Again, WoW to the follows and favourites coming in on this story. Note to self, write fanfic for the starving/under nurtured fandoms if you want a full inbox of follows and favourites. I suppose it has to do with lack of content in them :| But oh well I'll take what I can get :)
On with the story I suppose. That's what we're all here for at the end, isn't it. A good story.
Jon had to leave the castle for a while, so he left his usual clothes in his chamber and took on an outfit Yohn had given to him. It had a red shirt, brown boots, natural trousers, dark brown tunic and a black surcoat alongside a beige Valeish cloak. It might not do the best at hiding who he is, but it'd do for now. He had to get away and think. Melisandre's visions and the words of the Three-Eyed-Raven flowed in his head and made him wonder, what made him special?
The Second Long Night. That one was obvious, the White Walkers. Meaning that the stories were true, or at least based on the last Long Night. Son of Ice and Fire, that one baffled him. What did it mean? Was his mother a Dornishwoman? That was the only thing that made sense to him, it also tied in with what Melisandre said about his father talking with a Dornishman. But why would they be talking near a harbour?
What was the next thing the Raven said? Last of his possessions near the fortification of the Children. Also rather obvious, the only know fortification of the Children was the Neck, or rather Moat Cailin. So somewhere near Moat Cailin were his last possessions. But what possessions could a Raven, three-eyed or not, have that would be that important?
Choose carefully who you gift them to, they'll either protect or kill. Also obvious, he was not actually inheriting them, he was actually meant to decide who was fit to wield them. Would be nice to know what it was before he left there. It was maybe a sennights ride if he could change horses at every holdfast near the Kings road between Winterfell and Moat Cailin. If not it would be two.
It was not hard to imagine the Raven's words. But Melisandra's words were rather odd. The red river could be anything. A river where a battle has taken place and momentarily turned red from the blood. Or it could be the Red fork. Or potentially Ruby Ford, that one Jon almost laughed at. Why would THAT have anything to do with him.
The tower he did not know. He's seen and heard of towers that stand alone in the countryside as a watchtower or toll station. But it did not seem like it was anything like that. And the white sword, the only white sword he'd ever heard of was Dawn. Ser Arthur Dayne, one of the men Father faced when he went to rescue Aunt Lyanna.
He walked trough Wintertown, it had gotten a surge of people moving back over the last day. As much as could come in that time, but he expected that the year-round population would return in full before the fortnight was over.
It was not many people around, and as he had pulled the hood of his cloak up, the few people that would have managed to recognise him wouldn't. As he rounded a corner, to head towards one of the markets he used to frequent with either Robb or his younger siblings, he ran into what felt like a brick wall. Both he and whoever he had ran into fell back.
Jon got up quickly and looked at who it was. A strongly built man with black hair that barely covered his ears. His clothes seemed to be rather well made if a bit torn at the edges. Though he had good winter boots, gloves and cloak. He did not seem to be of the North at all.
"Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." Jon said as he held out his hand. The man seemed hesitant of taking it.
"How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"You actually turned yourself into a man!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about… Who're you?" Jon asked as he looked him over again, not exactly sure who this man was, or who he thought he used to be."
"Gendry, I'm a smith. M'lord."
"Well then Gendry, who do you think I am?" Jon asked with a tired smile as he looked at the younger man.
"Well, if you did not turn into a man. Then you're Jon Snow."
"And if I did turn into a man?" Jon asked as he looked him over with a warrior's eyes. And the man seemed to adopt a fighting stance, albeit a poor one.
"Arya Stark?" The man seemed to say in a question.
"Where did you meet her?" Jon asks as he grabs onto the man.
"The road from Kings Landing, we were in a group heading for the wall. But then Lannister men came and took us to Harrenhall. We escaped, but the Brotherhood took us and then they sold me to the Red woman. I don't know what happened to her, though I hoped she'd continued North to you after her brother died." The man explained to Jon.
"When was the last time you saw her?"
"Three-quarters of a year ago or so. It's been a while since I saw a calendar or a date M'lord."
"She'd barely had enough time, but odds are she was at the Twins." Jon says as his mind goes back to the last time he saw his sister. Being forced into a wheelhouse. Before that, it was him giving her her sword, Needle. And she was truly gone. Why are the Gods such vicious beings?
