Daisy wanted to laugh as she saw what was happening in the Winterfell courtyard. It would seem Tormund was trying to show Rickon and Lyanna how to use a club. Based on the light in Lyanna Mormont's eye, this had been a mistake on the man's part. Daisy dropped onto the walkway below, loping towards the covered wooden walkway that looked over the courtyard. Sure enough, there was Sansa, two of her royal guard politely near her.
It'd been a month. Daisy's feet sped up as she ignored the startled bows and sounds as people recognized her. As she strode the last few yards towards Sansa's side, Sansa turned. Her normally so controlled face lit as she spotted her. Sansa clearly meant to greet her.
Daisy swooped in, catching her face between her hands and words with her lips, kissing her soundly in greeting. It was more than nice.
Pulling back she knew her smile had turned soft and frankly she didn't care. "Hey."
Sansa huffed as her eyes flicked open, she didn't appear displeased, however. "Welcome back to Winterfell."
"Good to be back." She pulled out Jon's letter. "Jon's healthy, currently gleefully mining for dragonglass, and trying to convince the Dragon Queen to lend him dragons."
Sansa's eyebrows rose as she listened. "Dragonglass so quickly?"
"Let's just say the initial meeting went absolutely terribly, but Jon got dragonglass by pouting at your former husband about it." Daisy rocked back on her heels. "Also, when you said Tyrion was a drunk you meant it."
Sansa's face had that particular twitch that meant she wanted to pinch the bridge of her nose and was resisting through sheer force of will. "And the Dragon Queen?"
"I'm not sure yet, impressive though." Daisy considered her words. "No signs of her being insane so far, but she has no idea about Westerosi politics. Though I doubt that'll last long."
Sansa's blue eyes were sharp as she no doubt picked up the implication of why the first meeting had gone horribly. "I see, anything pressing?"
"Nothing that can't wait." Daisy resisted kissing the woman again, once might be accepted if scandalous. Twice was pushing it. Instead, she shifted so that she was leaning on the wooden railing looking down. "Anything exciting while I've been stuck on a boat?"
Sansa reached out, touching her arm. "Bran is back."
Daisy's head snapped back around to Sansa at the crack in her voice. She knew who Bran was, and there shouldn't be pain in Sansa's voice at the return of a living brother. "What's wrong?"
Daisy's eyes found Bran easily as she stepped into his rooms where he was seated by the fire. The medieval wheelchair would have interested her normally. Instead, what was intriguing to her was the music of his bones. They had the same near hymn-like vibrations of the weirwoods. She ignored the servant and the guard.
She walked slowly towards him. "Hello, it's Bran isn't it?"
His face was empty as he turned to her, but his eyes were the cold examining gaze Daisy had seen on a hundred scientists. His voice was as empty as his face. "I've been expecting you, Daisy Jonson."
"Have you?" She kept her voice light as she reached him.
Bran Stark's face was angular, near sharp in a way his siblings bore with better grace. It gave him a gaunt look. "Yes, I understand now why you were chosen."
"Oh, why was I chosen?" Daisy didn't look to see Sansa's reaction to her brother, if this was her brother.
"Made for destruction, born into war, baptized in blood, trained to kill, thrown into battle and death. Inhuman." He paused.
She raised a brow. "Huh, and you've seen all that and you're not afraid of me?"
"You would never hurt me." There was something like a hint of emotion there. "You were born for war, from a line of slaves designed for war and those that were broken under that legacy, but you spat on your fate. You are meant for death but instead, protect life."
Daisy paused properly at that. "And how did you see that?"
"You gave your blood to the face tree. Our blood contains our memories." He replied as if that made sense. Which horribly it did.
She dropped her arms to her hips. "And here your sister said you weren't talking much?"
"There was no point. They wouldn't understand." He was looking up at her with that same expression.
Daisy sighed. "Alright, why do your bones sing the same song as the roots of the face trees?"
