[Chapter Size: 4300 Words.]
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Third Person POV
Tully Region, 300 AC.
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He had already advanced southwest, leaving the Tully lands behind, while having to pass through a few more villages. The Lannisters and the Freys had stationed small groups throughout the territory to control the entrances and exits.
Because of this, the villages were being occupied and camps had been set up with several hundred soldiers, serving as checkpoints. They did not want to be caught off guard by a rebellion among the Riverlords themselves. After all, the resentment should still be quite strong because of what had happened and the forced rise of the Freys.
Jon chose the same strategy as before. He simply advanced against the enemies at the entrances of the villages and began massacring them quickly with his sword, always choosing smaller groups and saving magic for larger ones.
In some of the next places he visited, he also used only the crowd of horses that followed him at all times, which he managed to employ to distract them for a while as he moved through the chaos with his sword. He basically threw himself alone against groups of enemies, even against a dozen of them at the same time, while slaughtering them.
He was able to avoid surprise attacks thanks to his eyes in the sky, which he always kept circling above the battles to assist him. With a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, he continued exterminating the enemy groups, while the rest of the villagers, or at least the survivors, remained astonished and at the same time frightened by his presence.
Jon paid little attention to that and quickly disappeared. There was no reason to stay long in those places. He continued toward a more difficult region and, when he finally approached his objective, he found the camp of the Brotherhood Without Banners after two days of riding from the region he had departed from, sleeping inside small forests and using the ground itself as a bed. Although he was accustomed to the comfort of a king, he had no problem with that either.
The first scout did not even have time to react when Jon approached stealthily and covered his mouth, making him lose consciousness with a cloth soaked in an herb he had produced before arriving there. It was a toxin that worked like a switch for the brain, shutting it down easily. Then he moved on to two more men, leaving them unconscious in the middle of the forest.
He finally reached the camp. The first thing he did was set all the horses in motion. They rushed through the forest without any warning, immediately alerting everyone. It was already too late to react with hundreds of horses storming into the camp. Taking advantage of the opening he had created, the horses invaded the camp, frightening all the members of the Brotherhood, who wondered where so many animals had come from.
Thoros himself, who until then had been calm, was now running through the middle of the chaos, shouting to his men, unable to control the situation. The horses began destroying tents and wagons. Everyone was being trampled or knocked down during the confusion.
"Hold your ground!" Thoros shouted.
Meanwhile, Lady Stoneheart remained in a corner, stunned, with several men around her trying to protect her. The horses did not attack people directly, but they were devastating the camp. Even so, they knocked down all the archers. Their main targets were precisely those holding bows in their hands, who immediately received powerful kicks, making them groan in pain or rendering them incapacitated.
Jon watched everything from the entrance of the camp, walking calmly while a lion remained at his side like a guard dog.
"I think that's enough..." he murmured as he watched the entire camp being subdued.
ROOOOOAAAAARRRRR
The lion's roar echoed through the small clearing, making everyone immediately look at the creature standing beside a hooded man at the very entrance through which the horses had invaded.
At the same time, the horses began lining up as if they were preparing to attack them. They were not combat creatures, but horses certainly had powerful bites. Furthermore, it would be difficult for anyone to withstand a creature weighing hundreds of kilograms trying to trample them or strike them with a kick.
Quickly, everyone began retreating, especially those protecting Lady Stoneheart herself at the center of the camp.
"Hey, hey! What's going on? What is that?"
They only wanted to understand who that man was and why those horses were simply surrounding them. Even the Brotherhood's own horses began joining the others, preventing any attempt to escape.
In any case, that man standing beside the lion made the entire scene even more surreal.
Lady Stoneheart herself watched everything in surprise. Her eyes fixed on that man, as if she could see the green eyes beneath the hood, staring directly at her through the crowd more than at anyone else.
Jon took a step forward, and the lion immediately followed him.
The men remained tense, watching the two approach, while Jon removed his hood and advanced several dozen meters before finally stopping in front of them.
"So you are the Brotherhood Without Banners..." Jon said, studying them.
