None of them spoke of what they'd seen.
None of them wanted to acknowledge what they'd seen.
But they couldn't deny it even if they didn't want to.
And the people around them had started noticing it too. Even if they didn't share what they'd seen, they had noticed the difference in the attitudes of the Starks.
Lord Stark has been more reserved and introspective, more so than expected. Lady Stark seemed more on edge, though her attitude with the people of Winterfell seemed warmer, even more than before, which the servants found surprising.
The distance between Robb and Theon was the most obvious, with both boys avoiding each other like the plague. And Robb during training seemed more aggressive, and forceful and fought as if he was fighting for his life. He'd injured many in training and was on the receiving end of Ser Rodrick's admonishment more and more these days.
Sansa shirked her studies with the Septa and strayed from needlework and other such things. She spent more time staring out the window and watching the men fight with an unreadable expression on her face.
Arya outright refused to attend any lessons and no matter how much the Septa threatened her with her parents or made promises, she could not draw the younger Stark girl back to the study chambers. She spent most of her time striking dummies with wooden swords that were too heavy for her to carry and with bows and arrows. She would always mutter things under her breath that nobody quite understood.
Bran had stopped climbing altogether, spending most of his time in the Godswood. Nobody knew what the reason for the change was and Bran would not speak of it either.
Rickon seemed to be the only one who was normal, still a child and wild as they come.
The one person who most people did not pay much attention to was Jon. It was nothing new that people did not pay attention to Jon, because the boy never drew attention to himself. He was reserved and preferred to keep to himself and observe from the shadows. Not many knew what went through his head or how he truly thought. So even if there was a change in his attitude, nobody truly knew or paid enough attention to figure it out.
But there was a change in Jon. The boy was starting to question himself and everything around him.
All his life he'd known one reality, had a set series of beliefs, had an identity. Even if he did not like that identity, it was his, something he knew, understood, and grew familiar with.
And now suddenly it was all thrown into the flames.
His father was not his father, his mother was his aunt, and his lineage was not just one ancient lineage but two. Jon Snow was raised a wolf, like his mother, but inside him slept a dragon that he got from his father. A side to him that he would have never known if not for the things that had happened and the knowledge that he'd gained.
And the revelation affected his life more than he thought from the moment he returned. The people knew him as someone he was not, knew him as something he was not. He felt ill at ease in his skin, as if he was wearing some disguise and his true skin was fighting to surface.
The stares he'd grown with all his life angered him more than it did before. They looked at him like a bastard who lived here at the kindness of his Lord Father. They weren't unkind to him, never were, but those looks of pity and the looks that reminded him of who he was, it was hurtful back then. Now it infuriated him.
He was not a bastard like they thought he was. He was a fucking Prince of the realm for fucks sake! Those looks should not be aimed at him.
And then he'd take a breath and calm himself. He'd grown with those looks all his life because that was all these people knew about him. It was foolish of him to be angry over such a minor thing, childish even. Was it their fault that they didn't know who Jon was? Was it their fault that their Lord had lied to them?
No, it was not. And Jon would remind himself sharply of this every time he'd be close to losing his cool.
But it had gotten tiresome to keep reminding himself of this, so Jon strayed as far from the public eye as possible, to avoid the looks.
This was why he spent most of his time in the Crypts, sitting before the statue of his mother, a woman he'd known about all his life but didn't know that she was his mother. And now that he knew, it made things hard. It made things harder considering how not long ago he'd sat beside her, how she'd hold his hand, hug him, talk to him. He missed the sound of his voice, the gentleness of her gaze, and the way she'd rise to defend him no matter what the matter was.
Jon spent most of his time here crying at those memories, both glad to have them and cursing the gods for giving him a taste of something he could never keep. But it was easier for him to focus on the memories, lose himself in them, and think about them only. People would call him delusional for it if they knew, but Jon would not care a single bit. None of them could understand what it felt like, to crave something your entire life and be given it, only for it to be taken away. These 'delusions' were his safe space, a place where he'd be at peace.
