Ashes || Arya Stark

Ashes

As Sansa walked through the burning city she looked around at the blackened corpses who, only hours ago, had been living, breathing people. She wondered what must have gone through Daenerys' head to have caused such destruction.
      She had come down South with Jon and Daenerys after the fight against the dead to bear witness the end of the Lannister's reign. She thought it would bring her satisfaction or even joy knowing Cersei was cowering in the Red Keep. But now, seeing the smoking, melted crimson colored armour, she only felt dread. What sort of Queen were they following? She knew Jon loved her, and he was a Targaryen too but surely he must see this as wrong?  Surely? She thought.
      In the distance she could hear the victorious shouts of what remained of the Dothraki. And the dull thudding of the Unsullied spears cracking against stone.
      As she rounded a corner the scene changed. The street was covered in white ash and a few fires were still aflame. Skeletons that had littered her pathway now gave way to flesh and blood, broken and scattered. She carefully avoided the blood soaked bricks in piles surrounding her and looked up at what was once a bell tower, crumbled and melted. She remembered when she had first heard the bells of King's Landing ringing, when King Robert had died as she sat in fear whilst the shouts of dead Stark soldiers echoed around her.
      The Red Keep was now gone, reduced to rubble. But her memories were not, and nor would they ever be.
      She was nearing the end of the street now and that's when her eyes caught a glimpse of a dark shape lying on the ashen steps. A small broken body in northern leathers with a tiny sword strapped to their side. Sansa's breath caught in her throat as she gasped silently.

      "Arya?" She whispered, slowly walking over and couching down. Her hands trembled as they caressed her bloody face. "What are you doing here?" She asked her sister in a quiet shaky voice. "You weren't supposed to be here. Why, h—" her words caught and her eyes began to glisten with tears. She lifted her head and put their foreheads together. She shut her eyes tight, nothing else mattered now.

She was still with her an hour later when the two Stark soldiers found her. Her body shaking with grief.
"M'Lady?" They asked cautiously. She looked up at them, her eyes red and dusty. They glanced down at the dead body she was cradling and both their eyes widened. "We'll find Lord Snow." And they backed away and rushed off.

Jon's arms tired from the weight of his sister hanging limp and lifeless and his heart ached but his face remained stoic and emotionless. In truth, he felt many emotions, grief, hatred, anguish, remorse. How could he have let this happen? How could his little sister be draped across his arms? He had done his crying, earlier when he had been confronted by two nervous guards. They had scarce the courage to tell him that the Lady of Winterfell lay weeping besides the body of her sister.
In the distance he could see Daenerys on the steps to the Red Keep, speaking fiercely in tongues he didn't understand. But as he processed down toward her the sea of Dothraki and Unsullied parted. His grin face staring up at who he once thought should be his queen.

Daenerys halted her speech as she saw Jon walking towards her. He was carrying something in his arms. As she looked down she saw it was a dead body. His younger sister. She thought, stuck for words. The noise of her armies slowly died down until it was silent as Jon traipsed up the stone stairs.
Daenerys stares at the small girl, the girl who had saved the living and defeated death. The girl who she knew so little about and yet now she saw her, she felt something inside her churn away at her stomach. Guilt. She looked at the ashy, blood covered tunic and the red drips that had dried on her face and she knew what she had done. And knew that whatever happened it could never be undone.
Jon's dark eyes stared daggers at her as he laid her down in front of Dany and knelt beside her, stroking her matted hair. "You did this." He said gruffly, his voice cracking. "You killed her. My sister. Arya."