JON
The last month was a bustle of activity as the castle was filled with lords from all over the north as they waited for the hand of the king to arrive at Winterfell to listen to the lord's complaints.
Jon had started walking around on his own now and didn't need any help with dressing anymore as his arm was no longer in a sling to restrict his movements. Jon had been really tired at blushing like a fool every time he saw Sansa, because she was always the one to help him dress. It wasn't that he was ungrateful for her help, he really appreciated her help, but the embarrassment was killing him.
Jon had now fled to the library, he had been hounded by the lords, they were all very interested in how he had fought the Ramsay Snow and his men and the library was the only place that he had any peace from the questions.
He also wanted to be as far away from lady Stark as possible, she was rushing around the castle and making sure that every lord and lady in the castle had everything that they needed for their stay, and Jon didn't want to be in her way. She was in a fowl enough mood to begin with.
She was sending him such glares that Jon had been worried that he would spontaneously catch on fire if he wasn't careful, it seemed that the events of the last month hadn't made her think any better of him.
Jon just shook his head as he refocused on the book in front of him. It was an old journal that clearly hadn't been used for many years and Jon couldn't make out the name of the maester that had written it, he could make out the letter M and the letter F, but otherwise the name was undecipherable.
It had great ideas on how to make the north into a powerhouse to rival the Reach and the Westerlands. One of the ideas was that they could plant rye, wheat and barley, which all grew in the cold climates of the north. The author suggested that they could make an alcoholic beverages out of these plants, as well as using these products for making food.
And that was just one of many great ideas that the author had, as he read on Jon grew more and more convinced that he had to show his uncle this journal.
He was so engrossed in the journal that he didn't hear the sound of footsteps approach him from behind.
"What are you reading?" Jon jumped at the voice of his young cousin, and as he turned around, he could see that Arya was standing behind him, grinning like a cat.
"Arya, don't sneak up on people like that, you nearly killed me." That may have been a little exaggerated, but she had scared the living hells out of him.
Arya just giggled at his suffering. "I didn't sneak, I walked normally."
Jon rolled his eyes at her as he closed his book. "What brings you here?"
"Father sent me, lord Arryn and his men were spotted, and you need to be in the courtyard with the rest of us." She answered with a smile.
Jon just shook his head again, he would be standing beside Theon Greyjoy, much to their shared grief. Greyjoy´s dislike of Jon hadn't lessened in the last month since Jon had been made a knight, in fact, the iron born had grown to like him less if that could be believed.
Jon placed the journal in his pocket and grabbed him cane. He only had to use the blasted thing for around a month or so more, maester Luwin estimated that by then Jon could be walking around without it, to Jon´s happiness.
Arya had been enjoying the fact that the northern lords were in Winterfell, she had taken a liking to the second youngest Mormont girl, Jorelle Mormont who was often called Jory.
They had been running around Winterfell playing pranks and getting into trouble. It made Jon feel so happy for his little sister to see her finally have a female friend who had so much in common with her.
Sansa had been making a lot of headway into repairing their relationship, but they were sisters and while Sansa was trying to make sure to take interest in everything Arya loved, she didn't have the same burning passion for weapons and horseback riding.
But Lady Jorelle did have the same passion as Arya for learning to use weapons and riding horses, and Jon had seen Arya and her new friend spend hours talking about their shared interests.
"You didn't answer my question." Arya piped up as they exited the library and headed for the courtyard where all the lords of the north would be gathering.
Jon smiled gently at his sister, for she would always be his little sister, no matter who he called father. "It is an old journal I found; it has some good ideas that I want to put to lord Stark."
Arya nodded, seemingly putting this out of her mind, but then she frowned at Jon. "Jon, why do you call father, lord Stark now?"
This question made Jon freeze in place. He had been worried that someone would catch on to him sooner rather than later, but he had hoped that no one would have noticed that he had stopped calling Eddard Stark father.
It didn't feel right anymore, and he was getting tired of the lies, but he couldn't start calling the man, uncle. So, he had just started to call the man lord Stark when anyone that didn't know the truth was around.
"Well, I do it because it is respectful." He could feel the guilt start gnawing at his insides for his lies. He really didn't want to lie to her, but he couldn't tell her that lord Stark was his uncle and not his father. Arya was only five-years old now and she could accidentally say something to someone.
Arya frowned at his response. "Should I call father, lord Stark too? I don't want to be disrespectful to him." The worry in her eyes made him feel even worse for lying to her, perhaps it would have been better just to call his uncle, father.
