Eddard

The last week had been Hell for Ned.

Alys's disappearance weighing heavy upon him from the moment he found her room empty and her letter resting neatly upon her desk with his name upon it.

He'd spent the whole rest of that day and the day after with his men searching the keep, and the city, and had some of his men searching outside the walls as well. But Alys, and Howland, were both gone in the wind.

But then he'd been called back to the war, his duty torn between the rebels and his sister.

There was little to be done.

Little he could do.

Robert was still recovering from his injury on the trident, and Jon was needed beside him as they dealt with the implications of establishing a new king. Thus it had already been decided that he would lead his men to deal with the Tyrell's seige on Storms End, while Robert and Jon secured the city and the land surrounding it.

Thus Ned's duty lied not riding south in hopes of finding his sister, either of his sisters, but in riding east to Storms End.

He hated it.

But he'd do it.

Like with everything else since this all started, he'll do his duty.

He hopes, and prays, that Alys will be safe. The best comfort is that Howland is with her, and Ned knows if anyone will keep his sister safe it's the crannogman.

This knowledge though had done little to make Ned's week any better as he prepared for departing Kings Landing.

His last evening in the city was spent with Robert and Jon. Thankfully without the presence of Tywin Lannister who Ned found he had little to nothing nice to say about.

He ate with the pair of them, discussing their plans for when he arrives at Storms End and what was to be done about the Tyrells and the other lords of the Reach. He offers little of his own opinion, mostly he eats his food in sullen silence.

Eventually Jon retires to his own room and Ned is left with Robert.

"I don't think I've seen you so down-trodden," Robert remarks, reaching over and pouring more wine into both of their goblets. "Frowning about this keep the last week."

"My sister is missing."

"You know where she is," Robert points out, "and you know who she's with."

"It is not that simple."

"It's better than when we learned of Lyanna," Robert replies his own tone souring. "Didn't know shit-all when that news came." Ned sighs and reaches for his goblet, taking a long draw from it before setting it back down. "We've won, save a few strays that will be dealt with, we've beaten the Targaryens. Ended a dynasty going back centuries. The pair of us."

"It's you who will be king."

"If you'd like it just say the word," Robert laughs, already knowing the answer Ned will give.

"Not in any world," Ned laughs as well, though it was quieter than Roberts own booming one.

"Regardless of who sits on the throne, it was us. And Jon. We are who's building this new kingdom up." Robert smiles and reaches over to rest a hand on Ned's shoulder. "And soon you'll secure Storm's End, and find Alys who'll likely have found Lyanna by then."

"Yes," Ned nodded, "hopefully."

"Dorne." Robert shakes his head, "damned man dragged the poor girl all the way to that red waste."

"Lyanna once said she'd love to see Dorne," Ned noted.

"I doubt it was like this, kidnapped and Gods know what else." Robert frowns, his eyes getting the familiar rage behind them that came with the thought of Rhaegar.

"I'll simply be happy when my family is home," Ned sighs. "When I can see Winterfell again, and bury my father and brother properly."

"Don't go running off North so quick though Ned," Robert asks. "I mean it, we're building this new kingdom together, and if Jons right the first several months after the war finishes will be the hardest, the most important." Ned looks to Robert. His greatest friend holds his gaze, a determined look that reveals to Ned how important this is to him. "I need you at my side Ned, as much as I need Jon."

"The pair of you have always been better at southern politics than I, Robert." Ned offered.

"Exactly why I need your stubborn honor-bound ass in this city," Robert jokes, a smile on his face wide and honest. "I'm not asking for you to settle here in the city the rest of your life, just long enough to help me ensure this all doesn't come crumbling down on me the second we've settled in."

Ned looks over Robert, a man who has become as close as a brother, and sighs. "Alright," he nods, "I'll return, help you with it. And then I'm taking my, as you so politely put it, stubborn honor-bound ass home."

Robert laughs and refills their goblets. The pair of them settling into the night of drink and conversation as familiarly as though they were still two boys in the Vale with little to worry over but being found drunk by Jon.

The next morning Ned made his way into the Godswood before departing the city. He hadn't spent much time in the place after Alys had left, he saw little point in praying at a tree with no true connection to the Gods he wished to reach.

But he felt like visiting it all the same that morning. Perhaps more for Alys than any religious reasoning. She'd seemed fond of the place the day she left, so he made his way through the winding paths of the place that must have brought his sister some comfort in her year of solitude.

He eyes the big heart tree as he approaches it, a large oak with vines and smokeberries covering the trunks and carefully tended flowers of dragons breath cultivated around it. The eyrie hadn't had a weirwood either, as the tree had never been able to take root there. But if he'd ever wanted to find one all he'd had to do was head down the mountain to the Gates of the Moon castle's Godswood.

