THE QUEEN BEYOND THE WALL

Story the Sixth: The Maester and the Lord Commander at the Far Side of the World

 Castle Black is not a single edifice, but a cluster of different barracks and keeps with walls of the same black stone and darkened wood. Meera has climbed to the top of the Wall to have a good view of the other side, while Brienne has walked into the courtyard, and recruits on guard duty approach her, as the boys and Summer sneak into Castle Black and into the vaults, where they will hide and spend the night.
The recruits take Brienne for one of them and tease "him", like they are used to do to newcomers at the Wall, making fun of Brienne's blue armour among other things. She defends herself with Oathkeeper, impressing the force-recruited ruffians, and even drawing the attention of a well-dressed and dashing raven-haired young man in black furs, who has recently entered the courtyard from outside, shaking the snow off his overcoat. This young man arrives with a direwolf the size of Summer, but white as snow, with eyes red as rubies. And the pommel of his sword looks just like his direwolf's head.
He is soon interested in Brienne, wanting to have such a great fighter at his service, and he leads her into the Lord Commander's Tower. Which means that the reserved young man is the Lord Commander, Bran's older stepbrother Jon Snow.
In the tower, a visually impaired elderly man in black, wearing a maester's chain, comes across them. Brienne learns that this sage older than a century, with grey cataracted eyes, is Maester Aemon of the Night's Watch. Maester Aemon greets Jon, who insists that Brienne should sleep in his bed and keep the blue clothes on.
That evening at twilight, Meera spots, from the top of the Wall, the ruins of the Nightfort south of the Wall, and a passage through it in the kitchens of the ruined fortress. She hastens to encounter her brother and the others and make her way to the Nightfort... she gathers everyone in her fellowship except Brienne, who (as the crannogmaiden has learned from some soldiers) is staying as a guest of the Lord Commander's. Led by Night's Watch officer Benjen Stark, the Reeds, Bran, Hodor, and Summer set off for the Nightfort, in whose kitchens they spend the night, but not before sending word of their departure to Brienne, who gets to hear of it through overweight recruit Sam Tarly. She's already had her supper at the Commander's Keep: honeyed chicken, crisp and warm, washed down with mulled wine that goes down like a blessing. But Jaime's golden locks and emerald eyes are nowhere to be found among the black-clad officers of the garrison.
After supper, Jon dates Brienne to have a talk with him at his office. A large black raven with fluffy feathers flies from a perch on to the Lord Commander's shoulder, asking for corn that it eats from Jon Snow's hand: "Corn! Corn!". The white direwolf, whose name is Ghost, lays himself to rest by the office table. Brienne tells Jon her story. He is surprised that she is a young woman and that she has come from as far as Tarth. "Tarth! Tarth!", the raven croaks the name of the Sapphire Isle. And Jon admires her indeed.
The Lord Commander has taken the Maid to his keep for the privates not to do what they are most likely to do in an outpost without any women when the occasional female appears. He even tells her a story:
"There once was a young boy, the illegitimate son of a Northern lord, whose stepmother favoured her own trueborn birth children. In the end, weary of not being appreciated, he fled the keep he called home in the company of his pet direwolf and joined the Watch. At the start of his service, many of the base-born soldiers teased him for being a lordling, seeing in him nothing but an effete know-it-all. They called him Lord Snow. Only the old Lord Commander, whose steward he had become, saw him for what he was. One day, the old Lord Commander was killed in a skirmish, and the outcast youth, now come of age, who was brave and open-minded, was elected the next Lord Commander, so that he literally became Lord Snow at last."
"I'm glad that he finally was no longer teased". Brienne loves the story.
"Well..." Jon Snow replies. "That lad was me."
"Lord! Jon! Snow!", the vegan raven flaps its wings.
That night, as she is lying in bed, Jon tells her that he'll spend the night in the outpost's underground library, discussing some matters with Maester Aemon. Brienne spends the night awake, eavesdropping at the conversation, which happens to concern her quest.
AEMON: She's but a girl!
JON: She's but a girl... and she has come all the way from the Stormlands! She has made it all the way from her southron birthplace to our quarters, to the last outpost of the Crown of Westeros, and tomorrow she'll venture beyond the Wall! Why should we deny to help her? She could help us by finding a way to turn wights into humans once more... I have seen that blond wight, which matches her description, and she is convinced that she can save him! Perchance feelings can help where science has always failed.
AEMON: She's but a girl, and he's a wight! That's foolhardy!
JON: That's hardy, Aemon, hardy. Don't you understand? She's made friends with all kinds of people, she's walked through fire and ice. Royalty have bent the knee before her, and she has looked at her own death in the eyes. There's great power in her. The power of her love and of her conviction, that lies in her courage and in her noble heart. If she cannot save her wight at all, then nobody will.
RAVEN: Tarth! Love!
