Sansa tried her best not to worry about Arya, but she couldn't help herself. From the moment the ship left the port, she wanted to scream at her sister to come home and not to go. Sansa didn't know if her heart could handle it if she didn't come back. Theon put his arm around her shoulder and held her close. She leaned into him, and he kissed her temple.
"You know what she lived through during the war," Theon whispered into her skin. "And you know how hard she fought to get home. She'll fight to come home again. You'll see."
"I wish I believed you," Sansa replied. They watched the ship for as long as they could but eventually, they needed to make their way back to Winterfell. Sansa climbed in the carriage with Theon, and the two of them sat side by side, hand in hand, as they rode home. It was nice, and the casual conversation between her, Theon, Jon, and Val made the politics of everything feel so far away. Sansa wanted to blame Arya for leaving them, but she wasn't sure if she could stay home if she thought there was even a chance that Theon was out there. She wasn't just looking to bring Gendry home, but all of the Baratheon's, and each of them were dear to her heart. Sansa couldn't remember the last time she felt so conflicted.
The weeks turned into months. Jojana started talking, and then she started walking, which meant she became the terror of the castle. Bran once joked that she was making up for the fact that he couldn't walk by walking and running as much as possible. Sansa rolled her eyes as she bounced Jojana on her hip and cooed at her. These were the moments when she thought about children and whether or not her and Theon would be ready to help a child someday.
Five months after Arya left, two strange ravens came to Winterfell, one right after the other. The first was from Daenerys saying that tensions with the Iron Isles were high and wasn't sure if they would be maintaining their treaty because Yara let some of the Ironborn reeve a city. Apparently, the entire town was destroyed, and every single person was killed. The next raven was from Yara, saying that no ship flying Ironborn colors were anywhere near that shore, and she didn't know what Daenerys was talking about. Sansa rubbed her temples as Jon and Val also read the letters.
"Who do we believe?" Val asked. "I feel like Yara has very little gain by letting the Ironborn reeve again and much more to lose."
"That's true," Jon said. "But what good does Daenerys have to lie about it? And why would she lie about it to me? None of this makes any sense."
"The letters from both of them are just a formality, in my opinion," Sansa said. "Our alliances with Daenerys and Yara aren't dependent on their alliances with each other. We don't have a say in any of it." It also meant that they couldn't choose a side when it came to providing aid, which Theon seemed very upset about. He was chewing on the tip of his thumb when Sansa returned to their rooms that night.
"Yara wouldn't let them reeve again; she just wouldn't," Theon said. "I stood there and watched her swear to Daenerys that we were done doing that under her rule, and that was not something Daenerys seemed keen to argue on. It was very clear for both parties that it had to end, and she ended it. No one has reeved since that alliance was formed, and that was before the Long Night. Why now?" Sansa walked over to him and removed his thumb from his mouth, and framed his face with her hands. She leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.
"It's strange to me as well, but we can't get involved even with our marriage," Sansa replied. "You are here at Winterfell, which means you are aligned with the North first and the Iron Isles second. Your countrymen saw to that."
"I know I shouldn't feel any loyalty to the people that rejected me as their prince, but Yara is there, and I almost lost her once. I don't think I could do it again," Theon whispered. "You know what would happen if Daenerys declared war on the Iron Isles." Sansa very much did, but she didn't want to think about it.
"No war yet," she replied. "So, let's focus on the here and now." They all did their best to focus on the here and now while also trying to figure out the connection between Lord Connington and Daario. Two weeks after the ravens that declared there was trouble with the alliance between the crown and the Iron Isles, another raven came. Sansa dreaded it, but when she looked, she was surprised to see the Arryn symbol. Robin might be her cousin, but they rarely wrote to each other. She opened the scroll and realized that this was not a letter from Robin but from Lord Royce with Robin's seal. Sansa read the words, then read them again, and raced through Winterfell as fast as her feet could carry her. She was late to supper, which meant everyone was in the same room, and everyone looked up when Sansa raced in.
"Sansa? What happened?" Jon said.
"It's our cousin, Robin; he's dead."
