It was much darker back in the halls and it took their eyes a moment to adjust. They made their way to the meeting room along with representatives of all of the Houses and Armies stationed around their walls. No one was talking as they made their way to a group of empty chairs close to the head table- a place of honor, considering their position and the numbers they brought with them.

Because others were still entering in waves, Tywin's sudden pause went largely without notice. Those at his side, however, noticed immediately. Arya glanced up to see his expression frozen in a glare and followed his gaze to land on the man sitting at the Dragon Queen's side- the imp, Tyrion Lannister. Jaime caught the same exchange and his own eyes widened as he looked back and forth between his father and little brother.

Instead of immediately taking his seat, Tywin strolled slowly the last few steps until he was stood before his son. He nodded to the rulers sitting beside him as was expected of him and then turned the full power of the icy blue eyes on the ones that were much kinder. "Tyrion." He stated, voice composed if not for the chill it gave off.

"Father." The imp responded, keeping his own composure well. Arya was watching with rapt attention, lingering a few steps back by their seats, though none had yet actually sat.

"So this is where you've run off to? To join a foreign invader against your own family- against your own Nephews crown? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised after what you did to your last Nephew who wore it. Hand of the 'Queen' indeed." He sneered, eyes catching on the pin he wore so reminiscent of the matching on resting on Tywin's own breast.

Tyrion took a deep breath and glanced around the room himself to see how many were watching the exchange. It seemed everyone towards the front quarter had noticed, but those further back were more concerned with shuffling in and taking their places. Queen Daenerys spoke before her Hand could reply, speaking up in a sharp tone of her own and drawing the Lords attention.

"'I've long wished to meet you, Lord Tywin." Though she didn't name him, her angry violet eyes glanced past him to pause on his eldest son, making it clear the father wasn't the only one she was eager to meet. "You've quite the history behind you- quite the position you've gained for your family. And yet, here you now stand, father to Kin and King-slayers alike, no grandchildren of your own to continue your line once they are gone. How very proud you must be, of your legacy has become."

Everyone watching saw the minute flinch from the youngest Lannister, who opened his mouth to respond before his father could utter the words he could already see coming, but the man waved him off with a gesture very familiar from his youth that quite clearly told him to cease and desist immediately.

Looking down at the white haired woman as those she were little more than a child playing a game of pretend, he allowed his lip to curl in an almost invisible sneer. "My Legacy will always be remembered- whether it continues past the next generation or not. I would bid you remember Your Grace, what my Legacy did to the last Mad Targaryen who threatened to destroy these lands."

"Is that a threat?" She asked, voice sharp and foreign accent coming through thicker on the words.

"The only threat you need worry about now is the army to the North."

"And after?"

"I suppose we will decide that if we find an 'after' to worry about." Arya heard Jaime sign beside her and saw him look as if he had to stop himself from pinching the bridge of his nose. She watched as his eyes came up to meet those of his brother and the two share a long-suffering look at the tense exchange, despite the different sides they now apparently sat on. "A word of advice to leave you with- if I may," The queen's gazed at him stonily but he continued anyway. "Lord Tarly was something of a friend of mine, as he was to many others. His son a good man. If you continue burning the Lords and their Heirs of these lands on a whim- continue to express this fiery impulsivity your Grandfather was so renowned and despised for- and the only thing you will succeed in will be rallying these lands against your own rule with no help needed from me."

Daenerys glared at him even more angrily than before, and Arya saw Robb turn to give her a curious look and Jon a shocked one and she realized tbe woman might not have shared that action with her new allies. Icy blue eyes moved over dismissively to his son, shooting him a look that seemed to say 'and this is who you've allied yourself with?' Tywin didn't wait for a response from either of them and turned instead on his heel with all the scornful dismissiveness he'd built over the years.

Luckily the council was called to order only seconds later and so everyone still standing quickly either took a seat or moved against the wall to clear the line of sight down the long rectangular room. Robb stood and began by addressing those in the room, thanking for coming together under such circumstance and despite the events that occurred in the past.

