This time, all four warriors make it back alive, although without Jon's dragon. "Four Night Court members down", his daugther proclaims happily, "three to go, plus the Night Queen. Now we have more time to properly assemble and send our armies north."
"Not too long, though", Bran replies. "I may not be able to see things clearly, but the Army of the Dead is already in motion. They won't take years as they did last time, not with their forces so depleted."
Alys sighs. "I figured as much", she replies, her mirth dying out. "The Night Queen took two decades to attack because humanity had been too weakened to recover in time, and the extra years gave her strength and the element of surprise. She doesn't have either of those now, so it's better to strike now than wait and risk us getting stronger. After the Night King rose all the dead north of the Twins, she won't have much ammunition."
"Especially given we've burned most of our dead as well", Lord Yohn Royce, who came in Lord Robin Arryn's behalf, adds. "I suppose we are to march soon."
"Yes", he replies. "However, Queen Daenerys offered her armies to go ahead. They've been here in Dragonstone the longest out of all armies, so they are the most well rested group. Considering we are dealing with an enemy that doesn't stop to eat, drink, pee, piss or sleep, rest is a fundamental element in our victory."
"Getting used to the cold is crucial as well", his daughter adds. "Even though the Army of the Dead is coming sooner than it did in my world, they are slow. We'll have to go by foot, since I can't trust that the oceans won't freeze at this point, and the North is entirely covered in snow. It will tire the men a bit, but they will grow accustomed to the cold weather, making it less of a distraction when the battles come."
Princess Arianne offers her armies to march after Daenerys', explaining that Dorne is a place usually untouched by winter. Jon Snow argues against it, using the same reasoning to point out they need to get more appropriate attire for the cold. "We can all forego heavy armor", he states. "A well-made chainmail is enough against most wight attacks, and freedom of movement is more important."
After some discussion, Jaime's army—westerlands and crownlands—is the one picked to go second, followed by stormlanders, Dornishmen, Valemen, riverlanders, the North and the Reach. The Ironborn meant to go on foot are scattered across the other armies, since half of their forces will stay on ships spread across the current refuge points, ready to evacuate them at the first word of failure. "Bran will be taken to the Eyrie to stay with Lady Sansa and Lord Robin", Jon declares. "He will warg into Ghost, my direwolf, to keep an eye on the fight. If the undead advance too further south, they will send ravens all over the realm with evacuation orders to Essos and Sothoryos."
"I have trustworthy allies in Essos", Daenerys adds. "They will help the refugees reallocate in the safest places possible, according to Ser Alysanne, while the remaining Essosi soldiers will go to whatever the fight is taking the place to aid us."
The Dragon Queen's army leaves the next day, though she stays behind to wait for her dragon to recover; an Unsullied—Grey Worm, he thinks—and Mormont command the men in her name. She's clearly upset at seeing Ser Jorah go, but—finally!—they seal their goodbye with a kiss. As soon as the last group of her army leaves, Jaime takes charge of preparing his own departure. A few women from other regions come to him, asking to join his soldiers. "One of your commanders is the Queen", they say, "so we feel safer here." He obviously lets them in. It's wonderful to see that his wife's story inspired so many girls and women to fight for their homes as well. From their few interactions—after all, both men are too busy looking after their own armies—he can see Brienne's father is as proud of her as he is. Then a memory strikes him.
Alys said, more than once, that she had been the second female knight in the realm's history, and was knighted by the first one—her mother. Here, however, Brienne has yet to be knighted. In his daughter's world, he had been the one to make it happen, on the eve of the battle against the Night King, two or three nights before they fell in bed together for the first time.
Well, time to correct that, he supposes.
He calls in everyone who means something to his wife: Alys, her father, Lady Sansa and her brother, Theon Greyjoy, Jon Snow, Podrick, Lady Lyanna, the Hound (apparently they bonded over Arya Stark) and a few people from Tarth. In a gesture of respect, he calls his brother and Daenerys, as well as Princess Arianne, Theon's sister, Lady Olenna, Lord Yohn and Lord Edmure. Per Jon's suggestion, he asks Tormund Giantsbane to distract her with a sparring session while the others assemble in the throne room. When everyone is settled, he goes to fetch her.
She frowns when she sees so many important people. "What is this, Jaime?"
