Jon found Arya the next morning outside Winterfell's walls burying the ashes of the fallen with other volunteers and asked her to come with him to the godswood.

Arya wanted to tell Jon no because Bran was in there—he never left it now. Bran did not eat or sleep. He sat in his chair with cloudy eyes and vanished into a secret world of magic beyond understanding. Arya knew if she joined Jon in the godswood then she would have to look upon the shell of unfeeling ice that replaced her little brother…

And have it look back at her.

When Jon sent the guards away then it was just the three of them. The last of the Starks. Arya knew this had to be the moment Bran warned her about the night before, and she cursed herself for being afraid and beat her fear down until it was only a whisper in her mind. Whatever Jon's revelation, she would stand strong and hear his words with no trepidation.

"I should not have waited until now to tell you this—and I am sorry that I did," Jon said, his voice, and his eyes so like Arya's own, filled with sorrow and regret. "You deserved to know the truth."

Jon closed his eyes.

"You all did."

"What is it we deserved to know?" Arya asked and fought not to look at Bran sitting behind her.

Jon opened his eyes, and they were bright and glassy with tears.

"You are my blood. Always know that in my heart you will always be my brother, and my sister," Jon said, and there was such desperation in his tone it almost hurt Arya to hear it in his voice.

"I have never thought of you as anything but my brother. Not my half-brother or my bastard brother. My brother," Arya told Jon with all the feeling, all the love she can still muster in her heart.

The anguish in Jon was a force all its own and screamed louder than any words he might say. What was it he was so reluctant to tell them? What could be so awful?

Jon's gaze slid over to Bran, and Arya followed it.

"You've already made your choice," Bran said his voice hollow and his eyes cold.

Arya swung her gaze back to Jon and saw Bran's words relieved a great deal of tension she saw in Jon's face, though not all.

"What choice? Tell me what it is you wish to say, Jon."

"Before I do, you must swear you will never tell another living soul."

"Then I swear it."

Jon sighed. The panic and fear Arya saw in his eyes faded away—peace had descended over Jon at her oath.

"I am not Eddard Stark's son," Jon said. "And my name is not Jon. My name, my real name, is Aegon Targaryen. My mother… My mother was Lyanna Stark, and my true sire was Rhaegar Targaryen."

All at once it fell into place and made a strange kind of sense to Arya. Why Jon was brought into Winterfell and treated as well as any trueborn Stark. And why a man as kind and loving as Eddard Stark, had been so willing to hurt his lady wife by doing so.

"Lyanna, my mother, and… Rhaegar loved each other and married. Then had me. I was never a bastard," Jon said.

"Then… Father lied. To Mother. To everyone."

"To protect me. To protect all of you."

Though the truth still burned, Arya knew Jon was right.

Jon was Rhaegar Targaryen's issue. His heir and by every measure, save one, the true king of the Seven Kingdoms. He was a clear threat to anyone who sat the Iron Throne.

Arya has seen how far those in power were willing to go to keep their fists tight around that power. Not caring who they hurt or who they slaughtered. Cersei, Joffrey, Tywin… every one of them would have stopped at nothing to put an end to Jon without a moment's hesitation.

Yes, those who seek to hold power knew no limits in their relentless pursuit of it and that did include…

"Does the Dragon Queen know?" Arya asked.

Jon was a threat to her as well. Daenerys Targaryen did not come across the Narrow Sea to claim a single castle, she came for it all. All that her family had lost—Jon's family too—Daenerys would have again, and Arya did not believe the woman cared to have anything stand in her way. Arya was quite certain the Dragon Queen resented much the White Walkers had delayed her march to the Iron Throne too long already.

"Dany knows."

"Are you in danger for her knowing?"

Jon glanced, perhaps unconsciously, at Needle and the knife sheathed at Arya waist.

"No. She has accepted my oath of loyalty. She trusts I will not betray and endanger her rule."

"But you are the rightful heir. You are a threat to her just by living. You say she trusts you, but can you trust her?"

"She knows I don't want the throne. She knows I don't want to rule. And for all the world knows I am a bastard still." Jon glanced briefly at Bran whose expression remained pale stone. "She has my full unwavering support… We are… We are kin."

Closer than kin it would seem.

She smelled Daenerys all over Jon. On Jon's skin and on his breath. Faint though it was, the scent of sex lingered despite Jon's efforts to wash it away. Arya pinned down a knowing grin. Were it any other day, if her sister was not ashes laying in a tomb, Arya would laugh and make jest of her brother. But it wasn't any other day, and Sansa will be ashes forever more.

"And we are kin," Jon said. "Though I am not your brother by blood, I am, and will forever be your brother in all ways that truly matter. I hope you both know that."

Arya wanted to slap the worry from his face. It was foolish of him to think she would ever doubt his love for them. Arya's certainty of their bond is what pulled her from the abyss. His love made her cling to her name when she almost threw it away forever.

Arya smiled and hugged Jon to her tightly. "I have never once doubted it."

Arya felt Jon's chest heave as he held back a sob and hugged her in return. After a few moments, he let Arya go and went to Bran leaned down, and embraced him as well. The joy in Arya evaporated as she looked on and saw Bran's face, empty of all expression did not change while Jon held him. Bran only stared ahead, unseeing, and unfeeling.

