CASSANDRA
"Up with that sword" at the umpteenth stab not diverted, Cassie took Freema's wrist and pull it up "Up is here."
She had been training with that girl for hours. That day all Keepers of Light had been paired up. The oldest were with the youngest and more unstable, the others had to train who was younger than them.
Cassie had been paired with Freema; according to lady Eloyse she was almost ready to go beyond the Wall. Cassie wasn't sure about that. She wasn't even able to stop a stab from hitting her.
"But you are too fast, Cassandra!" Freema said catching her breath.
"Sorry, you are right" Cassie answered pretending to think, "You could try and say that to the wildling who will stab you in the head."
"Cassandra!"
"What?" The girl turned to see Vyva, a Keeper of forty, not far from her, shaking her head.
"I think is time for you to drink some water."
Cassie passed a hand through her long black hair, before nodding with a forced smile.
"Of course," she said walking away.
Cassie set with a growl next to the barrel full of cold water, her head in her hands, trying to calm herself. She felt tense and she got angry easier. Cassie was well aware of that. But it was not an easy time for her.
After a moment she felt two people sitting on each side of her.
"I can sense you are tense" the sarcastic voice of Wylliana Manderly didn't made Cassie smile this time.
"It's not about Freema, is it?" Rose said sweetly "Is it about Benjen?" Cassie growled.
Benjen had gone beyond the Wall, two days before, but he didn't choose Cassie as partner, like he had always had. Cassie didn't like that decision firstly because Ben was the man of the Watch that she worked better with and secondly because she was afraid that beyond that decision there was something more. Benjen had chosen Cinthya, one of the best older women among them. She was just thirty. But she was one of the most expert, one of the two Keepers that had gone beyond the Wall for the first time at nine years old. Ben as the First Ranger had arragend a party of fifteen to go beyond the Wall.
"Tell me why," she demanded as Benjen was getting his horse ready.
"I prefer not to this time," he had answered simply, but that was not enough as an answer.
"We always go together," she said moving closer to the man, "Make me understand why this time it is different."
Benjen took a deep breath, "I swear you are worst than Jon."
Cassie glared at him at the mention of Jon, "Do not compare me to a child who had yet to prove his worth" she snapped "I've gained mine!"
The man turn toward her with a compassionate look. Cassandra hated that look. She was not saying anything different from the truth. She had been beyond the Wall many times.
"I am not denying your skills, Cassie. But the very contrary," he said putting a hand on her shoulder, "Too many of us has disappeared lately, we cannot afford for you to be the next."
Cassie took a breath. That was not only Benjen's decision, it was what the higher officers of the Night's Watch and the Keeper of Light. A decision she had no power of change.
"This time is for Cinthya, the next is yours," he had told her before mount on his horse and join his party. She observed her go away from the top of the Wall. A strange feeling took over her as she could not see them anymore.
Cassie had become very superstitious after her talk with Hydi. She couldn't help but feel anxious and for that she couldn't help but feel stupid. The Others didn't exist, it wasn't possible. But now every time she talked or thought of the other side of the Wall, the thought of the Others came back in her mind.
The Gods were mocking her once again. Those were nothing but stories. Stories for children, that was not reality. It could not be.
"Or maybe it is about your uncle," Cassie rolled her eyes at Wylly's words.
Her uncle was still at the Wall, it's been weeks now and he was still there and Cassie couldn't stand him now more than ever. He ate with them, he walked where he wanted, he talked of things that nobody cared. She wanted to hide somewhere but she couldn't, because she was sure he would have been even there.
"So this is your kingdom, niece," he said to her one morning as she walked down the stairs.
"I'm no princess in here," she said as snowflakes started to flew down the skyes. She observed her uncle, all wrapped up in black fur. He could have been mistaken for a little bear at firt glance "You are too far from home, uncle. You'll die of freezing without your sun."
She was keep her descent on the stairs when she heard him chuckle. She couldn't stand the sound no longer.
"If you're trying to scare me, it will not work," he said, "I'm far too curious of this place leave so soon."
She could not stand him anymore. He would go look at her training, he would eat and talk with the Matriarch. She could not wait for him to leave. But she was used on wishing for her family to be far away from her.
"Or maybe it's about Jon," as Rose spoke, Cassie stood up.
"Don't you have training to do?" She exclaimed and the two girls looked at each other with a smirk.