Gendry understood why Arya needed to leave the day she found out Robin was dead, but that didn't mean he had to be happy about it. All four of them went down to the docks to see her off, and Gendry held onto her as long as he could. She promised that they would see each other again and he believed her. She already completed the impossible by proving the world was round just to find him. If Arya Stark says they will see each other again, then Gendry believes that they will see each other again. It still hurts to watch her go, and they stand on the docks, covered in cloaks to hide their hair and faces until the ship fades from sight.
Yara was a good host, and as she promised, no one mentioned the fact that the four of them shared a room. They were all working on trying to spend some time away from each other, but it still set Gendry's nerves on edge anytime they were far away from each other. Or even if he just couldn't see them. He told Arya they all needed time to heal, so it was time to finally heal as they all needed to come to terms with what happened.
Mya dealt with it by becoming the mother of them even more so than she already was. If anyone had a harder time than Gendry being away from their siblings, it was her. She was the one making sure that they were eating enough, they were all sleeping enough, she didn't talk down to them, but she compulsively looked after them. Mya didn't like having servants again and would much rather deal with their room herself. She didn't like the idea of someone being in their shared living space. She sent away the chambermaids three days after Arya sailed away and took on taking care of their room herself. Yara watched it happen and didn't say a word. She trimmed their hair; she helped Edric shave because it was difficult with one arm. She was the one who helped Edric do the strength exercising for his arm and continually helped him learn to walk on his leg. The first time one of them tried to sleep in the next chamber, Mya woke up screaming and wouldn't calm down until all four of them were together again.
Bella dealt with it by going completely numb. She used to be the Baratheon with the easy smiles who could talk to anyone and pull out their deepest and darkest secrets with a smile and coy look. That was not the case anymore. Bella did not let anyone who wasn't one of them touch her in any capacity. On the ship, a sailor reached out to steady her, and Bella jumped away and nearly screamed. There were a few of the Ironborn who thought they could sweet talk her, mentioned something about how her hair covered her scars so it didn't matter, and Bella just stared at them with that hauntingly blank expression. It was Edric who pulled out a knife and threatened to cut their throats, and Mya put a gentle hand on her arm. Bella spoke very little, and Mya would work with her to try and adapt to being hard of hearing now. Bella always kept her hair loose so it would cover the fact that she was missing an ear. Bella pulled a dagger from her belt when a sailor tried to touch her and stabbed him without saying a word. The sailor lived, and the men learned not to touch Bella Baratheon.
Edric was always the angriest of them, and everything that happened to them made it worse. He would snap at anyone who tried to offer him assistance getting around that wasn't family. The only time he let anyone see that he was struggling was in their room, with the door closed and locked so that no one could see it. Edric was the first to lash out anytime someone made a crack at their appearances, and it got to the point that Yara took Gendry aside and said that if Edric didn't stop threatening people, she would have to take his weapon. Gendry told her that taking any of the weapons they always carried now wouldn't go over well, but Gendry took Edric aside in their room to talk to him.
"Why aren't you angry?" Edric snapped one day that he hadn't made any more progress with his arm, and his back was bothering him from walking differently. "Why aren't you all furious about what those people fucking did to us? Look at us, look at what they did; we should be going back to Storm's End and taking back what is ours. We should be getting revenge."
"It's not safe," Mya said, ever the practical one. "Connington might be one of the people that did this to us, but we don't know the motivations of the other houses. We talked about this." It had been two weeks since Arya had left for the North, and Edric was getting antsier and antsier by the day. He wanted blood, and Gendry knew that look; he'd seen the same look in Arya's eyes.
"Edric, it isn't going to help," Gendry said. "Killing Connington isn't going to make us any less hurt than we are right now." That was the thing that Gendry was starting to realize as they all began to try to heal; they were all dealing with this differently, and Gendry dealt with all of this by becoming paranoid. He jumped at every noise, and it kept him from sleeping at night. He was always armed and always knew how out of the castle if they needed to run again. He compulsively checked their packs and made sure they were ready to grab at a moment's notice. Gendry learned the basics of how to sail while they were making their way back to Westeros, and he knew enough to get them off the Iron Isles if they needed to run again. The idea of returning to Westeros when there were still people there that might want him dead terrified him. Gendry didn't know what he would do if he lost one of his sisters or his little brother.
"You don't know that," Edric said, but words sounded forced. He was clenching his fist so hard he was going to draw blood. Mya wordlessly walked over and helped Edric relax his hand. Edric seemed to calm down a little as he wordlessly looked at the table in their room.
