Eddard Stark was the Quiet Wolf of the North.

And yet…

"How could you?"

His question cut into her like a knife. Eddard looked into the eyes of his sister. Rhaegar Targaryen, now Rhaegar I Targaryen, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, sat with his second wife. The one everyone thought had been kidnapped. Across from they, sat the solitary Eddard Stark.

"Please Ned! Father never would have-"

"Of course not!" Eddard yelled. Ser Gerold Hightower and Ser Arthur Dayne grasped their hilts at the Northman's rage. "It is never your fault! Always someone else's!"

"Lord Stark, please, calm yourself, you are making my wife uncomfortable."

Eddard Stark was quiet now. "I thought you already had a wife, didn't you?"

"…I did."

"And yet…what? You think that it is acceptable to interfere in the betrothal agreement when you, are already married?"

"It isn't that simple Lord Stark. There was a matter of the prophecy-"

"Prophecy? My father and brother died, because of a fucking prophecy?"

Lyanna was torn. She had never wanted to marry Robert Baratheon. He was a whoring man, who'd never love her. When she ran away with her Rhaegar, she had thought all her dreams had come true…until news of the war came.

When she heard that her father and Brandon had died, she cried out for days.

"Ned." She spoke softly. "Please understand…"

"Lyanna…" Eddard sounded defeated, surrendered. Yet almost regretful. "…You used the excuse of Wolf's Blood to run wild. Did Brandon, Benjen, and I not turn our heads? Did we not train you with a blade when asked? Did we not teach you to ride your mount when asked?"

"You did."

In a tone reminiscent of a child, he begged. "Then why didn't you listen to father and me once?"

And that stopped her for a moment.

"I…didn't want to. You and Brandon and Benjen all could do what you wanted! But I was born a daughter, and I didn't want to be sold like cattle!"

Both she and the Kingsguard flinched when her normally silent brother slapped the table so hard, it reverberated with shocks.

"You are…were, a Stark of Winterfell! Do you think Brandon had a choice?! Do you think I?!"

"Brandon could have married a beautiful woman-"

"And yet he wished not to! How is that different than your wish, hmm?! Now, because of your foolishness, I had to marry the woman who was to be Brandon's, and for the rest of my life, I will wonder if she dreams of me, or my brother! Benjen wanted to join the Watch, but because of you and your 'husband's' fool notions, his dream will be ripped form him. There are few Starks left!"

"Father wouldn't listen." She protested weakly.

"No, he wouldn't. But we all had a duty. Each and everyone of us. In our love for you, we clouded you, and you grew to be a selfish woman." He looked at her as would someone who looked at a wounded, dying animal. "And you just couldn't live by your duty. Now I have to return to the North, sit upon a throne that should be Brandon's, lead Lords that preferred father, and share with grieving parents and siblings over those that fell, trying to rescue you."

"Lord Stark-" Her Rhaegar began.

"No more." Though the rebels had lost at the Trident, nearly all forces were weakened, with only the North and some of the Vale possessing any amount of meaningful force. Allowing him to lead the talks. He looked at her. "Did you run away, from your family and duty, and marry this man?"

"…yes."

Nodding his head a few times to himself, he straightened himself. "Very well, that just makes this easier."

He turned to face both her and her royal husband.

"As Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, I hereby strip you, Lyanna, of all duties that you had to the North, evidently you wished you hadn't had them. As the head of House Stark…I no longer recognize you as one of our House. Enjoy being a sow for the dragon, Queen Lyanna."

And with that, Eddard Stark, the new Lord of Winterfell, stood, and left the chambers. It would be a very long time until she saw him again.