Serendipity

Chapter 8

"The last time we saw him, he was in the courtyard at Winterfell. He said 'next time I see you you'll be all in black.' I was jealous of Robb my whole life," Jon said, pulling his arm through his shirt, wincing a bit," the way my father looked at him, I wanted that. He was better than me at everything, fighting, and hunting, and riding, and girls. God's the girls loved him."

"Not all the girls," I mumble, looking up at Jon from where I sat, he studied me for a moment. For the sake of Sam I said," some loved Theon too." That made Jon smirk a bit.

"I wanted to hate him, but I never could," he finished.

"Sometimes I want to hate you," Sam told him," Sometimes I want to hate both of you," this made us look back at him," well, you're better than me at everything... except reading." This made us both smile a bit," they're... they're ready for you."

My smile quickly faded as Jon turned and grabbed his things," he's wanted to hang me for a while. Now's his chance."

Sam tried to hand him a cane," no one's going to hang you, you've done nothing wrong."

Jon stopped walking and glanced back at me," I've done plenty wrong."

~

"So you admit you murdered Qhorin Halfhand?" Alliser Thorne asked Jon infront of the other brothers.

"I didn't murder him," Jon answers.

"No? You put your sword through a brother of the Night's Watch. What do you call that?" He asked mockingly.

"He wanted me to kill him," Jon explains.

"The bastard son of a traitor, what would you expect?" Janos Slynt said.

"The Halfhand believed our only chance to stop Mance was to get a man inside his army."

"Don't talk about the Halfhand as id you knew him. He was my brother," he warned Jon.

"Then you'd know he'd do anything to defend the Wall. The free folk would have boiled him alive, but letting me kill him-"

Janos Slynt cut him off," the free folk? Listen to him. He even talks like a wildling now."

"Aye I talk like a wildling," he snapped," I ate with the wildlings, I climbed the wall with the wildlings, I-" he paused and looked over at me," of course I talk like a wildling. Ceci Mormont can attest to this. She was with me the entire time.

Thorne looked at me," stand up girl."

I stood up and walked over to stand next to Jon," we gained the trust of Mance Rayder. Spoke to him and his close advisors, we helped them climb the wall."

"The law is the law. The boy must die. He conspired with the enemy," Slynt said, tapping the table.

"If we beheaded every ranger who broke one of his vows the Wall would be manned by headless me," Maester Aemon said.

"There's a difference between sleeping through a night watch shift and conspiring with the enemy," Thorne said.

"While we sit here debating which rules he broke, Mance Rayder marches on the Wall with an army of 100,000," I say.

"Impossible, you can't get fifty wildlings together before they start killing each other."

"100,000. He's united the Thenns, the Hornfoots, the ice-river clans, he has giants fighting for him," Jon says.

"Giants,"  Slynt repeats with amusement.

"Have you ever been beyond the Wall, ser?" Jon asks Slynt.

"I commanded the City Watch of King's Landing, boy."