"I think you won," Wylliana said proudly to Rose, who smiled in victory. Cassie's gazed move between the girls arching her eyebrows.
"Did you have a wager on me?" she asked widened her blue eyes.
And they nodded their heads giggling.
"On what's on your mind," said Rose with sweet voice, thinking that it could solve everything.
"On what's making you grumpy," Wylliana added with a snort, "Grumpier than usual."
They were having fun, she was glad.
"It is not about Jon!" Cassie argued, but the girls just laughed again, making her glare "Alright, I'm done for today," she turned her back at them before walking away.
"Where are you going now?" Wylly asked still giggling, but Cassie didn't even turn.
It was not about Jon Snow, not just him anyway.
Her friends didn't understand why she was so angry at him; Rose often told her to invite him to eat with them because he was always alone, but Cassie never did. They didn't even talk and it wasn't her fault if he hadn't any friends. His actions spoke for themselves.
Cassie walked to the training fields of the Watch and her gaze fall on Jon Snow who was training with Pyp. They both wore the black armor and on them had already fallen a bit of snow. She studied Jon's every move and it was easy to understand that he had been trained by a master-at-arms. The other however were almost painful to watch. Many could not even hold a sword, other were so clumsy they could have fallen on themselves. She looked at Ser Allyser, he was supposed to train them. As for Jon, he was winning and he seemed proud of it, but the others recruit looked at him with pure hate.
"He is skilled, it is impossible to deny," she rolled her eyes when she heard Tyrion's voice.
"He is stupid," she said when Jon hit Pyp hard on the uncle making him fall on the snowy ground with a loud cry. Cassie shook her head.
"He has defeated him, dear niece." Tyrion said "I'm sure you've noticed that."
"If you think it that way then you are more stupid than he is," she said, her gaze was moving to Jon when she heard Thorne calling for Grenn to train with him. Grenn was a boy of seventeen, Cassie had seen him train before. He was slow, but he was bigger than Jon, almost a head taller. The girl's hands clenched on the wooden railing when Jon dodged Grenn's attack, it was a strong one.
Tyrion shifted next to her, "He may be stupid, but do you care." Cassie looked him from the corner of her eyes and her uncle laughed "For a person so honest, you seem keen to lie."
Cassie turned fully towards her uncle ready to say something when she heard a loud scream from the field. Her eyes came back at Jon, but he had won again and beside him Grenn was holding his wrist, twisted in a strange angle, pure pain on his face.
Jon had hurt his wrist.
"Idiot," she muttered before storming away.
The Wall had brought out a side of Jon that she had never noticed; he was extremely childish. An idiot child.
He had beat every recruit of the Watch with ease, humiliated them, and even being proud of it. He wasn't being friendly with anyone, but not because he was shy. And then he got surprised when Thorne had given him the name Lord Snow and that everyone now called him by that name. He acted like he had been forced to go to the Wall. She had talked to Wylly about the possibility for him to go back, since he was a volunteer, but she reminded her that once there, he was like all the others, he couldn't leave. Ahead of him there were just the vows of the Watch.
Cassie went in the armory to give back the training sword she had taken before. The armoury wasn't huge, but it was full of weapons, all of them without edge of course, the dangerous ones were in another side of the castle.
"You are early today, m'princess," Cassie smiled at the voice of their blacksmith Donal Noye.
"I'm no princess," she answered turning to him "Not here, anyway," Donal Noye had been a blacksmith in Storm's End, the castle of House Baratheon in the Storm's Lands. He served her uncle Stannis Baratheon. Cassie had seen the Storms Land and Baratheon's castle had walls that were dark, not shiny like King's Landing's, and outside the waves of the see moved with constant fury against the rocks.
Ours is the fury.
She wondered if the words of house Baratheon had come from that water. When she was a child she liked to spend hours looking at the angry sea, feeling as if it understood her, like he was feeling her same things.
"How's your father?" Noye asked taking Cassie's sword in his hand.
"I don't think you would recognize him," Donal had known Cassie's father and apparently, he had been the one to forge Robert Baratheon's hammer, the one that killed Rhaegar Targaryen during the war. Even Noye had fought but he lost an arm, so even before Cassie was born, he left the Storm's Lands and went to the Wall, but he had always remained loyal to Cassie's House and he always treated her gently, as jently as a smith could be. And so she did the same.
