Updated 4/7/2019: Edited for a smoother read.

Chapter 14

Aemon I

"I'm not so sure about this, Your Grace. This doesn't feel secure," Ser Barristan said as he and Aemon walked over to the weirwood tree.

"Few people are brave enough to venture here at night. Even fewer are willing to be caught doing something ill-advised in sight of the Gods. It has to be here because my uncle has taught us that the Gods will know if we lie in front of a weirwood. What I'm about to tell him - and you by extension - will cause you to doubt my sanity. But you need to know," Aemon said. He peered imploringly at the face in the weirwood. Am I making the right decision? Was there any other decision he could make?

He implicitly trusted Jaime, but there had to be others he could tell about his other life, or the threads of this world would grow out of his and Jaime's control. His uncle had already sacrificed a great deal for him, it felt only right that he be included. He was also going to be at the forefront of the North to stop the Long Night.

His reasons for including Ser Barristan were trickier. He had issues with the way Ser Barristan had treated Ser Jaime after the kingslaying, clearly not trusting him to do what was right. However, he had been particularly loyal and faithful to his father, Rhaegar. By even Jaime's accounts, Ser Barristan was favored by his father, so he was one of the last few people who could say anything about the prince.

Most importantly, though, Ser Barristan was going to be dogging his heels from that point onward. He was going to hear untold amounts of private conversations. It only made sense that he should understand the breadth of Jon's and Jaime's experiences. Despite Jaime's resentment of Ser Barristan, he did insist that the old knight was trustworthy and could not be bought.

Ser Barristan disappeared into the trees as he scouted out the area, much like Jaime had the first night they'd spoken. For such a large man, he was surprisingly quiet and it didn't take long for him to disappear from view. Ghost followed him. He seemed comfortable around Ser Barristan and it gave Aemon confidence that he was putting his trust in the right people. He had heard the way it had destroyed his uncle.

A crunch of leaves drew Aemon's attention and it was not hard to see his uncle striding towards him. He held his head high, but his face was drawn with exhaustion and a weight hovered on his shoulders like he was world weary. Ned bowed his head and said, "Your Grace, Ser Barristan. Where's Lord Jaime?"

Ser Barristan finished his sweep of the godswood and came to stand beside his uncle as they stared at him. Both were taller than he was and it was not for the first time Aemon cursed his short stature. His father had been tall, why couldn't he have inherited some of his height?

"He's going to make sure no one enters the godswood," Aemon replied. He also doesn't want to suffer your judgment anymore than he has to. He was about to tell some hard truths, mostly about Jaime, and what an indisputable cad he had been. He had hated Jaime as much as his uncle had, but spending three years with the man and having to rely so much on him had changed Aemon, especially since Jaime had never failed to be there when he needed him.

Right on cue, his uncle said, "Jon, I must speak with you about naming Lord Jaime as your Hand. I have...information that suggests the Lannisters are behind Jon Arryn's death."

Ser Barristan looked aghast at the revelation, but Aemon merely smiled and nodded. "A letter from Lady Lysa Arryn, correct?"

Ned blinked and said, "Why yes. Your aunt risked much to send it in secret to reach her sister, Lady Catelyn."

"She did indeed. She had to. You see, you received the same, if not similar letter, in my previous life. But that letter was a lie. The Lannisters were not the ones who murdered Jon Arryn, for he was indeed murdered. Lady Lysa herself murdered her husband with poison."

Ned's and Barristan's mouths fell open in surprise. The old knight cocked his head and asked, "How do you know all of this?"

Aemon inhaled deeply and said, "What I am about to tell you is the truth, as best as I know it. I say it that way because in my previous life, I held a position on the Wall, so I missed quite a bit of the war that ravaged the South. Queen Daenerys, Lady Sansa, Arya, Bran, Lord Tyrion, and Ser Jaime were the ones who filled me in on most of the events. It all started when Jon Arryn died and King Robert came up north to ask you to be his Hand, just like this time. King Robert proposed you be made Hand of the King and paired Sansa with Prince Joffrey. You accepted after reading the letter sent by Lysa Arryn. You, Sansa, Arya, and Bran were all to head south. You and King Robert went hunting for wild boar. Ser Jaime did not go with you and he did not get attacked by a bear. Bran went climbing, as he is wont to do, and he came across Ser Jaime and Queen Cersei in an intimate embrace in the Broken Tower. They saw him spying and Ser Jaime tossed Bran out of the window. His spinal cord was injured and he was condemned to never walk again by Maester Luwin."

