EDDARD IV

After retreating to the older part of the courtyard near the entrance to the crypts so that they might speak alone, Eddard found his daughter was quite clear of what she knew. Sansa could tell him people, actions, and reasons, but not the timing. After he had thoroughly questioned her on the subject, he was then questioned by Sansa herself.

Sansa looked up at him and asked hesitatingly, "Do you believe us then, Father?"

Eddard did not answer at first. He wanted to believe her, but if he accepted the idea how could he explain it? No that wasn't the important thing. What mattered was that Jon Arryn, the man who'd raised him to be a man, would be safe. It had taken him a dream to realize just what Sansa had threatened to use as proof for him. In the dream his family-both Stark and Tullys-had sat at a banquet table with the Arryns and watched as Lysa Arryn poured poison in the golden chalices that Jon, himself, Catelyn, Robb, his nephew, and even Robert her own sickly child drank from. And despite seeing her pour the poison they had all drank the wine in his dream toasting to the health of Lysa who then transformed into a bird and took flight only to be struck down by an arrow. The dream had troubled him and made him truly consider what Sansa had said in his solar. Was his second father truly worth the price of having such proof of her story? Could he even chance that? Why hadn't he thought of this before? The answer came as quickly as the question had: his mind had been too concerned with escaping the room and his worries about Catelyn to think straight. In fact he still couldn't abide staying cooped up for long in a room. He needed to be outside, and he found walking the courtyard to be relaxing, but today even that proved slightly irritating due to the walls that seemed taller and more imposing than they had yesterday.

Eddard banished such thoughts from his head. He had to focus, for Jon's sake if not his own. There were other ways to get proof, he now realized, and so he began by asking, "Tell me, Sansa, how did you come to know your Aunt?"

Sansa seemed to lose herself in her thoughts as much as he had before answering "I lived with her for a time in the Eyrie after Lord Baelish married her."

That was it! If she had truly been to the Eyrie she could describe it. He hardly spoke of his time in the Eyrie to his children, for though it had been a happy time of his life, there had been little need to speak of it, as he figured most parents found their childhoods. "Tell me about the Eyrie. If you've truly been there, I will know. And since I know you've never visited there in your life up until now, if you can tell me of the Eyrie now, I shall have no reason not to believe you."

"Ah, but I could have read about it in a book," chimed Sansa with a slight scoff in response, as if foreseeing his doubts.

"There are some things about castles that one can't read in books. Speak to me of the Eyrie, and I will know."

"Is all you want to hear is of how utterly lonely a place it is? Of how the wind whistles its way around its beautiful seven tall white towers, creating a moaning sound that is heard day and night throughout its halls and rattling the Moon door so that it sounds as though all the dead who have been pushed through threaten to rise once more and seek vengeance. It is as empty as tomb. There is no comfort there. The gods are silent, both old and new, and they answer no prayers. How can they when there's a Sept but no Septon… and a godswood but no heart tree?"

Eddard knew at once. As he breathed slightly deeper he used the technique to try and hold back his first memories of that castle he had had before truly befriending Robert. There was no way she could not have been there and known its atmosphere with such clarity.

"I'm sorry for doubting you."

It was after that that Eddard returned to his solar to write two messages. The first one was addressed to Robert asking him to make Jon Snow his legitimate son and entitled to the Stark name, with the condition he inherit anything after all his childrens' unlikely demise. He would require at some point for Eddard to visit King's Landing to explain the matter further likely, but at least for now, the matter was open for discussion.

The second message Eddard wrote was addressed to Jon Arryn. In it he expressed a great desire to have their families together, should the King permit it. And if Jon himself could not come, he made reference of the fact that his son's cousins expressed a fervent desire to meet him, and he expressed how Catelyn missed her sister greatly-which she did, Eddard knew. He also offered that should Winterfell prove to be amenable to the boy, that he would be honored to foster the boy as Jon had done for himself in the Eyrie-hoping to perhaps begin a tradition between their two houses to last long into the future. Lastly his letter to Jon turned to an oblique warning about some recent news he'd heard about the recent decline in the quality of wine imported through Gulltown by Lord Baelish, suggesting a taste tester with a good palate to determine its quality. The warning was coded, but Eddard knew Jon would immediately see to its true meaning, and to anyone else who might get their hands on the letter, it would seem a meaningless little passage in an otherwise familial letter.

Eddard hoped that by removing Jon's murderer he could avoid giving her the opportunity. He just hoped he was sending it in time.

After the evening meal, Eddard returned to Jon's room to see if he had yet awakened, but he hadn't. Arya had walked with him to the room.

"I told the Septa that you were excused today from your lessons, but I did not mention anything about tomorrow."

"I must be here when he wakes," insisted Arya, without looking up.

"Do you have something important to tell him, then?"

"Mayhaps," she said shifting her shoulders so that his hand slipped off.

And knowing that he'd hardly get anything else out of her without prompting an argument, Eddard left it at that. It felt too warm in Jon's room, and he felt the need to walk out in the cool evening air. As he walked in the moonlight he found his way once again leading him to the kennels where he came upon the penned up direwolf mother, looking despondent within her pen. She tried to rise when he approached, but her leg was still too weak to support her and so she fell and returned to her moping.