Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter One-Hundred

He really was getting sick of horse riding, if he was going to be honest. It seemed to make up a great portion of his life, riding from one place to the next, his thighs burning with the effort and when he finally did reach the place he was going, there seemed to always be more blood. More death.

If Ned was still a child then he would bowed his head in that moment and wept but he was a man grown, a father and a husband and the heir to Winterfell with no hope of that being changed now and all of his tears had long since been spent, he had shed the last of them in Dorne for Lyanna and for Brandon, when he had been alone in his tent so none of the companions he had brought with him could see. Only the babe had been with him then.

He should be thankful that the boy did not take after his Father, the little tuft of hair that he had was a dark brown and his eyes were a grey so dark that they could almost be mistaken for black instead of silver hair and violet eyes that all those that had descended from the Dragonlords of Old Valyria bore as the evidence of their heritage.

He looked like a Stark, he looked like Lyanna and Brandon and Benjen. He truly was glad for that, he wasn't sure if he would be able to look at him if he had looked like Rhaegar then Ned wasn't sure that he would be able to take the boy with him, if he had looked like Rhaegar then Ned wasn't sure that he would ever be able to forgive him.

It was an awful thing to think, whatever the boy happened to look like he was still his sister's son but he would not pretend that he did not find it easier that the boy looked like a Stark and not like the man who had brought ruin down on his family, his own family and the whole of the realm. He was glad that Brandon had killed him, but Ned regreted that it had not been him to do so.

They had been using rags sucked in goat's milk to keep the boy alive since they had brought him out of Dorne, after they had finished at the Tower they had found among the women that had been tending to Lyanna a wetnurse, and the thought that Rhaegar had been planning for it that he had taken Lyanna to bear his children and he had hurt her made Ned wished that he could have been the one to kill him all over again, and the wetnurse had fed the boy but she had refused to leave Dorne, leaving them at the border and so the boy had been feed with the goat's milk.

One rainy night in his tent, with the warmth of Lyanna's babe in his arms that reminded him so much of Mors and Torrhen and the babe that had never lived and the babe that was growing in Elia at that very moment, the tears had stung at his eyes and he had not been able to stop them from coming. They rolled down his cheeks and the sobs ripped their way out of him.

He did not doubt that his companions must have heard him, but none of them said anything to him. Prince Lewyn had simply glanced at him as he had walked out of his tent in the morning before turning his attention back on to the small fire in the centre of the camp, using the stick in his hand to tend to the burning wood that fed the flames. Howland Reed was humming a song under his breath as he was using one of his knives to carve some little trinket out of wood.

Willam Dustin and Mark Ryswell had almost definitely heard him the night before and he wasn't sure if he should feel better or shamed because they acted as though there was no shame to it, treating him as though he was a little boy who had simply skinned his knee when he was going to be their lord one day. Speaking of anything else other than what had brought him to tears.

"I'll be glad to see Barrowtown again." Willam had said over the food they used to break their fast that morning, olive bread that they had bought in Dorne that was stale but still good for wiping up the greese of the bacon. "It's been too long since I've been home, gods, I'm even looking forward to seeing Barbrey again." When Mark turned to look at him with an raised eyebrow at his words the younger man sputtered before finding his words once again. "Of course, I am always glad to see her I just meant more so. I am very fortunate to have your niece as my wife."

"I should think so." Mark said and then let out a laugh as he scratched at his bearded chin. "Mind you, knowing my niece she would be far more upset if we didn't bring back that stallion she gave you. Our bones could be drying out under the Dornish sun right now and she wouldn't care but if that bloody horse wasn't brought back she'd have us both fed to the dogs."

Willam laughed at that and Ned might have found it funny, not enough to laugh as laughter did not come easily even at the best of times but right now was not the best of time and in truth he was so tired, from the grief and from everything else, he was certain that he would never find it in himself to be able to laugh again.

