Jon Snow/Aemon Targaryen
Castle Black – King's Tower Solar
Jon pulled out a seat for Shireen before sitting down himself. Ghost, along with the two dragons, lay near the hearth. I asked Satin for some extra meat to give to them and Ghost.
"Do you wish for something to drink? We have some of our famous Night's Watch ale," he asked.
"I would like some, I think I need it after today," Shireen muttered, a tremble in her voice.
He looked at her sadly, seeing now how young she was. A girl of four and ten, now the head of a house on the brink. Even if the realm still believed Tommen and Myrcella weren't bastards.
He poured a cup, and then one for himself. Not much later Satin knocked.
"You can come in, Satin."
The meal smelled good. Onion soup with meatballs, together with two boiled eggs each. "Satin, could you bring me three pieces of meat?"
Satin looked back to him, his gaze lost on the dragons. "Of course." Satin nodded and walked from the chamber.
"Tell me, how are you feeling?" he asked.
Shireen looked at him with her blue eyes and began to tremble, and then to sob. He rose quickly from his seat and embraced her.
"I know. Let it all out. No one will hurt you ever again. You have my word on that," he said.
It was strange, the connection he had with her now. A kinship of sorts, because of what they had both been through and through blood. Did it have to do with his parentage being revealed? What had Elia said again? That I had left my Rhaenys all alone in the North. Did they mean Shireen? It could be. She hadn't burned, and the silvery dragon had stared at her the most. It was a possibility, he questioned as he kissed the girl on the forehead.
"Also, you aren't alone and still have kin."
She looked up at him, her blue eyes filled with doubt. He didn't think she saw her parents as that after all they had done.
"No, I'm alone. I have none, not even Ser Davos or Edric. They are both gone," she said with a sob.
He pulled another chair close to her and looked her in the eyes.
"I'm your kin because I'm the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. I'm not sure if I'm a bastard or if I'm trueborn, but we are kin by that blood because your great grandmother was Rhaelle Targaryen."
Shireen looked at him wide eyed.
"Really? I'm not alone?" she asked, gripping his hand a little tighter.
"Yes. For truth, you aren't alone," he said.
"I'm sorry about your parents and what your father did to your mother," she said in a small voice.
"No, he didn't. I don't know all the details, but I met my parents when I died. I know he didn't do what most people believe to my mother. They were loving, and even Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon were there. I don't think that would be the case if Rhaegar Targaryen had kidnapped, raped, and murdered my mother. No, that was a lie sprung from the rebellion," he said, explaining things to her.
"Oh. I'm happy for you," she said with a small smile, and he enjoyed seeing her smile.
"Jon, can I stay here tonight? I won't be alone, and you are the only one who knows what I have been through," she asked in a timid voice.
"That isn't a problem. I shall sleep on the floor, and you can sleep in the bed," he said.
"No, you can't sleep on the floor," she said, shocked.
"No, it doesn't matter. I slept north of the Wall. I'll ask for some extra furs and a blanket, and I will be fine."
He would be. It didn't matter. He had slept north of the Wall, and the cold had crept into his bones on occasion. He had become used to it, and later on it had been Ygritte who warmed his bed for a time. He cared for her, that was true, but did he love her? He didn't know, perhaps partly. Yet he also knew it had partly been survival instinct, to integrate himself more with the Free Folk.
The door opened, and although Shireen shook a little she didn't pull her hand away. Satin came in once more and laid a plate of meat upon the table.
"Thank you, Satin. I shall tell you when we are finished. Thank you for your hard work."
"It's nothing, Jon. You have been kind to me, and I have learned much from both you and Edd," Satin replied with a proud smile.
"Good. Keep doing the good work."
After that Satin left, and he gave Shireen a quick kiss on her hand.
"You are brave, and no matter what I will protect you."
He knew he would. That desire burned within him. It felt similar to when he learned what had happened to Arya. It's what wolves did, protecting the pack. Shireen was part of his pack, as much as Arya.
"Thank you," she added with a smile.
After that he returned to his meal, and they both ate with vigor. Even after the meal he was still hungry, but he left it as a side effect of being dead for moons.
After the meal he saw Ghost and the dragons looking at him. "Don't worry, I got food for you three too."
He threw the biggest piece to Ghost, who snapped it up in one bite. The dragons only hissed at the food they were given, and he frowned.
