Jon couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. Daenerys was sitting on the iron throne and saying that she was going to put Arya and Gendry on trial for murder. There wasn't a moment of that that made any sense to him. They just signed a formal alliance, why would she do this? Jon needed answers, and he wasn't sure that Daenerys would give him any. He looked around to Edric, to Edmure, even to Robin, and they all looked just as surprised as he did. So none of them knew this was coming as well, which only made things even worse.

"The accused will be reprimanded to their rooms with the only permitted visitors being the King and Queen in the North. We will meet in the morning for the beginning of the trial. Everyone is dismissed," Daenerys said. Both Arya and Gendry looked a little dazed as guards began to escort them to their rooms. Jon glanced at Val and took a copy of their alliance from his table. They needed to speak with Daenerys, but she was already walking away, and Missandei stepped in front of him.

"The Queen will not speak to you, King Jon," Missandei said.

"I think I have a very good reason to speak to her," Jon snapped, but Val placed a hand on his arm. Perhaps he was not the best one to be speaking right now.

"What he means is these are serious allegations against our kin, and we would like to speak to the Queen about them," Val said.

"They are allegations against Her Grace's kin as well, but that doesn't mean that she will speak to either of you. The trial is happening tomorrow, and that's all I can tell you," Missandei said, and she hesitated. "Spend some time with them, Jon, and look over your copy of the alliance. It's important." Missandei turned and walked away from Jon, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do. Val seemed to realize that he was a little overwhelmed and all but pulled him toward Arya and Gendry's room. The two of them shot to their feet as soon as they walked in the door, and Jon realized that he needed to get himself together.

"Jon-" Arya said, but he held up a hand. The four of them sat down at the table in their room as Jon began to read over the alliance that he just signed. In it, the language stated that citizens of differing kingdoms could not carry out justice on people of other kingdoms. Jon remembered reading that line and didn't think anything of it. He didn't think that there was any reason to be afraid of that line, but there it was, mocking him, and he had signed it.

"It says in our alliance with the crown and Yara that we are not to carry out justice on citizens of different nations," Jon said carefully. "At the time, I didn't think anything of it, but now it appears that I very much need to."

"Explain to us what happened," Val said. Arya and Gendry glanced at each other, and they looked guilty, which just made the pit in Jon's stomach grow. He had hoped it was a misunderstanding, but as he looked at his little sister and his good brother, he wasn't so sure that was the case anymore.

"You know what Gendry and I did during the war," Arya explained. "We took care of bandits and soldiers that were hurting people. We were doing the right thing. When we were at Storm's End after Edric, Bella, and Mya were legitimized, we got word that we should be careful while heading home from Daenerys. There was a group of former Lannister knights roaming the Westerlands and killing people. So, we thought we could help again."

"So we found the bandits, and we killed them," Gendry explained.

"Did you leave any witnesses?" Val asked, and sometimes Jon forgot that his wife used to be a member of a Free Folk raiding party and knew all about attacks like the ones that Arya and Gendry used to do.

"We left the last one to bleed out, but we didn't see him die," Gendry said as he looked at the table. That means the man could have survived and could have told someone what Arya and Gendry were doing. They weren't unknown people anymore; they were a knight and princess of another nation.

"They mentioned the Riverlands too, did that happen at the same time?" Jon asked.

"Do you remember the time we took away before Meera had Jojana?" Arya asked, and Jon closed his eyes. "They were bandits that nearly killed us while going to the Iron Isles! I needed to make sure that they didn't hurt anyone else."

"So you crossed into the Riverlands, and you killed them," Jon said, and they both nodded.

"We should assume there is another witness. You left one once I can only assume you did it again," Val said, and they both winced.

"You're a princess of the North and a knight," Jon said. "You are members of the noble house of another kingdom killing the people of another. There is nothing about this situation that is good for us. If they have witnesses, then it's their word against yours, and the stories of the two of you were spread far and wide after the war."

"Then they know that we never hurt anyone that didn't hurt other people," Gendry said. "Jon, they tried to kill us, they tried to kill Sansa and Theon, would you let them live if they did that?"

"If they were men of the North, then no, I probably wouldn't but lying to me and saying you just needed some time away when you are really sneaking off for this?" Jon snapped, and neither of them said anything. "We need to prepare for a guilty verdict. Perhaps, because Arya is my sister and Gendry is Daenerys' cousin, we could petition banishment to the North if we're lucky."

