#eyrie was a bit of a mess without her and as the rest of the scions went it was Oh Boy Howdy I wish Avi was here!

[impossible-rat-babies]

eyrie losing their emotional support not wife in post-stormblood like boy howdy you didn’t know how much you relied on her huh

[7deadlycinderellas]

If the summer of our lives could just come again, ch21

Ao3 link

The Bite

Sansa’s not overly fond of boats, but she enjoys the sight of the winter seas and the smell of the salty air. Catelyn holds up much the same, staying still and in their cabin as much as possible.The pair of guards that travel with them have both haven’t been at sea before, and their transition is not exactly smooth. Even well-behaved Lady whines and turns around constantly in the metal cage up on the dock she had to be coaxed into.

“It’s only a few days, girl,” Sansa had assured her, and you won’t have to stay in there any longer.”

The voyage is actually quite dull. None of the rest of the crew give the two of them any notice other than the occasional “milady”. And so after a day or two Sansa finally asks.

“Mother, what was Aunt Lysa like as a girl?”

Catelyn’s face is faraway, caught up in the past.

“Shy. Timid. If she was in trouble with our father, she would run and hide. Some part of me wonders if she’s still doing that, staying up here in the Vale all the time.”

She looks at Sansa’s face, seeing the pinch of her lips. She sighs.

“You can say what you’re thinking. I’ve listened to what you’ve said over the years. I know my sister isn’t well. I should have pushed more to understand her emotions when father betrothed her to Jon Arryn.”

“If you wrote to grandfather, he would probably tell you.”

Hoster Tully is still alive now, but letters have come periodically that his health is failing. Catelyn has longed to visit, but not felt she could leave Winterfell.

“Do you know?”

Sansa bites her lip before speaking.

“Petyr Baelish got her with child, and grandfather tricked her into drinking tea that bled the pregnancy. He married her off to Jon Arryn because he had no heirs and she was apparently proven fertile.”

Catelyn’s gasps don’t pause Sansa’s words. Her face is contemplative.

“I wonder if maybe that’s why she lost so many children over the years. And Robin’s so sickly...I pity Aunt Lysa, I really do, but it’s not the good kind of pity.”

“You told us…”

Sansa nods.

“She poisoned Jon Arryn on Littlefinger’s suggestion. She did it because all these years later, she was still...obsessed with him. Not that it would have mattered, he only ever had eyes for you.”

Catelyn opens her mouth as if to protest, but from all the years, she can’t fight Sansa’s take on any of her perspective. And try as she might, Sansa still can’t tell her anything. She can’t tell her mother that despite Littlefinger’s decade long obsession with her that after her death he still managed to almost immediately project his affections onto her daughter.

“And all of that, all of it caused so much of this whole damn mess. I wish Father had told you about Jon from the beginning, but I can’t even imagine the mess there would have been if you accidentally let something on to either Lysa or Petyr.”

And as so, their voyage continues in silence.

Getting off the ship in Gulltown is a relief, but as they approach the Eyrie Sansa feels her heart skip beats and catch in her throat. She remembers the last time she was here. Seeing the craggy mountains poking up out of the ground puts her right back into the young girl who was certain so recently that she was safe but was slowly coming to the realization that she was just as unsafe as before.

The snow is packed tightly enough that travel isn’t too difficult. It’s terribly cold, but the sky is quite clear.

The easiest way up is still by mule. It takes Sansa longer than she’s proud of to recognize the girl leading them up the path, to place the face of one of the friends she had made during her short stint as Alayne Stone.

“Mya,” she mutters. It must be a bit louder than she’d intended, because the guide turns her head back.

“Did you say something milady?”

Sansa quietly shakes her head.

She slows her mule so she’s beside her mother.

“I didn’t know her too well before, I knew she was a Stone, but I never saw….”

Catelyn’s face is confused. After a breath, Sansa explains.

“She looks just like Gendry.”