Jon looked up and the man was returning the way he came, seemingly lost in thought himself. Wait, had he said 'Red Woman', as in Melisandre?
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Sansa had barricaded herself in her room and stayed there since she and Jon had parted outside of the Lords Solar. Jeyne was dead because she had trusted Baelish. She had trusted him to get her out of Kings Landing as she was not as important as she was and therefore would be more likely share fate with Father if something were to happen.
A knock on the door was not something new, there had been several in the few long hourglasses since she barricaded herself inside. She was not sure, but she thought a few of them were Baelish. But this one she recalled. It was not as familiar to her as Mother, Robb or Father's. Or even Jeyne's. But it was close.
"Sansa?" A voice asked, though she could not say she'd ever heard it be so timid before, it sounded like Beth. She'd survived?
"Beth?" She asked. Her voice somewhat hoarse from her crying.
"Yes."
Sansa got up from her bed and walked over to the door and unbolted the door and let the girl in. She was thinner than she remembered. Her face doubly so.
"What happened?" Sansa asked as she sat down in front of the hearth, dread pooling in her stomach.
"The Bolton's wondered if they could make the lords think me you. They seem to have almost succeeded." Beth said as she looked Sansa over. And it was true. If one did not know, then Beth was almost a copy of her. A few inches shorter, a bit broader and her hair was lighter than Sansa's. But they were not too wrong.
"I am sorry." Both of them said at once. Sansa looked perplexed at the younger girl.
"Why are you sorry Beth? You did nothing wrong." Sansa asked confusedly. The girl while mean to Arya, that was something all three of them had done and it would not have anything to do with Sansa.
"I wished you did arrive, I had seen what he did to Theon and I did not want to think that it would happen to me. I know it was bad, but I thought better you than me." Beth said with downcast eyes.
"I just wish that I could turn back time to when we were all here. You, me, our fathers. Robb, Arya, Bran and Rickon. Theon, Jeyne and Jon. Before I went south, and just slap myself silly."
"What help would that do?"
"I don't know. Slap myself silly whenever I said something silly about becoming Queen, or marrying a southern knight. Knight's don't exist."
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Yohn was in a rather good mood. A good few of the Lords Declarant's had been there and seen how Jon had handled the Witch. Luckily most of them seemed in favour of him, though by how much he did not hazard to guess.
He found Nestor on the wall and asked him to secure the camp and send their men back in a hurry before Baelish could make his move.
He looked out toward the camp and as his brother neared it, he saw a man leaving it. Quickly becoming obvious as Lady Waynwood's ward. Harry. Did he not do enough earlier. And how could he ride with the headache he had to have right now for that matter? He had been knighted shortly before they departed, and he seemed to lord it over every squire there was in the camp, honestly, he thought it luck more than anything that he'd made it as far as he had.
He found Davos talking with the Red-bearded Wildling. "So, if we send men here we should stop any southern invasion?" The wildling asks as he points at a map they'd laid out over a table.
"Yes, Moat Cailin is the only safe passage into the North by land. If they try to go trough the swamp, then they'll be fooled to walk in circles and picked off by the Crannogmen. No one with half a head will try it. The problem is that Moat Cailin is not in good condition. If we had a year or two, we could repair most of it. But as it is, we'll still be better off than staying in flat terrain."
It was true, he recalled that Rickard had talked about it alongside his many other project ideas. But now, it was but a dream for the next generation again. The current one would have enough to deal with in restoring the North to what it was when they were children.
"Ser Davos, if we could speak for a moment?" Yohn asked as he led the man into the armoury. He recalled Rodrik kept back here quite often the last time he was in Winterfell five years back.
"How many of your men do you trust, Ser Davos?" Yohn asked as he looked over the Onion Knight.
"All of them. Maybe not for myself, but for Jon they'd do almost anything."
"Why?"
"Well, he tried to secure his brother before the battle."
"Which led to the decimation of his cavalry. If this Ramsey Bolton had half a mind for military tactics, he'd have let his own vastly numerically superior cavalry deal with his opponents. And then where would you have been? His own blood thirst destroyed him there, but it was a mistake on Jon's part."