"Or we could bypass all of that," Arya said, and everyone turned to look at her. "We'll just request a trial by combat."

"And who exactly would be fighting?" Jon asked.

"I would-"

"No," Gendry interrupted, and Jon realized that they hadn't talked about this before he got there. "There is no way we're doing trial by combat."

"It's much easier, and then we don't have to worry about anything," Arya said, and she shrugged like this wasn't a big deal. Jon knew that nothing he said in this matter was going to make a difference, and he glanced at Val. She nodded, and the two of them stood up to leave the room, but Arya and Gendry didn't seem to notice. Jon closed the door to their room and fell against it with his eyes closed.

"A worst-case scenario is what," Val whispered.

"They could be executed or exiled to Essos. We could never see them again," Jon said, and he opened his eyes to see Val watching him carefully. "I almost lost my entire family once, Val, I don't think I can do it again." She didn't say anything, but Val did take his arm and guide him to their room. Jon tried to ignore the fact that there were raised voices in the room they had just left.

Gendry saw Jon and Val leave, and he knew that they should probably stay, but he was far too focused on Arya right now. She was leaning back in a chair and acting like requesting a trial by combat wasn't a big deal when it was a massive one. She could fight, Gendry knew that she could fight, but that didn't mean that she was going to win. That didn't mean that she could kill whoever was chosen as the champion for the south.

"Why are you being so weird about this?" Arya asked as she frowned deeply. "You saw the look in Jon's eyes; he thinks we're probably going to be found guilty."

"You don't know that, and neither does he," Gendry snapped, but the word tasted false even to him. They both knew that they were guilty; it was just that they hoped that the crime wouldn't be seen as a crime when the time came. They thought they were doing the right thing even though it was very apparent that neither of them was looking at the big picture. They weren't Wolf and Bull anymore, and the continent wasn't at war. They couldn't operate the same way because the world was so different from the first time they used violence to try and help people.

"Gendry, why are you being weird about this?" Arya asked again, and she narrowed her eyes. "I would be the one fighting, not you, so we'll be fine."

"You're not invincible, Arya," Gendry said as he stood up and began to pace their room. "You nearly died right alongside me during the Long Night. You're a good fighter, but you're not one of the greatest warriors who ever lived. You don't know for sure that you could win against the person you'd be fighting." Arya jerked like he just hit her and then glared at him.

"Are you afraid that I'd make you look bad as you sat on the sidelines like a maiden while I did the fighting? That your manhood would be somehow lessened when I did the fighting for both of us?" she said.

"You're asking me to stand on the sidelines and potentially watch you die," he said, and Gendry was trying not to yell, but it was getting hard. "I don't give a shit what any of those people think about me and the ones that I would care about know that I wouldn't trust anyone else at my back. This has nothing to do with my manhood; this has everything to do with me being forced to watch you die."

"Because I'm afraid they're going to kill you," Arya blurted, and Gendry frowned because that response didn't make any sense to him, and he said so. "You don't want to watch me die in the trial by combat, but I don't want to watch you die when we're found guilty, and they need to execute someone." For half a moment, Gendry did not understand what she was talking about. If they were found guilty and they needed to be executed that is something that would happen to both of them. Then he realized that he had somehow become complacent in his life and realized what he was forgetting.

"They would execute the upstart bastard knight but not the princess," he said, and Arya looked away from him, which is when he realized that this is what she thought. The reality of their world once again came crashing down, and Gendry remembered how disposable he is compared to her. It didn't matter that Daenerys was the Queen, and he was her cousin; it didn't matter that the Lord and Ladies of Storm's End were his siblings; none of that mattered compared to the fact that she was a Stark and a princess and he was no one. He would always be no one compared to her.

"We're not doing trial by combat," Gendry said flatly. "This is something that impacts us as a couple, and we're married, partners, which means we make decisions together. If we can't decide to do trial by combat, then we're not doing it. We'll just have to take our chances." Arya didn't say anything, and for the rest of the night, they didn't speak. Gendry climbed into bed and closed his eyes. He could feel her at his back, but they didn't touch each other. It wasn't like the night before the Long Night when Gendry knew this was the last time they would be together. Even if they decided to execute them, it wouldn't be tomorrow, and they would have more time together. He had every right to be angry right now, and he refused to feel guilty about going to bed without touching her for one night.

