A/N: Much of the dialogue in this chapter is lifted directly from Eddard's canon chapter in A Game of Thrones. Also, on the world: both Elbert and Denys Arryn are still alive. Elbert injured his ankle and was therefore unable to join Brandon's wanton expedition to King's Landing. He healed eventually and was the one who married Lysa during the rebellion. Denys is about the same age as Elbert, and his wife is still alive as well due to him not meeting his unfortunate end. With that out of the way, let's start the chapter.
Eddard held the lanturn up as he led Robert through the crypts of Winterfell. All around him were the statues of previous Starks come before him. He looked around at the watchful eyes of his grandfather, Edwyle and his great-granduncle Artos. Finally, he reached the statue of his father, Rickard, with his brother Brandon on one side, and his sister Lyanna on the other. Calling "here, Your Grace," when they reached the statue. Robert gave a sad, melacholy smile as he walked over to the statue. The king knelt before her statue, silent and solemn.
"I feel like she was more beautiful than this." Robert said, staring at her face as if he could will her back to life with his thoughts. He stared silently at her statue for a time, before rising up, made somewhat awkward due to his weight. "Damn it Ned, why did you have to bury her in a place like this?" his was voice hoarse with grief, "She deserved more than darkness."
"She was a Stark, Your Grace. This is her place." Ned said quietly.
"She should be alive, ruling by my side. Even if not, she should be on a hill somewhere, with beauty around her and the rain to wash her clean." Robert said.
"I was there when she died. She wanted to come home, to rest beside Brandon and Father." Ned said. Promise me she had said. Promise me, Ned. That fever which had ended her life, the room stinking of blood and roses. "I bring her flowers when I can."
"She did love flowers..." Robert said.
"We should be leaving soon, Your Grace. Your wife is waiting for us." Eddard said.
"The Others take my wife." Robert muttered sourly. "And if I hear one more 'Your Grace' outta your mouth I'll have your head on a pike, we're more to each other than that."
"I had not forgotten." Ned replied quietly. The King said nothing at that, so he said, "Tell me about Jon."
Robert looked down and shook his head. "I have never seen a man sicken so quickly. We gave a tourney on my son Joffrey's name day. If you'd have looked at Jon then, you could have sworn he would live forever. A fortnight passed and he was dead. The sickness was like a fire; it burned right through him." he stopped in front of the pillar of a long dead King Brandon Stark, which Brandon Stark it was no one could tell. "I loved that man."
"We both did." Ned paused. "How are Elbert and Lysa? Catelyn fears for how they are."
Robert frowned slightly. "Not entirely well. Elbert and Lysa were in King's Landing when Jon died. They were beside themselves with grief, and left early the next morning without so much as a by-your-leave. They went back to the Eyrie with the little ones. Against my wishes. I had hoped to have the 2nd boy fostered with Tywin Lannister at Casterly Rock. The eldest fostered at Runestone, and Jon had no other place to send him, I wouldn't wish for him to be raised up in that castle by nothing other than a woman, since Elbert will have to be gone much of the time due to being a Lord now."
Eddard would sooner entrust a child to a pit viper than to Lord Tywin, but he took care not to reopen that wound again. "They lost the man who was like a father to them, mayhaps they feared for their children as well. Besides, the boy is young, is he not?"
"He's a boy of eight, rather strange, but he is a pleasant boy to be around." Robert crossed his arms. "Lord Tywin had never taken a ward, they ought to have been honored. The Lannisters are a Great House same as the Arryns. They refused to hear of it. Elbert told me Jon had been making plans for the boy to foster but they seem to have fallen through with his death. They left that night before without any warning. Cersei was raving the whole day after." Robert sighed, frowning. "Elbert is like a brother to me, to us. We grew up in the Eyrie together. His son... he's rarely left the Eyrie. The boy is the namesake of his great-grandfather. Jasper, his name is. His elder brother is my namesake, I swore to him I would help protect him. How can I do that if he is in the Eyrie?"
