Chapter 9 - Summoning the King
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Jon finds Sansa in front of Godswood alone. Bran is not present at the moment, but Jon knows the three-eyed raven will be in front of the Godswood later on. It was an everyday routine for Bran.
He walks towards his sister and remained silent for a moment. He still thinks she is his sister despite his discovery. It will not change his feelings for Sansa and despite a little tension in the air, she will remain a sister to him - family.
"A raven came from King's Landing, from the Queen." He breaks the silence and Sansa glances at him, eyes urging him to go on. "She demands me to bend the knee and swear fealty to her." Sansa snorts out loud.
"She will always find a way to have people bend to her, a manipulating woman, hungry for more power." Her experience with Cersei is still fresh in her mind. The hatred she has for that family will never die even if she does. Cruelty has always been Cersei's method, and always will be.
Sansa knows she will stop at nothing till she is sure the Westeros is hers. With the North's unity under the Stark banner, Cersei sees it as a threat. Rightly so because the North will never yield to her.
"Aye."
"What are you going to do? Send a raven to her telling her you will not bend the knee?"
"I will not bend the knee to her. Never." Jon might not want the crown, but he will not bend the knee not because of pride but because of the trust of his people. He is not stupid to bend the knee to someone unworthy. Of the stories they heard about her, he knows enough that she is not worthy of the title. It baffles him that someone like her is given enough power that can destroy Kingdoms and their people.
"She will look for ways to send assassins to you, to kill you. She had every bit of reason to see our house perish." Sansa's bitter tone is evident. Jon feels that behind those words are nothing but bitter memories. The feeling of wanting to comfort her surges in his heart but he knew well enough that Sansa is not as fragile as he thinks. What she needs is assurance through actions, not through words.
"She did everything she could, yet here we are, standing stronger." The journey was never easy, but they made it here, stronger than they ever imagined.
"She will not stop until she is satisfied that the North will bend to her. The North will never be safe, not when she is on that throne." Even if Sansa will not admit it, she's afraid of what Cersei will do.
"The North was never safe even when Robert Baratheon was there." Jon heard of stories about Robert Baratheon. He might be a friend to Ned but he is still King. What ties him in supporting the North is the mere friendship he had with Ned Stark as well as his undying love for Lyanna Stark.
"We will not be safe unless someone from our own will rule in that throne." Jon is taken aback by her words. He swallows the saliva gathering in his throat before mustering the courage to ask a question.
"Who do you want to sit on the iron throne?" He asks. He needed to know of her exact thoughts. She holds a good point. North wanted freedom as well as a ruler who understands them better than anyone else.
Southerners will never understand the stance of the North, yet they continue to rule the North as blind as they are, leaving only Wardens to oversee it. The Starks.
The North knows no King but the King in the North whose name is Stark.
It caused civil wars amongst the houses, suspicions arising from the South that the North are always planning for rebellion. The Southern rulers will only have the word of the Warden, but they knew that the houses in the North are not loyal to the crown, but rather to the Starks.
"I don't know. Someone we can trust, but that is highly impossible. People tend to betray others. It has always been a cycle." Those are harsh words, but Jon knew it is true. Betrayal amongst family members never died. History proves this.
"You're right. When there is no unity in the rulers, we will not stand a chance against the winter. Winter is here, and we need to be armed of Dragon Glass." He diverts the conversation to a different topic, a much-needed diversion for a point that he's about to tell her.
"But the records the Maesters had do not have Dragon Glass. There are no records of it." Sansa said. Every day, the Maesters from different houses continue to send reports to the King stating there are no Dragon Glass anywhere. Those were rather disappointing news.
"A few days ago, I received a word from Citadel. From my friend, Sam. He found out that Dragonstone sits on a mountain of Dragon Glass. A mountain of it. We need to mine it which is why I need to go to Dragonstone." Even as he speaks, Jon feels a little nervous is telling her. Perhaps it has something to do with his connection to that place.
"Go south to mine Dragon Glass? That will be dangerous. If Cersei were to find out that you are in the South, she will do anything to send someone to kill you!"
"Sansa, I have to." It is inevitable for him to go.
Sansa wants to contradict her brother but stopped when the Maester approaches them, giving Jon a word from Dragonstone. Baffled at the news, Jon takes the scroll from the Maester, frowning upon it as he searches for a memory.
As far as he knows, no one is ruling Dragonstone now, so who sent him this message? He dismisses the maester and eagerly opens the letter, as soon as he did, he is beyond surprised to read it.
Queen Daenerys Targaryen, First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals, and the First Men, Mother of Dragons, invites you to Dragonstone. My queen commands the combined forces of Dorne and the Reach, an Ironborn fleet, legions of Unsullied, a Dothraki horde, and three large dragons. The Seven Kingdoms will bleed as long as Cersei sits on the Iron Throne. Join us. Together we can end her tyranny. I appeal to you, one bastard to another — for all dwarves are bastards in their fathers' eyes.
