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The North - Eddard Stark (I)
Lord Eddard Stark, the Lord of Winterfall and Warden of the North; an honorable and generally quiet man. Many said he was a man of few words. And that might be true, especially in the current times he was living in. Sitting in his solar, with his elbows on his table and his hands on his forehead, gently gripping the locks of his hair. His eyes were fixed on the table as he thought about everything that had happened recently.
He had lost a son... No, he had lost a nephew.
Jon Snow, the boy he had raised as a son, disappeared a moon ago.
He had searched for him, he really had. He sent out search parties across most of the North. He asked his bannermen to please look for or send a raven if they saw Jon, but nothing happened, nothing to indicate that Jon had passed near the different territories of the North. It was as if he had vanished from one day to the next.
Her other children were sad since they found out, or most of them. The angriest, of course, was Arya, her youngest daughter. The little wolf had been sad and confused about Jon's loss, but then it turned to rage when she heard her mother feeling relieved about not having the bastard, as she called him, around. And if that wasn't enough, even Robb, her eldest son, felt angry at his mother.
Days passed before the cold and sad atmosphere dissipated a bit. Two of her children didn't talk to their mother for days, while he had to try to find Jon. Things weren't as simple as everyone thought. Nothing was simple. Things always tended to be complicated, much more than others could think.
Jon wasn't her son, but she raised him as if he were her own.
He was the beloved son of her sister, Lyanna Stark.
"Lyanna, I'm sorry... I'm really sorry," Ned murmured as he closed his eyes, thinking of his sister. At that specific moment, when they were in the tower, with her close to death.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door to his solar. Three knocks were heard.
Ned gritted his teeth slightly before sighing and running his hands over his face.
"Come in."
The door softly opened, revealing an old man.
"Luwin... Did something happen?"
"A letter, my lord. A raven from King's Landing."
Ned blinked before gesturing with his hand, tacitly indicating for Luwin to come closer and deliver the letter. The man did exactly that, but he noticed Ned's face, which had turned pale as he read the letter. Before, it was already pale from everything that had happened in thirty days, but now it worsened as he read.
"My lord?"
"It's the King... The King is coming, and he's coming to Winterfell."
Luwin's eyebrows rose, only for him to frown a few seconds later.
"This can't be good. The plan..."
"This is beyond bad, Luwin," Ned gritted his teeth tightly, trying to quell the fear that was growing and settling in his chest. He had been through many kinds of situations in his life, but this was different. This wasn't just about him, but about his family, the North, and the entirety of the kingdoms.
For the first time in a long time, a terrible fear appeared within him. It was so much, that he even felt like vomiting.
"Luwin, you will begin the preparations."
"Understood. But, my lord, isn't it better to speak the truth with your family?"
Ned looked at him harshly.
"What makes you think that's a good idea?"
"You never mention that it was a good idea. I said it would be better. My lord, with all due respect, I think it's better that your family, especially your wife, learn the truth from your own words."
"My job... the job you entrusted me with... Jon's true identity. The latter, is something you promised in secret, for the stability of the realm, for the future of the realms. To have insurance in case everything went downhill even more than it already was twelve years ago."
Luwin looked seriously at Ned as he spoke, while the lord of Winterfell listened attentively, before placing a grimace on his face.
"I don't think what he did was a mistake. I don't think what happened is his fault either.
"They'll see it as my mistake, Luwin."
"Perhaps," the maester nodded, only to continue, "But everything is too strange. Nothing in his room was different. There were no signs of a struggle, not even traces of blood, hair, or cloth. Just an empty room, as if no one had entered."
"No horses, weapons, or supplies are missing either. It's like he's vanished."
"No one is perfect and smart enough to steal a person without leaving evidence, not when it comes to a fortress like Winterfell."
"These are difficult things to explain to the King, but they are still evidence of how strange this all is."
Ned sighed a little as he stood up.
"I'll go think a bit in the godswood."
Luwin nodded, before retreating, right behind Ned. The door to his solar was closed by the Maester, as he walked towards the godswood.
_ _ _
Sitting on a rock, next to the heart tree, Ned stared at the small pool of black water. The light breeze touched his cheeks like a caress while the rustling of the leaves filled his ears, almost like tiny murmurs.
Ned's hand went to his jaw, lightly running through his beard, trying to calm his spirits.
He had no words to describe what had happened with Jon. He didn't know how to make her understand that everything had been too strange.
"Ned?"
Lifting his head, a little startled by the voice that reached his ears, Ned saw his wife walking towards him, slowly, with her dress being slightly dragged along the ground. Catelyn, with her red hair over her shoulders and her eyes shining with concern, approached her husband.
"Cat... Did something happen?"
"Besides the King being on his way? I don't know," Catelyn said quietly, looking at Ned's pale face. He was almost white, as if all the blood had been drained from his face.
"Are you worried about the King visiting?"
"I'm worried about the King, Cat. I'm worried about his family. And I'm worried about Jon, too, and many other things."
Catelyn frowned.
"Shouldn't this be good? The King is coming to visit, husband."
Ned laughed, a laugh without any humor, almost hollow.
"The King is coming, as is winter. And I'm sure winter will be much more pleasant than the King's anger, when he finds out that I lost his son."
"I said it... Just like that, as if it were nothing...", Ned thought, raising his gaze from the pond, only to meet his husband's bewildered look, which then changed to an expression as if he understood something, only to end with a face that looked worried, angry and scared. It was a mix of emotions and thoughts marked on his face, which hurt Ned's heart.
"You lied to me... You lied to everyone..."
"It was a secret. It was supposed to stay that way until this moment, when the King comes to tell her the whole truth face to face. It was a promise to my sister, when she thought she was about to die, when she herself thought she would not be able to see another day and she was scared, full of fear of not being able to live."
"It was a secret to... maintain the stability of the kingdoms, Catelyn."
"I don't understand. What does the identity of that... Jon have to do with it?"
"Do you think Dorne would be calm knowing that my sister had Rhaegar's child?" Ned snorted, a little angry.
"They would fight, they would plan, they would do whatever it took to have his blood on that throne of swords. And when we all thought Rhaegar would lose, he ended up winning the war. My sister, who almost died, ended up in bed for days on end, unable to get up. Not even able to hold her son in her arms, because she knew he was in danger."
"What do you think would have happened if Lyanna had died, leaving Jon in that nest of rats and vipers that is the capital?"
"At the end of the war, when Aerys lay on the ground, in a pool of his own blood, when Queen Elia was beaten, almost raped and killed by one of the Lannister men... After all that, do you really think there was a chance my sister's son would stay safe?"
Ned gritted his teeth and turned his gaze to the pool of black water.
"Hence the secret. Rhaegar didn't just want his son safe, he also wanted the throne to have a lock, in the form of Jon. If things didn't calm down, if everything fell apart again, then Jon would have certain things to choose from. He could go to the Wall if that was what he wanted, or he could be a squire. Maybe be raised in a northern house. Or he could even fight for the throne. But at least Jon would be alive to try those things."
"And now... I have no idea how to explain his disappearance."
Catelyn stood there, fists clenching parts of her dress, staring at her husband, not even knowing how to respond to all the information given.
"The worst of it all is that they might already know."
"How? How could they know?"
"Some little birds are probably singing."
"Varys," Catelyn declared, almost growling, something unnatural for her.
The two were silent for a few moments, before Ned felt his husband's arms around his body.
"We'll get through this, Ned. I'm sure."
"I hope so, Cat. I hope so."
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