Arya

Mother still had her arms around Bran by the time Father returned with Jon, and Arya wondered if she would ever let go of him again. He looked a little embarrassed by it, but he did not object. She knew what he had seen had affected him more than he wanted to let on.

"Bran," Father said, and he sat down on his other side. "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay, I think," he said. "I don't know."

"What did you see?" Jon asked. "Father said you had nightmares sent by that man in the tree?"

"Brynden Rivers," Bran said. "That's his name. Bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy, Hand of the King to King Aerys I and King Maekar. Former Lord Commander of the Night's Watch."

"And a monster, clearly," Arya said. "He sent you all those terrible things to punish you for helping us change the future."

"He doesn't like it," Bran said. "I told you that. He'd showed me some of it before, some of the timeline he said was supposed to happen, but this was different. It was only the worst things, some from that alternate timeline and some from the past. It was just to hurt me. To threaten me, I suppose? Otherwise I don't know how he thought it would incline me more to his cause."

Father shook his head. "How could he possibly still be alive?"

"Magic," Bran said.

"How could anyone do this?" Mother asked. "Why would he be so cruel?"

"He thinks Sansa and Arya have broken time," Bran said. "That things need to be put back the way they were, or it'll be bad. I don't know why. Things are better. If anything, his visions showed me that." He looked at Mother. "He made me watch you die..."

She pulled him even closer. "It's okay. That won't happen now."

"I know," he said. "But it was... it was horrible. They slit your throat... and then they threw you in the river."

"Of course they did," Mother said bitterly. "They made a mockery of House Tully's funeral customs, that's a very Frey thing to do. It's alright though, Bran, it's just a vision now. A future that will never be."

"You killed his wife," Bran said. "Walder Frey's wife, I mean."

She frowned. "I did? Why?"

"You held a knife to her throat. You swore to Lord Walder on your honor as a Tully and a Stark that they had to let Robb go, or you would kill her. He said he would find another one. And then-"

"I get the picture," Mother said.

"The whole country turned on the Freys after that," Jon said. "Even people up at the Wall, who are sworn not to take a side in politics, were disgusted with them... they broke guest right. Damned themselves."

"I damned them," Arya said. "I slit Lord Walder's throat and I baked his favorite sons into a pie and fed them to him and I poisoned the rest of them."

Mother, Father, and Jon turned and stared at her. "You did what?" Father asked.

"Baked them into a pie?" Mother said.

Arya shrugged. "Like the story of the rat cook, you know?" They were still staring at her. "You'd have done the same. If you saw what I saw. They cut Robb's head off and sewed Grey Wind's head onto his body and paraded it around." She shuddered a little describing the memory.

Mother put a hand to her mouth, and Father closed his eyes.

"Yeah, that story made it to the Wall too," Jon said. "I didn't want to believe it."

"It was horrible," Bran said. "There were so many horrible things." He looked at Jon. "I saw you die, too. And Rickon. And you, Father, and your father..."

"My father?" Father stared at him in horror. "You mean, you saw what Aerys Targaryen did to him?"

"And my uncle Brandon," he said. "Yes, I saw."

Father's face hardened. "I'm going to kill this Brynden Rivers."

"Already claimed him," Arya said.

"I'll help," said Mother. "But maybe no baking anyone into a pie?"

"I wouldn't do that now," Arya said. "I was... you know, not in the best state of mind when I did that. But eventually I was reminded that there was more to life than revenge." She owed the Hound for that last bit of wisdom, more than she had even known at the time.

"But you want to kill him for revenge now," Bran said.

"Not for revenge. To protect you."

"I don't need protection," he protested.

"Everyone needs to be protected sometimes," Jon said. "Though going beyond the Wall to get to him would be extremely dangerous. Probably unwise."

"How do we stop him, then?" Father asked.

"I don't know," Jon said. "Bran, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know," he said. Then, in a smaller voice, "I'm scared."

"It'll be alright," Mother said. "You'll be alright, Bran, I won't let anything happen to you."

"When did it get light out?" Arya said with a shake of her head, suddenly noticing the first rays of sun coming in through the windows.

Jon sighed. "Guess it's time for breakfast."

"I suppose I have to meet with Alliser Thorne and the others, then," said Father with a sigh. "Jon, you should come with me. Catelyn..."

"I'll stay with the children," she said. "They don't respect a word I say, anyway."

He nodded. "We'll let you know how it went." Then he and Jon left the room.

Ned

As he walked into the dining hall with Jon, wishing he had gotten more than an hour or two of sleep before a meeting that would decide the fate of the realm, he looked over at him and wondered again what Lyanna would say if she were here. She hadn't had time to tell him how to raise Jon, what she wanted for him. Only to ask that he be kept safe. The Night's Watch had seemed the safest place for him, safest from all the enemies who could want him dead, but had he known about the undead army that marched from the north he would have told him to stay far away from this place. And yet, the one thing Lyanna had managed to tell him about, the song of ice and fire, meant that Jon was destined to save the world. Was this what she had wanted after all? More than ever, he wished he could talk to her again, to ask her. He had told Jon she would be proud of him, and of that he was sure, but he couldn't imagine she'd be happy with any of it. Jon had been born to be a prince, not the bastard of Winterfell. Not for the first time, he wondered what might have happened if Rhaegar Targaryen had lived. He felt guilty even to think it; Robert had been his closest friend, after all. But King Robert was a different man, and his very existence a threat to Jon, to Lyanna's memory, and, Ned feared, to his entire family. He had allowed the Lannisters to take over in one timeline, and while they may have stopped that, for now, he didn't like to think how Robert would handle the threat from the North, and he knew how he felt about Daenerys Targaryen. She had dragons, and how was he supposed to deal with that? He would try his best to talk her down, but he could not lie and say Robert didn't want her dead.

