Lyanna walked into the main hall of Ironrath. It had been a week since they had taken back the family hold from the oppressive threat of Ludd Whitehill. Without the threat of impending doom upon them, the people of Ironrath had begun to smile again. There was even more cause for celebration when little Ryon had run to his mothers' arms. Of Whitehill's army, less than 20 had had to be killed or would be shipped with Gryff. Not that Gryff made it easy for Lyanna.

He had claimed that as she had no real power, she was in no position to order him to take the black. It was a rare, if not somewhat smart, response to her decision. For now, Gryff would remain in the Ironrath dungeon until otherwise. Shaking her head from the problem in the Keep, Lyanna looked down at the scrolls which brought her news of more sever problems everywhere else. Tyrion Lannister was currently being tried for the murder of Joffery Baratheon, and while Tyrion was capable, he would have been smarter than to be left holding the poisoned cup.

North of them at The Wall, the Nightswatch were still asking for more men. A wildling army was going to be coming for Castle Black soon. With Bolton still in control of Winterfell her forces were severely limited in their mobility. So far only a single raven had been sent, a congratulations from Ramsey Snow, apparently he was done coming to Ironrath. Done with all the troubling news Lyanna moved everything out of the way on a desk and grabbed a new piece of parchment.

She began to write to Daenarys, about everything that had happened already, about what she might try to do, about how she thought about Daenarys constantly. She missed the Dragon Queen. Lyanna could only hope that she was having twice as much success as herself. Lyanna had just finished writing when there was a knock on the door and Asher called out to her.

"Lyanna, everything is ready to go." Lyanna rolled up the parchment as she heard his steps walking away. She would give this letter to Maester Ortengryn for him to send. Picking up her sword on the way out the door, Lyanna laughed at the contradiction she made of herself. A letter of love in one hand and a sword in the other, well she thought to herself it could always be worse. Walking out of the keep she gave her instructions to the Maester before continuing on. Spotting the eldest members of the Forrester family, Lyanna made her way over to them.

"Lady Forrester, Rodrik, Asher." She greeted kindly, smiling when she saw little Ryon not far from his mother. Everything was prepared for their departure, Lyanna was leaving for war. Asher and Beskha, along with the pit fighters, would be coming with her and most of her forces. Rodrik was still healing from his previous injuries, he could fight but he could not go to war. While Asher had protested, he felt cramp in his home at the moment.

Elaena Glenmore stood next not far off talking with Gwyn Whitehill. Both women had suffered loss recently, Elaena her brother and Gwyn her father. Through the tragedy of recent events, a bond had formed between the two of them. Gwyn had even agreed to swear fealty to Lyanna for the mistakes of her family, Lyanna had simply smiled and hugged her. Elaena had conveyed what happened to her father, who could not be more pleased that a part of Ned Stark lived on in the world.

"Everything is ready, Lady Stark." A young page told her, nodding to him Lyanna moved and whistled loudly. Goodbyes were made and the warriors making their way out of the keep. Mounting her own horse, Lyanna moved off to the side to let her forces move ahead of her. Rodrik moved slowly over to her and reached out his hand to her.

"I leave the rest of my forces in your hands Rodrik," Lyanna told while clasping his arm. "if you can, try and keep the Boltons fooled for as long as possible. But if something does tip them, send a raven and I'll come running." Rodrik merely smiled.

"Spoken like true Wardeness of the North." Lyanna released him and waved everyone off before riding out of the gate and after her army.


The sounds of battle could be heard several hundreds yards from the keep. Cursing her luck that the attack had already started, Lyanna yelled out for several squads to move forward and into the courtyard. Lyanna, Asher and Beskha all rode at the forefront and were the first ones in.

"Secure the courtyard." She ordered while dismounting and pulling out her sword. She had also been given a shield while at Ironrath, family sigil proudly displayed on the front so all would know they faced a Stark. One man raced up to them to offer thanks when an arrow caught him in the back of the head and he fell. Everyone launched into action to take down the invaders and save as many men as possible. Lyanna had already asked that they secure any attacker alive if possible.

Spotting the archer, Lyanna raced forward and struck out at her. Ygritte rolled out of the way as another woman came at her with a sword. With her bow useless in such close quarters, she pulled her spear up and lashed out at Lyanna. Batting the spear away, Lyanna tried to close the distance, but the Wildling woman was a spearwoman, able to keep her at the perfect killing distance.