"I am the Three Eyed Raven." He looked away from her then, his eyes going back to the fire. "I need to get better at looking."
Which…great. But if she'd understood Robin she could understand him. She stepped to the other side of the fire and leaned against the stone. "So, is being the Three Eyed Raven more of a what or a who?"
"A what and a who I believe." He replied.
She nodded. "Ok, and is Bran Stark a part of that who?"
Bran's head turned back towards her. "Yes, that sounds right." His eyes seemed to look through her. "I looked too far and too deep." He met her eyes then. "You're asking the wrong questions."
"Am I? What do you think are the right questions?" Daisy was fascinated. It was like a mental parasite maybe? All the weirwoods were connected, she knew that. If he was part of that connection as well….was it malignant or symbiotic? And if malignant was it reversible?
He had the faintest ghost of a smile then. "I don't know."
/
Sansa closed the door behind her as she followed Daisy into her solar. It was her public solar, not that anyone was allowed in without permission, but it was as close to alone as they would be for hours yet. Daisy had returned to her, Jon was alive, and Bran was still inside somewhere. She barely waited for the door to click shut before she was kissing her lover.
The physical warmth and solid presence of her was there and so real. Sansa didn't care that she was being ridiculous, that this was desperately improper, and that her guards certainly knew exactly what she was doing. She had a dozen tasks to be done before supper, but they seemed so inconsequential. Her hand buried in Daisy's hair was half clenched as she lost herself in sensation. It was addicting how this close she could feel the vibrations contained by the god in human form in her arms.
Sansa was forced to pull back to suck in air. She felt a jolt of pride at Daisy's blown out pupils. Her eyes were so dark they were nearly black.
"Hello to you too." Daisy nipped lightly at her before pulling ever so slightly further back. "Not that I mind, cause very hot, but here?"
Sansa closed her eyes. "No….." She breathed out and reluctantly stepped back. "Lord Manderly will be here soon."
Daisy caught her hands pulling her back in. "No sex, and five minute warning before he gets here, got it."
And well…Sansa didn't feel like protesting after that.
Sansa was distinctly not looking at Daisy to avoid her face flushing, as she listened to her Master of Ships. "So we have three ships that can reasonably be sent south for dragonglass immediately?"
"Aye, we can make it five total within three months if we intend to continue to ship in grains." Manderly replied, his hands clasped over his belly.
She nodded…their army was not large. The amount of dragonglass they could even shape would be limited. "Very well, see to it that the orders are given. We won't cut into our trade vessel numbers yet, but be prepared should it become necessary." Sansa looked at the tallies of food she'd ordered from across the North. "And send word that everyone is to continue rationing their food stores. This promises to be a long winter. Full stores now should not be treated as an excuse to loosen our belts."
"Aye, I'll see to it, your Grace. On the matter of the Targaryen, how far will you bend for her aid?" Manderly replied, there was a cautiousness to his tone.
Sansa flicked her attention to Lord Royce and Baelish. "The Vale has not bent the knee to me." She could tell Baelish understood her game. "Should your man on Dragonstone agree that this Targaryen is not mad, and of a reasonable temper, I would forsake any claim to the Vale."
"Your Grace!" Lord Royce's face turned red. "We've sent you our armies! Our Lord is your cousin!"
"And the Vale cannot stand against dragons the same as the North." She held his gaze. "Not with your army depleted from the war before us. The Vale bent to the dragons for a single flight of a boy King the last time a Targaryen landed on our shores. I would not suffer my cousin to be placed in so perilous a position as well."
Baelish cut in. "Surely you can't mean to hide in the Northern snow and leave the rest of us to suffer Targaryen rule?"
"If I am required to take the Iron Throne and fight this Dragon Queen to protect my people I will. But we cannot fight the Dead and the Dragon Queen. Not in the Vale, and not in the Riverlands." Sansa knew her voice was cold.
