A/N: It has taken me so long to update and I am sorry about that. I don't want to be whinging but I am dealing with some stuff. You will read more on that in the notes at the end of the chapter. Anyway here it finally is. Hopefully it won't be disappointing after so long.

Chapter 97: Sansa | Bran | Arya

Sansa did not relish the thought of being exposed to the cold and the snow once more but Moat Cailin offered such little shelter that she would not miss it. The place truly was ruined and Sansa had no fond memories of it. The only good thing to come of it was Arya's arrival. Her sister might be changed but she still meant to go to Winterfell and Sansa knew nothing would stop them returning to their home now.

She moved away from the window and wrapped her arms around herself. The gowns Arya gave her were much finer and warmer but with winter it was still difficult to be truly warm, especially in this castle. She gave a command to the maid and sat to have her hair brushed. Cara obeyed promptly but her hands shook. Sansa had learned well enough to recognise fear.

She need not be afraid of me.

The maid offered her services. Sansa did not ask for her and she did not treat Cara unkindly. Sansa did not understand why Cara behaved this way towards her. Her fear and distance only served to make Sansa feel lonelier. She saw Ned Dayne but he always kept a wall of courtesy between them now, even without Ser Jaime's remarks to cause discomfort. The Northmen were respectful now but they owed her family allegiance. They begged her pardons for their initial treatment of her but they were not hers, not truly, even if they did call her princess.

I miss Myranda and Mya.

She tried not to think of it. Her place was in Winterfell. She was so close now and soon she would see it. She wouldn't have to think about playing the game or Cersei and nothing would hurt her. Alone in her room Sansa tried to imagine it, to allow herself to truly hope for the first time in a long time.

Her thoughts were disrupted by hearing dissatisfied talk about the prisoners. Arya spared Ser Jaime. Sansa did not know what to think of it. She wished him dead more than once but part of her felt relief that he lived. She did not trust him but he had brought her this far and risked himself in the process.

Joffrey said I was weak and mayhaps I am.

"What will become of him my lord?" she asked Robett Glover at dinner. Arya was closeted away in a meeting and Lord Robett had elected to join Sansa. Sansa felt comfortable with him more than with the others. He jested but he seemed kind.

Lord Robett smiled at her gently. "He is to be taken before a heart tree to face judgement. It is old Northern justice."

"Will he be killed? Sansa asked.

Lord Robett's smiled disappeared. "Mayhaps," he said slowly. "The queen has said it will be decided at Torrhen's square."

Sansa did not want to reveal too much of herself but she also wanted to know more. She was used to puzzling things out and determining what people wanted. Most of the men simply wanted what she did, they wanted their homes. The captives were a separate issue and after travelling with them Sansa's old instinct of letting it be and focusing only on what was ahead of her competed with Petyr's lessons that knowledge was important.

"Do you wish him to die?" she asked.

Lord Robett set his jaw. "Many wish for him to die princess. Forgive me but he is fortunate nobody has forced their way past his guards and killed him."

The clansmen were another matter. Sansa hesitated for a time before finding where they were being kept. The guards flanked her with weapons ready when she insisted upon seeing them. Shagga leapt to his feet when he saw her with a cry of 'halfman's wife." She noted that one of his hands looked to be grievously wounded. He appeared smaller without his axes.

They only helped me because they wanted gold.

Telling herself so did not stop her remembering the clan leader sharing food with her during their travels down the High Road. He treated her as well as his own men, despite his fearsome appearance.

"They will spare you," she informed them.

They will be hostages, just as I was.

Shagga seemed to know it. She saw it in his eyes. He would rather die with an axe in his hand than this. Sansa wanted to turn and leave. She did not want their eyes accusing her.

"Your hand," she said hesitantly. "Has it been tended to?"

The way Shagga pulled it from view gave her the answer. I am not a bad person, she wanted to tell them. I never made you any promises. That was Ser Jaime. Sansa wanted to tell them she had a good heart but it would mean nothing to them.

"Do you have a message you wish me to pass on?" she asked instead.

Shagga gave her a grin which did not meet his eyes. "Shagga wants his axes back."

Sansa gave a stiff nod, took her leave and swept from the room trying to retain her composure. The guards eyed her doubtfully. I am a Stark. She took a deep breath and willed her voice to be strong.

"Send a maester to tend to their hurts," she ordered. "They are our guests until any exchange is made."

The men appeared startled but they did not refuse her.

