"Love," a familiar voice called out to Maya as she stepped into the Godswood. The snow was gone and it was summer again.
Maya turned around and smiled brightly, "Father."
Eddard quickly hugged his daughter tightly and kissed the top of her head. Maya tightened her grip around him afraid she would lose him once again.
"What are you doing here? How are you even here, father?"
"They're distracted so I was able to slip through the veil to see you. Your brothers are good distractions," Eddard told her.
"Who's them?"
Eddard smiled at his daughter. "It's hard to explain, but it doesn't matter now. I needed to warn you about Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons. Be cautious of them. The war of ice and fire is coming."
"You would say something like that."
"Well, I can't very well say that winter is coming."
"Yes, because it is already here, father," Maya chuckled.
Eddard smiled for a moment before saying, "Your children play a very big part in the wars to come."
"Jaime and I will protect them from that. We don't want anymore wars, fathers."
"You will die. Bran saw you consumed by ice."
Maya took in the fresh information for a moment before asking carefully, "What will happen to Jaime?"
Eddard looked to weirwood tree as he answered, "His future is still unclear...still being written perhaps. Being decided. I was only able to get as much information as I could be crucial to you."
"And knowing about Jaime's fate is not crucial?" He sighed heavily. "I know that you all still don't approve of him even till this day. He's going to be the father of my children. He's Leo's father and the only reason no one's touched him is because I still love him."
"I'm sorry. I put you in this position by letting Robert agree to the marriage, I should've stopped it. I should've ended the betrothal when you said you didn't want it...I'm sorry."
"If it weren't for you, then I would have never had my son who I love very much. He's surrounded by family now. This is a good thing in case Bran's vision of me is true."
"There's maegi in the woods-in a cave shaped like a mouth. Whoever is in there will be sure of your future."
"How do you know about this?"
"My men and I came across the maegi years ago before you were born. They escaped before we could catch them. They could still be there. It's not far from Winterfell, it's not a place for horseback, but only on foot. That's how we found it."
"Why are you telling me this? I thought that you didn't their kind."
"This is all the help that I can give to you right now, love. Who knows when I can ever appear to you again."
"Don't then. If you can appear to someone, chose Leo, not Sansa or Jon. We need to move on, but it would nice if my child was able to know his family and not believe the lies that everyone will tell him."
"Go to the maegi, but I will warn you that you may not like what you hear. Cersei Lannister didn't."
Crows surrounded them and Maya knew that it was time for him to go so she quickly hugged him. Maya stepped away from her father as the crows flew all around them, cawing at them. A white blinding light engulfed her entire vision,
Maya heard her father's two last words before she opened her eyes, "She's alive."
Maya quickly put on her riding clothes, tying a white cloak around her neck and covering her clothes. She wore a white tunic under a white vest and white breeches with boots. She tied on her sword and daggers as well to her belt. She walked out of their chambers and was about to make her way to the woods
"Maya?"
Maya stopped in her steps as she saw Jaime walking towards her with a curious expression. "Jaime."
"Where are you off to?"
"I was just going out for a ride."
"Oh, good then I'll come with you-"
"No, I want to be alone. I'm going to pray and then visit my father in the crypts."
Jaime looked shocked for a moment before he kissed her cheek. "I understand...you need to be alone right now."
She nodded sadly and put on an almost sad expression. "Yes, I haven't been there often and I want to remember them as long as I can in case I can't one day."
Maya pecked his lips before quickly turning away and walking out of the castle. Once Maya stepped over a hill in the woods, she quickly shed her cloak into a nearby bush. Maya tied her belt more firmly around her hips as she strode forward.
Suddenly Jaime came out from behind a tree and smirked at her. "Hello, Rose."
She knitted her eyebrows in confusion. "What...you followed me?!"
"You're a terrible liar and this just proves that I can't trust you anymore," he argued. "So whatever is it you're up to then I'm coming with you whether you like it or not."
Maya rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you right now, Jaime. You can trust me."
"As I recall once upon a time, you said to me 'trust is earned, I can't magically hand it over to you'," he recited her own words that she had said to him a long time ago. "Doesn't feel good now, does it? Now you know how I felt."
Jaime walked ahead of her while Maya didn't follow him and instead just glared at him. "Well, are you coming or not?"
Maya groaned in frustration. "It's this way."