It was really a very good speech, delivered with the same fervor his men had gotten used to hearing from him on the battle field, and had caught the attention of every man-and woman- in the room. It was only once he settled back into his seat and opened the floor that the discussions began in truth.

"We can't beat them in a straight fight." Jon said stoically. "There's too many of them, even with our reinforcements."

"So what can we do?" Jaime spoke up.

"The Night King made them all- they follow his command. We've already seen how the wrights fall as one when a White Walker is felled. If we could take down the Night King, they might all fall as one… getting to him may be our best chance."

"If that's true, he'll never expose himself." The Lannister son stated.

"'Might,' 'may.'" Tywin spoke up scornfully. "I'm not one for planning battle strategies around what we think might happen. What are the facts, what do we actually have to work with?"

Robb frowned at him from the front of the room. "You want the facts?" Jon asked firmly, hand resting on the pommel of his sword. "The facts are this: They out number us a hundred to one, no matter how many men we find to fight on our side. If we fall, we will raise as our own enemies, forever adding to their numbers. We can't beat them in a fair fight- we can't meet them in open battle, or they will march over top of us and leave nothing behind."

"Who said anything about open battle?" Tywin questioned back. "There are strategies we can utilize that will increase our chances beyond that of a single long shot that might not even work if you do manage to pull it off. By all means, target the Night King if that is your wish, but we still need to throw everything we've got in their way on the off chance your plan doesn't work." He finished in a drawl.

A cupbearer making the round attempted to pour wine into the empty glass beside the Lord while he was speaking, but Arya stopped her with a silent hand over the top, gesturing her instead to pour water. She gestured the same for herself, as did everyone within their council. Tywin's distaste for drink during such times was very well known. The action still caught more attention than she expected it would, eyes lingering on their party, and on her and the Lannister Lord specifically but she attempted to pay them no mind beyond remaining aware of them. The company they currently sat amongst would doubtlessly have him even more on edge and not wanted to risk his wrath.

"Alright." Robb agreed, nodding his head once. "You're right. We need to give ourselves the best chance possible. What do you suggest?"

"Tell me, Your Grace, do you know of the great battle of Tiqui? … I can tell you don't. Does anyone here?" He glanced around the room as if already knowing no one would. Silence followed, for even if someone thought they might know the information he was seeking, few would dare bring his attention to themselves. Cold blue eyes moved across his eldest son but clearly didn't hold out hope he would know either. Tyrion may have, but he didn't speak and his father didn't look at him.

Instead, his eyes settled on Arya, a brow raised. She knew the history- they had discussed it just recently when they'd played Cavasses for that first time. She had been the one to mention it while she'd been examining the different pieces of the game- one of them being a delicately carved elephant. She was intrigued by the different methods of warfare fought throughout the world, and of the defenses against them. She glanced back up towards her family as she answered. "Tiqui is a city in Yi Ti. It's neighbored by a fortified city of Warrior Maids, Bayasabhad. The warriors of Bayasabhad raised and used elephants in combat, for whilst it was much too dry for horses to survive, the elephants could find and use their trunks to dig for water. It made them nearly undefeatable in combat."

"Tiqui was connected to Bayasabhad by the Sand Road. Some three hundred years past, they insulted the Warrior Maids and brought their wrath down upon the city. They marched with every warrior and elephant in their army. Familiar with the strategies and might of Bayasabhad, Tiqui knew they couldn't defeat them face to face- the elephants would surround them and then trample them all as they closed in- so the dug a great pit fifteen feet wide and just as deep all the way around the city. The lined the bottom with spears and then they covered it all with tar. They used a thin woven mat to cover the pit and then spread enough sand over the top that it couldn't been seen."

