Back To Winterfell || Arya Stark

You Came Home

As Arya entered the Godswood with Sansa she felt a strange sense of peace within her. Her father had used to come here a lot 'to cleanse himself', he told her. As the heart tree came in to view she studied the scene around her. White blanketed the forest floor and the frozen lake had disappeared beneath the folds of snow. The red leaves of the weirwood cut through the crisp blue sky, and beneath sat Bran. He was in a wooden wheeled chair and was as still as stone. Arya could only see the back of his head in among the thick furs covering him.
She didn't know what to feel. She had thought Bran dead until only moments ago and seeing him now, so different from when she last had, made her feel somewhat uneasy. As she rounded his chair into his view their eyes locked, his dark pupils gazing into her.
"You came home." He said simply. Arya's stoic wall shattered as she quickly embraced her brother and held him tight. His hand rested gently on her back and his head titled slightly in her direction. At last she let go and glanced back at Sansa who stood stiffly, as if her face was stone. But inside she felt envy.
Bran did not even flinch when we were reunited. Sansa thought. She had never played with him as a child, but still she was sad. It seems to me like Jon is more part of this family than me she thought again, but she silently rebuked herself, breathing a deep breath of reassurance.
"I saw you at the crossroads." Bran spoke again. Arya was bewildered. Bran is a cripple, and he was hear. I don't understand. She thought.
"You saw me?" She asked, hoping for an explanation.
"I see quite a lot now. I have the sight. I can see both what is and what was." Arya still looked confused but nodded and turned to Sansa.
"Bran says he is some 'Three Eyed Raven'." She replied to Arya's thoughts. "An ancient being who holds the world in his eye." She tried to sound confident quoting Bran in her answer, but in truth she was far from it.
"I thought you might go to King's Landing." Said Bran again. Arya had to regain herself again.
"So did I." She said coldly. She thought back to why she hadn't and then remembered Jaek. She quickly put him out of her mind. She stood frozen to her memory. Sansa was suddenly fearful. She was swept back to to times when she cried herself to sleep every night. Terrified of every passing day, knowing her life was on a rack.
"Why would you go back there?" She asked uneasily.
"Cersei's on her list of names." Bran answered solemnly. Arya's heart froze, but her mind raced. How could he know about my list? My list. I haven't recited it for long time. How far back has he looked? Does he know who I am now, what I've done? Has he told Sansa? She didn't know what to say so she stayed silent. Staring at her once little brother. However Sansa asked yet more.
"Who else is on your list?" She said, subtly directing the question at either sibling.
"I—" Arya faltered and looked down. Once she had prided herself on her mastery of death, but now as she gazed upon her sister's nervous face, she was ashamed. "I killed them." The words caught in her throat. "Most of them anyway." She said even quieter. Sansa's hand brushed her shoulder.
"It's alright." She said gravely. "I've killed too." Arya looked up her, curious and confused. But pressed the matter no further.
Suddenly she heard the noise of a blade being drawn and turned to see Bran brandishing a dagger. He fingered it lightly and placed his first finger pointedly on the tip of its edge.
"Where did you get this?" Arya asked, uncertain. Her eyes lingered on the blade. The metal looked different to others she had seen. "It's Valyrian steel?" She added.
"Littlefinger gave it to me." Bran replied drably. Arya looked back to Sansa.
"Why would he give you a dagger?" Sansa asked commandingly. She knew Littlefinger, what game is he playing now, she wondered.
"He thought I'd want it."
"Why?"
"Because it was meant to kill me." He said, like it had been meant for simply cutting wood, not throats. Sansa thought back to when they first heard the news in Kingslanding.
"The cutthroat after your fall." She said slowly. Arya then cut in.
"Why would a cutthroat have a Valyrian steel dagger?"
"Someone very wealthy wanted me dead." Sansa then spoke sharply.
"He's not a generous man. He wouldn't give you anything unless he thought he was getting something back." Her face was riddled with concern. She did not want Littlefinger destroying her family. She knew what he was capable of.
"It doesn't matter." Bran said looking at her.
This is our family he's talking about. She thought, slightly angered. "What do you mean it doesn't matter?"
"I don't want it." He held out the dagger towards Arya, her eyes widened.
"Are you sure?" She said instinctively, though she dearly wanted it. "It's Valyrian steel."
"It's wasted on a cripple." Bran said. The corner of his mouth twitched upward, but only for a second, before the blankness covered it.
Arya took the dagger and looked at it like it were a newborn babe. She saw the dragon-bone handle, dark and hard and her eyes grazed over the curved steel.
Sansa wanted to say something, but she didn't know what. She had never been particularly close with Arya but she knew she had always loved swords. Back when they were young Arya would oft steal some with Robb from the armory. She then remembered Joffrey when he had first received Widow's Wail. The memory at first made her feel ill but she remembered what he had first said.
"Don't lots of people name their blades?" She asked, tying to sound supportive and willing.
"Lots of cunts." Arya replied smirking.