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Chapter Eighty-One: Long May She Reign
Sansa
"My Lady," she heard someone calling from behind her. For a moment her shoulders tensed, she recognized the voice, but it did not take long for her shoulders to relax again. She did know this voice, and she knew the man. He had always been gentle with her, kind, and warm. There was no reason for her to be uncomfortable around him. He had only ever wanted her to be safe.
She stopped walking, allowing him to catch up with her and she turned, smiling down as the younger Lannister brother approached her on the castle wall.
He smiled at her and nodded, she noticed that he made certain to keep a respectful distance from her. He was quiet for a moment before he nodded in front of them, silently suggesting that she continue walking. She did and he fell into step with her. "Being home again suits you, Lady Sansa," he told her as they walked.
Her gaze drifted over his head, over the wall on his other side to the fields and forests that surrounded the keep. Home. There had been so long when she had been certain that she would never see it again. Her chest tightened when she remembered all the years she had taken this place for granted. She would never make that mistake again. "I used to believe that I did not belong here," she told Tyrion, not entirely conscious of her decision to be so open with the man she had once been forced to call husband. "I always felt more Tully than Stark. When Lenora first arrived she seemed more at home than I had ever felt. King's Landing seemed like the place I was meant to be. It was a dream -"
"That quickly turned nightmare," Tyrion pointed out, gently cutting her off.
Sansa shook her head, "Not all of it," she told him fervently. She did not say this to comfort him, to make him feel better about how she had been treated once he had returned to King's Landing. She told him this because it was the truth, because it would have been ungrateful of her not to tell him how much his kindness had meant to her during those dark days. If she did not tell him how much she regretted leaving King's Landing knowing that he would be blamed for Joffrey's death.
The left corner of Tyrion's lips turned up - a rueful, bittersweet smile. "No," he told her, drawing out the word. "I suppose that the gowns and the tournaments were lovely at the beginning. The pageantry of the court must have caught your romantic imagination at first."
"Yes," Sansa agreed, her jaw clenching at the thought of how simple she had once been, how idiotic, how stupid. She glanced down at him, she expected to see a smile, she expected him to be laughing at her. But she saw the opposite. The man walking beside her dropped his gaze to the floor in front of him, his shoulders tensed as his hands folded behind his back. She thought he had been playing and she meant to play along with him, but she had hurt him instead.
She shook her head quickly, though he could not see it, his intense gaze still locked on the ground before him. "I mean no, my Lord," she told him. When he did not look up at her she stopped walking.
Ever the gentleman, despite what she had once thought of him, he stopped walking too and turned, slowly lifting his gaze to meet her own. For a moment she watched him silently, trying to find the correct words so that he would be able to understand just how much she meant what she was about to say. "I never thanked you," she told him, stumbling a bit over the words at first. "Properly at least. I never thanked you for everything you did for me once you returned to the capitol. My time in King's Landing could have been much worse if it weren't for you."
Tyrion shook his head, he did not believe her. "I imagine your time in King's Landing could have been much better as well."
She had always hated when he did this. Even when she was forced to be married to him, even when she had wanted to hate him for his Lannister name, even when she glared at him and refused to eat. She had always hated when he tried to brush off praise or gratitude. As if he had seen too little of it in his lifetime to know what to do with it. He put on a brave face for the rest of the world, but much of that bravery had been armor - a shield. When they had lived together, almost as husband and wife, she had watched him. She had seen that he was not always comfortable in his own skin.
And she had hated it.
She had seen enough of him to be certain of one thing. One thing that truly mattered. "You are a good man, Lord Tyrion," she told him softly, keeping her gaze locked on his face so that he would know that she meant it. "Even when I wanted to hate you, even when I wanted to distrust you, I knew that. I knew that you were a good man, that you are a good man."
She glanced away from him for a moment before she turned back again. "Yes, King's Landing could have been gentler to me. Your nephew and your sister tormented me every chance they got. But I did see kindness when I was there. I saw gentleness and care. And I saw it from you. And I never thanked you for it, because I thought you were the enemy."
Tyrion shrugged, he started walking again, giving Sansa very little choice but to follow him. "I was a Lannister," he told her. "I am a Lannister. I would not blame you for looking at me and seeing your enemy."
"That's not what I see when I look at you now," Sansa told him honestly.
He turned, his eyes narrowed, "And what do you see now, Lady Sansa?" he asked her, studying her carefully. "What do you see when you look at me now? A dwarf? A man you cannot wish dead because I returned your brother to you, but one you do not particularly enjoy having in your home? What do you see?"
She watched him for a long moment, studying him as he had once studied her. He was uncomfortable under her gaze. He shifted on his feet and looked away from her. But his shoulders were tensed, he held his breath, waiting for her answer. Whatever she had to say mattered to him. She could not remember the last time what she had to say had mattered to anyone.
She smiled at him softly as she watched him, "A friend," she told him honestly, her smile widening as his shoulders relaxed and he lifted his gaze to watch her, he did not believe her words, but she meant them. Each and every one of them. "A friend that I will be eternally grateful to, one who will always be welcome in my home."
Tyrion Lannister was too strong a man to cry. Too hardened by the cruelty of the world to let her see the effect her words had on him. But he swallowed thickly and nodded, "As are you, my Lady," he told her before he sped up, leaving her to finish he walk on her own.
That had always been then thing she liked best about him. He knew when she needed him to say something, to distract her. And he knew when she needed him to be silent, when she needed to be left alone.
He knew her better than she had ever wanted to admit.
And it was yet another thing she would always be grateful for.
...
She was breaking her fast in the hall the next morning when Winterfell's newest maester, Master Cratter, found her. He approached her slowly, carefully, as if he were trying not to draw attention to himself. He stood behind her chair and bent at the waist so that he could whisper in her ear. "My Lady, a raven has arrived, I think it best that you come to the Maester's tower to see it."
She turned slightly, "A raven?" she echoed, "For me?" As far as she knew, there weren't many people in the Seven Kingdoms who knew that she was at Winterfell. The ones that did were mostly all in the keep. "From who?"
The maester shook his head, "Not for you, specifically, my Lady," he corrected her. "For all of Winterfell."
She nodded, "Then show it to my brother," she told him, pausing for a moment when she realized that both of her brothers were now in the keep. "Both of them. Either of them. Both at the same time. One of them is the Lord of Winterfell, they'll need to see it."
Maester Cratter's eyes drifted down the table toward where Robb and Lenora were seated together, whispering intently about something. "If I may, my Lady, I think you should read it first," he told her, his voice giving warning to something she still did not understand. "The raven came from King's Landing."
"From the King?" Sansa asked, thinking that perhaps Lenora should read it first if it was from her youngest brother. "Then shouldn't Lady Lenora -" she stopped her question when she caught sight of the maester silently shaking his head.
"It comes from the Queen," he told her carefully.
And now Sansa understood, whatever news this raven brought was surely not good. It would upset Lenora. And in upsetting Lenora it would upset Robb. The new maester was afraid to upset either of them. He wanted her to read the letter the raven had delivered so that she could share the news with them.
