The Coming of the Dawn

Jon stood in the Godswood staring up at the blood red eyes of the ice white tree. The eyes looked sad today he thought and for a moment he had vaguely remembered that the eyes did not always look sad. He had thoughts of a childhood where the tree seemed to smile and laugh as he and Rob did in this very wood. He heard the crunch of snow behind him and he turned to face those approaching. His eyes, like in his childhood, matched those of the Weirwood tree behind him as he looked upon the group in front of him.

Sansa, standing with a hardness that bordered near on cruelty, an innocence completely lost. Arya, cloaked like the stranger she had become and it was only rarely that he could see glimpses of her once youthful joy. Davos, the man who had gone from enemy, to adviser, and would now be considered a dear friend. Theon Greyjoy, whom Jon had not entirely forgiven, but in recent events had proven his loyalty greater than any man or woman who stood before him. Tyrion, the dwarf looked like a drop of blood in his crimson tunic surrounded by the whites, blacks, and grey of those around him. Danny, a Queen to his king and Jon would think her ambition bordering on treacherous if she were not so honest about her goals. She believed herself the rightful heir to the seven kingdoms and Jon was thankful for the fact that she was one of the few rulers who cared enough about her people to fight the dead with the man who looked to steal the Northern half of her kingdom. Provided that by some miracle they succeed he was not looking forward to the conversation with her over who will rule the North. It was not so much that he desired to rule, but the Northerners had chosen him to rule not this Southern Queen who had only stepped foot on Westeros a little over a year ago.

"Your grace, it is time" Davos said with with a resolute tone. "Maester Tarly has outfitted all the men with dragon glass and our scouts have the others a mere league from the castle."

"And the valyrian swords?" Jon asked quietly

"Given to the greatest swordsmen among us, so they have been kept far from me your grace. I believe he even gave Tormund his own families sword and the wildling then ran off to compare it to Brienne's"

"Maybe he will actually get his sword wet before the battle" Tyrion quibbled to one in particular.

Jon smiled slightly and began trudging through the snow towards the group when he saw their eyes go wide and look behind them. He spun himself around and saw a woman standing beneath the weirwood tree in the very spot he was standing in moments ago. She seemed to be saying a prayer. Jon called at her but she paid him no mind and continued her prayer with complete disregard for those around her. Once she was done she turned towards the group to show a masked face.

"Quaithe?"

Jon turned to see Danny separate herself from the group and walk towards the masked woman. Danny stopped next to Jon and the two watched as the woman slowly reached up and removed her mask. As she did wavy night black hair fell over her pale neck and past her shoulders that were draped in a deep purple cloak. A purple matched only by her striking lilac eyes. The woman was breathtaking even despite her middle age and in her youth would have possessed a beauty that would have rivalled all in the known world. She began walking towards Jon and Danny and as she did a silvery pendant became visible about her neck.

"Seven hells" Tyrion said in genuine disbelief. "Lady Ashara Dayne"

Lady Ashara glanced over at Tryion but it was to Jon that she spoke. "My sweet, sweet boy. How I have missed you. I wish I could have been there for you more. Ned said you would be loved, but no love can match that of a mother" She reached out to put a hand on Jon's cheek as he still stood in disbelief.

"y- you're my mother?" Jon asked is a whisper. Lady Ashara's lilac eyes went between kindness and sadness and finally settled on a morbid mix of the two. "yes and no" she answered in a voice that for some reason made Jon yearn to hear her sing. Jon's face began to show the frustration and confusing he was feeling as he searched the beautiful woman's eyes. "My love, you are the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. Born in the Tower of Joy in the Red Mountains of Dorne." Jon could feel the shock of those behind and he saw Danny stare at him from the corner of his eye, but he kept his glance fixed on the woman in front of him. "After your mother died, and my brother Arthur died and so many died. Ned brought my brother's body back to Starfall... and he brought you. I was furious with him for bringing a baby across the desert, but he told me he could never leave you. And then he let me hold you and in that moment I understood. We stood with you in our arms on the balcony at Starfall overlooking the ocean in the cruelest joke the gods have ever played." Ashara's lilac eyes became clouded with tears, but no one dared to speak as she collected herself to continue. "For one year you were my baby boy, for one year you were my world, you and that damn Ned Stark. The boy who was too shy to ask me to dance at a tourney yet the man brave enough to come to Starfall with the body of Starfall's own son, my brother. I never tried to hate him for it, I couldn't. Instead we both blamed Robert Baratheon; I for Arthur's death and Ned for Lyanna's. Not even my father could hate him, he said the man was too damn noble for his own good. In one year he only kissed me once. We would spend every moment together, but he refused to share my bed, as much as I despised him for it, his blind honour was one of the things I loved about him." Ashara then went quiet as not even the wood dared break the silence. Jon Snow looked at women in front of him and watched a tear trace the outline of her tragically beautiful face.

"So" Jon began quietly. "I'm a Targaryen?"

Ashara reached out and took Jon's hand while she smiled and shook her head. "My son you are a Snow by name, a Targaryen by law, a Stark by blood, a Dayne by love, and more mine and Ned's son than anyone elses. Ashara, with eye's fixed on Jon, laid her head on his chest and felt his arms begin to slowly wrap around her as Jon let out a half sob half cough and the two embraced.

After a moment Ashara begrudgingly separated herself from her son, but her face seemed almost grief striken than before. "And now my love I must send you off to war." She reached behind her cloak and pulled from it a sword. The sword was naked and the colour of pale milkglass, looking almost invisible against the snowy backdrop and Ashara's own pale hands. "Dawn, the ancestral sword of house Dayne, crafted from a fallen star that fell red from the sky, all those who have wielded it have been known as-"

"-The Sword of the Morning" Jon proclaimed as he reached out and took the sword. "Boys all over the seven kingdoms dream about being a knight of house Dayne and being worthy of this sword." Ashara smiled and more silent tears fell from her face and her smile began to look more and more tragic. She closed her hands around the tip of the blade and lowered it to her chest as Jon looked at her with confusion. Ashara gave her son one last smile through her tears and then threw herself upon the blade.

"NOOOO!" Jon screamed while other gasped in horror. He tried to drop the sword, but one of Ashara's hands were holding onto his wrist and she pulled the sword deeper into her until the hilt pressed against her pale skin. Her other hand reached up to cup Jon's face "my boy, my baby boy." Her hand slowly fell away and as her body slowly fell to the ground Dawn began to glow. Not only did it glow, but an immense heat began to radiate off of it and by the time the tip had slid out of Ashara's chest the blade burned in a pale blue fire as the blood of Ashara Dayne slowly burned off in a white smoke leaving the blade, once again white as snow.