"Oh, Jon, or Aemon? I don't know what to call you now," she asked hesitantly.
"Aemon when we are alone. For now I want to keep my true identity a secret," he replied, smiling at her.
"Okay, Aemon. I read once in a book called Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns: Their Unnatural History."
Aemon looked at her with a smile. He knew of the book, yet sadly, after Baelor the Fool, many great books were burned, like that one, and few copies were left. It was something he had always wanted to read. Sadly, Winterfell didn't have it in their library.
"Truly? Dragonstone still has a volume of it?" Shireen nodded.
"In it, it says dragons only eat cooked or burned meat. No raw stuff. Likely they normally do it themselves, but they are still hatchlings. So they might need help with that for a while." He nodded, rose from his seat, and put the pieces of meat on the fire poker. The meat cooked for a few minutes, burning black. The heat, to his surprise, felt nice on his skin.
Shireen looked at him oddly.
"Isn't your hand burning?" she asked.
"No. It feels kind of nice. Odd thing. Before I would have burned. It seems I can handle flames better. Then again we walked out of the pyre still burning and unharmed."
Shireen nodded. "Mayhap it's a side effect."
"Perhaps."
He then pulled the two pieces of meat off the fire poker and placed them before the dragons. Both took the meat eagerly, and they both laughed.
"Well done, Shireen. That knowledge you have acquired over the years will be welcome." Shireen smiled at his praise.
"I will help where I can. I read much when I was a child. I didn't have many friends, only Patchface and Ser Davos really. Later on it was Edric Storm, my uncle's bastard. Yet he disappeared one day. I heard later rumors that Ser Davos released him because my father wanted to burn him alive because he had King's blood in his veins." Aemon's face faltered for a moment. Even then Stannis had contemplated kinslaying. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I was happy on many occasions. Only after King Robert died everything really changed."
"I know, for both of us. I wonder if I would have died if that hadn't happened," he replied.
Then he walked to the door and stated to Satin that the dishes could be cleared.
"Jon, Lord Howland Reed and Maege Mormont are here to see you."
He sighed. He didn't really want to see anyone else today.
"Is it urgent?"
Satin nodded.
"Send them up. Also Satin, could you send some extra furs to my chambers and a blanket?"
Satin nodded as he took the plates and went back out the door.
He looked to Shireen. "Come sit beside me behind the desk."
Shireen smiled, picked up a chair, and did so.
Not a few moments later, another knock came.
"Jon Snow, it's Howland Reed with Maege Mormont. We wish to speak to you about your brother, King Robb, and other things."
Robb. The name always felt like a hammer blow in the heart. His death was maybe even more devastating than his uncle's.
"Enter," he announced as Shireen sat beside him. She and Tormund, Val, Edd, Grenn, Sam, Satin, and Pyp were the ones he trusted most, so keeping her around was not an issue. Plus, having her around was also comforting, as she was his closest kin at the moment.
"Lord Reed, Lady Mormont, to be honest, I am surprised to see you here at the Wall. Last I heard of you, my lady, you were fighting for Robb in the Riverlands, and Lord Reed, if I recall correctly, you have never left the Neck since the rebellion," he said after both took a seat in front of the desk.
"That is true, Jon. I did fight for King Robb. I, however, survived the betrayal of the Red Wedding, unlike many others, such as my daughter Dacey, because King Robb sent me with Galbart and my younger daughters, Lyra and Jorelle, to find Howland and help in the attack to retake Moat Cailin. He also sent us with another task, Robb's will," Maege answered before adding hesitantly, "To Your Grace."
To Your Grace? What in the world did she mean by that? he thought as he raised his eyebrows.
"Yes, Jon, you are a king, although you have been one all your life," Lord Reed said.
He had expected Howland Reed to know something about his birth. He had been there at the Tower of Joy, where his uncle found him in the tower, he thought as he looked at the slender man from the Neck.
"Howland, what do you mean?" the Lady of Bear Island questioned.
"What Lord Reed is saying. I have never been a bastard. I have always been a king, although I would have been dead a while ago if the world knew. Back then, I was born in a certain tower. I am right, are I not?" he said, and he enjoyed the confusion on Lord Reed's face. The lord of Greywater Watch had not expected him to know of his parentage.
"How do you know? Did Ned tell you before you joined the Watch?"