She pushed her chair back from the table. "Afraid of the man who was the King in the North?" she asked the maester, meaning to shame him for his almost craven behavior.
He shook his head, "I'm afraid of the man who came back from the dead," he told her honestly. His gaze drifted to Lenora, "And the woman who led an army in his place."
Sansa sighed, it was difficult for her to blame him for that. Half the keep was afraid of Robb. The other half weary. "Very well," she told him as she stood from her chair. "I will read the letter first. Lead the way, Maester Cratter."
It was not a letter waiting for her in the Maester's Tower, but rather a royal decree. Sansa could see that from the doorway. She paused for a moment, staring at it. She remembered once, her mother had received a raven from Riverrun - her father, who was already sick, had taken a turn for the worst.
"Dark wings, dark words," she murmured, echoing what her mother had said when told about the raven.
The maester beside her nodded, "That is oft the way of it, my Lady," he told her, his voice solemn. "I fear that this time is no different."
She nodded, her fists clenched at her sides as she moved closer to the desk and picked up the parchment. She read it three times in a row before she turned, her gaze landing on the maester, "Get Lady Lenora," she ordered the maester. "She will want to see this."
...
It did not take Lenora long to arrive in the tower. Sansa watched her, she seemed to feel the same trepidation in the doorway that Sansa had. She reached out, as if she were going to grab the parchment from the desk, but then she dropped her hand at her side.
She shook her head, "That is written in my mother's hand," she told Sansa, nodding toward the parchment. "The last time my mother sent anything North was the announcement that they had murdered your father." She shook her head again. "Who is dead now?" she asked.
Sansa shook her head, "You should read the letter," she told Lenora.
The woman stared at the parchment for a long moment before she nodded and walked across the room and picked up the parchment.
Sansa knew the moment she read it when Lenora gasped, and reached out to steady herself on the desk in front of her. She shook her head, "No," she argued, shaking her head. "No. It can't be."
Sansa sighed, "You must know how sorry I am, Lenora. It has been a long time since I have seen Tommen, but he was always a sweet boy when I was in the capitol."
Lenora glanced up at Sansa sharply and shook her head, "She did this," she whispered.
Sansa's brows furrowed, "Who?" she asked, shaking her head. There was only one she, Lenora could have been talking about. But even Sansa had trouble believing that Cersei would do this. "Lenora," she started, shaking her head again. "Surely you can't mean -"
"The entire Sept of Baelor blew up," Lenora cut her off. "Wildfire, Sansa! Why would there be wildfire underneath the Sept unless someone put it there?" She shook her head, "How did my Uncle Tyrion win Blackwater Bay?" she asked.
She knew the answer, Sansa could tell by the way her jaw clenched. She couldn't meet Lenora's gaze, "Wildfire," she answered in a whisper. "Your mother had a cache under the Red Keep, Tyrion found it and used some of it in the Bay."
Lenora nodded, Tyrion had already told her the story. "Some," she reminded Sansa. "But not all of it."
Sansa shook her head, "Cersei loved Tommen," she argued.
Lenora nodded. "And she loved Joffrey, and me, and Myrcella. She lost three of her four children." She paused for a moment and shook her head, "I am not saying that she did this to kill Tommen, my mother would never knowingly kill one of her children." She glanced back at the parchment in her hand, "But look who else died in the Sept? The Tyrells, anyone who had cause to argue with my mother, anyone who stood in her way. They're all gone now."
"Stood in her way?" Sansa echoed, not quite understanding what Lenora was hinting at.
"Of the only thing she has ever truly wanted," Lenora answered, her voice hard as she dropped the parchment on the desk. "Power. She's the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms now, something she has wanted since the day she married my father. And it's hers now."
Sansa did not want to believe it. She wanted to argue with Lenora, but they both knew Cersei was more than capable of doing exactly what Lenora accused her of. She watched Lenora for a long moment, she could only imagine what was going through the brunette woman's mind. "Are you going to tell, Robb?" she asked Lenora softly.
Lenora bit her lip, her gaze landing on the parchment on the desk again. "No," she answered, shaking her head. "He's got so much to worry about right now. He doesn't need to concern himself with this as well."
Sansa's chest tightened, there had once been a time when Lenora would have shared anything and everything with Robb. But now, Lenora seemed determined to shoulder this pain on her own.
For a moment she thought of telling Robb herself, but there was a darkness about him that she did not recognize, one that frightened her. If Lenora did not want him to know, it was not Sansa's place to question it.
She forced a smile onto her lips, "If you need anything," she said slowly.
Lenora smiled at her and reached out for her hand, "Thank you, Sansa," she whispered quietly. "I will manage."
Sansa nodded, her lips turning up at the corners, "Of that, I have no doubt."
-.-.-.-.-
Lenora
Jaime and Tyrion did not want to believe her at first.
Jaime she had expected to struggle with the truth of it. In spite of his anger and distrust of Cersei, she was still his twin. He often struggled to reconcile the Cersei he knew as a child with the Cersei he knew today.
But Tyrion? He had been a surprise.
Tyrion shook his head when she explained to him what had happened to Tommen, to the Tyrells, to almost three hundred people in the Sept of Baelor. "Len," Tyrion sighed. He stood from his chair and reached out for her hand. "You have been through so much, you have lost so much. You have seen so much betrayal and death. It is no surprise that your first instinct it to see an enemy, even when there is not one there."
Lenora shook her head, glancing toward Jaime, silently asking for his help. He would not meet her gaze, but he did glance toward Tyrion, "It is not such a stretch, little brother," Jaime told his younger brother softly. "Cersei is like a cornered lion, she always has been. She will strike out at anyone she believes is an enemy. Tell me that she did not see the Tyrells as enemies while you remained in the capitol."
Tyrion sighed, "She begrudged them their rise to power," he admitted. "She was afraid that Margaery would sink her claws into Joffrey and take him away from her. If she was worried about that with Joff, she would have cause for concern with Tommen. He was always the more pliable of the two." He shook his head, his brows furrowed, "But you are missing the most important piece of information Tommen was in the Sept, she would never kill her child."
Lenora was watching Jaime. She did not miss the way his jaw clenched, but she turned away from him, back toward Tyrion before she caught the way his gaze drifted over to her, heavy and sad. "She would never knowingly kill her child," she argued with her uncle. She shook her head, "When you were in King's Landing you learned that she had the Alchemist Guild making Wildfire. You took that away from her and then used it in the Battle of Blackwater Bay."
Tyrion nodded, "A fact I was ashamed of after I realized the damage it caused," he admitted. "It was useful in battle and saved King's Landing, but at a large cost." His gaze drifted toward Jaime, they were both well aware of the pain this conversation must have caused him.
Lenora nodded, she did not want to brush off her uncle's guilt, but she had more to tell him, more that she needed to make him see. "But you did not use all of it," she told him. "Where did you store the excess?" she asked.
