Sunday again… Monday's gonna be full. Edit, edit...

Chapter Ten – Words and Worlds

Robb did his best to wipe as much of the Kingslayer's face off of his knuckles as he walked through the restored halls of Winterfell to see his younger sister for the first time in months. He did not know why but he was nervous. He had never been overly close with Sansa, Myra was the only woman he could speak to, and the only other females he had ever felt remotely comfortable talking to were his mother and Ayra, who may as well have been a rough and tumble boy.

More than that he no idea of what Sansa had been through. As he walked towards her door he felt guilt consume for not finding her himself, for laughing while she was missing, for losing her in the first place, for getting married and finding love while she and Ayra suffered unknown ills.

He stood at her door, wishing this once that Grey Wind had accompanied him instead of lingering around Myra and Silver as he did so often. But now that he was there he was not going to walk away, taking a deep he knocked and entered when her soft voice invited him in.

Robb had to remind himself to breathe for a moment when his grey eyes landed on her, he had forgotten how much she resembled their mother. As she sat on her bed in the dim firelight, brushing her red hair, Robb thought she seemed to have grown more than in looks, even holding more of their mother's composure.

"Sansa," his soft voice broke the silence.

She stopped brushing and turned where she sat to face him. He was struck by the torrent of emotions he saw hidden in the blank stare of her blue eyes. "Your grace," she bowed her head slightly. All of her actions and words were cold and purposeful. Robb suddenly felt anger rise from the soles of his feet all the way through his body.

They had changed her, done something horrible.

Robb may not have been close to Sansa, but he had known her as the naïve and innocent, if not silly, girl who believed in magic and fairy stories. They had taken that away from her, she was broken and lost.

"Sansa you don't have to call me that. I am still Robb." He moved to sit by her, "I'm still your big brother."

She shook her head and stared in the fire. "You are a King now… that changes everything."

"It changes some things… most things, but the important things are the same."

She took a harsh inhale through her nose, lolling her head back to look up to the ceiling. "It is the most important thing. A King is a King and as soon as he becomes one he is surrounded by snakes. You must not allow yourself to be blind."

"Sansa..." Robb had eyed her as she spoke, utterly astonished by the force of the change in his sister. He barely recognized her. She had been forced to develop some sense to survive in that Southern hell.

He decided that honesty would likely break through to her, especially after she had been circled by lies and liars for so long. "Your words ring true to me," her eyes shifted back to him. "But you should know you are no longer in the South..." he watched to be sure his words were sinking in "... you are surrounded here by people who care for you and love you. You are safe here…" he stopped talking. She faced him now her blue eyes stared through his own, she looked him truly and deeply for a long time.

Slowly her eyes became glossy in the firelight and as soon as the first tear fell, water began freely and silently flowing down her cheeks. She seemed to collapse so her forehead landed against his chest, he heard the brush clatter to the ground. It took him that sound in the quiet to wrap his arms around her.

"I wanted home so badly Robb. I wanted mother, you, Bran and Rickon…father…" her watery voice spoke through her tears he tried to be comforting, but when she mentioned their father he could not help but stiffen slightly "…it was horrible. When I close my eyes…" she swallowed thickly. He knew exactly what she was describing. He still heard the screams of dying men and boys, he recalled the smell of their waste as they died, he saw their mutilated and lifeless bodies... But Sansa, and perhaps Ayra too, had seen their father. Robb did not know what, if anything, could compare to that.

He wanted her to tell him everything.

Upon his return from the Iron Islands, he had unexpectedly found Brienne waiting at the gates of Winterfell. She had informed him that his sisters had been found, but the Lady of Tarth had only gotten as far saying that Ayra was lost before Robb had seen red… perhaps he had not acted Kingly or rationally but he definitely felt brotherly.

Now he was feeling the same way but differently, he wanted Sansa to tell him how she had come to change. He felt the desire for her to confide in him so that he could protect her properly. Robb wanted her to let go of what harm she had done to her, so she could be cheerful. He wanted to deal with the monsters that hurt her and any of his family himself.

Robb was unsure of how to get her to tell him just what had happened, he thought of finding Myra. His violet-eyed girl had gotten Bran and Mal and Rickon and just about everyone else to a place where things could be better and wounds could heal.

But before he could pursue the thought, Sansa began speaking again. Her voice was more even now, as words poured out of her, "Every day I would have to profess my love for Joffery, I would have to lie for my life. His mother would make me publically state it at least three dozen times daily, she was so insistent on our marriage... I do not fully know how she could hate me enough to want me with that beast… "

"He was a spoiled hog…" Robb agreed, clambering to have common ground with Sansa.

"He would…" she cut herself off.

A new sort of fear ate at him almost immediately "...'He would' what?" Robb asked. She did not answer, Robb pulled away from her bracing her shoulders an arm's length away from his embrace. "Sansa, 'he' what?"

She swallowed, her blue gaze drifted back to the firelight. "He would beat me for amusement and as punishment for your victories." Robb fingers involuntarily clenched on her shoulders, "Actually..." she laughed with no humour, new water brimming in her eyes as she stared at the fire "...'A King should never strike his lady'… I should thank his mother for telling him that at least…" she added bitterly, before her tone softened and became distant "… he still had his White Cloaks though…"

"That insane little bastard!" Robb finally cracked, after struggling to stop his focus from going hazy. All of Robb's senses were becoming distorted with anger. Sansa's lip quivered and the quiet tears started again. He instantly pulled her into a hug, he wanted her to feel safe, it was the least he could do for now...

