"Brother" Benjen heard, turning around he saw Ned standing behind him, he went to bow but Ned stepped close and stopped him.
"Ah, ah now Benjen, you are my Brother, you were the 'Stark in Winterfell while I went to war, you will not bow to me..."
"But Ned, you are the Lord of Winterfell, the Warden of the North!" he protested.
They were in Ned's Solar; Benjen had made his way over when a summons had come for him from Ned. They had spent only odd bits of time together since Ned returned from the south, often only having time to speak of matters pertaining to the running of the North and Winterfell.
"In private you are my brother; in public you can observe the social niceties all you like Benjen, now, we have work to do, you and I..."
Ned strode around him and sat behind the desk, where benjen had sat as the 'Stark in Winterfell', but never comfortably, and where he remembered father sitting, a twist of pain flooded him, his face grimacing slightly.
Ned sat down, to Benjen it looked like Ned had been born to sit in that chair, his presence filling the room with a sense of power.
"Sit Benjen, for the Gods sake..." said Ned, his eyes scanning the various pieces of paper and parchment littering the great desk.
Benjen sat, looking at Ned, his older brother and now his Liege Lord. The boy he had remembered sparring with was gone, replaced by a man, a hard, dangerous, wild man, by all accounts. But still his brother, he may have changed much, but Ned was still his brother. In a way Ned reminded him a bit of Brandon, there was an edge to his brother that had not been present before, of dangerousness, a hint of something lurking just beneath the surface, waiting to erupt.
"Lyanna..." Ned whispered, refusing to meet Benjen's eyes.
"Her bones lie with her people in the crypts..." responded Benjen, his throat tight with grief.
"I brought a Maester with me Benjen, I took a ship to the Sea of Dorne, came ashore as far up the Wyl as we could, rode like the wind itself to that accursed place, the 'tower of joy'. FUCK Rhagear Targayren!" Ned exploded in anger, a fist thumping the table, making the heavy oaken desk jump slightly.
"She, she was delirious Benjen, had lost far too much blood, the Maester could not save her... I, there was nothing we could do Benjen, she died in my arms..."
"And the babe, your message told of a child..." Ned had sent a letter with Lyanna's bones, coded in such a way that only he could understand the means to unlock it, and he had learned of the terrible secret of the grossly named 'Tower of joy'.
"Aye, a boy, she named him Aegon apparently, and, and she made me promise that I would keep the lad safe, protect him."
"Protect him from Robert you mean..." hissed Benjen.
"Aye, protect him from Robert...he was mad with rage Benjen, drunk also, when they showed him the bodies...wrapped in Lannister red..."
"And you with a Lannister bride..." whispered Benjen, suddenly afraid he has said too much.
"Aye, and me with a Lannister bride...do not worry, two banner men of Lord Tywin only escaped my wrath because they made themselves very, very scarce. There will come a reckoning with the Mountain that Ride's and Ser Armoy Loch..."
Benjen shivered, the room suddenly seemed too hot, too stuffy, yet he was freezing, his arms and legs nerveless as if made of jelly.
"The, the child is safe in Greywater Watch, for now. Among my papers is a signed warrant from King Robert giving me Royal dispensation to name any and all Bastards of the Starks as Starks and not as Snow's, with the usual attachment that they are behind all male and female trueborn sons and daughters for the purposes of inheritance."
"You intend to claim him as your own Ned?"
"Aye I do, it's the only way to protect him..."
"Your new wife will not like that; I cannot see her father liking it either..."
"Hence why the child is at Greywater Watch for now, and I fear I may have dropped quite a few 'real' bastards during the Rebellion..."
Benjen's eyebrows rose at this.
"We were at war, none of us knew if each day would be our last, and, well Robert Baratheon can be a bad influence on a man... "
Benjen nodded in response, not knowing what to say.
"Anyway, enough, to business...your request to join the Nights Watch is denied, in perpetuity Benjen,"
"But Ned, I, It, It was my fault, I, could, I could have stopped her, I knew what was happening, she, she told me Ned!"
"You could not have know the consequences Benjen, and do you think for a second that you could have stopped our sister, once she put her mind to something, you know what she was like..."
"Aye...but Ned, it's still my fault..."
"No" Ned said with a sharp finality, like a blade cutting through a training post "No, it was not your fault, it was Rhaegar Targayren's fault, if it is anyone's...and that inbred, raping bastard has paid for his crimes! My word as Lord of Winterfell is final Benjen, we are the only two Starks left in the world now, until Cersei give me an heir, you are my heir, we need to father more Starks Benjen."
"A task you just admitted that you had already been doing..." he replied, a slight grin on his face.
"Well, proper, trueborn Starks Benjen, so the Nights Watch is out, and, and I'm sorry to say this but a dynastic match is in store for you. You are too valuable to me and House Stark, sorry to be blunt. Right now there is nobody that you have to get wed too, but in a year or two's time?"
Benjen nodded his head unenthusiastically at this "Just so long as you don't want me to marry a Frey!"
His brother looked sharply at him, a look of mild surprise on his face.
"Oh you do want me to marry a Frey?" asked Benjen, a mix of annoyance and shock in his voice.
"Never say never, there are enough weasels to go round from what I hear and we may have need of them at some stage, they sit astride our route to the south, and they can be quarrelsome ..."
"Or late..."
"Or late, anyway as I said, nothing is planned as of yet, it all depends on how things go..."
"Can I get to at least pick which one I get?" asked Benjen, he put a note of hope into his voice.
"Ahahahaha, of course Benjen, as I said, there are enough of them that there should be one that isreasonably presentableno? Enough talk of Frey's Benjen"
"You, you have changed Ned, you are different..."
"War's change people Benjen, seeing your sister dying in a stinking pool of her infected blood changes you, killing...killing changes you. Seeing the greasy compromises that pass for politics changes you..."
"No Ned, its more than that, I've heard the stories of the Black Wolf, of the terror you unleashed on the Riverlands and the Crownlands, that, that does not sound like the brother I knew Ned. What, what happened to you Ned?"
"What happened to me Benjen? Winter is Coming Benjen, its coming for us all and this time there will be no escape for us, for any of us..."
Benjen shivered at the cold in his brother's voice, wondering about what his brother had just said. Aye, Winter was coming, but the way Ned had just said it, it was like something worse was coming that just Winter.
"Now, these tasks that I set you, the things to do, to prepare for my return from the war? I have read the reports, let's review them shall we?"
Benjen gulped and started to speak.