"You... you are..." Thoros's eyes immediately widened as he understood very well who was standing before him.
Now everything made sense. It was obvious why all the animals were behaving that way, cornering them.
Of all the people who could have appeared, it had to be him...?
His eyes quickly turned toward Lady Stoneheart behind them. The woman was trembling, and Jon kept a fixed gaze on her.
"You are him... the one they say is the king..." one of the Brotherhood members murmured.
Everyone looked at Jon, the lion beside him, the horses, and their fallen companions. The archers were all unconscious, still holding their bows. It was clear that he had specifically targeted them.
"You already know the answer... We finally meet," Jon said bluntly to them as he looked for the first time at someone who was not that monster.
"I investigated your recent activities. I must say, it was unexpected that the Freys fell into your hands. But with you operating in this region, I should have anticipated that as well."
His words made the men glance at one another.
He knew. He knew that they had executed Lord Frey. Uncertainty and fear spread across the faces present. Jon Arctic certainly was not the kind of man one encountered easily, nor someone from whom they could hide anything...
Faced with someone like that, everyone remained on guard, and Thoros had his own thoughts.
He knew that Lady Catelyn's relationship with that man was far from the best, but that was not the issue. The issue was his god.
He had heard the rumors. They said that his god had declared himself in Volantis, proclaiming Jon as his champion. They said he had entered the flames of the greatest temple in the world. They said that the priest himself had been blinded merely to deliver a divine message to the man standing before him.
A group from Volantis had come to rescue Lord Stark only to gain that man's favor, but they had failed alongside Barristan Selmy and the Faith Militant...
Thoros was not the only follower of the Red God in Westeros. He knew that Melisandre supported Stannis as the chosen one, but Thoros had never received any sign directly linking Stannis to the Lord of Light in the way the rumors linked Jon.
His god had never spoken anything through the flames to him. But he knew that Stannis Baratheon had fallen to that man a few moons ago.
"It was you... Did you really do what the Freys said? Did you destroy the Twins? The towers? The Crossing?" one of the men asked cautiously.
Jon turned his gaze toward him and nodded.
"Yes. The Twins no longer exist."
"Why did you make such a decision?" someone questioned.
Jon shook his head.
"My decision is not something I have to explain to you."
His response was direct.
Then he looked around at everyone once more.
"Are you another follower of that god?" he asked calmly.
Thoros could feel the coldness in those words and the weight they carried. The way he spoke of 'that' god... It was as if he truly knew him.
"I heard that Lady Melisandre was with Stannis. Did you find her?" Thoros asked.
No one knew what had become of her. In truth, no one seemed to care. But he wanted to know.
"You mean that woman in red?" Jon thought for a moment before answering. "I cut off her head the moment we met."
That was not a lie. The woman who should have been his enemy, a poisonous whisper in Stannis's ear, had simply declared Jon to be the true Prince That Was Promised. All her beliefs had been shattered the instant she witnessed Jon's dominion over the flames. She had been wrong the entire time... Quickly, she had tried to switch sides.
Jon found that ridiculous and, therefore, wasted no time.
Thoros paled upon hearing that.
"You..."
Jon stared at him.
"If you're as foolish as that woman, well... you won't live a long life..."
He paused.
"She gave me reasons to kill her."
Jon said it openly.
"But she fulfilled her role. If you want to know, your god asked me to find three pieces of a map. The first was in Yi Ti. The second was in Vaes Dothrak. And the third she herself brought to me, saying that was her purpose in life."
Jon paused briefly.
"But I couldn't keep someone like her. Not someone who harmed one of my own."
That still bothered him.
The bird Melisandre had tried to kill, even if it was just a raven, was his people. As a warg, Jon possessed a connection with his most important animals that bordered on a relationship between father and child. Seeing one of them stabbed was something he could never forgive.
"Anyway..." Jon continued. "I'm not here to talk about the Freys, your god, or anything like that. I'm here to speak precisely with that woman behind you, if I can still call her that."