A loud crash made them turn, Cassie followed the noise to arrive in one of the cells near the armoury, she looked inside and she saw that Grenn, Toad, Wanker and another young man had surrounded Jon. Todder and the young man had stopped Jon twisting his arm behind his back.
"Was your mother a whore, lord Snow?" Jon soon freed his arm in rage and took Toad by the vest pushing him on the floor and slamming his head down. The other two had to intervene to take Jon away. Cassie shook her head.
"Boys and their games," she said stepping in the room.
All of them stopped and turned to her, with different expressions on their faces. Wanker looked at her with anger, but he took a step back, Todder and the other man looked down, Grenn's face was twisted strangely, probably because of the pain and Jon looked at her with wide eyes in surprise.
"I'm quite sure that you have to be on the field to fight" she added taking another step.
"It doesn't concern you, witch," Wanker said making her smirk.
Did he just call her witch?
Her hand moved so fast that in a blink of an eye it was on his neck. Everyone gasped at the scene before them. Cassie was looking him in the eyes; he was petrified by the fear. Her hand was trebling, begging her to release her power. It had been so long since it had been satisfied last.
"Sometimes I think that it would be better to subjugate some of you," she said in a growl, "To make the others understand how to behave properly," he was shaking under her touch "But then I remember you would die and even in a quick way," then she smiled, "No, I prefer seeing you change your behaviour slowly and painfully out in the cold." Cassie let him go and he seemed to breathe again, "Go back in your cells!" She exclaimed and all of them moved to the door, when she noticed Grenn passing by she spoke again, "Go to Maester Aemon, he will help you with it," he nodded his head before exit the room.
Turning she noticed that Jon hadn't moved from his spot, they looked at each other before Cassie moved to the door.
"Thank you," she stopped at Jon's words.
"What?"
"Thank you, for helping me," he said again, she had almost hoped that he would have taken is mouth shut.
"You are an idiot," Cassie said walking to him, he frowned at those words "Whose do you think is the fault for this?" Jon glared at her almost offended.
"They are all jealous because I beat them," Cassie laughed at that and at how strongly he seemed to believe in it.
"Congratulations, son of a Lord, for having beaten twenty farmers" she exclaimed "Do you think that here we are all up to beat the best of the class? You are not the first good sword, Lord Snow."
"Don't call me that!" He argued angrily.
"Why not?" She said in a challenging tone "It suits you. You don't care about them; you don't care of getting them hurt. You have skills for becoming a ranger" she admitted "But you are going to die on your first mission" he shook his head "No? Who do you think will cover your lordly ass out there Jon?"
How could he not see it?
In Winterfell everyone loved the Starks because of how they treated their people. Hasn't he learnt anything? Respect was all it was about, it wasn't needed to love your companions, you just need them to trust you and for them to be trusted. Jon fought to win, not for training. If the edge of that sword had been sharped all the other recruits would have been dead. How could they become brothers in that way?
"You are a child," she said and he looked at her but he wasn't angry, not for this at least "And maybe you've started to realise it too" when she moved to the door he spoke again.
"Nobody told me it would have been like this."
"What did you expect, Jon?" Cassie asked "That because your father is a lord, they would have treated you better here?"
"No," he said, "But I thought it would have been different. Only lord Tyrion spoke the truth." Cassie glared at him. Her uncle? Her uncle spoke the truth about the Wall.
"He'd spoken the truth of a place he gave no shit about?" she said trying to keep calm.
"He told me how it would have been here." Jon said.
"How could he?" Cassie argued back, "He was never fucking here!"
"But you had!" he yelled holding her gaze, "You've never talked about the Wall, how it is like" he argued. Cassie's eyes widened in anger as she stalked back towards him.
"Do not try and blame it on me," she said, "You made a choice, it was yours. Only yours. Nobody jumped with joy at your idea, but you didn't care. You came here because nobody cares if you're a Stark or a Snow!" she continued, she was so furious with him. How dared he say that nobody cared to explain the Wall to him. He made a decision, a decision for life. He could not complain now.
"Do you want to prove something, Jon?" she said, "Prove that you are man enough to take your own responsibilities," Cassie then stormed off of the room.
That idiot, that child! How dare he? If he hadn't been so focused on cry after lady Catelyn now, he would have been at home, were his real brothers needed him, where he had a life.
