Game of Thrones

Long Road Home

Chapter II

"Seize him."

She used to sing songs. She hadn't sung one in a long time. Songs of Knights and princesses and castles. She liked castles, spent most of her life in one or another. She used to love visiting other castles, mainly because she lived in a better one. She was embarrassed by that now. As she followed the winding river, a dull drizzle on her face she approached another one. She had not been to this castle before, The Twins, home of house Frey.

She read. She read enough to know that this was a busy castle, the only crossing on The Green Fork of The Trident. There should be people coming and going, there should be roads on each side of the riverbank, filled with travellers and traders. There were none, just a ghostly castle stradling an unfamiliar river. Lady approached it first, and barked for her to follow. She came along side the Direwolf, her dress skirts caked in mud and her hair unruffled. The Queen in the North approached an empty gate house, its portcullis raised, its doors undefended. She hesitantly made her way through the castle's ghostly halls, just her and her direwolf padding along behind her.

The corridors were deserted, and seemed to stretch for miles. This was not a lived in castle, it did not seem like a castle at all. "Seize him." The words echoed over and over. Were they coming from the castle, echoing through its endless empty halls, or from somewhere else. She came to a closed door, a set of double doors in fact, heavy and wooden. She tried to open them and found them too heavy to move, she threw her shoulder into them and felt a budge, and again. The doors flew open and she fell into a great hall. Rows of tables filled the hall, a fire burned, and Northmen from two dozen houses sat dead in their chairs. Sansa swallowed hard and slowly but surely made her way into the hall. "Seize him." The words echoed again.

As she approached a dias, with a large table she heard something, a voice. "Sansa." She turned, Lady was the first to react. The direwolf ran forward as another beast jumped from the shadows. A huge grey direwolf met Lady in the great hall and the two beasts licked at each other and ran in circles.

"Greywind?" Sansa asked with a raised eyebrow as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and gasped "Robb." She threw herself into her brothers arms, he looked just as he did the day she left Winterfell.

"Look at you." He smiled widely "You're a woman grown."

"Robb what are you doing here?" She asked gravely

He paused, and looked around the hall, seemingly noticing the dead men for the first time. "I don't know." He drifted off "My wife… my wife should be here."

"Robb…" Sansa was cut off, a wound exploded from his chest as if he had been stabbed in the heart. She let out a gasp as Lady let out a howl. Her brother dropped to his knees, his chest pouring blood, but it was not the handsome face of her brother that stared at her. The severed head of Greywind, crudely sewn to her brother's body, haunted her. She was grateful he fell face down.

"Seize him." The words echoed again

"Why?" Sansa called out "Why am I here? Why am I seeing this? Where am I?"

"Hush now Sansa." A calm voice soothed her, as footsteps approached. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Robb is an echo here, but it is not him you are here to see." A woman with greying auburn hair and a sad face walked into her line of view "How you've grown."

Tears welled in her eyes as a stream of tears flowed like the trident down her cheek. "Mother." She whispered. She ran forward and threw her arms around her neck, burying her head into her shoulder. She sobbed, her mother resting a hand on her back for the briefest of moments. Sansa pulled away, her mothers face was a picture of grief, her features vacant and unfeeling.

"Look at you." She spoke softly "You were always a beauty, but I could not imagine the woman you would grow to be. A queen. The Queen in the North. How proud your father would be."

"And you mother?" Sansa swallowed back her tears. " Are you proud?"

"Of course. How could I not be. I want to weep and jump for joy. Yet I can not." She turned to look at the desecrated remains of her first born. "My heart is stone." She turned back to her daughter "All my boys. Taken from me. Robb and Rickon by traitors, Bran by a raven."

"Mother, Bran…"

"I know child." Her mother nodded "This is my fault. All of it. Your father's death, your brothers, all that has befallen you and Arya, all of this is my fault."

"Mother, no." Sansa took her hands and held them tightly "This isn't your fault, none of it."

"You are wrong Sansa." Her mother shook her head "It is, it's a punishment, I betrayed the Gods, I made them a promise, and I broke it. They answered my prayers and gave life to one who the Stranger was sure to claim, all I had to do was love a motherless boy, a boy near death and the Mother and Father would have smiled on our family, but I didn't. I let jealousy and anger cloud my heart, and I broke my promise to the Gods. Gods are not mocked, Sansa."

"Seize him." The words seemed louder now.

"You don't belong here." Catelyn rushed forward and cupped her daughter's face in her hands. "It is not your time yet, you have to get home."

"Mother no, come with me. I don't want to lose you again."

"It's too late for me." She spoke gravely "This is where I am destined to dwell now, but you do not belong here, it is not your time, go, go daughter, run home."

"Mother…"

Lady Stark released her grip on Sansa's face, she took a step back and looked her straight in the eye. "I do love y…" A deep gash appeared across Lady Stark's throat, causing a spray of blood to splatter on the young Queen's face.

"Seize him." The words echoed

Sansa turned to run, away from her brother's mutilated body, away from her mother, past the fallen Northmen. She ran out of The Fray's great hall and back into the ghostly maze of corridors. Lady chased after her barking all the way. Sansa ran, and kept running, finally she saw it, the door she had come in through. She ran, for it emerging into the fresh air. She felt the familiar, refreshing kiss of the veil of drizzle as she emerged beneath a grey sky. There was still no sun, no moon and no stars.

She looked around, something was different, the wall of the Twins was still behind her, but the riverbank she had followed was gone. Instead she stood in a ruined city, scorched and crumbling. She swallowed hard as she looked up at the imposing site of a castle she had hoped to never see again. Though it was different to when she lived there, she had seen it like this on her last visit to the capital. The Red stone now white with ash, its high reaching towers breached by dragon fire. Sansa stood in the shadow of The Red Keep. Lady began to bark, as a cold wave shot through her body.

"Seize him." Sansa ignored the words this time, and slowly turned to meet the green eyes staring into her soul.

"Hello little dove."