Offran bustled around the room, stoking the fire, lighting the candles and opening the wooden shutters so that the morning light would be able to illuminate Sansa's room when the sun rose in an hour or so. The elderly chambermaid could just make out two bodies beneath the thick furs but Arya's snoring face made her bite back her smile.
The two Stark sisters were not usually so comfortable with each other but Offran did not complain at what she saw. She simply left Sansa's room for Arya's and brought back Arya's morning clothes so that the sisters would not have to part from each other.
Offran did not know much about Gods and higher powers but something was happening to the Stark family. They had spent the entire day locked in the Lord's solar the day before, everyone from the Lord and Lady themselves to the bastard Snow. It was a good sign in Offran's mind and she prayed to the Gods that the family would continue to strengthen.
The chambermaid was gone by the time Sansa stirred. She blinked several times, willing the tears that were clouding her eyes not to fall. It was still dark out but Sansa could hear those in the courtyard beginning their day's work.
"It was real. We are alive," she whispered to herself but Arya groaned and rolled over.
The two sisters had departed outside of Arya's room after leaving their Father's solar but by the time Sansa had walked back to her own chamber and opened the door, Arya had been sat on the furs on her bed with Needle in her hand.
"How did you manage that?" Sansa had asked, amused but glad that her sister would not part from her. She had been planning on sneaking in Arya's room anyway. She no longer liked to sleep alone.
"I am small enough to walk through the gaps within the walls where the pipes are. I forgot I could do it, it has been years," Arya had replied, somehow already out of her dirty clothes and into a long sleeping gown.
The two sisters had slept deeply, side by side and content.
"Arya, we need to rise," Sansa said gently, nudging her sister's shoulder.
Arya did not move. "Will you come with me to the Godswood?" Her voice was muffled by the fur her face was still buried in.
The two sisters had dressed quickly. Arya had a pair of Bran's breeches and Sansa had forgone the southern styled gowns that were hung up for her in favor of a simple grey gown cut in the traditional Northern style.
"I miss my boots," Arya said as they made their way through the still dark Winterfell for the Godswood. "They were like a second skin," she sighed happily, remembering the warm leather boots Sansa had made for her in their last lifetime. Even if she had travelled back with them, they would not fit her yet for several years.
"I suppose I can make you some breaches of your own. I would like to continue wearing the gowns I had when I was Queen," Sansa replied, lowering her voice as they entered the holy woods. "Why did you want to visit the tree? You never did in our last life?"
Arya pulled off her boots and rolled Bran's breeches up easily over her knees. Despite both Stark children being young again, Bran had always been taller than Arya and the breeches were hanging loosely from her frame, held up by a leather belt wrapped tightly around her hips.
"We were sent back to our childhood and we can change the outcome. I know Bran is practically a god now but humour me, do you think he could have done this?" Arya sat on the bank of the hot springs and slid her pale feet into the steaming water as Sansa knelt to pray.
"Whomever or whatever sent us back deserves our prayers and thanks, whether that be Bran or not," Sansa told her.
"I wanted to know that this was real. I had never visited here much in the last life and I knew I could not fabricate it. I barely remember it. This was just confirmation for me," Arya told her praying sister, dipping Needle into the hot water and polishing the droplets off with a scrap of fabric she had brought with her.
Sansa made no effort to reply, still deep in prayer but she nodded, and smile breaking out on her lips and Arya knew she had heard her.
The two sisters remained in the woods for near an hour; Arya in the hot springs and Sansa knelt in prayer. The only disturbance was their father crossing the Woods to kneel by Sansa shortly after they had arrived. He did not say anything and neither did the girls.
When the sun finally rose and the morning dawn broke above them, the light illuminating the crimson leaves of the heart tree, Ned finally stood up.
"My sweetlings. We are breaking our fast in my solar," he said, holding out a hand for Sansa who took it readily. He let Arya dry her feet and slip her boots back on before taking her hand as well. "I like your breeches Arya," Ned said with a wry grin.
"It's easier to move," Arya said quietly, shy at having her clothing choice scrutinised by her parents once more.
"I am sewing her more breaches. I promise she won't keep stealing Bran's," Sansa said and Ned raised a bushy eyebrow as they left the Godswood for his solar.
"And where pray tell, will all of this fabric come from?" he asked.
"The gowns she already has. I have done it once before and I will do it once again," Sansa replied and Ned nodded, recognising that this was non-negotiable.