The sound of footsteps drew Jon out of those 'delusions' and forced him back to reality.
"I knew I would find you here."
Jon turned and found his father standing behind him.
No, not his father. It was his uncle.
He quickly wiped his tears and stood, bowing respectfully.
Ned Stark frowned at that.
"You need not bow to me," Ned said gently.
"You are the Lord of Winterfell and my elder," Jon said in the same tone.
For a moment they were both silent, Ned walking up to stand beside his nephew and stare at the statues of the people before him.
"These do not do justice to the people we lost" the man finally said. "But seldom do statues capture the essence of a person."
He had lost his father and his siblings, Jon knew. His uncle could understand his pain, but it was not entirely. His uncle did not have to crave the love of these people growing up or wonder whether they were alive and loved him. He grew up with them and knew they loved him dearly.
Ned Stark may understand the pain of loss, but he would not under the pain of wondering, having it confirmed, experiencing it, and then losing it entirely. That was a pain only Jon could feel.
"Was there something you wished to speak about, Lord Stark?" Jon asked.
If Ned had noticed the slight shift in Jon's tone, he did not show it.
"I wished to talk to you."
"About?"
Ned was silent for a moment. Jon understood it as the man trying to collect his thoughts.
"I would like to apologize to you, Jon. For not telling you the truth about your parentage. To have hidden such a big part of you from yourself."
You did it to protect me, that had been the argument he'd told himself back in the hall, where he'd asked himself how his 'father' could have lied to him as such.
But after his return, after being stripped of the comfort that was his mother, Jon was starting to question it.
"Would you have ever told me?" Jon asked instead.
"At some point perhaps," Ned said.
"When I was older and could hold to the secret in my belly?" Jon inquired.
Ned gave a nod.
Jon nodded back, but he knew that his uncle was hiding something from him. Jon was good at things like that, observing the smallest of details of a person. He knew the ticks that his uncle had when he was hiding something. And right now some of those ticks were out for him to see.
So his age was not the only reason Ned Stark had for hiding who Jon was. And after days of being on his own and only his thoughts as his companion, Jon suspected it had something to do with Robert Baratheon.
"There has also been a raven from the capital" Ned added, ignorant to Jon's thoughts. "I have summoned the rest to my solar. I came to take you with me."
-x-
"Jaime Lannister has confessed to being the father of the Queen's children and has been arrested for this purpose. Cersei of House Lannister stands for trial regarding this. Eddard of House Stark, Lord of Winterfell, and The Warden of The North, you are being summoned to attend the trial as one of the judges."
Ned put the parchment down and stared at all gathered.
"He didn't kill the woman out of anger. Guess the King has changed" Robb commented, his tone cold and distant.
Ned looked ready to say something but decided against it in the end.
"The trial is a farce. Cersei would be found guilty and sentenced to death for Treason, Adultery, and Incest" Catelyn spoke. "He's summoning you to discuss the hall no doubt."
"Aye," Ned nods.
"Something we haven't done" Jon added. "What is our plan? What are we going to do?"
"Isn't it obvious? We're going to string up everyone for betraying us! Starting with Greyjoy who still walks around as if he'd done nothing!" Robb growled under his breath.
"We can't do that" Jon shook his head. "Theon has done none of the things we'd seen him do."
"So what? Are we going to just wait for him to stab us in the back and sell us to his father?" Robb asked angrily.
"After what Theon has seen, he won't think about betraying us to the man who doesn't give two shits about him" Jon argued evenly. "And if we decide to punish him for all the shit he has yet to pull, we might as well hold you accountable for breaking your oath to the Freys, or hold Landy Catelyn accountable for capturing the son of a Warden without any plans in mind or for freeing a valuable prisoner of war that turned the tides entirely!"
Robb stood angrily and so did Jon, though the latter was not angry but calm.