AEMON: You have convinced me at last. We should... how do you youngsters say? You know... Give her a try.
Now Brienne is sure that Jaime is a wight. That's the reason why she has not been able to find him among the officers in black! She had never expected such a turn for the worse. But she is not the least afraid. After so many hardships, why should she back away being so near her journey's end? She hopes that, in one way or another, she will save his life.
The next day, after having broken her fast on eggs with bacon, black pudding, and sausages in the company of the Maester and the Lord Commander, the Stormlander watches as the latter opens the gate of the Wall up north. A detachment of lordlings alone, led by the Lord Commander himself, will follow her into the Lands of Always Winter, protecting her from wildlings and direwolves. And, speaking of direwolves, Ghost will be her steed. At the gates, old Maester Aemon comes towards them, offering Brienne more furs, these ones the black ones of a Night's Watch officer, and a crude dagger of black glass, its hilt covered in modest hemp string:
"This is dragonglass, truly sharper than steel. A rare crystal from the blazing vitals of the Earth, it is a weak point of White Walkers. Just like your Valyrian steel sword, should you lose it north of the Wall. Dragonglass, however, can't stop a wight... but fire can. Wights feel no pain, and they will keep on fighting until they fall. Do you still have your sword and flintstone?"
"I have."
"If you fail, you may have to set your wight on fire."
"I will see... but I hope I don't", Brienne replied.
"You youngsters are always that hopeful. Like I said... Let's see..."
She takes her leave of the old maester, listening this time attentively to his advice. There are tears in his clouded eyes as the gate opens and everyone rides through the redoubtable wall of ice, into the uncharted wastes beyond.
Clinging to Ghost's warm white fur, she still heads northward through the ranger paths of the Haunted Forest, without even stopping, until she has left the detachment way behind her. And, suddenly, she looks up from the white fur and realizes it:
"I am lost, and on my own! But I won't give up that easily..."
There is young Brienne, all alone, in the dire and dreary frozen wasteland beyond the Wall. The night is long, the moon is full, and the vivid northern lights colour the snow in many different bright shades. Snow bears, direwolves, and mammoths may lurk behind every treetrunk and every rock. And, to make things even worse, a violent blizzard is raging.
After so much time riding on her own that she does not know for how much she has travelled, the forest gives way to the foothills of the snow-capped, granitic Frostfangs. The air is now so cold that it burns, turning her whole face bright red and making her feel numb. And the storm still rages on, more violently than before.
Suddenly, on those barren slopes, a baker's dozen of White Walkers come towards her. They look as beautiful as they look redoubtable: white-haired and white-skinned, with eyes that shine like blue stars and swords of blue crystal or ice in their hands. Their translucent blades, sharper than any steel sword, glow with an eerie blue shimmer.
Twelve of them are male, but the leader appears to be female, and a beautiful one as well.
Then, Brienne pulls her dragonglass dagger from beneath her furs, she draws Oathkeeper in her right hand and wields the crystal in her left one, and she dashes with the little strength she has left at her opponents. The black steel that she wields pierces their white skin, liquefying them one by one as they scream in an eerie tone. In the end, only the female leader is left, and she strives with all her might to protect the ice cave in the glacier behind her. A cave strangely similar to the one in Jojen's green dream.
The blizzard has finally calmed down, but young Brienne's trials are not over yet.
The Maid of Tarth now has to contend with the Night's Queen. Fire and ice, life and death, are interlocked in this single combat, out of which there can only be one survivor. She addresses Brienne in a strange language, which she merely hears as the cracking of ice, while looking with a piercing blue glare at the mortal maiden who shares her eye colour and the star-like sparkles in her eyes.
Though Brienne has already started to falter, she is still determined to fight, aware that both her own life and Jaime's are at stake. Her instinct gives her the necessary strength which she is beginning to lose.
The Maid and the Queen spar for a few seconds, the former making the latter retreat with her Valyrian steel, slashing the Queen in the right wrist, from which she bleeds water, and then, finally, thrusting the blade into the middle of her chest, causing her to liquefy into water as she fades away with a smile of pleasure on her face.
Then, suddenly, a figure rushes forward from the cave. It's a pale and gaunt young man. His hair is as yellow as gold and his doublet bears the Lannister crest, though his clothes are so worn he can barely be recognized. His eyes, like the Queen's, are piercing and shining like blue stars. His skin is as pale and cold as ice, and his lovely face is completely inexpressive. And there's a crystal sword, like those of the White Walkers, in his right hand. He appears to be in some sort of trance, but not even aware of it. He does not even recognize his childhood friend, the one he always crossed swords and explored Tarth with.
The Maid of Tarth is stunned by whom she sees, and she nearly falls unconscious. But she soon rises up again, ready to strike, convinced that he will be set free.
Finally, Brienne has found Jaime at last. But will she be able to save his life?