It was good food and good company that led to Arya getting a very restful night's sleep. Mina and Prycella were very amusing to listen to, and they were two people that knew how to get through the rough times in life without breaking. It was something that Arya really envied about them, and it made her want to protect them even more. She wanted to ask them to come to Winterfell for the rest of their days, but she knew they would say no. If they went to Winterfell, they wouldn't be able to take care of anyone who asked for help, and that was what they stood for. That is what they had done since their husbands had died during Robert's Rebellion, and that is what they were planning on doing for the rest of their days.
Arya made a note to send a letter to Edmure and Roslin to have someone send out supplies to the two sisters at the very least. They earned that much considering the lives they had saved over the years. Gendry was still asleep when Arya woke up, and she watched him as the sun came up. They were staying in the same room that they stayed in the night of the attack, and it brought back bad memories. It made Arya think about Gendry lying so far away from her and how still he was back then. It made her think about how pale he was and how she wasn't even sure that he was alive. It made her think about how the thought of losing him made her panic in a way she hadn't felt in a long time. It was a room and a moment where Arya had to be honest with herself about what this man meant to her.
Now, so many years later, they were lying in the same bed, and she didn't have any worries about his health. Gendry was well fed and healthy. They didn't have to worry about making their next meal or some Lannister soldier coming to cut off their heads. He had family in Winterfell and in Storm's End. He had her, and she had time. This was the room where they touched for the first time and where they kissed, for that alone, Arya was always going to be grateful to that bandit for nearly taking their lives. She didn't know if she would have ever really crossed the line with Gendry if their own mortality hadn't become painfully apparent that night.
She placed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth and climbed out of bed so he could sleep a little longer. Mina and Prycella were already awake and moving around their small house when Arya walked downstairs to join them. The sisters smiled when they saw her and gestured for Arya to take a seat at the table.
"You know you don't need to treat us or anything," Arya said.
"We're treating you the same way we treat any travelers whose company we appreciate," Mina said.
"You aren't as special as you think you are," Prycella said with a wink, and Arya felt herself blush a little at the implication that she was the one thinking that the sisters were treating them differently when they weren't. "How did you sleep?"
"Very well, thank you," Arya said as she drank the tea that Mina poured for her. "We've been riding pretty hard to get back to the North, and Gendry is exhausted, so I thought I'd let him get a little more sleep before we leave."
"Yes, that boy still doesn't know how to ride a horse, does he," Prycella said as she finished toasting a little bread and setting it out for them to eat. Arya laughed to herself and shook her head.
"No, he's never going to be a proper knight from the songs, but we barely have knights in the North anyway, so it doesn't really matter," Arya said as she took another sip of her tea. "The title was more to make everyone else see that he was worthy of me and to make him see that he's worthy of me. The differences in our status has always been an issue for us."
"It probably always will be," Mina said as she sat down. "You could put all the titles on the world on that boy, but you can't get rid of what he spent his childhood hearing or how he was raised. He's never going to really think he's equal to you no matter what anyone says."
"I hate it," Arya whispered. "I hate that he looks down on himself because he's the best person I know. I'd do anything for him, and I would choose him every time. I just hope he knows that." Prycella walked over and joined them at the table with some fresh fruit from a tree from the back of the house. They didn't talk about Gendry or their differences in status again, which was good because Gendry stumbled out of the room not long after. Arya had to hide her laugh at the pillow crease down the side of his face or the way his hair was sticking up in every possible direction. It was getting a little long and starting to fall into his eyes in a way that made Arya swoon a little like the maidens from the songs that Sansa used to long as a little girl.
"We were just talking about you, boy," Mina said as she gestured to the empty seat and food waiting for Gendry to eat.
"When the three of you kill me, just make it quick and painless. I don't want to see it coming," Gendry said as he took a sip of the tea and seemed to melt into the chair. Mina and Prycella both smirked like they knew something that they didn't, and the four of them settled down for a decent breakfast. They needed to leave soon to get back on the road, but Arya didn't want to leave these two just yet. They made her heart feel warm and, in a way, they reminded her of her mother, and she didn't want to abandon that feeling.
"Arya," Prycella said, and her voice was very different all of a sudden. "Were we right all of those years ago? Did you never get your moon blood again?" Arya didn't like to think about the fact that she couldn't have children very often or the fact that the bandit attack that gave her Gendry stole her choice as to whether or not she wanted to bring a child into the world. She knew that it wasn't the right time all of those years ago, and it was easy to ignore it when the world was at war. They were at peace now, and all people could talk about were heirs. No one besides the immediate family knew that Arya couldn't have children.
"No, it didn't," Arya said softly, and Gendry reached over to take her hand tightly in his own. "We couldn't carry around a babe in a war, but we're not at war now, and I'm a princess, and you know how it is with the greater houses and carrying on names."