"Enough both of you" Catelyn spoke up. "The boy is right… if we start punishing anyone and everyone for things they have not yet done, we might as well start with us."
"So we just stand back and let it all happen? The Greyjoys and the Boltons?"
"The Boltons are a matter entirely different," Jon said smoothly, noting how stiff Sansa had gotten at the mention of the Boltons.
"How so? They haven't done shit yet!" Robb argued.
"But they have" Jon leaned forward and stood. "The ease at which they flay men would suggest that they never stopped flaying men in the first place. Lord Stark has outlawed flaying in the North. So if any evidence is found of such atrocity, he is in his right to execute all involved for breaking the law."
Robb blinked, understanding Jon's perspective. But his anger was anything but at bay.
"And what? You're going to go snooping around?" Robb scoffed. "They'll flay you the moment they know you're looking!"
"I would not need to do anything like that. None of us do" Jon said evenly. "We have a Master of Whispers. He is good enough to find out what we need him to find out."
"And if he doesn't?" Bran asked, his voice small and scared.
Jon's gaze softened, before hardening again.
"He will, and if he doesn't then he can simply place a few convenient witnesses to frame them."
All looked at Jon with surprise.
"But, that's not right!" Bran argued.
"Isn't it?" Robb asked a small smile on his face. It was obvious he approved of the plan. "We know they are doing a bad thing. We are simply making sure they get caught for doing it."
"But that's not honorable!"
"Honour got father killed" Arya reminded her brother grimly. "If we don't strike, then they will. And they will wipe us all out."
"Then why are we not framing them all?" Bran asked harshly. "Theon, the Freys, and everyone!"
"Because Theon saved me in the end," Sansa said softly. "I don't know if we lived the jump, but he helped me. He made a mistake and he saw what his mistake led him to."
"And the Freys are not from the North. We can't do anything against them" Jon clarified gently.
Bran did not look happy.
"Enough" Ned spoke, putting on the mask of the Lord of Winterfell and silencing all arguments. "We can think about all of that later, for now, our focus should be on the trial."
"What's there to focus on that?" Jon asked, "You're a judge, you will find her guilty because she is guilty, and the King will demand her head. Ser Jaime would be sent to the Wall because that was agreed upon, to make the Wall slightly stronger than what it is now. Stannis Baratheon will be heir because he is the eldest, and with the King still alive he'd put that into effect so Renly will not try to double cross in any way."
"None of them deserve to be King" Sansa said out loud, her tone even and soft. "Robert's failed as King, Stannis borders on greed for the Throne and Renly is easily manipulated with the right sweet words from any of his lovers. None of them deserve the Throne."
"Then what? We push for Robert to naturalize one of his bastards?" Arya asked incredulously. Robert had an overabundance of those.
"We've seen two people who have shown that they care for people and would actually try to be good leaders. What's the point in them showing it to us if not for us to push for them?" Sansa questioned. "We should push for either Daenerys or Jon to be heirs."
Jon stared at his cousin with slackened jaws.
"Enough," Ned said tiredly. "We'll speak of this once we are in the Capital with everyone around. Prepare to depart for King's Landing."
There were no more talks about anything on that topic or any other topics. The people rose and made their way out the door.
Where they found Theon standing, eyes widened and a parchment in his hands.
"My sister wrote to us" Theon muttered.
Ned gave a cold nod and took the parchment from the Greyjoy. He read it and snorted.
"I'm not surprised" he handed it back to Theon and walked away. The rest followed. Jon was the last to do so, being stopped by Theon and pulled to the side.
"Thank you, for stepping up for me," he said in a hushed whisper. "I know the things I've done… or the things I would've done, they are unforgivable."
"They are" Jon nods. "But you helped Sansa, so you get a second chance."
Jon put a hand on Theon's shoulder and Theon smiled. Then the grip tightened and Theonwinced.
"But if I catch a whiff of you doing something like that, I will personally off your head and feed you to the hounds."
Theon flinched and Jon walked away.