Arya

She picked a quarrel and placed it against the string of her crossbow. After that she drew it and looked at her aim, which was many steps away from her. She aimed at it and, when she was confident, she released the string. She had hit it almost in the center. Without wasting time she picked another quarrel. She had to be good enough to be allowed to fight, and that required practice.

She had been very busy with her new tasks as a helper of the night's watch, and she had a lot of things to do. She had only a few free hours to practice her accuracy, and she wanted to make the most of them. With the training sessions, the watches and the journeys from one castle to another to watch over the Wall, she was busy almost all the time. And Jon didn't seem to be any freer than her: he had to plan the wedding of a girl called Alys Karstark to a wildling of the Thenn clan. Besides, he still had many problems keeping the wildlings and the men of the Night's Watch together. Arya had asked Jon why they refused to work together, if the fight against the Others was necessary for everyone, and they had a common objective.

"The Watch has been killing wildlings for centuries, to protect the people who live south of the Wall. Many of these wildlings have seen their parents or brothers killed by men of the Night's Watch. And the sworn brothers believed for centuries that our fight was against them, who kidnapped women and stole the villager's belongings each time they made it south of the Wall. They feel as you would if you were forced to make common cause with the Lannisters," Jon had explained.

Neither the wildlings nor the black brothers had openly complained about her presence at the Wall, because she worked hard and was not a member of the Night's Watch any longer. Queen Selyse, however, was quick to voice her disagreement with the idea of a young noble lady behaving like a wildling and dressing herself with black men's clothes as if she was of the Night's Watch. She had asked, almost demanded Jon to make her behave as befitted her position and to find a suitable match for her, some lord or knight in Stannis's service. He had politely refused, to Arya's relief.

She had also met Stannis's daughter: Shireen. She was a shy and sad girl, used to being mocked and looked down on. Arya didn't do any of these things, though, because she had never cared about appearances: not hers nor anyone else's. But she didn't spend with Shireen as much time as was expected for 2 highborn girls that were the only ones of their age living in the same castle. They only played together during Arya's free hours, that weren't many. And Arya was more interested in improving her abilities with different weapons than in playing come-into-my-castle or monsters and maidens.

Despite all the problems that had to be sorted out and everyday's work, Arya was happy. She had everything she needed: she was at the Wall, with Jon, and without having to pretend to be somebody else. Jon had even allowed her to participate in the patrol journeys from Castle Black to the Shadow Tower, to see how the men in the other castles were faring. Jon hadn't wanted to send her at the beginning, preferring to have her near him and safe, but Arya's insistence had compelled him to let her go, on condition that if Castle Black should suffer an attack from the Others, she would stay hidden and protected until it ended. Of course, Arya had been lying when she accepted Jon's condition.

She had improved her swordplay noticeably, and was now practicing crossbow shooting, because she thought that if she could do it well enough, she might convince Jon to let her fight from a secluded place, shooting lighted arrows. She still liked the sword best, but she had improved her aim a lot, too. She was now as good a crossbowman as anyone from the Watch. At the beginning Satin had trained with her, but now he was Jon's personal steward, and he was busy almost all the time. So now she was alone, in the practice yard, focused only on her target, when Satin's voice called her.

"Gendry, Jon wants to see you. He's got something to tell you."

Arya smiled a little when he called her "Gendry". Of course, Satin knew what her true name was, but he said it was difficult for him to adapt to the change, because he had called her Gendry ever since she came to the Wall. That reminded her of the way Hot Pie had called her "Arry" after learning who she was. And it also reminded her of Gendry (the true Gendry, whom she had known in Yoren's group of recruits.)

"Thank you, Satin. I'll go see him."

"I'll escort you. A lady shouldn't go alone. Besides, I should go back to Jon, in case he wants something."

"You can go with me if you want," Arya accepted. "But I'm not a lady," she added with a seriousness that made Satin laugh. She punched him for that, and he tried not to laugh for the rest of the walk.

"Lord Stark, here's your sister," Satin announced them when they got to Jon's chambers.

"Thank you, Satin. Bring her some honeyed milk, and a dark beer for me, please."

"At once, my lord," he said before withdrawing.

"Have a seat, Arya," Jon pointed to the chair in front of him, and Arya obeyed. "There are some things I'd like to tell you."

Arya looked at him, waiting for him to keep talking. She knew from Jon's expression that it was something important, but she didn't know if it was good or bad.

"A raven arrived today, from White Harbor. It was written by a knight in Stannis's service that was thought to be dead: Ser Davos Seaworth. He says he could recruit the Manderlys for our cause by bringing the heir to Winterfell: our brother Rickon. Lord Manderly's son is taking White Harbor's hosts to help Stannis get Winterfell back, and Davos will come to the Wall to deliver Rickon to us."