They were supposed to be healing, but Gendry felt as broken as ever.
After some debate, it was decided that Sansa, Theon and Brienne would be going to the funeral. Jon didn't know Robin that well, and they weren't even blood cousins. Arya was still missing, and while Bran and Meera could travel, they didn't want to risk Jojana out on the open road just yet. Sansa didn't mind, but she wasn't looking forward to seeing the Vale again. She remembered her Aunt Lysa holding her over the Moon Door and threatening to throw her down. She remembered Littlefinger pushing Lysa through that door and claiming he did it to protect her. It was the place where she saw snow for the first time since going south and how much peace that brought her. Robin had been a dreadful little boy at that point, but he seemed to be growing up. Lord Royce was doing his best to raise Robin into a good leader, and when he came to her wedding, he seemed different. He seemed kinder.
Theon reached over and took her hand as their carriage continued to make their way through the Riverlands toward the Vale. Sansa was anxious because she didn't know how this was going to go. She just hoped that Lord Royce was doing a good job of keeping everything under control. He was the only one Sansa could see Robin leaving his House too. Lord Royce cared about the people of the Vale, and he wanted the best for everyone. He was a good man, and Sansa knew he would be hurting from this death.
"Do we know how he died?" Theon asked.
"No," Sansa replied. "But he was very sickly as a child, and no one was sure he would live to see adulthood. He seemed so much better the last time I saw him. He didn't look unwell. I'm hoping Lord Royce can tell us what happened when we get there." Theon squeezed her hand and eventually moved his arm around her shoulder as they held onto each other. They didn't like going south; neither of them did, but Robin was family, and Sansa couldn't turn her back on family. She looked up at Theon and placed a soft kiss on his lips, and whispered how much she loved him. He smiled, and it was a smile that Sansa was getting used to seeing. Theon was better every day, and he seemed more and more sure of himself as the days went on. It warmed her heart to see him confident again.
The Bloody Gate appeared, and Sansa noticed that soldiers were guarding it. They stopped the carriage, and she could hear people talking but couldn't make out the words. Sansa frowned and eventually opened the door to see why they weren't moving.
"Sers, is there a problem?" she asked. The guards looked a little nervous as they glanced at her, which made Sansa narrow her eyes.
"We've been told by the Lord of the Vale that House Stark is not permitted to come to the funeral of the late Lord Robin," one of the guards said.
"That's nonsense," Sansa said. "Robin was my cousin, my family, and Lord Royce would never forbid me from saying goodbye."
"Lord Royce is not the Lord of the Vale, Your Grace," the other guard said. "It's Lord Redfort, and he said that House Stark is no ally of the Vale, and you are not permitted to go beyond these gates. I'm sorry, Your Grace, but he was very insistent." Sansa couldn't believe what she was hearing. She just wanted to mourn her cousin and pay her respects, and she was being denied entry. None of it made any sense. She wanted to argue, but she also knew a pointless task when she saw one. Sansa stood up a little taller and looked the men right in the eye. They shifted uncomfortably under her stare.
"Is my uncle, Lord Edmure of House Tully, attending the funeral?" she asked.
"Yes, Your Grace, we've seen him," one of the guards said.
"Then please send him a message saying that I will be waiting for him when he returns from the funeral. Surely that kind of correspondence was not banned by your new Lord, was it?" Sansa asked as she raised an unimpressed eyebrow. The two guards looked at each other and then nodded. They said they would pass along the message, and Sansa walked back to the carriage. Theon was frowning deeply, as was Brienne and the House Stark guards that she was traveling with. "I need to speak to my uncle, and the only way to do that is to wait for him here. We'll set up camp right near the Bloody Gate and wait for Edmure to come down from the castle. Perhaps he has some information as to why I was denied access to my own cousin's funeral."
Sansa didn't mind camping as much as everyone around her thought she would. It was the lack of safety that she didn't like, but there were plenty of guards that promised to keep someone awake and on the lookout at all times. Brienne swore that she wouldn't let anyone hurt either of them. Even though Sansa knew that loyal men were watching their tent, she didn't sleep much, and neither did Theon. So they were both very tired when they got up the next morning and waited at the gate for Edmure to make his way down to them. They didn't have to wait long as he practically jumped off of his horse and ran up to them.