Tyrion's brows furrowed, he did not yet see the importance of this question, but he would. "In the tunnels under the Red Keep," he told her. "I believed that if something were to happen, if the Wildfire were lit it should be the woman who had commissioned it that suffered."
"Mother," Lenora answered, naming the woman who would suffer if something happened to the Wildfire while she still lived in the Red Keep. "But that is not what happened. Somehow it was moved under the Sept of Baelor. And then it was lit. Who else besides Mother would have given that order?"
She waited, almost a minute for Tyrion or Jaime to come up with another person to blame, another name. When they were unable to she sighed and glanced down at her hands. "Mother blew up the Sept. Whether she knew that Tommen was in there or not is not for me to say. But I believe that it is safe to say that she knew that the Tyrells were there. That she knew the name of every other person in the Sept and that they had been invited there for a specific reason. And whether or not she knew that Tommen was there, she has certainly profited from his death." She glanced up at her uncles, "She's named herself Queen of the Seven Kingdoms," she told them, finally revealing the last of the decree.
Jaime shook his head, "That title belongs to you now, Len."
She scoffed, "I do not care for the title," she told him. "I am not jealous of her for naming herself ruler." She shook her head, trying to find the words to explain how she had felt when reading that her mother had named herself Queen. Dread had settled in her stomach, heavy and dark. The Seven Kingdoms would suffer under her mother's rule. The War of the Five Kings, which had started to quiet with the whispers of Winter would begin again. Cersei would not care that Winter was coming, that there was too little food, that half her army was sure to die before they reached Winterfell. She would not rest until the North was once again under Southern rule.
"She will destroy the Seven Kingdoms," she admitted in a whisper, glancing up at Jaime for confirmation. "And she won't give a damn about it as long as she can still call herself Queen while it all burns."
Jaime sighed, that was the truth of it and they both knew it. "What will you do?" he asked her, no longer arguing.
Lenora bit her lip, this was the difficult part. "We will march south," she told her uncles. "Me, the two of you, the Hound, Brienne, Ser Justin and the rest of Stannis' men that joined us. We will not look for men in the North, Robb or Jon will need all of them, but we will call up banners that do not belong to us in the East, we will call up the Lannister banners in the West. We will call up Uncle Renly's men from the Storm lands. And then we will march on King's Landing and take it from her."
"And what will Robb do when you're marching on King's Landing?" Tyrion asked sarcastically. "Stay here, safe in Winterfell, and sew dresses with Lady Sansa?" He shook his head, "That boy lost you, Len, he just barely got you back. He will not easily let you go again."
Lenora sighed, she did not meet Tyrion's gaze when she turned toward him. "I will not risk losing him again," she told Tyrion. "It is better that he stays here, safe at Winterfell, where I know I will be able to find him."
Jaime snorted, "And you think he will agree to that?" he asked her. He shook his head, "He will not let you leave without him."
Lenore bit her lip, "He will not have a choice," she told her uncle, her jaw clenched. "He won't know we've gone until it is too late."
...
She planned to spend the rest of the morning making arrangements, quietly meeting with her men, she would spend the afternoon, the evening, and the entirety of the next day with Robb and the rest of the Starks. And then they would leave during the night.
Preparations would not take long, she refused to take more from Winterfell then what she and her men had arrived with. Traveling south would not be inexpensive, but there was a certain amount of good will she and her men would receive for the fact that she was Lenora Baratheon. Lord Walder Frey held the Riverlands, he would be eager to remain in Cersei's good graces. Her Lannister uncles would garner good favor in the Westerlands, and her Baratheon roots would find support in the Storm Lands. She was willing to wager that once they were out of the North, they would not want for support or a warm place to stay, or feed for their horses or men.
In fact the most difficult part of their journey would be the beginning.
The most difficult part would be leaving Robb and her Stark family behind.
Her schemes did not work out as well as she had hoped. Robb sought her out in the mid afternoon in the Maester's tower where she was writing a raven. She did not expect a response from the raven, it would arrive in White Harbor only a short time before she and her men did, but she hoped that it would do its job - that when they arrived, a ship would be waiting to take them across the bay to the Riverlands.
He was so quiet that she did not hear him. In the days they had spent together since he had returned to Riverrun she had often noticed that he moved quieter now than he had before. The silence was something he had learned from death. He did not notice it himself, she believed, but when he moved through the keep, he barely made a sound.
Like a wolf.
She did not notice that he had entered the Maester's tower until his hand fell on her shoulder. She jumped as she felt him lean over her shoulder to press a kiss against her cheek. "So this is where you have been hiding," he whispered against her cheek as she hurried to hide the parchment she had been writing on.
She forced a smile onto her lips as she turned to face him, craning her neck a bit so that she could press her lips against his. "I would not say that I was hiding," she told him. She began to stand up from her seat. "Have you been looking for me long?"
He shook his head, "Jon and I decided that tomorrow we would sit down and decide what is to become of Winterfell and the North. He was not named King in the North, but he has been named Lord of Winterfell. We both love this keep, but it cannot have two Lords. A decision has to be made. I would want your advice. Sansa suggested that I look for you here."
Lenora's jaw clenched at that, Sansa would not tell Robb what the morning's raven had said, but she would scheme in an attempt to force Lenora's hand. She did not think that Robb had seen what she had written, but she would not risk it. "Let's go to the Godswood," she suggested softly. "You are seeking advice, but it is not my counsel you want, but your father's. Perhaps you will find him in the Godswood."
Robb shook his head, "I did not find him at Riverrun when I looked for him there," he told her. But he gestured that she should lead the way out of the maester's tower. When her back was turned, he quietly rifled through the parchment on the desk and grabbed her letter, folding it up and sticking it in the pocket of his jerkin to read later.
She was not the only one who held suspicions.
...
He was silent for the first hour they knelt in front of the Heart Tree. Lenora knelt to his left, watching him as he prayed. After he had died she had sworn to herself that she would never forget anything about him, but as she sat so close to him now she realized that she had forgotten so much.
He was more handsome than she had remembered. She had forgotten the strength of his shoulders, the quiet, self-assured way he moved. She had remembered the callouses on his sword hand, but forgotten how it felt to hold his sword hand in both of hers.
This man was everything she had ever wanted in a husband. He was kind, he was gentle, he was strong and brave, he was intelligent. He cherished her, and yet he respected her enough to let her forge her own path, to make her own decisions. He was a rare man and her father could not have chosen better for her, even if he had searched the entire continent. And she was about to throw all of that away.
It did not matter that she meant to leave him at Winterfell to keep him safe. She would lose him when she left. He could forgive her many things, but this - this was not easily forgivable.
In leaving him she guaranteed that he would be safe. She also guaranteed that he would no longer be hers.
After kneeling for an hour he sighed as he sat back on his heels and turned to watch her. She forced a gentle smile onto her lips, "Did you find him?" she asked him. "Your father?" Robb nodded. Her smile widened, "And what advice did he have for you?" she asked.
