Of course, Dany wasn't used to the cold, but something within kept her warm, like her heart was beating fire through her veins. There was something else keeping her warm, but she was not going to think of that. Her eyes roved across the ground 700 feet below, watching her dragons swoop close to the ground, almost as if they were keeping guard. Drogon didn't seem to like the cold air, he was unsettled. Daenerys had gone to him, the instant they had Jon ingest some milk of the poppy, and he was safely under guard. Her Bear had volunteered at once, much to her dismay. She didn't trust him with the boy, the boy only slightly younger than herself. The way he had looked at Snow when they had found him…she didn't like it at all. Ser Jorah was distrustful after everything that had happened in Meereen, and then everything that followed with the Imp. She was away with her dragons, feeling the wind caressing her skin, so when she felt a hand on her arm, she gasped, grabbing the ice next to her so as not to fall.
Her body span, finding the figure of Tyrion Lannister wrapped in what looked like a very overlarge woollen cloak, pitch black like the ones of the Night's watch.
"I am Sorry My Lady, I did not intend to frighten you" he said, stepping up to stand next to her. "Oh but it is magnificent. I'll never forget the first time I was up here."
Dany sighed "yes, yes it is. When was the first time you visited the wall, My Lord?" she tried to keep the worry out of her voice, but she was finding it increasingly hard to keep her thoughts focused…ever since he had woken up.
"Our Lord Snow was there. Yes, i was there on his journey north to the wall for the first time, with his uncle Benjen, after the King's visit to Winterfell when his brother Bran was crippled" She noted how he left out the culprit behind that 'accident' the grief for him was too near he assumed. Though he was not fond of his sister, she knew he shared a strong relationship with his older bother Jaime.
"Ah yes, and what were your thoughts on that occasion?" she looked down at him to find him studying her through narrowed eyes. She smiled, or at least tried to, but underneath her cloak, she couldn't stop her hands shaking.
"In all honestly?" he said slowly "I thought it was a shit hole full spiteful and bitter old men. Now I return, and I see that things have not changed." He turned back to the view, chuckling lightly. Dany let out her own breath. This little Lannister was far too shrewd not to notice something was amiss, but she knew he would know better than bring it up. He had been pardoned by her, and then again by her nephew; he would not risk that. Not when there was a dragon in the offing. He had a lot of history he needed to either put behind him or embrace. For Dany, that was impossible. If I look back I am lost. She swallowed, trying to calm her nerves. What was causing this she had no idea; she just knew that whenever she was in a room with the so called Lord Commander, she couldn't keep her breath steady. At first, she had thought it to be desire, even though she had only ever seen the man injured, weak…but she had looked past that and delved deeper. The only conclusion she could come to was similarity. It sounded stupid, even when she thought it, but when she saw him lying there, so helpless and completely reliant upon her, she couldn't help but feel a strange stirring. Dany had been hurt enough, but that was to have been expected. She had lived her life with a single goal, and to have that goal torn apart, and watch her people, her children turn their backs and bow to another king, younger than even herself…it burned, like a fire she could not quench, burning away emotion, any feeling apart from a vague emptiness. When she thought of Jon Snow's circumstances, she couldn't hep but realise that the same had happened to him. Power thrust upon him, not given, not asked for, but he stepped up to it, if the stories were to be believed. What she had hoped she would find here, was somewhere she could become a Lady, a ruler. Somewhere where she could lay out the rules, the justice. She wanted to be a queen again, and Tyrion knew exactly what she was planning to do once all this Night's watch business was through. Dany would never think to overpower her nephew, but that didn't mean that she couldn't set up her own courtly home here in the north. In fact, she needed Jon Snow more than anything if she was going to go through with her plan. The only problem was, when she looked at him, all she felt was pity, and pity was the last thing she needed to be feeling in these situations.