Tyrion Lannister Hand of the Queen.
Mother of Dragons... His eyes never left the words written on the paper. More than having a Targaryen summoning him, it is the word dragons that had him in deep thoughts.
It dawns on Jon that the woman in his dreams must be the Dragon Queen, Daenerys. He looks back into one of his dreams where he was staring at the sky with six dragons flying, and right beside him is a beautiful Targaryen woman.
She must be Rhaegar's youngest sister, an aunt to Jon.
Sansa looks confused upon seeing the expression from her brother's eyes.
"Who sent the letter?" Instead of answering, he handed her the letter and she reads it. "Tyrion? How do we know it came from him?"
"The last phrase, he said that to me when we were on our way to the wall which is why I know it came from him."
"This is a trap, Jon. If you chose to sail to Dragonstone because your friend told you about the Dragon Glass, I suggest you halt with those thoughts. Not when there is a huge force residing in that castle."
"It might be a trap, but I will still go. I have to." Sansa gapes at him with disbelief. Jon feels he needed to go and see for himself if the woman who claimed herself as Daenerys Targaryen is the same woman frequently visiting him in his dreams.
He is curious to see her dragons. It is a risk, yes. She could be a madwoman and if fire cannot kill Jon, then the swords of her men will, but he has to go for the Dragon Glass, and if he will convince her to join his cause, then it will be advantageous against the Night King.
It seems like fate is knocking on Jon's doors. With or without her in Dragonstone, he must go for what he needs are in that place.
"She is the Mad King's daughter. Have you forgotten what Targaryens did to our grandfather? He burned him alive and she will do the same to you!" Sansa does not want that to happen again. She had enough of losing family members to southern rulers.
"She cannot burn me, Sansa. Fire cannot kill a dragon." His words must have fallen on deaf ears but he is determined to push his thoughts through her eyes. It is time for her to know the truth.
"I know that but you are not a dragon. You are a wolf. Fire and Ice cannot meet together." That is where she is wrong.
"Yes, in a sense, you are right, but fire and ice already met." Sansa looks at her brother, confused by his words. Jon knows this will be a hard one for her. "Follow me. There is something I need to show you."
Even though Sansa wanted to voice her concerns and questions, she kept her silence. She has an impending feeling that what Jon is about to show her answer her questions.
He leads her to his chambers and said: "Promise me, you will not scream." This made her confused but she promises otherwise. As Jon lets her in his chambers, she deliberately searches for anything odd in his chambers but what she sees is Arya, then Ghost, and three strange creatures she had never seen in her life. Three baby dragons.
Sansa gasps at the sight. It terrifies her and her instincts are telling her to run, but Jon prevented her from doing so.
"Sansa..." Arya greets casually, amused at the way her sister reacted.
"W-Why? Why do you have those creatures?" She demands an answer. Jon does not like how she points at his daughters like a savage beast. But he supposes he cannot fault her for reacting that way.
"They are my dragons, Sansa. My daughters." The emphasis is clear. "Vaera, Daena, and Rhaea." Sansa stares at Jon with disbelief. She is confused, and he knows it. He has to make her understand and know why he has dragons of his own. "I am not Ned Stark's bastard. He is not my father. I was born in the Tower of Joy, to Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen."
"That can't be..."
"I don't want to believe it myself. I refused to believe it at first, but I saw the letters, documents and when they hatched, it was living proof." Jon extended his arm to Rhaea and she immediately flies to his arm, causing Sansa to step as far away as he can from Jon.
She then looked at Arya. "You knew all along?"
"No. Not really. He told me and asked for help to keep them safe."
"You're housing dragons inside our castle?! And when do you plan to tell me about your children?" There is a mock in her tone which the dragons did not appreciate. They growled at Sansa as if they sensed an underlying insult when she referred to them as children.
"I am sorry for keeping it a secret until now." That is all Jon can tell her. Any more explanation why he didn't tell her will only open further arguments down the line, something he wants to avoid for now. The tension between them is as strained as it is, he does not want to make it worse more than he has to.
Tears streak from her eyes as she said: "You're not my brother... You're a Targaryen" And she storms off. A sigh escapes Jon's lips. It must be painful for her, too hard to take in. All of them believed that Rhaegar raped Lyanna, caused Robert's Rebellion, and here is Jon, standing in this very castle, a living fruit of Lyanna and Rhaegar.
"She will accept it. She does not have a choice but to do so." Arya said.
Jon can only nod. For now, he can only trust that Sansa will not tell anyone about what Jon told her.
"I have been investigating Littlefinger." Subconsciously, she reaches for the dagger that killed her mother and almost killed Bran. "I am close to seeing what role he played in the destruction of our house."
"Is it alright for me to assume you will take care of it when the time comes?" Jon knows of what she did to the Freys. She told him and even though it is disturbing him how she can easily kill enemies with her assassination skills, he accepted it.
She did it to survive. Had it been me in that position, I would have done the same, he told himself.
"Yes, with pleasure..."