"I couldn't believe it when they told me," Edmure said. "I had no idea why he did that, and I'm so sorry I wasn't able to do anything. I plead your case, and so did Lord Royce, but Lord Redfort wouldn't be swayed. He also refused to give a reason no matter how many times I asked."
"Ride with us for the day and tell me everything," Sansa said. Edmure nodded to his guards and climbed into the carriage as they rode away from the Bloody Gate. "How did he die? He looked good the last time I saw him at the wedding."
"They said it came on very fast," Edmure said. "Robin might be stronger now, but he was still a weak child, and that has followed him to adulthood. It was a fever, and he just couldn't fight it off. He fought hard for three days. Lord Royce said he hung onto life like nothing he had ever seen, but Robin was still in pain and delirious from the fever. He passed on the morning of the fourth day."
"Is it a sickness that is plaguing the entire castle? Will they be a plague?" Theon asked, and Sansa blinked because she hadn't even thought of that.
"Several of the servants started to show symptoms as well. We had to burn their bodies and seal Robin's casket closed. I wasn't able to see him, no one was, but Lord Royce assured me that he was there with Robin the entire time. He didn't catch the sickness, and it seems to have only taken Robin and two servants," Edmure replied with a heavy sigh. "The poor boy. My sister babied him, and when he finally gets out from under her thumb and becomes his own man, this happens."
"Lord Redfort is the Lord of the Vale now?" Sansa asked.
"I was surprised as well. The logical choice was Lord Royce, but that wasn't the case. There was a will that said Lord Redfort would be the one to rule the Vale from now on," Edmure rubbed his temples and looked incredibly stressed. There was something else bothering him, and Sansa could see it.
"What troubles you, uncle?" she asked.
"One of my Houses, House Braken, has been spending a considerable amount of gold lately. I'm going to have to go over there at some point and do a full audit to see why they are buying so much. I'm planning on going home to Riverrun first and spending some time with Roslin and Medgar. Then I will have to discipline one of my Lesser Houses," Edmure said.
"We had to do that too," Theon said. "One of our Houses thought that with Gendry in the south they could propose to Arya. We shut that down pretty quickly."
"Yes, such a shame what happened to those kids," Edmure said, and he looked legitimately upset about it. Sansa knew that Edmure felt a certain kinship with Arya and Gendry because they were the ones that freed them from House Frey, and they fought with him in the Long Night. Sansa ached to tell him that they think Gendry and the others might be alive, but she held her tongue. That information could be dangerous, and she didn't want to think about what could happen if the wrong people found out.
They rode together for as long as they could, but eventually, Edmure needed to continue south while Sansa and Theon needed to head back to the North. He nodded to both of them and said that he hoped they would come down to Riverrun to visit someday. Edmure seemed to know that was highly unlikely since Sansa and Theon rarely left the North, but he didn't seem offended by it either. He said it was a standing invitation and they could come whenever they wanted. They were family, and that meant something to him.
Sansa took Theon's hand in her own and rested her cheek on his shoulder as they continued the journey home.
Arya thanked Asha for everything and wished she could give the woman more than just her thanks for everything she did. Asha waved her off like it wasn't a big deal.
"You helped me prove the world is round, little wolf; you'll be in history books with me for what alone," Asha said. "You let me know when you want to come back to the Iron Isles to visit." Arya knew that she meant when Arya wanted to see Gendry and the others again, but she smiled and nodded. She used the gold she had to buy a horse and went back to Winterfell as fast as possible. Arya was in the North for under an hour when Nymeria and her pack began to run alongside her.
Arya had barely touched the ground inside of Winterfell when Jon ran over and pulled her into his arms. He held onto her so tightly that Arya thought that he would break her ribs, but she didn't try to stop him. It had been over half a year since she'd seen her family, and she missed them like a limb.
"Little sister, when we got your raven, I almost didn't want to believe it was true. I'm so glad you're home and safe," Jon said. Meera, Bran, Val, and Davos all raced over to her, and Arya found herself getting so many hugs that she had to start laughing. Sansa and Theon appeared to be missing, though.