Jon pointed at her, while everyone immediately turned their attention back to Lady Stoneheart.
"Come now. Don't hide, Lady Stark. It's been so many years since we last saw each other. Since that time I visited Winterfell and Arya ran away with me. What has it been? Eight years?" Jon asked.
The woman slowly emerged while everyone watched the exchange between the two with caution.
Lady Catelyn's eyes, or whatever she had become, were fixed on Jon. Her body was trembling.
Was she nervous? Jon didn't know.
Perhaps she was incapable of facing her own past. Perhaps that was the punishment the gods had given her. It didn't matter.
Jon shook his head and smiled.
"Lady Stark... It seems you've become a little uglier now."
He mocked her.
"Ba... Bastard..." she said slowly.
The men seemed to swallow hard upon hearing those words. None of them had expected that from her. The horses also became restless, neighing before stamping their hooves against the ground as if they were about to attack. It was almost as if they had understood the insult as well.
"..."
Jon heard that and couldn't help himself.
"..."
First, he smiled.
"Haha... Haha..."
Then he began to laugh.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
Then he burst into loud laughter.
He raised his head toward the sky, a wide grin on his face, spending several seconds laughing before finally looking back at the woman.
"So that's what I am to you, after everything, Lady Catelyn?"
His smile gradually faded.
"Look at yourself now."
Jon examined her from head to toe.
"The gods didn't even show you mercy. Whoever it was, probably the Red God, turned you into this... thing."
He knew that god possessed the ability to resurrect people. But this was quite strange. It looked more like a punishment than a blessing.
"Ba... Bastard..." she repeated, but this time it seemed like she was having some kind of fit. Her body continued trembling without stopping.
"In the end, this was your fate..." Jon mused. "And you still have the same attitude."
He stared at her for a few seconds before continuing:
"Tell me, Lady Stark. Was this the ideal life you wanted?"
He spoke in a calmer tone.
"I remember it very well. Even though it was a long time ago. I'm no longer traumatized by my life in Winterfell, but it was amusing."
His smile returned.
"You enjoyed tormenting that motherless boy. You said he would steal your children's inheritance. That one day he would lure them into a trap and stab them in the back. You were certain of it, even though he was only a child..."
Jon shook his head.
"It was something sick."
"Because of that, you treated me like an outcast. You made all the servants treat me the same way and hid it from my uncle at the time. You always found an excuse to send me to clean the stables. You even tried to prevent my training and studies. After all, you didn't want me learning the same things as your children."
Jon's eyes remained fixed on her.
"You gave me the coldest room in Winterfell. You fed me salted food, took pleasure in seeing me hungry and cold... You accused me of theft for a crime your own son had committed back then."
His tone became harsher.
"Instead of correcting your son, you tried to save him from a scandal. All to preserve the reputation of your beloved Robb, and the target was the bastard... a chance to get rid of him once and for all..."
Jon let those words linger in the air.
The men of the Brotherhood Without Banners exchanged glances as they listened.
There had been rumors, few but they existed... back then.
Some fueled by the fact that Jon had fled Winterfell because he was not treated well there. And the blame clearly fell upon Lady Stark and even Robb.
Everyone there was old enough to have heard similar stories coming from the North. They just had not expected to hear it from the mouth of that boy himself, now grown and transformed into the man standing before them.
"But tell me one thing, Lady Stark..." Jon spoke again.
"What were the results of all that caution?"
He tilted his head, wanting to look her in the eyes without fearing that monstrosity...
"Were your actions worth it?"
The question was asked calmly.
"Everything you did during your life... What happened to House Stark, everything you did, was it worth it?"
Jon wanted to hear it from her.
He wanted to hear it from the monster standing before him. Because he knew that, no matter how deteriorated she was, even if only a ghost remained inside that creature, it was still there.
Otherwise, it would not truly be a punishment from the gods.
The creature seemed to tremble even more.
She stared at Jon but did not answer.
Jon scoffed.
"Then let me tell you something, Lady Catelyn, since you're incapable of answering."