"Aye, perhaps it was. But he proved to them, that he was not trying to usurp Lady Sansa's place as the heir to the Starks. I don't think the Northmen that joined us were sure if they could trust him until that moment."
"True, they would not know who to trust, and who to not trust. But, if on enters into battle without trusting one's commander, then the battle's as good as lost already."
"What is it you want to know Lord Royce?"
"My brother is sending up five knights, their squires and five dozen men at arms. We need to arrest Baelish before he does something. This showcase of Jon's will not go unnoticed by him and will if anything make him move a lot quicker."
"Do we need that many to arrest one man, a slimy one sure, but a man that has no skill with a sword."
"He's got men that are loyal tho himself. Blackmail, gold or simply thinking their interests aligned."
"Good point. I'll get on it, the Mormont men that's not currently on guard duty. And whatever men Tormund thinks will be good enough."
"The Wildling?"
"Aye, good man. A bit brusque, even by my standards. But he knows how to fight, and he's not too bad to have as company. Anyways, I'll go and see that they're ready."
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Jon was about to enter into the courtyard of Winterfell when the gates closed. They were not supposed to do that. They were only to close at nightfall, as they were to open at dawn.
"Sorry, but the commander's order was clear. No one in or out till the morning." The guard called down. Great. His own guardsmen did not even recognise him. How was that possible?
Jon ventured back into Wintertown for a bit until he heard fighting break out above, in the courtyard. That man from before was running to him, for whatever reason. He carried a sword and a dagger. Seemingly unsure of why he was there.
"What do you want?" Jon asked as he leant against a barrel.
"I… I wanted to help."
"How did you know that we'd need help?" Jon asked suspiciously.
"There were some men asking around for buying weapons and armour. That's all I know."
"Wildlings?" Jon asked worriedly. A few of them seemed to find the idea of spending small coins to get things rather hilarious.
"No, southrons by the look of them. Though a few may have been Essosi."
"Baelish." Jon said as he looked up towards Winterfell.
"Where's your sword?"
"The smiths. I may have ruined it."
"I heard it was Valyrian steel. How do you ruin a Valyrian steel sword?!" The man seemed not just perplexed, but angry at the idea that he ruined the sword.
"The pommel was made of stone, it gave in when I hammered it into a man's skull. Do you know how to use a sword?"
"Not too well, but I know enough."
"You use the dagger, and I'll use the sword. Come with me." Jon said as he grabbed the sword and ran towards a local stable. Luckily the owner remembered him from when he was young and let him borrow two horses.
"Where're we going? Shouldn't we go the castle?" Gendry asked as they rode out of Wintertown's front gate.
"And we are, just need to find the entry way." Jon said as they entered the Wolf's wood. It was on the opposite side of where they'd set camp, and nearly impossible to get to without being seen from Winterell. But there it was. Hidden and secure as it was the last time he'd been there.
"What're we looking for?" Gendry asked,
"A weirwood sapling was planted next to it. A white tree, should not have become much taller than us by now with red leaves and red sap coming from a face near the bottom of it."
"You mean this one?" He asked as he walked closer to it. Something was wrong about it, Jon could tell. But he could not recall what it was. When Gendry was ten feet away he fell trough the ground. Oh, right. They covered it up and the staircase was to be found on the right-hand side of the face when you looked towards it.
"My bad." Jon called out as he started looking for the staircase. The wood had rotten up all the way trough it seemed because Jon barely had to kick it for it to fall apart.
"Are you OK?" Jon asked as he descended the stairs.
"My head hurts. My back hurts. No, I am not OK."
"Well, you stay here and look after the horses. I'll go in. Do not follow me, you'll get lost down there." Jon said before he left and entered trough the door. Iron bars covered in wood. They never found the key so they never managed to lock it, but then again it was to be used as an evacuation tunnel. Though, considering it was not disturbed it hadn't been. Then how had Bran and Rickon gotten out?
No time for that, Jon thought as he rushed trough the crypts and found himself to where Aunt Lyanna's statue was. It was just a few more steps and he would be to the stairs that led up. And the fighting was going on in full outside. From the sound of it at least five dozen men fighting.
