ataraxion | 002 -- video;

[ for his family, robb will fight whole wars. people often forget that, forget that robb stark set out from home with his banners to rescue his father from cersei's claws, wrench his sisters from the mouth of the lion. people forget how things started and only remember how they end, with crowns upon tully curls and bloody battlefields and direwolves ripping throats from lannister bannermen. but it was all done in service of his family, for the love of his father and his sisters.

and here it is the same. robb will put his sword through mangeto's throat if need be, if he finds his explanations lacking or the proof insufficient. this is the man whose hand ended sansa stark's life. robb isn't sure if there will ever be a convincing enough explanation for the hows and the whys of it, even if there are those who speak of possession and of reassignment of blame, as if even that can take away the scar from his sister's stomach and remove the pale hands of death from her face.

sansa had asked him something similiar, and robb has to breathe out a sigh, scrub a hand back through his curls. he must keep his temper. he must notbe rash and he must be fair and just and listen to all that is said before he passes judgement, even if his dearest wish is to retaliate, cut open magneto's throat for what he'd done. ]

If I must. I shall listen to his tale before I do, Bran.

[ because every man had a right to speak his case, before judgement is passed. ]

[He nods, though he keeps his eyes fixed upon his brother. He recognizes the bowed weight of his shoulders, like a heavy cloak he is always wearing, even when Robb tries to pretend it is not there. Robb the lord, Robb the king, Robb who is the head of their family, now, even in this place, even in places where people can be not themselves.]

That is just. No one would call it anything but just, I think. [Or would they? And even if they should call it anything less than a justice owed, would it matter? Not to Robb, surely--would it matter to Sansa? To Bran? He tries to examine that thought in his heart, but it comes out wrenched and confused. He is no stranger to betrayals, and Magneto was not bound to them by any promise or oath or blood, but--]

She says to call her Sansa again, as if-- as if she woke up as herself. [But not herself, too, changed from Sansa to Alayne to someone else. Do we call her Sansa, he wants to ask, but perhaps Robb will read the question without being asked. ]

[ robb's expression is grim. there are those who would not find it just, he thinks. there are those who spoke in his defense, had sworn magneto would never do such a thing. if robb takes his head, those are the ones who will call for his blood, but he cannot let that sway him. he cannot fear them, for that would be shirking the duty left to him by his father. he must stand for his house. there is no way around it.

but that is not something for bran to worry about. that worry is robb's to bear, and he will bear it in silence, without complaint. it's what bran says after that takes his attention, makes him straighten up and set aside his sword. ]

Then we shall call her Sansa, if that is what she wishes.

[ robb who still doesn't see, or won't allow himself to see, what has happened to his sister. she has changed, but it is because she has grown older. he does not see the roots of her lies, see what has happened to her in those years. if she is older and sadder than it is the fault of the war and the lannisters' treachery. it must be so. ]

[Robb took his meaning enough, and Bran again nods gratefully. By the same token, he is grateful that his brother pays him heed. Bran does not have a duty set to him by position of birth, save to be the Stark in Winterfell--and I did not do that, I fled--but he has a duty to his brother, and to his sister. He must help them. He must make them understand.]

Sansa, to us. But Alayne otherwise, for now. [Will she fare better, will she be all right, that is what he wants to ask. But he keeps his questions, for Robb's sake; he puts on his strength and makes them real by saying them aloud.] She will fare better if she is Sansa. She will fare better, with us, now that it is over. [Now that she is alive, and truly alive, as Sansa Stark.]

Just as before.

[ the disguise holds, and it is necessary, sansa had sworn it was necessary and though robb still chafes at it, still cannot look at petyr baelish without anger crackling along the edges of his thoughts, his sister ask and robb acquiesced. alayne to all but the three of them, so it shall be. ]

She will recover. And there are those who offer us their aide.

[ there were no banners here for robb to call, but there were those he trusted tentatively. there were people who loved his sister and his brother and by extension, they loved robb, the newly arrived and the eldest, and though untested, perhaps these newfound loyalties would prove true. ]

[She will recover is what Bran wants to hear, and what he first fixes on. Sansa is of the north, so she will recover. He knows that it is so, but Robb's agreement lends it more credence.