"No, my uncle did not tell me anything. I only learned of my parentage during my death, when I met my parents, and my siblings Rhaenys and Aegon. They told me my name, and I knew then the story of the rebellion was a lie, although the deaths of Rickard Stark and his heir more than justified it, everything the Mad King did before that." he said, and he saw the looks of Howland and Maege, the latter gaping like a fish out of water.
"Lyanna, of course, she was far too much of a she-wolf to be taken," Maege said, and a smile grazed her lips. "Now, looking at you, you have her look, and a more refined look, like the Targaryens are supposed to have. Then there are the eyes, red now but with purple," Maege added.
He smirked. "I know. My coloring is a side effect of my death and return." He then looked to Howland. "Although I did not know, I was not a bastard. I did not know if my parents were married. Only in that time when I met them did I feel the love between the two, so those lies about Rhaegar I knew then were not true, my mother told me as much"
He paused, for moment. "Yet, when Lord Reed told me I was a king all my life, caused my confirmation. However, I am still a bastard to the world if there is no proof. It does not matter to me. I will do my duty to the realm, for Winter is Coming, and I will still fight for the realms of men," he said firmly, taking hold of Shireen's hand under the table. She graced him with a smile as he did so.
"There is proof, Your Grace. I have everything with me that your uncle could gather from the Tower of Joy. It includes a marriage contract for Prince Rhaegar and Lyanna, a letter from Rhaegar, Lyanna, and Elia, as well as the Crown of the Conqueror. I suppose these were meant to be brought back after the war, but we all know how that ended," Lord Reed said.
"So, there is proof. That is better. Good, I need the strength of Westeros behind me if we are going to win against what is coming for us," he said firmly.
"Your Grace, something bothered me when I heard you the first time, as well as now. What is coming? Is it about why you let the wildlings pass the Wall? Is that why they all seem so grateful to you?" the Lady of Bear Island questioned.
"Well, I know how this will sound. The Others are back, and their undead minions as well. All those stories about long nights that we all heard as children are true, or at least part of them. I am quite content with keeping it to dead men and White Walkers, without adding ice spiders to the mix."
A look of shock and horror was etched on their faces.
"Yes, I know, and one of the men who killed me will soon show the world what is out there, I hope at least, when they turn. It will, as per the new Lord Commander's reports. Only two are still alive, awaiting judgment in the cells. The rest died in the struggle after my death, nearly three moons ago."
It still gave him shivers to think he had been dead for that long.
"I hope you are wrong, Your Grace, yet you are still sitting in front of me, risen from the flames." Lady Mormont said.
"As would I, my lady. I think Lord Believes it as well. Your own childeren are traveling with Bran." He noted.
"Please, Your Grace, call me Howland," interrupted Lord Reed, before adding. "You know of my childeren?"
"I do, a friend of mine named Samwell Tarly, met them together with Bran. When past between the Night Fort, they were going beyond the Wall. I have no idea were they are right now."
"That means Brandon Stark is alive." Maege noted. "Indeed, yet beyond wall, he is my brother even not by blood. Yet right rangeing beyond are almost in possible with every happening beyond it now. I wish I could go and search for him but for now I have to focus on the rest of the realm." He replied with a sigh.
"Indeed, it seems the best course of action." Howland replied, and even Maege nodded recutlanty. Aemon smiled, old loyalties died hard.
"As you will, Howland, could you please tell us how it all happened? My parents did not tell me much of it," he asked, wanting to know how it had all happened. He knew of her crowning, her supposed kidnapping, but not much else.
"I can leave if you want to hear this in private, Your Grace," Lady Mormont said.
He smiled at that, as she respected that it could be a private moment for him. He liked the Lady of Bear Island more because of it.
"No need, my lady. I suspect this tale shall be repeated after this," he said, urging Howland to tell the tale of his parents.
"It started at Harrenhal," Howland began, his voice heavy with the weight of memory. "I was attacked by some squires, and your mother defended me. She smacked the three into the ground, and later she and the rest of the Starks gave me clean clothes and let me stay with them for the remainder of the tourney."
"Later on there was talk about your father using the tourney to gather support to overthrow his father, or perhaps call for a great council. The king was growing more erratic and mad, and men around the realm wanted him removed from power. Yet for some reason, Aerys arrived at the tourney, and the plans to overthrow him vanished." Howland ended with a sad sigh.
How different the Seven Kingdoms and his life might have been if Father's scheme had succeeded.