It was a sight to see, he figured, but a disappointing one for what it was meant to represent.

"She had the same look of disappointment when she first saw it," Ned turns from the tree to spot Jaime Lannister, looking relaxed upon a stone bench in the clearing about the heart tree. Ned figures he must have been there before him, and he'd been focused more upon the tree, and deep in his own thoughts, that he hadn't noticed Jaime was present until his voice spoke out. "I thought it was oddly funny. Especially considering she'd asked to visit it in the first place."

"It's not a weirwood," Ned responds gruffly, turning back to the tree. Hoping that Jaime will leave him be.

"No, evidently that was what had disappointed her," his voice sounds almost thoughtful, "didn't stop her from visiting it daily, kneeling and praying before it."

Ned keeps quiet. He had disagreed with Robert and Jon's decision to give Jaime free reign of the keep. Had voiced readily his opinion of the man many were starting to call 'Kingslayer'. It still hadn't been decided what ultimately would happen to him, or any of the kingsguard in truth. But Ned had been sure to tell Robert it would be a mistake to trust a man who readily cut down his former king.

Ned thinks, for a blessed moment of peace, that Jaime has decided to leave the conversation where it had fallen. But then the man steps up beside him, peering at him with sharp green eyes as he asks, "I heard she left?"

"I don't wish to, nor am I required to, discuss my sister with you." Ned states, glancing at the man. He recalled easily when he first saw Alys, he'd been ordering his men about after securing the throne room. Then he'd spotted her, it had taken him a second to realize she was talking with Jaime, a second more to note how close they'd stood or that she'd held her hand to his face. He'd had no time to really think further on it, as soon after she'd been his arms and all that occupied his mind was that she was there and she was safe.

But after, especially when he'd arranged the Jaime's seclusion within the keep, he'd thought of it further. Recalled Barristan's words, that the two of them had grown close. What Ned saw in the throne room was clear evidence of that, and Ned was certain he disliked it.

"I was simply curious whether you believe she is safe," Jaime asks, "she ran off, no? With some bannerman of yours, do you trust him and his skill to keep her alive?"

Ned turns more fully to the Kingslayer, he still looked much the same as when he last saw Jaime. His face gave little away to whatever was running through his mind, and his eyes held what seemed an ever-present glint of trouble to the emerald green. Ned disliked him, he disliked his actions and his disregard for honor. But the way he spoke gave more than his passive face, and Ned could see little reason for Jaime to ask after his sister other than concern.

So he sighs, "Howland has fought beside me since the Battle of the Bells. He's skilled, and resourceful." He watches Jaime carefully, but still finds him too hard to read. "He's also been close with both my sisters since Harrenhal, and I do not doubt that he would do all he could to keep Alys safe."

Jaime eyed Ned for a second of silence, before nodding, and shifting back to looking at the large tree once more. "It's quite funny really," he remarks after a few more moments, "she spends this last year, praying for your safety and arrival in Kings Landing." Green eyes peer over to Ned and he smirks, "to leave only days after you finally get here."

Ned frowns, but nothing more is said as Jaime tilts his head in farewell and leaves the northman alone at the tree. Ned watches after the knight as he walks away, and wonders after a moment if he'd come to the tree for the same reason Ned had.

Alys

Traveling through the Boneway was fairly monotonous. The days forming a pattern and rhythm that Alys wasn't sure if it made it feel quicker or slower.

Sometimes it depended on the day.

They usually woke with the sun, and Howland would likely already be up by the time Alys or Elia has awoken. He'd be readying a breakfast for them all, which Alys would often help him with if she woke before he finished. Elia would tend Aegon, and Rhaenys would spend most of her morning once she woke up either following one of the adults around or petting one of the horses.

Rhaenys had become especially fond of the horses, even taking up the task of naming them. Giving the titles Nymeria and Mors respectively after Elia told her the tale of her houses beginning one evening. She all but demands to help anytime Howland tended to one of them.

Alys had the feeling she was missing Balerion, she'd already asked once if they would go back to the keep some day to get him. But the horses proved a good distraction for the girl, and she seemed content anytime she was around them.

Aegon seemed to be doing well with the travel, another worry Alys had realized after they'd already started. But he had little to no issues with it, he slept well at night and didn't seem to be coming down with any illnesses. And when they stopped in the evenings he toddled around their makeshift camp after his sister.

Elia was not so favorably lucky. By the end of each day she seemed exhausted, almost always laying herself by the fire and finding sleep. Alys did what she could for her friend, keeping an eye on Rhaenys and Aegon, and making sure Elia was as comfortable as could be.

To say Alys was looking forward to the end of the traveling would be accurate. They were lucky so far, with little obstacles in their way and the weather being favorable considering the storm they'd exited during. She woke every morning and whispered a prayer that it would continue.