Slowly but surely Jon walked up the stairs. When he got to the top he saw Tormund dodging an overhead swing by a knight only to bash his head in with the crossguard of his sword. When had Tormund gotten a new sword?
Jon walked outside and into the Courtyard itself and noticed Davos fighting next to Yohn. Apparently, the two were comfortable with each other though it did not seem like they'd ever fought side by side before. He saw another man with a beige Valeman cloak fight not too far away from them.
And suddenly he had three men on him. All three of them seemed to be attacking as synchronised as they could do without having trained to do so. He dodged the first one, that got him out of range of the one to the left. But the into range of the one to the right. A block and a kick to the shin got him back. Another block to the one in the middle before he jabbed his sword trough the side of the throat of the man on the left. A jab in the face of the man in the middle with his left hand and he stabbed the man on the right in the chest.
These men did not wear armour. At least not much. Bracers, greaves. Boiled leather of various kinds. But nothing that would stand against maintained castle forged steel. Where had this Gendry gotten his hands on this?
Jon's mind immediately went to Sansa. Was Baelish making a move to take her? He'd heard his men usually dressed themselves into looking like mercenaries. And around him, he saw mostly men dressed like that fighting Wildlings and Valemen.
Without a second thought, Jon renewed his hold of his sword and ran into the keep. But once he got inside he realised he was not sure which room Sansa had chosen to be hers. Quickly he got to the wing that housed the Starks. And quickly opened them one by one. It was first halfway trough that he thought about which chamber she'd likely take for her own. The Chamber set aside for southern guests, though it had become the Lady's chamber after Lady Catelyn married Father. It was the warmest one in the castle.
Hurriedly Jon ran to it and found the blond-haired man from the Main Hall trying to break in.
"What business do you have with the Lady?" Jon asked, and quickly realised his folly. This man was armoured and seemed to somewhat know what he was doing with a sword.
"You." He said as he got away from the door and drew his sword. "I'll enjoy killing you, about as much as I'll like being married to your whore sister."
He swung wide so Jon only had to sidestep him. And as he did not wear a helm a quick stab along his throat killed him. Jon did not even wait to see him drop before he went to the door he had been hammering on.
"Sansa?" Jon asked as he knocked.
"Jon?" a foreign sounding voice asked.
"Yes?"
He heard footsteps and what sounded like furniture being moved. Then the door unlatched and a girl with auburn hair looked outside. Noting Jon and the dead Knight. She signalled him to enter. Jon put his sword next to the door before he re-latched it again.
"Are you alright?" Sansa asked as she looked him over.
"Yes, not a scratch." Jon said with faked enthusiasm. He could not say he was happy, but she was alright. As long as she was, then he had a purpose. A morbid reasoning, but a reasoning nonetheless.
"Good." Sansa said as she hugged him again. His hands came up to comfort her on their own as he looked over at the girl. Beth Cassel, he recalled. About Arya's age but she was friendlier with Sansa and Jeyne. Though she was actually given training with a sword and a bow as the second in line to inherit the position of Master of Arms of Winterfell, she was more often than not a Lady like Sansa.
"It'll be alright." Jon said as he laid his head on to her shoulder, as she did on his.
So first off. That was an amazing season finale in so many ways. Especially the Frey pie and the Mad Queen Cersei. RIP Margery :( Like, she just declared war on the one Kingdom with their full army standing by.
Also, next season will be awesome, just because we get to see Tormund interact with actual Southerners :) I think they missed an opportunity when they didn't show us Tormund's WTF face when they thrusted their swords up into the air. Also, Davos fumbling with his sword when he joined in :) Just, Davos being Davos I suppose.
Also, am I alone in thinking they should have cast the actor of Wyman as Robert and the actor of Rober as Wyman?
Also, I'll move onto having a chapter every two days or so now. Just to try to have some sort of schedule to it.
Review Responses:
Guest: Not sure what 'Davos wasn' means, I think there's been a misclick...
ThemyThink: As I'll most likely use what happens elsewhere in the season finale to set up the other storylines, that 'seer' will come sooner rather than later ;)
Melody: Next chapter! And Howland, he'll make an appearance :) All I'll say about it.