Jon shoved the guilt down before he responded. "No, you are a trueborn daughter of house Stark, you can call him father." He tried his best to smile at her, but he was sure that it came of as a grimace.
Arya didn't seem convinced at his words. "But you are his son, you can call him father." Her logic must have seemed infallible to a five-year old, and he loved her even more for not caring about the difference between a trueborn child and a bastard one, but she was only a five-year old.
Jon did his best to kneel in front of her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Arya, I am a Snow, you know that." Arya nodded her head, he remembered when she had come to him crying, fearing that because they looked alike that she was a bastard too, it had happened a few months before Jon, Sansa and uncle Ned had come back.
"And as a Snow I am expected to behave differently from trueborn children. I have to show the lords more respect than my trueborn counterparts." He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
"But that´s not fair." She stated looking as sad as only a five-year old could.
A small smile creeped out on his face at her words. "I know, but life is rarely fair, but I am just glad that I have you as my sister."
His last words made her smile as brightly as the sun as she then jumped at him to hug him around the neck.
When she finally let him go, he rose back to his feet and they continued their walk to the courtyard.
The courtyard was filled with northern lords, all ready to greet the hand of the king, lord Jon Arryn.
Jon could see that the lords seemed happy that the hand was making the long trip to Winterfell to hear their complaints, even though every lord and lady in the north knew that Robert hadn't asked his hand to travel all the way here to hear them out.
However, the man that Jon Arryn served, Robert Baratheon wasn't in high regard in the north at this moment and likely wouldn't be anytime soon.
Jon would even go so far to say that the man was hated here in the north, the anger at the man that claimed to be the lord protector of the realm was almost suffocating.
Arya and Jon separated, as she headed to the lineup of the Stark children and Jon headed to where maester Luwin and ser Rodrik were standing. Jon took his place beside the older knight and Theon Greyjoy who scowled at him nastily, but Jon paid him no mind.
They hadn't been waiting long when the first Arryn banners appeared in the courtyard of Winterfell. The Arryn party wasn't large, but they did travel with a small carriage drawn by four lovely gray horses.
As the carriage came to a stop in the courtyard, lord Arryn himself rode into the yard followed by his wife and a dozen knights.
Lord Jon Arryn had clearly once been broad shouldered and handsome, that much was clear, but those days seemed to be over for him. As he smiled at his one-time ward, lord Eddard Stark, Jon could see that his name sake had half of his teeth missing and most of his once blond hair had fallen out or turned gray.
His wife was a fraction of his age however, but while she was around two years younger than her sister, the lady Stark, she looked like she was ten-years older than lady Catelyn. She had the look of someone that had been quite overweight and lost that weight in an extremely short amount of time, as her skin seemed to hang of her, like the clothes that she was wearing.
While her clothes were in the Arryn blue and white, they didn't seem as elaborate and expensive as the wife of the hand would be expected to wear.
She was helped off her horse by one of the knights, as her husband was greeting his former ward, she then approached her sister and the air between then couldn't have been any colder. It seemed that lady Stark was having a hard time forgiving her sister for her infidelity and mothering a bastard.
Jon could also see that when she greeted her good brother, that she hadn't forgiven him either for his crime of trying to send his wife´s bastard to lady Catelyn´s father, to be raised in Riverrun.
Jon Arryn then went and greeted the Stark children, like Robert had done in another lifetime, but while Robert Baratheon had been jolly and always seemed half drunk or on the way to be half drunk, Jon Arryn had an air of an kindly grandfather, as he walked down the line, greeting all the children of Eddard Stark.
After greeting the Stark children, he went and greeted the northern lords, and it seemed like he knew many of them, but that shouldn't have come as a surprise to Jon, many of the lords had been with uncle Ned in the rebellion and must have meet Jon Arryn.
As the lord and lady Arryn were making their rounds, Jon could spy a woman getting out of the carriage with a two-year old in her arms.
The boy had brown hair and the Tully blue eyes, and it was clear to Jon that this was Robert Waters. The little boy seemed sickly and weak, and on the verge of crying but was trying to hold it in.
Lysa Arryn seemed to want more than anything to run over to the woman and the child and rip the boy from the woman´s arms. Jon felt a swell of pity for the lady of the Vale, as she stared at her young son with her pale, watery eyes.
After Jon Arryn had greeted all the lords and ladies, the lord hand and his party were led away to their rooms so that they could freshen up before the feast, that lord Stark was holding in his honor.