She wanted to be off the road. She wanted to be certain the five of them were safe. She wanted Elia to be able to rest properly and get well, and for Rhaenys and Aegon to not have to be traveling any longer.

She wanted to figure out where Rhaegar had left Lyanna in Dorne, and find her sister.

She wanted this all, so that at the end of it all she could finally go home. So she could see Winterfell, and Benjen, and the Godswood with its proper weirwood tree at its heart.

She was thankful when they were finally in Dorne proper, out of the Boneway and past Yronwood. Elia seemed to be as well, as it seemed the familiar sights of her home country brought some life back into her despite so long of feeling ill on the journey.

They are traveling through the more arid stretch of land between the forested foothills around Yronwood and the more fertile lands along the Greenblood river. Alys finds it hotter temperatures than she's ever felt, sweltering in the sun and thankful when they stop in a patch of shade by some rocks near midday for a rest. Elia basks in the sun though, and seems all the more radiant in her own homeland of comfort.

They lounge against the rocks, Elia and Alys with Aegon between them while they pass food back and forth. Howland is brushing down the horses while Rhaenys stands dutifully nearby with her own brush to assist him. "I think we're getting close to the Scourge." Elia remarks, looking out into the flat ground.

"Have you travelled through this way?"

"Once, Oberyn and I travelled to Yronwood for a time, until he got ran out for sleeping with the lords paramour and killing the man in a duel." Elia says while she smiles lightly at the memory. "He went overseas for quite some time after, in exile in all but name. He returned when Rhaenys was born. But if I recall he had plans in Essos after Harrenhal."

"Perhaps he came home with all that's been happening," Alys suggests.

"I'm sure he did," Elia looks down at Aegon, "we were always close growing up, with only a year between us in age." She runs a gentle hand over her sons head, a gentle and nostalgic look to her eyes, "I look forward to seeing him, and having him meet his nephew and seeing Rhaenys again. I look forward to being home, with family."

Alys smiles, and leans against the rock further, thinking once again as she often did of her own home and family and how far they were, especially now.

They spend only an hour or so resting in the shade before they return to horseback and continue onward.

Two hours pass when Howland stops them in their tracks. He holds a hand up and squints forward in the sun. "What is it?" Alys asks, but he shakes his head and his eyes fall shut a few moments before he turns to the two women on the horse behind his own.

"People, ahead," Howland shifted his gaze to Elia, "a few had sunbursts on their armor."

"Then it could be Martell men?" Alys inquires, shifting her grip on the reigns and looking the direction Howland had but finding it hard to see what it was he had.

"Most likely," Howland affirmed. "Is it worth the risk?"

"We're closer to my own people than those that would harm me," Elia states, "and if you are right and it's sunbursts on them then it is men of my own house." She shifts Aegon in front of her and peers over her shoulder to Alys.

"It's worth seeing," Alys finally says, "though perhaps we should be careful, hide Aegon, his hair gives him away the most."

Elia nods, "can you tell us when we're close enough to be seen? I'll shift my cloak, cover him."

Howland nods, and they cautiously continue forward.

Howland whistles after several minutes, low so only they can hear and with it Elia shifts her cloak carefully, not enough that Aegon was smothered but so he'd remain unseen by others. Alys gripped the reigns tighter and steered them closer to Howland and Rhaenys.

When she looks forward she can start to make out the figures Howland had noticed before them. Half a dozen men she counts, all astride horses and as they grow closer she can see that they're all armed.

They're close enough to make out the speared sunburst sigil on their clothes and the details of their faces when Elia sits straighter, a soft gasp from her lips as she seems to recognize them.

It took a second longer for Alys, but she she recognized the man at the front. He was of similar age to Elia, with similarly dark brown skin though his was darker from more time in the Dornish sun while Elia had been further north for years now. He looks much the same as when Alys had danced with him in Harrenhal. And he holds a similar reaction to Elia's own when he sees her, and soon a smile brightens his face as the two groups come to a stop in front of each other.

"Elia," he says, clear joy to his voice as he looks over the group. "We'd hard whispers from a spider that you were making your way home," his eyes flick back toward Alys where she peers over Elia's shoulder, "escorted by a wolf."

"Oberyn," Elia breathes out, and Alys feels the nerves fall from her as they arrive, perhaps not in location but in company, to the safety she'd longed to get Elia and her children to.

Thank you for reading! Also as always thank you for the favorites and the reviews. It always makes my day anytime I see all your thoughts and opinions on this story and what you think/want to happen next.

One note I feel like mentioning: In canon Ned leaves Kings Landing sooner than in this fic, he also doesn't return to Kings Landing after finding Lyanna. It's a bit different here primarily because of the fact that he and Robert aren't at odds over the deaths of Elia and her children, thus they don't have that rift in their friendship at this point like they did in canon.