Daisy cleared her throat. "I've seen the Targaryen Queen once, Jon twice. No one is saying the matter is decided." She caught Baelish's eyes and held them. "However, I'd be happy to fly you with me to Dragonstone and assist you in coming to your own opinion." It was a very polite, if blatant threat.
Baelish dipped his head. "I'm sure the reports you bring us will be more than sufficient your Holiness."
"No decisions have been made. Though I would advise you to consider what you are willing to accept for peace. I will honor our alliance, whether you are to be my subjects or not." Sansa knew it was going to be a long meeting. But if Jon was going to do the impossible, she was going to drag her Lords to the negotiating table kicking and screaming if she had to.
Sansa pulled a clean shift over her head. She didn't bother with a wrap, or ought else. Her room was warm enough and it didn't matter if Daisy saw her in nothing but a shift. She paused on her way to the fire at the sound of snuffling at the door. She sighed and grabbed the wrap she'd just ignored, pulled it around herself, and came to the door and opened it. She smiled, reaching out and scratching behind Ghost's ears.
Ghost leaned into her touch before brushing past her into her bedchamber.
She shook her head fondly, before looking up and meeting her guard's eyes. "All quiet?"
"Aye, your Grace." Conin bowed his head.
Sansa gave a faint tip of her head in acknowledgment before closing her chamber's door and moving back towards the fire. She dropped her wrap over the back of a chair. "Ghost." She whispered nearly laughing as she realized the pony-sized wolf had climbed onto the bed.
Biting back her laughter she picked up Jon's letter and sat by the fire. She was quietly surprised Ghost hadn't woken up Daisy, but it was hard to gauge what would wake her, and what wouldn't. Shaking her head she settled in to read the letter properly as Jon's sister, not his Queen. She hadn't had time to really read the excited strokes of the quill, the hopeful blots of ink, and the sheer warmth of it all earlier.
She was wonderfully glad to see life returning to her brother. He'd been so horribly empty when he'd first come to her in Winterfell. Not that she'd been much better. Time was serving them both well. She could only hope it was enough to keep them from being hollowed out once more come the Dead.
Sansa was rereading the letter for perhaps the third time when there was a wheeze from the bed.
"Fuck! You're too big for that!" Daisy popped up, wheezing slightly as she shoved Ghost off of her.
Ghost licked a large stripe up the side of her cheek.
Daisy's face was deeply unamused, voice dry. "Thanks." She climbed out of bed, not bothering with grabbing any article of clothing. "Why does the horse-sized wolf get to sleep on the bed? Like he could suffocate you with all that fur."
Sansa did something she hadn't in years, she giggled at the sight of Daisy wiping drool off of her cheek while glaring at a smug Ghost laying on the bed. There was a helpless bubble of joy in her chest as the giggles turned to laughter.
Daisy rolled her eyes, as she finally grabbed the discarded wrap over the back of the other chair, and pulled it over her shoulders. It didn't do much to hide her nakedness. "Laugh it up, I almost suffocate and this is your reaction?" The way her eyes were smiling and soft as she reclined into the chair across from her was breathtaking.
Which, Sansa's mouth turned dry at the image before clearing her throat. "You're returning to Dragonstone then?"
"In a few hours. I should be there before the sun rises." Daisy hummed. "I'll be back as often as I can. But until things are more settled I shouldn't leave Jon alone long."
Sansa sighed, but she'd already known that was the truth of the matter. "I wrote a reply for him."
"I got it." Daisy ran her fingers through her own hair. "I'll try and speak with Daenerys before I come back, but I don't think she's mad."
She considered what Daisy had said in the small council meeting. "That could be far more dangerous." Sansa looked away from Daisy considering the hopeful idealism of her brother and practically optimistic view of her lover. "I should have asked you to kill Cersei months ago."
"Her being insane will keep Daenerys focused on the south, and if she's reasonable, open to negotiation." Daisy replied. "They call her the Breaker of Chains, and she's not burninating the countryside. She might not be a bad ally."