"It will be as you wish princess."

A light snow fell on the morning they left Moat Cailin. Arya spoke little to Sansa, her time seeming to be consumed by the men who were once their father's bannermen. Sansa knew the sigils. She recognised the Houses marching under the Stark banner. The men took their orders from Arya and Arya seemed to be giving a lot of orders. Ned joined her while she watched her sister, the scarce sunlight glinting off Arya's crown and Nymeria never moving very far.

"They listen to her," Sansa observed.

Ned looked wary. "She has commanded them for many moons my lady."

Sansa watched a little longer. Arya passed speaking rapidly in a foreign tongue. She returned quickly and paused before Sansa. Arya did not speak immediately. She seemed to be trying to decide something. Her hand went to the crown and Sansa almost thought she grimaced as she adjusted it.

It seems as though she wishes to remove it.

Arya's hands fluttered back down to her sides and then clasped together.

"We don't have a wheelhouse. Even if we did it would likely break an axle. Do you wish to ride in a wagon?"

Sansa could see the gathering of wagons carrying supplies. It was true that she was not fond of riding. Sansa did not like to be saddle sore but she had ridden so many leagues that she became accustomed to it. A litter would have been sweet or a wheelhouse to keep out of the snow but that was not being offered.

"Where will you ride?"

Arya's expression was strange. It wasn't really an expression at all.

"I ride in the centre with my guards."

She did not offer an invitation for Sansa to join her and Sansa was not certain she wished it. The man by Arya's side, one of the Skagosi, spoke and Arya gave the smallest of smiles. Sansa did not understand a word.

I do not want to feel as though I am missing out on secrets the entire march.

"I will ride in a wagon," she decided.

Arya nodded and Sansa could not tell if she was pleased or not. "You will have good guards and Cara will ride with you. I do not expect any attack but it is best to be safe."

A man rode up on a horse. He dismounted quickly and took a knee.

"Your grace the crannogmen wish to join your march. Lord Howland sends his regards."

Sansa watched as Arya's face softened into a warm expression.

"Tell him he has my gratitude."

The man nodded hurried to obey. "It will be done."

Arya's warm expression faded the moment he left. Her face became very still. Sansa followed her gaze and saw Jaime Lannister being led in chains. A raven began to squawk nearby. Sansa had not forgotten what Lord Robett told her but she still felt shocked to see that he had been beaten. She must have shown something on her face because Arya almost looked like she frowned.

"Jaime Lannister is as bad as Cersei."

Her sister sounded defensive and angry. Sansa resisted the urge to correct her. She had not forgotten the reactions to her not wishing Tyrion to be dead. She looked away from Ser Jaime but it did not stop her hearing him. He still spoke boldly and arrogantly, as though he were not a prisoner and likely to be killed. Arya watched him impassively but Sansa still felt as though Arya judged him.

"They will hit him again if he does not hold his tongue," Arya said without emotion. "He is stupid. I learned quicker than him."

Sansa stiffened and did not know what to say. She knew her sister had been a captive but it did not truly occur to her that Arya's captors hurt her. I learned quickly too. She did not want to tell of that, not with Ned Dayne listening. He already gaped at Arya's admission. Sansa did not want to remember and this was not the place to speak of it. She saw that the other men did not react.

They know more about Arya than I do.

It did not feel right but Arya seemed to have forgotten it already. "We will share a tent when we camp. I will see you at nightfall." With that her sister turned on her heel and began to give orders once more.

The wagon was more comfortable than being ahorse but it was slow. Sansa did learn much more during the hours of the march. The men liked to talk to help the time pass even if Cara remained tight lipped. Sansa sensed she might learn far more from the maid but she settled for speaking with the guards who rode by the wagon. Her smiles and courtesy helped them warm to her.

They became decidedly less warm when a large figure loomed up on a black horse.

"Little bird."

Sansa recognised the voice. Her guards seemed as though they wished to fight him rather than let him near her. Sansa did not know quite what she felt. She had dreamed of him only the night before and it had not been a pleasant dream. He laughed at the men pressing close to the wagon.

"Your bloody sister is keeping you caged now."

The suggestion bothered her. Ned had drawn his sword even though Sansa knew he did not like to use it. The Hound gave him a scornful look.

"Do you want me to teach you how to use that?"

"He will not harm me my lord," Sansa said quickly to Ned, knowing it was true. "I will hear what he wishes to say."