Jaime smiled in victory as they walked together deep into the woods. "So where is this place? What are your plans?"
"My father came to me in a dream. He told me that Leo has an important part to play in the upcoming wars, to not trust Daenerys' dragons, and that my death involves being consumed by ice."
Jaime was stunned for a moment before he nodded. "Do you believe him?"
"Of course, he's my father, Jaime. He said that he didn't know your future because it is still undecided."
"Where are we going, Maya?" Jaime asked with a cautious tone of voice.
"We're going to visit a witch-a maegi, Jaime. So that they can tell us our future, I have to know."
"Why? Isn't better not to know and not screw it up. The future is inevitable and everything we do once we know it can't change it."
"I have to know. Cersei's paranoia became sad when she was told by the Maggy the Frog about her future. She didn't like any girl younger than she for fear that they would be the queen, more younger and more beautiful than she who will cast her down and take everything she holds dear. Why do you think she got rid of Margaery Tyrell because she was a queen?"
"Well that explains everything. Why the Tyrell girl though?"
"Because Joffrey was killed because of Olenna Tyrell, Tommen committed suicide because Margaery was killed, he loved her, and I heard a rumor that the Tyrells were willing to kill Myrcella if something were to happen to the Tyrells."
"The Martells killed her so I'm afraid that Margaery theory goes out the door. What about the Dragon Queen?"
"No, Cersei loves her children. It's the one thing that I admire about her. She doesn't care for power if her children are involved."
Jaime would not admit it aloud, but he thought that it was Maya. He thought that that was the only reason why Cersei wanted Maya dead in the first place.
As they continued to walk down the path to the maegi's cave in the woods, Jaime and Maya kept a close eye out for anything out of the ordinary.
"Whoa!" Jaime called out to her before pulling her back as she almost stepped into a trap where the animal would walk over an innocent pile of leaves and then end up in a deep hole trapped until the hunter returned.
Maya gave him a questionable gaze as she didn't see the whereabouts of the trap as he had. Jaime threw a rock into the pile of leaves, smirking in victory as he saw the leaves fall into the ground.
"Thanks."
"See? You do need me," he said before starting to walk ahead of her as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You are a damsel in distress, Rose. Point proven."
"Oh really," she drawled out in amusement.
Jaime smiled at her before he was suddenly thrown up into the air and hung upside down from a tree. Jaime twirled around as Maya smiled up at him.
"Still the damsel, am I?"
"Just get me down from here," he growled.
Maya took out her dagger. "Hold still, princess."
Sansa gazed impassively out of the little window in her chambers as Leo was cuddled into her arms, sleeping soundlessly.
"The view is beautiful," Littlefinger complimented from the doorway as he watched her. "Yet it is dreadful to touch...death itself."
Sansa appeared unaffected by his comment as she replied, "It is. You should tread carefully then, Lord Baelish."
He smiled for a moment before responding, "I mean no offense to you, Sansa. Never."
"You've already given it when you betrayed my father because you loved my mother and wanted her to yourself. I don't trust you-no one trusts you."
"Do you remember the day of Joffrey's wedding? The day I protected you from the Lannisters?"
"If only I knew that you would have failed protecting me than I would have left."
"On that day, Maya made a deal with me. I owed her a debt, yes, but that wouldn't save my life-it wouldn't give me what I wanted. By the laws, she is the Lady of House Stark. She has the right of power over all of the members of your family," Littlefinger announced to her. "If I took you away from Joffrey and protected you then she would make a deal."
Sansa's face became pale and she herself was rooted to the spot. She eyed him carefully as she stood up and asked him, "What kind of a deal?"
"She would owe me a favor. . I mean any kind of favor that my little heart desired. If I wanted someone dead, she would carry out the deed unquestionably. Maya would have to comply to whatever it was that I wanted her to do," he explained to her as he stepped closer. "I plan for that favor to give me your hand in marriage."
Sansa stared at him with her mouth gaping at him. "She wouldn't agree to something like this. She won't allow this because you failed at protecting me. You never kept me safe."
"I did the best I could."
Sansa scoffed. "You're a selfish man, Littlefinger. All you care for is yourself. You're lying to yourself if you think that you love me. You love the idea of me by your side as a victory. You love my mother and I happen to look like her. You're stuck in the past, Lord Baelish. Now please leave me with my nephew...or I'll have you forcibly removed."
TBC…
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