Finally, the two main protagonists of this story meet.

A surprise at court

The day after her announcement of the tourneys

It was a very calm day; Queen Sansa was holding court and so far nothing unusual had been brought to her. The north was still suffering from the same problems it has since the Bolton uprising: Hunger and low development. The fight against the dead with its devastating winter had only worsened things. Just when she was about to close the court for the day, one of the gate guards had stormed into the courtroom.

He bowed, "Your grace, there is a group of visitors, led by a Lord Gwayne Massey. They ask for an immediate audience. This Lord Massey said he had news of utmost importance for the queen."

She nodded, "let them in and bring them to court." She looked at a servant girl, "prepare salt and bread for our guests."

The girl bowed and went away towards the kitchen. Sansa noticed that Meera stood a bit closer to her throne now and seemed more alert. She glanced towards Maester Wolkan, "House Massey?" she asked.

Maester Wolkan took a moment to contemplate, before he answered dutifully, "House Massey is a minor House of the north and a vassal of House Manderly. Among the vassals of House Manderly House Massey is one of the most influential and according to rumours the wealthiest; the former head of the House Lord Edwin Massey died here in Winterfell in the fight against the undead."

She gave him a polite nod, "thank you Maester."

A few more moments passed by until the heavy oak door of the courtroom was pushed open; and accompanied by four guards a young man entered, a very tall man walked behind him, one arm wrapped around a third person bundled up in thick furs and wool. The two men bowed deeply in front of her.

"Your grace, we thank you for giving us an audience upon such short notice." spoke the younger man. Just when the first pleasantries had been exchanged the servant girl had come back with a tray of bread, freshly baked in the morning and salt. A courtier took the plate and presented it to the guests.

"I offer you bread and salt as an invitation to the hospitality of Winterfell and House Stark." declared Sansa.

"We thank your grace for your hospitality." answered the young man again; he and his companion took the offered salt and bread.

While they were sharing the goods offered by her, she took a moment to have a closer look at her guests. Lord Massey, the smaller of the two, was a thin, young man with incredibly messy brown hair, that just was long enough to cover his ears; he was clean-shaven except for a thin stubble along his jaw and chin; she only then realized that Lord Massey if at all was only barely older than herself, but she thought his eyes were the most mesmerizing thing about him, those big emerald eyes. The man close behind him was a completely different case he was tall and broad reminding her of the Clegan brothers; his long black hair kept in a simple braid his full, black beard only trimmed and he had piercing blue eyes. She assumed that the taller man was a personal guard of sort for Lord Massey as the tall man looked like a warrior, while Lord Massey didn't look like someone who would be keen to fight.

"So," she asked, "what is it that brought you here so urgently?"

"Your grace, during my travels to the city of Lys I heard of a new merchant from Westeros selling Ironwood in the free cities. Given the fact, that Ironwood is an extremely rare good, that only can be properly harvested and used by House Forrester I asked a few trusted men to gather some information about said merchant. My men provided me with some interesting information; the merchant in question Rickard Morgyn claimed not only that he was selling Ironwood, but also claimed that he was the rightful ruler of Ironrath through marriage with Mira Forrester," that name produced a few gasps and whispers from the servants and courtiers in the room, "with a bit of bribery I was able to find out that this merchant had been seen with a woman that roughly fit the description of Mira Forrester and that he was a loyal follower of Cersei Lannister."

Sansa thought over his words for a moment, she remembered Mira from her time in King's Landing. The girl had been a handmaiden of Margaery, and she had been delighted to hear that another girl from the north was there, but their different status at the royal court had it made almost impossible to spend time with each other. She also remembered that a guard of the Lannisters had been found dead in the gardens and that Joffrey had laughed about the execution of a servant, that had been the last day she had heard of or seen Mira.

"So, your grace, I bring home to the north Mira Forrester, freed from the claws of her terrible husband." announced Lord Massey.

Hesitantly the third person who had been silent the whole time pulled back the hood of her heavy coat revealing her face. It only took Sansa a moment to identify the girl as Mira Forrester, her eyes and hair still looked like she remembered, but a lot duller now. One look into Mira's eyes confirmed to Sansa what she already had feared, whatever had happened to Mira Forrester must have been deeply traumatizing and haunting. As much as Sansa felt sympathy for the poor girl, there had been an accusation thrown around that demanded her attention.

"Can you tell us what happened Mira?" asked Sansa trying not to intimidate or scare the girl.