Maybe one of these days, she’ll be able to tell Mya how lucky she is to be out of King’s Landing. How lucky she is to be alive.

For now they have bigger fish to fry.

 Winterfell

Bran’s chest clenches every time he thinks of Septima’s journey. He had labored over the note he had tied to her leg for so long, in hopes of delaying having to send her. She’s the strongest of them, with the most stamina, but when he set her off, he still feels his gut twist in fear for her.

He’s clearly still caught up in this when Robb has to swat his hand at dinner to get his attention. He’s still got half a piece of ham stuck with his fork. He glances around and all the others have left the table already.

“Sorry. Aren’t you usually gone by now?”

Robb sits beside him backwards on the bench, stretching out and resting his shoulders against the table.

“Father’s back to doing petitions as Lord, so I’m taking advantage of the chance to not do anything.”

Bran sticks his last bit of ham in his mouth, chews and swallows.

“You should come with me out to the training yard, Arya was going to challenge Brienne now that the weather’s clear.”

Robb smiles.

“Will that be a good show?”

Bran grins in return.

“Arya just wants someone who won’t hold back on her.”

This is the truth. Most of the Free Folk favor bows and melee weapons over swords, and Robb and Theon are never going to fight her with all their strength.

Watching her get to go toe to toe with Brienne is a joy. Bran seeing her smile like she is is a very rare chance.

Her and Brienne swing and parry and the steel of their swords sings out in the winter air. They don’t fight the same at all, Brienne with solid hits and an unmoveable stance and Arya with fluidity and misdirection. By the time Arya loses grip on her sword and yields, she’s sweating and panting, and grinning like a madman.

There’s a group gathered to watch. Even Ned has taken a break from petitions to watch his youngest in her element. Once the fight is over, most of them shift around, disappointed. Shireen bursts forward to congratulate Brienne, and Robb quietly takes up his sword to ask for comments.

Bran slowly makes his way up to where his father stands and watches. They haven’t had much time to talk, alone, since the group had returned to Winterfell. Bran still sometimes wondered if he was the Stark the most distanced from Ned. Even his memory of him before had faded some, having not seen him since before his fall, and having been so much younger than the others.

“How are you holding up?”

Ned’s face is a swirl of emotions. Joy at being home, uncertainty because of what he’s missed, confusion at what he does not understand.

“Every time I turn around there’s something else. I’ve never even seen Arya fight with a full sized sword before, only than skinny one Jon gave her.”

Bran smiles. Arya had mentioned to him once that she was very glad Ned was gone when she and Meera had come back in with Osha and she’d been covered with blood. She hadn’t wanted him to see her like that.

“She still uses it sometimes. It suits her, she knows she’s not going to be stronger than most opponents, so she compensates by being faster, harder to hit and less predictable. “

There’s a pause. Bran hoists himself up to sit on one of the posts of the low fence separating the training yard from the areas around it.

“I used to take pride in knowing every member of my household,” Ned admits, “Now everywhere I go I see faces I don’t recognize.”

“I recognize most of them,” Bran comments, “You can always just ask, you’ve been gone nearly four years and we’ve taken in so many of the free folk into service.”

Ned’s eyes become nearly frightened at this moment.

“I’m worried every time we get ravens that there will be something from King’s Landing. When I was Hand I was able to keep all word of the fleeing free folk we’re sheltering from Robert’s ears, and everything about what’s happening over the wall. If anything reaches Joffrey’s ears I can’t promise I can stop us inviting his and Tywin’s wrath for doing this without consent or knowledge of the crown, ignoring what might happen if Stannis finds out.”

Shit, Bran thought. That hadn’t occurred to him. So much of this had been so much easier before, when the North had declared its independence and hadn’t had to take into account the opinions of any King other than the King in the North.

Ned shakes his head suddenly.

“Never mind that right now though, I need to go and retrieve Robb. We need to go over plans before we set out for the Dreadfort before supper comes and it begins to get dark.”

Bran nods.

