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Sansa’s POV
“Your grace, what a pleasure to see you again and I want to thank you for-“
“Oh, Lady Sansa, we can make all of this so much easier if you put away the false tongue and speak truth. It will save time for what needs to be discussed. Come forward.” Daenerys says to me in an almost growling manner.
I am a bit uneasy to be here in the tent with Daenerys especially with the bright roaring fire behind her that makes her truly appear like a dragon in the skin of a human. Daenerys speaks to me far different than she did in our previous encounter. I take a few steps closer to at the table end across from her. I press my lips together nervous that I am here with her after all that has happened.
However Tyrion is in the tent with me which makes it slighter better. But that stops when Tyrion goes over to a table holding drinking glasses and wine. Tyrion pours three glasses. He extends one to Daenerys but she refuses it. Tyrion sets it down then extends to me a wine glass. I thank him and take the glass.
Tyrion has a large portion of his drink while I take one in. I am surprised at how good this wine tasted unlike any other I had tasted. This wine is more sweet and combined with a fruit I never tasted anywhere. I drink the rest, tasting more of the sweetness until the cup is empty then set the glass on the glowing table.
“I am going to get to the point. You are still married to one another. Do you want your marriage annulled?”
Tyrion and I look to one another. My eyes truly look at this man with a beard and a scar from his battle when Stannis Baratheon tried to take King’s Landing. He has changed as much as I have changed except he is still a good man. I am not sure how to answer since Tyrion was always kind to me unlike Joffrey and Ramsey. He never laid a hand on me; showed kindness and protection when I had no one else in King’s Landing.
The marriage can be annulled since we never consummated and he can live the life he wants. Plus it would never work between us as a husband and wife. But if I remain married to him, I do not have to worry about seeking marriage with another if the war against the Dead is won. I do not care to be a wife to him if he does not care to be a husband in name alone. I sigh in the uncertainly of what I should do.
Tyrion grabs my hand with a look of sadness on his face, knowing we are possibly thinking the same thing about our time in King’s Landing. “Do you want to remain married, Lady Sansa?”
“I do not know, Tyrion. I see how annulling or remaining married would benefit both of us. But I do know that you are the best of them all. You saved me possibly more than I will ever know and tried to give me some solace after the Red Wedding. And most of all, you truly respected me even in the horrible situation we were in. You were good to me and you always will be. You truly are the best Lannister.” I tell him with a few tears in my eyes. Tyrion gives a small smile to me in my words to him.
“You suffered enough, Sansa. And even though I was your husband, I wanted to help you in any way I could. I do wish I could take away all the pain you endured. However I can try to stop any further pain to you from any man if we remain as husband and wife. If you wish to remain married, we can be married in name only. We will not worry about an heir and you can live the life you want.”
“We are afforded the freedoms of marriage while bearing none of the burdens?” I ask him to confirm that this goes for him as well.
“Yes. And if in the future, you find someone that will truly care and love you; we can annul our marriage then.” Tyrion tells me when he places his other hand on mine, giving me some comfort that we are agreeing to this together without any ill will between us.
“And the same goes for you, Tyrion.” I tell him.
“I doubt it at my rate with women.” Tyrion says with a smirk on his face of ever finding another woman to love.
We sigh in relief of coming to terms with how our marriage will be and we can do this with clear heads rather than being in the unknown. Tyrion and I look to Daenerys who has a small smile on her face in what she saw between us. She stands up straight knowing there is nothing else to be said. She dismisses Tyrion out of the tent.
“Lady Sansa, a word...” Daenerys says to me when I turn for the entrance.
I turn around to look at her when she extends her hand out for me to come closer to her. We stand across from each other with the roaring fire shining on both of us. This was the conversation I was dreading to have with her but it needs to be done. Daenerys begins to circle around me almost like a predator would its prey.
“You and I are aware that judgment has been made to me because of my father, the Mad King. The same judgment was made to you about your father. Lord Varys told me that he spoke the truth but the entire realm called him a traitor, taking his head for it. And you were titled, The Traitor’s Daughter. I am the Mad King’s Daughter. You are the Traitor’s Daughter. We are nothing more than a problem to others that wished we were dead.”
“But here we stand and those that wished us dead are dead. They foretold their own death by wishing death upon you and I. However we have proven we are more than the titles given. The women we are convinced others to follow us, giving loyalty unlike anyone else. Ser Brianne of Tarth is yours; Ser Jorah Mormont is mine. They have great loyalty, bravery and contempt for us that you and I possibly envy their loyalty to us.”