Sansa hated what the cost would be. "For an alliance, one that I and those sworn to me could accept…."
"The cost would be Jon." Daisy finished.
Sansa was honestly surprised as her head whipped back to Daisy. "How?"
"Just because it rubs me the wrong way doesn't mean I don't get it." Daisy seemed glib, but there was a faint flicker of hurt under it.
Sansa bit back a wince. "I didn't mean it like that, I know you're more aware of the game than most of my Lords, I just…I wouldn't have expected you to consider it a real possibility." Sansa explained, she knew Daisy and Jon were friends. That Daisy valued him.
Daisy softened. "If they like each other it's a valid option. If they don't we can figure something else out."
"Any ideas on that other option? Sansa asked. And gods she meant it.
Daisy nodded. "If there's no other choice, I kill the dragons." Her face twitched in disgust. "I really don't want to do that though. So if you think of something else that'd be awesome."
"Well, for now at least we have some time." Sansa would need to see to what truth there was to the old stories that a weirwood arrow would fell a dragon. If it was the case…Daisy was right, dead dragons made the situation tenable. And if arrows would work, she need not ask it of Daisy. Not that they were there yet. And it would certainly result in a full scale land war.
Daisy's face was distinctly amused. "You already had a plan for killing the dragons?"
"Did you expect anything else?" Sansa admitted.
Daisy shook her head. "Not really, making an entire species of very cool fire breathing lizards extinct would be tragic though."
Sansa actually paused at that, Daisy meant it. She wondered though she would not ask if the dragons were perhaps closer to what Daisy was than anything else. Bran's words about who Daisy was still wrung in her ears. In some ways, it'd been a confirmation of what she'd already known. Daisy was a protector. She cared for people. It likely was in part why Daisy was shying away from using violence to solve the southern problem. She didn't like killing. Didn't want worship, power, or any of the rest of it. Certainly not the terror she could invoke if she wanted. Was actively wary of the chaos she could invoke with a wave of her hand.
"Do I want to know where you just went?" Daisy asked, a playful edge to her voice.
Sansa shook her head. "It's not important." She stood, dropping Jon's letter to the seat she'd been in. "There's only a few hours left before dawn."
/
Jon had fallen into an exhausted slumber as soon as his head hit the pillow on his bed. He'd eagerly spent the day marshaling his men to begin mining the precious dragonglass in the morn. There was hope, finally, they would stand a fighting chance!
If he'd been conscious he'd have felt little surprise at his slipping into a wolf dream in the early hours as his body began to gently rise from the deep slumber he'd previously been in. Awake he was aware to some degree he had a bit of the warg magics. That he and Ghost were connected in a similar manner as Rickon and Shaggydog were. How likely all his siblings were with their wolves.
But he wasn't awake. Instead one moment he was in the dark warmth of slumber, and the next he slid into the familiar mind of Ghost.
He was warm, comfortable by a warm hearth. There was a prickle of pouting at being on the floor. Ghost cracked one red eye open, the strange shade of flames in front of him. For beasts saw not the world in the same array of color as man. Jon was nothing but a lazy blanket of a presence, perceiving what his wolf did.
Ghost huffed as he shifted, the sounds from the bed kept rousing him. Jon stirred in the back of Ghost's mind. He knew this room. It was Sansa's room.
As Ghost dragged a deep breath in, Jon and Ghost's nose wrinkled in disgust realizing what it was he was smelling. Their head swung around in alarm towards the bed.
Jon's eyes snapped awake as he slammed back into his own mind.
Jon's blood felt like it was boiling with pure rage. If he had fangs he'd be gnashing them. His hand fisted so tight, his leather gloves creaked from it as he stared at the empty, and unslept in bed where he'd known Daisy wasn't.
He slammed the door shut, and swept towards the attached solar of his own chambers where he knew his Lords would be served their morning meal. After all, he'd requested such so that they could begin their work as early as possible. And it was where Daisy would have gone if she wasn't in her room. After all, she'd planned to be back by first light.