"I could take him as a ward, if you wish." Ned said. "Lysa would likely be happy to allow it. She and Catelyn were inseperable as girls, she would be welcome here at any time as well."
"It's a generous offer, my friend," the king said, "but it's too late. Lord Tywin already gave his consent. Fostering him elsewhere would be a grave insult to him."
"I care more abut my nephew's well being than Lannister pride. Besides, you don't even have to make the arrangement. Elbert is his father, he has the full right to foster the boy with whomever he wishes, not who the King asks him too."
"You care not for Lannister pride, but you also don't share a bed with one." Robert laughed, the sound echoed off the ancient tunnels. He smiled through the black mane that covered his lower face. "You're still too serious Ned, I hope that Young Ned hasn't taken inspiration from you."
"He rarely speaks with any of us, I doubt he's picked up anything from me." Ned replied.
"Ah, it was but a jape. You are still too serious, Ned. I had planned to wait a few days to talk with you... I see there is no need for that now. Walk with me." The two of them walked deeper into the crypts, with the long hard faces of the Starks watching them as they walked. Footsteps rattled off the stone as they descended deeper and deeper into the darkness. Robert threw his arm around Ned's shoulders. "You must wonder why I came to the North after so long."
Ned had some suspicions, but refrained from voicing them in favour of what Robert was likely expecting. "My company surely must not be enough, Your Grace, after all, no royal has visited Winterfell since your Great-Grandsire did when he was a Prince. You must be here for your boy as well." he said with a light tone. Robert chuckled, but Ned continued. "Also, the Wall, you must see it Your Grace, and walk the battlements and talk to the men who man it. The Night's Watch is a shadow of what it once was, Benjen tells me-"
Robert interrupted him. "I'll hear what you're brother has to say soon enough, no doubt." He looked about him. "These are troubling times. I did come for my boy, but he's not the big reason I'm here. I would have come here even had he not been here. I need good men around me, men like Jon. He served me as Lord of the Eyrie, as Warden of the East, and as Hand of the King, he will not be easy to replace."
"Your Grace, Elbert has trained his entire life to become the Warden of the East. He is more than ready-" Ned began.
"Seven Hells, I know that! Elbert will ascend to the Eyrie and become the Warden of the East. I would not deprive him of that which Jon trained him his entire life for, he was effectively acting Warden when Jon was in King's Landing with me." Robert softened his tone. "Enough of that talk now, there is a much more important office to discuss, and it would not be to argue with you over such trivial matters." Robert placed his hand on Eddard's shoulders. "I have need of you, Ned."
"Your Grace, I am yours to command as you see fit." Words he had to say, so he said them, despite his apprehention at what would come next.
Robert didn't even seem to hear him. "Those days we spent in the Eyrie, those were the days. The two of us, with Elbert, and later when Denys joined us... those were the good years. But even then, it was often the two of us. I want you at my side again, Ned. I want you with me in King's Landing, not up here at the edge of the world, of no use to anybody." Robert stared off into the darkness, the melancholy on his face could have almost made one think he was a Stark. "Sitting on a throne is nothing like winning one. Laws are tedious to memorise and enforce, counting coppers is even worse. And the people... there is no end for them. I sit on that damn uncomfortable chair and listen to them complain until my mind numbs and my ass rubs raw. They all want something: money, land, justice." Robert spat that last word out. "The lies they tell to get their way... and the lords and ladies of the court are no better! I am surrounded by flatterers, fools, and one damn boy who's ego matches my height, he's too smart who his own good, the bad part is he realises it."
"Which one is that?" Ned asked.
"Addam Greyjoy. His father handed him over to us on order from Balon, he hoped that giving him to us would convince me to give his son back to him. He's obviously more full of himself then we thought, to think I would do that. He just gave us an extra." Robert let out a full laugh. "But honestly, the extra's more trouble than he's worth. Cersei raves about what offenses he has committed most times we speak." Robert explained.
"What offenses does he commit?" Ned inquired.