Everywhere, but here.

The war council held little interest to Arya. She only attended to represent Winterfell in Bran's place and to show that Jon had the full support of House Stark and the North. But all their planning and scheming were profoundly meaningless.

The Dragon Queen however did hold Arya's attention as the Spider and Jon played with the tokens on their map on a large table at the center of the Great Hall. Daenerys was aware Jon told Arya about his true parentage—it was written plainly on the woman's face. Arya tried not to smirk for Jon's sake.

Daenerys's fears, both for her promised throne, and that Jon's secret would come to light before she took her seat on the throne, were also meaningless.

Once the Northern forces marched south, Arya will be among them. She'll wear a different face and become just another soldier gone off to fight Lannister fuckers. She will not be the Lady of Winterfell. Nor the hero who ended the Long Night before it truly began. Spies for Cersei or the Spider, will not know her from the thousands marching on King's Landing.

When Jon's army passes beyond the Neck, Arya will break away and head to King's Landing on her own. Long before Daenerys, her dragons, and her forces arrived at the capital, Cersei will be long dead. Along with anyone else whose name was still on Arya's list.

Yes, Arya will have collected many faces before she was done taking her vengeance.

The only unexpected development to come from the war council was Jon's announcement he was to join Daenerys on Dragonstone, where her dragons will convalesce from their wounds. Rhaegal most especially. Even from a distance, Arya had seen one of the dragon's wings had been ripped and torn. Nor had it flown since battling its undead brethren over Winterfell.

The North's army will remain in Winterfell to rest and heal as well, while plans and supplies were re-arranged to prepare for the upcoming battles soon to be waged. The remaining Unsullied and Dothraki are to march on White Harbor. The host took nearly every available wagon to carry food, supplies, and feed to get them to Manderlys's seat, where then they will reunite with Daenerys and Jon before they set sail to Dragonstone.

At Dragonstone, Daenerys, and Jon will also regroup and make new plans to take the capital.

Perhaps the greater surprise was Daenerys's willingness to accept another delay before ending Cersei's reign. Arya had been certain the Dragon Queen would demand Stark forces march on King's Landing on her behalf as soon as possible, as she needed them to bolster her own armies, which had suffered the most losses during the Long Night.

Of the fifteen thousand Dothraki screamers she brought with her from across the Narrow Sea, only five thousand now remained. Her eight thousand Unsullied had been culled in half. The North and the Vale lost half their forces as well but combined, the Starks and Arryn could still muster almost twelve thousand able-bodied men, not including the two thousand leveed in the Vale.

Yet the Dragon Queen was willing it seemed to believe Jon's word when he said the North will come when she called upon them. Arya saw there was no doubt in Daenerys, a clear mark in the woman's favor. But then, it's far easier to trust someone you're bedding than someone you're not.

That's right…

Arya sharpened her gaze on Daenerys as the Dragon Queen listened while her Master of Whispers shifted ship icons on the map and announced Yara Greyjoy had reclaimed the Iron Islands. Perhaps Daenerys was so willing to trust Jon because they were more than laying together.

Was Jon only journeying to Dragonstone to help plan the invasion of King's Landing? Or was there more to it? What promises had been made in the dark as Jon and Daenerys lay abed?

A betrothal mayhap? Such a promise would go far in heading off Daenerys's greatest concern regarding the threat Jon's parentage posed. And—if Jon were willing—a marriage between Aunt and nephew would be far from unusual for Targaryens. Still, such a scheme can only succeed if Daenerys wished to share the power she'd sought all her life with another. Even should that other be one she loved?

But love at the start can be a thin thread and easily cut. Who knew what might happen should affections turn sour between Jon and Daenerys? The Dragon Queen was certain to know Targaryen history as well as Arya, and it was the threat of a Targaryen queen sitting the Iron Throne that split the Seven Kingdoms and brought about the Dance of Dragons.

What if the Seven Kingdoms once again decided it did not want another woman to rule over them once Cersei was gone? What might happen if the high Lords discover Jon was a better claimant? A bastard king who had already won a kingdom and was much beloved? What, then? Would the Dragon Queen then be willing to ignore Jon's lineage and the clear threat he was to her future rule? Would she kill Jon to secure that rule?

Too many doubts and too many questions hung in the air like dark clouds before the heaviest snow.

I may need to stay longer than planned.

Arya intended to abandon Westeros after she took her vengeance in King's Landing. There was little keeping her here now. Nothing but bitter memories and the aches and pains of so many, many losses.

There was still Jon, but they were both different now. Arya more than he. As much as Jon loved her, Arya also frightened him, yet he would hold her to him forever if he could. Arya rather be away before her brother saw how little of the Arya he remembered there was left to hold. Nor did she want to see Jon's heartbreak once he realized Bran wasn't the only one who died far from home.

But the Dragon Queen posed a risk. Jon didn't see that, but Arya did. Should Daenerys prove not to be as trusting as she led Jon to believe and turn on him, not even a hundred dragons will save her from Arya's blade.