“I’m heading to the smithy. Do you have anything I need to pass on to Gendry?”

“What’s he working on now?”

“The next shipment of dragon glass isn’t due for a few more days. I know he said he wanted to work on our armor supplies as well.”

“Good. Tell him to keep on it.”

When Bran enters the smithy and is hit in the face by the blast of hot air, Gendry appears to already be on it. He’s punching out a sheet of chainmail at the moment. Bran nods in greeting, and Gendry returns it silently.

Meera’s sitting on one of the benches, a pile of cut ash and oak branches at her feet. Handles for spears, axes and arrows, slowly appeared from the wood working in her hands under her knife. Lots of arrows, as many as she could cut. Gendry, she had assured Bran before, did not have the patience for woodwork, it was a slow, careful process.

He is surprised, however, to see Shireen sitting on her right side. She had been spending most of her days in the library.

She too, waves in greeting, as Bran sits on the bench to Meera’s left, feet resting beside the pile of wood.

“I was asking Gendry if he’d met anyone else in my family,” Shireen explains, her voice cracking only a little.

Gendry pauses, to nod.

“Told her I met her father only once and he was fine with letting the red woman sacrifice me the same way she did her.“

Bran cringes. Gendry seems to agree, the haunted look in his eye telling. The first time he had seen Gendry at Winterfell, the raven had summoned his vision of that night at Dragonstone. It was one of the many he wished he could wipe from his memory.

“He also told me that Ser Davos saved his life then.”

Gendry nods, and Bran becomes very glad that Davos could still be counted among their numbers.

Meera fishes around trying to find him a spare knife, but then pauses and hands him hers and stands when Gendry asks her for a favor.

“What are you doing?”

Gendry’s holding a piece of string and making marks on a piece of parchment.

“Since I’m starting with the armor stores, I wanted to make Arya a hauberk. Plate armor is better in a joust, but unless you’re going up against clubs and solid blows chainmail works fine, especially over leather, and it won’t slow her down. Meera’s close enough to her size I can use her to make the measurements before I punch out the chain.”

Bran smiles.

“So I take it you’re not going to be foolish and try to convince her not to fight this time?”

Gendry snorts.

“I know her well enough to know that that would be a pointless exercise that would just make us both angry. But I won’t send her out ill-equipped, and I would feel much better knowing I made it.”

Good, Bran thinks. That is what this whole situation has been for. None of them will be going into this ill-equipped.

Meera finds a smaller knife, and so Bran joins her in cutting down the wood, and beneath them forms a thick pile of tinder to feed the forge. Gendry and Shireen continue chatting amiably. Watching them, Bran can note the family resemblance, though it’s more in mannerisms than in their facial features.

Quietly, Meera asks him.

“Is Septima getting close?”

Bran nods.

“I let her rest until dinner time. She should go over before supper. Once that happens, I’m going to stay in her for a while.”

Meera nods. She sets down her knife briefly, and reaches out to grasp his empty hand in hers.

“I’ll stay with you.”

He slips in and out of Septima a few times throughout the afternoon. When she finally reaches Eastwatch-By-the-Sea, Shireen has quietly slipped out to return to the library.

Bran takes a deep breath.

“This might take a while.”

Gendry nods.

“I’ll bring you some supper if you’re going to stay.”

And then he leaves Bran and Meera alone.

“You’re doing fine though? You don’t want to wait until after supper?”

Bran shakes his head.

“I’d rather just get this done.”

With a smile that’s only a little sad, she leans in and softly kisses the corner of his mouth. And with a stupid grin, he leans back to the wall, and lets himself drift off.

And with that, Meera is alone. She isn’t idle though. Once she finishes splitting up the branch she’d been working on, she fishes out a paper and quill.

She hasn’t even written a single line, when the door opens. Meera is surprised to see Ned enter, holding a plate of leftover bread and fried ham.

“Lord Stark,” she addresses, standing to take the plate from him.

