snow and stars| jon snow

xxvii: pandora's wall

   "You don't get it, do you?" He asked the red headed women, who crossed her arms playfully.

  "How long have you been eavesdropping?"

"Not long." He answered. "You're a much more valuable player with a pen, Sansa. If we were to put a sword in your hand, you would be dead within seconds. But do you see how long you have lasted in the game of thrones with a pen? You've outsmarted grown men, manipulated queens and princes and kings. You don't need to fight for your people with a sword, because you fight with your mind. If that's the service you give for your kingdom, we can all be grateful for it."

    Sansa barely smiled. "But if there is another Queen fighting for me, what does that say for me?"

   "That you are smart enough to get strong allies." He answered simply. "And that the North is yours again."

   "Always a Stark's." Arya said to herself, and the two repeated it. "Just as you'd never see me trying to fight my battles with a pen and paper, you should never fight yours with a sword. My service to the North is with a sword. I am a warrior."

   "But she is both." Sansa said softly, looking away instantly after she said it. Surely she noticed how jealous and insecure she sounded, and the other two did as well. Arya sighed to herself before putting a hand over her eyes and shaking her head, and Jon simply stepped closer to Sansa.

  "She is pushed to be both." Jon said, looking Sansa in her blue eyes. "If a leader has a power like that and sits on the sidelines, she is killing her own men."

   "But she will help in the North?"

"She will help in the North." Jon assured his oldest sister, nodding stiffly. "We are all family now. All four of us now must look after each other."

  "I wish you had told us before you married her." Sansa muttered. "I like her, I really do, but I still wish you had told us before. You would've married a girl who was distantly related to a Lannister and from Casterly Rock, or a girl from the Riverlands. More alliances."

   "But I love her," Jon said lamely. "And if it's alliances you are after, this one is the strongest one we could ever ask for. I wouldn't care if she was a stable boy's ass wiper, I would've still married her. She is the light of my life, the one who made me truly happy aga-"

  "Cut the sap, Jon!" Arya shouted playfully and pretended to vomit. "Tell her that, not us."

   Jon laughed. "Oh, shut up, Arya. Go see Gendry or something." All of a sudden, Arya stiffened up and pulled her lips together so tight that she looked mentally unstable. Her playfulness was gone as she turned around with posture he had never seen from her before and walked away.

  "Jon," Sansa said, shaking her head and sighing at his still amused expression. "God." She walked after Arya, who was nearly fuming down the hall.

   "Something I said?"

                                             §

It was days after until Arya forgave him. In all honesty, he suspected shorter from a girl like Arya. She knew that there were more important things to life than being mad about something that came from someone's mouth, especially something that wasn't harmful. The comment about Gendry wasn't meant to be harmful at all.

He was zoned out as his love spoke about battle plans to him and everyone else, but mostly to him and Sansa. He was looking at a cave in the wall where some stone had come out, maybe been carved out. There was a hole big enough for a finger there, but small enough to not be seen at first glance. He felt a nudge on his shoulder, knowing it was Andromeda but he couldn't take his eyes off of it.

"What are you looking at?" She finally asked, an exasperated smile on her face. She stood from her seat and approached the place in the wall he was standing at, interrupting her own talk of siege. She eyed the hole. "Curious little thing," she said, having never seen the hole before. She knew everything about the castle, and a hole this size would have been known to her if it was previously there. She sighed, sticking her finger in the hole and feeling something, something like paper. She switched fingers and moved something out with her smallest finger, and indeed, it was rolled paper. But the weirdest part was that the paper had a large 'P' at the top of it, in the writing of a woman she knew all to well. "Odda," she murmured, and the woman came to her side instantly.

"What is wrong, Your Grace?"

"Look at this." She showed her the letter before opening it, sharing a look with her advisor before slowly tearing it open. "No, stay there, love." She said softly upon seeing Jon begin to approach her. He narrowed his eyes but didn't sit. Andromeda opened the letter all the way, the anticipation being thick enough to cut it with a knife. Odda read over her shoulder.

Dear Andromeda, my descendant.

The Second Sister wanted me to warn you this; if there isn't a babe within two years, she will send her wrath upon Ilta. Idalia feels cheated. Have relations soon, or she will be done with you both.

Odda gasped, and Andromeda stood still in her place. "What?" Jon took long strides over there, pulling Andromeda to him once he got there. He read the note, and by the time he was done, she fainted in his arms.