Chapter 24 – Daenerys

The smirk on Littlefinger's face fell so fast, Dany was sure she would have missed it had she blinked. She felt stupid. As if Sansa was going to inflict any harm or sentence on Arya! Speaking of Arya, she now turned to Littlefinger looking positively radiant with triumph. It was nice to see her actually looking so happy, despite the sinister reasoning.

The Great Hall of Winterfell was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. For several seconds, all Daenerys could hear was the consistent thumping of her own heart.

Eventually, it was Arya who spoke up. "My sister asked you a question."

A moment later, Littlefinger finally staggered forward, looking nonplussed and panicky. "Lady Sansa, forgive me… I'm a bit confused…?"

As cool as icy steel, Sansa leaned forward an inch, an expression of mock concern on her beautiful face. "Which charges confuse you?" she asked sweetly, and then her voice hardened. "Let's start with the simplest one. You murdered our aunt, Lysa Arryn. You pushed her through the Moon Door and watched her fall – do you deny it?" Daenerys noticed Yohn Royce bristling with anger.

Baelish's voice was quiet. "I did it to protect you."

"You did it to take power in the Vale," Sansa contradicted him harshly. "Before that, you murdered Jon Arryn. You gave Lysa tears of Lys to poison him. Do you deny that?"

Littlefinger chortled, making Dany's skin crawl. Clearly he was going to attempt to talk his way out of this. "Whatever your aunt might have told you while you were with her… everyone knows she was a troubled woman. She saw enemies everywhere, in everyone –"

"You got Aunt Lysa to send a letter to our parents telling them it was the Lannisters who killed Jon Arryn when really it was you. The whole conflict between the Starks and the Lannisters, it was you who started it, do you deny it?"

"I know of no such letter –"

Sansa cut across him. "You conspired with Joffrey Baratheon and Cersei Lannister to betray our father, Ned Stark." Her voice hardened. "Thanks to your treachery, he was imprisoned, and later executed, on false charges of treason. Do you deny it?" Daenerys noticed that despite the tone, Sansa's eyes were glassy with hurt.

Littlefinger spoke up then. "I deny it! None of you were there to see what happened. None of you know the truth!"

Except Bran, Daenerys thought with a smug smile. And probably Varys.

"You held a knife to his throat," Bran said softly. "You told him 'I did warn you not to trust me.'"

Baelish visibly floundered.

"You told our mother that this knife belonged to Tyrion Lannister," Arya continued, still tonelessly, unsheathing yet another dagger at her belt. Dany's ears pricked up as she glanced at her Hand, who was wearing a small smile and was watching the scene with jubilant smugness. "But that was another one of your lies. It was yours." She smiled murderously.

Littlefinger almost ignored Arya as he moved to put his hands on the table in front of Sansa. "I helped you… I protected you!"

"By selling me to the Boltons?" Sansa snorted.

"Give me the chance to defend myself," Littlefinger said, clearly panicked. "I deserve that."

Sansa slouched back in her seat, glaring at him, but allowing him the request. Dany would be lying if she said she was interested to see how the master manipulator tried to talk his way out of his impending death.

But instead of a fantastic speech, the man practically ran over to Yohn Royce. "I am Lord Protector of the Vale and I demand you to escort me safely back to the Eyrie."

Dany nearly laughed when the knight responded to him with a blank stare and a frank, "Under who's decree? Tommen's? Cersei's? We have a new monarch on the Iron Throne, in case you had forgotten." The older man's eyes twinkled as they met Daenerys'.

She smiled as she stood. "I hereby absolve Lord Petyr Baelish of his title, and instead appoint Ser Yohn Royce to the position for the time being," she said. Royce suppressed a smile as he looked back to Sansa, who nodded in acknowledgement. Arya grinned at her and Jon squeezed her hand under the table as she sat back down.

Dany barely caught the look of sheer despair on Littlefinger's face as he turned back to face the front. He moved to the front.

"Lady Sansa I urge you to be merciful. Who would I betray the North to? Cersei is gone!"

"You would try to betray the North to the North if you thought it would work," Sansa said carefully, with disgust.

"I underestimated the Boltons. I have admitted to that, and I am sorry. But you know I would protect you now!"

"Just Sansa," Arya pointed out, with an arched eyebrow. "Not House Stark?"

"Lady Arya if I recall I covered for you at Harrenhal many years ago –" The hall then erupted in quiet mutterings. He's struck a nerve Dany observed. Wrong title, and bringing up the past again.

"Of course you did," Arya shot back. "If you had ratted me out to Tywin, I would have been dead or packed off to Kings Landing within minutes, and my mother would have never forgiven you. And that's only if he believed you. It was in your self-interest to cover for me, and if I recall, you couldn't stop yourself from dropping hints. I'm sure Bran could fill you in with the exact dialogue if it escapes your memory." She glowered at him and stepped backwards.

Littlefinger, who was now freely perspiring, turned to the table where Jon, Dany, Tyrion and Davos were sat together.

"Your Grace," he said, eyes pleading desperately in Jon's direction.