But aide-- Bran straightens in his chair, trying to square his shoulders. He is a prince. He can speak with his brother on such important matters as aide. Without bannermen and great lords to give him counsel, he has Bran. I will help him.]

Who has offered?

A man named Tommy, who has already offered to defend her once before. And a woman named Jenna.

[ and the device is tilted, displaying both the applicants, those who had given robb their allegiance, those he would call upon if needed. it is not home, no, not the thousands of men he had marched with, but he does not take their oaths lightly. it is no small thing, having a man swear to stand at your side. ]

Jenna believes she has something that can take the scar from Sansa's stomach.

[He peers at the device, interested in these people who have pledged themselves to house Stark. Two, but two that are invaluable, two more than they had before. Tommy he thinks he might know of, but Jenna--

He looks to Robb's face.]

Some magic? Or does she call it-- [He hesitates, trying to recall the word.] --science.

[And no matter what she calls it, it will only remove the scar. Nothing more. The thought is a troubling one, and Bran frowns a little.]

[ science isn't a word robb's heard yet, and the expression he turns to bran is momentarily questioning, as if he'd ask for a definition, for explanation. but then he sets that aside. now is not the time to be distracted, not when there were such important matters requiring his attention. ]

She called it neither. I am to meet her, to see her demonstrate it.

[ he does not say that he will offer himself up as test subject. there's no sense in worrying bran further, not when robb is so certain all shall be well. ]

If it is effective then we shall seek Sansa's opinion. There's no sense troubling her just yet.

[He should perhaps accompany Robb. A king should not go alone, not even to meet with bannermen. Kings always travel with vanguards, or entourages--some sort of tail--but their number is too few for such things. Sansa will need one of them to stay, and there is Lord Baelish, but-- He has proved loyal to Sansa. To Alayne. But Bran still would sit beside Sansa himself. It is safer, somehow, in his mind.

So he only nods at that, and tucks away any worry.]

Perhaps it will make her happy. She smiles sometimes, but I think-- [His shoulders slump a little, and he rubs at his face as he tries to work this out. A lord would be strong.]

Do you think she will be-- different? It is not like other wounds.

[ she smiles, but there is still such sadness in her face, and bran does not need to say this, because robb understands. he has seen it in his sister's face himself, and it has never quite gone away, no matter what they've done since he arrived.

he wants to hope that the blood would take away the sadness as well as the scar, but it seems a foolish thing to hope. did any such magic exist? ]

I don't know, Bran. [ and it pains robb to say it, but how can he say anything else? his brother is older now, and deserves as much of the truth as robb can give him. ] I hope she shall. Maybe if it is gone she will become herself more quickly.

[ for robb did not miss how often her hands disappeared into the blankets to touch it, but he had never said anything about it. ]

[Robb does not know, and this is a hard thing to hear--though by the same stroke, Bran feels a prickle of gratefulness. Better to be told the truth than to be fed the soft lies children receive, no matter how hard the truth might be. The truth is a sad one, but it also means that Robb has placed some new trust on Bran.

So it is a weight--she might not be healed, not wholly--but it is not an impossible weight, not when borne between the two of them, and so Bran nods again, squaring his shoulders.]

And we can help her. [If the scar is gone, and if Sansa is kept safe by her family-- But that brings a different thought to mind, and Bran looks to his brother once more.] What of Lord Baelish?

[ you have grown so much, robb wants to say. you no longer need me to carry you. it is a bittersweet thing, seeing his brother bearing this weight without complaint, sharing the burden. it isn't something robb has ever had. he was ever the eldest, leaps and bounds ahead of them all. when there was something to be managed, he was the one to do so.

and now bran is here at his side, a help to him and a comfort. robb is not sure how heavily he is able to lean, but it is a start. a start. ]

I cannot send him from her side. She calls for him, reaches for him as she does you and I.

[ robb doesn't like it, and that much is clear on his face. ]

[Nor does Bran like it. He reads Robb's face easily enough, and nods again.

He had tried--if not to like the lies, then to at least be able to tell them--for Alayne's sake, to keep them safe, to do as she asked only because she asked it. The lies were not easy to tell, but they were necessary. Her eyes had assured him of that, they are necessary, lit with a sadness and a desperation that Bran did not know how to name. He had tried, too, for the sake of Lord Baelish himself, who had seemingly proved faithful, who had helped Bran here in this place--and who had helped Sansa when she needed help most of all, and she loved him for it.