"Not much," he answered her honestly. "But whatever is to be done, must be done gently."
Lenora nodded, "You are his last two surviving sons," she agreed. "Whatever is to happen to Winterfell and the North, he would not want you fighting."
Robb nodded, "What would you do?" he asked her again. "If you were in my place. What would you do?"
"What do you want?" she asked him gently. "Do you want to be King in the North? Do you want to be Lord of Winterfell? If you do, they both belong to you, before they belong to Jon. No matter what we called him when we thought that you were dead. He would not begrudge you taking them back. Knowing Jon, he would be grateful. He never wanted this anyway. You were the one who was born for it. He'd tell you as much. But none of that matters if you do not want it. So Robb, my love, what do you want?"
He thought about it for a long moment, she knew when he had made up his mind by the way his shoulders sunk. "I am tired, Nora," he told her quietly, admitting something to her that he would never admit to anyone else. "I am so tired."
She nodded, "There is no shame in that," she assured him, though she knew that this was not his decision. Her lips pulled up at the corners, teasing, "But that is not the answer to my question. What do you want, Robb?"
He smiled at her and reached out for her hand, lifting it to his lips so that he could press a kiss against the back of her hand, silently thanking her for her support. "I am tired. I do not want this. But one thing I learned from my father is that being Lord of Winterfell has very little to do with what I want and everything to do with what Northerners need. I was born for this, trained for this. It is a duty that my father believed that I was ready for. I will not let him down now."
Lenora pursed her lips together and nodded. It was not the answer she had been hoping for, but it was the one that she had expected. For a moment, there had been a part of her that had hopped that perhaps he would give it all up. And then when she left Winterfell, he might have come with her. But that hope was lost now. She forced her smile back onto her lips and nodded again, "Just so," she told him softly, "Jon will be very happy to hear that."
Robb watched her carefully, "But you do not seem happy to hear it," he told her as she stood up from the ground. He followed her, quietly trailing her as she led the way out of the Godswood. She was about to deny it when he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. "Could it be because of this raven you were going to send?" he asked, catching her attention.
Lenora spun, staring at him in surprise as he slowly began to unfold the parchment. Anger and panic swirled in her stomach, both in equal measure. "I thought we were long past the days of you reading my letters, Robb," she told him. She had meant the statement to come out playfully, a joke. Instead her voice was sharp.
His gaze lifted to her face. He had been playing, teasing her, but her tone of voice had him worried. "What is it, Nora?" he asked her, still unfolding the parchment. "Your mother?" He shook his head, "You do not need to hide your letters to her from me."
"Robb -" she started, but it was too late. He had flipped the parchment and his eyes were scanning her letter, quickly reading it through narrowed eyes. His hand clenched and the parchment shook as he lifted his blue-eyed gaze to her face, silent and angry. "Robb -" she tried again.
"Why do you need a ship in White Harbor, Lenora?" he asked her, his voice cracking like thunder. His hand was still clenched around the parchment, so tightly that she was certain he would rip it. "Are we going on progress?"
He meant the last question as a tease, but there was an underlying coldness to his tone. Like the first, far off rumble of thunder during a storm - a warning. Lenora squared her shoulders as she lifted her gaze to meet his, prepared for battle, but his face softened her resolve. His tone might have been thunder - anger and cold fury, but his face was that of a small child, frightened that the only thing the only thing that mattered to him in the entire world was about to disappear.
"Robb -" she started, uncertain of how she meant to finish her sentence. Earlier that day when speaking to her uncles she had planned to leave him behind, to leave without even saying goodbye. But now, she was not so certain. As she stared at him she realized that there was no way that she was going to go anywhere without him. Her shoulders relaxed, slumping away from her ears as all the fight left her.
"Are you trying to leave me, Lenora?" he asked her, taking a step closer to her. "I died for you. I came back and traveled across the country to find you. And I finally got you back and you mean to leave me?" He shook his head, taking another step closer to her as he reached out for her, his hands hovering in the air between them, silently begging for her to close the distance and step into his arms. "You can't," he told her, his voice cracking slightly.
There was no doubt that he meant his final two words to be an order. You can't leave me. Instead they came out as an entreaty, Please don't leave me, not when we finally found each other again. And that, itself, was the final straw. She knew that she still needed to travel south, she still needed to confront her mother. But she would not do it alone. She would not sneak away in the dead of night and leave Robb to find her missing in the morning.
She would tell him her plans. She would ask him his advice. And she would hope that when the time came for her to leave that she would do so with Robb Stark riding at her side.
She sighed and crossed the distance between them, stepping into Robb's arms and letting him wrap himself around her, crushing her tightly to his chest. They remained like that, silently holding each other for a few moments before Lenora spoke up, and then it was only because she had realized that Robb shook as he held her not because he was holding on so tightly, but because he was crying.
"I once told you that I would not go anywhere without you," she promised him quietly as she pulled away from him just enough to press a kiss against his forehead. "I meant that. But there is somewhere I must go, somewhere I don't think you will want to travel to, but I must."
Robb shook his head, "If you go, I go," he promised her, pulling her closer to him once again. "To the ends of the earth, across the Narrow Sea, to the Dothraki grass seas. I will follow you."
"But Winterfell -" Lenora started.
"Jon can have it," Robb told her, cutting her off before she could finish her argument. "Even before, I was never fighting for a place, I was fighting for people." He pulled away just enough to meet her gaze, "You are one of the few people I have left, Lenora Stark," he told her and the sound of that name almost made Lenora cry, it had been so long since anyone had called her Stark. "I will be damned if I let you go now. Not after everything we have been through."
Lenora watched him for a long moment before she nodded, "Just so," she told him, those two quiet words enough to let him know that she not only agreed with his words, but approved of them.
Robb nodded, the left corner of his lips tugging up at the corners. "So why do we need a ship, Nora?" he asked, this time more playful and less angry. "Are we going on progress? The King and Queen of the North reliving their greatest feats?"
Lenora shook her head, "I need to go to King's Landing," she told him, watching as his jaw clenched at the words. "Joff is dead and so is Tommen," she explained to him.
"And you're next in line for the Iron Throne?" Robb teased, "Is that the way of it?"
He meant it as a jest, but he was close. Lenora shook her head, "Mother has named herself Queen of the Seven Kingdoms," she told him quietly. "I may not want it, Westeros may not want me. But my mother will destroy this country if we let her. And I alone stand a chance of making her see reason. It has to be me." She was quiet for a long moment as she watched him, he looked as though he wanted to tell her no, as though he wanted to refuse to leave Winterfell. "You promised me that you would go to the ends of the earth," she reminded him quietly. She knew that this would not be easy for him, but now she was set on the idea of him accompanying her and she would not have it any other way. "Across the Narrow Sea, to the Dothraki grass seas. Did you mean it?"
Robb was quiet for a long moment and then he sighed and shook his head, "Seven Hells," he muttered to himself, "The Gods know that I will regret it. But I will follow you anywhere, Nora Stark. Even to King's Landing."
