When the light faded, Arya opened her eyes and was surprised to find herself in the middle of the main hall of Winterfell's castle.
The first thing she noticed was the numerous groups of Northern nobles and their families. They talked in hushed voices.
She saw Osha walking towards her, as if she wasn't there, then Arya was shocked as the wildling woman passed right through her. Her new "situation was finally dawning on her.
"They are talking about me" she thought as she heard their conversations, then she was shocked to see a coffin, her coffin.
"How could this be?" she wondered. After she died, she only spent a few minutes in the afterlife, but it appeared that in the world of the lving days had passed.
She saw her younger brothers sitting on both sides of the coffin. Both of them seemed calm but their eyes told a different story.
She felt terrible for both of them as she knew her death was her own fault.
"I am so sorry" she said as she knelt in front of Bran and tried to touch his face, but her hand just passed through him.
A few minutes later the two brothers, with the help of the northern lords, carried it to its final resting place in the stark's crypt. She would be buried very close to Sansa's tomb.
Arya was overwhelmed by emotion, but then wondered where Gendry was. She didn't see him in the hall, nor was he here at the tombs.
She discovered her first ability when she wished to see him and suddenly found herself in a different place.
She looked around and recognized the place immediately as Winterfell's forge. She heard the sound of the hammer hitting metal and then saw Gendry working.
For as moment she felt disappointed to see him working and not in her burial, as if he didn't care, but then she saw something strange in his face and the way he was hitting the metal.
At first he seemed calm, but then she came closer and saw the trail of tears in his face. She also noticed that he wasn't exactly working, he was just hitting a piece of metal with all his strength. He saw as he increased the speed of his strokes and his face changed from calm to a mixture of rage and pain.
Now she understood, this was his way of dealing with the pain of her death.
A one moment he let go of the hammer and fell to the floor, he put his face in his hands and began to shake as he sobbed.
She felt guilty as she knew she sort of deserted him again, just like seven years ago when she escaped the Brotherhood without banners.
After she returned to Westeros one of the first things she did was go find him and hot pie and she had promised that their pack would not break again.
"This sucks" she exclaimed as she knelt in front of him and tried to caress his face but with no avail.
For a moment her mind was totally focused on Gendry as she wanted to comfort him
"Please don't cry"
She was surprised when Gendry raised his face from his hand with a look of disbelief
"A..arya?" he said after a few seconds
"I can communicate with them" Arya realized and wondered if the same principle applied if she wanted to be seen.
Gendry backed away as she appeared out of thin air. She had never seen him that scared.
He moved until his back hit a wall and stayed there, looking at her with wide eyes.
Arya rose and then moved slowly towards him,
"Don't be afraid, Gendry, it's just me"
It took her a while, but she managed to calm him down. After she explained to him the situation, she wanted to apologize
"I am so sorry I caused you this pain" she said. He looked at her
"You should have waited…the hound couldn't have gone too far on that weather"
"The hound" she thought, she had completely forgotten him until Gendry mentioned his name. Anger began to rise inside her. It was because of him that she left the brotherhood and Gendry as she felt disappointed when they failed to punish him for Mycah's dead.
She remembered that the brotherhood had captured him and put him on trial for various atrocities committed by Lannister soldiers, but when no crime could be attributed to him personally, she testified to his killing of Mycah the butcher's boy.
Strangely he didn't deny or accept her charges; He just chose trial by combat, facing the Brotherhood's leader Lord Beric Dondarrion. Beric fought with a magic flaming blade, but to Arya's disappointment, Sandor managed to defeat him.
Now, he was in part the cause of her death.
Then an idea hit her. Perhaps that was part of her unfinished business, to bring him to justice.
"Gendry, I can find out where he is…tell my brothers that I will return soon and prepare the men"
Before he could say anything, she was gone.
"How am I going to tell them?" he wondered "They will think I am crazy"
Arya found herself inside a cave and it wasn't long until he saw him sleeping"
"Smart" she thought "travelling by night, sleeping by day"
She went outside the cave to see if it was located in familiar territory and smiled as she knew it wasn't that far from Winterfell.
She entered the cave again and approached him. He moved in his sleep, as if he was having nightmares, and Arya couldn't help but feel a little pity. The cave was cold and his body shivered.
"I wonder how he got that scar" she thought as she watched his face.
What she thought of him improved a little when Sansa had told her what he did for her.
