Hear me Roar - English version

CHAPTER 43 - Me, he loved...

               Arriving before the high ramparts of Winterfell, behind the Godswood, the sheer difficulty of my mission suddenly strikes me. My plan is entirely based on the use of my powers, since my mastery was still... let's say 'uncertain'.

               It is therefore with no small amount of doubt that I place my hands on the cold stone. On the other side awaits the peace of the Old Gods. Afterward, I will slip into the castle. I know it like the back of my hand, so I will have no trouble passing unnoticed. And there, I will assassinate Roose and Ramsay Bolton. Then, no one in the North will ever have to be afraid again. I will have saved my people.

               This thought helps me focus my strength on the complicated task of shifting bricks from the wall to create a staircase for myself to the top of the ramparts. Each step feels heavier than the last. When I reach the other side, there will be no turning back.

               I expected to find the Godswood completely empty, but it feels more as though I am intruding. The light of the torches blinds me, forcing me to shield my eyes.

"Diana?" a far too familiar voice calls out to me.

"Sansa!"

               I drop to the ground and immediately draw my sword. My eyes aren't quite adjusted to the brightness yet, but I see enough to behold a spectacle of horror. I knew Baelish was scheming something, but this is worse than anything I could have imagined.

               I do not yet understand the meaning of an alliance with the Boltons, because I consider that it distances Baelish from the Iron Throne. However, Roose played his hand very well. Once married to Ned Stark's daughter, no one will be able to contest his authority over the North. I imagine Baelish prefers having the favour of the Warden of the North to no favour at all.

"Seize her!"

               And I am the one who will have to suffer the consequences of his actions. I do not hesitate for a second. No one else in this world can call down lightning or cause tidal waves. A few soldiers will be helpless against me. Seeing me advance toward them, they must think me completely mad, for they do not budge an inch.

"What?" I hurl at them, brandishing my sword, which bursts into flames in that very same gesture. "Are you afraid of getting burned?"

"What are you waiting for?!" Roose Bolton snaps.

"So this is what Northern men have become? I'll show you how we do it in the capital!"

               That is the last thing I manage to articulate; all the sounds that come out of my mouth afterward are nothing but screams and roars. They fall one after the other, lunging at me only because they know that if I don't kill them, Ramsay and his hounds will.

               My sword and the flames erupting from it are not enough. With my other hand, I tear large blocks of earth from the ground and hurl them at my attackers.

               When the last soldier lets out his final cry beneath my boot, I finally raise my eyes toward my sister. Far too absorbed in the fight, I didn't take the time to observe the scene unfolding before me. And it is only now that it hits me. Sansa, standing before the priest, is not beside Roose Bolton.

"I missed you," Ramsay says to me, a sadistic smile on his lips.

               We stand there for several seconds, eyes locked. My heart pounds so hard that I wonder if it will end up bursting from my chest. A small voice in the furthest depths of my mind answers "you too", but I do not let it speak. Because it isn't Ramsay I missed; it's what he brought out of me. It's those deeply buried vices that he allowed room to express themselves.