"The mats extended far enough past the edge that there was counter weight holding them down when the elephants marched on the city. When the mat gave way under their feet and they were sent into the pit, the sands shifted and collapsed with them, pulling down the Maids following who were on foot. Once they went down, Tiqui sent flaming arrows into the tar, lighting it and burning those that were still alive along with the dead. So much of the army was lost that those who survived retreated to Bayasabhad and the war was ended before it began. They remained behind their walls for two decades before they were even seen again."

The silence continued for a few seconds after she finished and it was the young Lady Mormont that spoke first. "There are too many of them to all fall into a pit at once." She stated, watching Arya expectantly as she waited to see what she would say.

"Yes, but if these creatures are truly as mindless as they're said to be, we could dig more than one. We would obviously need to line the bottom with dragon glass instead of steel tipped spears, if we want to make it as effective as possible. Beyond that, it is simply one strategy we may employ. There are many more." She ended, glancing back at Tywin to see him looking almost smug.

The elder man nodded his head regally. "So, would you like to spend more time talking of a one long-shot idea, or would you like to discuss strategies that will actually make a difference in the coming battle?"

"You still disbelieve?" Jon spoke up. "After everything we've seen and know?"

"We know next to nothing. We don't know that killing one will kill them all. What we do know is three ways to kill them, and we need to use those three ways to the fullest extent we're able. Now, perhaps you do things differently in the North, but in the South we base our strategies around fact, not fantasy or guesswork."

Many in the room looked angered at his words and tone alike, but they held their silence as Robb raised a hand towards the room. "Alright." He agreed, meeting the Lord eye to eye. "We improve our trenches. What else?"

The council seemed to last an age before they were finally released. Arya stood to leave once they were adjourned, but was called back by her Mother. The Lannister party paused with her but she waved them off and waited for the room to finish emptying, striding slowly back towards the dais with her hands clasped behind her back. "Yes mother?" She asked calmly once she had come to a stop after the heavy wooden door had shut behind the last man.

Catelyn looked down at her from where she still sat at the head table, her own hands clasped in the same manner as her daughter, but lay before her resting on the table, knuckles stark white from how tightly she held herself. "I thought I had made it clear that I did not want you to attend this council." She stated after a moment.

"You did." Arya agreed simply, not moving.

"And yet you are here anyway?"

"I am."

"Why?" The redhead demanded, agitation rising in her voice.

Arya tilted her head at her mother curiously. "As I told you- I did not come back to be pushed to the sidelines. If you do not wish me to join as a representative of the Stark family, I will do so in another way. Why does it bother you so much? My will to fight never bothered Father so, and he would have had more reason if it had."

"Do not speak of your father in this-"

"Why not?" It was Arya's turn to ask. "I have as much right to speak of him as you do. Did he tell you in his letters? I never really knew for sure."

Her flush of anger turned to a frown of confusion. "Did he tell me what?" Catelyn questioned, still sounding stern despite her change in countenance.

"About my lessons? I suppose he didn't. No matter." She stated dismissively. "May I go?"

"No, you may not!" Her mother exclaimed, standing from her seat. "Where has this insolence come from? You were always a willful girl, undoubtedly, but this? You're never before shown such blatant disregard for my word!" Arya watched her pace the room, feeling almost sorry for the woman who was so clearly frazzled. Her cool expression cracked just slightly, but her mother caught the shift. Catelyn strode closer to her on the next turn and stopped just in front, reaching out to place her slender hands upon Arya's shoulders and then moved up to cup her neck, looking her in the eyes. "Why won't you talk to me, Arya? Why won't you tell me where you've been or why you're so.. so…"

"Why I'm so what?" Arya asked, honestly curious.

Catelyn studied her closely, eyes a mirror of Sansa's observed her closely from an older countenance. "Distant. Cold. I know you're home, I can see you standing before me, feel you under my hands... but it's like you're still not even here."