"As we all know, your father bypassed his wife and crowned Lyanna the Queen of Love and Beauty." He nodded. The moment the smiles died.
"But what you all probably do not know is that your father crowned your mother because of her own deeds during the tourney. The mystery knight is known as the Knight of the Laughing Tree. She did so to defend my honor against the squires who attacked me. The knights all fell to your mother in the tourney, regaining my honor when I could not. For that, I will always be grateful," Howland said with a bright smile.
"That does sound like her. Lyanna was always the best rider of the Stark siblings," Lady Mormont said joyfully, and at her comment, smiles graced the room.
The more he heard of his mother, the more she reminded him of Arya. The more he had broken his oath, the more he knew he would do so again, and he wondered where she was now, or if she was still alive. The girl in the snow whom Melisandre saw was Alys Karstark, instead of Arya, who was now safe in Braavos.
Howland spoke again. "The Mad King ordered the knight to be arrested, saying he was acting against the king. After that, your father found out and helped her escape the Mad King's men."
"After that, Rhaegar and Lyanna began secretly meeting, and they fell in love. Not long before that, Elia gave birth to Prince Aegon, and Rhaegar and Elia discovered she could not have more children."
"Then the news came that Rhaegar and Lyanna had disappeared, and no one knew where they were. Your grandfather Rickard and uncle Brandon seemed convinced that she had been kidnapped, making Brandon ride to King's Landing demanding your father's head. Aerys called it treason, and your uncle was arrested, along with his companions."
"The wolf's blood ran hot in Brandon Stark. A foolish action it was, though," Lady Mormont added.
"Yes, a pity, truly. It caused Rickard Stark to come down and call for a trial by combat, only for Aerys to call fire his champion. Then Aerys burned Rickard alive and had Brandon strangle himself trying to reach him. That act, and the calling for the heads of Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon, were the major causes of the war. Lyanna and Rhaegar's fleeing together may have started it all."
They were all very familiar with this. Most said his father started the rebellion by taking his mother, or at least that was what most singers said, but Aerys's actions had truly started it.
"After the battles of the Bells and the Trident, your uncle marched to King's Landing, finding a dead king and your murdered siblings and mother. Robert and your uncle fought over it, as Robert said about the bodies, 'Good, I see only dragonspawn,'" Howland said, a bit of hate in his voice toward the end.
Robert, a man who fought a war for someone who did not love him, slaughtered his own kin, and later laughed at the bodies of murdered children, he thought hatefully.
"Your uncle lifted the siege of Storm's End, and later we traveled to the Tower of Joy, where you were found. The Kingsguard fought us, and only your uncle and I survived, by me stabbing Arthur Dayne through the neck when he was about to slay your uncle," Howland admitted with some shame.
"We then found Lyanna in the tower, dying from birthing fever. She made Ned promise to keep you safe from Robert. She was barely hanging on by that point. She could only give you your name and point to the chest with all its contents," Howland ended.
"Why your uncle never told you, perhaps it was to keep you safe, or maybe Eddard Stark did not want another war, or he did not want to choose between his chosen brother and you. We will never know the truth. I would have told you earlier, but your uncle swore me to secrecy. I came here to tell you because that oath is no longer valid, as our friend and liege is gone," Howland ended.
"Thank you for telling me. I will most likely always wonder about the what ifs, or why my uncle did not tell me. But I know he loved and cared for me, even if he kept something from me that I should have known before I took the Watch," he said, closing his eyes as Shireen took his hand in hers.
Trying to make peace with things he could not control. Only taking what was good instead of drowning in the bad of the past, he said to himself as he breathed in deeply.
"My lord, my lady, I would seek my rest. A long day lies behind me, and on the morrow we shall speak further of ridding the lands of traitors and protecting the realms of men against what is to come," he said, and Howland and Maege gave him a bow. That was something to get used to.
Once they had taken their leave, he lingered with Shireen a while longer.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Conflicted, about everything. I knew my uncle lied before, but now I do not know what to think, really," he muttered with a sigh.
After that they went back to his chambers, where Satin had brought the extra furs and blanket. He made his bed on the floor, furs piled high for warmth, and Ghost, ever faithful, curled against him as a living pillow, together with the dragons. Shireen lay down in the bed, and he took some solace in the sound of her steady breathing as he drifted into slumber, the weight of the day still heavy upon his mind.
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