Regardless, he had a duty to tend to and nothing could come before that now. The babe needed to be taken care of, he was Lyanna's son and his nephew and that was all that matter to him. If anyone knew the boy's true father then Ned knew that sooner or later a knife would be at the poor babe's throat, he would be a threat to someone no doubt.

He could not let that happen.

So, it was another reason then to be thankful that the boy looked like a Stark then. Ned would claim the boy as his bastard, most would not see any need to question that and for those that would well he could simply claim that he had fathered the boy during his time in Dorne when he had taken Elia and their trueborn sons there to visit the rest of her family.

It would work, aside from the small wrinkle that he knew his wife well enough to know that she would never believe it. Elia and he had not spent every single moment together in Dorne but they had spent most of their time together and when he had not been with her he had spent his time either with their children or with her brothers. The lack of oppertunity would be obvious to her.

More than that, his wife had to know that he would never do such a thing to her. Would never dishonor her in such a way, he loved her to much to do that to her and even if he did not he would still not do it as he was not that sort of man, he had seen what Brandon had wrought by abandoning his duty and indulging his baser instincts with every woman that even slightly held his intrest for even a moment.

Lady Catelyn left with a son who had at least his father's name, so at least she could be spared the shame of saying that she had born a bastard but Jon would have naught to inherit as was the deal that Lord Hoster and his own Lord Father had struck. He thought of that happening to Elia, being sent back to Dorne in disgrace with both of their sons being little better than baseborn in the eyes of the law, with only the name of the house that had sired them to sooth the sting.

He would never be able to do that to her, he could hate her more than anyone else in the world and still he would not commit so vile a sin as to dishonor her. Elia would always deserve better than that and he did not hate her, he loved her more than he probably should but he did all the same and the thought of her thinking that he had betrayed her in such a way did not sit well with him.

But this was his nephew, Lyanna's boy. He had to keep him safe, he had promised. Not with his words, but in Lyanna's last moments when she had been too weak to speak there had been an unstanding between them. When she had left, she had squeezed his hand and then she was gone. He could not let her down, he would not.

So, Elia would just have to cope and Ned would just have to hope that she would be able to find it in her to forgive him for a crime that he did not commit and that her kindness would be extended to Lyanna's babe, even if she thought that he was his.

The boy did need a name, but Ned wasn't sure what to give him. It felt like he was stealing something from Lyanna, he had thought that perhaps she had already given him a name but she had been to weak to tell him what it was at the end. It had been horrible to see, the girl who at five years old had marched up to their father and demand that she be given a sword just like Brandon had done and when she was seven stole a full grown stallion from the stables and rode away from Winterfell with a dozen guardsman in pursuit and have so much life in her, being so lifeless.

He had had already decided that he would not give the boy any Targaryen name, he didn't hate the entire family but it would feel to much like giving Rhaegar Targaryen what he wanted now that he was dead. Ned had briefly considered naming the boy Brandon, Lyanna would have liked that and Brandon himself would have loved it but when Ned had thought of someone walking the walls of Winterfell with Brandon's name who wasn't his brother...it had not sat well with him.

Ned had also briefly considered Robert, Stannis and Elbert for names as well but none of them sat well with him at all. Robert would always reminded him that he had failed to save him and he wasn't sure that he would be able to bear that, the boy's mere existence all ready was a reminderer that he had failed to save Lyanna.

Stannis bore the same issues as well and more than that he did not have the same sense of affection for Stannis as he had done for Robert, it did not feel right to give his name to the boy. As for Elbert, Ned would not feel right naming the boy after him considering that it was only because he had come with Ned in the first place, and only because he had asked him to do so, that the man was not alive right now.

He had denied his other nephew a Father, considering that it had been so long since he had last seen him it was sometimes easy to forget that Catelyn's son was in fact his nephew and that he felt a squirm of guilt in his stomach at that thought. He hoped that when her Jon was grown, that the boy would be able to find it in him to forgive him for that.