"Mostly just questioning her authority, and being uncouth in the presence of the court. She may not like him, but she seemingly tolerates him if only for the fact that his mother was a Lannister, and he has the eyes to prove it. I swear Ned, I am surrounded by Emerald eyes everywhere I go in court! I need some moonstone to assist the sapphire." Robert turned to face Ned fully now. "Lord Eddard Stark, I would name you the Hand of the King."
Ned knelt before Robert immediately. The offer did not surprise him. There was almost no other reason Robert would have come North personally, not even to retrieve his son. The Hand of the King was the second most powerful job in the realm. He spoke with the King's voice, commanded the King's armies, drafted the King's laws, and sometimes even sat on the Iron Throne to dispense justice the the King's name. The only possible restriction on the office was that one could not be both the King's Regent and the Hand of the King at the same time. Robert was asking him to take up the second most powerful job in the land, and all the responsibility that came with it. The last thing that Ned wanted.
"Your Grace." he began, "I am not worth of this honour."
"If I wanted to honour you, I'd let you retire." Robert said with a hint of good natured impatience. "I plan to make you run the Kingdoms for me while I eat and drink and wench myself into an early grave." He slapped his gut and grinned. "You know what they say about the King and the Hand?"
Indeed he did. "What the King dreams, the Hand builds."
Robert nodded. "Aye, though I once bedded a fishwife that told me the commonfolk have a saying of their own: The King eats and the Hand takes the shit." he smiled. "Addam told Edric another version of it: The King shits and the Hand wipes." He threw his head back and laughed a roaring laugh, one that echoed across the halls that made up the Winterfell crypts. The statues of Starks past stared with seeming disapproving eyes. Looking behind Robert, Ned saw the statue of Brandon 'Ice Eyes' watching the two of them, as if waiting for them to make a move.
"Your Gra... Robert" Ned began. "If I go south, what will become of Edric? "
Robert looked carefully at Ned. "What of him?"
Ned faultered for a moment, before stating his concern. "My Lady Wife does not approve of the boy, she wants him sent somewhere else. If I go south, he would likely have to come as well."
Robert frowned, before sighing. "It cannot be helped. I wanted to keep him away from King's Landing for a time, after a bunch of Goldcloaks wound up slaughtered in an incident in Flea Bottom, I knew he needed to be as far away from here as I could make him. I remembered how we grew up in the Eyrie, and hoped that he could become friendly with your children as well."
Ned frowned as well. "If that was your plan, it has failed. Robb doesn't like him very much, Sansa doesn't like him at all, Bran finds him boring, and Rickon just doesn't seem to care about him. The only ones he's befriended are Jon Snow and my daughter Arya."
Robert frowned even deeper, and then tapped Eddard's shoulders. "Ned, get up and at least humor me with a smile at least once."
"They say it is so cold in the North during winter it causes laughter to freeze and choke men's throats." Ned said. "Maybe that is why we have little humor."
"Come south with me, I'll teach you how to smile. Hells, bring Edric back south too, I haven't seen him laugh and smile in over a year." Robert frowned a bit. "You and I, we were meant to rule this land, we won it together. Had Lyanna lived, we'd've been brothers by blood as well as bond. It's not too late, I have a son, you have a daughter, my Joffrey and your Sansa shall join our houses as Lyanna and I might have once done."
Ned blinked a bit at that. "Sansa is but three and ten."
"Your wife was but twelve name days when she was betrothed to your brother Brandon, the marriage can wait until she flowers." Robert frowned. "I am correct in assuming-"
"You are correct, she is yet unflowered." Ned said quickly.
"Well, then say yes, damn you!" Robert said.
Ned said. "Your grace... these honours are beyond what I have expected and are so sudden, may I have time to consider? I shall also need to seek my lady wife's counsel on the matter..."
"Yes, yes, of course tell Cat, and sleep on it if you must, but don't keep me waiting too long, I am not the most patient of men." Robert smiled, then began to walk back the way they had come. Ned began to look around at the faces of his ancestors all looking at him. "Oh, Ned!" Robert called back. Ned turned to face him. "Make sure to tell Edric: he will be returning home when we leave."