Ned gave her a look which clearly told her he thought she had lost her mind. The Hound did not move much closer.

"They gave you to the Imp. I should have cut his throat before I left."

He hates Tyrion, she realised immediately. It was in his voice and his bearing. Even if Sansa wished to endure the disapproval and shock of the Northmen once more in telling that Tyrion was kind to her Sandor Clegane certainly would not want to hear it.

"If not him they would have given me to another Lannister," she said instead, remembering her wedding day and Tyrion offering that she might wed Lancel.

Clegane snorted. "Any other Lannister would be better than that."

"I would rather not be wed to a Lannister at all."

Her answer satisfied the men around her but she felt the Hound's gaze. He had always seen through her. It is the truth. She waited for him to ask about Joffrey but he didn't. He moved as if to come closer and her men protested once more.

"Don't piss yourselves," the Hound replied scornfully. "I won't try to get into her cage."

Sansa wanted to tell him she wasn't caged but she knew it to be a lie. It was simply a different type of cage. They protect me but they still want me to be something I am not. These men would never understand that she was not the girl her father took to King's Landing. She looked the same to them and she suspected they did not truly wish her to be different. Lies and Arbour Gold. She did not want them to know the things she had done and the things she could do now. Sansa might have hoped not to have to use Petyr's lessons again but it seemed inevitable. The men began to speak again when they were certain Clegane was gone.

By the time the sky darkened she knew much of what had passed. At Moat Cailin she heard some of it but the men spoke more freely away from the castle. They said little of Aegon, the prince who was now king. The things they would not speak of told her more than any of their careful answers. The crowning of her sister now made sense though Sansa wondered at some of her sister's behaviour.

She does not take joy in it.

Arya did not seem to take joy in anything. Sansa thought of her lessons once more and wondered what it was that Arya truly wanted.

She looked for her sister when Cara walked with her to the tent bearing the Stark banner. The camp had been established long before they arrived, the slowness of the wagon hindering them. Sansa longed for food and sleep. The tent did not contain Arya when she arrived. It did have a brazier though and a better bed than any Sansa slept in during her travel from the Vale.

"Where is my sister?"

The guard did not speak the common tongue and Ned gave a tired shake of his head. Cara paused in her hurried unpacking and fussing.

"The queen always speaks with the scouts and her advisors when the army camps princess. She will eat with them and return late."

Sansa sighed and went straight to her bed. The fatigue and warmth stripped her appetite and she only wished to sleep. Cara kept moving, slight rustling sounds giving away that she was still at work while Sansa readied herself for bed. The maid joined her at the last moment, her fingers deft and gentle as she untangled Sansa's hair from the wind. Sansa closed her eyes and thought of her mother for the first time in a while and tears stung unexpectedly.

"You have Arya's confidence," she said tightly. "Does my sister say anything of me at all?"

The maid's hands stopped trembling for the first time since they had met.

"Family is everything to Queen Arya princess," she said softly. "She fled Kings Landing in such haste when she received Ser Jaime's letter." The woman paused. "She said you look very like your lady mother."

Sansa blinked quickly. "Thank you for telling me. I feared..." She trailed off. Her fears were not something to be speaking of and certainly not to a woman she knew very little about. Cara seemed to know what she meant to say despite her silence.

"The queen wished for you to be close. She gave me instructions. Your comfort is important princess."

Sansa understood. Sleep crept up on her quickly. When she woke it was not yet morning but there was a disturbance in the tent. She did not need to look far to see Arya tossing and turning in her bed. Cara perched on the edge of it. Sansa hesitated a moment before pulling on her boots and moving to stand beside the bed.

"She always kicked in her sleep when we were girls."

Cara did not smile. The noises Arya made sounded like growling. It subsided while Sansa watched and was replaced by something else, something worse. Sansa sat on the bed, took a deep breath and touched her sister. Arya jolted awake with a cry.

"It was only a dream," Sansa said quickly.

Arya clutched at her, still wild eyed.

"It wasn't. He's still dead. I heard you scream. I was there and I heard you scream when they cut off his head."

Sansa held her sister's hands until Arya calmed.

"I wanted Joffrey dead. He should have died by father's sword. Cersei has to die. She has to."

Sansa remembered promises in the Vale and the news of the Targaryen hunt.

"She will. She has to."

Arya squeezed Sansa's hands and offered her a smile before gently pulling her hands free. "You need your sleep Sansa." She touched Sansa's cheek. "It will be a long march again. I won't wake you anymore."