Her mother's voice was hardly more than a whisper but it stung as if it'd been shouted. Her hands came up to press atop her mothers, feeling the cold settled into her bones. "I'm.. sorry I'm not the same girl I was when I left. Not because I'm ashamed of who I've become, but because I can imagine how disappointed you are and I'm sorry to have caused you that hurt when you've already had so much. But.. This is who I am now. The things I've seen, the things I've lived through… the things I've done.." She shook her head, using her hold to pull her mothers hands free and tucked them against the women's stomach. "They've shaped me irrevocably. This is all I am now. I'm sorry it's not what you prayed for."

She stepped back as she saw a single tear roll down her mother's cheek and turned to hurry from the room, seeing Robb move towards their mother from the silence vigilance he'd taken when the room cleared. She was glad the distraught woman would have someone to lean on who was capable of doors.

Arya ended up back in her room just long enough to change back into her old cloak and the folded travel clothes she found when she arrived. She headed immediately outdoors, knowing the plans they'd discussed would already be being put into place and figured they couldn't possibly have too many people digging the large trenches.

She gained some looks when she arrived at first, but when she grabbed a spade and jumped into the shallower lines that had already been scored into the frozen earth, none complained or tried to send her away. And so she worked, side by side with the men until they'd all become covered in a frankly disgusting mixture of frozen sweat and dirt. She remained when Jaime appeared in her vision, pointed in her direction by those surrounding her. She remained as he joined the line beside her and they worked in silence through the mid-day meal of hard bread and watery soup brought by servants from the keep to help try to warm them from the inside.

They remained after, until their section of the trench was deeper than the both of them were tall and their arms had long since grown numb to the pain. They remained until the night was called and the men began shuffling in for the eve meal. Arya lingered behind after she had pulled herself out of the trench, glancing around at the progress they had made. Jaime pulled himself up behind her and rubbed his forehead as he straightened.

She glanced over him and then down at herself. They were both truly filthy, but she didn't feel quite like going back amongst people quiet yet. They still hadn't spoken and she wasn't really in the mood to, but she found she didn't mind his company despite her disquiet. She gazed at him consideringly before turning away slowly and heading further away from the city. He didn't follow immediately- not until she glanced back over her shoulder at him.

He used his longer stride to come even with her and they walked side by side into a crop a trees that quickly thickened. The terrain became more uneven and the snow deepened until she questioned whether or not it had been a foolish idea to try and come here so late into winter. Just before she turned back they broke through a cropping of thick shrubs and felt the air warm.

She glanced over at him and picked up her pace. He followed, growing more and more intrigued as the snow became thinner and thinner until it disappeared completely. The trees completely encroached them and it was near dark beneath for a few dozen steps. Eventually though the trees opened up and a serene clear blue hot spring rose to meet the air. She used to come here as a girl, it had been a secret spot to her siblings and the oft escaped there during the long summer days.

Hesitation settled low in her stomach for a moment before she shook it off stubbornly. She'd spent countless hours in the company of naked people- both alive and dead- and she was sure the other had as well. There was no cause to be shy over their bodies, and they could both use the cleansing of the mineral rich water.

Her hands were steady as she stripped down at the edge of the pool, though she didn't turn her head to look at her companion. She slipped into the water as soon as she was bare and sighed in pleasure at the heat that immediately began to penetrate her chilled flesh. Hearing no motion she spared a moment to shoot a pointed look behind herself at the frozen man before she ducked herself beneath the water to scrub at her prickly scalp.

She kept her eyes closed when she felt him enter the water and didn't open them again until after she had surfaced and wiped the excess from her face as best she could. She blinked her eyes opened to see him watching her with a peculiar expression from across the small pool and she wondered what he might be thinking about.

"You were brilliant today." He complemented her softly as if he could read her mind, meeting her eyes.

"I don't think everyone would agree with you on that." She remarked, one corner of her lip curling. She should feel the weight of water trapped in her lashes and she blinked once to see if it would fell.

He shook his head slightly. "You more than earned your place. No one present could doubt your contributions."

"My mother could." She remarked. It didn't come out cross or bitter, it actually came out rather neutral, but he frowned at her all the same.

