Where there was expected chaos, silence reigned supreme as men, women and children processed what they had just witnessed.
It was only after Robb Stark swore vengeance loud and clear for all to hear that the rest of the Hall dissolved into chaos.
The Starks were rightly furious, cursing the backstabber to the seven hells irrespective of how old the cursers were. Nobody stopped the younger ones from cursing; even the silent ones joined in. Robert Baratheon joined right in, his curses more like promises he could fulfil as king. Jon Arryn called Petyr Baelish many things, none of them polite or for children to hear. Those who did not join in on the chaotic cursing of Petyr Baelish eyed the Starks with an almost 'I knew this would happen' look, especially at Catelyn Stark who had been such a firm defender of her childhood friend.
The woman in question did not join in with the rest of her family. She stared, jaw slackened, eyes wide and hands trembling in disbelief. "He was my friend" she whispered to herself. She felt a hand on her shoulder and the world around her began to crumble.
With a strangled sob Catelyn shrugged the hand away and ran. She was not sure where she was running, but she needed to be away from all of these people.
The door was right before her, the wooden door with iron borders and latches. She slammed through it and kept running. She did not go to the chamber she'd shared with her husband or one of her children's chambers either.
She didn't even enter the door that led to that particular corridor.
Instead, she ran past it, ran past the multitude of doors that had taken a form of their own to represent who lived behind them. She kept running further from those occupied ones to the ones that were still empty, their doors bland and blank. Finally, she stopped, choosing a chamber that would be a stranger to her, one that she could isolate herself in and break.
It wasn't a chamber that was a stranger to her when she walked. Her cerulean eyes took in the all too familiar chambers, her chambers in Riverrun. The way the furniture was arranged, the large bed, the scent, all of it was the same as the day she had left her home for Winterfell.
Funny how she remembered all of that so clearly.
She struggled to the bed before collapsing on it.
She did not hold herself back from sobbing and crying this time. She buried her face in her bed and cried her heart out, sobbing and wailing. She didn't hear her door click open, so when she felt a hand on her back, she jumped and bolted away from the bed.
It was Ned.
He looked at her with kindness.
How could he look like that at her after what had happened?
"He was my friend" she whispered shakily.
"I know" he whispered kindly.
She sobbed and ran to him.
Ned embraced her and allowed her to cry while he held her tightly.
"This is not your fault" he whispered to her, a hand rubbing her back and running through her hair. "He was your friend, you trusted your friend. You didn't know what kind of a man he had become after so many years."
"I should have" she hiccuped against his chest. "I should have known that the weasel would change like this."
"How? How would you have known?"
"I don't know! I- I don't know!" Catelyn struggled to free herself from his arms but Ned held on strong. "Everything I've done in the future has only brought misfortune on you! It was my fault you trusted him, my fault you got injured by the Kingslayer, and my fault that you were stabbed in the back."
Ned inhaled deeply.
"Mistakes were made" Ned conceded. Catelyn looked up at him and only saw love and understanding. He made it clear, he was not going to cover her mistakes but he was not going to hold it against her. "But none of those were things you did out of anything but the urge to protect our family. It may not have worked as you'd hoped, but the intentions behind them were not bad."
Catelyn buried her face back into his chest.
"I have asked the rest to continue watching while we calm down."
Catelyn nodded.
"I will gut that man alive for what he did!" Robert roared, throwing the chair he sat on and watching it smash to pieces.
"And this will help?" Stannis pinned his brother with a glare. "You're acting like a child. Calm down."
"Stannis! You-"
"Enough, Robert" Jon Arryn scolded the King with a look of stoic anger. "You destroying things does not help us in any way."
"I'm going to kill him, Jon. I swear I'm going to kill him!"
"Then do it."
Robert's gaze went to Ned's bastard. Jon Snow was looking at him, face red from anger. He remembered Ned looking like that once, back when he'd heard that his brother had been taken prisoner by the mad king.
"You're the fucking King! What you say is law. If you want Baelish dead command it and kill him! He's a slime who licks the ass of whoever makes him powerful!" Jon Snow declared, "he was doing it to father until father refused to take Joffrey under him. Kill him before he does any of that."
"That would be a disastrous thing to do."
Robert growled in anger. He knew well enough whose voice that was.
Rhaegar Targaryen was walking up to him, his wife right by his side.
"Shut up dragonspawn" Robert spat. "That slime turned his knife on Ned! I will not allow him to get away with that!"
"And what will be the reason for his execution?" Elia questioned, her voice gentle but stern. "That he double-crosses Lord Stark in the future? People would think you're losing your mind! Just like another King..."
Robert's fury pinned on the princess, who met it with cold silence.
"Careful woman" Robert warned.
"Or what? You will hit me like you hit your wife? Or kill me like your dogs did me and my children?" Elia snapped back.
The words made Robert flinch the barest bit.
"Enough arguing" Jon Arryn cut in. "The Princess is right, we can't do anything to Baelish for things he has yet to do."
"What about things he has already done?" Margaery Tyrell asked. She and her grandmother were standing beside Renly and watching the commotion. "Surely a man like him has multiple skeletons in the cellars."
"Varys?"
Rhaegar turned to the Spider, who inclined his head with a smile.
"He might."
"And you've hidden this from me?!" Robert rumbled.
"Secrets are a great weapon, my King. You can control even the powerful with them."
Robert growled and took a threatening step forward. But Jon Arryn stopped him. The old man looked at the Spider.
"Will these 'skeletons' be enough for Baelish to lose his head?"
"That depends entirely on the King, Lord Hand. If he were to take these personally as slights to his name and honour…"
"You will tell me of these once we return Spider, or so help me I will skewer you from the ass up your throat!"
"Of course, your Grace."
The crowd slowly dissipated, each person going back to their respective seating. Jon Snow, still furious was taken back by his grandfather and uncle, while Robert was being calmed down by his brothers and Jon Arryn. Rhaegar and Elia who were not yet seated watched the rest, Rhaegar's eyes fixated on one particular person.
"He's got a bit of hotheadedness to him."
"He's at that age," Elia said smiling, "and I hear his mother's side of the family tend to have those as well."
Rhaegar chuckled and shook his head.
OKAY SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPLOAD GUYS. IT WAS EID AND I WAS CELEBRATING. I'M STILL IN THE CELEBRATION MOOD SO IT'S A MEH SHORT BUFFER CHAPTER. WE'LL GET BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM SOON. I HOPE YOU GUYS TAKE CARE AND DON'T FORGET TO HYDRATE!