Stormbringer | Jon Snow

Chapter 16

Winterfell was abuzz with excitement.

Once she was clean, Melyse went to the yard and got to helping build the pyre. Sansa was already settling everyone into rooms. Many of the soldiers would begin marching back the following morning, but the highest lords, the wildlings, and the Knights of the Vale would be staying for at least a week while Sansa adjusted to her new role as Queen in the North.

Jon had cleaned himself up by then, too, and found her by the library towers to take her to the godswood, liberating her from carrying more wood past the moat. He told her that ravens were been sent already to Dragonstone, Storm's End, Pyke, the Wall, Riverrun, the Eyrie, Runestone, and the keeps the other Northern lords, most notably the Last Umber, where Alys Karstark was free to return to the Karhold.

The godswood was three acres of forest well within the walls of Winterfell. The trees formed a dense canopy over the packed earth, moss covering the roots. There were different types of trees, a mixture of elm, chestnut, hawthorn, oak, ironwood, soldier pine, and sentinel, but in the center was a very particular tree– an ancient weirwood with a melancholy face carved into it, standing over a pool of cold black water lined with blackberry bushes. Covered in snow, the trees looked more beautiful than ever.

No sept had ever made her feel this comfortable, with their multi-colored glass panels and the images of the Seven. She always felt that those faces were judging her, shunning her for being born outside of marriage though it hadn't been her fault. The hymns she'd been asked to memorize hadn't made her feel warm as she did now, looking at the grieving weirwood that'd witnessed so many awful things in the past year alone.

"What do you think?" asked Jon, taking a seat at the foot of the weirwood tree. He laid his still bloody sword beneath it, perhaps part of his prayer of thanks.

"It's almost as breathtaking as the Wall," said Melyse, still looking around. She sat beside him. "What's special about this place? Why did you bring your sword?"

Jon leaned back into the snow. "My father always came here after taking a man's life. He even once made Bran stay here praying all night to teach him not to climb the walls without permission. There's a hot spring down that end, and Robb once said that Theon told him he ought to sneak girls in here. There used to be a sept, too, for Lady Catelyn, but it's since been destroyed. Much of Winterfell burned when the Boltons rooted the Ironborn out. It's a solemn place, but one filled with memories."

"What are the Old Gods like?"

"They are nameless... faceless... we think of them as streams, forest, stones, birds, beasts. We believe the Old Gods take the dead down into the earth and trees when they fall. They watch us through them, even in the rustle of wind..." He tapped his ear, prompting her to listen. A small sigh of wind came. "That's them speaking to us."

She let herself lean closer to him. "What are they saying?"

"Many things, I'm sure. I've yet to begin praying, so I don't know what they have to tell me. The Old Gods hold sacred the laws of hospitality... what Lord Frey violated at the Red Wedding. Marriages can happen here, a much simpler ceremony than the Seven do. There are no texts or songs of worship in this religion... it's passed on through generations, prayers done in silence before the gods alone. Some people used to do blood sacrifices."

Melyse started to smile. "Have you brought me here to be a sacrifice, my lord?"

"Those we've killed have already been sacrificed, my lady." He smiled, that squinty little smile that he made when he was happy but seemed to feel guilty for being so. "It is known that no man can tell a lie in front of the heart tree. One must be vulnerable and open here."