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Morning sun was shining like a pearl when Ser Rodrik led the second hunting party in the castle. This time Jon was with him. Ser Rodrik came to Ned as fast as he can. And Jon was one step behind him. Both bowed.

"I've ordered Ser Rodrik to bring all of you Jon and not only Robb." Ned said grimly. The boy has always preferred his siblings over himself but this was too much. He should know about his importance now.

"Forgive me My Lord, I.." Jon started and Ned interrupted.

"I don't want to know what you thought Jon. But next time, when I will call for my sons, you will be there, you hear me?" Ned said with the somber face and Jon could only have nodded.

"Go ahead now, clean yourself and wait in my chamber council. Robb, I've called all of my bannermen and they would be coming soon. You will greet them and help them to settle in. Theon you will lead their armies to the camping site." Ned ordered them and they all compiled. He noticed his other children were in the yard too and all of them were attentive toward him with fear. Perhaps they thought I will speak furiously with Jon and they were here to defend him. Ned smiled at the thought and saw Arya's wild face. His children love each other. This love is going to be greater help in near future.

And Winter is coming.

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They were in his council chambers now. Jon was sitting sullenly across the table. He was looking fresh after the bath but was also tired. Their morning talk in the yard could be the reason of the brooding face or it could be just the weariness. Ned smiled slightly after studying him for some time.

"I'm sorry for the hard talk in the yard." He started. He was preparing himself for this conversation after Reed's suggestions but it was more difficult than to simply suggest.

"It was my mistake. I should have come with Ser Rodrik." Jon said, and Ned knew the unspoken words.

"So, I'm forgiven?" Ned asked looking deeply toward his son.

"There is nothing to forgive." He said the indirect version of 'no, you're not forgiven until I say so.' Ned knew what comes ahead. For at least ten days, he will not hear the word 'father' from his son. Perhaps he will never heard it from him for what he is about to tell.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Yes my lord." And there it was. The first blow.

Ned sighed. "Alright have it your way. For I have more pressing matters to discuss." He said and leaned toward him. And thought about his words.

"Jon! What you think about your mother?" The look on the boy's face broke his heart. He had prepared this conversation or had he?

"I.. I thought you'll never talk about it." Jon said after one or two minutes.

"I thought the same. Tell me Jon what you think of her?" He said.

"You never talked about it. What you wanted me to think of her. At first I thought, I thought that she is a noble lady and your love, but when I see your love for Lady Stark., I…" He left the sentence looking toward anything but his father.

"And now? What you think of her now?" He encouraged him to speak but also knew that it was a mistake.

"Say it father! I can hear it. Or should I say it. She was a whore." The bitterness was not of the words. Ned didn't know when it happened, but his hand's mark was on Jon's face now.

I should have prepared more.

"I.. I'm sorry Jon, I.." Ned started again after controlling himself. He is losing his wits. Soon it shall end. Soon or he is going to die.

I would never have prepared for it. The boy thinks his mother was a whore. Oh Lyanna. Have I failed you already?

"Then who she was? If she was as noble as you claim then why she mothered a bastard and left him to you. Why you fucked her if not for love. Why she abandoned me? Why you abandoned her? Even if she was noble, to me she was a whor..." There was another mark on his son's face now. But Ned didn't care now. This much poison has been filling up in the heart of his son?

Yes! His son.

"You listen to me now and you listen to me carefully boy. You will talk about her respectfully. You will call her mother and you will love her. You hear me Jon. Don't you talk about her like that again or I will kill you myself. I will not care about the promise I made to her. So you will not talk about her like that. Not you of all the people." Ned was saying or shaking or shoving Jon into the wall. He didn't know. He was past caring.

As expected, Jon didn't say a word. He had never said a word. He was nice to everyone. Having no hatred for anyone, but now Ned knew. The lad had saved all his hatred for his mother.

When Ned saw that boy is not resisting, he let him loose. Jon leaned backward to the wall and wiped the blood from his mouth with his right thumb.

"Understood?" Ned asked again and he nodded wiping more blood from his upper lip.

There was a long silence in the room. Ned sat on the nearby chair and left a sigh.

"I would have never abandoned her. I loved her. If the gods ever wanted, I would have brought her back to Winterfell and would have banished all the sorrows from her face. You have to listen and you have to understand Jon. I do not care what will the world say about me, but I care what you will even think about me or your mother. She loved you Jon. For more than to bear. She would have never abandoned you…

… Everything happens for a reason. I didn't know the reason last night when I read the letter, but now I know. It was to talk to you. To remove this hatred from your heart." Ned said daring to look toward his boy.

"A letter from my mother?" Jon's face was plain now. No hatred nor hurt or any other thing.

Ned didn't realize he had mentioned the letter.

"Your mother died birthing you." He informed him. "It was from your aunt." Ned said carefully. He had burned the ships and now he had to tell the whole truth.

The silence fell again in the room. A silence, cutting their throats and carving their hearts out. Nobody spoke again. The silence was bitter. A poison, which would kill slowly and dissolve your entrails in it. The war horns are better than this silence.

"I am not your father." Said Ned after a long pause. Nobody moved in the room. Nor the mountains clashed into one another. Nothing happened. For a longer a time than expected. Jon was there. He had listened. Ned was sure.

"Your mother is Lyanna Stark of Winterfell and your father is Prince Rhaegar Targaryen." Jon didn't answer it either.

He was looking outside the small window of the council chamber. Like the dark night has something more important to say than Ned's words and Jon was contented to listen to it.

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