“Gendry said the two of you were still out here, thought I should check up.”

Meera turns to look at Bran, his eyes still all white. Ned looks discomforted, and she completely understands.

“He’s over the wall, trying to find Jon.”

Ned doesn’t know quite what to say. Meera looks him straight in the eye for a moment.

“We think that if something had happened to him, the wolves would have known. Summer knew when something happened to Gray Wind before.”

Summer, who has been dutifully following up behind Bran wherever he goes, to catch him if he trips.

Meera sets the plate beside her on top of an empty crate.

“I’m writing to my father,” she tells Ned, “To see if he thinks we have the resources to take any non combatants. We did before.”

That was what the crannogmen had spent most of the Long Night doing, sheltering those who tried to flee south and became lost.

Ned nods,

“Good. tell me what he says. Tell him just to write to me, it would be nice to hear from an old friend.”

His eyes stay on Bran and her questioningly, Meera suddenly aware of how closely together they’re sitting. Maybe she ought be a little embarrassed, but she’s not. Touching Bran has become second nature again. She remembers back in the cave, the day he had realized his hair had started to get tangled among the leaves and branches, and sheepishly asked her to cut it. And that afterwards, she had realized it hadn't felt strange at all.

Quietly, she tells Ned,

“You don’t need to worry too much about the two of us. We’re not too great putting things into words. Feels like if we do, something will come by and break it.”

The feelings are old, she thinks to herself, even if the kissing is new.

Ned smiles, and Meera recognizes the same sad smile she must have had on her own face often.

“Perhaps I should write to your father too.”

Meera feels the corner of her mouth turn up involuntarily when she recognizes his intent.

“I think he would like that.”

And with a tilt of the head in Bran’s direction.

“And don’t worry about your son, I’ll make sure he comes back.”

The first time Bran wakes up, Meera’s covered her legs with a blanket Gendry keeps stashed in the little shed behind the smithy.

Bran starts to say something, but his stomach growls before he can speak.

Meera glances up, and then points at the platter

Bran takes a piece of ham.

“I just need a break.”

“See anything interesting?”

Bran chews his piece and swallows before responding.

“Septima’s flying northwest through the haunted forest. She’s passed where Craster’s Keep was and is near the Antler River. When she gets to the Fist of the First Men, I’ll have her turn East. If she gets all the way North…”

He trails off. All the way north she’ll have to pass back down through Thenn and far too close to the Land of Always Winter.

“I haven’t seen much of anything. Snow, trees. The villages I’ve seen are empty. A couple areas look like they’ve been burned, like a fire for corpses got out of control until it burned itself out.”

“Have you seen any….”

After a long moment, he says.

“Now so far...If I’m not back by midnight, shake me until I come out. Don’t let me forget I’m actually going to need to sleep tonight.”

It’s not midnight, but it’s close when Bran suddenly shudders back to life. Meera had been one inch away from dozing off herself when his sudden movement rouses her.

“Bran! Are you alright? What did you see?”

She places a hand on each side of his face in an attempt to steady him. When he finally opens his eyes, they’re red and wet with tears. He reaches out to grasp both of her arms.

“You’re not going to believe this.”

 Over the Wall

Gilly sits with Jon and Rowan sometimes now. She makes many marks on her map now. Rowan some time ago claimed Jon knew most of the words she could teach him, and now all he could do was learn to speak them in his own voice. She seems pleased to have something useful to do, having been increasingly emotionally volatile since the revelation about the tree’s memory. Her son insists on being called Sam now, he won’t hear any different.

Once Gilly told Jon when the three of them were alone that, “Perhaps Aemon was never his name anyhow.”

Parts of Jon still desperately wants to ask Rowan what her ultimate plan for teaching him all of this is, but watching her, around the fire, beside him in the snow, he’s beginning to wonder if she even really knows.

He asks the trees about the Others now. There aren’t many wildlings left in the north, Jon discovers. Hundreds, thousands perhaps, have fled or tried to flee, and few remain. Not live ones anyway.

