The wolves of Castle Black - Book 2 - GoT

Things that don't bend

"I need your advice."

As soon as those words left Jon's lips, Ylina let go of everything she was doing at the moment and turned around to face her brother. She was at the library, surrounded by books as Embar was away, probably with Gilly or Daria, but, in any case, Jon was glad his sister was alone because it had been quite sometime since he had last had a proper conversation with her and he missed her. He missed her calm nature and wise words.

Despite being younger than both him and Robb, Ylina was always the responsible one. Sure, she always got them into trouble, but nothing ever too serious. She knew where to draw the line. She always knew when something wasn't funny anymore and was becoming stupid, so Jon was thankful that, out of all of his siblings, it was Ylina there with him in that moment. Especially when she dropped her books and walked straight up at Jon, grabbing his hands in hers as she guided them both toward a table and sat down in front of him.

"What is it?" She asked, her eyes full of concern and her body language showing she was ready to hear anything he had to tell her at that point.

"Alright, so Stannis called me this morning. I was training with the brothers and he sent the Red Woman to call me." Jon smiled slightly at the face Ylina pulled at the mention of the priest, already knowing his sister wasn't that fond of her. "I went with her and when I met Stannis, he told me he wanted me to talk to Mance to try and get him to bend the knee to him and swear loyalty to him."

"Stannis Baratheon wants the wildlings to bend the knee to him?" Ylina frowned, rather surprised. "Does he know the kind of people he is dealing with? There is no way Mance will do it."

"Stannis wants more men in his army and the brothers of the Watch are sworn to take no part in the political games of the realm. So he wants the wildlings."

"Aye, he wants the wildlings to swear their loyalty to him. And what is it that he is offering in return?"

At that, Jon sighed, his head hanging loose knowing that his next words would bother Ylina grately. They had discussed the matter. A few days before the wildling attack at Castle Black, Ylina had seeked Jon for a conversation, much like he had done just now. Through bashful words and whispered confessions, his sister had admitted to him what Jon knew was only a matter of time until it happened.

"I want Winterfell back." Ylina had told him that night, while they sat on the edge of the wall together, hoping no one would bother them there and that the cold winds from up there would carry their words far away from prying ears. "It is our home and it was taken from us. I want it back."

"But that's not all you want." Jon had told her and it hadn't been a question. "You want to avenge Robb. You want to avenge Father. You want to avenge our sisters."

"Well, don't you?"

"What I want doesn't matter."

"But if it did?"

"It doesn't."

"But if it did." She had insisted. "Wouldn't you have wanted to take our home back from those who stole it from us? Wouldn't you have wanted to kill the bastards who killed our brother? Our Father?"

"I just don't want you to become some killing machine, Lina." He had told her, as she suddenly turned her frown away from him and toward the clear night sky above them, her eyes shining with the twinkles of the stars. "If you are going to seek vengeance for everyone who has hurted our family, it will become hard to decide who deserves to die and who doesn't."

That night, the subject had died there, the pair of siblings quickly taking their conversation in another direction to avoid fighting on top of the edge of world. Jon wasn't naive to believe he had convinced Ylina not to pursue her wish for revenge but, in the very least, over the few days that had passed from that conversation, she hadn't touched in the topic again.