Arya knew that Gendry didn't sleep a wink last night, and neither did she. The trial was looming over her, and she couldn't stop thinking about her father losing his head in front of the Sept. She couldn't stop thinking about heads on pikes and losing the people she loved. She couldn't stop thinking about war and death and everything else. Gendry said that he didn't want the trial by combat, but Arya couldn't take the risk. She could not risk Gendry dying in front of her when they only spared her life because she's a woman, because she's a Stark, because she's a princess. Her life was not worth more than his, and she refused to sit back and do nothing.

Whoever was chosen as the champion, Arya knew she could beat them. She knew that she could kill whoever she needed to to save Gendry's life. She would bathe in blood if it meant keeping him safe, and if that meant making him mad for a couple of days, she was willing to do it. She was ready to do anything, and that included calling for trial by combat without Gendry's permission. Arya was going to fight for both of them, and that was final.

They still didn't speak once the sun rose, and neither of them had slept more than an hour or two. Jon and Val came to see them, and they talked a little about what they would say and how they were going to do this. The problem was lying wasn't going to do any good, and Arya didn't see another way out of this. So she didn't really listen because she was going to call for trial by combat anyway, so it didn't really matter.

They were led in front of all the Lesser Houses as Daenerys and Quentyn walked in. Everyone settled, and Arya tried to calm her nerves.

"We are here to discuss an important matter," Daenerys said. "I have been informed of a crime that has been committed on my lands, and I will see that justice is served. That is the most important thing about all of this; justice. I will not allow terrible things to happen to my people if I can help it, and no one is above the law no matter what standing they may have. Now, shall we proceed?" There were murmurs of agreement, but Arya stood up.

"Your Grace, I wish for trial by combat for my husband and me," Arya said. She refused to look at Gendry or Jon or Val but at Daenerys, who was doing an excellent job of masking her emotions at the moment.

"While that is very noble of you, Princess Arya, I'm afraid that King Tommen Baratheon outlawed trial by combat, and it is a law that I happen to agree with. There will be no trial by combat, so please take a seat so we can begin," Daenerys replied. Arya sat down and felt her blood run cold; no trial by combat meant that there was nothing she could do to protect Gendry from these charges. There was nothing she could do to keep them from killing him and proclaiming it as justice while she got to live. Arya glanced to the side and saw that no one in her family was looking at her. Daenerys nodded to Varys, who was acting as the judge since she did not have a Master of Justice yet.

"Princess Arya Stark, Ser Gendry Stark, when you were in the Westerlands earlier this year after you left Storm's End?" he asked.

"We were," Gendry replied evenly.

"And did you encounter some men while you were traveling?" he asked.

"We encountered some former Lannister knights that were attacking people," Arya said, and she winced when Jon kicked her foot. Perhaps she should have listened because she saw him slowly shake his head.

"You saw these men pillage and hurt people then? Personally?"

"We did not," Gendry said, and Arya pressed her lips together. She knew what they were doing, and there wasn't anything they could do about it.

"So you don't know, for sure, that these men weren't just wandering the Westerlands when you decided to inflict your own brand of justice on them?" Varys asked.

"Lord Varys," Daenerys interrupted. "Please watch how you speak to them."

"Your Grace," Varys said, and he turned back to them. "We have one of the former knights that you attacked, and he has testified that he did not pillage anyone." Arya wanted to ask why they believed the word of a former Lannister knight over them, but the words wouldn't come.

"Is this knight here?" Jon asked. "Or are we to believe that these witnesses exist without actually seeing them?"

"They are here," Varys said. The leader of the bandit group that Arya thought she left bleeding out walked in and explained that while he was on the run, he did not attack or kill anyone. He swore this was the case. They brought out someone claiming to be one of the bandits that had attacked them in the North and claimed that they had killed his friends when they didn't do anything wrong.

"He's lying," Arya hissed. "He was in the North, and he tried to kill us when we were traveling to the Iron Isles. We told Queen Yara about the attack."

"So why did you cross into the Queen's Kingdom to get justice?" one of the Lesser Houses from the Riverlands, Arya thought it was Braken, said. "If these men were in the North, you would have been within your rights to have justice, but they were in the Queen's lands. You hunted them down to get revenge."