The villages along the far western edge of the Frostfangs have been devastated. Bodies, human and animal both, slaughtered and arranged in symbols even the trees don’t understand. Even Ygritte quakes when he tells her of what the trees have told him is happening outside, his stories of places she might have once known devastated.

And when the villages aren’t empty…

Sometimes it seems as though the white walkers appear out of the night itself, from the fog and snow. Sometimes when they appear the night seems to follow them like a perpetual cloud. Even if it’s just a few of them, they always seem a whole army. They’re ice blades cut down man and beast alike.

And as for the Night King, Jon is only somewhat to see him ride upon an undead steed. The stories that the others could raise bears and wolves and other beasts as well as men has turned out to be true. And no one mostly bothered to burn their corpses.

“Rowan,” Jon finally asks one day, “You’re so sure that the Night King is trying to lead his armies over the Wall...but nothing we are doing here seems to be something that could stop that.”

“I don’t think it is something that can be stopped.”

Jon is taken aback.

“Then what…”

Rowan’s smile is bitter.

“I am the last of my kind. All I am trying to do is pass on the knowledge I have, to try and mitigate some of the damage I know is coming. These things you are learning are very old, and I would hate to see them lost.”

Jon’s insides twist. He’s not sure what he was expecting, but this wasn’t it. But watching Rowan, he cannot find the words to rebuke her. She reaches out and touches his hands.

“I have given you what weapons I can. Knowledge, foresight understanding. The iron and dragonglass will prevent the long dead from rising. And that sword your girl found may be valuable as well. The tunnels will allow us to flee south with ease when the time comes.”

“Flee?” Jon asks, “How will we know when it’s time.”

Rowan reaches and tucks a bit of his hair behind his ear fondly. Her skin doesn’t feel like a human’s skin, but rather like something else Jon can’t put his finger on.

“I feel that is something that we will become aware of very quickly when the time comes.”

She pauses for a long moment, her ears drooping and disappearing into her hairline.

“I’m sorry if you feel I have misled you in anyway.”

Jon’s insides settle themselves. This has not been how he expected his life to go, before or after the great revelations his siblings had hoisted upon him. But…

“Thank you,” he tells Rowan quietly, “For never mentioning my name.”

It’s a short way of saying what he means. That she never spoke of him as something he couldn’t help. He wasn’t a bastard here, or a crow, or a Stark. Nothing, perhaps, except a human. The only standard Rowan held him to was her hopes for him, and she always thought he could achieve it. Maybe that’s what Ygritte meant by this place being good for him.

After supper, he sits at the mouth of the cave, watching the sky. Ygritte quietly joins him. He looks at her, and starts to say something, but is interrupted.

“Is that...a raven?” Ygritte asks.

The large bird isn’t flying straight, but weaving back and forth. It finally settles on a branch of the illusory weirwood tree, and Jon swears it looks at him.

And then flies straight towards him.

Jon only manages to steel himself for a moment, certain he is about to feel claws dig into his face, when the bird, instead, lands neatly on his wrist, and shakes it’s foot.

There’s a paper tied to it. Jon removes it, and unrolls the letter. This doesn’t make a lick of sense, that a raven could fly this far north, that it would.

“Come home brother, if you can. The long night is coming, and we’ll need you by our side.”

Jon exchanges an astonished, emotional expression with Ygritte when he reads the words.

“I’ll show Rowan in the morning. And we’ll go from there.”

That night, Jon has another dream. It’s not symbolic. He sees his uncle Benjen, cornered on the bank of the Milkwater, of a wight raising it’s ice blade to him.

And of another shaking its head. And the rest surrounding him.

He doesn’t see his uncle fall. But he sees him overwhelmed, and carried off.

The last Jon sees before he wakes is his uncle dropped on the frozen ground, at the feet of the Night King.