Everything around Lyanna became a blur as her life was focused on this one fight, she would live or die here against this woman barely older than herself. An arrow flew by Lyanna's head and almost hit Ygritte. Distracted, Lyanna turned and saw the source as a young boy notching another arrow. Ygritte took this moment to slip in close to Lyanna and pull her dagger against the brunettes throat, using Lyanna as a shield from the archer. Lyanna dropped her sword and shield when the blade began to break skin.

Everything seemed to turn quiet as the remaining onlookers observed what was happening. Lyanna notices several other Wildling already rounded up by her forces, as well as a red-haired man who is not willing to surrender.

"Stand back all of you, or I'll cut this pretty little ladies throat all up." Lyanna's captor yells. Nobody moves an inch and Lyanna can feel as the hand holding the dagger begins to tense up.

"Ygritte," a bloodied Jon Snow approached limping his way from out of the crowd "give it up. You can't win." His tone in quiet and calm, desperately hoping that he does not have to watch his lover murder his sister. All these years and his first glimpse of his eldest surviving sibling, is of her charging head first into Castle Black.

Ygritte was quickly trying to figure out a way from her to get out of this mess with Tormund. A warm puff of air hit the back of her head, she was determined to put it out of her mind until a loud growling noise started. Turning around slowly, Ygritte was greeted to the sight of large teeth attached to a wolf larger than she had seen. Two more wolves flanked close by, mouths still stained red with blood. Realizing now that she had no chance, she took the blade away from the girls throat and dropped it.

Lyanna moved away from the wildling woman, moving a hand to her throat to wipe away the blood. Nodding to a few of the men close by, taking Ygritte and binding her arms before moving her over to the rest of her people. Turning to the last man still holding his sword out and unwilling to back down from the overwhelming odds against him. If Lyanna didn't want this whole situation over with as quickly as possible, she would have been impressed with his defiance.

Apparently Jon was of the same mind, a few words and the man took a crossbow bolt to his leg. Tormund was taken and led to the others, Lyanna passed on the word that everyone who was injured was to be given care, Wildling or Nights Watch. While her men were quick to follow her orders, she noticed the men of the Night's Watch were a little less than favorable to her commands. Jon was quick to clear that up, telling his men to simply 'do it'.

"Sorry about them, Lyanna" Jon spoke to her. "They aren't use to having a woman here, especially one such as yourself." He would have kept going, but he was interrupted when Lyanna simply hugged him. Wrapping his arms around her, he was reminded of everything that had happened since they last departed each others company. The Night's Watch were his brothers, but Lyanna was his sister as she had accepted him as such. Pulling back and looking at her, he smiled.

"Not that I don't appreciate the visit and saving our asses, I don't think 100 more men are going to be much help." Jon explained with a frown, now more men would die. Lyanna simply shook her head and smiled.

"Dear Brother, you must be concussed, who says that I only brought 100. Since you seem to be in charge at the moment, let me tell you my plan."


The King beyond the Wall Mance Rayder stood not far from the front lines of his army. His former brothers were giving him a harder time than he thought, every man and woman sent up the Wall had been killed. The mammoth that the giants had brought with them was killed when a ballistic arrow hit the furry beast instead of the giant. Mag the Mighty had pulled back to the line instead of rushing the gates. But a murmur ran through his army.

There at the base of the Wall, where the Night's Watch would come and go from Castle Black was a gate. One of only 3 gates still left unsealed since all 16 Castles had been in operation. A single note from the horn atop the Wall rang out across the entire area, A ranger returning Mance thought to himself. The gate began to open and two riders atop horses came barreling out of the gate right at them.

So they want to talk huh? Well may as well hear them out before we kill them all- his thoughts stopped at that moment as he saw the sigil the rider carried. A Direwolf, a Stark was here. Close enough to make out the rest of the details, Mance saw one horse carried not one rider but two, one of his Wildling and a brunette woman in armor. The other, a man of the Night's Watch, if his cloak was anything to go by. They stopped not far from the front lines and dismounted, the armored woman helping down his fighter down as the Wildling had her arms bound to a length of rope.

When they were both on the ground, Lyanna cut Yrgitte's bonds and let her move back to the rest of her people. Jon Snow also dismounted and stood next to Lyanna. Grabbing the standard of her house, Lyanna moved a few feet towards the army and slammed it into the snow covered ground, making sure it stood straight and unmoving, the cloth blowing lightly in the wind. Composing herself briefly, Lyanna hardened her face before she turned and began walking.

"Free Folk, my name is Lyanna Stark and I wish to speak to your King beyond the Wall." She called out in a calm voice that surprised even herself. Mance watched for a moment, So this is Eddard Stark's oldest daughter. Walking forward, his people parted ways for him. Ygritte stood not far away, closer to him but almost halfway between the Stark and himself.

