Beyond the Wall | Jon Snow |

Lady Karstark

          The journey to Winterfell was long, and in the meantime, Eleanah could not help but relish the abounding tales her lord father, Rickard Karstark, mentioned to her younger self about the descent that made the Starks and the Karstarks relate to one another.

          Starks and Karstarks were kin. Blood of my blood, the North called it.

          Their lineage traced to the First Men in the Age of Heroes. The family's founder was Brandon the Builder who, in the aftermath of the Long Night, helped establish the Night's Watch. Legend has it, he enlisted the aid of giants and the powerful magic of the Children of the Forest to raise the mighty Wall, which has protected the realm for generations.

          He went on to build the ancestral seat of Winterfell, and reigned as the first King in the North.The Starks reigned as kings for thousands of years, even withstanding the invasion of the Andals. As the southern kingdoms fell, and the Children were driven away, the North stood strong-maintaining its religious customs and its way of life. Eventually, Karlon, a younger son of one of the many Kings in the North, demanded an award after putting down successfully a rebellion of House Bolton of the Dreadfort. He was bestowed lands on the eastern region of the almighty North; overtime Karlon's seat, known as Karl's Hold, became known as Karhold, and his descendants became known as the Karstarks.

          Apparently being kinsfolk was not enough for both of the Northern Houses, for they wanted an unbreakable union much stronger than blood.

          Marriage. 

         
          Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks. Eleanah remembered Winterfell as she had last seen it when little. Not as grotesquely huge as Karhold, nor as solid and impregnable to look at as Lasthearth, yet there had been a great strength in those stones, a sense that within those walls a person might feel safe.

          She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.

          The remaining bannermen poured through the castle gates in a river of black and silver and polished steel, and over their heads a dozen black banners whipped back and forth in the northern wind, emblazoned with the white sunburst on black of House Karstark.

          Eleanah knew many of the riders. There came Lurs Foote, her father's squire, and there Grenn Carring with his terrible maimed hand. The tall boy beside him could only be Karhold's heir and Eleanah's elder brother, Harrion Karstark, and that grim looking man behind them was surely her father. Yet, Rickard Karstark vaulted off the back of his warhorse with a familiar roar, and crushed Ned Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, in a bone-crunching hug. "Ned! Ah, but it is good to see that frozen face of yours," her father looked him over top to bottom, and laughed. "You have not changed at all."

          "Lord of Karhold. The hospitality of Winterfell is yours."

          By then the others were dismounting as well, and Eleanah followed. Ned knelt in the snow to hug her, while Rickard Karstark embraced Catelyn like a long-lost sister. Then the children had been brought forward, introduced, and approved of by both sides.

          No sooner had those formalities of greeting been completed than the Lord of Winterfell had said to Lady Karstark, "My eldest son will escort you to your chambers, I presume you must be tired and cold." Eleanah nodded and made her way forward with her face lowered, stopping right in front of her betrothed.

          "I trust you enjoyed the journey, my lady?" Robb Stark asked her softly. One look. One glance at him is all it took for Eleanah's heart to hammer deep in her chest. She noticed his eyes instantly, deep blue as the Narrow Sea. "I believe I did, my lord."

          Robb took her hand courteously, and led her away from the gates and into the enclosed castle of grey stones which were covered with the flapping banners of the Starks of Winterfell: a grey direwolf racing across an ice-white field.

          "Do you like wolves, my lady? Robb grinned, "I couldn't help but notice your intent stare at the banners."

          Eleanah smiled shyly at him and nodded, "I believe there is a battle between two wolves inside us all, my lord."

          Robb watched her, wary. He had snow in his hair, melting from the heat of his body. "Is that so, my lady?"

          She nodded once again, "One is Evil. It is anger, jealously, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego," Eleanah said in a small, hushed breath. "And the other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth."

          The boy thought about it, and asked, "Which wolf wins?"

          She quietly replied, "Oh, that depends on which one you feed, my lord."

          Robb looked at her with a mysterious gaze, "You definitely are something else, Lady Karstark."

          Eleanah smiled, "I try to be, my lord."

          "Please, call me Robb."

           Their footsteps echoed through the stoned floor and along the extensive halls. With a halt, the boy stopped walking and opened the chamber's door. "I am afraid this is where I leave you, my lady, for I have to attend the beheading of a deserter of the Night's Watch alongside my father and brothers." Eleanah nodded and thanked Robb for his courtesies, but before entering she inclined and gave her betrothed a subtle yet sweet kiss on his cold cheek.

          The eldest Stark boy was flustered to say the least. His cheeks became rosy, and Eleanah could not help but think how beautiful it looked against the contrast of his pearl skin. "Tales of your sweetness and beauty reach all of the North, my lady," he murmured, "They do you no justice, however."

          She smiled then, "Call me Eleanah, my lord. If you please."

          Robb nodded with a smile lingering on his pink lips and parted along the hall, but not before reaching down to her hand and kissing the top of it, leaving Eleanah flustered and delighted.