Daenerys stops circling me and I stare at Daenerys in her words about the similarities we honestly have. She speaks the truth no matter how much I do not wish it to be true. I suspected Ser Jorah being her loyal soldier like Brianne is loyal to me. I nod my head yes in her words when Daenerys goes over to the table of the glass Tyrion poured for me earlier. She grabs and fills the cup then extends it to me.
I slowly take it in my hands while saying, “Yes, we have proven that we are more than our titles. We have defied others in walking away and surviving. And in proving that, we have shown an uprising against the system of the Realm against beaten women with little or no power. In a fraction of time, we up rooted the Realm’s system. We caused uproar with what we did to get where we are now.”
“That is right. And in a fraction of further time, we can make an unimaginable upraise that works out to the end of time. Do you want to know how I imagine it?”
“How should I imagine it, your grace?” I ask then take a gulp of the fruit wine.
“You should imagine the idiocy of the North never trusting or respecting a Queen who came to save one of the Kingdoms in Westeros from the Long Night. And now answer me this. What does that very same Queen get in return for saving a Kingdom that will never respect or trust her all because of a title rightfully given by the crimes of her mad father long before that Queen was ever born?” Daenerys says with ill spite toward the treatment the North has and still gives her.
“That Queen, you will have endless gratitude of the people and-“
“Speak truth, Lady Sansa. A show of gratitude however brief is nothing more than empty, stale oaths like some of the Oaths given by the Houses of Westeros to my ancestor, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen. But to those houses that respected, trusted, kept their oaths and fought for Queen Rhaenyra before and after her death remain standing unlike the houses that pledged for the Greens. Those houses barely survived the Dance of Dragons aside from the Lannisters due to their mass coin back then.”
“That level of idiocy to the Houses that pledged and fought for the Greens is the same level of idiocy or stupidity that the Houses of the North have given to me. And now look what happened to the North as soon as I left. There were many lives killed and now walking with the Dead.”
I stare her down in anger of her words and respond out of spite, “We endured and survived before you returned…”
Daenerys chuckles in a way that makes me more uncomfortable than before. “You can keep telling yourself that, Lady Sansa but many truly know it was Jon, Arya, Lyanna Mormont and the Foxes of the Sunset Sea that made it happen.”
I narrow my eyes in her words when a faint smirk played on her lips when she turns to look over the glowing orange table with all the craved names of every house in the world. Daenerys points to the name King’s Landing then crosses her arms in disbelief. She notices the frustration flickering across my face and seeing my solid belief cracking.
“You still believe that you are fighting the same game you fought in King’s Landing. Tyrion and Lord Varys informed me that you were very good when they did not aid you and the obsession of Little Finger at your side before the Purple Wedding. But those were childish games in King’s Landing. Would you like to be in a real war game?” Daenerys tone shifted with her gaze firm and intense.
“No!” I immediately respond.
“Good. I wouldn’t either because in a real game of war, you can imagine thousands upon thousands of the North people dead, burnt to ash or walking with the army of the Dead. And Northern Houses reduced to rubble, gone. The foundations hardly standing, buried under endless snow as it is never exited like Winterfell is now…”
My eyes widen while my mind begins to put it together as my expression is nothing but a shuddering disbelief as Daenerys’s smile becomes bigger. She is enjoying my realization and amused with my disbelief. She glares at me with a mixture of mockery and fascination with her arms remained crossed. I shake my head in disbelief.
This dragon queen did exactly that in using the Great War of the Long night to destroy the North by leaving the way she did. Then she returns with a massive army of Westeros at her back to save what is hardly left of the North to truly have their gratitude and loyalty as long as she sits the Iron Throne.
“Did you really think I asked for you to come in here to annul your marriage alone? I knew about your marriage to Tyrion before the Winter Fox revealed it. Tell me, what were you expecting when you came in here?” Daenerys’s voice is dripping with sarcasm then chuckles softly.
I shake my head as a wave of shock rolls over me. Daenerys moves her arms and folds them behind her back and she scrolls around the glowing table. My mind fills with the sound of men, women and children fighting for their lives or die screaming for mercy just before they were butchered. She knew in walking away that innocent lives would die.
