[Chapter Size: 2200 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Winterfell.
...
...
His sister.
The real one, not a ghost.
Appeared before him.
His real sister, staring at him with eyes full of anger and indignation.
This time, he couldn't just hear the same questions from the past few nights and remain silent—he would have to answer them.
"Answer me, Ned, why did you make my son suffer in your hands?!" she had questioned him.
"Lya... I..."
"Answer me!" she had snapped.
"I..." Lord Stark felt his body tremble; he truly didn't know how to face the woman before him. "I felt anger, Lya... at you... I blamed you for your choices, for running away with the prince, even though at the time we didn't know that. When we began the rebellion, when I discovered the truth about you, I saw you lying on that bed, bleeding... screaming to protect your child, calling him Daemon Targaryen..." Lord Stark said in a low, sorrowful, and remorseful tone.
"It was all a lie... you went on your own accord, our father, our brother, they all died because of your reckless actions, Lyanna." He looked at her with teary eyes. That seemed to surprise Lyanna, who frowned slightly as she faced him.
"I swore to protect your son because I didn't know what else to do. When I finally found you in that tower, I saw you dying, and your last wish was for Rhaegar's son." He said.
"My son too, Ned!" she snapped now. "He was as much a Stark as you and I, if you want to know."
"I know, I know that very well now, but back then... I accepted your promise because I thought I had to honor your last request, when you were dying right in front of me. We lost almost our entire family in that chaos, Lya—our father and brother went first, dying deaths worse than slaughtered animals, and you were dying before my eyes..." He repeated this with deep sorrow.
"Ned..." Lyanna murmured, unable to stop herself, watching her brother cry.
"I accepted your promise, I saw you take your last breath, wanting the boy to be saved, but afterward I grew angry. I found out you had a child and wanted him saved. It wasn't fair. Your mess had killed our family, thousands of lives were lost back then..." he said, his voice sounding like a cautious accusation directed at the ghost of his sister.
"You think I wanted that?! I sent letters explaining the situation both to Winterfell and to the Couriers! I warned them, and somehow they were never delivered to my father or my brother! No, Daemon explained everything! He discovered it was the maesters themselves who stopped the letters, damn ____! If I had known he was a traitor, I would have killed him!" Lyanna roared, tears still streaming down her face. "I blamed myself for all of it, Ned. I thought I was responsible for Father's and our older brother's deaths!" she screamed through tears, leaving Ned disoriented. She didn't even care if anyone else could hear.
"I blamed myself! However, my son explained to me that things weren't that simple. He revealed how the maesters had been plotting behind the curtains, preventing certain information from reaching their lords. But besides that, I wasn't the one who took Brandon and brought him to King's Landing, announcing that he wanted to kill Prince Rhaegar because of my disappearance. I wasn't the one who condemned our father to fight against fire itself while our brother was strangled trying to save him! I didn't ask for this, Ned. I didn't want this!" she said, still in tears.
"Lya... I know. I know it was wrong to blame you for that..." Ned admitted after a silence between them.
"Even so, you didn't seem to remember that when you saw my son being treated like that in your house!" she snarled at him.
"Yes... you're right. I shouldn't have let your son live that way. I am guilty. When you died and I returned to Winterfell, I failed. I felt anger toward you, toward Rhaegar and your choices. When I looked at the boy, even though I saw you in him, I also saw his father and what the two of you had caused... I felt that he should pay in some way."
"He was just a child!" Lyanna shouted. "A child who didn't even exist until the end of the rebellion! And yet you blamed him!" she said again.
"Yes..." Ned nodded once more, his voice low and remorseful. "I know I shouldn't have allowed him to be treated that way, and I accept any punishment he may impose on me. I will accept his anger, even if it means death." Ned said in the end.
Lyanna said nothing after his confession, while Ned continued staring at the ground. Lyanna watched him for a few more seconds before breaking the silence.
"I asked him not to kill you." That's what she said. Ned looked at her in shock.
"You... Wait, Lyanna, you spoke with him...? What am I saying... of course you spoke with him. What's happening, how did you appear in my dreams, how are you talking to me like this—it's strange, this isn't a dream, is it? I'm almost sure it isn't." Ned couldn't help but remember he was speaking with his sister who was supposed to be dead, while his voice came out dazed and hoarse from his throat; he had no idea what was happening there.
"It was Jo... Daemon, wasn't it?" Ned asked as Lyanna nodded her head.
"They summoned me through my bones buried in the crypts..." she said. "But it wasn't him, not directly. Not even he can meddle with the realm of the dead—but the goddess he managed to call could." Lyanna finished.
"Goddess? He called a god here?!" Ned nearly choked on the words.
"Yes... I don't understand much of it. He explained to me that he managed to summon one of the gods from the world he was in before returning, that they were the ones who wanted him to come back with all the knowledge about the past... She answered his request and even gave him the sword you must have heard about. He didn't lie when he said the sword was given by a god—perhaps he exaggerated when he said it was from the Old Gods, but it was still a god who gave it to him to destroy the force of evil in the North." She said.