The feast begun as soon as it was starting to get dark, and like all other northern feast, it was loud and had the ale and mead flowing freely. It bore startling resemblance to the feast Jon´s uncle had thrown for Robert Baratheon when he had arrived in Winterfell, but there was one clear difference for Jon.
He had been placed by the Stark children this time.
Jon had been seated between Robb and Sansa, and he was observing the inhabitants of the great hall of Winterfell. The northern lords and ladies were clearly enjoying the hospitality of Eddard Stark as they cheered and toasted to the health of the lord of Winterfell.
The air in the hall was heavy with the smell of roasted meats and smoke, reminding Jon of his dragons that were hiding in the Wolfswood. He had been longing to see them but with all the guests in the castle and Jon having a hard time moving around in the last few weeks, he hadn't been able to.
But Jon resolved to go tonight, with everyone drunk and enjoying themselves at the feast, it shouldn't be hard for him to sneak out to visit Algernon, Earendil and Illyrion.
Even though he could warg into them anytime he wanted, it wasn't the same as spending time with them.
It felt surreal to sit here, at the high table when lord and lady Stark were entertaining such important guests like the lord hand and his wife. But much to his relief, no one thought any of it that he was sitting there, with his cousins, in front of all the lords of the north and the hand of Robert Baratheon.
He could feel the heat of Sansa´s body as she leaned closer to him. "Are you alright Jon? You look a little distracted." Her blue eyes bored into his grey ones.
He smiled at her and whispered back to her. "I am fine, but I want to go and see them tonight."
Sansa looked a little worried at first, she must have thought that he wasn't up to it, with his leg still recovering. Then she seemed to accept that he was going and there wasn't anything that she could say to stop him.
She rolled her eyes at him, before she smiled a little at him. "Do you think that I should come with you? It is a bit of a walk and you are still hurting."
"I think I will be fine, Sansa. I have been walking around a lot and I will take breaks." He tried to reassure her that he would be fine, but she was worried, and he knew that no amount of reassuring would make her stop her from worrying.
After some time, Jon decided that it was time for him to go, he couldn't really wait any longer. He excused himself from the table and exited the great hall.
He went to his room and found his black cloak that he used when he went on one of his nighttime walks into the forest to meet his dragons, and he noticed that it was getting rather small, it seemed that he was growing a lot faster than in his former life.
Jon walked through the deserted hallways of Winterfell and he used the east gate that was not used as much as the other gates, unless it was for a hunt as it led directly in to the wolfswood, which suited Jon´s purposes perfectly.
Jon had done this so many times by now that he knew the guard´s schedules by heart. Jon waited until the guard left his sight, then he left the castle though the east gate and disappeared into the wolfswood.
The night was beautiful, and the moonlight was so bright that it made the forest look like it was enchanted, and the stars twinkled cheerfully down on him was he limped his way to the caves that hid the only three dragons left in the known world.
He could always feel them in his mind, no matter if he was awake or asleep, they were always with him, just like Ghost had been in his past life.
He could feel them now, they were waiting for him in the clearing, and he could feel their excitement at seeing him after such a long time apart.
The walk took a longer time than usual, on the account of his limp. But when he arrived, he saw them waiting for him. Illyrion was glowing hauntingly in the pale moonlight and he let out a happy thrill as he saw Jon approach him, Earendil had been feasting on a large buck when he entered the clearing, but the emerald dragon stopped immediately as Jon limped to them.
Jon glanced at the entrance of the cave, the opening of the cave was as dark as the void and Jon could only see the glowing red eyes of Algernon as he appeared out of the darkness like a wraith.
Illyrion and Earendil got to him first and Jon noticed that in the month that he hadn't been able to see them, they had grown. They were still too small to be ridden, but Jon was sure that in a year, Jon could start going on short nighttime flights.
Algernon hurried over to them and Jon was having trouble with petting the three of them with only one hand as the other was still clutching the cane, that was keeping him upright.
He stood there in the clearing, just trying to pet his dragons with one hand, feeling the happiness swell in his chest.
Jon took a seat on one of the fallen trees, to rest his leg. Now with both his hands free, he could do a better job petting them.
"My, they are getting big." Jon jumped at the voice and looked to where the voice had come from. Jon could see the Stranger standing there, in his usual black and white clothing.
He was just as unnerving as Jon had remembered him being and his stare was just as penetrating and chilling as it had been when Jon had met him beyond the wall more than six months ago.
All three dragons looked at the Stranger and showed him their ink black teeth. They clearly didn't like him by the way they were looking at him.
But the Stranger only smiled at them, his smile was joyless and cold, and his teeth reminded Jon of fangs for some reason.
