Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter Ninety-Five

Ned at this moment found himself wishing that he was anywhere else in the world, he could not understand how anyone found this sort of thing enjoyable. He knew that it needed to be done of course but the sheer fact some lords longed for this, sitting around and making the decisions that could affect so many people lives.

He knew that in truth it was the power behind those actions that they craved but Ned had never craved power so all he was left with was the knowledge that if the wrong decision was made then hundreds if not thousands could end up suffering because of his mistake. No amount of power would ever make him feel at ease with that.

He never wanted to feel at ease with that, he imagined that the day that he finally did would be a day that he would not want to live to see. So long as he felt unease then that meant he still cared, about the people, about everything. He wanted to care, because if he didn't then he would be like Tywin Lannister, capable of putting an entire city to the torch to serve his own ambitions and to not even look back when it was done.

No, Ned never wanted to be like that. Making the hard decisions when they needed to be made, that was one thing but reaching the point where he could quiet happily butcher so many and not be troubled by it was another thing entirely. He never wanted to be that. He would not let himself become anything close to that. Even if it killed him.

But, that did not mean that he was blind to the hard decisions that still needed to be made. And there were a great many of them that still needed to be made before he would be able to go back home with his wife to the rest of his family back in Winterfell. But at the very least, he had his wife with him now and while he did wish that she did not take so many foolish risks with her life and the life of their child that was growing inside of her.

But then, he loved that about her as well. She was so brave and she felt everything so strongly that she could not simply wait and let others throw themselves into danger while she did nothing, Ned had seen it time and time again. He thought back to after they had taken Summerhall and held a meeting in the ruined castle and his wife had been the one to suggest that they would need the Ironborn if they were going to win and then offered to go and get them, herself.

And she had done it, they had need at least a presence at sea to make sure that Aerys would not be able to have absolute dominion of the waters and Ned did not doubt that if it were not for them then the war would be looking very different as Tywin Lannister would have been able to deploy his full strength with far fewer problems to deal with in his own home.

Ned just wished that she would temper her bravery and her brilliance with a lit bit of caution when it came to her own life, as Ned had noticed that was something of a problem when it came to his wife. She would put others above herself, over and over again but she would do it at her own expense. It was going to make him an old man before too long, how much worry she could put him through.

Well, it already felt like the war he had been fighting had made him an old man but he did not need his wife to help him with that and he had the terrible thought that their sons were most likely going to drive him into an early grave from all the worry, or at the very least ensure that his hair would be turned into full silver long, long before his time.

Gods. The thought of Mors and Torrhen was like a knife to his heart, he had been away from them for too long and he would not be surprised if he did not recognise them once he saw them again or that would not recognise him. Well, he wouldn't leave them again, not unless he had too and he would be with them from now on.

But Lyanna still needed him, needed someone to come and find her and to bring her home. It was possible that many of the men who had fought this war had forgotten about her, or that some hadn't even spared a single thought for her at all. But for him, this entire war had been about finding his sister and bringing her home.

No, it had been about trying to save Robert as well, but he had already failed him. He wasn't going to fail Lya as well, that was simply not something that he was going to allow to happen.

Another sigh escaped him, and Hoster Tully had noticed that as he looked at him from across the table that the both of them were sitting at, said table had papers scattered atop of it, letters and maps and raven scrolls which had been brought to them whenever they arrived and there had been a lot of them over the past few weeks as the realm needed to know what had happened and also the armies needed new commands.

Food had been brought to them as they had worked, just bread and cheese and some ham as Ned had not wanted anything too heavy to start with and it did not feel right to him to be overly indulgent when in the city at the foot of Aegon's high hill was starving and suffering, he had done what he could to make sure they got some more food from the Red Keep's own stores, it wasn't much but it would have to do until more food began to flow into the city from the fields and the trade routes.

"Is everything all right, Lord Eddard?" Hoster Tully asked, his eyes narrowing slightly at him. There was a cunning there, Ned had seen it before now but most of the times that he had seen it, it had been during the planning of battles and sieges but seeing it now, now that the vast majority of the fighting was over filled Ned with a sense of heavy disquiet.

He seemed like the sort of a man who would do well in King's Landing, and he was to be Renly's hand and that would make him one of the most powerful men in the Seven Kingdoms, the man who could speak with the King's voice when the king was not there or to young which meant that for all the rest of the world would care, meant that Hoster Tully would be the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.