It was dinner time and Cassie took her place on a banch near the window. She set there so that she could watch the snow falling from the sky, dancing slowly in the wind. It was a calm night, the wind wasn't blowing harshly and it wasn't too much cold, for her skin anyway. Men of the Night's Watch and Keepers of the light were talking as they ate, everyone was talking and laughing. Even her little uncle was already there. Cassie's eyes diverted on the wall of ice that she could see from the windoe. The Wall had been built at the end of the Long Night, she wondered how long the next winter would be since the summer had lasted almost ten years.
"Sorry, if we angered you today," Rose said sitting next to Cassie.
"But you're welcome for covering for you with lady Eloyse. If she asks, you had a terrible headache," added Wylly taking her place in front of her and Cassie smiled looking down.
"It is not so far from the truth," she answered taking a sip of her mead.
Silence fell between them.
"Cassie what's going on? Wylly and I are getting worried," Rose asked "I know you don't like talking about yourself, but this time there is something," she was right, Cassie hated to talk about her worries, she wouldn't talk about how tedious having her uncle around was or the fact that one day they would have found Jon Snow stabbed in his bed.
"Do you believe in old stories?" Cassie asked suddenly.
"Depends on which,"Wylly replied looking Cassie closer.
"Do you believe in the Others?" Cassie added looking from one girl to the other, Rose's eyes blinked in fear and confusion.
"I do not want to believe in those," she answered honestly.
"Why?" Wylly asked studing Cassie's face. The princess could not stop thinking about what Hydi said, about the dirwolves she saw and all those disappearence. But maybe she was just overthinking it all. Maybe she was scaring the girls over nothing.
"Just curious," Cassie answered shaking her head.
Suddenly quick steps and a joyful laughter echoed in Castle Black. Cassie stood up when she recognized Jon Snow. He entered the main hall gaining all the gaze from both Night's Watch and Keeper of Light. On his face there was a huge smile as he walked across the room towards her uncle. He took the Imp under his arms and twirl him around with a laugh. At that Cassie stood up.
What was he so happy about?
She could not hear what he was saying to her uncle, even if on the lord of Lannister's face had appeared a shocked expression. Cassie frowned getting closer and when Jon saw her, he run to her and hugged her. Cassie felt paralyzed unsure of what to do. His arms around her waist as he spun her too he was laughing in her ear as she held on him.
"He's awake. The gods gave him back to us," he said once he set her back on the floor. Cassie eyes widened and looking him in the eyes she saw tears.
"Bran?" She asked carefully. He nodded without stop smiling. Cassie couldn't hold back a scream of joy as she threw her arms around Jon's neck and immediately he hugged her close again. She couldn't believe little Bran was alive, she preferred not to think about him afraid he would have died.
Maybe the gods exist after all, Cassie thought.
Then she broke the hug putting her hands on his shoulder as his went on her hips, they looked in each other's eyes with joy.
"I've talked with Noye," he said, "And you were right, I've been acting like a child" she chuckled shaking her head.
"Every man was a child once," Jon laughed, then he turned. Cassie fallowed his gaze to see Grenn, looking at them. Well, everyone was looking at them, even Thorne. Jon walked closer to Grenn, but the boy stepped back.
"Stay away from me, bastard," Cassie frowned. Jon really didn't know how to make good first impressions if the boy was still afraid of him.
"I'm sorry about your wrist," he said kindly, he hadn't been that kind since he came at the Wall, "Robb did the same to me with a wooden sword and it hurt like seven hells. Maybe I can show you how to divert it," Cassie looked proudly at him when she saw Grenn nodding lightly. Jon had understood that he needed to team up with those men not beat them.
"Lord Snow wants to take my place now," Thorne roared in a laughter. Cassie rolled her eyes at his comment. How come no one had ever stabbed him in his bed?
"I would have an easier time teaching a wolf how to juggle, than you teaching him how to fight" were they supposed to laugh at this?
"I'll take that wager, Ser Allyser," Jon said "I'd love to see Ghost juggle," Cassie eyes widened while everyone around them gasped. Silent fell. Only a laughter was heard and it came from her uncle Tyrion's mouth. When Tyrion started laughing soon, he was joined by all the men and women around.
Cassie would have laughed too and maybe even be proud of Jon, if Ser Allyser wasn't so vicious and his master-at-arms.
Thorne eyes never left Jon, his hands curled into fists "That was a grievous error, Lord Snow" he said while everyone was still laughing. He had never been mistreated by his men.
Jon definitely didn't know how to make a good impression, she thought looking at her friend next to her.