>>FROM:@AEGONNER

[northerndragon]

Tell me about your gods.

If you don't have that kind of faith, then tell me what else you believe in. There must be something.

And if not that, tell me what you think of when you know a battle is coming.

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[widow_of_the_crag]

There are so few in the south, it makes me wonder if any exist at all. [It's said softly behind him, as she follows as closely as she can. He's quicker than she is and she simply feels so tired, even in meeting her goodbrother here. It keeps her movements from matching him in energy and speed.] What was it like at the Wall? You hear a number of stories, but never know if they are true.

[But this was a small speculation compared to the larger matter of their meeting. He hadn't heard about Robb's will, he didn't know that he should be king. He said he was made Lord Commander, had he turned it down in some show of Stark honor? Both he and Robb had an abundance of it.]

No, he had no sons of his own, but he had you. He wanted you to be king, if something happened to him. He told me and I think he told Lady Stark as well. He was supposed to write out a will and it was to be taken to you, but I don't know what happened to it, only that he intended to have one written.

[northerndragon]

[That makes him snort out a soft chuckle, as his mind races to try to take in the idea of being King in the North years before the Northerners had had the same idea on their own.]

Cold, my lady, more than anything. Full of thieves and rapers and killers and some good men who had little choice but to go, and some good men who made the choice. When I first went there, they were fighting the wildlings; they'd forgotten that they were there to fight the White Walkers. Now they fight the White Walkers with the Wildlings.

[After a pause, he adds, gruff,]

I never received it. So many men died at the Red Wedding, they might have lost any will he left. Or the Lannisters might have destroyed it.

It doesn't matter. [No, in reality, it's very significant, only he hasn't yet taken it in as fully as he might.] Stannis Baratheon came up to Castle Black not long after Robb died. He might have had me killed if I hadn't bent the knee to him. The Watch is meant to take no part in the wars of the realm, to bow to no king in particular, but he tried to draw loyalty out of me nonetheless.

[How ironic that Stannis had offered to make him Jon Stark, Lord of Winterfell -- and would have taken it away just as easily if Robb had done it first.]

[widow_of_the_crag]

No "my lady." Jeyne, please. You're my goodbrother. I don't want us to be strangers.

[There were stories about the Night's Watch, but usually it spoke about the brave men that protected the realm from monsters and unspeakable horrors. The songs and stories were always more preferable to reality. Those knights that made up the Watch didn't seem to exist, save for in the hearts of some of the men...she hoped.

White Walkers?]

White Walkers are stories nurses tell children. There is no such thing.

[She hesitated, glancing up at him shyly.]

The will wouldn't be with him. He would have left it somewhere safe. I wish I knew, but he didn't accept my presence at his council meetings. [Maybe it didn't, but it was what Robb wanted. That was all she had left.] You bent the knee to Stannis Baratheon?

What about what your brother wanted? You are the only one who can reclaim Winterfell and the North.

[northerndragon]

Jeyne. [He concedes it with a nod.

Much of what she says, he sets aside for a moment, addressing only the most pertinent thing.]

I took back Winterfell and the North, with the help of the wildlings, and the Knights of the Vale, who came to fight for my sister Sansa.

I didn't bend the knee to Stannis -- the Watch doesn't, though he wanted it. But if I had been King in the North when he came North, he would have pressed for it. As it was, he tried to make me Jon Stark and Warden of the North when neither the North nor Winterfell was in his hands to give.

I wasn't made king until after he failed to take Winterfell himself, but it wasn't because of any will of Robb's. It was because we won the battle -- we took it back from Ramsay Bolton.

[widow_of_the_crag]

It doesn't matter if it was because of Robb's will or not. You still did it. You avenged him and you reclaimed the North, you have been acknowledged as king. That's what matters to me. It means that Robb's wishes have been met.

[It might not make any difference, but it could at least reassure her that he might rest more peacefully. She wasn't superstitious by nature, but this was all she could hold onto, the small fulfillment of Robb's last requests.]

Sansa was saved from King's Landing? How did it happen? Who helped free her?

[If only Lady Catelyn could know. After the deaths of Rickon and Bran, it was like a large part of her had died as well. Robb being killed before her eyes had likely done the rest. This would at least have reassured her, knowing that her daughter still survived and returned home.]

What of Arya? Does anyone know what happened to her?