𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 || 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑾𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝑪𝒓𝒚 𝑶𝒖𝒕

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑿𝑿

꧁CHAPTER XX꧂
꧁300 AFTER CONQUEST꧂

꧁JAIME꧂

The North was unforgiving in both climate and attitude, and Jaime knew he deserved no such thing as forgiveness. But he wished it had snowed less so that their travels further North would be easier. Even if they could get Sansa out of Winterfell, he wasn't sure if their already near exhausted horses could make it to the full way to Castle Black.

But the home of the Starks lied ahead, its towers hanging in the horizon that briefly showed through the thick snows and clouds covering the sky in a bleak, grey mess of misery. It isn't the same vibrant place it was when he saw it last. The Starks being gone from their ancestral home had sapped the castle's spirit, he saw, and he wondered if it could ever be the same.

"We have to make camp a good distance away. We can't get to close."

"We could stay in Wintertown."

Podrick claimed innocently, probably not wanting to cold camp in the snow more than he had to. They had already done that for a while now, and Jaime would admit that he was freeing tired of it as well. Brienne sighed but nodded nonetheless.

"The nights are getting frigid. We don't have the supplies to maintain ourselves out here in the elements."

Brienne spoke, and Jaime knew she was right.

"So you suggest we find an inn?"

"I suggest we find a place we can lie low and not draw suspicion from the Boltons or anyone that might be loyal to them."

"I doubt anyone in Winterfell or Wintertown are loyal, truly, to the Boltons."

"You would be surprised where people's loyalties lie when the lives of others or their own are on the line."

Brienne looked at Jaime with that look he had come to recognize as one that is of interest and pride. She saw him trying, and Jaime found himself trying to get that look from her any chance he could get. But his words were reflected on himself, and he remembered their talks in the bath at Harrenhal, the truth of what happened.

The wind whispered his King's ranting words of madness in his ears, and he shivered from both them and the cold as he tried to refocus his thoughts.

"People will question our swords and armor. We can't bring them with us, it would be a giveaway."

"So you suggest we go unarmed and unarmored?"

Brienne asked with concern and Jaime just shrugged.

"We can't have our cover blown the first minute we step into town. We have to hide them."

Brienne shook her head, but he could see she knew that he was right. Nodding with reluctance, Jaime climbed down from his horse and unbuckled his sword belt. Holding the scabbard in his arm with his stump, he pulled the Valyrian steel blade out just a little, eyeing the steel with a heavy heart. It wasn't his, and it never would be.

Looking to Winterfell in the distance again, he knew the steel belonged there, but not to the people who occupied its halls currently.