"Your mother will not be happy."
"She wasn't last time but she should be happy I will not be ruining her dresses anymore," was all Arya said.
Ned sighed as they entered his solar. The daughters he could remember had been strong and fiercely independent but they were still his little girls who needed their father. The two daughters he had before him now were an assassin and a Queen. He wondered if he was resigned to the outskirts of their lives now that they had lived longer than he had.
The family was all in the solar already, waiting for the girls and Ned. The wild man and the giant Knight were seated along with the rest of the Starks already. Tormund was staring at Brienne with crazed eyes across the table and the Knight just ignored him, choosing to bow her head a little as Sansa and Arya entered. She caught herself just in time and bowed to Ned as well.
"So who is starting this morning?" Robb asked as they broke their fast together without conversation.
Jon cleared his throat and looked at Sansa who nodded. "I will and then I think Sansa should finish. Lady Brienne, if you would like, you and Tormund could explain what you remember after me." Jon's tone made it sound like a question.
Tormund was guzzling down milk from one of Wintertown's goats, as per Sansa's request to the kitchen. It was dripping from his lips into his beard and Catelyn looked as if she wished to take her knife and stab the wild man in the eye for his rudeness.
With his mouth full of apple, Tormund grinned. "Aye, can do Crow," he said gruffly and Arya smirked at the way Robb went pale at the sight of the food half eaten in the man's mouth. She had long grown used to the wild man's lack of social etiquette.
"My lord, I am not sure if I can add much. Jaime Lannister is all I could possibly talk about and he may not even remember me," Brienne said slowly.
A sombre mood flooded through the room.
Sansa used her foot to nudge Jon under the table that had been set up by several servants for their breakfast.
"I'll go..." Jon sighed, settling down his goblet and shifting his shoulders as if to ease the tension there. He desperately wished that he could hold Sansa's hand but Lady Catelyn had ensured that they were at nearly either ends of the table with herself, Tormund, Ned and Robb between them. Sansa gave him an encouraging smile and Jon set his shoulders back.
"I gave Arya her blade before she left for King's Landing. I suppose that's a good place to start. Then I left with Tyrion Lannister to the Wall for the Night's Watch. It had all but run itself into the ground and I ended up taking the black and becoming Jeor Mormont's steward. Met Sam. Samwell Tarly, I mean. He later went to the Citadel and found the records of my mother and Father's marriage and my birth."
Ned shifted in his seat at that but Catelyn laid a hand on his to still him.
"A ranger died and then became a wight. I burnt it and Jeor Mormont gave me his family's sword for saving his life." At that, Jon unsheathed Longclaw and laid it out on the table top.
"This is Valyrian steel," Robb breathed out in wonder. He let his fingertips dance across the flat of the blade in awe. "How is this with you now?"
Jon shrugged. "I have no clue. Arya still has Needle though so maybe..." Jon trailed off, not knowing how to finish the thought.
"Maybe they are with us for a reason," Arya said.
"Lady Brienne, do you still have Oathkeeper?" Sansa asked the Knight sat opposite her.
Brienne shook her head, dabbing the crumbs from her mouth with a frown. "No. I woke up in my armour but I didn't have my sword. I looked around and I checked but it was not with me."
"It is there," Bran said, looking at Ice resting against the hearth. "Ice has not been split yet."
Ned spluttered and looked at Bran with wide eyes. "Split? Ice? Who on Earth split Ice?"
"The Lannisters' after you died. Brienne had half, known as Oathkeeper and Jaime Lannister had the other. He was a good man when he died Father," Sansa informed him, reaching across Bran at her left to touch her father's arm reassuringly.
"I pledged my sword to your wife and your daughters my Lord. The name of my blade was not chosen on a whim. I died protecting the House of Stark last time and I will again," Brienne told Ned who nodded grimly.
"In the end, both halves of Ice were fighting for the House Stark and for the living here in Winterfell, where Ice should have been."
Ned's lips thinned into a line but he turned back to Jon. "Continue Jon."
"I went beyond the wall and saw Old Man Craster leave his newborn son out in the woods. I became a prisoner of a Wildling woman," Jon frowned as Tormund grinned. "She died and I met Tormund. I returned to Castle Black with three arrows in me but I was killed by my own brothers. Stabbed through the heart. I was Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and my own brother's killed me. A Red Priestess resurrected me and then Sansa found me," Jon's voice had been hard and icy but as soon as he mentioned Sansa's name, Jon visibly relaxed.
