Robb was losing his mind.
She didn't blame him for wanting to rush to the Wall, she didn't blame him for being so upset, he would burn everything in his path to get to Jon's body. But it wasn't a good choice to make.
"You can't go!" said Eidalya sharply as he ordered a group of men to prepare horses. "Robb, listen to me, you can't go!"
"And why the bloody hell not?" he asked, hands shaking so badly he couldn't even grab his sword. "My brother is dead."
Eidalya held him back. "How d'you think the Night's Watch will react to the King in the North barging up and demanding answers? I will go and collect Jon's body, I will find out who is responsible, and I will handle it. You will be safer here and you will keep your family safe from here."
"What about you? What if you go to the Wall and you don't come back?"
"I imagine they'll be more hesitant to harm me. And I, unlike you, can speak to people calmly long enough to strike an agreement or at least figure out some motives. You cannot simply ask that heads be put on a spike. We knew they would react poorly. Now we will deal with it. I will handle installing a new and better Lord Commander. I will do it. Not you."
He sighed, turning away in frustration. "I never... I never defended him, you know? When my mother would say things... I was never brave enough to speak up. Sometimes I turned a blind eye. I knew why she resented him, I thought it was wrong, and I didn't open my stupid mouth to say anything. Now he's dead and I was the worst brother to him. He made a name for himself up there, he commanded respect. And when he needed me most, I didn't help him. I should've gone up there from the moment I learned he went to Hardhome. I shouldn't have sent a team– I should've waited for him there. The men I sent might not have arrived in time or they could've died alongside him while I was here more concerned about my selfish desires."
Eidalya held his shoulders from behind. "I don't pretend to know the dynamic between you and Jon. But even in the brief moments I saw you together, I know he appreciated having you as a brother. We will avenge him, Robb. We will fix this."
She was accompanied by the same men who'd journeyed with her to Dorne, a large group of Northerners surrounding her and riding as fast as possible to Castle Black. It was odd to be riding on the horse instead of in a carriage, but Eidalya couldn't complain. A carriage would move far slower and they needed to reach the Wall as soon as possible, before Jon's body could be completely desecrated by the men who had killed him.
But when they arrived, when she saw the iron gates and entered the courtyard filled with men in black cloaks, she didn't see angry men, she didn't see any bodies hung up.
The man who stepped out to greet her was Jon.
She had seem him so long ago, his face much younger, eyes filled with more light and hair long and curled. It had been cut now, his eyes lost their shine, his stance was no longer of a shunned bastard but of a man seasoned and broken in by war and pain.
It was still Jon, a Jon who was alive and able to react, rather than the Jon she expected to collect.
"Forgive me," she said, dismounting and fluffing up her skirt, furrowing her eyebrows as he walked closer. "I... came here under the impression you'd been killed."
He smiled weakly, offering his hand. When she gave him hers, he kissed the back of it, over her glove. "Princess Eidalya. We've much to discuss. Come in, let us find somewhere more private to talk."
Her men surrounded the courtyard as Jon led her into the hall, through a stone corridor and into an office where a white direwolf sat beneath the window and two men waited by the desk.
"Who's this?" asked the younger of the two men, a confused and sour expression on his thin face.
Jon gestured to her, "Princess Eidalya of the House Baratheon. Hand to the King in the North, my brother Robb Stark, the woman who ended the war and placed Stannis Baratheon over the Iron Throne. Eidalya, this is Brother Edd, the new Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, and this is Tormund Giantsbane, leader of the wildlings I led over the Wall."
"The Princess," said Tormund, pointing a great gloved hand at her. "The one who gave you the ships to bring my people here."
"It was Robb who provided those," said Eidalya carefully, still very confused.
"Under your instruction. You won the Young Wolf's war. They call you the Lioness of the North."
She laughed bitterly, the compliment doing little to assuage her confusion. "I'm sorry, are we here to discuss the war that's been won or are we here to discuss the fact Jon is very much alive?"
Jon beckoned Edd and Tormund to move, letting her sit down. "I am now. But I wasn't when that raven was sent."
When Jon had come back from Hardhome, after seeing the Army of the Dead and killing a White Walker, his own men– led by Ser Alliser Thorne– had stabbed him to death. A punishment for bringing the wildlings over, for showing mercy to those who needed to be saved from what was coming for all of them.