The girl started to shake like autumn leaves, "He took me away, hurt me, told me I'll never see my home again if I don't give him children." her voice was weak and barely more than a whisper.

Sansa wanted to ask the girl more questions, but before she could say a word, the shaking of Mira's body intensified and the poor girl collapsed, only the quick reaction of Lord Massey's bodyguard prevented the girl from falling to the ground. "She is still breathing." said the bodyguard.

"Bring her to the guest chambers. Maester Wolkan, do what is possible to help her, if necessary, ask the Septas for help. Her questioning will be concluded when her health has improved, with Lady Cerwyn as witness. Also send a raven to Ironrath, Lord Forrester must be informed about his sister's return." commanded Sansa strictly, her voice left no room for objection.

At once, Maester Wolkan stood up and together with two servants and guards lead the bodyguard towards the guest chambers. Sansa waited until they had left the courtroom and everybody had a moment to take a deep breath.

"So, Lord Massey, with this big reveal you certainly raised our interest; but please enlighten us more, how exactly did you find out about Mira?" asked Sansa not just as Queen in the North, but also out of her own curiosity for this young Lord.

"Your grace, for decades House Massey is participating in trade across the narrow sea, especially with the city of Lys," started Lord Massey to explain, his eyes sparkling with joy and his voice almost swanky,
"some time after the news of King Joffrey's death had spread across the narrow sea, rumour spread through the merchants' district that a new merchant from Westeros has settled down in Lys and was selling rather large quantities of ironwood. Naturally that piqued my curiosity, since I knew that ironwood is a rather unique good from the north, almost exclusively harvested and worked on by House Forrester. I confronted this merchant Rickard Morgyn, but he wasn't stupid, and I couldn't get much information from him, only that he was associated with House Whitehill; I didn't pursue the topic further. It was only after the uprising against House Bolton I became aware of what had happened between House Forrester and House Whitehill. So, when I returned to Lys to resume trading relations that had suffered under the Bolton rule, I remembered this Rickard Morgyn. A well-paid whore from a renown pillow house, and too much wine loosened his tongue well enough to spill his truths. He had forced Mira Forrester, who was supposed to be the only living member of House Forrester at that point, through a plot in King's Landing and death threats into marriage. After the death of Joffrey Baratheon, Morgyn left King's Landing fearing previous deals with Tyrion Lannister would lead to him being associated with the King's death; he decided to stay in Lys since he found out that the north was still in some kind of turmoil and Stannis Baratheon had entered the fray. Later he also revealed that he had to keep Mira Forrester in a cell since she was not willing to be obedient to him at all. For me that was enough information for me to decide that I would act to free Mira Forrester." He continued to explain how his plan had been executed.

"That was very generous and noble of you, but it raises the question what kind of reward were you hoping for?" asked Sansa still not completely sold on his story.

"I seek no reward, but your gratitude. I wanted to show my loyalty to the north and House Stark as I'm going to stay for longer at your court." he declared with honest humility in his voice.

Sansa raised her eyebrow in amusement, "Oh, thank you for telling me, I wasn't aware Winterfell would be holding more guests."

Instead of Lord Massey it was now her Master of Ships, Ser Marlon Manderly, who answered, "Your grace it's true, I asked him to come here. due to my age and responsibility in White Harbor I fear I can't be as often in Winterfell as I should, so I asked for Lord Massey to be my stand-in here in Winterfell."

Sansa looked sternly at Ser Manderly, her hands painfully digging in the armrest of her chair, "and when did you plan on telling me that, Ser Manderly?"

Ser Manderly looked guiltily to the ground, "forgive me your grace, I wanted to announce it during a meeting of the small council, but I thought of it as inappropriate since the question of your marriage and hair had become such big topics in those meetings."

Her eyebrows twitched in anger, this was talk not suited for the courtroom, the words marriage and hair would only lead to unwanted rumours, "Very well Ser Manderly, Lord Massey" she looked at both men and was surprised to see a very sad expression on Lord Massey's face for a moment before he regained his composure; "we will continue this talk later within the privacy of my study. Lord Massey for now see yourself as a guest of Winterfell, rooms will be prepared for you and your men."

She noticed that a small smile of relieve had appeared on Lord Massey's face. "You are dismissed, the court is closed for the day."

When her guests had left the courtroom, she also left, still a hundred thoughts running wild in her mind.

This chapter was an absolute pain for me to write, that's why I decided to split the "scene" in two parts; the next part will focus on the meeting in Sansa's study.