Bile and rage burned at the back of his throat at what her not being back would mean. What it meant for his sister. He barely noticed the alarmed guard on his heels. Striding into the solar he saw red.
His gaze ignored his Lords, all there on his orders, the food, all of it. Instead, all he saw was Daisy, head thrown back as she laughed at something Davos had said. Her laughter faded, and her attention turned to him. Her stupid, lying, duplicitous face towards him as she raised a hand in greeting.
Jon snarled. He was across the room, grabbing the front of her jerkin, dragging her from her seat and slamming her against the stone wall inside a single breath. "Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you right now!"
"What the hell!?" She hissed, though she didn't fight his hold, her eyes narrowing. "Dude, what happened?"
Jon's shoulders settled, his jaw tightening as he realized his own men were only resisting dragging him off her due to her halting their movements with a faint wall of something tangible though not visible. The door to the solar slammed shut without a hand on it. He tightened his grip on the fabric, barely resisting the desire to wrap his hands around her neck. "I trusted you!"
"What are you talking about?" The confusion was galling in its genuineness. Was that a lie as well?
His fingers where they gripped her hummed with power leaking out.
Jon's lips pulled back, pressing her harder against the stone. "How dare you bed my sister!" After everything, every assurance that it was a lie, that it was to protect Sansa, that Sansa was safe. That her body was not a trading piece for power. When he was right there and willing to protect her.
Daisy's brow shot upwards. "Uh…old news? Did you hit your head?"
"It was a lie! You both said it was a lie! To protect her!" He snarled, his blood demanded he rip her throat out.
The confusion on Daisy's face burned him. "Jon, you need to calm down." She started to push herself off the wall.
He dug his heels in and a sound near to a growl left his throat as he slammed her right back into the wall. Inarticulate rage planted him there.
Her hands raised up as if in surrender. "Ok, not going anywhere." She blinked. "You're a warg, Ghost was in the room last night." Her eyes widened in sudden understanding. "Shit."
"She is not a piece of meat! You swore that was not the price of your help!" He should have killed her at the start. "We trusted you!"
Daisy moved then. One arm slammed across his arms holding her in place breaking his grip as she spun, pinning him against the wall. She had one of his arms twisted up behind him and pressed to the middle of his back, her forearm a bar against the back of his neck keeping his cheek pressed against stone, one foot hooked on his keeping him from struggling. Her strength was inhuman and unshakable. "Ok, you need to calm down, right now." Her voice had an edge of hardness.
Jon glared out of his one eye that could see her.
She tightened her hold slightly. "Look, you're pulling from Ghost and you need to stop. Your sister is safe. And we can talk about this as soon as it's just you in your head." The last part was unmistakably an order.
Fighting was out, he couldn't have broken her grip with any manner of thrashing. He grit his teeth and crammed his eyes shut. Jon could feel it, the strange otherness of his wolf dreams. His rage didn't leave him, but it did turn to a low simmer in his gut. The strangeness slid from his head till it was just him. Jon gave a sharp nod.
Daisy released him, stepping back instantly. "I did not coerce your sister into sex."
Jon rolled his shoulders as he turned to face her properly. "Then what were you doing in her bed an hour ago? Because I know what I saw."
"Which, super creepy and you're learning how to control the warg thing." Daisy crossed her arms, a tightness to her in the face of his challenge. "I didn't deny sleeping with her. Which you would know was consensual if you had been in your wolf's head longer than a minute or two." She rolled her eyes. "I guess props to you for not being gross and watching."
He blanched, of things he ever wanted to see, his sister like that was not one of them whatsoever.
"Right, sorry." Daisy blew out a breath, clearly having noticed his clear repulsion at having seen anything at all. "How did you not know till now?"
His jaw ticked slightly. "It was fake, you told me the courting was fake."