Perhaps it is the last bit of this that makes it most difficult. She loves him. She acts his dutiful daughter, but there are times when she believes it, times more often than Bran can understand, and he does not know what to do with this. It gives him more pause than any other part of it, and it is a complication that Robb might not see--or, if he sees, might not understand.]

She needs him. For now--she needs him. She was alone too long. [Without her wolf, without her pack.]

[ and robb hated it. he hated hearing sansa call petyr baelish her lord father. he hated calling her alayne stone instead of sansa stark, of lying when people asked who she was to him. and perhaps it baffled people, a king's concern and care for a servant, but robb couldn't bring himself to care. she was his sister, whatever her name. ]

I hope the day comes when she needs him no longer.

[ for what if it didn't? what if sansa never stopped reaching for petyr baelish, even when robb came for her to bear her back to winterfell? what would be done that? ]

The day will come.

[He says it quietly, but there is great strength in his tone all the same. The day will come, and if Bran could make it come to pass right now, by his will alone, he would. Instead, he holds fast to the conviction of the thought.]

It will come, if we can be patient with her. She was too long alone, but if we are here-- [He looks down at his hands, bites at his lip.] We must remind her. We can, both of us. We must keep her close and remind her, and she will remember. She is a Stark. I know she is. [And you know it. And she knows it. She has not forgotten, not truly.]

[ robb's head comes up at the strength in bran's voice. it's somtehing to marvel at, and he thinks, our lord father would be so proud if he could hear, but it is a hard thing to consider, that their father shall never hear them or express pride in them again. and robb has enough to think of now, with an injured sister and a fight to have, so he does not say this. instead, he nods his agreement. ]

Surely she cannot have forgotten it all. It is in our blood, all of use. It is who we are.

[ winter was in their blood, the blood of wolves ran in the stark line, and it was in them all. it could not be denied or concealed, or so robb had thought before, before he had come here and seen that it could be hidden away, locked behind closed doors where no one could see. ]

She calls herself Sansa--that means she has not forgotten. And she calls us her brothers--she does not say it, but she thinks it.

[I know she thinks it. Her hands are their mother's hands; her eyes are their mother's eyes--and all of her is their sister, no matter her name or her colors or her cloak or her hair. Bran keeps his face as strong as he can. He must believe me, he must know my words are true, and not a child's fancy. They are all of the north, and a king's best bannermen are his brothers. We will be strong for one another.]

She lost her wolf--but not for good and all. Just for a little while. Perhaps that is why we're here. [For Sansa. For the Starks. To remember.]

[ before he'd left, robb had picked up his brother and carried him to bed, and spoken of the future. he'd sobbed, he remembered that. quietly and only because it was dark and not even his brother would see his tears, because even then he'd been robb the lord and how could he truly set aside that role?

and now here was bran, speaking so wisely, giving counsel as a man. so much had changed. he begrudges his position, almost, rooted in the past while they have all flown forward towards the future. ]

Do you truly believe that is why we have been brought here? To bring heart to our sister?

[No.

The word is on his lips. But even Bran is not sure of the truth of it. He thinks of the three-eyed crow; he thinks of the Reeds, and Hodor--he thinks of the wolf dreams, and the things that he has seen, and the sound of bloodshed in the walls of Winterfell and the dead boys, and of leaving Rickon--and still further, he thinks of beyond the Wall, and the path that is his destiny, the path he must take. This must be but a stop on that path, the same as staying the night in some inn (a luxury and a chance they have never dared take).

And--selfishly, perhaps--Bran thinks of Robb's hand on his shoulder, the way Sansa pushes his hair back from his forehead--things that were lost and are now his again. Beyond selfishness, there must be some reason to be here. If his path lay beyond the Wall, why first bring him here, unless there were some lesson to be learned?

So he looks at his brother, and he nods.]

We were meant to be a pack. Even if we are not here to stay-- [And this is a thought that he does not like to consider, tangled in his selfishness] --we are here for a reason. Sansa needs us. There may yet be other reasons, but this one is no less true, even if there are.

002 -- video;

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