A few loyal brothers had taken Jon's body and holed up with Ghost until Edd was able to escape, bringing over the wildling reinforcements, alongside the Stark men Robb had sent earlier that week. They'd retaken control of the Night's Watch and somehow, someway, Melisandre had been able to resurrect Jon.
No one understood why it'd been allowed to happen. No one understood why the Lord of Light told her that Jon was important, that she saw him playing an important role in the Great War.
Tormund was convinced that it meant Jon was a god. He was a man who'd been allowed to rise from the dead. It meant something. To come back as himself, not as a wight.
The story Jon had to tell about them was deeply unsettling.
He told her how they'd been ambushed before everyone was out of Hardhome. Too many wildlings didn't trust him, too many wanted to stay behind. The wights, controlled by the White Walkers (and all answering to the Night King) had swarmed them and killed so many wildlings, they'd only seen piles upon piles of corpses for a good while as their fight raged on. With a Valyrian steel sword given to him by Jeor Mormont– Longclaw, meant to have passed on to his son, Jorah– Jon had managed a strike that killed one of the White Walkers. With him fell several wights that had seemingly been made by him.
Though many of the wildlings had survived, the majority had died. Jon told her how the Night King had watched their boats drift away, the wights unable to swim. He'd raised his hands and reanimated all the dead souls, bringing them into his army. Icy blue eyes. Tens of thousands of bodies that wished to overtake the land of the living. Death, a cold death, was after them.
Dragonglass was known to kill them, but they didn't have any more access to it. Jon had seen off his most trusted friend, Samwell Tarly, to become a Maester at the Citadel. With his research, he might be able to find a way of obtaining more dragonglass to defeat the Army of the Dead.
The problem was that too few people believed it could be true. Too few acknowledged the severity of this threat.
Eidalya believed. She believed him before she knew he'd died and come back. She believed him before he told her about Hardhome. The look in his eyes, that fear and that determination to change their fates, it wasn't the sort of face a lying man would have. Jon was honorable, like his father.
They needed him and somehow, the Lord of Light had understood that.
Jon had hung the traitors already, and had stepped down from his position. He refused to remain Lord Commander after the mutiny. His oath to the Night's Watch had shattered the moment a young boy named Olly had delivered the killing blow to his heart.
His watch had ended but not his life. There was more to come, more he could do. More he had to do.
(She could see how shaken he was, how he tensed at every sound, and how even Ghost's presence didn't make him feel safe.)
"And now," said Jon quietly, "you want me to be Robb's Hand?"
"Yes," said Eidalya. "Advise him, help him rule the North and prepare for the war to come alongside King Stannis Baratheon and Queen Yara Greyjoy."
"You've been his Hand for years. Why... why would that end now?"
She hesitated, but decided to admit, "I'll wed him eventually. Robb and I are... very close. His marriage to Roslin Frey was annulled by a High Septon. I'll become his Queen consort. A title means nothing to me, I will give him my input regardless. I've been doing it for a long time. I need someone who is his blood, who knew Lord Eddard in the same way that Robb did, to take over this post."
"Forgive me, Princess, but how can you marry him? The whole world knows you're a bastard."
"I know. I wish I could change it. But all the Kings and Queens acknowledge me as a Baratheon because I have earned the name. You and all of the people in Westeros may think of me however you'd like. But I will serve the North. It is my home now. My siblings live there. Robb, Sansa, and Rickon are there. When Bran and Arya are found, they will come home and they will have a safe place because I have made it my business to bring the North independence. My status has nothing to do with it and I hope the Northern lords will remember that when Robb and I marry. I served the North before I knew what I was and I will always serve it. Bastard or not, I won a war."
Tormund and Edd both nodded their heads. "No wonder your brother wants to marry her," muttered Edd.
Jon nodded. "Thank you... for keeping him alive. I accept to becoming his Hand. I will travel back to Winterfell with you. My watch has ended, I have no place here, not when my own men have killed me."
"Good," said Eidalya. "I'm pleased to see a suitable successor for Lord Commander has been chosen. The men are tired but we can begin our return at daybreak. I look forward to working alongside you, Jon Snow."
She was given a small room to reside in, which she wouldn't have left out of wariness for all the unfamiliar men around her, had Jon not come by asking if she wanted to look over the Wall.
"It's beautiful," she said, managing to make out a forest beneath the afternoon sky. "To think my uncle stood in this spot almost four years ago and pissed off the Wall."
