Stannis watched Aurelia wander the castle from the shadows, Melisandre just behind him. When Aurelia turned a corner out of sight, he glanced back at Meslisandre who moved up beside him.
"What use is she now?" He asked. "It has been four days. She should be sent away."
"She is from the north, and beloved by her countrymen - not only loved, but respected."
"I shouldn't need anyone to assist me in claiming rule over those whom I should rule by rights."
"Yet you accept my help and guidance, Your Grace. Beyond my counsel, and your faith in the Lord of Light, you have used other means to-"
"Do not remind me," Stannis clipped. Then he grumbled, which turned into a short sigh. "You think she will encourage the remaining northmen to join me?"
"She will not go to the Lannisters, or the Ironborn. What other choice has she?"
"The same one we do," Davos said as he came up on the other side as Stannis.
Stannis' brows crinkled. "The Wall?"
"Robb Stark's half brother serves there."
"Ned Stark's bastard?" Stannis scoffed.
"They grew up together," Davos added. "She may be more likely to help your cause if we assist the Wall as we were discussing."
"She should want to help his Grace's cause regardless," Melisandre cut in. "However," she added, smoothing a hand down Stannis' arm, "our presence at the Wall is necessary, and if she is willing to help in that cause…"
"Would she not rather stay at the Wall, with Ned Stark's' bastard boy?"
"In place of a king?" Melisandre purred.
Davos rolled his eyes, but spoke more prudently. "She is an intelligent, rich young woman, Your Grace. One who has seen war and destruction, and yet she's survived thus far. The Night's Watch would not approve of her staying there - a threat to their vows and more. However, at your side the relationship is more mutually beneficial."
"You speak of my legitimacy to rule as though it is a business transaction, Ser Davos."
"I speak in practicalities, Your Grace. Robb Stark sent her to treat with you to combine your forces against the Lannisters, to claim your throne though perhaps to leave the north autonomous. We cannot know for certain as she never had the chance to express it. Perhaps you should ask her what she wants, now that such unions are impossible."
"I agree, with Ser Davos," Melisandre nodded. Davos fought to keep himself from gaping. "The young lady has lost much, and yet still has more to lose. She could be an asset in more ways than one, and is known for speaking her mind honestly. It is that honesty which might serve Your Grace well in the coming months."
Stannis contemplated for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. I shall dine with her tonight. Alone."
Melisandre looked ready to object, but then bowed her head.
"As you wish, Your Grace," Davos said. "I shall bring her to you."
The knock on Aurelia's door surprised her almost as much as the messenger earlier relaying that she was to dine with King Stannis. She had been lost in thought and grief while plaiting her hair preparing for the meal.
"Come in," she said, and the door opened.
Ser Davos stood in the doorway. "My lady," he said kindly. "I have come to escort you to dinner."
Aurelia rose from the chair she had pulled near the small table which served as her dining area and vanity.
"Are you joining us, Ser Davos?"
"No, my lady," he said, shaking his head. "King Stannis wishes to discuss matters with you alone."
"Completely alone?" Aurelia pressed.
"The lady Melisandre will not be in attendance either, if that is what you mean. Nor will his wife."
Aurelia nodded thoughtfully as she finished wrapping the last strands of hair in place. "I am at his Grace's service."
Ser Davos eyed her briefly, then held out his arm. "Shall we?"
Aurelia took his arm and let him lead her through the dim corridors of Dragonstone.
"Such a cheerful place," she remarked as they passed down one hallway.
Ser Davos glanced to her, and then smiled, restraining a laugh. "I've seen cheerier."
"I should hope so," Aurelia whispered.
Ser Davos looked at her again and saw a small smile cross her face, brief but genuine. "If you smile at King Stannis like that, my lady, he may become amenable to any terms you present."
Her smile vanished. "I have no terms anymore, ser. I am grateful for his Grace's allowance in giving me a few days to grieve but will be grateful when he gives me leave to depart."
"But where will you go, my lady?"
"North."
"North?"
"It is my home, and it is far away from Lannisters."
"Yet not from danger, nor Freys, nor Boltons, nor the Ironborn."
Aurelia paused before replying. "I know."
