Chapter 28: Letters and Wonders

Bran kept the man in view as he walked. Summer at his side. They moved quietly and as quickly as possible. Passed the rubble and the bubble of people. Surprisingly, given he had a direwolf with him, nobody said anything, nobody tried to make a noise. Maybe it was because he had Summer with him that people were avoiding making a noise.

Summer had grown fairly large in the past few months. How big he was Bran couldn't properly say, but he was large. Big enough that if he wanted to he could knock down a full grown man with a simple touch. The man turned a corner and Bran waited a moment before following. He didn't want the man to figure out that Bran was following him.

Bran wondered where the man was going. He wasn't going to the Red Keep, instead it seemed as though he was walking to visit someone. That would either be a good thing or a bad thing. Bran just needed to figure out if he'd be seen if he kept following.

He knew that something was going on. He'd seen the man talking to father a few days ago. Father had seemed concerned and given what Bran had overheard the man talking about with his friend months ago, Bran had wondered what might have prompted this conversation.

Arya was staying with Sansa. Things with the Crown Prince seemed to have gotten worse. They'd seen Sansa with bruising on her arms and near her eyes. Septa Mordane had done everything she could to make the bruising go away. But this time it likely wouldn't last.

Father would need to be told. That much Sansa had agreed on. Now they just needed to figure out how to tell him. Bran blinked when he saw the figure open a door and step in. The door remained slightly ajar. Tempting, inviting.

Bran waited. Something in him was telling him that this might be a trap. That the man might have seen him somewhere, reflected in a mirror perhaps and was waiting to capture him. If he got captured, then that would make things very awkward. Bran would need to explain things he would rather not.

He waited another beat, then when he felt confident, he stepped forward and walked slowly, Summer at his side, he got to the door. Exhaled, looked at Summer. "Here we go." He said, he then pushed the door and walked in.

The door shut behind him. The hallway was dark, but Bran's vision allowed him to move down the hallway and find his way. His nose allowed him to smell where the man had gone. He turned right at the end of the hallway, then turned left immediately after. He then found himself at another door. He pushed and it opened. He entered the room.

He stopped, sniffed and then moved quickly. The man was walking quickly. Clearly, he suspected something. Bran let his nose lead him, he turned left, then right and then left again. Eventually he came to another door, he opened it and sniffed, the man had gone this way. His eyes told him that there were steps in front of him.

He frowned at that. Where was the man going?

Bran decided to walk up the steps, his heart thundering, Summer at his side. Wherever he ended up, he would find something. Of that he was sure. The man was clearly leading him somewhere. Where, he didn't know but he was almost there.

The steps seemed to go on forever, but they eventually stopped at another door. Bran opened this door and found himself in a small chamber. There was a table, a shelf and books everywhere. The man was nowhere to be found.

Bran frowned. How could the man have disappeared?

He decided to look around the room to see what he could find.

He picked up one of the books on the floor but couldn't understand the title. He picked up another book and found the same issue. The third book he picked up he understood parts of it. It was an old book written in the Old Tongue. Something to do with Winterfell.

He put the book down and moved to the table. There were bits of paper on it, but nothing interesting. Notes, money, that sort of thing. He looked at the shelf and saw more books.

Just as he was about to give up on this he noticed that the table had a draw, and that the draw was slightly open. He moved to it and opened it and saw a piece of paper within. He pulled out the piece of paper and looked at it.

There were four names on it that he recognised. One was his aunt Lysa, that had been circled. The second was Mother, that had a question next to it, the third was Arya's name which had been crossed out and the fourth was Sansa's which had a question mark next to it. He wondered at that.

He looked around the room again and decided to leave. He'd take the paper with him and show it to Arya and Sansa. Maybe they'd understand it?

Arya looked at Sansa and felt concern and fear. The bruises were bad this time. Joffrey the shit had gotten angry about something and taken his frustration out on Sansa. Ser Meryn Trant and the Hound had stood by whilst this had happened. It was infuriating.

"I'll kill them." Arya said.

"Arya don't be silly." Sansa said.

"I'm not." Arya said looking at her sister. "Ser Meryn is a knight of the Kingsguard. He is supposed to protect you. He didn't. he deserves to die. As for the Hound he is scum."

"And how exactly would you kill them given you are a little girl?" Sansa asked.

Arya nodded to Nymeria and then at the little blade she had at her side.

Sansa snorted, but before she could say anything Bran bounded into the room.

"You'll never believe what I found!" He said sounding out of breath.

"Brandon!" Sansa exclaimed sounding remarkably like Mother. "Where in the Gods name have you been?"

Bran stopped and shuffled from side to side. The way he did when he had been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to.

"Well?" Sansa asked arching her eyebrow and looking even more like mother.

"I was…I was…" Bran looked at her for help.

"He was following Lord Varys." Arya said.

Sansa faced her then. "And why was he following Varys?"

Arya shared a look with Bran, they both knew that this was the moment they crossed the line. Anything from here was on the table. Arya sighed and answered. "Because when we were looking for dragon skulls in the Red Keep we overheard Lord Varys talking to someone else about something and he mentioned our family. Therefore we thought we'd follow him to see what more we could learn."