He smiles wide at her. "In Alys' world", he begins, "I left you behind with two things that remained forever with you: our daughter… and your knighthood. While we're working tirelessly on the former", he grins, and she rolls her eyes, "the latter is overdue."
She gasps. "Jaime, you can't mean—"
"You fought the Army of the Dead as a knight once. It is only fair that you do so again."
She blushes. "I'm already queen, Jaime. It is hardly proper."
"Why? I'm both. It's true that kings don't usually bother with knighthood, but we are an unusual royal couple. As king and knight, I'm even more able to knight you. Shall we?"
He gestures to the center of the room. All eyes are on them as Brienne walks slowly, guided by him, until they stop in front of the empty throne—Daenerys wisely thought it would be unfit for the event to have her sit there. Perhaps she will be a better queen in this world, he muses as he commands his wife to kneel, suppressing a suggestive smirk as she obeys.
He asks for her sword, claiming she should be knight with Oathkeeper instead of Widow's Wail, and places it on her right shoulder. "In the name of the Warrior, I charge you to be brave." He moves to her left shoulder. "In the name of the Father I charge you to be just." Back to her right shoulder. "In the name of the Mother I charge you to defend the young and innocent." He takes the sword off. "Arise, Queen Brienne of Tarth, a knight of the Seven Kingdoms."
He hears people cheering and clapping for her as she rises, but Jaime only has eyes for his brave, loyal, gorgeous, wonderful wife. She smiles at him, as it's like the summer sun is up again. Unable to help himself, he pulls her closer and kisses her. Later, he barely lets her sleep through the night.
The day before his departure is mostly spent with Tyrion. "I don't think I ever told you", he begins, "but I'm sorry for the chaos I left with Father's death."
"I must admit", he replies, "I resented you for that for a long time. Despite his faults, he was still my father, and things did go from bad to worse after his death." He shuts his eyes close. "But I could not bring myself to stay angry at you for too long. I've never been. And then—I'm a kinslayer now too. I cannot judge you for the very sin I committed."
"I'd argue the circumstances were completely different", his brother counters. "You executed Cersei with tears in your eyes after you rightfully condemned her for her many crimes. My kinslaying was a personal matter. Selfish."
"It might have spared me from double kinslaying, though", he comments. "Alys never said much about Father, but, frankly, I doubt he'd care about the Army of the Dead, let alone to the point of aligning himself with a Targaryen and a Stark."
"With Cersei's death, you'd still be crowned. You'd still be more powerful than him."
"I'd be King, yes, but more powerful? The West would still answer to him, just like they answered to me when Cersei was Queen. Not to mention he'd probably buy any lords and soldiers supposedly loyal to me. I may not be very creative, but I don't see a scenario in which we could have kept him alive—not after I saw myself forced to kill Cersei."
Tyrion doesn't have a reply to that, so silence falls between them until he comes up with a new subject. "Have you given any thoughts on life after this war?"
He shrugs. "A few. I hope to survive, of course, if only to see Alysanne born this time around. Afterwards… I don't want to remain King, you know that already. It all depends on who will get the Seven Kingdoms, I suppose."
"What do you mean?"
"If it's your Dragon Queen, you'll stay her Hand, right?" He nods. "Then it's safe to say you'll take charge of Casterly Rock instead of me. In that case, I'll happily retire with Brienne in Tarth. If it's someone else… I doubt our family will accept you as lord of the Rock so easily without a place in the Small Council to back you up. I might have to take the role, which means Brienne and I will have to split our time. I'm not overly fond of the second path."
"You'd rather lose the Rock and spend your days as Brienne's consort?", his brother asks incredulously.
"That would be a dream, Tyrion", he replies without a second thought. "I don't know why you're so surprised. I ran away from lordship all my life. You should be happy! Casterly Rock was your ambition, never mine."
He laughs. "Well, you make good points. It seems that I'll miss you no matter the outcome, Jaime, but I do hope I'll miss you without mourning you this time."
"So do I", he agrees. He's never been so motivated to live before; not even Cersei and their children drove him to fight for his survival. He supposes it's another difference between what he had with his sister and his love for Brienne.
"How long does it take to reach Winterfell?", his daughter asks when they begin their journey.
