The voyage to Karhold is peaceful on the outside, but an inner turmoil plagues Ygritte the whole time.
In truth, it's been there since she and Jon parted ways. Ever since they met, and especially since they got together, they've spent more than ten days apart, and even on those days, she knew he was less than a day's ride away. Now he's on the other side of the Narrow Sea, and she won't see him anytime soon.
How long will he take to master the other elements and come back to fight the Others? He's in a hurry, they all are, but, for all she knows, it could take years. He might find someone else, she thinks frequently. Someone who has more to offer than a non bender spearwife. Someone who will follow him without question and who won't shut his love confession down.
She replays their fight on her head over and over. Was it worth it? She already talked about this with Sisterfucker and Lady Brienne, but her doubts linger. It's too late now, she realizes. I can't undo my choice. I've lost him.
She distracts herself with Sansa and the warrior lady. She wants to tease the latter about her friendship with Jaime, but she reminds herself of how forlorn he looked when they said their goodbyes and decides against it. He is right: it's best for both of them if Lady Brienne forgets him altogether.
Instead, she indulges Sansa in bending training. Now they are in the North, her strength is back, and she uses it to test her newly developed ability on herself and her ship mates. Ygritte isn't much bothered by the cold, so she's the main target of her experiments with freezing blood.
"Does that count as bloodbending?" she muses aloud one day.
"No idea," Ygritte replies. Lady Brienne shrugs. "Isn't there a bloodbender in Winterfell?"
"There is, but for all I know Theon followed Robb to war. And I'm not going to write to the Boltons about it."
Brienne asks who the Boltons are, and the two of them take turns sharing all the horror stories they've heard about that forsaken noble house.
Sansa frowns when Karhold is within sight. "It's snowing a lot," she says quietly. "It's like we are in Eastwatch, not miles and miles down south."
"The weather worsened after you left," she explains. "Winter has essentially arrived here, even if the South is untouched."
"Yet."
She can only agree.
Their stay in Karhold is short. Sansa is eager to get back home, so they only sleep there for a night. Lord Karstark, whose first name she missed, updates them on what happened while they were away—which is a lot.
"As you, your father and your sister were threatened in King's Landing, your family kept receiving menacing letters. When King Robert died, your brother Robb was ordered to go there and bend the knee, or else the rest of House Stark would be charged with treason for hiding Jon. His head is worth a hundred golden dragons, either dead or alive.
"When the letter arrived, we were all there for a meeting regarding the North's future—the winter, food supplies and all that. Queen Catelyn interrupted the meeting to deliver the message, and she and your brother disclosed the whole truth about Jon. He also told us that your aunt Lysa was the one behind his outing to the court, as she broke his trust and spilled his secrets to the Master of Coin."
Sansa's face hardens at that, and she wonders if she ever interacted with said Master of Coin—what is his name again?—and if she suspected him beforehand.
Lord Karstark goes on. "We were all already aware of the threat of the Others, of course, so everyone was furious that the Avatar himself was being targeted for murder when he is the key to defeat the undead. Lord Umber called for Northern independence, and we all declared your father the King in the North. Prince Robb took advantage of that and called for arms to get you three back."
The three women smile at that. The man finishes with, "I've been back here for a while. My sons went ahead with half of our army, as I got sick upon my return and had to stay behind. I was planning on joining with a few additional men, but, since you say he is being escorted by the Kingslayer, I suppose I'll wait for news from the camp."
Sansa clears her throat. "You still call Ser Jaime 'Kingslayer', and yet you trust him to escort my father safely?"
He nods. "Your mother and brother told us about his role in aiding Jon. If he's loyal to the Avatar, he must be so to his family."
"He will be," Ygritte says firmly, and it is enough for both Sansa and Karstark. If she, who's been with both men all this time, vouches for Jaime Lannister, they will trust him.
Sansa gets a room to herself, while Ygritte and Brienne share another. The warrior lady asks her about Sisterfucker's secret. "Do you think he'd want us to tell someone about it?"
"I don't know," she admits. "We'd have to ask him." And, because she's too curious, she asks, "Do you trust him?"
"Of course," she replies instantly. "He's been nothing but honorable and loyal since I met him. And he's a good man; one only needs to pay attention to notice it."
