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[THEON pauses.]
"You haven't brought enough men. How am I supposed to defend Winterfell with just this lot?"
"You're not. I've come to bring you home. Father wants a word."
Theon blinked in shock.
"Is this a joke? Winterfell is the heart of the North."
"Aye, it is, hundreds of miles from the sea. We're islanders, baby brother. Have you forgotten that? Our power comes from our ships. And now that you've decorated your walls with the bodies of the Stark boys, every man in the North wants to see you hanged. When Robb Stark finds out-"
"He won't find out. We've killed all the ravens. We have all the horses. I've taken Winterfell. And I will keep Winterfell."
Yara snorts.
"I've been looking at you in silence for a while and you remind me less of a prisoner and more of a spoiled brat" Yara drawled.
"I was not-"
"Not only do you not have a mind for strategy. But you also have zero vision for the greater picture. You expected me to come and defend a castle for you that you claimed so far from the sea that all our naval forces have no advantage. Do you want to be sieged? And then what? Do you think the Northern forces don't know how to invade Winterfell like you and your twenty men did? You're a blind idiot who rushed into things to get father's approval but didn't have a single idea how to handle what comes next!"
Yara sighed.
"You are my brother. We both loved our mother and for her, I pray you to learn to handle your shit and not let people influence you into doing dumb shit!" Yara paused, put a hand on Theon's shoulder then pulled away and looked away.
Theon stared, wide-eyed and thoughts running wild. He sank into his seat and just stared in silence.
[YARA'S Ironborn men get up from the table and exit at her word. YARA gets up and faces THEON.]
"Theon, you're my blood. We both loved our mother. We both endured our father. Come home with me. Don't die here alone."
"I don't intend to die."
"You were a terrible baby, do you know that? Bawling all the time, never sleeping. And one night, you just wouldn't shut up, screaming like a dying pig. I walked over to your crib and looked down at you. I wanted to strangle you. And you looked up at me and you stopped screaming. You smiled at me. Don't die so far from the sea."
Yara looked at her brother, who was still in his silently watching the events unfold mode. She could say a few things more to cheer him up, but what's the use? He needs to see the absolute fuck up he did here and learn from it. Clearly, the Starks pampered him to the point he cared little about actual planning and moving forward with his 'plans.
[NORTH OF THE WALL]
[A party of wildlings, including JON SNOW and YGRITTE cross a frozen lake, joining a large band nearer the shore. The LORD OF BONES walks forward to meet them.]
Jon's mood wasn't great to begin with, seeing Bran and Rickon's bodies burned beyond recognition like that... And now this...
"I've brought you a present, Lord of Bones."
"I already got one crow. Don't need two."
"Mance will want to question this one. Knows all about where the crows are and what they're planning."
"The Halfhand knows more. This one is just a little boy. Gut him."
"Fuck" Jon mumbled to himself. They'd captured Qhorin.
"He could have killed me half a dozen times."
"And now he wishes he did. Gut him."
[A wildling draws a knife at the command.]
"He's a bastard of Winterfell, Ned Stark's son."
[LORD OF BONES turns around.]
"Funny how the Stark name means something even beyond the Wall"
Jon Arryn noted, humming thoughtfully.
"What are you planning, Lord Arryn?" Renly asked.
"Perhaps something that'll do us good" the old man muttered and said no more.
"Mance will want him."
"What does Mance want with a dead man's bastard?"
"How do they know Lord Stark's dead?" Shireen asked.
"Possibly from the Nights Watchmen, they captured" her father explained. His voice was still numbed, repressed and soft. Softer than what Shireen ever heard him.
"I don't know. I he'll want to decide for himself."
[The LORD OF BONES walks to face YGRITTE.]
"He runs, I'll chop his balls off."
"He runs, I'll do it meself."
[The LORD OF BONES walks away.]
"We're even now, Jon Snow."
"Fascinating how they are more likely to repay a debt than we are" Tyrion noted with a hum. "Really makes you wonder who the real savages are."
"We are, since we're more refined than them" Tommen argued.
"A good point, nephew" Tyrion smiled at the boy.
[YGRITTE exits. The wildlings force JON down on his knees, next to QHORIN HALFHAND, who has also been captured.]
"I couldn't do it. I had the sword on her neck, I just couldn't-"
"I know."
"The others?"
"When you didn't come back, we went looking for you. We found your tracks fast enough. But they found us before we found you."
"They died because of me."
A pang of guilt passed through Jon. It was his weakness that cost good men their lives. All because he couldn't kill a woman.
"See that it wasn't for nothing."
[Two wildlings approach, and lift QHORIN to his feet.]
[WOODS IN THE RIVERLANDS]
[KING ROBB STARK and LADY TALISA MAEGYR walk through the trees as the sun sets, followed by soldiers and horses.]
"Is she beautiful?"
"I've never met her."
"What's her name?"
"Frey, I suppose. I don't know her first name."
"You haven't told him her name" Ned noted, not a question but an observation.
"I suppose I did not feel it necessary" Catelyn muttered, gripping her husband tightly still. The image of the bodies was ingrained in her head, her boys, her two boys burned beyond recognition.
"I hope that does not cause an issue."
Catelyn leaned back to look at her husband.
"He doesn't know this woman, doesn't know what her name is. She is nobody to him, an unnamed Frey and nothing more. Pray he doesn't do something stupid and goes for a girl he actually knows."
Catelyn understood his point, and the fear was very much present in her as well.
"And you're marrying her for a bridge?"
"An important bridge. It was before they killed my father. I still thought I could march south and rescue him in time, but only if I crossed that bridge."
"When I speak to people from the North, they all loved your father."
"He was the best man I ever met. I know children always think that about their fathers, but-"
"Children do not always think that about their fathers, believe me."
"He once told me that being a lord is like being a father, except you have thousands of children and you worry about all of them. The farmers ploughing the fields are yours to protect. The charwomen scrubbing the floors, yours to protect. The soldiers you order into battle. He told me he woke with fear in the morning and went to bed with fear in the night. I didn't believe him. I asked him, "How can a man be brave if he's afraid?" "That is the only time a man can be brave," he told me."
"You've done good, son" Rickard stated calmly, his voice not the usual rumbling but a deep and soothing tone.
Ned's head snapped to his father, but Rickard was not looking at him. Yet he saw the smile, and that was enough for Ned.
"Most lords worry more about their gold and their glory than the charwomen scrubbing their floors."
"He didn't care much about gold or glory."
"And you?"
"You think I'm fighting this war so they'll sing songs about me? I want to go home. I want the men following me to go home."
"Then why don't you?"
"Because we'll never be safe until the Lannisters are defeated. And because I believe in justice."
"Chopping off Joffrey's head, you mean."
"Yes," Sansa muttered, still holding Bran's hand.
"That would be a start."