Sansa's eyes widened and she huffed. "And you didn't think to tell Father?"

Arya rolled her eyes. "Do you really think father would believe us? He barely believes us about the direwolves as it is."

"Still, what you are doing is incredibly dangerous. What if you get caught?" Sansa demanded.

"I never get caught." Bran said smiling.

Sansa looked at him and then at her, Arya sighed. "I know it's dangerous but we had to see what was going on. It's weird don't you think, that Varys would be talking to a stranger about our family?"

"This is King's Landing." Sansa said. "Nothing surprises me."

Arya felt as if she'd been hit in the stomach by that. Sansa, her elder sister who'd been so full of hopes and dreams, sounding so disillusioned. It wasn't right!

"What did you find?" Sansa asked.

Bran pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Sansa. Arya walked over to their sister and looked over her shoulder. There were four names on the paper. Their aunt Lysa, Mother, Sansa and her. Aunt Lysa's name had been circled, Mother and Sansa's names had question marks next to them and her name had been crossed off.

"What is this?" Arya asked.

"I don't know, but it has to mean something right?" Bran asked sounding excited. "If Varys led me to it, then it has to mean something."

"It's a list of the women in our family." Sansa said softly.

Arya looked at Sansa and asked. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that this isn't Varys' work. He wouldn't want a list of Stark women. But someone else would." Sansa said.

"Who?" Arya asked.

"I don't know, but we need to take this list to father." Sansa replied.

At that moment the door opened, and Father walked in.

From the way his children looked at him when he entered the room, Ned gathered that they had just been speaking about him. That didn't matter what did matter were the bruises on Sansa's face.

He walked to her and kneeled. "Sansa, are you well?" He wanted to ask her who had done this, but he knew he needed to take a gentle line.

"I…" Sansa replied her voice breaking.

She threw herself into his arms then and cried. His heart broke as he heard her cry. He looked at Arya and Bran, both of whom were looking at him and their sister and he could tell that they knew exactly what had caused this and that they were feeling guilty. He would need to find a way to reassure them, but for now he needed to focus on Sansa.

He pulled back and wiped Sansa's tears away as he'd done many times when she'd been a little girl and softly asked. "What happened sweetling?"

Through tears, Sansa told him what happened, and his heart broke anew and guilt mixed in with anger. "At first…Joffrey was kind, he was caring. He paid attention to me. He listened to me when I spoke. He actually cared about what I had to say and what I wanted to do."

"But then something changed. This was after Robb and Myrcella got married, when we were heading south. He got angry with me one day and hit me. But he apologised and said he didn't know what had come over him. I thought that it was a mistake and that he was truly sorry, so I forgave him."

"But then as we got further south, he kept hitting me or bruising me. Not anywhere where it could be seen, but on my arms and my legs. Septa Mordane saw and tried to help, but then she couldn't keep walking with me, because of the King's orders. So, I was left alone with Joffrey, the Hound and Ser Meryn Trant were there but they did nothing."

I'm going to kill both of them.

Ned thought to himself, and he'd kill Baelish as well for lying to him.

Sansa continued. "Things have gotten worse though, today was the worst. Joffrey beat me and kept hitting me until a mark was left as you can see." She touched the bruises and winced. Ned took her hands in his then and kissed them.

"I wanted to say something, but I didn't think I could. He said if I told anyone he'd hurt me and he'd hurt Bran and Arya. They saw. When we were near Darry, they saw him hitting me and I begged them not to tell you. Not to tell anyone. I was scared." Sansa looked at him, her eyes red. "I'm sorry, Papa." She started crying again and Ned pulled her to him.

Ned kissed her hair and spoke. "Oh sweetling, it's not your fault. It was never your fault, and it will never been your fault." Sansa whimpered. "Sansa, sweetling, look at me." Sansa looked up at him. "It's me who should apologise, I betrothed you to Joffrey and I listened when Robert said Mordane was not needed. It's my fault that this happened to you. I promise you this won't continue. I will speak with Robert and end the betrothal, and you all will return home."

Sansa nodded and sniffled. Ned noticed the piece of paper in her hand then and asked. "What's that?"

"It's something Bran got when he followed Lord Varys." Sansa said.

Ned turned around. "Bran why were you following Lord Varys?"

Bran swallowed nervously, but it wasn't him who answered, instead Arya did. "Because we overheard Lord Varys speaking with someone in the deep area beneath the Red Keep where all the dragon skulls are kept and they mentioned our family. So, we wanted to see why."

Ned nodded, the information stored away for later use, for now he needed to know what else his children were hiding from him. "What's in the paper?"

He turned as Sansa handed it to him. He opened it and nearly swore. Cat, Sansa and Arya's names were on the paper, Cat and Sansa's names had question marks next to them, Arya's name had been crossed out and Lysa's had been circled. But that wasn't why he swore. He recognised the handwriting, and he knew then that he'd need to finish what Brandon had started.