Tense silence reigned in the hall. Ned's eyes turned narrow and cold, Lyanna's wide and horrified. Rickard Stark was tense and Brandon was fuming and panting.
Catelyn on the other hand swole as if insulted.
"All my children have the North in them!" she snarled, "just because the bastard looks like him doesn't mean—"
She'd misunderstood what Brandon meant, and from the looks of it so had the rest of the Stark children. Robb was angry that his uncle would say something like that, Sansa wide-eyed and confused about what to say. Bran looked close to tears while Arya was insulted for her siblings, she hadn't been brought into how unlike their Father she was like her sibling.
And Jon sunk into his seat trying to make himself disappear.
"He doesn't mean that" Lady Olenna cut the woman off.
Any semblance of hope that built inside Ned had gone out.
"My Lady—"
"Quiet you" the Queen of Thorns snapped at Lyanna, "the secret was bound to get out soon anyways" She turned back to Catelyn, her eyes sharp and uninterested, even if she was the most interested. "The Bastard isn't your husband's."
"What are you talking about? Of course he's—"
Catelyn turned to her husband, only to see disgruntlement and fear in his eyes. Fear? Why was he afraid? Her eyes fell back on Olenna Tyrell, but she had looked away from her and was now staring narrow-eyed at Prince Rhaegar.
It didn't take Catelyn much after to connect the dots. Wide-eyed from shock her head snapped to he husband, then at her sister-in-law who would not raise her head.
"Tell me you have not hidden something this big from me" she almost begged, "tell me you have not insulted my worth and lied to me for so many years."
But Ned said nothing. He wouldn't even meet her eyes.
"Ned, what is the meaning of this? I demand to know who the bastard is if he's not yours" Robert stood, his voice gentle but there was no mistaking the kingly command in it.
"The bastard is his sister's" Stannis explained and Robert's head snapped to him. "You've said it yourself, Lord Stark is too honourable. I always found it unbelievable he'd sire a bastard even at war—"
"You're being stupid" Robert declared, cutting his brother off, "all men have their moments of weakness, and death is always that. He didn't know whether he'd survive, he just—"
Robert's voice died when he saw the look on Ned's face as if the Lord of Winterfell was stricken. The man sobered up before hurt and anger flooded his gaze. He rushed to Ned and grasped his arm.
"Tell me this is false" the King demanded, his grip tightening, "tell me this is all a lie, that you have not hidden something this big from me."
"It… It is not" Ned muttered, so low that he had to repeat it. "Jon isn't my son, he is my sister's" Ned looked up to meet his old friend's eyes, determined, cold and sad. "I had to lie to you so I could keep what remains of my sister."
Robert let his arm go.
"I don't believe this!" the King paced. "How could you lie to me?! How could you lie to me?!" the King demanded to know. "We are friends, we are brothers! How could you hide something this big from me?!"
"Because I didn't know you anymore!" Ned snapped and Robert stopped, face red from anger. "You who looked at the bodies of dead babies, one with his skull bashed in and the other stabbed so many times she looked like a training dummy, and let it pass! Called it justice! How could I trust you at that time to not do the same to my nephew for who his father is?!"
"He's Lyanna's boy!"
"He's Rhaegar's son!" Ned snapped. "Tell me you would have spared his life and allowed me to raise him! Tell me my sister's blood in him would have been enough for you to spare him the fate his half-siblings had received!"
Robert's face squirmed before it softened.
But Catelyn yanked Ned to face her before Robert could speak.
"Why?" she demanded.
Ned didn't need to ask her to clarify.
"At first… at first I didn't know if I could trust you" Ned raised a hand to silence her, "I didn't know you beyond your name and that you were to marry my brother. We may have had a son, but I didn't know you, nor did I trust that you wouldn't let it slip. It was easier to claim Jon as mine."
"What about the years after?!" Catelyn hissed, her eyes brimming with anger and betrayal.
"Your treatment of the boy only fed into the lie that he's my bastard. Your treatment of him made it easier to sell the lie. To protect him—"
"You chose to insult me" the woman sneered. Catelyn turned before storming out of the hall. Ned followed her after a moment.
Robert walked back to his seat, falling on it as if defeated.
"You alright?" Renly asked his brother.
"Had I become such a monster that Ned didn't even trust me with the life of his blood?" Robert asked. Ned's words had cut him deep.