"Perhaps you were kind to my sister and even saved her" she whispered "But that changes nothing, even if you were just following orders. You were Joffrey's dog and Mycah deserves justice"
She realized that the hound was the "less guilty" of those on her list. He wasn't a monster but justice had to be served.
"I can promise you will get a fair trial" she told the sleeping men "More fair than your justice to Mycah"
She took one last look at him and then disappeared.
"Are you mad?" Bran asked
Gendry had convinced the two brothers than he needed to talk with them in private
"I know how this sound b…"
He was interrupted by Rickon
"Look Gendry…we are grateful that you cared so much for our sister, but th…"
He couldn't continue as her dead sister appeared in front of him
2 hour later.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Bran whispered, not wanting to let his men see he was talking to the wind, as Arya could only be seen by her brothers and Gendry. She had discovered that she could appear only to those that she wished.
She answered silently and then he unsheathed his sword and entered the cave fallowed by his men.
The hound didn't offer any resistance when he woke up and found several swords pointed at him, nor did he do anything when they put chains on his arms.
He uttered not a word when Bran read the charges as he was a fugitive of the crown for having served the Lannister's
They took him to Winterfell to prepare him for the journey to King's landing, where his trial would take place. Crows were sent to inform the authorities of his capture.
After three hours, the group of men that would take him south was ready. Sandor had been put on a cage wagon. Not once did he react to the insults he received as word spread that this was the Lannister's dog, the men that killed the butcher's son.
Arya watched from a balcony as the caravan started the journey
"What now?" she thought. She turned and saw his younger brothers looking at her intently as if they didn't believe she was back.
Two months passed in which Arya discovered most of her abilities. She could feel and let others feel her touch and even grab objects. She had spent all her time in winterfell with her two brothers, almost each day talking about the future and plans for Winterell. They had been really happy when she told them of her short time in the afterlife.
"They were all happy" she told them "Father, Mother, Robb, Sansa"
One night, Arya's thoughts drifted to her half brother and wondered if she should visit him.
"He probably doesn't even know I am dead" she thought but didn't blame him. His duties were on the wall and beyond and what happened south was not of his concern.
She made her decision as she remembered her father's words of those she was supposed to "watch over"
She appeared in a room and saw him immediately. The last time they have been together was seven years ago, when he left for the wall and was still a young boy. She could clearly see how different he was now, and it was obvious to her that Jon had seen and been through a lot more than her or any other person she knew.
For almost two days she followed him, watching his daily activities as lord commander. On the third day she went with him as he visited a few wildlings allies. She has never been north of the wall, and was horrified at how harsh and hostile the land was. She had accidentally discovered that she could read people memories when they slept and was tempted to watch Jon's but decided not to for the moment
They stayed for 5 days with the wildlings and then returned to the wall. As they entered castle black, a ranger approached Jon
"I know him" Arya thought as she saw his face. He was younger than most other rangers. She tried to recall where she might have seen him but couldn't.
"He looks like…no, that's impossible" she thought as she recalled someone from her past, but she knew that it was absurd
"May I have a word" the ranger asked
Jon smiled
"What can I do for you Mycah?"
Arya's eyes widened
"No" she thought "it can't be him…he is dead".
For the rest of the day, she tried to push that thought aside but couldn't. She could appear to him and ask him, but that would probably just freak him out.
Late that night, she waited until the ranger fell asleep and then extended her hand to touch the top of his head
"No…it can't be" she said to herself as his memories filled her mind; the memories of the butcher's son.
The mystery was revealed when she saw him crying on the woods as the hound approached him.
"Do you know why I am here, boy?" he asked with a raspy voice
"Please" the boy begged "I didn't do anything to the prince"
The hound kneeled in front of the boy.
"I am going to be frank with you boy, an attack on the prince by any commoner is a crime punishable by death. The king himself has given his verdict and I was sent to carry it"
The boy trembled
"The prince is a monster" the hound said, surprising the boy.
"There is a way for you to survive this, but you can't never return to your home as you have been declared guilty by the state…And even if someday, by a miracle, they forget about you, once you take the vows there is no going back"
Arya watched as the hound carried the boy north to castle black and delivered him.
"The night watch is not under the jurisdiction of the crown" the hound explained to Mycah. "You will be safe here"
Arya didn't want to watch anymore and removed her hand.
"I hated him all these years for nothing" she thought as guilt filled her