Sansa stayed there a moment longer. She and her sister had so many differences but Arya's stricken expression, even though it only lasted a heartbeat, showed her they were not so different after all. They both hurt the same. They had both suffered the same losses and they both wanted the same things.

Sansa pulled the furs back up over to cover her sister as she rose and returned to her bed.

Bran

Lord Brynden told him he spent too much time with his family. He told him that there was a greater good to consider. Bran knew about the greater good but Lord Brynden did not see as he did. Bran knew his family was a part of it, not just Jon but the rest of his family too.

"They are like me,' he insisted. "You have seen Arya."

"I have seen," the pale lord said in his soft voice. "It troubles me."

Bran knew what he meant. Arya wasn't meant to be in the raven. Lord Brynden did not like the effect it had on Bran.

"You care too much for Aegon."

"He is important," Bran protested. "You said those with your blood are."

"That is not why you seek him," Lord Brynden replied in his soft, too wise voice.

Bran did not answer him. He felt an uncontrollable urge to look and when he caught a glimpse of the Targaryen king he knew what he felt was not right. He told himself he cared because of the dragons and Daenerys. It did not explain his hurt at the man he did not know for leaving his sister to be with another. It did not explain his happiness when he saw the king unhurt and speaking with Ser Brynden Tully in a tent.

He should never have left her. He should be in the North and helping us.

"Aegon is where he needs to be," Lord Brynden said as though he knew Bran's thoughts. "Your sister is where she must be. You were right to call her. Time is running short."

Lord Brynden was dying and the magic protecting the cave was weakening. Bran saw it when he looked through the trees. The Others were trying to get to them. The children were making preparations to leave. It frightened him but Lord Brynden told him he must keep watching and he did feel compelled to.

"I don't understand why Arya could not kill Ser Jaime," he said, not for the first time.

"Your sister did not truly want to kill Jaime Lannister. He cannot die yet. He has another purpose."

Bran fell silent again. He did not care about Jaime Lannister's other purpose. Seeing him made Bran so angry. He remembered being pushed from the tower. Ser Jaime pushed him. Arya should be angry at him. He was the reason Bran was broken.

She does not know that the other voice in his head said. She just feels your anger the way you feel what she feels. He knew Lord Brynden was right. Arya would not want to kill a man already in chains, not without establishing his guilt. She would pass the sentence the way their lord father taught them.

Lord Brynden told him many things but he still had secrets. He spoke often of sacrificing personal honour for the realm. He spoke of the need to consider many lives rather than just one. Bran's need to watch his family earned him many of these lectures but he could not give up.

Sansa was afraid because she did not understand. He saw that when she came before the heart tree in the Vale. If she knew it was me she would not be afraid. Rickon knew it. Rickon listened to him almost as much as Arya. Jon listened far less. Bran tried to reach him but although Jon was beginning to learn it was still happening too slowly.

Those of his blood were important just as those of Lord Brynden's blood were. Jaime Lannister was not. Bran knew he had murdered. Arya and Sansa and Rickon might each only be one person to Lord Brynden but Bran knew that each of them could help many. He did not know it of Ser Jaime and the thought of him living angered Bran.

I want him dead.

Lord Brynden was wise and he had a thousand eyes and a thousand skins but Bran was better. Bran saw more than the other greenseer. He could see more at once and despite what Lord Brynden initially told him he could speak to people through the weirwoods. Lord Brynden still sometimes spoke to him as though he were a boy.

I am fourteen and as close to a man grown as can be and I want Jaime Lannister dead.

Lord Brynden looked to be with the trees but his lips moved again.

"You will regret your actions if you do what you wish. It will cause great sorrow."

"Tell me why?" Bran pressed him.

If only Lord Brynden would explain more then Bran might see it his way. He did not get an answer.

"The trees have called him," Leaf said, rather unhelpfully.

Bran knew that. He felt frustrated. The temptation was too much and he searched for the raven, feeling the cold hit him until he flew and found his sisters finally together. He wanted to join them so much it hurt but instead he watched them holding hands. Each still kept their secrets close but they needed each other and they needed him.

I am considering many lives and not just one.

When he returned to the cave he thought to call for Hodor but the trees called to him instead. When he finished seeing the decision was made. Bran knew what he had to do.