To be sure, Renly would have his regents council to both raise the king and to act as a counterweight to the Lord Hand but they would not have quiet the same powers as the Hand would as, the Hand would be able to fill offices at his lesuire and with whomever that he wished to and when Renly was at the age of his majority then yes the Hand would lose some of his power but he would still have a great deal of influence.

He would still be able to sit on the Iron Throne if the King was not there to do so and his offices would still be filled with men that he had chosen, it would be Hoster Tully who they owed their positions to and it would be him that they would owe their allegiance to, at least in private. And if Renly did not see the need to dismiss Hoster then it would be him who would be the King in truth if not in name.

And Ned could do nothing to stop it, nothing to stop Renly from being taken advantage off and he could not bare that, not after he had already failed both of the boy's elder brothers. Hoster Tully needed to be won over to their side after the shameful way that Catelyn had been treated by Brandon, they had needed his armies to win the war and the promise of him becoming Hand was all that they had to keep him on side.

Well, to tell it true it had been Lord Hoster himself who had said that was what he had wanted as their side had tried to convince him by pointing out that he had already thrown in their lot with him a very long time ago, that he had been plotting with his Father and Jon Arryn and Prince Doran to overthrow the King and if they were captured then they would have nothing to hide.

It had been a bold move, and one that could have very badly turned on them but it had at least drew Hoster back into their direction, his demand of being made Hand after they won had not seemed so terrible a price, after all if they did not have his armies to aid them then the chance that they would have won the war would have been to low for there to be any actual chance.

But now the war was nearly done, the lion's share of the fighting was done and now it had come to thinking of the future and the accounting of the consequences of the choices that had been made during the war and they could be just as damaging as the war itself.

"I am, forgive me Lord Hoster." Ned truly tried to sound like he was fine, he tried to feel fine but he could not dismiss his wories. Tens of thousands had already died and thousands more might before they were finally, truly done. He did not want for in the future for thousands and thousands more to be added to the pile.

But perhaps that had already been set into motion by his own actions, perhaps there was nothing that he could do to stop it now. "I am just tired, I think. None of the songs and stories ever spoke of how truly tired war can make you."

And how tired peace could make you, when it came to that.

Lord Hoster nodded and his features softened, ever so slightly. "I understand, gods you are young aren't you?" He asked and Ned knew that he meant no offense, he was stating a fact as easily as he could say that water was wet. "War does not care for age, it will kill old and young men and it ruin old and young men but, despite that fool of a brother of yours, I do not think that it has ruined you. I think it has made you stronger, I think you will survive."

Calling his brother a fool had probably been the kindest thing that Hoster Tully had refered to Brandon as in a very long time, and it wasn't as though Ned could blame him for that and Ned did not doubt that the older man was trying to make him feel better about all that had happened, but to say that it did not help would be an understatement.

But he didn't need to hear that. "Thank you, my Lord."

Hoster Tully nodded and set back to his work and Ned did the same, whatever hells the future would hold there was only so much that he could do about it but what little that he could, he would do. And so Ned reached for another letter and began to read it, the lettering and spacing was childish and the language was rough which screamed to Ned that a father had probably spoken the words and one of his children had written it down.

It was a requst for more grain, his field had been burned by, in his own words, the foreign looking lot with the fancy looking horses and they had also killed two of his sons who had helped him work the field, one had died from an arrow through the chest and another had only been scratched by an arrow but the wound had quickly rotted and killed him.

It set Ned stomach to rolling, like a hundred knives were stabbing at his insides, He had agreed that it was the best way for the Dornish to be used in the battle but even so, even though it needed to be done, he would not be quick to forgive himself for the suffering that they had caused, that the Ieonborn had caused.

He had to wonder if Elia knew what she had been doiing when she brought the Ironborn into the fold to fight for them, if she knew what her fellow countrymen had done during the war. Ned hoped that she did not, his wife had a gentle heart after all and underneath all of her bravery and her strength she was still just a woman and it would surely bring her no end of suffering.

Ned would need to protect her, as best as he could.

It was at that moment there was a knock at the door and one of Lord Hoster's guardsmen put his head around the door. "Pardon, my lords. I don't mean to interrupt but Lord Eddard's wife is here and she wishes to speak to you, to the both of you. She seems a bit upset, if my lords don't mind my saying so. Real upset."

"Thank Jath, send her in." The guard nodded and shut the door and not half a moment later it opened again and Elia walked in, wearing the same dress that she had been wearing when she she had come to see him in the solar, as beautiful as ever but the look in her eyes already see his teeth on edge, he did not think that he had ever seen her that scared before, not when his Father had collapsed when his heart failed him, not when she had been sitting by Oberyn's bedside not sure if he would survive, not even when the Mad King had seperated them.