He laughed when she threw her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist, daring him to catch her as she threw herself at him. "I love you, Robb Stark," she whispered in his ear as his hands caught her under her legs to hold her up. "Have I told you that since you came back from the dead?"
Robb chuckled, "Gods help me, but I love you too."
-.-.-.-.-
Gendry
He found her that evening in her chambers cleaning her uncle's sword. He let out a low whistle when he saw it, it was a beautiful thing in spite of its gaudy gold and ruby covered pommel. "Does everything a Lannister owns have to have a lion on it?" he asked as he moved further into the chamber and sat down in one of the chairs by the fire.
He was trying to treat her like a brother would, the way he saw Robb and Jon treat Arya and Lady Sansa, but it was difficult. Even when she was sitting on the floor in a tunic and a pair of men's pants he was still aware that she had been raised a princess, that she had once been called Queen, that perhaps she was still a queen. He had to bite his tongue not to call her Your Grace and he kept waiting for the day when she changed her mind and took it back, when she told him that she did not want him to be her brother.
But today was not that day, it would seem. She turned from the sword in her lap and smiled up at him before she allowed her gaze to return to her work. "There is nothing a Lannister likes more than their own face," she told him, laughter coloring her tone, "and when that is inappropriate, a lion will do as a fine substitute." She chuckled and shook her head, "One year, for Jaime's nameday, I gave him a mirror - one small enough that he could carry it in his pocket - so that he could always look at himself and take pride in the fact that he was a Lannister." She glanced at him again, "I thought I was quite clever."
Gendry chuckled, "But was there a lion on the mirror?" he asked.
She nodded, "Several, in fact."
She turned back to the sword in her lap and for a moment they seemed ready to fall into an awkward silence. Gendry wouldn't allow it. "It's a beautiful sword," he told her, nodding to the blade in her lap even though she wasn't watching him.
She nodded, humming her quiet agreement. For a moment Gendry panicked, thinking he would have to find another topic to discuss when she spoke. "It is beautiful," she agreed. "In spite of the red they tried to fold into the metal. You should have seen it before, this is just a poor imitation of what it should be."
"It did not always look like this?" Gendry asked.
She shook her head, a rueful smile tugging at her lips, "No," she told him quietly. "This sword, Oathkeeper has a brother, Widow's Wail. They both were melted down from a great sword, Ice." Gendry started at that, he had heard of Ice, it had belonged to Ned Stark. Lenora did not seem to notice, "They will have to be reforged," she told him, "though they will never be able to pull the red dye from the steel," she shook her head, "another thing my House has taken from them."
"But you're giving it back," Gendry pointed out, hoping to make her see that the Starks did not blame her. "They know that."
Lenora nodded and glanced up at him, "If only I could give them back everything House Lannister has taken from them," she whispered. For a moment she seemed likely to slip into a silent, moody depression, but then she shook her head and forced a smile onto her lips, "How do you like it up here, Gendry?" she asked him.
Gendry nodded, "I like it just fine," he told her. "It's a bit cold."
She laughed, quiet and almost musical, "You will get used to it," she told him, "I promise you that. Soon there will come a day when anything south of Moat Cailin feels oppressively hot."
Gendry nodded, he doubted it, but if anyone knew it would be the southern princess who had willingly chosen Winterfell as her home. "Arya made much more sense once I saw her home," he admitted to her. "As soon as I realized that she was a girl, I knew she was a strange sort. She was much stronger, much harder than any girl I had ever met before. She had no fear. It wasn't until we saw Winterfell that I realized that of course she is so strong and serious, look at where she grew up."
Lenora nodded with a soft smile playing at her lips, "I felt the same way when I first arrived," she admitted to him. "There was a magic about Winterfell that I could not hope to understand, but one that made perfect sense once I met the people who had grown up here. Winterfell is not a place for soft people. Even Lady Sansa has a quiet, hidden strength to her. One that she learned from this keep."
Gendry nodded, "You speak as though you plan to leave," he told her.
She smirked, "You've barely known me a week and you already know me so well, brother," she teased. "But you have the right of it. I will be leaving Winterfell before the next moon."
"And your husband?" Gendry asked. "Will Robb be going with you?"
She nodded. "He will," she told him. "My uncles and men as well."
Gendry nodded, he did not need even a moment to think. "Me as well," he promised her.
She smiled, "Arya will not be pleased," she told him, teasing. "She has already lost you once. She will not take kindly to losing you again."
Gendry smirked and shrugged his shoulders, "She won't loose me," he promised her. He watched her carefully, "You think that she will let you and Robb go off to war without her? Cersei has been on her list since the very beginning. She will not rest until she sees the queen dead."
It was not until he had said the words that he realized that he was speaking about Lenora's mother. He did not doubt that Lenora knew that her mother needed to be stopped, but she did not need to be reminded that Arya, a girl she saw as a sister, wanted her mother dead. Lenora ducked her head, her face hidden from him in a curtain of dark hair. Her shoulders were tense for a moment before she lifted her gaze to meet him, "Well," she said slowly, "I daresay that she will be pleased at the end of all of this."
Gendry sighed, "Lenora," he started slowly, "I am -"
She cut him off, shaking her head, "You do not need to apologize," she told him fervently. "We all know that this will be how it ends, there is no use attempting to shield me from it. I am not so weak as all that."
Gendry shook his head, "No," he agreed with her. "You are not."
She forced a smile onto her lips, "Father would be pleased," she told him quietly, changing the subject. "The two of us, fighting together. He would be proud. She shook her head, "You look so much like him," she whispered, her smile softening into something more natural than her forced smile.
-.-.-.-.-
Robb
"We'll call the Banners," Robb told her as he sat down beside her at the table in their chambers and reached out for her hand.
Jaime nodded, smiling at Robb before he glanced pointedly at Lenora, "I like this idea better than your idea of leaving the northerners to themselves and only finding men south of Moat Cailin," he told her.
Lenora shook her head, "Winter is coming," she told Robb. "They have already fought and lost in a war that belonged to them. I will not ask them to fight in a war that does not."
Robb shook his head, "It belongs to all of us, Nora," he told her. "To you and me. To your uncles. To Jon. To Northmen and to the Westerlands. To Robin in the Eyre. To Dorne. You think that your mother will be happy with just King's Landing?"
He shook his head, glancing up to meet Jaime's gaze, "She'll come for all of us," he promised. Jaime nodded in silent agreement. He turned back to Lenora, "This is our war. We will call the banners and the Northmen will fight."
Lenora shook her head again and stood up from the table, pulling her hand out of Robb's grasp as she moved toward the window. Robb sat still for a moment before Tyrion kicked him under the table and nodded toward the woman, silently prompting him to follow her to the window.
When he got there she was shaking. "Nora," he whispered, surprised. "What's the matter?" He reached out for her hands, holding them between his own and hoping to stop the shaking. "Do not be afraid," he whispered, leaning down so that he could press a kiss against her fingertips.