His tone became mocking again.
"The gods certainly aren't very fair with the things of this world."
He raised his eyes toward the sky.
"But they gave me something that day... On the day I thought everything was over, on the day I believed my fate was to be sent to the Wall. Even though it wasn't as if I were being condemned, but rather sent to train among the brothers of the Night's Watch and Uncle Benjen, to be taken away from Winterfell because of your threat. Because of you."
She had arranged everything against him... But Jon continued anyway.
"The gods also have limits to their own tolerance. Perhaps they decided to intervene. And then they gave me something that, at first, seemed like only a small change in the life of a bastard from the North. And it ended up becoming much more than that."
"My story doesn't matter right now. But I'm sure the rumors about me traveling through the North at that time and the negative comments about you and your son back then were not pleasant at all."
"I imagine you must have regretted it a little. And when I returned to Winterfell years later, bringing a fortune of four hundred thousand gold dragons, loyal men who followed me and declared me King-Beyond-the-Wall, a boy barely eleven namedays old, along with a Valyrian steel sword and a fully grown direwolf... it certainly wasn't the outcome you expected when you dragged me into your little game, was it?"
"I even remember that, back then, you didn't want to let me take the Crown of Winter when I found it in the oldest parts of the crypts. You were so petty that you even wanted the crown for yourself, for Robb, when I needed it beyond the Wall... I was lucky that I had made a treaty with your husband at the time. My uncle allowed me to take the crown..."
"You became even more hysterical a few days later. You wanted to kill me when Arya left. She clung to me and demanded that I take her to Arctic... Although the gods wanted that as well... And tell me... of all your children, which one do you think is the least foolish?"
He let out a laugh.
"That's what's funny. When Arya left, she was precisely the one who had had the least contact with your upbringing. With the exception of Rickon, who wasn't even old enough for anyone to say otherwise."
Jon crossed his arms.
"I can say that taking Arya away from your grasp was the best thing I could have done for her. Even though, at the time, I didn't want to take her. For obvious reasons. But she convinced me."
"I also knew that, with you, little Arya would never have a happy life. And look at her now. Even outside the North. Even far from her family. She managed to become someone incredible. Someone none of your other children managed to become."
"You-You st-stole her..." the woman trembled as she spoke those words.
Jon merely shook his head.
She was the type of person who would never acknowledge her own mistakes. She would live forever within her own world, claiming that Jon was responsible for everything and the cause of her family's destruction.
But that did not stop him from continuing to speak some truths, and they seemed to be having an effect. Because even on her deformed face, Jon could see tears beginning to form.
She was struggling between reality and the world she had created for herself.
"When Arya confronted you and openly judged you, she did it for justice," Jon continued. "She understood at that moment what kind of woman you were. I know that you praised the person she had become. She even surpassed Sansa in practically every aspect. It's no wonder her older sister felt jealous. Who could have imagined it? Sansa being jealous of Arya?"
Jon kept his eyes fixed on her.
"I understand that you love her. Even after everything. Even after what she did to you."
Jon knew that. Catelyn loved Arya with all her heart. Arya had even tried to reconcile with her. But there was a limit. There were things that Arya herself would never be able to accept.
"In the end, your actions led to your divorce, with her clearing my name of a crime I never committed in that castle. I didn't ask for that, and I didn't even care about the North, because when the time came to deal with you, I would deal with you... In the end, you lost your family, were distanced from your children, were publicly exposed as a bad person, and yet you never once put yourself in the wrong position."
Jon shook his head.
"When you had the opportunity, you clung tightly to your beliefs. I will always be guilty in your eyes, Lady Catelyn..."
He watched the tears running down the woman's deformed face.
"Y-You destroyed my family!" she said with difficulty.
Jon merely shook his head, already expecting that answer and only confirming his previous words.
"No. The ones who destroyed your family were your own actions. And also the actions of many other people who acted with arrogance."
He continued.
"After all, you blame me because of Arya. I'll reveal a truth: even Robb realized that what happened was wrong at that moment and decided to speak openly about it. He accepted the consequences."
