𝓡𝓞𝓢𝓔, 𝑔𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈 ¹

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡

"𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃, 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐋𝐋"

THE TABLE OF THE WAR MEETING, surrounded by Northern lords, the area lit only by torchlight. Eyan Stark is amongst them, as he always is, though his mind is only half there, the Stark boy barely listening to the others brainstorming. The other half of his mind is on the recent events that occurred in King's Landing - his father's death - and the fact he knows at least one of his three sisters, Sansa, witnessed it, and the other two are missing or even dead as far as he knows.

"Eyan?" Robb's hand on his brother's shoulder snaps Eyan out of his trance. "Well...?" Robb is clearly looking for his brother's input, but Eyan hasn't been paying enough attention to give any input. "Do you think I should bow to Renly or Stannis?" Robb whispers so the other Northmen can't hear him, but Eyan is still ashamed he had been focused on anything but the present. Still, Eyan just clears his throat and acts as casually as he can.

"Neither." Eyan states after a moment of thought. "I don't think you should kneel to either of them."

"What?" Robb lets out a breath of confused, mostly humorless laughter, unsure of what exactly his older brother means.

"Do not kneel to either Renly or Stannis." Eyan repeats.

"I, for one, agree with your brother." Greatjon Umber announces, standing from where he was sitting. "Here is what l say to these two kings. Renly Baratheon is nothing to me, nor Stannis neither." Greatjon stands in the center of the room. "Why should they rule over me and mine from some flowery seat in the South? What do they know of the Wall or the Wolfswood? Even their gods are wrong! Why shouldn't we rule ourselves again? It was the dragons we bowed to and now the dragons are dead!" He points out in his booming voice. "There sits the only king l mean to bend my knee to - the King in the North!" Greatjon bows down to Eyan, which the partially zoned out Stark was not expecting. Though, as he is the eldest remaining male Stark, it logistically makes sense, he had not expected to be declared King in the North. Robb, however, appears to have expected something like this, as his only reaction is to gesture for Eyan to rise from his seat, which Eyan does.

"I'll have peace on those terms. They can keep their red castle and their iron chair too." Rickard Karstark agrees and bows to Eyan, his sword now extended as Greaton's is. "The King in the North!"

"Am I your brother, now and always?" Theon questions from the side of Eyan.

"Now and always." Eyan turns his head to Theon, confirming Theon's idea.

"My sword is yours in victory and defeat, from this day until my last day." Theon announces and turns to kneel to Eyan along with the other two men, his sword now unsheathed and extended.

"The King in the North!" Greatjon booms.

"The King in the North!" The whole of the room of men begins chanting, and the remaining Lords stand and swear their fealty to Eyan as their King, all the while chanting, "The King in the North!" repeatedly.

"You hear that, Eyan?" Robb leans over to whisper to his brother, the Lords too distracted by their chanting to notice or care if they do. "You're a King now. The King in the North."

"The King in the North." Eyan mumbles to himself, looking down at the Lords kneeling and swearing their fealty to him.

As much as Eyan knows this should be something he is proud of, happy about even, he can't help but only feel this creating more weight on his shoulders and solidify the fact that he is the oldest remaining Stark man and that his father is gone and won't be coming back.

While the Lords and his brother are too busy chanting and celebrating, tears prick in Eyan's eyes.

"The King in the North."