on the ground at that point. I was sharing my tent with a very judgmental ten year old girl. I mean. Brienne wasn't around." Sansa winked.

"There is something there! I would climb that one like a tree!" Yara enthused.

"Oh no. She has too many men after her." Sansa winked, "Wildlings and Lannisters."

"See, now she-wolf, I don't even like gossip and now I want to lie by the fire and hear everything about that woman's love life. Especially if the Lannister is Lord Tyrion. I would pay to see that happen."

Sansa's face went blank for a moment, "Well, I hadn't considered it, but now I am picturing it.." She stopped and pointed at the Queen, "You are a bad influence."

"You were just describing how you feed your husband to his murderous hounds..." Yara threw back her head and laughed.

"I didn't say you were my first bad influence," Sansa raised her glass to the fire, "Some days I thinks that is the only reason there are seven hells. So did my story of Ramsay's death... was to lacking enough in fucking Stark honor?"

"Fuck yeah, I don't know who sigil that shit belongs under I but I wouldn't want to tangle with those fucks!" Yara laughed again.

"Let me be the one to tell Theon?" Sansa asked, "It's something that I did for him as much as me."

Yara's face grew serious, "You brought him back you know. He was fucking Reek until he saw you. He was never going to heal. That's where Bolton lost him. He gave him someone to protect and love. When he killed that Miranda cunt. He'd snapped. He thought they were going to start cutting away parts of you like they done to him. He said he heard the part of him that was still Theon raging inside his heart "to save Sansa." He'd been hearing it all along, but then he had to listen because you were so brave. I went and looked at that fucking wall you two jumped off. You fucking maniac."

"It was much worse than it looks now. The snow was not as deep," Sansa sighed, "I think we were half hoping the fall would kill us. He dragged me through a river. I really do love him."

"I don't suppose you'll marry a fucker with no cock and balls?" Yara asked.

"Let's see how this visit shakes out." Sansa said dejectedly, "I can always do worse than 'no cock and balls.'"

"You think your lack of enthusiasm will dissuade me, but I am taking that a 'She didn't say fuck no!'"