Ned's face predictably went red and his fists shook with fury. "That bastard! You insist on trusting him?" Ser Barristan seemed equally incensed, but he maintained his silence.

Aemon nodded. "When I found out what he did, I beat him and he didn't even try to defend himself. I would've had him executed except…"

"Except what?"

"Bran pardoned him and we needed all the good fighters we could get. I should never have beat him up." There was silence as he weighed his next words, "My soldiers were just starting to trust him again when I did that. It destroyed that trust. The Jaime who pushed Bran from the window and the Jaime I met later when the world was ending was a completely different person. Bran also suggested that the gods may have acted through Jaime, making him fall. Bran had to stay behind. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Lord Jaime, my Hand, is not the Jaime who fucked his sister and threw a child out of a window. In our darkest hour, I could always rely on him to have my back. He has saved my life in battle and he made it possible for me to kill the Night King in the end. I owe him so much and for all the talk of Lannisters and their debts, he hasn't even acknowledged that I owe him anything. Now, let me continue my story.

"As you might have guessed, Cersei's children in that other life were in fact fathered by Ser Jaime. I assure you now that her children in this life are not Jaime's. Joffrey was an evil little shit and earned the nickname of Mad King Aerys III. This Joffrey might be spoiled and mannerless, but he's not sadistic. Also, Cersei had a second son, Tommen, but he's irrelevant."

Aemon then went on to explain how Ned poked around trying to discover the truth about Jon Arryn's death. Lady Catelyn had kidnapped Tyrion thinking he tried to have Bran assassinated and in response Jaime injured Ned. Robert was killed when he was gored by a boar. Ned discovered Cersei's children were bastards and tried to get her to give up the throne peaceably. Instead, he was accused of treason, thrown in the black cells, and later executed.

"The entire Stark household, save Sansa, were executed. Arya managed to escape through the sewers. A man of the Night's Watch picked her up, chopped her hair off to turn her into a boy, and was going to escort her back to Winterfell," Aemon finished for that part.

"I left Sansa to suffer?" Ned asked, staring at the ground in heartbreak.

"Do you see now why I can't have you as Hand? It is a ruthless game that requires ruthless men. We can't allow another future like that. As you can imagine, your death fractured the kingdoms. The North declared war, Tywin Lannister raised his armies to fight for his grandson's claim to the throne. Jaime was never sure if his father knew about Joffrey's bastardy, nevertheless, Tywin's only purpose is to protect his family's legacy."

Aemon went on to explain that Robb had captured Jaime in his first scuffle and held him captive for a year. He promised to marry Lord Frey's daughter and was eventually proclaimed King in the North.

"Where was I in all this?" Ser Barristan asked.

"Ah, I forgot to mention, you were dismissed from the Kingsguard by Joffrey and Cersei and, even though Jaime was Robb's captive, he was promoted to Lord Commander in your place."

Ser Barristan scowled. "But Kingsguard serve for life!"

"They didn't want you around. You left and went in search of Daenerys Stormborn and joined her party instead."

"They probably knew I would never stand for the atrocities they committed."

"Would you have? You stood by Mad King Aerys."

Ser Barristan looked at him in astonishment and he simply shrugged his shoulders. The knight didn't say anymore and became pensive.

Aemon continued his story of the War of the Five Kings, but he refrained from speaking about Daenerys' time with the Dothraki. Something inside him suggested it wouldn't be a good idea to mention that his bride-to-be was going to be wed off to a horse lord and eventually birth three dragons, so he kept that information to himself.

When it came time to explain the events of the Red Wedding, Aemon hesitated. He looked at his uncle with sadness. "After Robb broke his word to Lord Frey, Tywin Lannister contacted Lord Frey. They dangled a marriage between one of Walder's daughters to Lord Edmure Tully. In reality it was a trap. After Edmure and his bride had been bedded, the Frey, Lannister, and Roose Bolton's forces attacked. They slaughtered Robb, his queen, Lady Catelyn, and most of the Lords in the North and Riverlands as well as a good chunk of Robb's forces. The Lannisters were victorious."

His uncle fell to his knees, though his eyes remained dry and Ser Barristan placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "H-how? How could this have happened?"

"Not one of the Starks was prepared to play the game," Aemon replied. "It's a hard fact, but it's the truth."

He told how Tywin arranged for Sansa to marry Tyrion and therefore claim the north, but Tyrion refused to consummate the marriage. Jaime arrived back in King's Landing and was excoriated for the loss of his swordhand. Joffrey was set to marry Margaery Tyrell and was poisoned at his own wedding. Tyrion took the fall and murdered Tywin. Sansa escaped King's Landing with help from Petyr Baelish.