Jon stood, and Dany was pleased to see that he wasn't in the mood for forgiveness. "Thanks to you, my father was killed. Had he not been, the resulting chain of events may not have occurred I could be sat with seven Starks right now instead of three. But of course, we will never know."

Littlefinger started, "Your sister –"

"Before I left Winterfell I told you that if you touched my sister, which counts for either Arya or Sansa, that I'd kill you myself. Be thankful that they are the ones going about it and not me."

Dany could tell that Baelish was starting to give up hope. "Queen Daenerys… Lord Tyrion?"

"On an individual level I have nothing against you, since I do not really know you," Daenerys spoke first, looking the pathetic little man in the eyes. "However, I do know that my Hand was imprisoned for crimes that he did not commit, and his captor Lady Catelyn Stark was falsely informed. Arya has told us that it was indeed your dagger, and not Lord Tyrion's. I'm sorry, but my people's enemies, as well as my allies' enemies are also my enemies." She made herself look away from him.

Littlefinger turned away from them and went back to Sansa and Bran.

"Lady Sansa… if we could just speak alone… I can explain everything…"

"You'll never be alone with her again," Jon said from the back of the hall, the authority in his tone palpable.

"Sometimes when I'm trying to understand a person's motives I play a little game," Sansa said coolly, and it didn't take a genius to work out that she was throwing his own words back at him. "What's the worst reason you have for trying to turn me against my brother and his allies?" Dany's ears pricked up again at this. Maybe it was due to Littlefinger's meddling that Sansa had been acting so coldly towards her and the rest of her entourage.

The older Stark girl continued. "Because that's what you do, isn't it? That's what you've always done: turned family against family and turned sibling against sibling. That's what you did to House Stark and House Lannister, our mother and Aunt Lysa, and that's what you've now tried to do to us now. Stark versus Targaryen, Sansa versus Arya and Jon." There was stunned silence after that. "I'm a slow learner," Sansa said, almost like an afterthought. "It's true. But I learn."

Dany was surprised to see Baelish then get on his knees. "Sansa," he said, voice cracking. He sounded like he had burst into tears. "I beg you! I loved your mother since the time I was a boy –"

"And yet you betrayed her," Sansa said, as emotionless as Bran.

"I loved you," he said, emotion raw. "More than anyone."

Dany felt Jon practically bristle with anger beside her, and placed a hand on his arm to steady him.

Sansa stayed cool as steel. "And yet you betrayed me." She gracefully rose to her feet. "When you brought me back to Winterfell, you told me there's no justice in the world, not unless we make it." She broke off for just enough time to nod to Arya, who was still clutching the Valyrian steel dagger with a stony expression. "Thank you for all your many lessons, Lord Baelish. I will never forget them."

Arya began to walk forward.

"Sansa –"

It was too late. Arya had slit his throat to the bone with an easy slash and Littlefinger slumped to the stone floor with a resonating crash, blood beginning to seep across the tiles.

Daenerys' eyes flicked back up to Sansa. Her hands now trembled slightly. "Thank you, witnesses," she said to the guards that lined the walls. "You may leave." Many people then got up and filed out of the hall, some muttering but most shocked and silent. After a few moments, a few servants came in to clear the blood and move the body and the remaining people convened at the back.

"Are you alright?" Jon asked Sansa, who was still a little shaky.

"Yes," she replied, her voice contradicting her body language. "Just glad it is done."

"I must say, well executed," Tyrion said softly to Sansa. He glanced at Arya. "Quite literally."

"I will go and make preparations for a pyre to burn the body," Jon said heavily. "Davos?"

"Yes, Your Grace," the Onion Knight agreed, turning to follow Jon out of the Hall.

Arya gasped. "Wait!" she said, running after them, leaving Daenerys alone with Sansa and Tyrion.

"Your Grace," Tyrion said softly. "I wonder if you might allow me to go and visit my brother."

"I don't see why not," Daenerys said, and then turned away as Tyrion too left the room. She wanted to be alone now, to finally reflect on her own conversation with Jaime as well as what had just transpired. She also assumed Sansa would leave the hall as soon as she realised they would be alone together.

But to her surprise, Sansa stayed put.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," she said gruffly. "It isn't a common occurrence here."

"I gathered as much," Daenerys replied with a gentle smile. "I respect what you did, and I congratulate you for having the courage to go through with it."

"He was a treacherous man," Sansa said thinly. "Anyone who trusted him ended up dead. He deserved what he got."

"Indeed," Dany nodded. "Still, it isn't easy. To end the life of someone begging for mercy, especially one you have known for a long time. Regardless of who they were or what they did."

"No, it's not," Sansa agreed, and smiled at her properly for the first time. She turned away from the body and moved a few paces towards the doors. "In his own horrible way I believe he loved me."

"He probably wasn't the first. And he certainly won't be the last," Daenerys told her, saying the same thing Tyrion had once said to her.

"I apologise for being so cold when you first arrived here," Sansa said stiffly. "I'm not the trusting type anymore, but even still it's not much of an excuse."