Ned's head was heavy with thoughts and all he wished to do now was lay his head down on a pillow with a featherbed underneath him and with his wife in his arms and to try and forget everything else for awhile. But, he knew by now that none of them got what they wished and he did not doubt that there would be other matters in King's Landing that would demand his attention.

It did raise his spirts somewhat to see as he rode through the gates that the city had recovered more than when he had first rode through them on that day, there were more children on the streets now and more people selling and buying goods and there was laughter now as well, it all spoke of healing to him and considering all that had happened up to now it felt good to hear.

Once Ned had rode through the gates of the Red Keep and his horse had been taken away to be stabled and called on a servant to have Lyanna's babe talem to the nursery a young boy ran up to him, he was Dornish and Ned had to assume that he was someone's page. "My Lord, Prince Oberyn sent me to come and get you when you arrived. Your Wife needs to see you, now. At once, Prince Oberyn said."

Ned frowned at that and he hurried after the boy, he had sent word on a raven telling of what had happened at the Tower of Joy but that had been a while ago and there had been no reasonable time of guessing when he would be able to be back so it seemed as though his brother-by-law had given orders for an eye to be kept out for him.

He didn't want to think why that would be.

Oberyn was sitting at his wife's bedside, he looked smaller than before he had been injuried and forced into that sleep that had never seemed to end, his hands on his knees and a smile on his face as he looked at the head of the bed and Ned did not allow his eyes to linger on him even for a second before he turned his gaze to where he was looking.

Oh.

He had seen his wife in a thousand different ways in all the time that he had known her, he had seen her dressed in a gown of a thousand differents shades of red and orange and yellow with jewels in her hair on the night that they wed and he had seen her dressed in simpler gowns of grey and white with her hair pulled into a braid as she focused on the ledgers which held Winterfell's accounts and he had seen her naked, her brown skin almost seemed to glow gold in the light of the fire, her dark nipples hard as he tended to them with his mouth.

None of that compared to how she looked now, she was pale and her hair was loose and limp and there were bags under her eyes that spoke to her exhaustion and there was a bundle pressed close to her chest, a soft smile on her face even as there were tears in her eyes. She had never looked more beautiful to him than she did in that moment, none could compare he was certain of that.

"Love," He breathed and reached out to cup her cheek, Elia leaning into to it for a long moment before his eyes dipped to look at the bundle and suddenly the world seemed to shrink down to just the two of them. The three of them. He almost seemed to forget that Oberyn was even there. "Is-are they, are they well?"

"Look for yourself." Elia spoke, her voice sounded like a whisper but Ned did not think that she was trying to whisper but she did not has the strength to speak any louder than that which sent a jolt of concern down his spine.

But he did not have time to dwell on that as soon there was a comfortable weight in his hands and Ned was looking down at the little face staring back up at him with the greyest eyes that he had ever seen in his life and Ned found that it was extremly difficult to look away from them. "Is, are they-?"

"They're a girl." Elia said with a small laugh, like a bird song or a bell tinkling.

Oh. Ned suddenly felt the urge to make sure that the babe was held more securely in his arms. A daughter, a baby girl. Had Mors and Torrhen been this small? He did not think that they had been, they couldn't have been. She was so small. "Does she have a name yet?"

"No, just like last time. You couldn't be here when she was brought into the world so I wanted to wait for you to be here so that we could name her together." For a moment a stab of jealousy ran through him and he felt like asking if Ser Jaime had been there this time as well but he knew that wasn't fair and so he held his tongue.

"Maybe, we could name her Lyanna." Elia said as she reached out to take his hand and squeezed it with more tears in her eyes and Ned felt a stab in his heart at the slightest reminder of his failure, how could he bear to look at his own daughter if she had the name as well? No, he could not bear it and it would not be fair to give her the name.

"No love, I don't want her to have to compete with a ghost. A new name, I think." Ned said as he looked down at her and smiled sightly as she shut her eyes, her little chest falling and rising as she slumbered. "How about Rohanne? I always liked the name, and it's not a name that any Stark has born before that I am aware of."