"Theon had betrayed us and Roose Bolton's bastard had taken Winterfell. He had forced Sansa into marriage and... and..." Jon stopped, his fists balled and his teeth bared.
"And Theon paid for his mistake. Ramsay tortured him beyond belief. Theon helped me escape and he was willing to sacrifice himself to ensure that I made it to Jon at Castle Black," Sansa said, leaving no room for argument in her voice.
"That is where myself and my squire Podrick found Lady Sansa. I pledged my sword to her and we went North to Castle Black," Brienne added. She looked thoughtfully into her goblet at the mention of her squire.
"But what of you both now that Winterfell was not the Starks?" Robb asked, leaning forward in his seat, eager to hear the rest. "I assume I am dead by this point." Robb had come to terms with his death the night before.
"You died before I did the first time," Jon nodded. "Sansa aided in the planning for the retaking of Winterfell. Without her and her connections to the Knights of the Vale, I would have died a second time being crushed by my men."
"How did you get the Knights of the Vale to ride for you?" Catelyn asked her daughter. She could hardly imagine all of the horrors her children had recounted, let alone Sansa on a Battlefield.
"Littlefinger moved his love for you Mother onto me. I will tell you later as this is still Jon's story."
"We reclaimed Winterfell and began thinking about the Long Night. By this time," Jon continued, "Cersei Lannister was sat upon the Iron Throne but my Aunt, Daenerys Targaryen was amassing an army and had three dragons. I went past the Wall to collect a white walker and bring it South to King's Landing to show before the Lannisters with several others. It was the only way to bring about a wave of peace and focus on the only war that mattered."
"Did you?" Robb asked, transfixed by the table being told. "Capture a white walker?"
"Aye. Nearly died. Uncle Benjen sacrificed himself for me and then Daenerys flew in with her dragons. The Night King brought down one of the dragons and then raised it as his own ice monster but Cersei promised a temporary truce when she saw the walker. It didn't matter in the end though. The Night King flew that ice dragon down to King's Landing and burnt the place to the ground, Queen and every damned peasant included.
"We returned North and everyone sent their forces the Castle Black but the wall was brought down by that dragon. Daenerys lost another of her dragons when she fought and brought down the ice dragon.
"I returned to Winterfell and we took in as many smallfolk and Noble houses as we could. We ended up with more than three-quarters of the North living within the keep. Sansa was named Queen in the North when Dany was killed at Castle Black. I rode Drogon, the last surviving dragon until he too died. We had heard Bran talking to Meera Reed about a vision he had had but he was unsure as to whether it was a true vision or not. About how to end the war.
"Tyrion Lannister ended up dousing Winterfell in wildfire and when the dead stormed the walls and the Night King was in the crypts, Sansa lit the fire and we awoke yesterday."
As Jon finished speaking, the room remained silent. Robb looked half-drunk as he slumped in his seat, having absorbed the onslaught of information.
"But how did you end up married?" Catelyn asked. "It seems as though there was little time between fighting the dead to conduct a ceremony."
"There were moments of peace Mother. A few moons in which we could recollect and rebuild," Arya came to her siblings' defence. "We are not talking about one turn of the sun. This was years Mother."
Catelyn's Tully blue eyes turned on her eldest daughter, searching for an explanation.
"Bran married us in the Godswood shortly after my ten and eighth nameday and just before Jon's twenty and one. I was named Queen in the North and Jon my King. It was a small ceremony, one that brought hope and a few days of happiness to all of those around us," Sansa told her mother.
"Sansa, maybe it would be best if you retold your last life," Jon suggested, knowing Catelyn was having a hard time accepting everything that was being presented to her.
Sansa launched into her recount. She spoke about her life at King's Landing and then how she became well versed in the politics of the South under Cersei and Littlefinger. She told them of her sham marriage to Tyrion and then being taken away by Baelish and forced to pose as his bastard daughter. She glossed over her stay in the Eyrie and her aunt's death. After several calming breaths, Sansa told her family of her imprisonment at the hands of Ramsay Bolton and how Theon had helped her escape. She smiled fondly as she told them of her reunion with Jon and how they were able to learn who the other was now that they were older and could hardly remember the other.
"Bran arrived at Castle Black shortly after and told us of Jon's parentage. We were already spending every waking moment together, planning and strategizing on how we would retake Winterfell. I had not allowed myself to think about Jon after how badly my life had been up until that point. I knew we needed more troops and Petyr Baelish was our only hope. He was too wrapped up in thinking that he had the upper hand in every conversation that he had not looked at who I had become since we had left the Eyrie.