Before Ser Davos could enquire further, they reached the dining hall, guarded by two sentries. They opened the door for them and Ser Davos brought her inside. Stannis stood gazing out the small slit of a window, turning when they entered. The glow of the room highlighted the deep red heart woven into his dark grey doublet with its black and gold stag inside it.
His eyes looked over Aurelia twice, cold and impassive before nodding to Ser Davos.
"Your Grace," they both said, bowing and curtseying in turn.
"Thank you, Ser Davos," Stannis said. "You may go."
Ser Davos bowed again and left Aurelia's side, closing the doors as he departed. Aurelia stood, waiting for Stannis to move, but his gaze returned to the window.
"You may sit," he said after a moment.
Aurelia moved to the large dining table, sitting in the chair to the left of the head place. A salad of turnip greens, beets and carrots sat on a plate next to a steaming bowl of sea chowder. She sat in the highback chair with her hands crossed, and waited.
"You may eat," Stannis said after another moment's pause.
"Thank you, Your Grace, but are you not-"
"In a moment," he replied.
Aurelia took her fork and moved it toward the salad, then paused. She set it back down on the table. Stannis turned back to her.
"You think if I wanted you dead I would poison you?"
"In days when the protection of guest rights leads to entire families, and armies, being slaughtered at a wedding, I do not know what to think, Your Grace."
Stannis strode toward the table. "I am not at all like that."
"And I am to trust your word? After what happened to your brother Renly?"
Stannis froze, his normally icy gaze turning into a blaze, but she continued, sounding almost casual.
"Not that such an event could be proved, especially as one of the only two witnesses is now dead."
He sat down, his gaze not softening at all. "I see your days left to grieve have been spent productively. Perhaps they would be moreso if you were moved to other quarters."
Aurelia smiled. "Are you threatening to imprison me? I must have hit closer to the mark than I thought."
"It is treason to accuse your king of murder."
"Is it? I thought it was treason to speak falsehoods before your king."
Stannis continued to glare at her, and Aurelia smiled back, not impetuous nor challenging, just pleasant.
"Do you value your life, lady Moors?" He asked after a moment, finally picking up his fork.
"Do I seem one who does not?"
Stannis sighed. "I already have a wife and the lady Melisandre returning my questions with more questions and vague answers. I had heard you were someone who honestly spoke her mind."
"I just did that and you accused me of treason, Your Grace."
A very slight smile broke through Stannis' cold look before he began studying his plate. "Perhaps then we should speak of matters related to your purpose."
Aurelia laughed again, short and hollow. "You mistake, Your Grace. There is no purpose for me anymore."
"None?" Stannis asked, before taking a bite of salad. "You have no family of consequence, I understand. And while you have some measure of fortune, your lands are not in much better condition than Winterfell, thanks to the Ironborn. The Lannisters, Freys, and Boltons have taken your future from you-"
"If you're trying to provoke a desire for revenge, it does not need stoking. However, I know what little one woman such as myself could actually accomplish."
"Yet you hold influence still, with some."
Aurelia eyed Stannis. "Perhaps."
"What about with the Night's Watch?"
She tried not to look astonished. "Your Grace?"
"It is my understanding that there was, at one time at least, a good deal of communication between Castle Black and Winterfell, as well as your family's home."
Aurelia gave a single nod as she finally took a forkful of salad. She chewed a few bites, crafting a reply. "Lord Commander Mormont and his house have long been connected with mine, as have the Starks. We received occasional letter and ravens from Castle Black from him, and from some of the rangers and stewards, and Maester Aemon. There is nothing untoward in corresponding with men of the Night's Watch."
"And have you corresponded with Ned Stark's bastard son since he joined the Watch?"
Aurelia almost choked, taking a sip of sour wine to cover herself.
"No, Your Grace."
"May I ask the reason?"
"I was, as Your Grace is aware, engaged to his half brother, and since that arrangement was… dissolved, I have not left a war camp or castle for more than two days."
"You are friends, though?"
"We have been, yes. He has also been in training, and it did not seem prudent to send him news of war engagements while working towards another goal."
"Meaning you did not want to be seen as tempting him away from his vows?"