"Nor do I think any Martell has had it either." Elia turned her head to look at her brother who had been silently watching all of this. "Have you ever heard of one?"

"The only Rohanne I ever heard of was the Red Widow, she might have been a Martell in spirit if you believe the stories but she was never one by blood." Oberyn said with a smirk. "I think it's a good name for her."

"Rohanne it is then." Ned bent down to press a kiss to her forehead, taking care not to scratch her soft skin with his beard. When he looked back up to Elia he reached out to cup her face again while holding the babe closer to his chest to make sure that he would not drop her. "Now that the siege is ended at Storm's End, I will asked to be released from Renly's regency council. It's time to go home."

Elia and Oberyn shared a look at that, it was a long one that sent another shiver down Ned's spine and when Elia turned to face him the look in her eyes ripped the breath out of his lungs. "Ned, Renly is dead."

"How?" It was the only thing that he could think to say.

"His nursemaid went mad, the night the siege lifted she smothered him in his bed and then threw herself from the window of his room." Oberyn said with a sigh as he rose from his chair. "It didn't kill her, she just broke her legs and her back. She was in a great deal of pain and despite myself, I couldn't help but feel moved to end her pain more quickly. So, I cut her throat."

Ned was silent for a long moment as he considered all of this. Renly was dead, he was dead. And Ned knew that it was his fault, he had put the crown on his head and that was as good as putting a knife through his heart. To crown him was to kill him and he had been the one to put it on his head. Perhaps the nursemaid was the wisest of all of them in the end, in sparing Renly the pain and the fear of it.

Elia tried to gently take Rohanne from him and Ned did not try and stop her as he simply, sat there for a long while to think it all through. "What is to be done now then?" Ned asked, his voice was so quiet that for a moment he did not recognise that it was himself speaking. "As Jon Arryn said anything? As Lord Hoster?"

"Oh, Lord Hoster has said plenty." Oberyn spoke then, his voice dark and holding an edge to it. "If it were up to me, he wouldn't be able to say anything again once I was done with him."

"Oberyn, not now." Elia said, hissing it through her teeth.

"Elia, he nearly killed you!"

"What happened?" Ned asked as he glanced between the two of them, he had thought that Elia's appreance had just been because she was tired but if there was something more to it. "Tell me, what did he do?"

With a glare from Elia keeping him quiet Oberyn sat back down in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest while Elia began to speak, but not before she reached out and rested her hand on his arm. "I'm fine, she's fine, we are both fine. I need to make sure that you know that before we go any futher, we are both fine."

Ned nodded, to make sure that she knew that he did understand. Elia nodded back before she carried on. "When you sent word about what had happened to Elbert, Lord Hoster was not pleased and he wished to make sure that I and the rest of the court knew it. He came up to me and he said somethings to me that were...not very pleasent."

"What exactly did he say?" Ned asked while narrowing his eyes.

"That doesn't matter." Elia looked down at Rohanne and rocked her gently for a moment before she took in a breath and looked back up at him. "It just wasn't nice to hear, I tried to calm him down but he would not listen to me. He screamed so loud at me that, well, it must have scared her a little as that was the moment she choose to come. A little earlier than she could have."

"They both nearly died." Oberyn chose that moment to speak and Elia glared at him again but it was clear that this time her brother did not care and neither did Ned, he wanted to hear it. "She lost a great deal of blood, she went even paler than she is now and she was barely breathing and when Rohanne came out, she wasn't breathing. We all thought she was dead, it was only when I kept rubbing her chest that she managed to take a breath."

"But she's fine now, look at her. She was only a few days early, a week at the most. She's eating as well as either of her brothers did at this time, in fact I'm worried I don't have enough milk for her so we've set out looking for a wetnurse for her." Elia was stroking his shoulder now. "We're both fine, we are fine I promise you.