Arya

They did not travel fast enough. Arya tried to push them to ride longer but the days were short and it was not safe to ride in the dark. They always stopped to camp sooner than she would like. Even with the long nights Arya seemed to have little time. Her men had so many questions, so much they needed from her. She was late returning to her tent every night.

It will not be forever.

Arya did not want to keep wearing the crown. She did it because she had to but looking at it made her think of Aegon and that made her think of Daenerys. Sansa also wore a queer expression she could not hide whenever she saw Arya wearing it.

I told her I did not wish for it.

They were not so distant now. Ever since Arya woke to find Sansa by her bed, ever since Arya saw her sister hurting as she hurt over father they had been just a little closer. Sansa stirred in her bed when Arya joined her in the tent. Arya tried not to wake her but she sensed that Cara played her part.

"You are so quiet Arya," Sansa said softly on the second night after they left Moat Cailin. "You never used to be so quiet."

"Neither did you," Arya replied, knowing that the quiet she spoke of was not the same quiet Sansa spoke of. Arya did not wish to tell her sister of her training. She did not want her to know of the things she had done. Telling Sansa would be almost like telling their lady mother. Sansa looked like their mother and Arya could not bear to see disappointment on that face.

Sansa was quieter. Arya remembered the girl who could not keep a secret. That girl was now gone. Sansa spoke far less and when she did speak her words often seemed cautious and thought out.

"Will Ser Jaime be killed?" Sansa asked on the third night.

Arya hesitated. "He almost died at Moat Cailin," she confessed. It took her a moment before she realised she was chewing her lip. Sansa's lips curved into a half smile and then Arya realised and stopped. "I felt angry but it would have been wrong. Father did not kill prisoners in chains."

"Father was a prisoner in chains," Sansa blurted.

Arya eyed her warily. She does not truly want Ser Jaime dead but she does want justice. Arya wanted to tell Sansa of what Varys told her, that Petyr Baelish spoke in Joffrey's ear. Littlefinger had done something to Sansa though. Arya could see it every time anybody spoke of him to her. She insisted that Baelish kept her safe. Arya expected she even believed it, Sansa did not appear to be lying.

I will tell her when we reach Winterfell.

"What will you do with Ser Jaime?" Sansa asked.

Arya studied her sister. She did not know how much to tell her and this was not the place. She won't believe me. Arya knew it would sound mad.

"The gods will decide."

Sansa seemed afraid at that and she spoke no more that night. Arya wondered at her fear. The men were charmed by her sister. Sansa smiled often and dressed in the fine gowns and with her hair in the Northern style she looked just like the lady their mother hoped Arya to be. She was so very beautiful and graceful and even though the days must have been harder than she was accustomed to Sansa did not complain.

Her smiles often do not reach her eyes.

That was the one thing they did have in common. Sansa never seemed truly happy. Arya wondered what her sister had done that she feared the gods. She remembered the things Sansa had done to anger her but did not think it to be that.

There must be worse.

She could not imagine what it might be until she thought of Joffrey. They did not speak of it but Arya wanted to tell Sansa not to be sorry.

I prayed for him to die.

The sadness in Sansa's eyes disappeared briefly on the fourth night when Arya found her awake and waiting. The question on her lips was one Arya had been dreading. She knew the men spoke of Aegon but Sansa had refrained until now.

"Is he as comely as they say?"

"Yes" Arya replied abruptly. She did not want to think about it. She did not want to picture him, not when he was with beautiful Daenerys. He used to say I was beautiful. She expected he had forgotten all about that now.

Sansa did not seem as taken by the answer as Arya might have expected. She once thought Joffrey to be handsome. Arya waited for the next question, knowing Sansa must have heard the rumours.

"What is he like?" Sansa asked.

Arya thought for a moment, trying to decide what she could tell her sister. "He can be stubborn and stupid but he is not bad. I see a lot of Jon in him. Sometimes he makes me think of father." She realised a smile had crept to her lips without her permission and scowled in annoyance at her lapse. "You would think he was from one of your stupid songs."

The sadness came back to Sansa's eyes and she did not answer. Arya only just caught her sister's whisper as Sansa turned away to sleep.

"Life is not a song."

It seemed that every person in the castle had come out to greet them when they arrived at Torrhen's Square. The men were happy even if they did grumble that they did not like a Lannister so near Winterfell. Ser Jaime had not been beaten again after Arya gave the order that he not be touched.