"I have some idea," Mina said. "We lost our sons in the same war as our husbands and we never remarried. We decided we wanted to stay together instead. That's why we stay together and why we are going to die together because we're all that we have. That didn't mean we didn't help children throughout our lives after our sons died. We raised a few here and there that went off to live their own lives and still come back to visit us sometimes."
"Some of those children even have children now because we're old," Prycella said, and the two sisters laughed a little to themselves.
"What I'm saying is," Mina said. "I know that nobles believe in blood relations, but you two know that family is what you make of it. If you want to go out there and find a little one to take care of and make your own, you should but only do it when you're ready. Despite what all of the masters of the world might think, you're still young and don't need to raise children now."
"And since you're not going to be birthing any, you don't have to do it on anyone's terms but your own," Prycella said. "When you two are ready to expand that little wolf pack of yours, you will. It's another of one of those burdens that you don't think you're strong enough to carry, but you will."
"And if any lord or lady thinks it is any business what is going on between your legs, you stick them with your sword, Wolf," Mina said with a smirk that spoke of death. For the first time, Arya wondered if these two had killed a few people in the many years they had been working as healers. She glanced at Gendry; they hadn't really talked about having children yet, and she didn't know if that was something that he even wanted.
"Arya," Gendry said because he always seemed to read her better than anyone in the world. "When we're ready, I would be honored to raise a child with you."
"Me too," Arya whispered. She didn't like to cry in public, but this was Mina and Prycella, so it didn't count. They wouldn't tell anyone how the tears unexpectedly fell from her eyes as she practically crawled into Gendry's lap. They wouldn't tell how the two of them held into each other for what felt like a very long time and whispered sweet nothings to each other. Arya couldn't help but think of her mother. She wondered what Lady Catelyn would think about Arya and her bastard knight husband thinking of raising someone else's orphan as their own. She wondered what the Lady Catelyn would think about Arya even considering motherhood for herself somewhere down the line. As always, Arya hoped that her parents would be proud of the various choices that she made in her life.
They didn't stay much longer at Mina and Prycella's, and no one spoke about the tear tracks on Arya and Gendry's faces as they hugged the two healers. Arya promised that they would come by to visit the next time they passed through the Riverlands. She wanted to make sure that they stopped by every single time they came through the Riverlands to see these two until the day they both sadly passed. Nymeria was waiting for them outside and had left a massive elk sitting in the yard of Mina and Prycella's house. Gendry offered to butcher it for them, but the two sisters pulled out massive knives out of nowhere and insisted that they could take care of themselves.
Arya believed that they could.
It was a beautiful cool day as they continued up toward the North. It was beginning to get a little cooler since it was still the early spring, but Arya didn't mind. She felt a little clearer, the closer they got to their home. Arya decided against seeing if the Frey's were holding up their end of their bargain and trusted Edmure to control them to the best of his abilities. The border between the rest of Westeros was before them sooner rather than later, and Arya wondered if they should make a stop in the Neck to see if Meera needed anything.
A raven was waiting for them with the guards at the border, which didn't surprise Arya that much. She figured that it was only a matter of time before one of her siblings figured out the only way to get ahold of her was to send a raven to the border.
"What does it say?" Gendry asked.
"It's from Jon," Arya said as she read the short letter over and asked the guards how long the message had been waiting for them. "He got a letter from Edric when we left and assumed that we would be home sooner. Then he politely said something along the lines of "where the fuck are you" and "what the fuck are you doing" but in a much more kingly way. I'm actually quite proud of him. He must have gotten help from Sansa about how to insult us politely."
"That is what court is, or so you keep telling me," Gendry said. "Do we need to do any errands for him to make up for being so late, or should we just ride hard for Winterfell and pray to the Old Golds that he doesn't feed us to Ghost?"
"It doesn't have anything specific," Arya said as she walked back over the guards. They were not having this conversation within earshot of anyone else; Arya trusted the men loyal to Jon, but that didn't mean they had to know all of the workings of her family. Also, she wasn't the most respectful person to her king because her king was her brother, and she could only be so respectful to her brother. "Sers, is there anything else for us?"
"I don't believe so, your highness," one of the guards said, but then one of them went very pale.
"Wait, there is something, but it's not for you," he said. The young man turned tail and ran into the small station house where the guards stayed and came out a few minutes later, holding a small package in his hands. "Ser Gendry, this came for you from King's Landing. We didn't know what it was, and we didn't want to deliver it to Winterfell without you being there. The courier said it needed to be delivered directly into your hands, ser." Gendry frowned and climbed off of his horse. He took the package from the men and unwrapped it to reveal three small ingots of metal and a piece of paper. Arya didn't quite understand what was going on, and she really didn't understand why Gendry's eyes went wide, and then he went very pale as he looked at the metal in his hands.