She scoffed at that. "Don't be afraid," she repeated, a bitter tone coloring her words as she turned away from the window to look up at him. "How can you say that?" she asked him, her tone turning accusing. "How can you tell me not to be afraid? How can you be so certain that you should call the Banners? How? When the last time they followed you into battle one of them killed you? How?"
Her voice broke on the last word and she quickly turned her head away from him. But she wasn't fast enough. He saw the tears pooling in her grey eyes, turning them steely and hard like the sea during a storm. And he understood. She was afraid. She didn't want to call the Banners, not because she wanted to let them rest safe in the North and prepare for Winter, not because this was not their war, but because she wanted to keep him safe and they had already betrayed him once.
"We won't call the Boltons then," Robb jested quietly, hoping that it would make her smile. It did not. "The Freys can stay at the Twins as well."
This at least got a reaction out of her. She turned toward him, glaring, "Be serious Robb," she commanded him.
He nodded, "I am," he promised her. "We won't call the Boltons or the Freys."
"What about the Karstarks?" Lenora asked. "They fought for the Boltons during the Battle of the Bastards. They betrayed you. And the Glovers, what about them? They did not fight for Ramsay, but they did not help when Jon and I asked. None of them did." She shook her head and looked away from him, "I used to think you Northmen had a certain honor to you, one that is hard to find in the south. But all of your Banners refused me, refused Jon when we asked for their help. Everyone save House Mormont. Why should we ask them for help now?"
Robb smiled at her gently and leaned down to press a kiss against her lips. She was afraid, but she was stubborn in her fear. She did not trust his Northmen anymore, it would take so much for them to earn her trust back. They would have to work for it. And she would fight them every step of the way. It was this same stubbornness that had kept her alive during her days with the Bolton Bastard and he loved her for it. He wondered if there had ever been a time when he loved his wife more than he did at this moment. It was hard to imagine. "Because Nora," he whispered against her lips. "If we do not call them, how will you be able to lecture them about how they should act to their liege lord? How will you shame them by telling them that twelve year old Lyanna Mormont knows more of honor than grown men? Will you really deny yourself that pleasure?"
She pursed her lips, fighting against a smile. Robb chuckled and pressed his lips against hers again, kissing her until he felt a smile slip onto her lips as well. Then he pulled away with a nod, "We'll call them," he promised her. "You can shame them. And then you can choose who you want to bring with you. Any of them, all of them, only House Mormont. But we will call them."
"Why?" Lenora pressed. "Why must we call them?"
Robb chuckled and shook his head, "They need to bend the knee to their queen."
...
It did not take the bannermen long to arrive at Winterfell. They were loud, they were noisy. And the all had opinions on how he had survived the wedding at the Twins. At Tyrion's advice Robb had told the Lords that he had escaped the Twins, that he had been alive the entire time - injured, but alive. It was an easier, gentler tale than the truth.
One the men would not fear or question.
And one all of them were only too happy to believe. Many of them telling him that they had never believed him to be truly dead. This would have meant more had they come to Lenora's aid when she called them to fight Ramsay. But as it stood - all they had were empty words.
All save Lyanna Mormont, the only one who had answered Lenora and Jon's call. Robb could not help the smile that spread across his lips as he watched Lenora and the young girl reunite.
Lyanna knew herself too well to mimic Lenora, but he could see a pointed respect and awe in the younger woman's eyes as she sat next to Lenora, the two of them whispering back and forth. And there was a softness to Lenora's smile as she spoke to the girl that Robb had not seen since they reunited.
He wondered for a moment as he watched the two women, both leaders in their own right, both warriors, if this was what it would have been like if he and Lenora had a child. He had no doubt their child would have been as strong, as opinionated, as brave as Lyanna.
It was no wonder the two of them took to each other so well.
Once all the Lords Bannermen were all assembled in the Hall Robb approached the two women and took Lenora's hand, gently leading her up to the high table. He knew that he would be asking a lot of his bannermen, to follow a woman - a southern woman at that - but he had faith that they would. Especially when she stared them down and made them feel shamed for their previously craven actions.
He wanted Lenora to take the seat that had always belonged to his father, but she refused. By the end of the day they would be asking these men to declare her their Queen, to vow to fight for her, but she would not insult the memory of their beloved Ned Stark by taking his seat, especially when both of his sons were there. She took his mother's seat instead.
He nodded at her before he turned to face the rest of the hall. "We called you all here because of this," he announced, his voice echoing through the quiet hall as he held up a tiny scroll of parchment, a raven they had received shortly after the one announcing Tommen's death. "Cersei of House Lannister, First of her name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms orders you to come to King's Landing and bend the knee or suffer the fate of all traitors."
The hall was no longer silent. The men all began to yell and bang their fists against the tables. They had all received similar ravens, though theirs had not come with a command to bend the knee, that right belonged to their liege lord. Many of them were worried that because of his Lannister bride Robb would be inclined to do so.
He gave them a moment before he held his hand up, palm facing out, calling for silence. "Lenora and I," he started, despite a minor uproar when he said her name, more concern that the woman beside him had persuaded him to follow her mother's command. His jaw clenched, many of these men had marched south with him. They had ridden with Lenora, fought beside her. How did they not realize that she did not consider herself a Lannister? How did they not realize that she was as much a Stark as he was. "Lenora and I," he started again, louder, "will march south. But we will not be bending the knee."
There was a moment of silence before the lords began to yell again, this time cheering and clapping their hands. The mood shifting suddenly.
"It will mean war," Robb warned them. After many discussions with Lenora about calling his bannermen he would only make one concession. He would not order them to fight with him, he would ask. Anyone who would march south would do so of his own volition. "You have followed us to war before," he told them, being careful to say the word us so that when he asked them to follow Lenora they would not be caught so unaware. "We would not blame you if you were weary of doing so a second time. If you choose to join us, we plan to leave Winterfell at the turn of the next moon."
"It's about time we brought our fight to King's Landing!" Lord Glover announced, the men around him yelling their agreement.
Robb nodded, "Whether or not you march with me, you will need to be prepared," he told them. "I will not make the same mistake I made before. Do not leave your keeps undefended. Should we fail, Cersei Lannister will come for the North. She will not suffer to be Queen of six kingdoms. Everyone will need to be ready."
"I'd like to see her try," one of the men at the back yelled. Robb could not be certain, but he thought it was one of Lord Royce's men from the Eyrie.
Again, Lord Glover stood, "What of Karhold?" he asked.
"What of it?" Robb countered.
"The Karstarks betrayed the North," he yelled. "They betrayed you," he reminded Robb, turning to look at him. "Their keep should be given to a new family, a loyal family who supported you through it all."
Lenora spoke before Robb could. She did not stand. She did not yell. But her voice was harder and colder than any winter day. And every voice in the hall was silenced as she spoke. "Loyal Houses like yours, Lord Glover?" she asked, arching a brow at the man in question. For a moment it looked as though the older man was going to nod, but he stilled under her harsh gaze and slowly began to sit back down in his seat.