“You are a monster…” I say right at Daenerys, not caring if she feeds me to her dragons.
“No, I’m a Queen that used what I could to show you and the leaders of the North that played childish games against your King’s decision. You thought you were balancing the scales for the North but I showed you otherwise.”
“There were innocent men, women and children that were killed in what you did!” I scream in horror.
“They did not deserve their fate but you and the others did. You and the others that followed your games knows what it feels like when you risk the lives of innocents in a bitter cycle of bitterness and retribution against me for the crimes my mad father did to the world. Now the scales are balanced while the backstabbing lot of you will suffer the pain of the innocents, Lady Sansa.”
Daenerys immediately walks right toward me as I back away in terror but I am standing with my backside to the roaring fire. Daenerys slams her right gloved fist against the mantle behind me, right next to my face in anger while there is no space between our bodies. She is face to face with me with a dragon rage, ready to kill me where I stand.
“Let this be your final warning. I the Dragon Queen will let more to be buried in snow and ice to end you and the rest of the North like you. And among the deep snow of the North, your brother, the King fights for will rebuild a North far better and stronger.” Daenerys snarls in my face as I whimper in complete horror.
“Why don’t you kill me now?” I sob to her.
Daenerys places her left hand on the mantle as if to trap me from ever leaving. And she has a small smile on her face to me. I cannot tell if her smile is out of fun in my reaction to all she has done or something far worse.
“No matter how much I want to kill you, you are worth more alive than dead. And I do not want to kill you because of your family. So the only solution is that we can possibly be allies if not friends or respected leaders to one another. We come to an agreement here and now so you can walk out of this tent surviving like you did in King’s landing.”
Her face is calmer like her sanity has reappeared in what she is informing me. I know I have no other choice but to agree in what she wants for me to do from here on out. I struggle to let out a breath however I am going to play the part for now. Daenerys is needed to kill the Dead and once that happens, I will do what I can to turn others against her especially for her crimes by letting innocent people die for her to gain the North in their darkest time.
I manage to utter out the question, “What do I need to do?”
“You will need to privately and publicly show your support to me as will those sheep that follow your childish games. You will support me, never question me the way you did earlier in front of the leaders of Westeros to see. You’ll show you are not indifferent toward me and most of all show your respect, love for your brother, the King. And above all, you need to be proud, respectful, humble and grateful to me as the Queen. Do you think you can manage that?”
“Yes…” I seethe to her in anger that I have to agree to this.
“Yes to what?” Daenerys questions me, wanting to hear me say what I am agreeing to out loud.
“Yes, I will ensure to show my respect and support to you, my brother and convince you of it. I can manage.”
Daenerys smiles in hearing these words flowing into the cold air for her to hear. Daenerys lowers her hands and takes a step back from me. “Yes, you certainly will and more…”
“More?” I question in terror of what she could mean by that.
“Yes, more and I know you are not going to like it. But you will accept it all the same in public and in private. If you do not then you will no longer be the Lady of Winterfell. You will be the family member to the King in the North by blood alone; nothing else. Do you understand?”
I glare at her with no way out of it. Now I begin to understand why she wanted to question if the marriage to Tyrion should be annulled or not. She knows that as long as I am married to Tyrion, it ties with her no matter what. And I cannot use a marriage agreement to draw in a new alliance of my own to stand against Daenerys or anyone else if needed.
“Do you understand, Sansa Lannister?” She growls to me.
I shudder in saying the words, “Yes, I understand, Queen Daenerys.”
Daenerys suddenly smiles that she had the grandest news a woman could hear in her life then says, “Lovely. You may go now.”
She moves away from me and stands with the roaring fire to her backside like a flamed Goddess as I walk out of the tent in terror. I already feel the cold crawling all over me before I leave the tent. However I can still feel the raging fire like it was the Seven Hells itself especially with Daenerys being drowned in madness just like her mad father. I need to tell someone about what she did in order to gain the respect and loyalty of the houses of Westeros.
I head toward the tent where Podrick is resting up, knowing Brianne and Theon should be there or will be there soon to check up on him. I cross my arms in shaking from the horror I was in unlike the cold that should be causing me to shake frozen to death.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwZ2zZGkPm3
Daenerys’s POV
I exhale watching Sansa walk out of the tent in terror and I rest my arms by my side in the satisfaction of how well that all went. I smile when I hear her walk toward me. “How did I do?”