They stood, side by side in silence, until on a whim Dany blurted out her concern. "You know what I mean to do, Lord Tyrion, do you think I will be able to go through with it?" she held her breath, waiting for an answer that would either give her hope…or drown it. She watched him from the corner of her eye, trying not to seem as on edge as she felt. She had lost a lot of the courage she had held when her children had called her Khaleesi and now all she held were strings of the past, holding her back. She had to sever those ties, and what this small man said held her decision in the balance.
"Indeed I do." She watched him take a breath before stepping back down from the edge and turn his back from the open air. "I think…" he paused, thinking, and then turned to her, placing a hand upon her exposed shaking ones. "Jon Snow is a smart man, if a little sombre. You must plead your case with emotion. He is a fool when it comes to Love" he raised one eyebrow, smiled slightly, and with that he waddled away, back towards the switchback stair. With No brothers to work the winch, that was the only way up or down. The Imp would not have made the ascent for no reason. It seemed she was not the only one with something on her mind. Dany turned back to the North, fiddling with her fingernails. She had a tough task ahead of her.
x
She found Ser Jorah in the desolate common hall, brooding over a mug of stale, thick mead. He looked miserable, as usual. Dany took a seat across from him and clasped her hand on the surface before her. She was more comfortable with Ser Jorah now than she had ever been before she had exiled him, at least now his desire for her seemed to have mysteriously disappeared.
"Khaleesi" he murmured, not adjusting his slouched posture, or take note of her presence in any other way. Anger blossomed in Dany's chest at that word.
"Do not call me that Ser, I am a Khaleesi no longer" his eyes flickered exposing a light she rarely saw nowadays. It had been extinguished long ago, it seemed.
"You are a princess are you not?" she sighed at that. Yes, she was a princess and Khaleesi was the Dothraki translation of the word, but Jorah had used that word even after she had crowned herself queen…it seemed so long ago, before her Bear's betrayal was discovered, but it still caused a tug at her heart.
"Am I doing the right thing here?" she asked, though not expecting plausible or sensible answers.
"This is your decision, Khaleesi, you cannot expect me to make it for you. I am here to protect you, not give you counsel…not anymore." That hurt. She watched as he raised the mug towards his mouth but her hand was there before it reached his lips, holding it back. He looked up, meeting her eyes, his own filled with a silent plea. She swallowed and looked away, letting her hand fall to the tabletop, giving him the permission he so desperately needed. Dany listened to him gulp down the remnants at the bottom of his mug and heard the grate as he pulled the half full jug over and refill. She turned back, looking down at her hands so as not to have to watch him drink himself to sleep. She took a breath, and her voice wasn't as steady as she had hoped as she spoke.
"I value your council as much as anyone's" and more than most she almost added, but that would not sit well with their healing relationship. "I wish to speak with Jon Snow this evening, if he is well enough and I would like you to be present" he scoffed at that, as Dany pushed herself off the bench and made her towards the door. Before she pulled on the rope handle, she turned back. "You will be present, and you will be tolerable. I am your... Khaleesi after all" Se didn't mean to sound so bitter, but it seemed the only way to get through to him, and he did want him to be sober tonight. Now only Snow left.
With her cloak wrapped around her as tightly as possibly, Dany made her away across the practice yard. Here was the only sign that Castle back had ever been occupied. Swords were strewn here and there, along with a couple of stray parts of armour. They had searched the place upon arrival, but with only the three of them they hadn't gotten very far. They're attempts at persuading the people of Mole's town and the wilding they met along the way to come and help man the wall, had been futile. The only protection from white walkers now was Dany's dragons, which Aegon had thankfully not taken from her. He would be dead if he had. She may have accepted that she was not the true heir to the throne with only a month of refusal before giving up the fight, but he had been rather easy to persuade when she was sat astride Drogon demanding she kept them. Her children. She made her way through the armoury, and reached his door. She hesitated, trying to think up what she was going to say. Slowly, she reached up and knocked softly on the solid wood.