He approached them and the dragons seemed to flank around Jon, for his protection. Illyrion went behind Jon to guard his back, while Algernon placed his head in Jon´s lap and Earendil remained in front of him.
Jon smiled at the dragons for their protectiveness of him. "They don't like you." Jon stated to the Stranger.
The Stranger laughed at that, his laugh was just like his smile, cold and joyless. "Of course, they don't, no one likes death." He stopped a little way from Jon and the dragons.
"But that is not why I am here." The Stranger stated as he stared at them with mild curiosity in his colorless eyes. "I am here to help you."
This piped Jon´s curiosity, everything that the Stranger would tell him, he really wanted to know, so he stayed quiet and waited until he continued.
"It is about the Boltons and the Dreadfort." Jon frowned at that, now that the lord of the Dreadfort, his heir and his bastard son were all dead, the castle and all its lands were now in the hands of house Stark until Jon´s uncle would most likely give it to someone that had either served house Stark well or maybe even Bran.
Jon knew that lady Stark would fight with all her might for Bran to inherit the Dreadfort, its lands was larger than Moat Cailin and Queenscrown and it wasn't a ruin, so that all it needed was a competent castellan and it would be ready for Bran when the time came for him to rule the Dreadfort.
Jon stayed silent as he petted Algernon´s large head and waited for the Stranger to continue.
"As you know, Roose Bolton and his bastard son were killing people and torturing them in the Dreadfort." The Stranger looked up to the stars and locked his arms behind his back as he stared up at the sky. "And I know your uncle is going to the Dreadfort to find the proof of the late lord Bolton´s guilt."
Jon nodded his head. "Aye, when he is done talking to lord Arryn about the castles on the wall."
The Stranger didn't look down from the stars that glittered like diamonds above them. "Yes, but it will be pretty hard to find the torture chamber if you don't already know where it is."
"And you are going to tell me where it is?" Jon guessed as he continued to pet Algernon, that was still snarling at the Stranger, who paid the black dragon no mind.
The Stranger looked finally looked back down. "Of course, I am going to tell you and you are going to travel to the Dreadfort with your uncle and find it."
Jon frowned at that. "Why me?" He couldn't help but to wonder why he had to be the one to find the torture chamber.
The Stranger almost smiled at that. "I will tell you when the time is right." Silence fell over them, as the Stranger looked back to the stars.
It was some time before the Stranger spoke up again. "Go to the belly of the beast, deep in its bowels you will find a flayed man, bathed in darkness and you will know that you are in the right place."
With that the Stranger left, and it was like he had never been there before, leaving Jon and the dragons alone in the clearing.
EDDARD
The feast last night had been almost as loud as the feast as Ned had hosted for Robert in his last life, and his ears were still ringing from the noise.
Jon Arryn was sitting in front of him, in Eddard´s solar as the older man was looking over the plans for the castles on the wall.
Ned had felt the tension in the air between Jon and his wife, it had been very awkward at first, sitting with them. But as the Ned had started to talk to friend and mentor, the awkwardness had faded away between them, but it hadn't for the Tully sisters.
The atmosphere between Ned´s wife and lady Arryn had been frosty at best, and Ned was getting worried that they would never get over this.
Every time Cat looked at her sister, Ned could see the anger in her eyes for shaming their father and their family. Family, duty, honor, or so the Tully words went. Family came first.
And Lysa had discarded those words when she shamed her family by being unfaithful to her husband and having a bastard and trying to pass said bastard of as Jon Arryn´s trueborn son, and now she was paying the price for her infidelity.
Ned could see how much this matter was hurting Jon, he had thought that his legacy was secure in young Robert and finding out otherwise must have been heartbreaking.
"These plans are impressive Ned, and you said that your bastard made them?" Ned was brought out of his thoughts by Jon´s question.
Ned could see how Jon´s eyes were light up with wonder, at seeing the plans. They were really good and would go a long way to help the watch, but only if they had the funding for them.
"Yes, Jon did almost all the work on the plans, and we are really hoping that you can talk to Robert about helping us fund the project." Ned looked at his mentor with hope that the older man would tell him that he would go to king´s landing and convince Robert that he needed to do his duty to the north.
But Ned felt his hope die in his chest, as he watched Jon turn sad as the older man looked down on the plans in his hands. "Ned, these plans are excellent Ned, and if I could, I would approve them now, right here at this moment." The hand of Robert Baratheon fell silent as sorrow filled his eyes.
