Silver Stag

Lord Commander

[North - Castle Black]

Ghost was still howling, desperate to get to his bonded human. He continued to howl louder and louder, pushing against the door to his pen.

In his chambers, Davos was alerted by Ghost's howling. He exited, then peered across the courtyard and saw a body lying in the snow, completely still.

He immediately ran down the steps, slowing as he approached the body he now recognized as Jon Snow. Other brothers of the Night's Watch approached behind him as he knelt beside Jon's body.

"It's the Lord Commander!" One of the men said as he, Dolorous Edd and a few other men rushed up behind Davos, after realizing it was their Lord Commander.

"Help me get him inside." Davos told them.

The other Night's Watch brothers picked up Jon's body and carried it away. Davos remained behind, staring at the leftover puddle of blood.

In another room, Dolorous Edd wiped the table clean, allowing the other Night's Watch brothers to place Jon's body on the table. Edd placed his hand on Jon's wounds, then brushed his eyes closed.

"Thorne did this." He told Davos as he entered the room, closing the door behind him.

"How many of your brothers do you think you can trust?"

"Trust? The men in this room."

"Does the wolf know you?"

Edd looked at Davos over his shoulder and nodded.

"We need all the help we can get."

As Edd moved towards the door, someone knocked on it. The Night's Watch brothers drew their blades.

"Ser Davos." It was Melisandre, or someone presenting themselves as her.

Again, Edd looked over his shoulder at Davos who nodded, allowing the Night's Watch brothers to sheathe their swords. Edd walked to the door and opened it, stepping aside to let her enter, before closing the door behind her.

She was visibly distressed when she took in Jon's body.

"I saw him in the flames, fighting at Winterfell." She said.

"I can't speak for the flames, but he's gone." Davos told her.

Melisandre touched Jon's cheek, trying to detect any warmth or sign he could be resurrected.

Meanwhile, in the mess hall, Alliser Thorne had assumed the role of acting Lord Commander, a position he felt was stolen from him by the very man who laid outside in a puddle of his own blood.

He sat at the high table among the other leaders of the Night's Watch. The rest of the Night's Watch brothers are shouting at each other.

"He was our Lord Commander!"

"He never should have been!"

Alliser pounded his fist three times on the high table, then stood, the room quieting.

"You all know why you're here. Jon Snow is dead."

"Who killed him?" One of the Night's Watchmen asked.

"I did."

The Night's Watch brothers resumed shouting.

"And Bowen Marsh and Othell Yarwyck and the other officers in this castle."

"Murderers!"

"Traitors!"

The shouting continued as Ollie walked up beside the high table.

Alliser Thorne pounded the high table again. "You're right!"

The shouting stopped.

"We've committed treason, all of us. Jon Snow was my Lord Commander. I had no love for him. That was no secret. But I never once disobeyed an order. Loyalty is the foundation on which the Night's Watch is built, and the Watch means everything to me. I have given my life, we have all given our lives to the Night's Watch. Jon Snow was going to destroy the Night's Watch. He let the wildlings through our gates, as no Lord Commander has ever done before. He gave them the very land on which they reaved and raped and murdered. Lord Commander Snow did what he thought was right, I've no doubt about that. And what he thought was right would have been the end of us. He thrust a terrible choice upon us, and we made it."

The men began to murmur among themselves.

Back in the room with Davos and the others, Ghost nudged Jon's hand and whimpered.

"He'll have seen we didn't come. Thorne will have made it official by now. Castle Black is his." Davos announced.

"I don't care who's sitting at the high table. Jon was my friend, and those fuckers butchered him. Now we return the favor." Edd replied.

"We don't have the numbers."

"We have a direwolf."

"It's not enough. I didn't know Lord Commander Snow for long, but I have to believe he wouldn't have wanted his friends to die for nothing."

"If you were planning to see tomorrow, you picked the wrong room. We all die today. I say we do our best to take Thorne with us when we go."

"We need to fight, but we don't need to die. Not if we have help."

"Who's gonna help us?" One of the other men asked.

"You're not the only ones who owe your lives to Jon Snow." Davos told them.