Exile of the heir

Two moons and a week after the fall of the dragon queen.

Peace finally came at the cost of deaths, ashes and sacrifices, but peace and politics never stay together for long. The realm was healing from wars for the throne, fire of ambition and dragon queen's fury. Many forts were rendered uncommanded, due to wiping of houses that ruled them for years or centuries even.

But the north was finally united under the leadership of the queen in the north, Sansa Stark, one of the last of the wolves. Time and events had hardened her long ago, and loneliness won't bother her anymore, she ruled with an iron fist and yet there was some softness left in her reserve for only a few.

The chambers of the queen in the north were dimly lit as most of the castle of Winterfell. Sansa wasn't facing her yet.

Sansa: You understand, what are you asking for Cara? The wall is not a place for women, let alone a babe.

A lady, not more than 19 winters old, stood facing sansa's back, her hair was chestnut long, open, her eyes green as forests of riverrun tired even, she was slender, the kind of beauty that was not pampered or inherited, but common. Her lips were big and almost the color of plums, her skin not soft like sansa's but calloused, from working like most of the ladies didn't have to do their entire lives. She wore a simple dress, rug colored even, in contrast to sansa's deep blue pristine gown. Her gaze was low, staring at the ground in curtsy. She held a babe in her arms, wrapped in wolf fur. Cooing softly, trying to grab her hair, drooling, the babe had green eyes like Cara, but not tired like her, curious and innocent and curls as black as a raven on his little head.

Cara (her voice, surprisingly confident): I am certain, your grace. The wall is neither a place for a man, who had always bled for the realm. But he is there so will I and my son.

Sansa: (in a low voice, still not turning towards the girl) He will not allow this, his honor comes first, before everything.

Cara: Then I will not ask for his permission, your grace.

Sansa: (turning to her, the calm in her tone lost) Why are you doing this Cara? You said you will never forgive him for what he has done to you, you asked him to leave didn't you?

Cara: (her eyes widened in shock) Who told you that, your grace? Him?

Sansa: (not looking Cara in the eye) Not him, but I have resources.... (snapping her head back to look Cara in eye) You are not what you were Cara, you are a lady now, you are family, you are wife of the former king in the north and most importantly mother to THE HEIR TO WINTERFELL.

Cara: (still calm) I am a lowborn, your grace. Yes, I vowed to the king in the north, but he is exiled, by your realm, when you were there and said nothing, and now there is nothing left for me here. And as long as my son is concerned, about him being the heir to anything, I never asked for it, ( there was a terror in her voice) haven't you seen what happens to heirs and kings, what happens to ones who dare to claim. What happened to the mad king, what happened to Robert baratheon, what happened to ned stark, to joffery, to dragon queen, to jon (she said this softly, too softly, as if trying to stop tears which threatened to spill)

Sansa: (walking to cara, to hold her shoulders, support her) I know Cara, I know, and i never want any harm to this little one

(she gave her finger to the babe, who tried to grab it, smiling and cooing)

I held your hand, when he was about to come, I love him, he is my nephew, but the throne cannot be left empty, somebody has to...(sansa left the sentence unsaid)

Cara:( raising her eyes, resolutely) If this is what you command, my queen, then so be it. But he is just three moons old now

(tears shone at the end of her eyes, she gently rocked the baby in her arms)

He will be your successor, when he comes of age, when he is old enough, till then, don't burden him with being an heir, let him be a child. Let me go to the wall, let my child know his father. Not as a traitor exiled to the wall, but as a man who bled for the realm, as the lord commander of castle black, who is respected and loved. Let me go, your grace (tears finally spilled on Cara's face)

Sansa exhaled and then hugged Cara, let her sob for a while against her shoulder, the baby oblivious to the tension was still trying to grab something to put it in his little mouth, this time he got sansa's necklace. When Cara's sobs slowed down, she separated Cara from her.

Sansa: I let you go, Cara. But as a sister, not as a queen. Arya will escort you.

(She took the baby in Cara's arms in hers own and kissed his little forehead, the baby smiled in return and cooed raising his little hands to touch sansa's face)

Come back to us soon, my little wolf, come back, Rickon Stark.

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