He frowns. "When Robert Baratheon made his royal trip, he took a whole month, but it was mostly because Cersei insisted on going in a carriage that slowed the entire party down." He huffs. "A slug was faster than that damn carriage."
"I remember taking nine days to travel from the Neck to Winterfell", Brienne offers. "But it was just me and Pod. A huge party like this will take time."
Bronn offers an estimate of twenty days, based on both stories. He tries to make a bet, but Jaime fears the man will win, and the last thing he wants is to owe the sellsword more than he already does.
Speaking of which… "When am I gonna get my own castle, Your Royal Assness?"
He rolls his eyes. "I'm a little busy at the moment to find you a castle, if you haven't noticed it yet. Why don't you, say, try to rebuild King's Landing after this all over? Or Summerhall, perhaps."
"I want peace and quiet, not spend the rest of my life workin' as a damn mason."
"Then wait to see who's going to rule the Seven Kingdoms in the end. I could give you the damn Twins only for you to lose when I pass the crown to someone else."
"Then give me the damn Twins and stay king!"
"I won't subject myself to torture just for you to keep a castle. You should have stayed behind and lured the Queen of Thorns into marrying you so you could have Highgarden, like you did in Alys' world."
Bronn huffs. "As if. I want peace and quiet, Your fuckin' Grace, not the mess that comes with being Lord Paramount. Say what, if Clegane remains as a hedge knight, I could get his keep. You are his liege lord whether you remain king or not, huh?"
Oh, yeah, Clegane's Keep is in the West. "That castle has probably been taken over by the people he and his brother were supposed to rule over. Good luck with that."
Their banter goes on for quite some time, and although Jaime is not overly fond of Bronn, it's good to have a lighthearted conversation once in a while.
Midway to Winterfell, the sun doesn't rise in the morning. Alys doesn't speak for the whole day, and only meets them at night when Brienne drags her to their tent. "You shouldn't sleep alone tonight", she says, and he nods in reinforcement.
"I don't want to hinder your time alone", she says quietly. "I'm a grown up—"
"Brienne and I will hopefully have years to get time alone", he cuts her off. "You clearly need comfort tonight, Alys, and we are more than happy to help you. Come here, we'll squeeze us three on this bed."
She curls up facing her mother, leaving him to face her golden curled hair. Brienne hugs her, and he places his stump arm above his wife's, pulling both of them closer.
"Thank you", his daughter mumbles.
"We love you", he whispers in reply. "It doesn't matter that we were not the ones to conceive you and raise you. It doesn't make us love you any less."
She lets out a small sob. "I want to go back home."
"And you will", Brienne whispers. "We're working on it. But, if the gods had not seen fit to send you back yet, it means you still have a job to do."
"I'm sure you'll be free to return soon", he says in an attempt to comfort her. "You deserve rest more than anyone else I know."
She mutters another 'thank you', and Jaime watches as the two most important women in his life fall asleep.
The definite absence of sun, moon and stars actually prompts them to ride faster—or as fast as they can manage while having to carry torches while they ride. He wishes the red priestess was with them to light up their swords already, but she rode with the first group.
Alys returns to her more talkative self as the journey progresses and she accepts the 'eternal' night is not a sign of failure on her part. After five sleep periods (for they no longer could technically use the term 'night' to distinguish it from their awaken time) pulling her to their tent, she insists she's well enough to sleep alone again. They still wait for her to come to them, and only in their next sleep period they make love without fear of being interrupted.
He knows they reached Winterfell when he sees the half-burned castle. They make camp nearby, and he holds Brienne as she cries for the place that was her home for a short time. Days later, though, they can't tell whether they passed through the ruins of Dreadfort and Last Hearth.
Finally, they catch sight of several fires—Daenerys' army. He, Brienne and Alys go ahead to greet their commanders and pick a place for his men to make camp. The chilling wind threatens to freeze his bones, which means his daughter and Jon were absolutely right in sending them ahead of time. Fortunately, he has his wife to keep him warm.
Over the next two months, the other armies arrive. The Dragon Queen comes with the Reach, and she greets Mormont with a big damn kiss. Someone shouts for them to get married already, and Jon finds an intact weirwood tree nearby.
Just as their wedding ceremony is finished, a horn is blown over three times.