Lenora was not finished yet though. "Loyal Houses like all of you?" she asked, her gaze sweeping over the hall. "You may not have betrayed Robb by running from our cause during the War of the Five Kings as the Karstarks did. You may not have betrayed him at the Twins as the Freys and the Boltons did. But I would not congratulate myself on my loyalty if I were any of you."
She stood now, her hands clenched into fist on the table in front of her. "Where were you, Lord Manderly?" she asked, turning her gaze on a white haired man at the front of the room. "Where were you when your king was injured, when he was half dead and dragging himself out of the Twins to stay alive? You were so quick to declare him dead, to abandon his cause and rush back to your keep."
Next her gaze landed halfway down the hall. "Where were you, Lord Cerwyn, when your queen was taken captive by the Boltons and carted back up North, past your very keep - a prisoner?
"Where were any of you when the Boltons, the very House that had, for all you knew, murdered your king took up residence at Winterfell? The keep that had belonged to your Liege Lords for a millennium? Even when there were still two true-born Starks in the Seven Kingdoms?" her gaze fell for a moment on Sansa and Arya, who were seated further down the High Table. "When Jon Snow, a bastard, but a man with Ned Stark's blood in his veins, still lived? Where were you?"
Her gaze landed on Lord Glover again, "And where were you, Lord Glover, when Jon, Sansa, and I arrived at your keep to ask your assistance in defeating Ramsay?" Her eyes narrowed, "You ignored our plea, but call yourself loyal now? You all ignored our call."
She turned toward Lyanna Mormont and for the first time since she had spoken her gaze softened. "Lord Glover," she addressed the man without looking at him, "as you are so quick to suggest taking keeps from disloyal Houses and giving them to loyal Houses, shall we start with yours? Shall we start with Deepwood Motte?" Her tone was teasing now, just enough that the lords knew that she did not actually mean her words. Her gaze lifted from Lyanna to sweep over the hall again, "The way I see it, if we were to take Lord Glover's suggestion about Karhold, each of you would lose your keep, and every man on Bear Island would have a castle."
None of the men dared to make eye contact with her as she took her seat again and nodded silently toward Robb, allowing him to continue.
He smiled at her, unsure of what she thought he could say to follow her speech. He was certain now that when he called the men to follow Lenora into battle, there would be no arguments. They had all seen how fierce their queen was. They would not deny her.
"The last time I called you all, I asked you to follow me. You declared me your king and together we declared the North an independent kingdom." He held up his hand to silence the men's cheers before they began. "I will not ask that this time. I call you here to ask you to follow her," he nodded toward Lenora. "I ask you to declare her your Queen. We have fought the War of the Five Kings, it seems this war will be between two queens. The false queen Cersei, and the Queen in the North. If you'll have her."
He should have added, if she will have you.
It was silent for a long moment. Long enough that Robb began to fear that he had lost any support from his bannermen, that not only would they refuse to follow Lenora, but they would not follow him either. And then, Lyanna Mormont stood up.
"House Mormont has been sworn to House Stark for a thousand years," the young girl announced, watching the other lords closely. "And for a thousand years we have kept that faith. Lady Lenora may not have been born a Stark, but she has proved herself a thousand times over." She turned toward Lenora, the young girl fighting a grin. "House Mormont knows no Queen, but the Queen in the North! Whose name is Stark."
The young girl did not look for any approval from the men around her. She waited until Lenora had nodded at her and then she sat, her gaze forward.
Robb could not help but smile, if House Mormont could claim Lenora as a Stark, perhaps the others could too. His smile did not stay in place for long though.
Lord Glover was the next to stand. The man scowled and Robb shifted forward slightly, meaning to block Lenora, to protect her from the man. There was no need. The scowl was not for her, but for the Lord himself. "I did not join you against the Boltons," he told Lenora. "I did not trust you. But now I see, you are as far from your Lannister mother as possible. I did not fight with you and I will regret that until my dying day. A man can only admit when he was wrong and hope for forgiveness."
Lenora was silent for a long moment, one final punishment before she nodded, "There is nothing to forgive, my Lord," she promised him.
Lord Glover nodded as well, "There will be more fights to come," he announced loudly to the lords around him. "House Glover will stand behind House Stark as we have done for a thousand years. And I will stand behind Lenora Stark!" He withdrew his sword, holding it over his head, "Queen in the North!"
His cry was soon echoed by others. By Jaime, Tyrion, and Gendry. By Jon, Sansa, and Arya. By the knights of the Vale and Stannis' men who had followed Lenora since Castle Black. By the rest of the Northmen in the hall.
Robb was not stupid, he did not believe that this was as simple as it seemed. The North was independent, it had never appreciated being ruled by the south and it had gotten a taste of freedom under his rule. But he hoped that the fact that their one-time king was married to the future Queen of the Seven Kingdoms would help soothe the sting. He hoped the Northerners would come to realize that Lenora loved them, perhaps more than any other people in the world, that whatever she did as queen would be in the best interest of everyone. He hoped that they would continue to take pride in knowing that it was a Stark queen on the throne. And Stark heirs after her.
She did not smile, but she turned to him - as he had once done to her a lifetime ago at Riverrun, asking his permission, though she did not need it.
He smiled before he leaned forward to press a kiss against her cheek, "Queen in the North," he whispered in her ear, adding his own quiet voice to the throng. "Long may she reign."
She smiled then and nodded, "Just so," - her quiet acceptance.
Author's Note:
Ah! I have been waiting until the first chapter to get to this point! Lenora and Robb are fantastic, they have my entire heart. But Lenora never needed him.
She is a queen in her own rights.
And this time when they go to battle, she will be leading the charge.
As it should be!
Didn't I promise you guys? The princess saves herself in this one.
What do you think? Did you like this chapter? Please let me know by reviewing!
Thank you to everyone who has added this story to their follow and alert lists! But most of all thank you for all the review love! It keeps me going! Even when I'm sick! (Like I have been all this week.)
LokiLova: Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this update as well!
ZabuzasGirl: It's good to be back! I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!
10868letsgo: Thank you so much! I'm glad that you're enjoying the story! Here's your update. There may possibly be a child in their near future!
TheKingInTheNorthLives: NEVER! I will never give up this fic. When I'm struggling with an update I sometimes cheat with other fandoms, but I feel bad. I keep coming back to Robb and Lenora. (To the point where I reworked my plans for the last chapter to leave it open-ended in case I ever want to come back and write a sequel...)
So to answer your question ... yes I do have a timeline, not completely set in stone, but enough that I know what's happening in every chapter when I sit down to write. (Very rarely do Robb and Lenora run away with me.)
RHatch89: Thank you so much, friend! Thanks for sticking around!
Gamemaster77: It must be like when someone talks about you and your ears start burning! There were several of you that were in the process of rereading when I updated! Call it a Christmas miracle!