Jon smiled, "Indeed he did. He was kind to me. I hear he's nowhere to be found."
"He hasn't been heard of since he killed my grandfather. But I heard a rumor that Lord Varys took him to see the Dragon Queen."
"If he survives, I imagine he'll be your way of contacting her. Assuming you mean to do that."
"We may soon have no choice."
He held the hilt of his sword, hand trembling as he imagined the fights to come. "And Bran?"
"No word," she said. "From him or from Arya. No one has seen them in quite some time. But I wish to believe they are still alive. Sansa has a feeling, as does Lady Catelyn."
"And she's alright with you marrying Robb?"
"I wouldn't say that. Many will never forget what my blood means, who my parents are, what crimes my family committed. She's tried before to convince Robb to let me go. She didn't succeed nor will she anytime soon. The Northerners have all accepted me despite what I am. A bastard, a Lannister, it doesn't mean anything to them. I brought freedom to the North, I brought peace to the Realm. And I intend to do everything in my power to protect the North and all of Westeros from the threat of the Night King and whatever the Dragon Queen will bring with her. I'll help Robb navigate every threat that will come our way."
"You're good for him, you know?" said Jon. "Robb needs someone as serious as you. You'd abandon love to save the world but he'd abandon the world to save you."
Eidalya stood stunned for a moment. "I should hope neither of us will ever have to do that," she murmured.
As she lay in bed that right, she wondered if he was right. Would Robb compromise everything– no matter what input she gave– if it put her in danger? She wanted to believe he wouldn't, that though he loved his family, he would never put any one of them over his duty to the North as a whole.
But Jon had known him a lot longer than Eidalya had. She recalled how difficult it had been to even convince Robb that marrying Roslin was good at the time, how difficult it had been to make him be kind to her. Things had changed, things would continue to change. They'd have to adapt and it might not be pleasant.
She thought it was less beneficial for them to marry so soon. Her concerns were growing. If Robb was tied to her through marriage, if– even if they didn't aim to produce children– they were to further their existing relationship, he would make a choice that'd harm the North because that would no longer be his priority.
She wondered if he'd ever give up his crown. If– were she to have a conversation with him about duty– he would rather give the throne to Sansa and choose happiness instead of being King and knowing he could not sacrifice the ones he loved for the good of his people.
(She knew deep down that he would give it up in a heartbeat. He'd told her, so long ago when she came to Winterfell with Oberyn, how honor had killed his father, how he preferred to be the stupidest King than the most honorable one, how he thought the only people that mattered were the two of them, not the North.
And in Winterfell, Lady Catelyn had the same worries. She recalled Robb telling her that he'd give up his crown in a second if it meant he could be happy with Eidalya. She feared that he would not see that she was right, that marrying Eidalya now– or ever, really– was not a good idea. She feared that in his frustration, he'd give Jon a title greater than Hand of the King in the North. She feared he would make Jon the King in the North to bring himself happiness.
They both considered how Jon was much more like Ned than Robb had ever wanted to be.)
At dawn, they readied the horses and made their way out of Castle Black. Jon looked back only once to wave at Edd, who remained with the rest of the men– including the wildlings– to man the Wall and keep them updated on movements beyond.
Eidalya couldn't help but entertain the intrusive thought that'd burst in, that Robb would go far above legitimizing Jon. He'd make him a Stark, and that would make him next in line for the throne of Winterfell. He'd be someone to hand the crown off to in order to pursue his own happiness. He'd likely have Eidalya remain as Hand and hold another post to advise Jon based on his own experience.
Robb hadn't wanted to be King and she imagined Jon wanted it even less. But Jon would be honorable, Jon would put duty over everything just as their father would've. Robb would be happier with the freedom to marry her, to have children with her, without the weight of a crown and the judgment of people who criticized everyone who held power.
And because Jon loved his brother, he would probably let it all happen.
"Lady Catelyn," said Eidalya, not surprised that she'd been summoned mere minutes after her arrival to Winterfell. She closed the door behind her, aware that Grey Wind had tried to come in behind her. "You wished to see me?"
Lady Catelyn smiled thinly, beckoning her to sit across from her. "I did. I thought you and I should have a moment to consider our circumstances while Robb tells Jon Snow everything he needs to know."
"You're unhappy," observed Eidalya.
"Unhappy?" asked Lady Catelyn, as if not wanting to admit it. "Why would I be?"