"Gendry?" Arya asked.
"Thank you good sers for making sure that this gets to me," Gendry said, and his smile would fool anyone but her. He gestured to Arya to follow him, and they stepped away from the guards, and they looked at the three ingots of metal.
"What is it? I've never seen you go so pale," Arya said.
"This is a letter from Tobho Mott, my old master," Gendry whispered. "I tried to find him when we took King's Landing, but everyone said he went into hiding after the Goldcloaks came looking for me. He sent me this package because Tobho knew he was dying, and he wanted me to have these." Arya looked at the small ingots of metal and could not understand what was going on.
"Gendry, what is it? What are they?" she asked.
"Arya, this is Valyrian steel," Gendry said as he looked at the metal in his hand. "He said if anyone could figure out how to use these last three ingots that have been passed down in his family for years, it would be me." Arya knew that Gendry had complicated feelings about Tobho Mott. It was quite clear, with the benefit of hindsight, that Mott was trying to save Gendry's life. At the time, Gendry was an angry teenager who didn't understand why the man he looked up to threw him away. Now Mott had sent him three ingots of Valyrian steel that he had passed down through his family like Gendry was his son. Arya didn't know how to comfort her husband, so she took the steel from his hands and slowly tied up the package, so the letter was safe along with the three small ingots. There was not enough metal there to make a sword, there was barely enough to make a knife, but that wasn't the point. No one could forge Valyrian steel from scratch anymore, but Mott had faith enough in Gendry's abilities that he could find a way.
"Come on," Arya whispered, handed Gendry the package. He took it and stared like he wasn't sure what to do with it. "Let's go home."
Arya felt terrible that she felt better now that they were in the North even as she could see that Gendry was struggling. There was rarely a moment where he wasn't looking at the package in his hands like it held answers to questions that he didn't want to ask. Arya knew that the time he was being forced to think about wasn't a good time. It was like someone coming and forcing her to think about her time in King's Landing with her father and Sansa. It was like someone coming and telling her something about Syrio that changed her entire perception of the man. It was a time of her life that she didn't want to think about anymore, and she could tell that Gendry didn't either, but a dying Tobho Mott forced him to.
Nymeria seemed to know that Gendry was hurting and hung around him more. It was endearing to watch her wolf care so much for her husband. She whined and cried and pressed herself close to him as if she could protect him from the pain he was feeling. It was sweet, and Arya could relate even if it was futile. There wasn't anything either of them could really do to help Gendry aside from listening to what he had to say and seeing if that was going to be enough.
"I thought he hated me," Gendry said apropos of nothing after three days of only speaking when spoken to. "I remembered saying to him that whatever I did to make him mad, I would fix it. I remembered I begged because I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay, more than anything, because in that shop I could see a future for myself. Maybe it wasn't going to be glamorous, but it was going to be good enough, and it was going to be mine."
"You don't talk about what happened that day very much," Arya said softly, and Gendry laughed bitterly to himself and shook his head.
"A man who paid for me to work for him threw me out," Gendry said. "You had to watch your father die. I didn't exactly have a lot of room to complain."
"Gendry," Arya said as she moved across their campsite and sat next to him. "Just because what I went through was different doesn't mean what you went through wasn't terrible. I know I spent a long time focused on my own pain, but what you went through was terrible too. You lost everything that day just in a different way from me."
"Tobho knew who I was," Gendry said softly, and Arya reached over to take his hand into hers. "He knew who I was, he had to, and he sent me away to save my life. He knew that me not knowing was safer, so he didn't say anything, but he cared. He sent me this, on his deathbed, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. I don't know what I'm supposed to feel for him." Arya squeezed Gendry's hand and rested her head against his shoulder. She whispered that he was supposed to do anything, that he didn't need to do anything, and she would support him no matter what he decided to do. Nymeria curled up close to them when they slept that night.
The next morning Gendry looked a little less stricken, and he looked over the letter as they ate their breakfast.
"I want to do it," Gendry said as he put the letter back in with the three small ingots and wrapped them uptight. "I want to figure out how to make something out of that metal. I know it's been lost for years, but he knew how to reforge Valyrian steel, then maybe I can figure out how to make something out of it."
"If that's what you want to do, then we'll go out into the world, and we'll find the way. We always talked about traveling, and this sounds like a good excuse," Arya said, and she smiled. Gendry smiled back, and they gathered their things so they could get back on the road.
When Winterfell finally came back into view, Arya felt something loosen in her chest. It was good to be home, and she couldn't wait to see her family again. She didn't regret going south or staying longer to help Edric, Mya, and Bella get settled into Storm's End, but Arya was a woman of the north. Nothing would ever compare to Winterfell. They passed through the gates, and she was home again.
