CATELYNN I
Catelynn looked at the back of her husband. His small frame was hunched over, sitting upon a spread cape.
Her eyes softened.
Ned was always here after he killed.
Catelynn watched her husband across a white glass, placing her hand on the cool material.
Eddard sat underneath a large weirwood tree, the tree's red eyes seemingly looking down on him with a face of anguish.
The godswood was a separate piece of land within Winterfell, untouched for thousands of years.
Catelynn moved her hands away from the glass, placing them in an embrace with one another. The hood around her face was smooth silk, massaging full cheeks.
The trees of the Godswood huddled close together, stubborn things that had lived longer than even the greatest Kings. They formed a thick canopy overhead, red-green leaves pushing against the thin barrier that separated the godswood from the rest of the world. Catelynn gathered her voice as the shuddering containment glass finally reacted to her touch.
It quaked, segmenting into dozens of pieces before fleeing into ports found within mossy ground.
Eddard moved at the sound- turning halfways.
His gray eyes regarded Catelynn for a moment.
When they had first wed, this often made her pause, asking if anything was wrong.
Now however, Catelynn walked towards Ned unphased. She offered him a small grin, the smell of ancient tree and decaying leaves hitting her.
Eddard kept his gray eyes on Catelynn, his face unmoving. Catelynn hesitated, unsure if she should pressure him with possibly grim news.
No. He has to know.
"Catelynn." Eddard finally said, giving her a weary smile.
Eddard loved her, though at times he was still a child, unable to truly express his feelings. He was smaller and less robust than his brother, Brandon, who was her first arranged marriage before he died-
Cruelly impaled by Aerys Targaryen, before Eddard's very eyes.
Catelynn truly pitied Ned for a moment.
He was so young.
"Eddard," She said, her face warming.
Catelynn sat down next to him, and the soft fabric of his dressings delicately kissed her legs as she folded them underneath herself, strands of red hair falling across her face.
Eddard returned his attentions to the ancient sword. Catelynn knew his ears were hers, however.
Yet, I hesitate.
The words were in her throat, but she did not know how to prose them. Silence lingered between the wedded, reminding Catelynn of the first years of their marriage, long ago, when they were little more than children.
"Another deserter today." Eddard said, finally.
The sword hissed, metals collapsing into each other until fully vanishing from view.
Catelynn remained silent. She inhaled, deeply, while bowing a heavy head forward.
The Night's Watch.
Once, they had been a grand order- a bulwark against not only threats beyond the Wall, but within the Seven Kingdoms.
Now what were they? A forgotten shadow, fighting an enemy that no one believed in. She felt a tightness around her throat as she was reminded of House Stark's motto.
"The man I killed claimed he was running from the Phaecaigh."
Catelynn's eyes widened, the words Ned just spoke repeating in her mind.
It was a cold whisper, harsh and unforgiving as the frigid winters that gripped the land for years upon end.
Ned met Catelynn's eyes then. She swallowed harshly, listening.
"I . . . I don't know what to think. His eyes- They were filled with fear. A man that has seen death ride by, grinning as it swung its sickle over the heads of his comrades."
Eddard paused. Catelynn opened her mouth to speak-
Only for Eddard to interrupt her, a rarity for him.
"There was nothing else to that man. I think he wanted to die." Eddard paused once more, looking at her with those wolf's eyes.
"If that isn't a man who had seen the Phaecaigh, then what did he see?" Eddard asked.
Catelynn faltered, looking away from him.
She focused instead on the manufactured pool past Eddard's shoulders.
Lilies floated on the surface, and a small mist rose as automated pumps continually drained liquid into the artificial lake.
"There are things in this world that we still do not understand." Catelynn smiled at her own words, continuing.
"For all of our technology, our radars...our ships and our weapons, we still cannot conquer the same darkness that threatened the First Men. The realm beyond the Wall will always be a mystery. There will always be things that men cannot explain. No doubt, the fears he graced you with traveled from the mouths of a dozen scared men."
Eddard nodded, agreeing.
"Nothing for seven thousand years. It would be foolish to think it could never happen again, though it is more than likely that time is not within our lifetimes, our children's, and not of their children's children."
He fell silent again.
She pondered on responding to what he had said, but then opted to say nothing.
Then-
"Jon Arryn sent hurried word." She blurted with a sort of finality.
Catelynn winced at the alarm that immediately wrote over Ned's eyes.
Eddard leveled his gaze ahead, looking at the shifting barrier that rebuilt itself after Catelynn's intrusion within the Godswood.
"And what were his words?" He inquired.
Catelynn furrowed her brows.
"Jon . . he said it couldn't be sent along our commu-"
"Our encrypted lines? He said this, Catelynn? When?" Ned pressured.
Catelynn looked ahead, steeling her emotions.
"Perhaps an hour before you arrived."
"And you waited this long?"
"I didn't want to disturb you."
Ned's breath hissed, his chest rising and falling.
"Jon said he will tell you himself, in person."
Question wrote over Ned's face.
"Robert is coming." She said.
Eddard's face abruptly broke into a boyish smile.
"Robert? I haven't seen him in ages..."
Eddard leaned forward, crossing his arms.
"Perhaps we will have the cooks prepare food the Andal way, have them leave the stoves and fires for now. Robert . . ." Eddard's face grew sad then.
"His wife will accompany him as well. Along with their guards and retainers." Catelynn added.
Eddard nodded, his eyes shadowing as he looked downward.
"Regardless," Ned began-
Catelynn had heard Eddard say such things so many times that she knew what he would say next.
"The North Forgives," They said together. Eddard looked at her with shock, and Catelynn giggled as she had when she was a young girl.
"Everything will be alright. We will endure the Lannisters, speak with Jon.."
Eddard held Catelynn's thigh.
"Bandy with Robert and Cersei, and then they will be gone before you know it. You always liked Cersei, despite everything." He assured, holding her close.
Catelynn nodded.
Cersei.. She had been a good friend. An adventurous, but compassionate woman.
Still...
Whenever she was around, dark tidings always seemed to follow, as if they were the black smokes billowing from Lannister dreadnoughts, flying heavy and low through stormy skies.
Catelynn shook.
Sighing, she moved to lay upon Ned's chest.
Catelynn remained silent, pressing her head against his body and closing her eyes, wishing life wasn't as complex as it was.
"Everything will be alright." Catelynn said, repeating Ned's reassuring words. He laughed softly, his warm breath parting the hair behind her ears.
Somehow, she knew that Ned was dreadfully wrong.