“Queen Daenerys, I could not have done that better myself. It is all according to plan.” The Winter Fox says chuckling in pride of how I put on all that rage to Sansa.
“I was not sure I had it in me. I have never done anything like that.” I tell her in shock and amazement of how it went exactly as counseled by the Winter Fox.
“I know you haven’t and you were beyond impossible like you always are.” The Winter Fox jumps up onto the glowing table with joy like a child hearing playful news.
I continue to smile until I think about the innocent men, women and children that died while ensuring the armies of Westeros get here. I look down in sorrow that they died in such a horrible way. I do wonder if they would have lived if I never left the North at all. I turn to face the roaring fire when the Winter Fox gets off the table. She stands behind me and places her gloved hands on my shoulders, giving me comfort.
“I know you did not want to do this plan because of the innocent lives that were killed and now they walk with the Dead. However at the end of it all, their deaths will never be in vain in the gathering of the Living Army. And to those that died, they will smile when death greets them into the next life.” She tells me when I turn to face her.
I shake my head in agreement as I hear the fire crackling behind me. She moves her hands down to mine, taking my hands into hers when I ask her, “Do you truly believe she will tell her close members that follow her like sheep?”
“She will do so as soon as she gets the chance. I know she will tell Brianne of Tarth, Theon Greyjoy first to be sure then the others will be told when she believes it is safe to inform them. She thinks no one will be watching her after a while and that is what I made sure of. None of them ever know they are being watched especially by a Fox.” The Winter Fox says as the fire burns the axed pieces of wood.
“But when she tells them, they will spread the word and I will easily be turned against.” I tell her in worry.
“You will not be blamed of the lives lost, Daenerys. You will not be the lamb to the slaughter. I will and I always have been the slaughtered lamb. I am use to it and it is my reputation to make sacrifices for the greater good.” She says when she pours herself wine in a cup and barely lifts up her mask to drink it all in one go.
I stare at her wondering what she has endured to make her into what she is now. She puts her mask back on fully when I take a step closer. The Winter Fox sees me gently wrap my hand around hers like I always imagined I would to my mother if she was alive.
“In a short time, you have become a refuge and stronghold in these times of trouble, high cost, destitution and desperation. You delivered me out of all my distress and troubles. You are a powerful place to find refuge.” I tell the Winter Fox with some difficulty but with each word came easier to say.
“A Targaryen alone in the world truly is a terrible thing. The same goes for a Fox, Wolf, Dragon and most of all, the Moon. Aside from my Foxes, you and I have more in common compared to this entire encampment. I never had a refuge so I ensure I am one to those that are deserving of it.” She softly tells me then wraps her hands around mine too.
My eyes go down to see it is exactly as I imagined and more of how a mother and daughter speak to one another when needed most. This truly does feel far different and more than any council I ever received from anyone in my life. I wonder if she was ever a mother but lost her child and in turn became whatever she needed to be, forged into the warrior standing before me. I wonder in my mind of who the Winter Fox truly is.
Then she goes over to the table holding all of the drinks and makes one with certain herbs. I see she adds ginger and some sort of flower that is whole and dried into the warm drink. She stirs it for a moment then extends the cup to me. I hesitate to why she made me a specific drink for me.
“This is lemon balm tea with ginger and chamomile herbs. It helps with nerves and the health of a child…”
My mouth barely gaps open when she says the words I did not want anyone to know until I was further along. I take the cup in my hand when her head looks down to my stomach in happiness for me. I ask her in shock, “How could you possibly know?”
“I am familiar with the condition and I had my eye on you since I first met you. Your waist has been a bit queasy here and there. Plus you have not taken one sip of any wine given to you since my arrival to Winterfell. You were not feeling well before I came to see you, deliver your mother’s crown and the armor. I added it up to when you are Jon boarded the ship to now. It all makes sense. And with your permission to have further in the aid of the child, I will send you skin tonics to help with any stretch marks when you are further along in your pregnancy along with delicious food unlike any other to help aid in the development of your baby. Do not bother with your figure since it is not going to be the same after giving birth so you may as well eat up.”
I cannot help but chuckle in her words. It is almost the way I imagine a mother would help a daughter who is with child. I drink from the warm tea to find joy that someone else beyond Jorah and Missandei know about this. I feel more joy in the Winter Fox’s excitement of me being with child. I am actually with child after I never thought I would be. I begin to wonder what the child will look like. Will my baby have silver hair and purple eyes like earlier members of House Targaryen did? Or will my baby have brown hair and my plain colored eyes?
