Now We Wait
...
Sansa looks at the capital through the window, and remembers all the unpleasant memories that happened to her in the past.
She swore never to set foot in King's Landing again while Cersei's queen, but now she's here again, and still alive.
They think I'm already dead.
She wonders if Jon feels woeful at the thought of her demise, and she thinks Daenerys must be quite pleased.
But not for long.
Her thoughts are disrupted when the door opens. She turns around to see Cersei enter the chamber with her Hand and Ser Gregor in tow.
"How are you Lady Sansa? Is everything to your liking?" Cersei inquired looking around the room. Sansa just stands there looking anguished but calculating. She looks at her now, really looks at her, and she realizes that the Queen, aside from her hair and choice of clothing, didn't change much.
"I don't remember my Hand telling me you've lost your tongue. Or would you like a little encouragement?" Cersei threatens when Sansa doesn't say anything.
"Ser Gregor?" Cersei tilts her head to the side and Ser Gregor makes a move to step forward. Sansa widens her eyes and tilts her chin up as if challenging the peculiar knight. Cersei raises her hand and the knight comes to a halt. Cersei looks at Sansa again.
"Speak." Cersei says and Sansa acknowledges the same viper in her voice. She knows she has to talk now lest she wants to anger her further.
"When I was told I was being taken to King's Landing under your command I've prepared myself for a thousand different ways to die. But now you've clothed and fed me and given me my own bed chamber. Why is that?" Sansa asks.
"Well I did send some people to take you, but the men I've tasked to do that failed as did Ser Bronn in his own, but at least he brought you here." Cersei relates as she walks towards the table in the middle of the room and sits on one of the chairs. She gestures for Sansa to do the same and she did reluctantly. On the way to King's Landing, she expected she'd probably be in the black cells by now. But here she is sitting with the queen, who, in normal circumstances should have been drinking glass after glass of wine by now, but instead she notices Cersei folding her hands in front of her belly.
"They said you were dead." Cersei queries after Sansa settles down in her seat.
"It was Alys Karstark. I saw it myself, how she was ravaged by the undead." Sansa answered bluntly. The girl she once was would have been mortified by the memory, but she had seen worse deaths. Cersei squints her eye at Sansa and realizes she's grown, not just taller, but mostly in demeanor. Cersei wonders what horrors came across the little dove, but feels no pity towards her. The she-wolf deserves it.
"You look different. You sound different. But you can't fool me with your façade. Deep inside I know you're still the silly, stupid girl you once were, and I must say I felt unhappy when I heard the news. You cannot imagine how many times I've waited for this moment. For the Stark bitch to be in my clutches again, how I wanted to see you in pain, how-"
"But you've changed your mind. Why?" Sansa cuts in which made Cersei furrow her brows obviously not happy with the interruption. Not many people can do that to the queen, but answers her nonetheless.
"Because you are now a valuable asset in keeping my throne." She declared.
"What do you mean?" She is sure Cersei doesn't mean to trade her life for Daenerys to give up her claim to the Iron Throne because it will surely be for naught.
"Maester Qyburn…" Cersei signals to her hand who then produces a scroll from his cloak.
"Sign it. If he doesn't want your head on a spike then he will come to King's Landing alone at once." The letter requests, demands, Jon Snow to come to King's Landing and talk about matters of the crown and the Lady of Winterfell.
"And what would you want from Jon Snow?" Sansa inquires after reading the letter.
"An alliance, a truce… it depends on whose bastard he really is. Or if he really is a bastard." Cersei answers hastily then smiles slowly when she realizes Sansa doesn't know a thing about her cousin's parentage at all.
"Oh you don't know?" Cersei laughs, the one that she used to make when she was already deep in her cups. It would sound pleasing to the ears of others, but Sansa knows it means to mock.
"Jon Snow is not your brother, little dove. Allegedly, he is Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen's bastard son. And I heard your cousin rides a dragon," Cersei waits for the realization to dawn on Sansa but Sansa, in her shock, feels so many things, but knows that she can't satisfy Cersei with her anguish so she doesn't budge. Cersei frowns and decides to continue to torment her more as she places her hands on top of the table and leans forward to Sansa. She knows just what Sansa is thinking.
"Yes little dove, your honorable father Ned Stark lied to all of you to protect your cousin…" Cersei professes and Sansa takes a deep breath, her chin shaking in anger for she doesn't want her father's name to ever come out of Cersei's filthy mouth. Cersei smirks and goes on… "Even to your mother, Lady Catelyn..." and Sansa cannot hold it no more.
"You're lying!" Sansa shouts. And Cersei laughs even more. This changes everything, Sansa thinks. Jon is not my brother. He's my- What if he's not a bastard? He's in danger, he can't come here. Does Daenerys know?
"You can ask him yourself, once he's here." Cersei stated eyeing the quill that lies on the table.
I need to think. Father would need me to protect him, but how can I do that when he's not here? Think! And then she looks at Cersei, and remembers one thing she and Daenerys have in common. Their greed. She has to give her something. Jon would not betray Daenerys, but with Cersei's army she will definitely win, unless Daenerys storms the Red Keep with her dragons. No, Jon won't let her.
"You don't need him. Jon Snow swore a vow to fight for Daenerys once the undead are defeated. He is loyal to her. He will not abandon her. He knows the people of the north will bleed if he turns his back on the Targaryen queen." Sansa pronounces, and surprisingly Cersei seems to listen, so she continues.
"He bent the knee for the North, because he had to. Even if it means giving it away to a conqueror who knows nothing about its people. You should have seen how she burned Winterfell with her dragons. How my people and even her own died and burned because of her wrath. But The North Remembers. You don't need Jon Snow, but if you kill me, you will lose the support of more than half of the realm you could have gained."