"I got the raven about Robin. Did they go to the funeral?" she asked as they all began to make their way to Jon and Val's solar. Arya took Jojana in her arms and refused to let her niece go no matter how much she squirmed. She was a little person now, and Arya's heart broke that Jojana didn't seem to know who she was. There was time for this little girl to remember her, and Arya had to keep repeating that. As soon as the door to the solar was closed everyone turned to her. "They're alive." Everyone in the room seemed to react differently as Davos just collapsed into a chair and began to silently weep. Everyone else was smiling with tears in their eyes or just looked shocked.
"Please, tell us everything," Jon said, and they all sat down. Arya told them about crossing the sea and the terrible storm and the massive Kraken. She showed them her missing fingers and told Davos that they matched now. He was still weeping, but it made him laugh through the tears. Arya explained what the Baratheon's went through because they needed to know even though it wasn't her story to tell. She received permission from each of them to share the details before she left the Iron Isles. Everyone looked a little sick when she finished detailing everything.
"They're alive, but they aren't well," Arya explained. "They are struggling in ways that are hard to put into words. It isn't safe for them here, not yet, and they need time to heal. I can't ask Gendry to come home yet. He couldn't, and it would be wrong of me to ask him.
"So you think the main accusing Houses had something to do with this," Val said, and Arya nodded.
"Houses Connington, Velayron, Redfort, and Braken," Arya said as Jon wrote them down. "We have a connection to the Baratheon's from House Connington, Robert took their land, and they wanted revenge, but we couldn't see any reason why these other houses would accuse them. We also cannot come up with a reason why someone would fake the Ironborn attacks and pit Yara against Daenerys."
"We'll continue to look into Arya," Jon assured her. "Right now, you probably need to rest. We won't be solving this right now." It bothered her to let it go for now, but Arya nodded and walked back to her room. Gendry's things were still there the same as her own, and it still broke her heart to go to bed alone. Arya breathed through her pain and reminded herself that it wasn't safe for him yet. She couldn't risk losing him, and she didn't want to force his hand either. Arya wanted Gendry home and healthy and happy, and if that meant waiting, then she would wait.
A week later, Sansa and Theon returned from the Vale, but there was something wrong. Sansa hugged Arya tightly, and Theon did as well, but Sansa immediately said that they needed to go to Jon's solar. Everyone gathered again, and Arya gave Sansa and Theon a very brief version of the events that happened and that the Baratheon's were home. She promised a more detailed version, but Sansa said that there was something else that they needed to talk about.
"We got turned away at the Bloody Gates," Sansa said. "The new Lord of the Vale said that no member of House Stark was welcome in the Vale anymore."
"That doesn't sound like Lord Royce," Meera said.
"That's because it isn't Lord Royce running the Vale; House Redfort has taken the seat," Sansa explained, and Arya felt her blood run cold. Everyone glanced at each other, but Sansa frowned as she looked at them.
"We were looking at the accusing Houses from the trial as possible suspects, but we couldn't see a reason why a House from the Vale or the Riverlands would want the Baratheon's dead," Arya explained. "But now House Redfort has taken the Vale after Robin has died in a move that seems out of character and not what anyone expected. Was it from a will?"
"That's what Edmure said," Sansa whispered. "Edmure said that Robin was stronger now, and he couldn't believe how fast the sickness took him. It took two servants as well."
"There are many poisons that could mimic a fever," Bran said. "And if they are willing to murder their Lord, they would be willing to murder some servants to make it look like a sickness."
"So it wasn't just the Baratheon's that the Houses were targeting but the Lords of their own lands. The Lord dies, and a will naming a House no one expects as the heir appears. The same way it did at Storm's End with Connington and now again with Robin the Vale," Jon said.
"Does that mean this House Velayron wants to unseat Daenerys? There is no possible way that would work. That doesn't fit the pattern," Val explained. Sansa frowned and then paled considerably.
"I remember from my studies; House Velayron used to be in charge of the royal navy, a position of which Yara and the Greyjoys now hold. The false Ironborn attacks, they must be setting up a reason for Daenerys to break the treaty and maybe even declare war," she said. Theon frowned as he pulled the paper forward and looked it over.
"Sansa, Edmure said one of his Houses was spending a considerable amount of gold and buying new things," Theon. "He said it was House Braken."
"Edmure is next; they're going to kill him," Arya whispered.