“I truly hope you have a daughter; a daughter to carry on the new legacy you will leave in the world. You broke whatever curse that witch set upon you. A life for a life and it was sadly paid. However that curse is gone. You will have more children now. You will be titled, Curse Breaker when all of this is over. And no need to request me to keep it a secret. I certainly will.” She says to me in the joy that I am with child.
I feel her joy that makes me feel more joy than I did when I first learned of my pregnancy. I always had fear of what the life of my child will be. But I feel more secure to know that the Winter Fox will not let anything happen to my child. She ensures things and people survive long after everyone else believes it is truly gone from the world.
I drink more of the tea and I cannot help wanting to know who she is when she stands up and stares at the roaring fire of the war tent. I stand up slowly to stand in front of her to see she is in deep thought when I take a deep breath to ask her the burning question.
“What are you hiding under your armor, Winter Fox?” I ask her in wonder and caution in fear that she will pull away in asking this.
Her eyes turn to glare at me as I gently lift up my left hand and stroke the side of her armored helmet like mask. I lower my gaze to the stab marks of where the Night King impaled her twice in the ruins of Winterfell. I study the gapping open in her body and briefly stop when I see the detailed parts of her armor. There are parts of her armor that have patching over cracks and tears in being stabbed, shot and other ways to be killed than anyone alive could still be walking the earth.
“Everything…” She tells me like a piece of her strength is coming apart in answering.
“Who are you under there?” I question with a hint of fear that she will pull away in asking this.
My eyes go back up to see her once dead blue eye shine almost like the full moon in the black night sky with no stars. Her gloved left hand moves to rest on top of my hand, embracing it like it is the first time she has ever let another soul do this. I shudder in feeling her touch become cold like ice growing under my skin. I do not pull away when she speaks in a whispery voice filled with sorrow and beauty.
‘The Moon and the Wolf and danced upon the shoreline of the sea. One night, the Moon was taken away from the wolf. The Moon raped away with no last embrace, the Moon was gone. To this very long night, the Wolf still loves the Moon in the hopes they will dance again. The Moon and the Wolf loving one another is a losing game… I am hiding everything under here.’
Her voice lingers in the air long after these words are whispered as if it is an untold song that has never been spoken because it will vanish if it is spoken of any louder. Then it came to me in her words, a losing game. I said those words to Jorah about my love for Jon except she was raped away from her love, never to be together again.
Then the curtain is moved out of the way for one of the Foxes to enter into the tent. I pull my hand away when we are informed that everyone is ready for the war meeting now that everyone is ready. I take a deep breath when the Winter Fox adjusts my mother’s crown on my head to properly resting on my head where it needs to be.
I smile to her as she tells me, “Ensure what numbers are left, the survivors taken to safety to Dragonstone once everything is ensured for the journey to White Harbor. Your ships are at the ready by the protection of the Foxes ever since you landed. And when Sansa does what I think she will do, I will be the Lamb to the Slaughter in the innocent and guilty lives lost in Winterfell. You do not say a word, no matter how much you desperately want to. And finally, show them what a True Targaryen is.”
I nod my head when she rests her forehead against mine for a few moments as the roaring fire burns before us. She knew I needed a few moments of peace and quiet before the war and loudness return all around. Then we both take a step back, standing at the head of the war table when I signal for the others to be allowed to enter.
The war tent opens for dozens of Lords, Ladies and army commanders and captains to enter. I watch all of them flow in one by one when I see Jon, Arya, Bran, Benjen and Sansa enter. I see the pale look of fear on Sansa’s fear ready for whatever she will do in the tent. But my thoughts stop when Daario enters into the tent with a bruise already on his face from where the Winter Fox hit him.
When everyone is in here, the tent is closed off for anyone else to enter. There is a total of over seventy leaders in here which is fitting since the Seven Kingdoms is at war with White Walkers; Seven Nations against the Dead.
Everyone looks to me wondering who is going to speak first until the Winter Fox does so in saying, “On your lead, Queen Daenerys.”
She takes a step back and goes over to her fellow Foxes knowing I am more than ready for this. I place my hands on the edge of the table to my eyes looking at all of the eyes upon me. I lift my head up high saying, “Let’s begin.”