"So." Alliser Thorne broke him out of his thoughts. "What did Mance Rayder say?"

"Can we get some food first?" Jon grumbled.

"Don't talk back to me, Lord Snow," Alliser said. "We should be hanging you for desertion."

"I didn't desert!"

"You were a brother of the Night's Watch, and now you intend to stop being one. What do you call that?"

"I haven't even said that I intend to stop being one," Jon said. "I came here by choice, and I could stay by choice, as well, whatever the king says."

Ned looked at him sharply. "What?" He couldn't be serious, surely? He couldn't want to stay up here, a man with no family name freezing up in the North, when he had he option to come back home... could he? Ned couldn't stand that thought, not now that the truth had finally been revealed.

"I'll make a decision on that matter later. But either way, Ser Alliser, being released is not deserting. And either way, I can help you. As can my family."

They had moved into the line as they talked, and as soon as they had their food Thorne said, "Come on, then. Let's discuss."

Not long after, they were in a room with all the officers of the Night's Watch, and they were all looking at Ned. He told them what Mance Rayder had said during their meeting, and then there was a good deal of grumbling.

"We don't want any wildlings joining the Watch," Thorne said. "And we don't want them fighting with us either. They're not trustworthy."

"They're an entire people, Ser Alliser," Ned said with irritation. "An entire people are not inherently untrustworthy. And how trustworthy are the thieves and rapers you have manning the wall now, anyway?"

"Do you see the people of the North accepting this plan, Lord Stark?" Maester Aemon asked. "Do you see them agreeing to be neighbors with those who have raided their lands? Those are your people, you know them."

"It'll be a difficult idea to sell," Ned admitted. "But as you say, they are my people. They will listen to me. Hopefully I will be able to impart on them the danger that the white walkers pose to the realm."

"Do you have time to go around to all the castles near the Gift and do that?" Jon asked. "You have to get back to King's Landing, don't you?"

Ned frowned. "That's true too." He had to get back to King's Landing before Robert's baby was born, and prepare to travel to Essos and meet Daenerys. He looked at Jon. "You could do it for me."

"Me? I'm a bastard, they won't listen to me. It would be hard even for you, but for me..."

"You haven't answered why we should trust the wildlings," Alliser Thorne said.

"Have Ygritte and Tormund done anything since they've been here?" Jon asked.

"No. They're only two. But put them together..."

"I'll take them with me," Jon said suddenly. "If I'm to go around convincing the North to trust the wildlings, I'll bring two of them with me."

"A good idea," Ned said, smiling at his son's understanding. "It might be even better if you could get Mance himself to join you, though."

"I'll send them to ride back for him," said Jon. "Then he can make his promises himself. That they don't intend to fight or raid anymore."

"A difficult negotiation," Ned said. "But it can work."

"There's still the issue of legitimacy," Thorne said. "Your boy is still a bastard, people still won't listen to him the way they might to you."

"Robb can join him," Ned said, the plan forming in his mind. "If I cannot go, I will send my heir in my stead."

Jon nodded. "That could work."

"I don't like it," Thorne said.

"I do," said Maester Aemon. "I think there's always room for more peace in the world, and it's never wrong to try. If the people agree, I say we let the women and children and those who cannot fight settle the Gift. However, I propose that the fighting men stay north of the Wall. For now, at least. They can make camp in the woods just beyond it."

"We can have Tormund and Ygritte deliver those terms as well," said Jon.

"Good," Ned said. "Then are we all in agreement?"

The other officers of the Watch exchanged looks, but finally they nodded.

Sansa

"The garden is lovely," Ser Loras said as they walked.

"Yes." She looked beside her at Lady, padding along happily. "Lady's glad you let her come."

"Fascinating creatures, direwolves," he replied. "She's quite intelligent."

"They all are," Sansa agreed.

"There are some who claim you Starks are skinchangers, can go into the bodies of your wolves."

She laughed at that, not trusting those who might be listening in. "Wouldn't that be nice?"

"Surely," he agreed. "But even without magic powers, nobody should underestimate you."

"No," she agreed. "Funny you should mention it. Your grandmother thinks I would make a good Lady of Highgarden for that reason."

He smiled ruefully. "So you might control me? As she does my father?"

"Perhaps control is not the word. But I know more than you might think about being in charge of things."

"I can tell that much," he said. "And I understand that this match would be good, politically speaking. But I must warn you, I may not be the man of your dreams."

"Because you do not fancy women?" she asked. "That doesn't bother me. If anything, it means you will not harm me. Were we to wed, we need only do what was necessary to make heirs, and no more. I would be happy to let you do as you desire otherwise."

He stared at her. "My lady..."

"That is not what makes me doubt the union, Ser Loras."

He frowned. "Then what does?"

"The North," she replied. "My home. It lures me still."

"Highgarden has nicer weather," he said with a smile.

"I'm sure," she said, laughing a little. "But home is home, and I would miss Winterfell ever so much. But I suppose I cannot stay there forever."

"No," Loras agreed, "Most likely not. And politically, you can't do much better than Highgarden."

"What a romantic sell," she said with a smile.

They stopped by a shallow lake, and Loras held out his arm for Lady. She sniffed it, then licked his hand all over.

"She likes you," Sansa said. "That's a good sign." The wolves were very closely tied to them, something she had never fully realized before when she was gone.

"May it foreshadow a long history of friendship between our houses."

"May it," she agreed. But what form of friendship? And what am I to do?