"Jon Snow is an honourable young man. If he did not leave his post by his own volition at the death of his father, nothing I would say could move him."
"Indeed," Stannis replied, watching her before eating a bit more. "Then tell me what it is you want now."
"Pardon?"
"Clearly, you cannot treat on what you came for, and you cannot go home, so what should I do with you?"
"You mean to say you have not already decided?"
Stannis gave her a look she could not read. "Not yet. I have been advised, but… it would be injudicious to turn away a negotiator who came to request a union without first considering what might still be possible."
"So you are desirous of being a just king, Your Grace?"
"You may ask Ser Davos about my justice."
"I'd prefer to hear it from your mouth. There would be less colouring from others' opinions."
Stannis looked puzzled, and expression which Aurelia thought foreign to him. Her information on him seemed to be of one who held his convictions in such a state as to always be sure of his course. Confusion and puzzlement should not be expressions in the repertoire of such a man.
His expression gave way to another small upturn of his lips before he took a sip from his glass. Setting it down, his impassive look returned. "That is the honesty I have been looking for. So, can we now begin speaking plainly?"
Amelia stabbed a beet before replying, "As you wish, Your Grace."
Stannis straightened in his chair and they both fortified themselves with a few bites before he began.
"I told you before I knew why you had come, but I assume you were granted some power of negotiation regarding your - Robb Stark's - designs."
Aurelia nodded, taking a spoonful of the chowder. It was hot and thick, not particularly delicious but right now she cared little for food other than for sustenance.
"Obviously any notion of the north having autonomy is not up for discussion now, not that it would have been much of a discussion." Aurelia repressed the hollow laugh building within her, but a small cough emerged. "You can be little surprised by this," Stannis continue.
"As you say," Aurelia said, taking another sip of wine.
"Combining of armies for a mutual goal of attacking the Lannisters is now unfeasible as well."
"Indeed."
"Would you have me attack the Freys or the Boltons?" Stannis asked, his tone almost seeming lighter.
"To what end, Your Grace?"
"Reclaiming the north for those capable of keeping it from the Lannisters."
"The Lannisters have too much on their hands to pursue their own allies now, though I don't know why they should, yet. And there's the Ironborn as well."
"It seems the Ironborn are being dealt with, if informants can be believed."
"By whom?"
"Their own arrogance, and Roose Bolton's bastard it would seem."
Aurelia flinched at the mention of Bolton and Stannis eyed her for a moment.
"I told you already you need not feed my desire for revenge, but if you have a notion to take down the Freys and Boltons, I would do what I could to help."
"That is not my goal, presently," Stannis said flatly.
"Let them sort each other out a bit first, hmm?"
Stannis gave a terse nod. "It would appear you are at my disposal regardless, Lady Moors."
"It would seem that way, yes."
"Yet you would not desire to stay with me?"
"That depends on what Your Grace might have me do, or where you might send me."
Stannis looked at her for a long moment, studying with his intense blue eyes. Aurelia did not falter her gaze but began to wonder what about her he was trying to figure out. Finally, he pulled a small rolled parchment from a pocket inside the breast of his doublet and placed it before her.
"My orders, Your Grace?"
"Mine," he said cooly.
Aurelia looked at him, confused, but reached for the parchment nonetheless. She opened it and read. As she did, her face turned ashen, a flood of frantic, terrified thoughts overwhelming her.
"You believe it, then?" Stannis asked after a moment, noting the tremor in Aurelia's hand.
"I -" She caught herself and took a steadying sip of wine. "It is a missive most would likely not believe, but…" She drifted, not sure how much she wanted to reveal.
Stannis gazed at her, his expression one that demanded further explanation, but his cold eyes seemed warmer.
Aurelia took another sip of wine, then continued. "Not long before King Robert came to Winterfell, a deserter was caught from the Watch. Lord Stark executed him, but right up until the blow came the young man insisted he fled not from his duty but from White Walkers, and that people must be warned."
"Ned Stark did not believe him, I suppose."
