A Song of Ash and Smoke | a continuation of A Song of Ice and Fire

𝐉𝐚𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐫𝐚

The ceremony for the Northen Queen's wedding was like no other Jae had seen. The Northerners were quite stern in manner, and it reflected in their traditions. The Godswood was quiet as everyone looked on. The Northern Queen's intended was of the Far North, beyond the wall. A wildling, as the Southerners said. The Northerners called them Free Folk. The man was of the Men of the Frozen Shore, a fishing clan from the Bay of Ice, Jae had learned. His name was Snow Bear. Tyrion had explained it was the Frozen Shore custom to be named for animals found beyond the wall.

The ceremony in itself was quite lovely. The groom looked a tad uncomfortable, as if he were unused to the finery within the castle walls. The trees surrounding the Godswood were draped in delicate white lace, with lanterns dangling sporadically throughout their branches. Small candles spotted the ground near the line of the clearing in the green grass below them. The nighttime breeze caressed Jaehaera's skin. The stars almost seemed to shine brighter as the moon bathed the Godswood in its light. Queen Sansa herself was a vision, cloaked in white wolf fur flecked with grey and black. Her dress was of pale grey wool, which was shaped to form a cowl at her shoulders. She wore no veil or hood, her fiery hair spilling like melted copper down her back. Instead, she wore a crown intricately carved in the shape of a wolf, whose muzzle pointed up as if it were howling at the moon. The tail of the wolf stretched around the other side of the crown to meet the head in a simple, yet breathtaking peak. She had walked down the aisle with a veiled demeanor, her emotions masked behind the stoic pools of emerald in her eyes.

The celebration after was different altogether. The great hall was dressed similarly to the trees, in the same white lace. The intricately engraved iron sconces along the walls burned with tall white candles. Two tapestries, one fashioned in the Queen's image and the other in her new husband's, hung on the left wall. A large portrait of the two sat off to the right side of the bride's table, up on a platform above the rest of the hall on an easel. Northerners may be a serious people on most days, but this day they drank over two hundred barrels of wine, fermented goat's milk, and ale. They were as loud, if not louder, than any other crowd of drunken men. All seemed in good cheer and of high spirits, as they boisterously laughed and shouted at each other. Queen Sansa observed the room with cool eyes but laughed and smiled as she jested with her companions and husband.

There was a man and a woman seated to her right, past King Bran, that Jaehaera did not know. The woman was small in stature, with dark brown hair wrapped in a bun behind her head and wide dark eyes. Like the queen, she also had serious eyes, but the lines around her mouth suggested that she smiled more than Queen Sansa did. She wore all grey, her shoulders heavy with fur as any other Northerner, with a woolen blouse. Beside her, a broad-shouldered man with thick, curly black hair. His eyes were dark as well. He had a trimmed beard, but Jae could tell beneath it that he was not smiling. He seemed to be lost in thought, gazing distractedly into the distance. Something in Jaehaera's intuition told her there was something different about this man, and it formed a knot in her belly as she stared at him with an intense scrutiny.

Jojen placed a warm hand over hers. He seemed to be subtly affected by the wine, with rosy cheeks and a cheeky grin. "What is it, my heart?"

"That man," she started. "There is something queer about him."

Jojen glanced at him. "I believe that is the Queen's brother, if I recall Grandmaester Sam's words correctly. Quite a confusing ordeal with his origins, really. And of course, my father's brother as well."

"Confusing ordeal?" Jae was intrigued.

"It's apparently known as fact that he is actually Targaryen in name, as Aegon. It's recorded in the books that his father, Prince Rhaegar dissolved his marriage to Elia Martell in secret, married Lyanna Stark and conceived a child."