His wife was a brave woman, the bravest he had ever know and that was just part of what he had loved about her so to see her frightened did not do anything to sooth him. Ned rose from his chair and walked towards her, his hands came to rest on her shoulders and pulled her close so that she could seek some comfort in his embrace. "Love, what is it? What's wrong?"

Elia took a deep breath and pulled away from Ned's embrace and stepped closer to Lord Hoster and when she spoke her voice was clamer than Ned's would have been, considering what she needed to speak of. "I've just come from speaking with Ser Jaime-"

It was childish, more than that he thought it more the reaction that Brandon would have to it but just because it ran more thickly in Bran and Lya didn't meant that the wolf blood wasn't in Ned as we"ll and it threatened to burn up when he heard his wife say that, all the same he tried to keep his voice measured and in control. "You went to speak to Ser Jaime, why? Why would you have need to?"

Elia glanced at him, concern in her eyes that shamed him for his reaction and he kicked himself for it. It was not Elia that did not have his trust, he would trust her with everything but Jaime Lannister had not yet gained that, and Ned doubted that he would ever have it. "Ned...I wanted to hear in his own words, why he went against his vows. I was curious, I suppouse."

He could not blame her for that, he supposed. He knew that many were curious as to why Ser Jaime had chosen to become a kingslayer, why anyone would want to bear that curse on his name. Ned was not one of them, it didn't matter to him why Ser Jaime had done it what mattered to him was that he had done it. He had betrayed his King.

"And what did he tell you, my Lady?" Lord Hoster asked, he had not risen from his chair and Ned was not pleased to see that to say the least, as he reached for his cup and brought it up to his lips.

"He told me that he killed Aerys because he gave the commands to have the thousands, and I stress the word thousands, of pots of wildfire under the streets and under the sept of Baelor and under the dragonpit and yes maybe under the Red Keep as well all set alight, burning the city down and all the people along with it." Elia's words were calm, even and Ned knew his wife well enough to know that she was terrified.

Any other man might have spat out his drink at hearing the news, Hoster Tully simply swallowed it down, though it did look like a very painful swallow indeed and placed his cup down on the table. "My lady, forgive me but I must say that I do not find Ser Jaime's words all that believable. Why would he not have said this before? It would have made his actions more understandable to many, I think the seriousness of his crime has finally caught up to him and he is not trying to lessen his guilt and regain some honor. You have been cruelly decived, my lady."

"My brothers and I learned deception at our mother's knee, I know when a man is lying to me." Elia spoke so surely and her eyes did not budge from Lord Hoster's form. "And if you are wrong, my Lord? If Ser Jaime has spoken nothing but the truth and we are all of sitting on those pots? They say that as wildfire ages that it grows more and more unstable, that it can even ignite on it's own. And if even one pot does so, all the rest of it will and we will all burn."

The thought of it was enough to make Ned feel sick, his stomach felt like it was about to turn on itself. The city had been in a terrible state when he had rode into it, pillaged homes and broken market stalls and blood stains on the ground and the scent of death in the air but there was still a city, there were still people, it could be rebuilt and something that might have been normalcy could return to the streets, he had already seen the signs of it.

But if there was wildfire and it did go off, then there would be nothing. There would be ashes and burned bones and that would be it and there was no chance that any life would thrive here. It was unacceptable, he could not allow that to happen. That would not happen, they would stop it. They were going to stop it.

"We should check, just to be sure." Ned spoke, stepping closer to his wife while keeping his eyes on Lord Hoster to make sure that it was clear to the future Hand of the King that he stood by his wife, that he believed his wife and if Lord Hoster did not do something about it then he would as one of Renly's current regents.

"Fine." Hoster rose from his chair with a heavy sigh. "If it puts both of your minds at ease then I will check, and when it becomes clear that Ser Jaime has lied to you Princess Elia then I am going to have him tied to a stake in the middle of the courtyard and have him flogged to within an inch of his life, Lord Tywin and his army can go hang themselves."

Ned was fairly sure that he did not mean that which he did find to be a shame, not that he actually said that of course. Instead he kept his silence as Lord Hoster left the room and when he was gone Ned wrapped his arms around Elia and pulled her back in close, she was shaking and Ned responded by rubbing at her back and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Are you alright my love?"