His expression remained fierce, as he consoled his sister. Robb thought of finding Joffery's corpse, breaking each bone in the dead rat's body and dumping the splinters on Cersei's head, after of course killing each of the White Cloaks he could get his hands on in the most painful manner he could think of.

As he felt the little girl in his embrace quiver in fear his guilt rose up to be unbearable. "Sansa I am so sorry."

If how she had been acting earlier had been any example, it was clear that Sansa had to act and learn to hide or bury her emotions. He wondered how she had been able to keep herself from falling apart for so long.

"You did not know…"

"They will pay for it, I promise." He vowed.

Sansa shook her head, speaking slowly and clearly. "No. I want to be home. I don't want to lose anyone else."

Robb squeezed his eyes shut, breathing to collect himself. "If that is what you…" he replied, feeling as though he were being punched in the gut "… what you want." He finished with reluctance.

She nodded, "When Ser Jaime and Brienne found me at the Eyrie I barely wanted to hope. Lord Baelish had kept so hidden for so long, at times I it seemed that his intent was for me to forget my life here."

"That was who took you? If you were there before she died why would Aunt Lysa or even Littlefinger not return you?"

"I was not always there. The Hound, he never struck me even when Joffery commanded, he saved me… after the Blackwater battle he said he would ransom me to you. Then in the Riverlands Lord Baelish tracked me and took me to the Eyrie. He said that it was dangerous at Winterfell and that if you lost I would be hunted. Aunt Lysa agreed to keep me, pretending that I was Lord Baelish's bastard. She and Cousin Robert were… unwell if I put it kindly. All day and night she howled on about her love for Lord Baelish, the baby they lost, the fact he was finally her husband … it was impossible to ignore though, that she was still jealous of his love for mother and eventually she grew jealous of me… she tried pushing me out the moon door cut into the floor of the throne room at the Eyrie, after she saw him kiss me." At that Robb found himself filled with tension once again.

She was still alive at least, but what had she suffered…

"He kissed you?" Fear and anger bubbled within him.

"Yes, I do not think he truly meant to, he stopped Aunt Lysa…" Sansa shook her head against his chest sadly, sniffing as she continued "... she cried and said she had killed Lord Ayran for him... Lord Baelish threw her out of the moon door anyway. I was the only one who saw, I felt certain he would never let me go. If Ser Jaime were not a Lannister I doubt I would be here. In truth if Lady Brienne had not been herself I doubt that I would have so readily left the Vale… I travelled with them and heard of Nymeria protecting people in the Riverlands. We also heard word of a girl who had killed 'the Tickler', a man who tortured small folk for sport… if I had not recognized her in passing, Ayra would have likely continued on with her head down, avoiding my gaze."

Sansa took a moment before she carried on. "Robb, I swear to you she was not our sister as we would recall her. Ser Jaime and Lady Brienne had to restrain her after she tired escape two nights in a row. We talked as we did and have before, she was still Ayra but her anger was in all that she did. Her grim obsession with revenge tainted her every thought. Each night I would hear her repeat a list of those she wished to kill… Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, Queen Cersei, Dunsen, Raff the Sweetling," she repeated the list that was long for a person of Ayra's age and stature "... and even the Mountain, before his death at another's hands. Ayra said the number had been larger, but many had already died… the Hound had been one of the people on the list, but she had left him for dead on the plains of the Riverlands."

"She left him for dead?" Robb questioned in disbelief.

Sansa nodded once more. "She said that she had heard the screams at the Twins, she had been close to you and …mother when 'that wedding' happened. The Hound had found her in the Riverlands shortly after he had lost me, he planned on ransoming her instead. He knocked her unconscious to keep her from running into the Twins. She said she saw mother through a fogged glass in her wolf's eyes. She said she saw Bran, Rickon and you howl for us. She said she saw you silver-haired wife. She said a lot before she slipped off, away into the night…" she broke the faster pace her speech had taken, slowing down as she carried on "... we searched for her again but she moves like a cat now and left no trace of herself anywhere or on anyone."

Robb had no idea how to take the impossible tale that Sansa was telling him. In the time since Jon Ayran's death to this very night now, so much had occurred to him alone a part of could not believe so much more had fit into that same frame time for sisters.

He had nothing to say, he was not even sure what he was feeling exactly. "Things will be better now, Sansa." Robb offered, feeling desperately like a failure "I promise. You're home now, Bran and Rickon will be relieved to see you…" he strained to drum up more to comfort her, he thought of the little girl he used to tease. "We'll find you a good, honourable Northern man to marry…" He was interrupted by the sound of Sansa's soft laughter. "What is it?" He asked looking down at the top of her red head.

"Nothing, you simply sound like father. Only now I no longer blindly want Joffery or any King… Robb…" Sansa pulled away to look him directly in the eye. She said the next very deliberately and paced out "I am married…" Robb felt his heart drop and pulse speed up at the same time. She had not married Joffery and she had run away… with the Hound. Could she be married to him? Robb's mind raced, while his mouth remained stuck shut. Nonetheless she seemed to see the questions reflected in his grey eyes, while his heart ached at the truth he saw in her young face. The Hound… no one could be worse, Robb thought to himself until Sansa spoke again. "…to Tyrion Lannister…"

Wednesday next. Thinking of going back and splitting story, it is long in the flesh… or in internet code. New episode tonight!