Ned truly did believe her, he really did. That did not change the anger that was burning under his skin at that moment. His eyes fell shut for a long moment and he just tried to breath to calm himself but it didn't seem to be doing anything to help. When he opened his eyes again, he leaned in and gave Elia a kiss before he rose from the bed. "I'm going to kill him."

"Finally, some sense at last." Oberyn said with a grin as he began to rise from his chair, even as he tried to hide a wince as he rose. Elia was saying something to the both of them, clearly protesting and if Ned was in a saner sort of mind then he would more than likely listen to her but right now he was not in any sort of mind, he was lost to grief and rage.

Neither of them had been able to take a step out of the room however, as it was in that very moment that the door to the room was thrown open and Jon Arryn walked in. In a moment that might have been right out of his childhood, he glanced from Oberyn to Ned in the same way he would have done when it was Ned and Robert that were doing something wrong. "Do I want to ask?"

"I want him dead, Jon. You can't stop me." And he couldn't, he loved Jon and he respected him but he was not his Lord Father. And Hoster Tully needed to die, right now it was the only thing in the world that seemed to make sense anymore.

"Can I stop you? No. But I can have you thrown into the Black Cells, and considering how you are acting I do think that your Lord Father would agree with me." Jon turned to look at Elia then and the both of them seemed to share a silent conversation for a few moments before Jon turned his attention back to him. "We are all in danger at the moment Ned, maybe in more danger than you can know. You need to calm down, now. Come with me."

Jon might not be his true Father, but all the same it was hard to defy him. As Ned followed Jon, he could hear Elia call out to her brother reminding him that there were things that the both of them needed to discuss but he was too far down the corridor before he could hear the rest of whatever it was they were going to speak of.

It did not take them long to arrive at Jon's solar, Lord Arryn only needed to give him a look to get him to sit down and all of sudden he truly did feel like he was a little boy back at the Eyrie who had been called in for a scolding, it didn't happen often and more often than not it was always Robert's fault but he always hated it when it happened.

Jon placed a cup in front of him and Ned brought it to his lips without thinking, he was caught by suprise at the sweet taste as he was expecting it to be ale. He pulled the cup back and frowned at it's contents. "Milk and honey? I am not a child."

"If you insist on acting like one then I will treat you like one, for half a moment I thought I was looking at Robert and not you." Jon said with a sigh as he took a seat across from him. "Robert is dead right now, because he could not keep a handle on his rage. In a different world, he might be alive right now. Stannis and Renly could be alive right now, and he could be king."

What a wonderful world that would be, Robert would have been a good king. Ned was sure of that more than anything else in the world. But he had been angry, ever since he was a boy Robert had always felt everything to his fullest extent and his rages had always been a terrible thing to behold even when he was just a boy. He'd always known that it would kill him in the end. "I know, Jon. I know."

"Then act like it." Jon spat at him and then he let out a sigh, rubbing at his eyes for a long moment. He looked older. "I am sorry about Lyanna, and Brandon, I truly am."

"I'm sorry about Elbert." Ned said back, it shamed him to admit that he had forgotten for a moment that he had been Jon's nephew. "I never should have asked him to come with me, but I trust him and I knew him to be a good swordsman. But I shouldn't have done it, it's my fault he's dead. I am sorry Jon, truly and more than I can ever say."

"Stop it, you made a choice and that was it. Elbert choose to go with you, you did not command him to do so. And I did not stop him when I could have, he was my heir and I his uncle and liege lord. I could have commanded him to stay, and I should have perhaps. But it is done, we all make our choices Ned and we must live with them as best as we can do."

"Or not." Ned muttered as he reached for the cup and took a deep drink from it, it wasn't ale but the chill of the milk and the sweetness of the honey at least provided a distraction if it was only a small one for a short amount of time. "Renly's dead, the rebellion was dependent on putting him on the Throne as a claimant. What will happen now?"

"Lord Tywin is already making a push to put his grandson on the throne, it would seem to be the most obvious choice after all. We must be thankful that most of the Targaryen supporters are divded between him and Viserys, apprently Princess Cersei is considering putting her daughter foreward ahead of her son. Helpful for us, if true." Jon sighed. "A grand council will be called, it is the only way for this to be decided."