"I was taught by the Mad Queen Cersei Lannister and the Master of Whispers, Petyr Baelish himself in how to play the Game of Thrones and yet because of the child I had been, I was underestimated at every turn," Sansa said.
"Their loss," Arya scoffed.
"It was because of that that I knew I could do it. The Knights of the Vale rode for me. I killed Ramsay Bolton; I fed him to his own hounds and I would do it again in a heartbeat. We set up another glass garden and I reaffirmed the North's power and all of those who were allied to us. Jon was by my side every step of the way and then when Arya arrived at the gates of Winterfell, I knew we could survive."
"Where was Rickon?" Catelyn asked suddenly. The boy in question was now a babe once more, barely able to toddle around on his own two feet and was with his nursemaid as the Starks discussed their last life in the solar.
Jon's dark brows drew together in a thick line. "He was Ramsay's hostage and was killed before the Battle to retake Winterfell. We buried him in the crypts."
"He does not remember," Bran said and Catelyn nodded, her eyes were red but she had no more tears left to cry as she had been crying steadily for the past day.
By the time Sansa had finished the recount of her final days and how the smallfolk, women and soldiers alike had fought bravely until their final moments, the sun was past its midpoint.
"We should return to our lives around the castle. There is already talk going around and we have to think of those who do not remember," Sansa said, rising from the table, easily falling into her previous role as Queen.
"You must remember that you are but a child here now my sweet," Ned told her, rest his large hand on her slender shoulders as he crossed to her side. "Go back to the child you once were."
Sansa reached up and wrapped her arms around her father's neck. It was difficult and she was on the tips of her toes but Ned helped her, wrapping her up in his arms and lifting her easily from the flagstone floor.
"We are going to survive father. I cannot be that empty-headed child once more. We will melt the Iron Throne and live out our days, happy and safe in the North," she whispered into his ear.
Sansa could feel the roughness of her Father's beard scratch against her cheek as he nodded and set her back on her feet. It made her miss Jon's facial hair and the way he used to kiss her forehead.
"What is it we can do now though my sweet?" Ned asked as the family left the solar one by one until only Jon and Catelyn remained, each waiting for their love.
"Three or more glass gardens and adequate food storages need to be built in Winterfell and the other Keeps. We should expand our guest quarters and begin stockpiling food with the other Northern Lords. Women from the small towns should be allowed to train with the knights, in either combat or self-defense. Lady Brienne could oversee those sessions with Arya's help," Sansa said, the ideas and plans she had thought of during her time of prayer in the Godswood that morning spilling off her tongue quickly.
"And what shall we do of those who have done us so wrong?" Catelyn asked her daughter, resting a hand on her cheek. "Littlefinger and the Lannisters?"
"We cannot launch ourselves straight into the Game. We need to play it slowly. We need to find out where we are in terms of time and then we can plan but I should think we have a while. The main focus is to survive the Long Night and the subsequent Winter that will come," Sansa told her.
"Dragon-glass," Jon murmured, looking down at Longclaw as he sheathed the blade. "We should start mining Dragon-glass and forging it."
"Robert's bastard in Flea Bottom was a friend of Arya's," Ned said, his brows furrowed in thought and Sansa smiled.
"They were more than friends but you know how Arya is. She refused to settle into the life of a Lady and was resolute against the idea of marriage when we were fighting for our lives." Sansa's smile dropped and she sobered up. "Gendry died fighting a few days before our final day. Arya stabbed him through the heart with the weapon he had made her."
"Well he is alive now," Catelyn said, shaking her hands as if to rid herself of the mental image of Arya killing a man. "What do you want with him, Ned?"
Ned looked down at his wife and daughter. "He is the only legitimate heir to the Throne right now and he was a good smithy if I remember correctly. He is in danger if he stays in the South. We should have him set up his forge here, working alongside Mikken, and on the off chance he remembers, at least we have another ally."
"I'll draft a letter to send by a Raven on the morrow. All you will have to do is seal it, Father," Sansa told him and Ned smiled, cupping her cheek gently.
"You were a great Queen Sansa, I have no doubt about that, and you will be again, with all of your family by your side." His words sounded like a promise.
"Not until I have played the Game of Thrones," was all Sansa said in reply.