"No one did at the time, really. When Benjen came for the feast, I spoke to him. The young man had been sent with two other rangers to scout a wildling camp. The one who ran was the only one seen from again, when he was caught on the other side of the Wall. And this letter tells of what befell the next two ranging parties send into the wilds. And in my limited communication with Maester Aemon, he has not been one to waste words on any matter that is frivolous. I heard as well that-" She broke off, once again fearing Stannis would question how she received certain knowledge.
His gaze never faltered, and though the cool look had returned to his eyes, he seemed more invested with every word she spoke. "Continue."
"It's been said that a messenger was sent to King's Landing with a request for more men for the Watch, along with what was claimed to be the hand of a White Walker. However, it appeared to be nothing more than a rotting hand, and the representative was dismissed with only a handful of men from the dungeons and the former head of the City Watch."
Stannis nodded as if this was information he knew as well.
"And on this speculative information, would you journey to find out for yourself if it is true?"
"Are you asking if I would, or if you should?"
The stone face cracked again as Stannis replied, "Both."
"For myself, the Wall is not the safest place, though if there was some good I believed I could do there I would go. I do not know that the men of the Watch would respect me, but if this missive is true, they need all the help that will come to them. For you, a - the king, the realm should be your first priority, even above claiming your throne. The Lannisters have a firm grip on King's Landing, their alliance with the Tyrells gives them strength in the south, and the Freys hold the riverlands for them now. The north is the only parcel they cannot control, and they know it, which is why I imagine they're letting Lord Bolton attempt to do so. Any belief that such control could succeed, especially with winter getting closer every day, is sheer arrogance on Tywin Lannister's part. And though I would not put such arrogance beyond him, he may yet be too pragmatic to risk anyone he cannot afford to lose in trying to retain a hold on the north."
"There we agree," Stannis replied. She waited for him to say more, but he simply waved her to continue.
"You have, it seems, few options available to you, Your Grace, besides a continuation of open war which has yet to yield any favorable result for anyone but the Lannisters. They have men, money, lands, the capital, and a well fortified position that is not only readying for winter, it will be some time before it is affected by it. In the north, it will arrive soon. How soon, no one can say for certain but… This old nurse at Winterfell, Old Nan we called her, she was older than anyone I've known. Older even than Maester Aemon, I believe. She used to tell us stories of the White Walkers as children."
Stannis half-raised an eyebrow. Aurelia marveled for a second how this face which was said to show almost no emotion other than stoicism and righteous annoyance could be moved to other expressions in her presence.
"She told us of grumpkins and fairies and were-beasts as well," Aurelia continued with a dismissive hand motion. "We knew most of her stories were just that. But when it was winter, and she would tell us of the Walkers, the look in her eyes… it wasn't like the other stories. It was like a memory haunting her, something she wanted to forget but couldn't and telling a story like that, mixed in with all the fantastical tales, made her memories bearable, less real."
"So you would have me take my reserves to the Wall based on an old woman's stories?"
"I would have you do nothing, Your Grace. You are not at my disposal. But as king you are charged with the protection of your realm, the safety of its people regardless of their allegiance to you. The Night's Watch has dwindled to a handful of men compared to their ranks of old, and most of those men are not trained for battle of the common sort, much less against… well, if nothing else there are the reports of wildlings gathering in great numbers. Their strength could easily overwhelm Castle Black, even if over half their army splintered. You have a duty to defend the seven kingdoms, up to and including the Wall, and if you cannot do that…"
Aurelia drifted again, catching herself from making a harsh, though possibly true, judgment about Stannis' character.
He glowered at her now, implacable once again. "I am not, nor have I ever been, like those preening schemers in King's Landing," Stannis said icily. "My right is to the throne, my duty to the people the throne exists to protect. I could send a representative with some men to the Wall to investigate, but if there truly is merit to all this, and you are not the first person to counsel me that there may be, it could be too late to hold back the forces of Mance Rayder or any other by the time word reached me again."
Aurelia waited to see if he would speak further, but he simply took a sip of wine and gazed away from her toward the window.
"Does this mean you intend to go to the Wall, Your Grace?"
"I should think it must," he said cooly.
"Then why ask what I think?"
He gave her a sideways glance.
"Oh," Aurelia murmured.