video; un: littlebird

[toivory]

Hello everyone and- Merry Chris-mass! [She pronounces it wrong, still trying to get a hang of the new words and holidays. But she was told that's what you say, so she's going to say it, and smile.]

I wanted to let everyone know that my older brother is here! If you see a handsome, brooding man, chin-length black hair, bit of a beard, dressed in all black, that's likely Jon Snow. He can be a bit of an idiot, but he's my brother all the same- a true Stark. [One of two brothers she had left.]

If you see him, reach out. He could use the break afforded to us here, in a manner of speaking.

[It's hard, being the true heir to the Iron Throne, she imagines.] It's good to have him here.

Comments

[toivory]

Unfortunately not everyone sees it your way.

[king_inthenorth]

They'll see it my way when there's no one left in Westeros.

[toivory]

Yes, about that... [time to take a drink. The older she gets to be more she understands Cersei’s perpetually full glass of wine.]

King’s Landing was nearly burned to the ground. [Three guesses why and two of them are dead dragons]

[king_inthenorth]

Not by wights. They don't use fire. [They tend to avoid it, if they don't want to come to a bad end.]

[toivory]

No.

By a dragon and wildfire.

Those who would not bend the knee were put to the sword amidst the destruction.

[king_inthenorth]

Dragons? [He knows what, who, that means. He's only ever heard of one person who has dragons.] Why would the dragons do that?

[toivory]

[Sansa tries to stop herself from giving him a very pointed why do you fucking think, Jon??? look. Instead, she tempers herself with a drink.]

Their mother instructed it. Just as she would have if she were able to turn her attentions Northward.

Your beloved proved a tyrant.

[king_inthenorth]

She's not my --

[At least at this point he can still claim that.]

Northward?

[toivory]

[Okay. Now he gets a flat look.]

You don't believe she'd let the North go, do you? She told me as much: if the North did not bend the knee, she would come for us. The North knows but one King, in a manner of speaking.

[And Jon did not want the Seven Kingdoms. He'd made that perfectly clear.]

[king_inthenorth]

I told her I wouldn't bend the knee. [He might have changed his mind, but at least at one point he hadn't intended to?]

[toivory]

You bent it alright.

You fell in love with her. I don't blame you-- she is very beautiful.

[king_inthenorth]

She is. [He knows that much.] She told me that she would only give us the dragon glass if I bent the knee. [And she knows he hadn't really wanted the title in the first place.]

[toivory]

[If she were another person, she would have raised her voice. But her tone remains even, a skill she'd picked up from her years in King's Landing.] I know.

[Doesn't mean she's okay with it.]

It doesn't matter, I suppose. She doesn't live to sit upon the Iron Throne.

[She gives him a meaningful look. She doesn't want to say it.]

You would have been a far better king, the true heir to the Iron Throne.

[king_inthenorth]

Obviously, not with Bran...

[And then the last thing she said filters through his brain and he looks at her sideways.]

What are you talking about?

[toivory]

Jon... [She reaches her hand toward his.]

You are the true-born son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, Aegon Targaryen.

[king_inthenorth]

[He knows those names well. How could he not? He grew up in Winterfell, Lyanna Stark's home. It's a well-known story what happened to her.

Apparently some parts of the story were missing.

Try as he might, he can't get the story he heard to match up with what Sansa's telling him right now.]

What?

[toivory]

You’re the heir to the Iron Throne, Jon.

[king_inthenorth]

[Heir. Trueborn. He can't be one without the other, but it still makes no sense. Nothing he's ever heard about the situation prepared him for this.]

How?

[toivory]

From what I understand, Lyanna asked father to care for you. To keep you hidden and safe. He knew what King Robert would do to you if he found out.

[king_inthenorth]

She was supposed to marry Robert.

[Which is only one minor reason he would have needed to be kept safe.]

[toivory]

She had already married Rhaegar in secret.

[king_inthenorth]

Oh. No wonder Robert was upset.

[There's still something though. Something from those lessons with the maester. The ones covering history and lineages.]

Rhaegar Targaryen had a wife.

[toivory]

Yes. Your mother.

He loved her. And she loved him. You were born out of love, a rare thing in our lives. He never loved Elia Martell.

I know they were married first. But the marriage was annulled and he was wedded to Lyanna.

[king_inthenorth]

[He had always wanted to know about his mother, and his father -- his uncle -- had finally promised to tell him about her the next time they saw each other. Only there hadn't been a next time. He had gone to the Wall, and Ned Stark had lost his head in King's Landing. And now the man he thought was his father isn't, and the woman he thought was his aunt is his mother.]

They died because of their love.

[And he's a reminder of what happened to them, and why the truth of it couldn't get out. He doesn't have to be told what would have happened to him if Robert Baratheon had known who he really was.]

He said he'd tell me about my mother, the next time we saw each other.

[toivory]

[Well. Lyanna died because giving birth sucks. But, yes.]

And I've no doubt that father would have.