Eidalya remained serious, tucking her hands together, "I've brought to Winterfell someone you dislike, someone who will now replace me as Hand– a very official position you never thought me worthy of– in order to allow me a clear path for a marriage with your son."
Lady Catelyn decided to stop pretending. "I will make a request," said Lady Catelyn. "Robb is a good man, he's still young and has a world of possibilities. He is a King respected by his people. He does not need to be distracted, he does not need this stain on his name. You could return to King's Landing and sit on King Stannis's council, you could marry someone else."
"And who do you think made his people respect him?" asked Eidalya flatly. "Who taught him to be a King?"
"You may have been necessary during the war but the war has ended. Your brother has admitted to all of Westeros that you've no true claim to anything, and let us not forget who began this war at the first."
"I've proven myself not to be the enemy, Lady Catelyn–"
"You may not be but you remain a Lannister," she said tightly. "You are both young and you believe this is what you want, you believe this is what is right. But you are mistaken. You have served Robb well as Hand, but if you will abandon this position, then it will not mean that the role of Queen consort is open to you. Queen Roslin was a good wife, Robb would've seen it in time. You prevented that, you took your time negotiating with the High Septon until you had what you wanted. As Lannisters always do. They poke and prod, they lie to get their way."
Eidalya could see the fire in Lady Catelyn's eyes, she knew what else she was thinking that she wouldn't say explicitly– she equated Eidalya with Cersei, perhaps thinking she would sleep her way to a throne. She remembered the Kingslayer telling Lady Catelyn there wasn't much fish in her, that she'd become a she-wolf.
She saw it now, she could feel a wolf staring down at her, demanding that she break, demanding she run back to the Capital with her tail between her legs, demanding that she give up on Robb, demanding she leave a land that never asked for her.
She got to her feet, refusing to be intimidated. "I have proven ten times over that I am not like the rest of my family. I had every opportunity to feed you all to the lions for my own personal gain and instead I risked my life to free us all. I could have let the North be seized, I could have allowed for there to be no independence in this land. I understand you have wanted me gone from the first, Lady Catelyn, I understand you've never thought me worthy of your son. I can even understand why you would not wish him to marry me. But I will not tolerate you labeling me an enemy. I did not drive Roslin away, I am not trying to become Queen consort."
Eidalya half-whispered, so enraged, "I-I– I love Robb! I never thought I would, I thought the prospect of marrying him was terrible, I thought I'd be miserable and give him children and have nothing to do but worry about them and pretend my husband didn't wish I was someone else. But I fought a war alongside him, I came to see his devotion toward his family, I learned how full of appreciation he is, how clever. He cares for me and I care for him. I don't want to marry him because I want to be Queen consort, I want to marry him because I feel valued with him, I feel safe, I feel like I have finally found a home where I am more than what I was named at birth, more than what my parents did. I am me, Eidalya, revered for my wit and not who raised me, not this terrible history that precedes me. I would be with Robb even if he were a beggar on the street, so long as he still saw me and loved me as I deserve to be. I am not a bad person, I've never been, but I'm at my very best when I'm with him. The only way I will leave is if my King commands it. If he decides he doesn't want me here, I will go anywhere. I will be someone else's Hand, someone else's something. But only if he tells me so. You will not scare me out of here, Lady Catelyn, you will not shame me into an escape."
The door opened, and Eidalya feared she must've been too loud and attracted attention, but instead saw that Robb had come, with Grey Wind at his side.
"Robb," murmured Lady Catelyn awkwardly.
"Mother," said Robb quietly, stepping inside. He smiled at Eidalya, whose face was red, figuring Robb had heard her snap back at his mother. "What's going on here?"
"You're making a mistake, Robb," insisted Lady Catelyn softly. "You cannot marry her. You're a King, you must have trueborn children. Good children without... without..."
"Without Lannister blood? Do you think that's what matters to me, Mother?"
She stood guilty, swallowing hard. "Robb..."
"You will never speak to her that way again," said Robb, offering Eidalya his hand. She took it carefully. "You will respect what she has done for us and continues to do with us. You will respect our choice to marry when we do, you will respect Jon as he becomes Hand. I've said it to you before and I will tell you again in Eidalya's presence– I would give up my crown in a second if it meant I could be happy with her. I will not have anyone stand in the way of me marrying the woman I love. If you or anyone believes this to be the wrong choice, I will make it simpler. I won't be King. And then, no one will need to worry about who I marry."