"Wildfire Ned, Mother have mercy on all of us. Wildfire." Elia's large black eyes were wet and when the first tear slipped down her cheek Ned brushed it away without a thought. "I know that Jaime isn't lying to me, I know he isn't. There is wildfire under our feet right now and it could go off at any moment, it could kill us and the babe and everyone else and I don't-I can't-"

If there was a surge of irrational anger at the fact that his wife has refered to the kingslayer by his name without his title then it was smother by guilt and concern as soon as Elia broke down, sobbing her heart out. His wife, his Elia was so very brave and she had to be. She had travelled a wartorn nation all on her own, which again she could never do that again because Ned did not need his heart to give out from fear, she had gone to the Iron Islands and worn them to their cause.

She had made her way back to the North surrounded by her jailers, she had survived the lose of their babe, she had run Winterfell and she had dealt with her brother's treachery and plots and she never once broken.

She was so brave, but everyone's bravery had it's limit and it looked like Elia's had finally reached it's limit. Ned held her tight to him and just let her cry, let her feel the fear and thought nothing else of it. He could strong for her now, it was his honor and his duty and his privallage and so he did nothing but hold her and love her as best as he could.

"I am so tired Ned, I'm so tired." Her voice was breaking and it was like a dagger to his heart. "There is always something else, some other crisis to deal with or a fire to put out or a war to fight and all I really want to do is sleep, it was so hard to be at Riverrun and sleep knowing that you were out there fighting and there was naught that I could do to help you. I barely slept."

Ned could well believe it, his wife had ever been small and slight and her health alway delicate but she looked more drawn as of late and it sent a surge of protectiveness in him, for both her and the babe and his hand came up to rest on her bump. Was she eating enough, was the babe getting enough? This had to be seen to.

"You are going to go to my chambers and rest, I will be with you in the evening to take supper with you." His voice broke no arguements but it was more of a sign that Elia did not argue, nor did she roll her eyes and make a saucy comment followed by the sweet sound of her bell-like laugh. He would ever kill to hear that sound, today he would murder thousands to hear it.

His wife only nodded.

He wished that he knew where Oberyn was as in this state he would feel much better sending her to his chambers under the protection of her brother as if there was any man that he could trust not to do her any harm then it would be Prince Oberyn himself. But alas Ned did not know where he was and the guards would have to do.

With a promise that he would see his wife soon he shut the door and once he realised that he was alone he walked back over to the table and collapsed into his chair and drained his cup and then refilled it again and drained it again. The next time he only drank it to a half empty state and his panic has lessened, the tiniest bit.

Lord Hoster returned and of course, Ser Jaime just had to be telling the truth about this as there were wildfire casks under the city and there were indeed thousands of them. Ned was turn between fainting and going to kick Ser Jaime's teeth in for not thinking to tell them anything about this beforehand.

But they could do nothing about that, what they could now was deal with the pots. Lord Hoster knew next to nothing about how wildfire worked and Ned imagined that he himself knew even less than that. So, as much as it was a pain in the neck to admit it was clear that they were going to need help from the order of Pyromancers.

The order had enjoyed great favour under Aerys, to put it lightly and since his death and the capture of the city it's members had been exiled from court and they all of them remained within the guildhall since. Going to them for help did not sit well with Ned, they had aided Aerys in his madness and gained from the death of dozens of innocent men and women and children.

But it would have to be done.

And of course, it was not the only fire that needed to be put out. Did it matter that they had just learned they were sitting on thousands and thousands of pots of a substance that was so deadly that even one pot of it would more than likely be capable of burning down the whole of Flea Bottom? No, of course not. The whole realm was still on fire and all of them needed water.

It was the hour of the wolf when they were finally done and Ned was just so tired that when he returned to his chambers all he wished to do was fall into his bed and sleep for a moon's turn. When he did arrive however, the sweet sight made him smile and he knew that he was not going to bed at least not for a short time.

Elia was sitting at the table, said table seemed to be straining with the sheer amount of food on the top of it and Ned's mind was torn into two, one racked with guilt for the people in the city who had been going hungry for days and the other half was just so pleased to see her smile, to know that she would have enough for herself and the babe.

His stomach seemed to be taking the third position of wanting to be filled, and now.

"Hello love, are you all right?" Ned asked as he sat down next to his wife, leaning into kiss her. She did look more restful, so at least she had gotten some sleep which was the most important thing.

"Hello my love, I am much better. A little humiliated, I shouldn't have broken down like a child like that." Elia hummed after they had kissed but now she looked unbalanced and Ned would not be having that, no not at all.

"My love, you are not being a child. You were frightened, as was I." Ned reached out and took her hand as he spoke, he sighed. "And I am afraid you had good reason to be, Ser Jaime was speaking the truth and there are jars of wildfire under the streets."

