Arya
Many things had happened in a very short time, but by now, Arya was used to changes and unexpected events. Jon had executed a sworn brother for insubordination, and Melisandre, Stannis's red priestess, had had Mance Rayder, the king of the wildlings, burnt alive. However, the free folk, as the wildlings called themselves, had been allowed south of the Wall, after they accepted Stannis as their king. Most of them now worked for the Watch, and some even trained with Arya to join it. There were wildling women in the Wall too, but none of them would be a member of the Watch.
Arya had been told that the Night's Watch took no part in the wars of Westeros, so she didn't understand why they had made an alliance with this king. She had also been told that the enemy of the Watch was the wildlings, but everything around her seemed to prove otherwise. Now that she had heard so many grown men say it, she had to admit that the Others really existed, and it wasn't just something the recruits had said to make fun of her.
Now Stannis had left, with most of his men. He had left Melisandre, and some guards and servants to serve her, but all the others had gone with him, to recruit the mountain clans for his cause, according to what he had heard the knights say before they set off.
The day after they had left, Iron Emmett told the recruits "Lord Commander Stark has announced that you are ready to swear your oaths. Each of you will be assigned to an order." He proceeded to tell them who was in which order and, to Arya's surprise, hers was the Rangers.
To say their oaths they should go beyond the Wall, where were the weirwoods that would witness their vows. Their Lord Commander would go with them. Arya told herself that she would reveal herself to Jon the day after that, once she was a "sworn brother of the Night's Watch." He couldn't send her away after that, she thought.
When they got to the weirwoods, they noticed that some wildlings, including a giant, were occupying the place. Arya regarded the giant with amazement, as it was the first time she saw one. A fight was about to break out, but Leathers, an ex-wildling who had taken the black, spoke to the wildlings in the Old Tongue, and somehow managed to calm them down.
After sorting that problem, the recruits knelt before the old gods and said the new oath. It was almost the same as the old one, but instead of swearing not to get married, have children or hold lands, it now said "I swear to put my wife, my children and my lands (if I had any) to the service of the Night's Watch."
When they had finished saying the words, the Lord Commander said "rise now as men of the Night's Watch." And Arya rose with the others, being the only one who knew that she could never be a man of the Night's Watch. When they went back, the wildlings went to the Wall with them. From then on, the ones who were healthy enough would serve the Watch too. Arya wondered what would the other sworn brothers say when they saw the giant.
By the time they got to Castle Black the sun had long since started going down. After taking the horses to the stables, they got in to find something warm to eat. They were free for the rest of the evening, and Arya spent it watching the sworn brothers in their training and tasks, while she tried to imagine how would be the moment to tell her brother who she was. What would he do? Would he get angry at her? Would he shout at her and scold her for what she did? Or would he be happy about it? Would he ruffle her hair? Would he call her "little sister"? Would he try to keep her identity secret? Or would he proudly introduce her to his sworn brothers as the first Woman of the Night's Watch?
When they had dinner she sat with the other new sworn brothers (except for Leathers, who had sat with the wildlings and the giant in order to tell them in the Old Tongue of what had happened lately at the Wall.) They talked excitedly about what awaited them as sworn brothers of the Night's Watch. Satin was a steward, and he was satisfied with the order he had been assigned to. Most of the important tasks in the Wall were carried out by that order. Hareth had been named a builder, and he also liked his future job. Arron had been selected for the stewards, and his twin Emrik for the rangers. Jax would also be a ranger. He said he was surprised that a boy as young as Gendry had been chosen for that order, even with his abilities, but that surely he would be a strong man and worthy of his order in the future. Arya just nodded, wondering if a strong woman could be considered worthy of the rangers.
That night they were given new rooms, so each of them had his own. And the next morning she decided to carry out her plan. Instead of going to have breakfast in the common hall, she picked her sword Needle and walked to the Lord Commander's chambers. When she knocked the door she was received by Dolorous Edd, his personal steward.
"Good morning, Gendry. If there are such things as good mornings. I wouldn't know, as I haven't had any. Are you looking for Lord Stark?"
It was strange to hear Jon be called that. Arya had only heard her father be called that way. Besides, Jon had always been a Snow, even though he was her favorite brother.
"Yes, I'd like to talk to him. Would you tell him I'm waiting without?"