"Baelish? The same man who betrayed me?" Ned asked, grinding his teeth.

"One in the same, but Sansa didn't know that. The Lannisters had given him permission to marry Lysa Arryn and therefore bring the Vale into the fold. Of course, he had no intention of helping them."

The recitation of a history that was never to be in this world took hours. Aemon's voice started going hoarse and exhaustion weighed heavily on his mind as he went, speaking of the Bolton and Baelish's treachery, how Cersei murdered Margaery Tyrell and her family using the Militant Faith and wildfire, how he tried to save the wildlings beyond the Wall only to die, again, before being resurrected by Melisandre, the Red Priestess. Sansa was rescued by Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne and brought to Castle Black, how Theon was tortured and ran to his sister to find salvation, how the Hound joined the Brotherhood Without Banners. How Daenerys finally came to Westeros and laid waste to the Lannister forces. One detail he did leave out was Bran becoming the Three-Eyed Raven. He hadn't fully understood Bran's powers and he felt a strong compulsion once more to leave it out. He simply suggested that he had been hiding on Bear Island and only re-emerged when word reached him that Winterfell had been retaken.

Next he went on to describe the years long campaign against the Long Night. How he failed to unite the world. They staggered against the onslaught of the undead.

"We had our last battle I don't even know where. The sun hadn't risen for a few months. It was difficult to keep track of the passing time when there was never any daylight. Ser Jaime and I were the only ones left with Valyrian steel swords. Everyone else had to use Dragonglass daggers. The battle was hard fought. I don't know how many wights I killed before I saw the Night King making his way toward me. I was exhausted by that point and I put up the best fight I could. He stabbed me, just here," Aemon said, hitting his ribs on the right side. "I knew I was done for. Then Ser Jaime came out of nowhere and grabbed the Night King and held him down. The Night King tried to turn him into one of his White Walkers, but it gave me the time I needed. I stabbed the Night King and Ser Jaime and killed them both. I think you can see why I owe Jaime quite a debt?"

Aemon slumped against the weirwood tree. He'd eventually had to sit down and now he could see the pale glow of the sun beginning to rise.

Silence fell over the clearing. Ser Barristan appeared shaken and he was rubbing his chin in contemplation, but he was still standing. His uncle had sat down on the ground some time ago and was rubbing his forehead with his hands.

Finally he said, "I can't say that I trust Ser Jaime, but...I certainly understand him better. I now know why he hates his sister and couldn't possibly be responsible for the paternity of her children this time. I am so sorry this fell on you to lead the people against the Long Night. If I had known I would've -"

"Well, now we do know, Uncle. We are taking steps to set things right."

"It's so difficult to imagine that the tales from long ago about the Night King and his army of wights are true. It's still so...very hard to imagine," Ser Barristan said. "The Wall is so far away from King's Landing and seems so insignificant. We've been doing the Night's Watch a horrible disservice all these years."

"We're about to hand them two Kingsguard and a dozen soldiers and some extra supplies. The Night's Watch will be considerably better equipped than when I was apart of it."

"I should have been more fervent in my demands to Robert," Ned said, his brow furrowed in irritation. "Despite our house words, I left our family and the North ill-prepared for a threat such as the Long Night. How could I have been so foolish? I should never have left the North."

"You did what you thought was right, as did I. We're learning," Aemon said, but he was growing tired of these constant reassurances when he himself had no idea if they were preparing any better for the war. "You understand now why I told you all of this? I need us to be on the same page. Jaime and I can't do this alone."

Ned looked even more haggard than when he arrived, likely due to yet another sleepless night, and asked, "Very well. What's the next step?"

"I wish to visit the Wall. I need to speak with Lord Commander Mormont and Maester Aemon."

Ser Barristan and Ned looked at each other. "Do you think Maester Aemon can help you?"

"I...I want to know more about my father. My heritage. I-" He could feel his composure starting to come apart at the seams, and he fought to pull himself together.

"It's alright, Your Grace. We understand," Ser Barristan said. "We should all get some rest. I'll leave Ser Arys Oakheart outside your door."

"Do you trust the remaining Kingsguard?"

"For something as important as your safety? I do."

"Thank you," Aemon replied. "Right now, all we can do is prepare for the march and for the Lords of the North to arrive. I'm not going to take the army to the Wall, but I intend on taking the other Lords. They must see the dire straits that the Wall is in."

Both Ned and Ser Barristan bowed and walked to Winterfell and their beds.