He could have guessed that, to be honest. "We will have to send for the girl from the Vale." When Jon looked confused Ned carried on. "Mya, we will need to have her legitimized of course but she is Robert's child and the reason we we're going to put Renly on the throne was because of his Targaryen grandmother. Well, Mya has her as a great-grandmother. The line is there."

"Ned, don't be a fool. No one is going to want a legitamized bastard girl on the throne, certainly not one so young." Ned did not think that she was that much younger than Renly but he knew that was not the biggest issue. "None will vote for her, I doubt anyone will Dorne will want to vote for her. I will not vote for her."

"Then who?" Ned asked and Jon Arryn did not say anything to him after that, he just kept staring at him and Ned was about to ask what he was looking at when suddenly it hit him exactly what he was looking at. "No, absolutely not. Jon, you are as much of a Father to me as my actual Father if not more so and I am telling you. No."

"It is not such a mad idea Ned, there are people who have been very impressed by you. Men of the North who would like to see one of their own on the Throne, people who grew alongside you in the Vale who know you well. Hoster Tully is not pleased with any of us, but he knows that if he wants to be the Hand then he will need a king who was on our side so that will get us some votes from the Riverlands, if not all of them, and your wife will bring us Dorne's votes. We could win."

"I won't do it, if the crown is given to me I will pass it up." Ned said as he rose from the chair and began to pace back and forth, the entire world had utterly lost it's mind at some point. "I have no right to it, for a start. I don't have any Targaryen ancestors, the last that I checked. I have no claim, none whatsoever."

"Ned, nobody cared about Renly's claim. None on our side at the very least, a Targaryan grandmother is hardly the strongest in the world, is it? I am sure if we poured over the records of the citadel then we could find something if we had to but nobody will care, it was a useful pretense and nothing more than that. The council will decided, and if the votes decide that the crown lands on your head you will do your duty. Just as I taught you."

Ned never thought the day would come where he would want to hit Jon Arryn but he wanted to now, more than anything in that moment but he would not do so. He had enough problems, for one thing. "You will not stop me from bring Mya here, if you won't bring her here then I will and I will vote for her and I will work to make sure that everyone I can will vote for her as well."

"No, I can't. But you won't win Eddard, all you will do is bring the girl here for nothing and I won't be surprised if at the end of it you are the only person who will end up voting for her."

"Then I will be the only person who will vote for her, and in the end I know that I did the best that I could for Robert, I could not save him or his brothers but I could at least make sure that his house would continue and there would be a Baratheon queen. I thought you would understand that." Ned turned and left, not turning back when Jon called for him to come back.

Ned wanted to make sure that the babe was settled in the nursery before he dealt with anything else, his head felt like it was about to split open like a rotten fruit and he wanted to sleep but Jon had been right about one thing. He would always put his duty before anything else, his duty when it came to Lyanna's son and his duty towards making sure a Baratheon of some sort sat the throne.

He walked into the nursery to find his wife was already standing there, her hand on the edge of the cradle where the babe was resting and it looked more as though she was leaning on it for strength rather than just placing her hand on it to rest it there. She turned to face him and her dark eyes narrowed at him.

"I think that you and I need to speak."

End of Chapter One-Hundred.

Well, well, well.

One. Hundred. Chapters.

It's hard to believe, over four years of writing this story there were moments where I was certain that I would never reach this milestone but here we are at long last and I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has read this far, who have favourited and followed and left a review. There aren't words for how grateful I am.

Next chapter, we go over to Elia's perspective to hear what she and Oberyn spoke of as well as to see what she and Ned will talk about at as well, plus Elia will be the one to tell Ned about some of Hoster Tully's demands which Jon was going to do before Ned stormed out on him.

Welp, see you next chapter.

With a ton of love and so many warm regards,

DiscordantSymphony