"It's fine, for neither am I," Dany said, glad that the two of them were starting to find some common ground. "I can especially understand if you had Littlefinger muttering in your ear the entire time."

"I did," the Stark girl confirmed. "All the time Jon was gone, and especially when we got news that he was on his way back to Winterfell with you, and Arya." She gave a shaky grin. "It was all I could do not to have him killed before any of you got here. I'm also glad he never found out the truth about Jon. I hate to imagine what he would have done with that information."

"It doesn't bear thinking about," Daenerys agreed. "Is it true that he sold you off to the Boltons?"

"Yes," Sansa said. "The same ones that torched Winterfell, tortured Theon Greyjoy, killed my brother and helped to murder the rest of the Stark bannermen. If Littlefinger truly trusted them enough to get me to marry Ramsay then he was an idiot, if he didn't, he was my enemy. When Jon and I took back Winterfell I swore I would never go back alive if we lost."

"I am sorry for what happened to you," Dany said solemnly. "I can understand what it was like. My brother sold me off to the Dothraki."

"I heard as much," Sansa replied. There was a new expression in her features that looked like respect. "Yet you command the Dothraki now."

"I do," she acknowledged. "And you defeated the Boltons, in the end. We both rose above the challenges we faced."

Sansa smiled. "I killed Ramsay myself," she confided.

Dany grinned back. "I killed the rest of the Khals."

Later on that afternoon, it was said that Sansa and Arya were spending time alone together. Bran, who was now using every spare second of free time at the weirwood tree in the Godswood, had asked to not be disturbed. Thus, Daenerys found herself in the solar with Jon, a roaring fire going in the hearth.

"Tormund should be here soon, if he left Eastwatch soon after receiving word," Jon said seriously, picking at his gloves. "Unfortunately, after that, it's all systems go for preparing for the Long Night."

"That's fair," Dany nodded. "It's also fair to point out that that may not be for another few days. The problems with Littlefinger are over, and there is nothing much left to do about the war until we are all able to convene. Which leaves the question of what you're going to find to mope over until then." She smiled.

Jon grinned back and took her hand. "Well, I do already have an ongoing existential crisis to deal with."

"How is it going? What are your thoughts?"

"That none of it matters. At least not really."

"Wise," Dany said. Then frowned. "Not just because we have a war to go off and fight soon?"

"No," Jon replied. "That is a big factor, granted, but… I feel like I don't have to choose. If I want, I can be a Targaryen and a Stark. Or I can just stick to being a Snow. At the end of the day, it's not going to change who I am, what I've done, or what I will do." He glanced at her, dark eyes beautiful and pensive. "I'm probably not making any sense."

"You are," she reassured him, and squeezed his hand, deciding not to press the issue any further.

"So how was your day?" Jon asked her, changing the subject with a final shake of his head. "You seemed a bit subdued at breakfast; you barely said a word. Then you disappeared. What's happened?"

Dany decided not to evade the truth. She didn't want to. "I went to visit Jaime Lannister."

If Jon was surprised at the admission, he didn't say it. "I hope he wasn't too rude to you."

She smiled. "No. I just wanted to find out some things. His reasoning for killing my father, for instance." And your grandfather she mentally added.

Jon's interest heightened. "What did he say?"

Daenerys proceeded to tell him about the caches of wildfire.

"Of course, this all makes sense now!" Jon said when she had finished. "Jaime probably knew exactly where all of it was, and made the mistake of telling Cersei. I heard the Lannisters used wildfire during the Battle of Blackwater against Stannis Baratheon's forces. Cersei blew up the Sept of Baelor with it too. That must have been where it all came from."

"Yes," Dany breathed. "And yet Cersei was never called the Mad Queen."

Jon shrugged. "Maybe she was? Who knows?" He got up long enough to toss another log on the fire. Dany immersed herself in the heat, grateful for every curling flame.

The northerner grinned again as he sat back down next to her. "Warm enough?"

Dany fixed him with a mischievous smile. "Just about." She shuffled closer and put her head on his shoulder, draping one of his arms across her back. "That's better. Now I'm even warmer."

Jon shifted his arm so as to embrace her more comfortably. "Me too." He kissed the side of her head. "I do hope this war doesn't go on for too long. I could get used to this."

"Well it won't even start for another little while," Dany said softly. "And just now things are going well. Let's just live in the moment."

"Aye," he agreed. Daenerys tilted her head to kiss him, and after a brief hesitation, he reciprocated. It was gentle and sweet, and Dany wanted more and more, relishing in every movement.

Perhaps living in the moment was the best advice after all.

A/N: Thank you all so much for reading, and I really do apologise for the long wait. Life is just going crazy and so much is happening, but hopefully in the next few weeks, things will get easier.

I hope I did Littlefinger's death justice (somehow I don't think I did) so please let me know what you think.

With regards to my own work, there is only two chapters left to go on this fic! How crazy! Both will be in Jon's POV. After I have finished this story, I have plans to do a pre-season-one one-shot, and then plans for another Jonerys piece set in season 7/8.

Thanks so much for reading again, don't forget to review. Until next time.