"Your Grace," a crownland house, Velayron, said. "This is ignoring the fact that these two have been working their way into the various houses of all of the Kingdoms for this exact purpose. They wanted allies so they could do whatever they wanted."

"Explain," Daenerys said.

"Ser Gendry has bribed his way into the good graces of all the Great Houses here. You wear a crown he made, Your Grace, while his brother and sisters hold Storm's End. Queen Yara is marrying his good sister, and Lord Edmure and Lord Robin wear weapons made by Ser Gendry. Even Lady Ellaria wears jewelry made by Ser Gendry. He was clearly trying to gain favor with as many of the Houses as possible, so when something like this happened, he couldn't be touched. They are manipulating all of you," the lord of House Velayron said.

"No, that's not why I made those things," Gendry said, and his eyes were wide. "I just like making things for people. I wasn't trying to gain any favors from anyone. I would never do that." Arya realized just how many allies they had and how many people liked them or said they had places. They had family or friends in nearly every Kingdom in Westeros, and tokens of appreciation, like the one's Gendry made, were often seen as signs of friendship. Gendry didn't realize that he was making a political statement when he made those commissions, but he was, and the pit in Arya's stomach opened up even more.

"They are being accused of murder not giving away objects," Daenerys said. "We have heard testimony from both sides. We will now let the leaders of the Kingdom's decide their fates." Arya felt a little better because they did have friends and family in various places, and that was going to save them.

"Your Grace," a lord from a house in the Stormlands, Connington, stood up. "As it has been pointed out, the leaders of Westeros are family and friends and allies of the accused. They cannot be counted on to make a just decision." Far too many of the Lesser Houses seemed to agree, and Arya reached over and took Gendry's hand. They held onto each other tightly, as she watched Daenerys frown.

"And what would you have me do, my lord?" Daenerys asked.

"Her Grace is wise and understands the importance of justice and maintaining peace," Lord Ronnet said. "However, Her Grace is also the cousin of Ser Gendry, but we believe that you can make the right decision for all of Westeros." At least a dozen of the Lesser Houses seemed to agree with Connington. The agreements got louder until Daenerys held up a hand to silence all of them.

"My Lords and Ladies, Her Grace Queen Yara, His Grace King Jon, and Her Grace Queen Val," Daenerys said. "Please understand that this decision is not made likely, for I believe the intentions of Ser Gendry and Princess Arya were pure. I do believe that they thought they were doing the right thing. However, intentions are not the thing that matters, and they did take the lives of my citizens, whether they were guilty of any crimes or not." Daenerys hesitated, and she looked at them. "For these crimes, I find you both guilty, and as punishment, you will be banished to remain in the North for the rest of your days. If either of you crosses the border to my lands, it will be seen as an act of war." There was a moment of silence, and then several people began to yell in anger.

"How is that justice? They get to stay in the North and be happy?" one yelled.

"That is no punishment!"

"That is not justice!"

"The Knight is clearly scheming something," the lord of House Velayron snapped. "He needs to be kept close so we can make sure he tries nothing else. He should be sent to Storm's End to stay with his brother and sisters while the Princess goes back to the North for the rest of their days. Either that or one of them should die!"

"No!" Arya yelled, but too many people seemed to think that was a good idea. They wanted Gendry to stay in the south while she was forced to the North, and they wouldn't be able to see each other again.

"Silence," Daenerys yelled at everyone, and fell silent. She looked pained as she looked over at the two of them. "I do not wish to see my cousin or Princess Arya killed. In light of my previous sentence being too lenient and in light of wanting to maintain peace between our Kingdoms, I will amend my sentence. Ser Gendry Stark will be confined to Storm's End for the rest of his days while Princess Arya Stark will be banished to the North for the rest of her days. This is my ruling, and the sentence starts immediately, guards, please take them both to separate rooms." Jon was on his feet in seconds, and Arya could vaguely hear him imploring Daenerys to make another decision. She vaguely heard Edric, Mya, Bella, Edmure, Yara, even Robin all speak up and try to get another ruling, but Daenerys said nothing.

Arya struggled from the guards that pulled her apart from Gendry, and she knew she was yelling. Gendry was fighting against them too, but there were too many people. Arya struggled and fought with everything she had, but they still pulled away from her. Gendry looked back at her, his blue eyes wide and panic, as he vanished around a corner.

Arya felt her entire world collapse and she screamed.