The wolves of Castle Black - Book 2 - GoT

The wolf of Ashes

"They came to us from White Harbor and Barrowton, from Fairmarket and King's Landing, from north and south, from east and west."

As Maester Aemon spoke, standing in the catwalk in front of the pyre, all of Castle Black was silent. Edd had left Ylina's side, standing right beside the pyre, mourning for Pyp and Grenn with Sam and Jon next to him. Ylina stood off to the side, with Embar in her arms and Gilly beside her. As Ylina watched Jon look down at his friends — his brothers — with sadness filling his eyes in what would be the last farewell to them, Ylina caught herself selfishly wishing she could have done the same for her dead. She had never seen her Father's body. Or her brother's, or her Mother's. She would never be able to give them a proper Northern burial, pray to the Old gods over their bodies. She would never be able to put away their bodies in the crypts where they could rest easy for eternity with the family, where they belonged. She would never be able to raise them a golden statue or place Neckbiter over Robb's lap so it could stay with him forever, even in death.

Every Stark who's ever died rested in the crypts of Winterfell. As a child, she believed in it. Her aunt Lyanna was there and so was her Uncle Brandon. But their brother Ned would never be able to keep company. Nor would her Uncle Benjen, wherever the hell he was. In that moment, watching as Jon mourned his fallen brothers, Ylina felt stupid for ever believing there was something poetic about being buried in the crypts of her home, along with every other person who shared a last name with her.

They were dead. And there was nothing beautiful about death. Peaceful, as she had told Edd, perhaps. But never beautiful. What kind of beauty was in turning cold as the blood stopped running through our veins? Becoming pale, blue-lipped? What kind of beauty was in being burned? Or buried so that time could eventually make all your skin and bones disappear? What kind of beauty was in leaving this world we were born in only for people eventually forget who you are and what you died for?

None, Ylina realized. And that was probably why burning a body was a better option than rotting alone in a crypt. It certainly made nature's job a lot easier.

"They died protecting men, women, and children who will never know their names." Maester Aemon continued his speech as Ylina bounced Embar in her hip. "It is for us to remember them. Our brothers, we shall never see their like again. And now their watch is ended."

And in a choir, almost as if rehearsed, all the brothers repeated the Maester's last words.

"And now their watch is ended."

Ylina watched in silence as a torch was passed through a few of the brothers, as they put fire in the pyre, making the flame burn higher and brighter with each passing second. While the fire consumed the logs and the bodies of the brothers, no one said a thing, letting the sound of the leaping fire to be the only thing it could be heard in the courtyard.

As Ylina watched Jon looking at his brothers with nothing but grief in her eyes, she missed how, all the way from across the pyre, the woman in red kept her crystal green eyes glued to her. It wasn't until after a few seconds that her eyes found the woman's and she stared at her, the image of the unknown woman staring right back at her the last thing in her mind before she turned around with her son in her arms and made her way back to her chambers.

***

When there was a knock on her door, Ylina thought it could be anyone, really. Jon, Sam, Edd, Gilly... Even Lord Commander Thorne. But never in her life would she have thought that, after leaving Embar sat on the floor of her chamber drawing in whatever piece of paper she could have found for him to distract herself, she would have opened the door to the woman in red.

As she stood there in her door, staring at the strange woman, Ylina noticed how she smiled at her, pulling off the hood of her head just so Ylina could see her flaming red hair spilling out of it, almost getting lost in her cloak that held the same shade of red. Standing her ground in front of the door, Ylina sighed slightly.