"You blame me because that Faceless assassin tried to kill Robb and Arya fought against him. When the one responsible for that was your own friend, Petyr Baelish, trying to create conflict between the North and Arctic."
"But you could never believe that someone other than that bastard who was supposedly going to steal Winterfell from your children could be innocent. And you could never accept that your dear friend was nothing more than a manipulator."
"I find it amusing that I rule the richest and most powerful kingdom in the world, yet to you, I will always have my eyes on Winterfell, which honestly is only a grain compared to what Arctic is..."
"But returning to our little conversation, when all that chaos happened in Winterfell, if Arya had been less clever, she would not have survived the trap prepared by those men of the Faith."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Of your own former faith. Though I don't know whether you follow the Red God now," Jon couldn't help but comment. "But do you blame me because Arya injured the queen when she tried to kill your daughter as well? Or do you blame me when my men arrived and cut off Jaime Lannister's hand and threatened the fat king?"
He let out a humorless laugh. Jon watched that monster crying before him.
"When you had the opportunity, with the war approaching after my uncle's arrest in King's Landing, you ignored his final words. In truth, that bastard you always believed in never existed."
"But I doubt you'll accept that. I doubt you'll accept that, in the end, your actions accomplished nothing."
Jon pointed at himself.
"I was never the illegitimate son of your former husband."
"I am a Targaryen prince. Born amid chaos and confusion."
"Yes, I certainly do not approve of my parents' decisions."
"But even so, that is how I was born. I had no control over it."
His voice echoed through the clearing.
"Even so, I am a legitimate son. The crown prince of the Iron Throne. Heir to something far greater than Winterfell could ever be."
He smiled. He was satisfied to finally say that to that woman. Arctic was far better than the Seven Kingdoms, but he wanted to speak of something she understood. This monster would never know what Arctic truly meant. She would never understand the kingdom Jon had created.
"Besides, wouldn't Winterfell also be mine? After all, all Seven Kingdoms belong to the king."
"But that's beside the point... You used your schemes to manipulate and push allies into a war when the armies of the North no longer even knew what they were fighting for."
"After all, Ned Stark was dead. And you wanted crowns for your son."
His gaze turned cold.
"And you succeeded. Robb Stark, the first King in the North since the Conquest... And with that came all those consequences."
"First, Theon Greyjoy. The man whom you absolved alongside your son, a legitimate son no less, when you tried to condemn me in that theft incident."
"And look at the result. He managed to invade Winterfell. He massacred countless people connected to House Stark. He killed important people and placed two dead children in Bran and Rickon's place, announcing their deaths..."
"By the way, they're alive, if you want to know."
That made the woman's eyes widen for the first time.
"They're in the North. Bran walks again thanks to my healing." Jon watched her reaction.
"The same healing that you would certainly condemn as black magic and heresy against your gods."
"But what I'm trying to say with all this, Lady Catelyn..." Jon paused briefly before continuing.
"Was the result of all this, of trying to prove that Robb could be a king, worth it?"
He stared directly at her.
"Your daughter is mutilated in King's Landing, forced to wear a mask to hide the wound she received after what Cersei did to her... Your son is dying in a cell, with little time left since his body was mutilated..."
"He is beyond salvation, and I will be lucky if I can find him for one last conversation."
Jon took a deep breath.
"In the end, you also became this thing."
"Your eldest children met tragic ends. You lost Winterfell, you lost the North..."
His gaze became even colder.
"And not to the bastard, as you always feared."
"First to the ironborn, under Theon's command. Then to the Boltons."
"Which makes me wonder and ask, Lady Catelyn... Could it be that you've been looking in the wrong direction this entire time?"
Silence took over the clearing.
"But one thing is beyond doubt. All the actions of your life had consequences."
"For House Stark."
"For your children."
"And for the monster you became."
Jon continued speaking, receiving only silence in return as he watched the woman before him.
Then he asked only one final question, and the one he had repeated the most.
"Was it worth it, Lady Stark?"
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