"Force of evil in the North? I've heard some things... but I thought..." Ned still seemed very confused. He had heard whispers from his old men and companions, saying that the free folk spoke of the dead. Ned believed that Daemon was doing all of this out of pure vengeance and a desire to restore his family's power, as he himself had said. There had been no talk of the dead or White Walkers as he was starting to hear now.
"Daemon isn't using this to conquer all of you, not yet. But I'm sure my son is about to reveal everything tomorrow at your trial. They have an undead hidden—he's going to show it tomorrow." Lyanna said.
"I see..." Ned didn't understand any of it; he was out of touch with most of the information.
"I won't take more of your time, brother. Anyway, I'm bound to Winterfell for a while longer, not much, so we can talk another time—if I can still speak with you. Because I don't know if I'll have the heart as a sister to talk to her older brother after everything you did to my son. I don't want to see you dead, and I don't personally hate you. But I am angry with you—angry because if I were in your place, I would never have treated any of your children the way you treated mine! Can you understand that?" she said with sadness.
Ned looked at her, and more tears fell from his eyes. The gleam of remorse was there; her final words cut into his heart. His sister didn't even want to speak to him anymore—and for reasonable reasons, ones he himself had caused out of petty anger and resentment. "I can understand you, Lya... I'm sorry." was all he said.
Lyanna stared at him with the same sad eyes for a few seconds, then turned away, passing through the wall of the room, leaving Ned behind, seemingly surrounded by his own sadness and regret—but it was too late.
Lyanna soon lifted her head and saw her son leaning against the corridor wall with his arms crossed, wearing only a simple night garment. "You were here listening to us, son?" she asked, though her voice was still full of sorrow.
Daemon looked at her with his glowing violet eyes; he seemed to pity his mother, because he knew she was not happy there.
"You two started shouting at each other. The guards were about to enter the room when I stopped them. I've been here since then, making sure no one stumbled upon my mother's spirit arguing with her older brother." Jon remarked. There was no joy or amusement in his voice, as there usually was in most of his conversations with her—not even indifference. He felt a bit of pity for her.
"You're going to reveal everything tomorrow?" she asked, her voice still heavy with sadness.
"Obviously. In a few hours, actually, since it's already past midnight, Mother. I'll not only judge my uncle, but reveal everything—about my rightful ascension to the throne, the truth about the rebellion, which was in fact a lie, and the real culprits. I'm tired of sending men in the castle to be whipped after hearing them dare to speak of you... and I know you hear it sometimes. I can feel it whenever you seem sad during the day." Daemon spoke. Some people had begun to blame Lyanna Stark after Daemon revealed himself to be her son. After all, many had died in that time. They even blamed her for the deaths of Rickard Stark and his heir, Brandon. They called her the dragon's whore, and Jon would grow furious upon hearing it. He had ordered men to be whipped for even the slightest offense—and others, he sent directly to the Wall for calling his mother a prostitute.
Not everyone did it—not as much as they spoke of Daenerys, who also received the same harsh punishments from Daemon—but there were still some of the older ones who whispered beyond most ears.
The Northerners were stubborn—so much that it often irritated Daemon.
Upon hearing that, Lyanna simply remained silent.
"Would you like to spend the night with me? I won't be naked, so I don't see any problem with you staying in the room," Daemon said finally to his mother, who nodded at his words. He usually didn't let her near when he was with two of his four women.
"I'd love to, son," she said, a warmer smile forming on her face. "And thank you... You're a better son than any mother could ask for." she said, her sadness fading further away. Daemon was a brave and powerful man—cruel at times, but never to those who didn't deserve it. He was fair and always listened to the common folk, seeking to help them. She felt proud of what her son had become in that world, even if she didn't understand ninety percent of his abilities. She just thought it was the magic he had acquired there.
He would be a better king than any other, and she was happy to have witnessed it all. Perhaps one day she could find Rhaegar and tell him what their son had become before they saw Daemon in the afterlife.
Besides, Daemon was fighting for her—for her and Rhaegar to leave the limbo where they had been trapped for almost eighteen years, to finally join the others.
"I'll announce my marriage to Dany and finally my uncle's trial," Daemon said as she disappeared, though she remained by his side, following him down the corridor in her invisible form.
"..." Lyanna was about to say something but stayed silent. She would let Daemon conduct the trial as he intended.
"Tomorrow, Mother, anyone who still has something against you will hear who the real culprits of the rebellion were. The North will have to swallow that, and I challenge anyone to say otherwise about you after that," Daemon said, and Lyanna nodded.
"Thank you." That was all she said.
Daemon entered the room where Ygritte and Val were sleeping in the bed—it was their night with him. He simply lay down, and Lyanna stayed there, smiling as she watched him the entire night, ignoring the two naked women in his bed. Val had even looked at him when she came in but said nothing, and Daemon only kissed her forehead before going to sleep.
He only had to send his mother away early the next morning when Ygritte decided to wake him up by starting to suck his cock. Lyanna left after that, looking for her brother Benjen.
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