"Then your mother is a fool." He told her simply, as it that was all she needed to know.

Their eyes met and she waited a moment for him to continue but he didn't. She couldn't help but let out a huff of laughter.

"What did she say?" He asked only after getting that reaction.

Arya didn't answer right away, glancing up instead at the gap in the tress above them showing the colors creeping across the sky in the wake of the setting sun. "That I'm… Distant. That it's like I'm not even really here.."

His frown deepened, though she wasn't sure why he was so concerned. "I'm sure she didn't mean it like that." He told her softly, moving a step closer and then visibly stopping himself. He must have dunked himself when he'd first gotten in because his shorter-than-it-used-to-be blond hair was mostly slicked back from the water, though a few strands had fallen forward and out of place.

"It doesn't matter." Arya told him, sounding uncaring. "I'm not the daughter or sister they lost. They are right to mourn her."

Jaime did step closer that time, and he didn't stop himself until he was only a few steps away. "It does matter." He told her. His voice was still soften the evening air even as it was firm. "You are grown and experienced and evolved in a way none but you will ever truly understand. That doesn't make you less of yourself, it makes you more."

The fluttering feeling came back in a rush though altogether more intense. She'd admitted to herself weeks ago that he was attractive, but hadn't intended to let herself get attached. It was a crazy idea to even consider- The former Lannister heir, now sworn to the Kingsguard, and a daughter of Winterfell, trained in Braavos, once lost and now returned. It sounded like one of those silly stories her sister would read when they were young and perhaps she resisted the idea at first based upon that notion.

But what did it really matter? She was bound to disappoint her family no matter what she did, simply for being whom she was. Why did this matter? Why resist when the very idea of it seemed so satisfying? She knew they were as alone as it was possible to be and that no one but them would know what happened beneath the darkening purples and pinks that covered the sky above them, the first of the stars just starting to become visible.

She took the last two steps forward and tilted her head up to see him. He himself looked torn as he watched her come even closer and she could tell he was stubbornly keeping his eyes on her face. "Jaime.." she whispered on the night air as she reached a wet hand up to trail along his slightly scruffy cheek. He gave in with the slightest amount of pressure and ducked down.

Their lips didn't meet immediately like she thought they would, but rather he took a moment to study her further, so clearly torn. "You are a betrothed woman. This isn't appropriate." He murmured finally.

"The betrothal won't stand." She argued just as softly.

"We can't know that for sure."

"We can."

"Arya.." She didn't allow him to come with any other arguments and instead pressed her lips to his. He remained frozen for only a second before he seemed to groan deeply from his throat in surrender. His own hands rose from the water to cup her face and he shifted the angle of their lips just slightly so that they fit together better than before.

The kiss started tentative and remained almost chaste. Jaime pulled back after an almost indeterminate amount of time and Arya blinked up at him upon the loss of his lips against hers. "We should head back." He told her softly. She frowned but he shook his head and pressed one more, much shorter, kiss to the corner of her mouth. "We are likely already missed. We can't stay out here all night."

Her frown deepened at knowing he was right, though she might have preferred to camp right there on the warm ground beside the spring until morning. They rose slowly from the water and moved to pull their dirty clothes back on with reluctance. It was only once they were both dressed that they came together again. Jaime brushed a strand of wet hair back behind her ear, running his fingers across her cheek as he did so.

Arya lifted herself to her toes as he ducked lower, their lips coming together once again. He was the first man she kissed, though she'd seen enough to know the gist of it. She'd always thought it was kind of a pointless exchange- what was even the point, really? But now, standing there with him beneath the starts, she'd never felt closer to another person in her life. That feeling remained even as they broke apart and began making their way back towards the keep. They had a fire priest to find anyway.

To be continued…

Notes:

I'm so sorry for the delay! Work got crazy again this week and I've had an awful cold to go along with it. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Please let me know what you think!

Thank you so much for reading and for the feedback left! :)