"Well go on Stark," he called out, "speak your piece and then kindly get out of the way so we don't have kill you. I see you've taken the Black again Snow." If she was here to kill him, then she must not expect to make it back before the rest of the army tore her to pieces, but bringing Ygritte and Jon Snow back made no sense then. Looking directly into Lyanna's eyes, he saw a woman who had endured, different trials than his own people but just as harsh.

"This war that you have declared on Castle Black needs to stop now. Too many lives have already been lost to this senseless conflict." Lyanna spoke loud enough for some of the army to hear her.

"We didn't start this war Stark," Mance rebuked. "You may have the blood of the First Men, but so does every man, woman and child here. It was your ancestor that came around and put up a fancy wall and called it theirs. You treated us as prisoner to this frozen land and then attack when we try to escape."

"DID YOU EVER THINK THAT YOU WERE NOT WHAT WE WERE TRYING TO CONTAIN!" Lyanna yell suddenly. Taking a calming breath she continued. "Yes, a mistake was made, and now people have died. But you can not take the Wall. Jon and myself both know the history, that 6 times the Free Folk have rallied under the King beyond the Wall and attacked, and 6 times you have failed." That sent another murmur through the army. Mance took a moment to reply.

"So what, you would have us just walk away right this minute after everything that's happened. Or would you prefer that we throw down our weapons and surrender ourselves to your mercy, because neither one of those are going to happen. We will fight until we win or we are dead." Any doubt that had passed through the Wildling army was dismissed with a few words from their leader. The entire army cheered wildly.

Lyanna waited a minute for the crowd to stop. This was what it would all come down to. Turning to Jon, she reached for a torch he brought with him, grasping it and slowly moving it up and down. Not a minute passed by before the quiet hole they came out of, began to glow bright and loud. Over a thousand heavy cavalry horsemen came screaming out of the tunnel and into the land beyond the wall. Lining up in formation, they waited for their leader to give the signal.

Mance looked at the horsemen, while the numbers did nothing to impress him, the armor did. Another was that the Wildling army had no cavalry of their own and no experience defending from such a disciplined force. While his army was a giant warhammer that would bash against the enemy until they were broken, his opponent was a dagger that would stab them in the chest before they could do much to stop it.

"If it's a fight you want, they we will give everything we have to stop you and I can guarantee Mance, that we will both fall today. Or, we can change the status quo, and we can break the cycle of death and hatred." Lyanna told him. "I have the blood of the First Men in my veins, as does Jon, as do all of you. We are kin! Come with me, help me take back my home from the people who murdered my family, murdered your kin, and in doing so I will give you a home."

"I suppose you want us to kneel for you, well I can tell you that we would rather die than kneel." Mance told her, in truth he was moved by her words. Never before had anyone offered what she offered, but the Free Folk would never bow.

"No," Lyanna told him. "I want you to shake my hand and call a truce with Castle Black. Fighting will always be easy, but giving peace a chance, that is what will be hard. Harder than anything else imaginable. And Jon tells me that something else is coming, something your trying to save your people from. Let us help each other, as uncertain allies for now, and hopefully friends later." Lyanna walked up slowly to Mance, having to look up at him and held out her hand.

Looking down at the small Stark, Mance could not help but smile. Never before had he met another like her. His people would not bend the knee, but perhaps a truce would be enough. He reached out and took her arm, seeing Jon Snow visibly relax from the avoided conflict. Leaning down, Mance spoke quietly to Lyanna.

"Your right you know, both of us would have ended up dead before everything was over." He wanted to let her know that he would not be helpful in the coming days. Lyanna replied without looking at him.

"Then I guess we should both be thankful to Jon. It was his idea to bring the Wildlings south of the Wall." Whistling loudly, her friends the Direwolves came bounding up to them, scaring more than a few Wildling. Looking Mance in the eye Lyanna continued. "I was just going to charge right out of the gate and plow right through you." Releasing him and moving back to her horse. They would return tomorrow to discuss the terms of going south.

Mance watched her ride away, with Jon Snow and the Direwolves following close behind. He held no doubts that the next few days would be quite the ordeal indeed.


A/N: I want to apologize again for the length of time it took me to get this chapter out. I'm glad this chapter was longer than normal. I had had very clear ideas of what I wanted to happen, just putting it into text was not a seamless transition. So what do you guys and girls think? And yes I will beg. Please Review, or drop me a line. I want to hear from you. Also has anyone checked out the trailer for Bright on Netflix, I can not wait.