"You looked at the bodies of Rhaenys and Aegon and said they deserved their fates" Stannis answered, stoic and hard. "I don't believe anyone would trust you with the bastard at that time."
"Not a bastard, a Prince" Renly pointed out, "you heard Rhaegar and Lyanna, they married."
"A second marriage even if done in the ways of Old Valyria holds no value in our society" Stannis corrected him. "No matter who says what, Jon Snow will remain a bastard, regardless of whether there are proofs of the marriage or not."
Renly nodded. For the first time in a while, he agreed with his elder brother.
"Who would have thought Ned Stark was such a good liar" Tyrion muttered around a cup of wine. His eyes went to Jaime and found him staring forward. Tyrion didn't associate the emotion with his brother that he wore now, confusion and as if his world might have shattered.
"And so the truth is out" Olenna gripped her walking stick and swayed it on the spot.
"Little could be done with how you insisted on letting it be known" Margaery sighed. "Jon Snow does not seem to be the kind who'd want to take the throne."
"Then it should be on you to make him take it" Olenna stared at her granddaughter.
"And if I fail?" Margaery questioned.
"The King can still make more children I suppose" The old woman shrugged.
Theon sat wide-eyed while Yara laughed.
"What is so funny?!" Theon snapped.
"You got on the wrong side of a Prince!" his sister replied, wheezing seeing Theon's face.
"They know" Doran stated.
"They do" Oberyn nodded.
"He'll have more suitors now, each one pushing him to be King."
"He won't."
Both brothers turned to Elia.
"Rhaegar and Lyanna may have married in the ways of Old Valyria, Lyanna is still a second wife while the first wife still lives. Jon would not be seen as a trueborn."
"And you knew this when you agreed to let Rhaegar marry a second time" Oberyn noted.
Elia fixed the skirt of her dress.
"Rhaegar is very fixated on his prophecy and I was not able to give him a third child. I consented to him marrying a second time knowing full well that Aegon would have always ascended the throne even if Lyanna gave him a son, and the realm would support my son's claim."
"I see" Doran mused.
"People may entice him to take the throne now, but Jon's claim would be challenged even if documents to support his parentage came out" Elia stated calmly. "So if you were to plan on putting your daughter on the throne, brother, I'd suggest you do so by not going for Jon but for Robert instead."
"The man who did nothing for the deaths of you and your children?" Oberyn asked outraged.
"I am dead, my children are dead," Elia said plainly, pain as it did her, "you need to think without any emotional baggage if you intend to put Dorne in a better position now."
Doran mused while Oberyn fumed.
Both parents and uncle gone, Robb stared at his feet in shock. Jon, the boy he'd grown up with, the boy he'd trained with, the boy who he believed was his brother, was not his brother to begin with! How could his father have lied like this? To hide something so big from his family.
Did Jon know?
Robb turned but did not find Jon there.
"He walked away when Lady Olenna revealed it" Sansa stole his attention. The girl was staring at him with eyes.
"We should go after him" Arya jumped out of her seat but Sansa grabbed her.
"He needs to be alone," Sansa said.
"He needs us!" Arya argued.
"He needs to be alone for now to digest all of this. His whole world just turned upside down" Sansa explained.
Robb agreed, pulling Arya back to her seat.
"He'll come back to us" Robb assured the outraged girl.
Arya eventually agreed to let Jon have his time
Jon sat in his chambers in silence.
He'd been lied to.
All his life he'd been lied to.
His life in itself was a lie.
He was not Ned Stark's bastard. He was not born out of some moment of weakness. It should make him happy. He should be happy that he was not some mistake.
Yet he wasn't.
A knock on the door made Jon look up. His aunt Lyanna stood there.
No.
Not his aunt.
That was his mother.
The young woman standing before him, looking nervous and unsure was his mother. The woman who died at the end of the Rebellion.
He couldn't help it, he broke.
Lyanna rushed to him, wrapped her arms around his head and pulled him close to her chest.
Jon wrapped his arms around her middle and held her tightly.
"It's going to be okay" she murmured to the boy, who sobbed into her chest and held her tightly.
"I wanted to know who you were for so long" he mumbled into her chest, "I wanted to know who my mother was… whether she loved me."
"I do" Lyanna assured him, her voice gentle but firm. "I have loved you from the moment you arrived in this world, the moment I held you in my arms and looked into your eyes. I love you and I will never stop loving you."
Jon let out a sob and held her tighter.