"But Robert will never approve of it." This made Ned frown. Why would Robert not want to spend money on the wall? He spent fortunes on tourneys, but why not the very wall that kept a large part of the seven kingdoms save?
"Why not?" Ned asked his foster father.
Jon shook his head. "I am really not sure, a part of me thinks that he just wants to spend that money on his whoring, drinking and tourneys." He was silent for a moment; it was like he was contemplating if he should tell Ned something.
Then the older man shook his head and smiled sadly, but Ned had seen this smile before. Jon had always had that smiled when Robert had done something stupid or reckless, but the last time Ned had seen that small, sad smile was when Ned had left King´s landing to lift the siege of Storm´s End.
Ned had a feeling that Robert either had done something stupid or was planning to do something stupid, but what could it be? Now that Robert was sitting on the iron throne, it was hard to contain his rashness and his inclinations.
"What is it Jon?" Ned asked him and leaned forward on his elbows.
But the older man just shook his head again. "It´s nothing Ned, I am probably just over thinking this." Ned wasn't satisfied with this answer.
"Jon, the north´s safety is on the line here. I need to know." As far as Ned knew Robert hadn't done anything at this time in their last life, had he been planning to do something in their last life but Jon had managed to stop it because he had been in king´s landing, but he couldn't stop him now that he was in Winterfell.
Jon sighed at Ned´s words. "I am just worried about him, Ned. He spends so much time doing anything but ruling and the Lannisters have almost taken over the capitol and we cannot find the books on the crown´s finances. We don't know where Littlefinger hid them."
This made stare at the lord of the Eyrie in shook. They didn't know where the books about the crown´s finances were located.
Ned couldn't find any words at the moment to express his shook. "Jon, why on earth was that man allowed to take the books out of the Red keep?" The books were an essential part to keep the kingdoms running like they should, and the fact that Baelish had been allowed to take them out of the castle was a grave oversight.
Jon looked like he had aged ten years over the course of their conversation. "At first he wasn't allowed to, but as he started to find Robert more and more money for his atrocious spending, Baelish was allowed more and more leeway in his work at finding Robert the money he so likes to spend."
Ned closed his eyes in frustration, how could they have let that worm take the book out of the keep, but Ned knew that he wasn't in any position to judge Jon and Robert for trusting Baelish, when Ned himself had done so as well, and he had paid for that mistake with his life.
They had all paid for their mistake of trusting Petyr Baelish, and now all that was left of Ned to do was to learn from his mistakes since he had the opportunity to do so.
"I know it was wrong of Robert and I to trust Baelish with the books." Jon leaned back in his chair. "We have searched everywhere but we cannot find them, and now Baelish is somewhere out there, doing gods only know what."
Wait, what? Petyr Baelish wasn't in the Red keep´s dungeons?
"Jon, what do you mean? I thought that you would have arrested Baelish." Ned stared at his friend and mentor in shook.
But Jon just gave Ned a disappointed look. "Of course, I did Ned, but he escaped two days after I threw him in the black cells." Ned could feel his heart drop in his chest at these news, Sansa and Jon were convinced that Littlefinger was one of the most dangerous men in the seven kingdoms, and Ned was inclined to agree with them, and now he was unaccounted for.
Ned buried his face in his hands, this was not good.
"Now, Ned it´s not as bad as all that. Lord Varys is looking for the man so I doubt that Baelish will stay hidden for long." Jon´s words didn't nothing to settle Ned´s worries.
"Are you sure that lord Varys can be trusted?" Ned asked the lord hand and he didn't even try to hide the disbelief in his voice.
Jon just shrugged his shoulders. "Well it was him that told me of the affair." With these words, Jon had stolen all words out of Ned´s mind and the lord of Winterfell just stared at the older man.
"What?" That was the only thing that he managed to croak out.
Jon nodded absentmindedly. "Yes, I was surprised as well when he gave me the news. But here we are."
In their last life, Varys hadn't said anything of the sort to Jon, Ned was sure of it. That meant that it was Varys that remembered in the capitol, but on who´s side was the man?
"Which reminds me." Jon said as reached into his pocket and pulled out a parcel and placed it on the table. "Lord Varys asked me to send you this."
Ned frowned at that, why was the master of whispers sending him anything. Ned took the parcel of the table and examined it, it was something square, thick and bound in brown cloth that had been tied with a thin rope.
Ned glanced at his mentor and untied the rope, as he opened the parcel and removed the cloth, it revealed a book.
It was a thick, nondescript journal that Ned had never seen before.
Jon looked at Ned with curiosity. "Why is Varys sending you an old journal, Ned?"
