"Your Grace, there is something I wish to report to you." Eddard Stark returned to the Queen Mother's Ballroom with his son Jon Snow, tear tracks still at the corners of Jon's eyes.
Jon had even already thought of his house sigil. His direwolf, Ghost, was an albino, with pure white fur and eyes red as blood.
Then his sigil would be a white, red-eyed direwolf running across a white snowfield.
The pleasant breakfast had already been enjoyed. The children were laughing and playing, and not many people noticed Great Lord Eddard and his bastard son.
"You come too, Daenerys," Gendry said to Daenerys. The King and Queen returned to the bedchamber together, with the two white knights following behind them.
The room was warm as fire, heated by two fireplaces. Once the windows were opened, a fresh breeze came through.
"Your Grace, Your Grace the Queen. My son Jon Snow's surname will be changed to Snow-Stark," Eddard Stark requested first.
"That is simple," Gendry said. "Jon has earned enough merit for it. He crossed the sea, spread word of the will, and fought at my side. Is there anything else?"
Jon Snow had brought back King Robert Baratheon's will and fought on the battlefield. With his war merits, granting him a lordship would not be unreasonable.
Every Great Lord had many branch lines, younger sons, brothers, uncles, or cousins who had split away. The Starks had the Karstarks and the Greystarks.
A thousand years ago, Karlon Stark was granted lands for putting down a rebel lord. Later came Karhold and House Karstark.
As for House Greystark, which once ruled the Wolf's Den, they joined the Red King Bolton's forces in a war against Winterfell and were wiped out in the end.
Daenerys also found it strange. Changing a surname was a small matter. Besides, did giving Jon Snow honor really need to be discussed in private?
"There is another matter. I wish to confess to my crime of treason," Eddard Stark said, kneeling. Jon knelt on the ground as well.
Gendry's blue eyes reminded Eddard of Robert, and Eddard held back a strange, complicated feeling.
Every mention of the past was another wound.
"Treason." Gendry tasted the word. It seemed Eddard meant to make everything clear today. "Great Lord Eddard, you should not joke about such things."
"Jon is not my son. He is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. Before my sister died, she asked me to protect him," Eddard Stark confessed. "I hid this lie from everyone."
Since Eddard was willing to speak of it, the truth had been uncovered.
"Jon is my brother Rhaegar's son?" Daenerys Targaryen asked, shocked and confused.
Her beautiful eyes were like amethysts, and Jon felt ashamed of himself. Yes, he was even more a Stark.
Daenerys studied Jon carefully.
Jon was of medium height, with a long face, brown hair, and gray eyes. Though his face had brightened somewhat now, there was still a gloom about him.
He was lean and dark-skinned, his movements graceful and quick. But he was hardly handsome. At most, he could be called ordinary.
Rhaegar Targaryen had been a famous beauty in his day, nicknamed the Silver Prince, and many still remembered him fondly.
As the beauty who brought ruin to the realm, Lyanna Stark was also said to have been a great beauty. Yet the child they had produced did not look much like either of them.
"He truly is the son of your brother Rhaegar and my sister Lyanna. He was born looking this way," Eddard explained.
"And who can prove it?" Daenerys asked.
Although Eddard spoke as if this were a reunion with kin after more than ten years, Daenerys had doubts. Jon had few Targaryen features.
Daenerys took a deep breath and held Gendry's hand. She felt a sense of unease.
Daenerys's bloodline carried a special magic. As the last true dragon, she was a descendant of dragonlords.
That bloodline came from ancient Valyria, from the city of Valyria to Dragonstone, and later continued in King's Landing.
"I have heard many things about you, but I never heard of this child." Daenerys had never expected she might see a descendant of her brother Rhaegar.
But she was different from others. Daenerys had slowly begun to strip away Rhaegar's aura. The more she learned about her brother, the more clearly she saw his many sides.
Rhaegar certainly had many virtues, but he was no perfect Prince. His mistaken love had brought about countless deaths.
"I can prove it, and so can an old friend of mine in the Neck, though he never leaves the swamps," Eddard said.
"I trust your honor," Gendry said, looking at Great Lord Eddard with a calm face.
"I did it for the promise I made to my sister Lyanna."
"Is that so?" Daenerys said, bewildered. Kin she had not seen for more than ten years. There was blood between them, but more than that, there was unease.
Bloodline, family, unfamiliar kin.
"My Queen, there is no need to be surprised." Gendry looked at Jon. "Targaryen features are not always dominant."
The Targaryens had many children whose looks were not typical. Baelor Breakspear, for instance, looked more Dornish. So did the first three sons of the Black Queen.
Gendry looked at Jon. "False Spring?"
"False love," Jon said bitterly.
"You were only a child then," Daenerys said. Her voice was still cool and lovely, but her gaze held more pity than anything else.
Jon was moved by those words, but he had no wish to become entangled in those mistlike memories again.
"Your Grace Gendry, Your Grace the Queen. The past is already past. Now, I only wish to live as Jon of House Snow-Stark," Jon Snow-Stark said firmly.
"Have you thought it through?" Gendry looked at Jon.
"This is my choice." Jon nodded. "I do not want to be drawn into those past events. They are all dead. I was a bastard to begin with. Since that is so, I would rather be a Stark bastard."
Daenerys looked at Jon. Jon was a Targaryen bastard by blood, yet he had chosen to become a Stark's child. From that moment on, Daenerys knew that Rhaegar had no son.
Daenerys thought for a moment, unsure how to speak.
Jon was Rhaegar's child, her kin. Yet this meeting between two people who had never imagined one another left the air somewhat frozen.
"Snow-Stark, no matter what, I consider you kin to me and Daenerys," Gendry said, his acting so sincere it seemed real.
"I am sorry, Your Grace," Jon said in a low voice, pain showing on his face. Today he had learned his parents' names, and yet today he had to cut himself away from them. "I hope you will forget the False Spring. I am only a child of the Starks. I am Jon Snow-Stark, Lord Eddard's bastard. I have little to do with Prince Rhaegar or Lyanna."
Jon felt himself let go.
He remembered the old days sparring with Robb Stark, the teasing of their youth.
He tasted blood again, though he had thought he had forgotten it. From this day forward, he would have no regrets. He would create more for the name Snow-Stark.
Ever since they learned to walk, they had trained together every morning, Jon and Robb, Snow and Stark, circling and sparring inside Winterfell, laughing and shouting.
One morning, Jon was the first to boast, "I am the Lord of Winterfell!" In the past, he had shouted that hundreds of times. Only that time, just that once, Robb answered, "You can never be Lord of Winterfell. You are a bastard. My mother says you will never have Winterfell."
"I understand, Ser Jon Snow-Stark," Daenerys said with a nod.
"Congratulations, Ser Jon. I hope you will have your own House Snow-Stark," Gendry said, looking at Jon.
Eddard Stark nodded, showing his support for Jon's decision.
Bloodline and blood ties. Peace was also coming to the realm, and Jon was willing to become part of that peace.
One person stepping back might be a good thing for countless others.
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