I'm so glad that you enjoyed both chapter 79 and 80! Hopefully 81 is not a let down!
Haha! The Gendry and Arya reunion is a test for the writers. Because knowing Arya, even with the faceless men crap (I said it!) is still the most herself around Gendry. And f their reunion does not play out similarly to this fic ... I will be forever disappointed in the show runners.
Don't worry about Gendry ... he's safe. I'm too partial to him to kill him off now.
Thank you so much for your review! It was magic!
Yuyuxx: Hello! I'm pretty sure that you're a new reviewer! So welcome! Thank you so much for reading this story and for reviewing! I'm glad that you finally found the words!
As for how I picture Lenora, she's relatively short, Sansa is now taller than her, she's close to Arya's height. Thin, but muscled. Hope that helps!
StarkTeller: I have been here! Struggling with that chapter, although based on the reviews I had absolutely no reason to struggle! I've missed you guys too! And Robb and Lenora, though not as much as you guys because they were in my head every week off ... messing with it.
Welcome out of the Reylo hole! Perhaps I can pull you out enough to make another youtube video? I watch the other two you made while I write chapters ALL the time.
Tell your aunt welcome to the GoT family!
Are there White Walkers? Maybe... they might come in a little later in the show. As for politics ... you got some of that in this chapter too ... this story can't all be reunions.
dvali: Yay! I'm glad it was a happy surprise! And I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!
Don't worry ... I will get back to A Song of Fire and Gold as well ... but I've learned my lesson. One GoT story at a time.
Guest(1): Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you enjoyed the mix of happiness and angst ... it's a difficult tightrope to walk.
bellaphant: I'm back! And I'll never give up on this story! I'm so glad that it is one of your favorites on the site and I promise you that you will be able to read it until the very end! I'm so glad that you enjoyed all the reunions in the last chapter? Robb and the girls had you crying? (Yay points for me!)
AlexShah: YAY! At least one person read it like the White Star Officer! I'm not the only nerd! Yay!
I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter too! Not a lot of shit went down in this chapter, but it's coming ...
ReedusIsLife: I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter. Don't worry too much about his darkness ... I think he'll be okay. :)
darkwolf76: Don't even worry about the fact that you didn't review chapter 79 until I had posted chapter 80! I'm just glad that you are still here reading!
I'm so glad that you enjoyed it though all the same! And I will always happily read late reviews! They're great for my ego!
Now for chapter 80! I'm so glad that you enjoyed the chapter! There were a lot of reunions, mostly because if they weren't all in one chapter I would be writing reunions for months and I have things that Robb and Lenora need to do! So they were all in one.
I'm glad that you enjoyed Robb and Jon's reunion. That is one that broke my heart to write because we will never get it on the show, but it needed to happen here. And yes, only Starks can bond over being killed by their own men and brought back to life by Red Bastards who should mind their own business.
I do tend to make Arya the star. Aside from Lenora and Tyrion she's one of my favorites and so easy to write for that I think the favoritism comes out in the chapters like the last one.
As for Gendry and Lenora ... I don't think that she would have rejected him, but I think that after everything she has been through and everyone she has lost, her initial reaction was something along the lines of, "I can't let another person in." But as you could see from this chapter, she is. Because no matter what, they are siblings. He's the only one by blood that she has left.
Jaime and Tyrion ... I had to do them better justice than the show did them! I was so angry at the show that their quiet reunion was written the day after the episode aired, just waiting to be slipped into the story.
Guest(2): Haha! At least this story stuck with you! Glad to be back!
PsychoBeachGirl88: I'm so glad that you are still around and reading! And I'm even more glad that you enjoyed the last chapter! Gendry and Lenora are going to be fantastic together, you'll see. I have so many plans for them! Thank you so much for your review ... and don't worry, I think it's about two chapters until Robb and Lenora end up at the Twins ... mwahahahaha. (That was an evil laugh for what I have planned.)
Guest(3): It was pretty invigorating. I have about nine chapters left in this story and am determined to finish it by this summer. So we'll see how that goes. But thank you for sticking around and reading. I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one as well!
sltsky96: It is absolutely delightful to be back! Thank you so much for sticking around! Everyone is so excited to see what happens to Lenora and Gendry and I'm so happy about that! They are a pair that I have pretty big plans for. And I'm thrilled that you enjoyed Arya and Gendry's reunion. That one has been written since the beginning ... just chilling the the massive document on my computer waiting until I got to their reunion.
Robb and Lenora are a little better in this chapter, for now. There's some things that are going to come up in the future that test that, Lenora has gotten used to being on her own, after all. But I think they're strong enough to tough it out.
Guest(4): Well, happy birthday! I'm so glad that you're here and that my update was so serendipitously timed! Thank you so much for your review! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!
Stark Wife: Wow! That is a HUGE binge! Thank you so much for spending an entire day reading this story? I don't even think that I could do that! I'm so glad that you're enjoying the story so much and I hope that you liked this chapter too!
TwilightInsomniac17: Another 24 hour binge reader! You guys are dedicated! I'll tell you that! I'm so sorry about your sleep schedule, but I am thrilled that you are enjoying this story so far!
And I'm glad that you like Lenora. That was always my goal. She's most definitely one of the central characters, but I wanted to make sure that this story read like the books ... there's no main character in GoT, but many characters whose experiences make up the entire story and I wanted to add Lenora's tale to that.
As for abandoning this story, never. I have gotten hooked on a lot of Robb/OC stories that did that. And I will not do that to myself or to you guys!
Thank you so much for your lovely review! It had me blushing!
celinesLineC-Line: Nice to be read again!
Thank you so much for your review! I hope you liked this chapter too!
Padfootette: Yay! Hope you loved this chapter just as much!
janaoliver: I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one as well! Don't worry ... we still have eight MASSIVE chapters until the end of this fic ... and even then ... there might be a sequel. Even I don't know about that yet.
Arianna Le Fay: Lions and wolves and deer oh my! We've almost got ourselves a zoo. But I do think that this team is a good one. And they're getting ready to change things up. As for Dany ... you'll just have to see.
Firefly Scanner: First of all, I am so happy that you did not give up on this story after Robb "died!". Thank you so much for trusting me and giving me the benefit of the doubt! How long did it take you until you realized that it was not a mistake to trust me?
I'm so glad that you have enjoyed this story so far - "one of the best stories ever read" are some big shoes to fill ... so I hope I did them justice with this chapter! Let me know.
adrian11: Of course I'll continue! Thank you so much for your review! I'm so happy that you have enjoyed this story so far and I hope that you continue to do so!
HopelessRomantic44: You guys are going to spoil me with all of your kind words! I'm so glad that you are enjoying this story so far! Thank you so much for your review! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!
And that's all I have, friends!
Thank you so much! And since I think it is a long shot that I will be able to update again before Christmas ... Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates. And a happy, joyful, light-filled holiday season to everyone!
Until next time,
Chloe Jane.
P.S. - Can a girl get a thousand reviews for Christmas? That'd make my day!