Arya took her time to absorb that information. It was something so unexpected and unbelievable that it surprised her. But she composed herself in a minute and exclaimed "Is Rickon alive? Then Theon lied! They got away! Surely Bran too…!"

"Aye, Arya, according to Davos, both of them escaped and they are alive, and we're going to know it for certain when we see Rickon. But they don't know where Bran is, so he's not coming. Rickon will be Lord of Winterfell when he is of age, unless Bran turns up. But there's something else I would like to tell you."

Arya was thrilled. The best thing she had allowed herself to hope after her mother's death was only to find Jon, but now she could see baby Rickon again. Only now Rickon would be 6 years old, and he would be no longer a baby. And Bran had survived too! She may see him again. The last time she had seen him, he had been unconscious. She wanted to see him well once more.

"Arya," Jon called her, "There's another letter I want to tell you about. But I think it will be better if you read it." Jon handed it to her and she started to read it.

Dear Jon,

I have had to gather all the courage I have to dare write this letter to you, secretly. Nobody must know that I have written to you, just as nobody (save for me and the one who hid me) knows where I am now.

By the time this letter reaches your hands you will probably have heard that I have gone missing. You may have thought that I was dead, but now you know I'm not. One of the reasons why I'm writing to you is for you to know this, because however much you tell yourself that your brothers are now the ones who wear black and man the Wall, I doubt that you will ever be able to forget your family from Winterfell, and you'll probably be glad to know that one of your sisters is alive, even if it's not the one you were closest to.

The other reason why I'm sending this letter to you concerns Arya. I have heard that she was forced to marry Ramsay Bolton. But I also heard that that marriage is a lie, and that it wasn't Arya who made the vows, but an impostor that said to be her. I know that you love Arya too much to let them use her that way, so I will not ask you to rescue her: I know you will if you have the chance. What I'm asking is that you send me a message with this raven, telling me everything you know about Arya: where she is, if she's the true one or a fake, if you will be able to rescue her and more.

Finally, as I am hidden and pretending to be someone else (here they know me as Alayne Stone, and I am Lord Petyr Baelish's bastard) I ask you not to address this letter to me. Write it for the Lord of the Eyrie, Robert Arryn. He is just an 8-year-old boy, and he won't read it. The maester will let me read it after he's done it himself, but probably not before that. That letter must be impersonal, then. You can disguise your letter as a request for help for the Watch, asking the Vale to provide men and money for you. If I can, I'll get whatever you ask me, as a way of thanking you.

I'll be looking forward to hearing from you. Love, from your sister Sansa Stark.

Arya couldn't believe it: Sansa alive too! Hidden and, to her amazement, pretending to be baseborn! She had to be dreaming; there could be no other explanation. Sansa and Rickon couldn't be alive. She had already accepted that all of her family were dead when she saw her mother dead in her dream. I thought I had lost my pack, but it seems that I have one still, she thought.

"Father once told me that during winter, the lone wolves die, but the packs survive. We may yet save ourselves," Arya told Jon.

"Of course we'll save ourselves," Jon assured her. "And we'll save the realms of men from the Others."

"Does it mean you'll let me fight?" Arya asked, excited.

"Satin told me you'd like to take part on the fight with a crossbow. If I can find a sheltered place in a tower from where you can shoot without being seen, I don't see any reason to prevent you from fighting, just as some years ago I found no reason to deny you a sword."

Arya hugged his brother tightly, and he kissed her cheek. Then Satin returned with their drinks. Jon and Arya then chatted for a while, trying idly to guess how their little brother would have changed. Arya pictured Rickon as tall as Bran had been before his fall, and Jon said he would be different in other things too. He had been a little baby when they last saw him, easy to frighten and quick to cry. Now, though, he had been through a lot, and he would surely have turned into a brave stark little boy. Arya could only agree with him. That had happened to them too. They were born as summer children, but war had seasoned them and, hopefully, prepared them for winter.

Before she went to bed that night, she didn't think about the list of names of the people she wanted to see dead, but the ones she wished to see alive again: Rickon, Sansa, Bran, Gendry and Hot Pie, the ones she had lost: Father, Mother, Robb and Syrio Forel, and the one she had seen again, and was with her now: Jon Snow, Jon Stark.

Author Note: I hope you liked this chapter. The only thing that make seem strange to you is Sansa's sudden urge to contact her bastard half-brother and find the sister she never got on well with, but I have an explanation for this. Sansa has been betrothed to 'a monster', Joffrey, and has also had an unwanted marriage, now. She could perfectly sympathize with her poor sister and want to make sure she is not going through the same as her. As for her wish to hear from Jon, I have a quote from Feast that might help to convince you: "She had not thought of Jon in ages. He was only her half brother, but still … with Robb and Bran and Rickon dead, Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again."