There is a faint blush on her cheeks, visible under the torchlight, and Ygritte decides to ask no further questions.
They are given a carriage and two soldiers to escort them to Winterfell. Although she loves to ride, she is grateful for the opportunity to rest a bit more. She hasn't gotten much of it since Tarth.
(Now rest is all she will do.)
As Karstark sent word of their arrival, they are greeted at Winterfell by the two remaining Starks, (Queen) Catelyn and (Prince) Rickon. Sansa gives each of them a tearful embrace, and Catelyn hugs her as if she was her own daughter. Brienne is formally introduced as Jon's sworn shield, which earns a loud gasp from Rickon.
A small feast is held to celebrate their return, and the new Queen updates them on all Karstark didn't tell: Robb departed with a big army a couple weeks ago, heading for King's Landing to retrieve Ned and Sansa; Theon Greyjoy (that's the bloodbender's name!) went to his birth home to establish an alliance with his father (Sansa blushes slightly at the mention of a possible marriage between them two); the Night's Watch fought the largest wight army since their discovery.
"Craster and his daughter-wives were all found dead," she says with a sad expression. "A member of that Brotherhood you found in the riverlands was the one who discovered their bodies, and he was nearly killed when they rose as wights. Luckily, the man carried daggers made of dragonglass, which enabled him to kill a creature they believed was an Other."
Ygritte lets out a gasp. Although tales of the Others are widely spread, she can't recall if anyone has ever even claimed to have seen one. Everyone assumed they were hiding in the Lands of Always Winter and sending wights to do their bidding, but if the Night's Watch already fought one of them…
Catelyn clears her throat, calling Ygritte back to reality. "There is good news, too," she adds. "When the Other was killed, all the wights around it fell and did not rise again. The bodies were promptly burned, of course."
She sighs in relief and smiles. This is completely new information, obviously, and it is possible that nobody really knows what it means and what to do with it yet. Still, it is a beacon of hope.
Later, Catelyn calls her for a private talk. "Lady Brienne said she plans to go to Essos to join Jon after Ser Jaime comes back," she says. "Sansa also told me you are here because you two had a huge fight, although she doesn't know the details." She grabs her hold and squeezes it tightly. "After Lysa's letter, we thought you had died. I was so glad to see you alive, but what happened between you and Jon?"
Since Catelyn has always treated her like family, she spills it all out: everything that happened after they escaped the Vale until their fight in Sunspear. She withholds some information, like the Martells' revelation about a secret Targaryen, because now it's not the time for them; this conversation is personal, not informative.
Catelyn listens to it all attentively, her hand on hers all the time. When she's finished, there are tears running down her cheeks in the face of her tender expression. "Ser Jaime was right," she begins. "Not talking your issues through can only lead to hurt."
"But now we're apart, and I miss him." She lets out a trembled sigh. "I love him, Cat, and I fear I lost him for good."
"You didn't," she reassures her. "As I said, Lady Brienne will search for him in Essos. What is stopping you from going with her?"
"We've hurt each other. He failed to understand my side, and I rejected him when he said he loved me. Can we go back to what we were after that?"
"It won't be the same, but it might even be better. You'll be stronger, because you've known struggle. But you have to forgive one another."
She swallows hard. "How? I can't… I can't ignore what he did, and I doubt he can either."
"Forgiving isn't about forgetting. It isn't even about trusting someone completely right away after said trust was broken. Forgiveness…" Catelyn sighs. "My septa would be able to explain it better, but I'll try to recite her words. Forgiveness comes from the recognition we are all human and prone to mistakes and sins. We like to think ourselves better than our peers, but we're not, not really. When you forgive someone, you acknowledge you are both equal in humanity, and you stop resenting them for a mistake you are just as capable of making.
"There are monsters disguised as humans in this world, of course. Craster was one of them, and for a long time I thought Ser Jaime was one as well. But Jon definitely isn't, and neither are you. If you want a future with him, you have to let go of the hurt. You have to look at him and not let his mistake be the first thing that comes to your mind. It isn't easy, but it is possible, especially since you love each other."
Ygritte nods, squeezing her hand. "Thank you, Cat. I'll… I'll think about it."
She doesn't have much time to think, though. Two days later, banners of flayed men are seen approaching Winterfell.