"You must be there," she told her sister when they spoke once more of taking Ser Jaime before the tree.

Sansa had begun sitting with Arya now while she spoke with her advisors. Her sister wished to be privy to the decisions being made and Arya felt it to be her place. Some did not seem happy about it but the whispers of Sansa being a Lannister sympathiser were only heard in the camp and far from their tent.

Her sister was as good as Arya at speaking with the men at table though not on the same subjects. Sansa paled the first time the singing began and Arya almost stopped but it was something she enjoyed and the men liked when she joined in. They did not care that she did not sing well. The words were all that mattered.

"They like you," Sansa whispered. "They like you the way they did with father."

Arya was not so certain. She knew most of them smiled at her and they did what she told them to do. Some still challenged her for her hand but some whispered that she should not be queen. Arya did not disagree but not for the same reasons. Thoros gave her counsel.

"They will not trouble you if you only ask of them what they are sworn to give."

That annoyed Arya.

"That is what I am doing. I ask them to do what is right."

Thoros shook his head.

"Every man has a different notion of what is right."

Sandor Clegane's advice was even less helpful.

"Round up those who whisper and hang them if it troubles you. The others will hold their tongues."

Arya managed to hide her look of disgust but she did not hold her tongue.

"I am not going to do that."

He laughed at her. She wanted to tell him she should hang him. Reports got back to her of him speaking to Sansa during their travels. He watched her sister. Arya told him to stay away and he still watched.

Sansa does not seem troubled by it.

Her sister might not be troubled by Sandor Clegane but Sansa did shrink back at the suggestion of attending the heart tree to witness Ser Jaime being taken before it.

"You have to be there Sansa," she insisted.

Nymeria had returned just before they arrived at the castle and the direwolf seemed to know what was to happen. She howled and Arya felt everything become more vivid around her. Her wolf dreams were something she chose to keep the other dreams away. Nymeria was strong again and with some of her following she was hungry.

Not now, Arya tried to tell the wolf. Not yet.

Aegon's men stayed behind though Haldon seemed as though he wished to attend. Arya stopped him with her hand on his arm.

"Another time."

He did not look pleased and Arya knew he would remain unhappy. The halfmaester did not like lacking knowledge and he particular did not like Ser Jaime continuing to draw breath. Arya pressed on anyway. This was something for those of the North. She gave the order and the Greatjon barked at Ser Jaime. Jaime Lannister still looked as though he had a retort on his lips.

"'It is time," Arya said firmly.

Only a small group of men gathered before the tree. The lords were in attendance, Arya's advisors. Jaime Lannister's chains had been removed. Arya moved forward first, putting her hand on the carved face. The flapping of wings told her the raven was near and Arya saw it land on a branch. She looked into its beady eyes.

"We are here as you asked."

Arya heard the whispers behind her. She knew they thought her to be mad and she did not care. The bird screamed and took to the air and Arya backed away from the tree.

"He should kneel," Lord Robett said in an unusually cold voice.

The Greatjon put a foot in the back of Jaime Lannister's knee and Ser Jaime dropped awkwardly.

"You might have asked."

Nymeria growled and Arya saw Sansa trembling, her gaze fixed on the face of the tree.

"I'm going mad," she whispered. She began to back away.

Arya moved to Sansa's side to stop her retreat and took her hand. "No, you are not. I see it too."

A true face had formed in the tree where the carvings were, Bran's face. Arya heard the Northmen cursing. Ser Jaime had paled. The breeze began to sound like whispers and the mouth in the tree began to move.

"Jaime Lannister,"' the voice whispered. "I have seen what you have done."

A/N:

Chapter 98 will pick up from the end of this one. I expect to have Jaime, Arya and Sansa POVs though I will know better when I write up my notes and see how much I can cover in the chapter. I'm afraid you will have to wait a while for it.

I really do not want to do this but I am putting this story on hiatus for a month. I've had deadlines with my dissertation and right now I am physically and mentally exhausted. It takes me forever to write anything and I just struggle to do the fic justice when I cannot get my brain to engage the way I need it to. This story requires a lot of focus and I am juggling too many things. I will use that month to finish the Ties that Bind us and hopefully by the end of it I will also be past the crappier parts of the next stage of revision for my dissertation too.

My plan is to have the hiatus and when I return to this I will be making more regular updates, back to approximately weekly. I am disappointed to have to do this and sorry to make you guys wait but it is what I need to do right now. Thanks for your understanding