Understanding dawned across her face. "Ok, yes." She winced. "Look, Sansa is my friend. It was nothing to protect her from being forced into a political marriage. But I'm not so inhuman I wouldn't be attracted to her. I never would have acted on it. For fucks sake it wouldn't have been fair. I know that."
Jon swallowed, letting her words trickle through his fury. "Then what were you doing in her bed?"
"I said I never initiated, I didn't say she didn't." Daisy brushed some of her hair behind one ear. Her cheeks were definitely flushed, though her voice was still tight. "Your sister was very clear about what she wanted."
Jon forced his hands to unclench. He…he wanted to believe her. But he'd sworn to protect his sister, to make sure that she was safe. Was he wrong? "Can you prove that?"
"Jesus dude, how do you want me to do that? I could dump you back at Winterfell for the afternoon if you want to talk to her?" Daisy sharply waved a hand, disbelief showing as she snapped.
He considered it. "We both know Sansa would lie if she thought it was necessary." It felt like poison to admit it.
Daisy winced. "Fair. I…" Her face took on an actual pink tinge then. "For the very awkward however long you were in Ghost, not that it's really proof of any kind, you wouldn't have noticed exactly who was fucking who into the mattress?"
Jon made a vague choking sound. And then he felt like his face was on fire. For all the horror he had felt at the whole thing which had slammed him out of Ghost the second he realized what he was seeing, he had seen enough to notice that. He wished he could scrape the image out of his head with a knife and saltwater. But… he stumbled to a chair and dropped down. "Oh." His voice cracked.
"Right…not that it means anything, stupid sexual politics." She mumbled, eyes narrowing as she kept her eyes on him.
He stared at the floor. "I'm an idiot."
"You love your sister." Daisy remained standing there, a certain rigidness to her, arms crossed.
Seth's high-pitched throat cleared. "Uh…what?"
Jon's head snapped up and he felt his eyes widening in panic as he met the gazes of a half dozen Northern Lords staring at him in abject horror and confusion. "Ah…."
"For fucks sake." Daisy pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well that cat isn't going back into the bag."
Marlon Manderly's voice was uncharacteristically hesitant. "You weren't courting our Queen?"
Daisy's shoulders slumped. She ignored Jon entirely. "I was, but not on purpose at first, the courting customs in my realm are very different and I hadn't actually meant to. But Sansa asked to clarify my intent, and she's my friend. So once we realized what'd happened she asked me not to stop. Everything was so up in the air and after Ramsey, she wanted to avoid selling herself for political gain if she could help it."
"But your courtship was so grand?" Poor Seth pointed out. He looked positively crushed.
Daisy rocked back on her heels, her voice softening. And oh it was so clear how growingly angry her tone had been before. "I was protecting my friend, and it was fun. And then well…Sansa is kinda spectacular."
Jon made a wounded sound. Good gods, he knew Sansa trusted Daisy. That they spent a great deal of time together. Had seen them interact. More than that he knew Daisy. Knew she considered anything even touching on a lack of desire for sex from one party as repugnant. That she cared for people.
"So it was real?" Seth said slowly.
Daisy nodded. "Yes." She turned and glared at Jon. "And you, have you never heard of privacy! Christ, I should string you up for this. Sansa is going to kill you."
He wilted. "I thought…"
"That I'd as good as raped your sister." She hissed. "This is your mess. Clean it up."
Jon winced, he started to reach out only to recoil at the look on her face. "I didn't…"
"You meant every word." The hurt was blatant, he might as well have slapped her. Oh god, he'd physically attacked her. "The fact you thought you were protecting her is the only reason you're still breathing. Fuck you Jon." And then she walked to the door, anyone between her and it melting out of the way. It opened and slammed shut behind her without being touched.
Lord Greengood let out a long breath. "Good gods man…how are you alive?"
"Forget that, after you finish swearing us to secrecy you're going to have to beg forgiveness. And if she doesn't kill you, your sister will." Ser Moore cut in.
Davos set a letter in his hand. "Before that, she brought news. Your brother Bran lives, he's back in Winterfell."