Elia sighed and reached for a goblet and took a deep sip from it, Ned's nose caught a hint of sour cherries and pepper. "I knew he would be." Elia turned to face him then and her eyes were hard and there was the wife he loved the most, the one that would face an entire room full of lords and tell them what they should do and what she was going to do and they could hang if they did not like it. "What is to be done?"

"We will work with the Order of Pyromancers to remove the casks, I am not certain how long it will takw but I imagine it will take a while. I will be staying for a few days and then I will ride to Storm's End to finally lift the siege there." Ned really did try to look like he was fine, but Elia knew him well and she did not need to ask before he explained.

"All of this needs to be done, I know this. All of this is vital, I know this as well. But it will take time, Lord Mace might be stubborn and try to hold the siege for longer even though his side has already lost. The wildfire could take months before it is fully removed and all that time." He glanced over at the balcony, he could hear insects chirping and somewhere there was a raven crowing. "Lyanna is still out there, she could be sick. She could be dying and there is naught I can do for her until the rest is settled."

He did not look at Elia until a gentle hand came to rest on his wrist, her face was not smiling but it did not need to be. Her eyes held more emotion, more love, in that moment than any smile ever could. "Go and find her, take men that you know that you can trust and go and find her. Don't wait, not a moment longer. She needs you, I once told Lyanna there is no distance that her brothers would travel any distance for her. Do not make me a liar husband."

"There is to much to do, we hearing rumors that Rhaella Targaryen has already crowned Viserys as King at Dragonstone." So far of course that had only been rumors but if it was true then the Targaryen Loyalists would have a new king for them to rally around and the war could be incited once again, he could not allow that.

"And you can not be everywhere, you do not have to do it alone. Lord Hoster will be here to oversee the removal of the wildfire and I will aid in whatever small matters that I can, as I do not doubt that Lady Catelyn will as well. I also doubt those rumors, I know Queen Rhaella and I think she understands that to put a crown on Viserys's head now is as much the same as putting a knife through his heart. She would not do that."

"And Storm's End?"

A strange look passed over Elia's face, just for a moment. It was there and then it was gone so quickly that Ned was certain that he must have imagined it, naught more than a trick of the light. "Send Oberyn." Ned blinked but it did not seem like his wife was joking. "He has recovered, give him command of a host of Dornish and Northenmen and he will bring you the castle, he has a temper and can be brash and impulsive but he is not stupid. Set him this task my love and see it done."

It was tempting, all of it was so tempting. He would not go right away, he would need to stay for at least a few days to ensure that the planning was smooth but he could it. He could leave it all to them and he could go and find Lyanna and bring her home to Winterfell and make well certain that she was home and safe and tell her that she would never have to leave ever again if she did not wish to do so.

He was going to do this, wasn't he?

"All right, all right." Ned said with a sigh and well Elia smiled at him, brighter than the sun that was her sigil Ned was almost convinced that he had made the right choice.

They had fallen into an easy silence after that, both of them piling plates high and Ned making sure that Elia's was higher than his own to make sure that the babe within her was getting enough. Ned was ripping off a quail's leg and Elia was cutting into a fish that had been fried in peper oil when his wife spoke to him. "You are very good at this, you know?"

"What?" He asked around a mouthful of tender meat, chasing it down quickly with a mouthful of the Arbor Gold which his wife had treated like a betryal when he had chosen that over one of the Dornish reds.

"Ruling, judging. Making these decisions, you are very good at it and I am not the only one who thinks so, I am not the only one who has noticed." Elia had no mercy for him. "When your Father, Mother above please make that a very long time from now, does finally pass Winterfell will be lucky to have you and the Realm is poorer for you not being the heir to the throne."

"Woman," Ned said with a growl as he leaned in close, his eyes flashing dark even as Elia smirked at him. "Sometimes I think you want to put me into an early grave, the things that you say an do."

"Would my Lord have me any other way?" What could Ned do, but speak the truth?

"Never."

Whoo!

Okay not going to lie, I really enjoyed writing this chapter and I mean like a lot. I have missed writing really long and in depth Elia and Ned converstations because I love the both of them so much and I hope you guys do as well.

Now, when it comes to the future I have three chapters planned. One with Elia, one with Ned and one with Oberyn it's just a matter of trying to decide which order they should come in. I know we aren't getting the Ned chapter next, because this chapter is a Ned chapter and I try my best not to do repeting POVs one after another.

So, either Elia or Oberyn we will see which it will be next time. I am leaning towards Elia, but we will see.

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DiscordantSymphony