"At once" he said, and went in to announce her.
Arya found herself thinking that, up to now, her plans had always gone wrong. Since the day in which she was going to leave King's Landing, and was interrupted by Lannister guardsmen in her last dancing lesson. Or when Yoren told her he would take her back to Winterfell. And when she had started her journey to Riverrun, only to be intercepted by the Brotherhood without Banners. And when they had said they'd take her with her mother, and when the Hound made the same promise. Now she had got to Castle Black, but that didn't mean everything would go well. She put her hood on, hiding her face as much as possible.
"Lord Jon said you can come in, Gendry," Tollett said when he came back. He took her to Jon, who was breaking his fast.
"Good morning, Gendry. Is there something you would like to tell me?" Jon seemed surprised by the fact that he'd come to talk to him, and curious about what she was going to say.
"Yes, but I would like to be certain of some things before I tell you. Is it true that once you say your vows you're a man of the Night's Watch forever, no matter who you have been or what you have done before?" Jon took his time before he answered, probably wondering where she wanted to get to with such an obvious question.
"Sit down, Gendry." Jon pointed the chair that was in front of him, and Arya sat down. "When a man (or boy) says his vows, he is part of the Watch forever. It doesn't matter if you committed crimes before you got to the Wall, or if you were a whore's son. You said it in your oath: 'for this night, and all the nights to come.' Leaving it is called desertion, and the punishment for that is death. Have I answered your question?"
"More or less, "she answered. "My case is a bit different to those. I have committed crimes and murdered men who attacked me, but that's not what I'm worried about. My problem is what I am, and will never be able to change."
That confounded Jon, who frowned and asked her "Will you tell me what it is, or do I have to guess?" Arya almost laughed at his impatience, but she bit her lip and restrained herself.
"I'll tell you. I lied to all of the Night's Watch from the beginning. I'm not who I said I was. The only truth I told is that I was born in the North and that I have no parents. I lived in King's Landing for a time, where Yoren found me living on the streets, and he promised to take me home. I traveled with him, claiming to be an orphan boy called Arry, as he told me to do. But then some Lannister knights attacked us on our way, and he died before he could fulfill his promise. But the problem is not what happened to me as Arry, or with the names I assumed after that. The problem is that before that I was a girl. And I'm a girl still, because I can't change that." Jon's face turned abruptly from bewilderment to recognition and he opened his mouth to speak, but Arya went on.
"Before I left home I had an older brother who believed in me. He gave me a sword, and he told me to 'stick them with the pointy end.' And so I did. And I practiced as often as I could. And when I was alone and lost, I tried to find a way to come back to him. Now that I have found him, I just hope he still believes in me, as he did when he gave me this sword." When Arya said that, she pulled off her hood and handed Needle to Jon.
Jon stayed silent, trying to decide how to react. In the end he approached her and hugged her feelingly. He muffled her hair and asked, in a voice that gave her the impression that he was about to cry, "little sister, what have you done?" and he kissed her cheeks. She didn't answer, because she didn't understand his question. But then he whispered in her ear "Arya, you don't know how much I've missed you!" and she hugged him back and told him she had also missed him very much. She felt tears running down her cheeks, but she didn't know why.
When they broke their embrace, he told her he didn't think that letting her stay in the Night's Watch was a good idea. He promised he would think what to do about it, but in the meanwhile, he asked her to let them call her Gendry.
Having said that, he called Dolorous Edd and asked him to bring some food for "Gendry", and they had breakfast together as they hadn't had for years. She spoke about what she had been doing during the last 2 years, quickly but without omitting anything important, and Jon told her how he had risen to Lord Commander. The 2 of them had been through a lot, and they would be through much more in the future. When they had finished, Jon said that even though he would love to have her near him, it would be better if they acted as if they barely knew each other, in order not to arise suspicions.
Arya left Jon's room, happier than she had been in a long time, and she went up atop the Wall, because it was her watch shift. If she was lucky, she would be the first Sworn Sister of the Night's Watch. And if not, Jon would surely find a place for her in the Wall. He wouldn't deny her that.
Author Note: The only thing I can say here is that I hope this chapter didn't turn you off reading any further. I have no convincing excuses for the poor way in which I wrote their reunion, really. I promise you, however, that I will solve the problem of Arya's fate in my next Jon chapter.
