Author's Notes: Hey everyone, sorry that it has been so long since I last updated, lot going on. I hope this makes up for it. As always I own nothing, G.R.R. Martin and HBO do.

For what seemed like hours, but in truth was only minutes, Sansa stared at the message, her mind numb as she tried to contemplate the implications of what the message contained. She was trying to find someway to mitigate the horror, but her mind refused to focus. Thus, for a while all that she could do was stare at the paper, half thinking that if she stared at it long enough it would change. The words; however, remained the same. Her hands shaking Sansa reached for her wine glass and took a deep gulp.

It was happening, after all the waiting and efforts at preparation it was finally happening. She felt both cold and numb at the same time. She simultaneously felt her breath catching in her throat and the urge to hyperventilate at the same time. She wanted to run, curl up into a ball and cry, but at the moment she could not move. After a moment she took a deep breath and forced herself to relax. Once she had calmed down enough to do so she drained the last of her wine, refilled it and took another deep swallow. She then continued to read the letter.

Jon wrote that at her urging he had sent Arya beyond the Wall. Though she had insisted that she could go alone and he had initially planned to allow her to do so he had eventually changed his mind and had also sent a few handpicked rangers and wildlings beyond the Wall with her. They had not gone far and had turned back. A day from the Wall they had discovered traces of movement of a large group of people. Thinking that they might be Wildlings the group had followed the tracks. To their horror they found that the makers of the tracks were, in fact, wights, undead servants of the Others. They did not know why the wights had been up to the Wall, nor why they were heading back into the forest. They did not remain long as they feared that the Others might be nearby and they did not want to confront them.

Since their return the dead had continued to press towards the Wall, coming so close that they could be seen by sentries on the Wall. Thus far they had not attacked the Wall, but all knew that it was only a matter of time until that happened. Jon had been in counsel with the King and the officers of the Golden Company to settle on a strategy to defend the Wall. They were hindered in this by the fact that they could not understand how the enemy intended to breach the wall. None had ever seen a wight climb, though Jon wrote that they seemed to retain some intelligence so it was not impossible. This was bad as even with the King, the Wildlings and the Golden Company the defenders faced the same difficulty that the Night's Watch had faced when they had defended the Wall from the Wildlings. There simply were not enough of them to effectively defend all of the Wall.

To that end Jon asked for as many men as Sansa could raise and send to the Castle Black. In particular he asked for horsemen in order to form a reserve to reinforce wherever the enemy should choose to attack. If the Others attacked a weakly-held portion of the Wall it was hoped that the horsemen would be able to reinforce and hold till more help could come. The letter ended with that. Without a word Sansa set the letter down on the table before her. She then simply sat and stared at it.

As she did so a strange sense of calm settled over her. It was finally happening, the threat which they had so long feared and tried to prepare for was here. In strange way it was a relief. It was like when she was back in King's Landing when she feared that Joffrey was going to have her beaten again. When he did the pain was bad, but in a way it was more tolerable than the fear that came with the waiting. She felt that way now. The memories of Old Nan's stories of the Long Night came to her with every detail, of a generation of cold and darkness and all the suffering and death which accompanied it and now it seemed that it was going to happen again.

Sansa wondered if the people back then had felt the way she felt now when they realized what was coming and that there was no way to avoid it; a strange mixture of fear of what was to come and relief that it was at last happening. She shook her head, she did not have time for this. As the letter said there was much to be done and they may have little time to do it in. She rose and turned to Maester Dontin to begin issuing orders. As she did she remembered that he had indicated that there was another matter, though she could not see how it could possibly be as important as the letter that she had just read.

"Was there something else?"

"Yes, my lady.

"The guards told me that a man is at the gates saying that he needs to speak to you. He claims that he has come from White Harbor. He says is name is Barth and that his is expected by you." And so her second fear had manifested itself.

Author's Notes: Hey everyone, again sorry that it took so long to update and that it was not that long. I promise that the next chapter will be sooner and longer. Till then stay safe as I am now convinced that this year is out to get us, pray for those who need it, including my grandmother who got you-know-what and may Jesus bless you.