A New Hope (Books I - VI)

Chapter 3

Winterfell - Year 300 - The Great Hall

"Brother, may I talk to you for a moment? Privately?" Arya asked quietly after she had made it over to her brother. Ned looked extremely confused, but nodded his consent and rose to follow her. She lead him to the place that they had used to talk when they were children. The broken tower. The walk there was silent, neither knowing what to say to break the silence, so they resigned themselves to the awkward tense air around them.

"What did you want to talk about Arya?" Ned asked quietly after they had climbed the many stairs to the top of the tower. Arya sighed uncomfortably as she took a seat on the hard stone floor, sitting criss-cross, just like she had done every other time they had come up.

"Jon. Your bastard." Arya said bluntly as Ned began to follow her example, and was lowering himself to the ground, when he heard her answer he froze for a moment before forcing himself to relax as he sat down in front of her.

"What about him?"

"He's not yours, is he?" Ned looked shocked that she would come out and say something like that so easily, but he supposed he shouldn't be surprised. Both of his sisters were raised to be ladies, and while Arya did a better job at covering her true nature then Lyanna ever did, he knew that they were both wolves at heart.

"No. And you cannot ever tell anyone this Arya. I'm serious. Cat doesn't even know."

"Who are his parents? They have to be important for you to throw away your honor like that, I mean why would you lie? To everyone? I mean you would never do that! You just... oh... he's hers... isn't he? Lyanna's?" Arya watched as Ned seemed to shrink into himself as he talked, and when she finally discovered the truth, he seemed like a child once more.

"Yes. Hers and Rhaegar's. They had gotten married you see. Lyanna wasn't one to have sex out of wedlock, and they loved each other. So Rhaegar convinced a septon to annul his marriage to Elia, and then marry them. That was right after he 'took' her from Harrenhal. It was why Rhaegar wasn't at King's Landing when Brandon went to try to save her. She fell pregnant. And by the time I found her it was too late. She had the baby as I was fighting the Kingsguard sworn to protect her outside. By the time I made it to her, she was half dead. She didn't have a proper septa or maester to help her with the birth and she was bleeding out. She told me what happened, between her and Rhaegar. And she asked me to protect him, to keep him safe from Robert. She knew he was furious, she knew he had killed Rhaegar, Elia, and her children. She didn't want him to kill her son. His real name is Aegon Targaryen. After she died... I took him with me. I told Robert and Cat that he was the child of a tavern wench or something of the sort, and that she had died, leaving him with nowhere left to go but with me. Cat was of course, furious... but I couldn't tell her. Everyone, even Jon, had to believe the story to be true. Even anyone knew... he would be in so much danger Arya, not just from Robert, but from his aunt and uncle. Viserys, and Daenerys. If they are truly coming for their throne, do you not think that they would hesitate to kill the true-born son of their brother? The rightful heir to the Iron Throne? I need to keep him safe. He is all that I have left of her." Arya had to admit, this wasn't what she thought she was going to find out in the conversation with her brother. She thought he was going to say, oh no he is mine I am just not as honorable as everyone would like to believe... but she had never expected this.

Arya couldn't help but fling herself into her brother's arms.

"Oh Ned, I am so sorry you had to go through this alone. Why didn't you tell me? You could have written, I would have helped you."

"I couldn't tell you, especially not in a letter. What if someone had intercepted it? And you ignored me when I tried to talk to you at Robert's wedding... so I came to terms with it. He is my son, no matter who his real father was, he is still my son, I raised him." Arya nodded against Ned's warm chest, finding comfort in the family she had missed for the past seventeen long years.