"I could have gained?"
"My people follow Jon and his Targaryen Queen because they think I'm dead. But after what they've seen, one word from me, and the armies of the North will happily pack their bags and leave. Riverrun is being retaken by the knights of the Vale as we speak. This is where the people of the North would settle in while the Northern Lords repair their castles. My uncle then becomes Lord Paramount of the Trident and with my cousin being Lord Protector of the Vale, I can vouch for you and they will bend the knee. They will fight beside you and protect the realm against Daenerys."
Cersei stands up and paces the room in contemplation. She stops and turns to look at Sansa.
"You would betray your own cousin?" Cersei challenged.
"He chose his side in the war, because he didn't have a choice. But I'm still alive and I'm making mine. I'm tired of letting a man making decisions for my House. I know you would understand. In times of peril, we women have to make the best of our circumstances. Don't you think it's about time we forget the past and make new alliances?" Sansa asserts taking advantage of Cersei's attention.
"In what condition?" Cersei asks. Finally.
"The North… After this war, it would be better for our Houses not to cross paths again. You know very well that the North cannot be ruled by an outsider. And my cousin…"
"What about him?" Cersei raises an eyebrow.
"After this war ends, and he's still alive, spare him." Sansa answers and Cersei scoffs.
"Why would I do that? He fought with my enemy, he's a would-be usurper, why would I let him live?" The queen retorted.
"Because he doesn't want the Iron Throne." Sansa replied with certainty. Jon may be a Snow, or a Targaryen, but he will always be a Stark, he belongs to the North.
"So what? He will go back to the North, have a family, father bastards and how can I assure that those bastards won't lay claim to the crown in the future?" Cersei hurls back.
"Because they won't be bastards." Oh gods, help me.
"You would naturalize him?" I wish I could, but what if he's not a bastard? What else can I do to tie him to the North? What if-
"No…" I'm so sorry Jon. "I… I shall marry him. Our children will be Starks and they would want nothing to do with the Iron Throne." It's the only way I can protect you. It's the only way you can go home.
"How can I trust you?"
"You have my word as a Stark!"
"Huh… You know if there's one thing I've learned Sansa, is that the Stark name is not as honorable as I once believed." Cersei states mockingly. The queen's hand then leans in to whisper something to her queen, and they both retreated several steps behind, obviously plotting what further steps need to be done. There has been a lot of changes, both to Cersei's and Sansa's plans and neither is backing down. Cersei and her hand concluded what they were talking about and walks forward again.
"If we're going to do this then it will be on my terms. I want Jon Snow to fly to the red keep and surrender that dragon so that I have one less of them to worry about. Once he gets here, he will marry you and bed you."
"You don't understand-" Sansa starts but gets cut off by the queen.
"Then you will write to your uncle and tell him to defend the Trident in my name and kill anyone who fights for Daenerys."
"The knights of the Vale, tell them to bring my traitor brothers here, and once Daenerys Targaryen is dead, only then can you and your bastard husband and all your people go back to that miserable winter land that you call home."
"What you're suggesting is impossible, Jon won't leave Daenerys now, he won't betray her! And Daenerys won't let Jon go, she's in love with him! He's the only man she listens to! You're already winning this war with your army! If Jon betrays her, she will storm the red keep with her dragons and burn the people of the capital! You don't need to risk the lives of innocent people! You don't need to risk the life of your child!" Sansa reasoned eyeing Cersei's belly. Cersei noticed and she puts one hand in it, as if protecting her unborn heir.
"And that is what I'm doing! Do you really think that your cousin can stop her from burning people? She's a Targaryen! She's going to be mad just like her father. You said it yourself, you saw how she burned your home to the ground, was Jon Snow able to stop her then? If we rid her one of her dragons there's a bigger chance for us to win." Us. Sansa notices.
"Jon will not risk the life of thousands of people just for me. He's in love with her." Sansa retorts not wanting to surrender.
"How heart-breaking." Cersei scoffs. "Well maybe if we show him some part of you he would… Let me see, a finger perhaps, or an ear?" Cersei speaks with wonder as if she isn't talking about torture and mutilation.
"But I assume we should let him know you're alive first." She says, almost excitingly.
"Her hair." Cersei says and Ser Gregor moves behind Sansa, draws his sword and cuts off a portion of Sansa Stark's braided hair.
"Have Ser Bronn ride to Dragonstone discreetly, with our terms and show this to Jon Snow. Tell him Lady Stark is waiting for her." Qyburn takes the braided hair from Ser Gregor and the scroll which Sansa Stark has just signed.
"We can send him every bit of his bride day by day if he's not here soon. That ought to motivate him."
"At once, Your Grace." Qyburn answers.
"Now we wait." Cersei says before she turns around and leaves the room.
Now we wait, Sansa muses, and she prays to the gods Jon would stay where he is.
….
It's the middle of the night when she hears a tapping sound on the floor. Sansa gets up abruptly and pulls the sheets to her chin. Slowly, she gets off the bed to listen to it more. It doesn't stop. She goes down on all fours and finally tracks where the sound comes from.
She crawls and lifts the small table on the foot of her bed and swipes the rug off the floor. The tapping continues as she finds a latch on the wooden board and unlocks it without hesitation. And as soon as she does, it props open and she stumbles backwards.
Then a man hitches himself up to the floor.
Ser Bronn appears and offers Sansa his hand.
"Lady Stark." He says with a clumsy vow and she takes his hand to get up. It takes a moment for her to register his face in the dark, and she frowns.
"Take it off." Sansa commands.
"My Lady?" Ser Bronn asks in confusion.
"Please." Sansa pleads. Ser Bronn rolls his eyes.
And he takes off his face.
"How are you?" Arya asks and Sansa envelopes her sister in an embrace.
…..