The room fell into a heavy silence as Jason looked at the faces of the Stark family. Bran shifted in his seat, his youthful curiosity winning out over the tension. "Jason, what are you talking about? What is this important thing?" Arya, momentarily distracted from looking after little Rickon, leaned in with an equally inquisitive look.
Edmure Tully's expression shifted subtly; he was a man of the world and had already begun to suspect Jason's true intentions. Jon, meanwhile, felt a surge of quiet pride. Being invited to such a private gathering meant that Jason truly viewed him as a member of the family. At the end of the table, Maester Luwin and Maester Adrian exchanged a brief, knowing look but remained silent, waiting for the revelation.
Jason took a deep breath. He had agonized over this moment for a long time. With a modern delegation already preparing for formal contact with Westeros, he knew he couldn't keep the secret any longer. He didn't want to terrify Sansa and the others by having strangers from another world suddenly appear without warning.
"I know you've all wondered where my goods come from," Jason began calmly. "The endless supplies, the strange weapons, the rations that never spoil." The curiosity in the room became electric. "What I'm about to tell you will challenge everything you think you know about the world. Please, let me finish before you ask questions."
He then laid it all bare. He explained that he was not from Westeros, but from a place called Earth. He described his ability to travel through time and space—a bridge between two parallel worlds. He spoke of the vast differences between modern society and their own, and even touched upon the chilling possibility that their history had been chronicled as a series of novels back in his world. He concluded by explaining his plan to establish formal trade and communication between the two worlds.
"Is... is this actually true?" Maester Luwin asked, his voice trembling as he tugged at his gray beard. He was visibly shaken by the scale of the revelation.
Maester Adrian's eyes, however, burned with intellectual hunger. "A miracle," he whispered. "To think that two worlds exist side-by-side. And you say our world was written as a story in yours? I don't even have the words for such a thing."
Jason shook his head. "I don't believe your world is 'fake.' I've lived here for years; I know the people and the pain are real. Perhaps the author in my world was simply a vessel, his mind touched by the reality of this place across the void." He didn't want them to feel like characters in a play; he wanted them to understand that their world was just as significant as his own.
"Wow! Is that true, Jason?" Bran's eyes were sparkling like light bulbs. He didn't care about the philosophy of novels; he was a boy hearing about a new land. "You can go there whenever you want? When can you take me? I'm dying to see it!"
"I want to go too!" Rickon giggled, following his brother's lead without fully grasping the concept of parallel dimensions.
Sansa, however, looked overwhelmed. She reached out and gripped Jason's arm tightly. "My lord... you won't leave me, will you?" She didn't care if he was from another world or another star; she had lost too much family already and only cared that her husband stayed by her side.
Jason covered her hand with his and spoke softly. "Never, Sansa. I promise. If anything, I plan to spend much more time here now." His goal was clear: unify Westeros, take the throne, and manage the bridge between the two civilizations.
Arya's voice broke the warmth of the moment. She looked at him with a piercing, solemn gaze. "If you knew the story... if you knew what was going to happen to our parents and Robb... why didn't you stop them?"
"Arya!" Sansa hissed, shocked by her sister's accusatory tone. The room went cold as Bran's smile faded, the grief for his lost family resurfacing.
Jason sighed, a look of genuine regret on his face. "I'm sorry, Arya. I wish I could have done more. But you have to remember who I was then: a stranger with no name and no house. Without the title King Robert gave me, I was just a commoner." He reminded them that even with a title, a lord with no history has no influence. "I warned Robb not to break his marriage pact, but he was a king, and he was proud. He wouldn't listen to a man he barely knew."
A heavy silence followed. Edmure Tully was the first to break it, sighing as he processed the shock. "Jason is right. At that time, even my sister and Ned would have seen his warnings as the ramblings of a merchant. No one would have taken him seriously."
Arya looked down, her shoulders slumping. The anger left her, replaced by a deep sense of loss. "I'm sorry, Jason. I shouldn't have blamed you. It's just... it hurts to think about them."
"I know, Arya," Jason said gently. "And I promise you, we will have justice for them soon. The day of reckoning is coming."
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