[slahtiz]

❛  “I will remember, your grace,” said sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people’s loyalty than fear. “if I am ever a queen, I’ll make them love me.”   ❜

my portrayal of   SANSA STARK   is highly influenced by both books and personal headcanons, and only slightly influenced by the show  ( mainly plot-wise ).  the verses below will cover her storyline from the beginning of the books to the end of the show.

❛  𝓶𝔂 𝓼𝓴𝓲𝓷 𝓱𝓪𝓼 𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓹𝓸𝓻𝓬𝓮𝓵𝓪𝓲𝓷; 𝓽𝓸 𝓲𝓿𝓸𝓻𝔂; 𝓽𝓸 𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓮𝓵.                                                                                     ( all books so far; season 1 - 5ish )

sansa is the eldest daughter of ned and catelyn stark.

this verse begins with the story we all know, i won’t make much fuss about it. when sansa found out about her betrothal to joffrey baratheon, she was absolutely thrilled, and couldn't wait to marry the prince. she eagerly followed her father to king’s landing, excited to finally see something else than plain old winterfell. though on the road to the capitol, she had to suffer the loss of her direwolf, lady, because her little sister had stepped up against her betrothed; this put a notch into her relationship with arya, and caused her heart to shatter into a million pieces. in king’s landing, sansa soon found out that not all that glittered was gold   --  though she remained infatuated with joffrey, largely overlooking his violent mood swings, still dreaming about becoming his wife; and queen, now that robert baratheon had died and joffrey sat on the iron throne. it all changed when her father was announced a traitor, and imprisoned on behalf of the queen. she was forced to publicly call him a traitor, and plead mercy for his life in front of the throne. sansa attended the execution with hope in her heart, as the king had promised to allow ned to join the night’s watch instead. however, she had to helplessly watch as they killed him in front of a cheering crowd  --  death was joffrey’s way of showing mercy. sansa was forced to stay in king’s landing, more a hostage than a bride-to-be, even though she was still to marry the king. she was appalled by that thought, but she knew that she couldn’t do a thing without risking her own life. yet, when joffrey forced her to look up at her father’s head on a stick, she briefly considered pushing him to his death  --  she was stopped by his hound, sandor clegane, though.

while being a hostage in the red keep, to keep her family from attacking the lannisters, sansa armored herself in her lady’s courtesies. she was forced to denounce her entire family as traitors, and had to write several letters, pleading them to make peace. she didn’t mean a word of it, in fact, she hoped that her brother would come and rescue her, handing her the head of joffrey. she always did how she was bid, though, not wanting to put any more attention on her., especially because the king kept regularly abusing her, as a punishment for her family’s ‘crimes’, as well as for his own pleasures. after saving ser dantos from his certain death, the drunk knight promised to help her. sansa didn’t particularly trust him, but the prospect of getting out of king’s landing got her hopes up nevertheless. joffrey’s abuse stopped when his uncle, tyrion, arrived at the capitol to take his place next to the king, as his new hand. the dwarf swore to protect her against his horrid nephew, a fact sansa was utterly thankful for. another man she grew to be grateful for was sandor, who, even though he spoke in harsh words and had a hideous demeanor, always treated her kindly, protected her, and had always refused to beat her. it was also sandor who came to her rescue when sansa had been separated from the royal party after saying farewell to myrcella, and instead had been head-deep in a riot. she came out wounded, but alive and untouched, all thanks too sandor. after the battle of the blackwater, which she had spent in safety but also terribly close to cersei lannister, she returned to her chambers only to find him drunk, and waiting for her. he offered to take her with him, as he would be fleeing from the city and the lannisters now; yet sansa refused. after the victory, her betrothal to joffrey came to an end, as he was now promised to margaery tyrell. however, she was still forced to stay at king’s landing, and the king kept mentally abusing her. ser dontos, to whom she still had contact, gifted her a rather stunning hairnet for the king’s wedding, as a sign that he was still trying to help her.

over time, sansa started regretting that she hadn’t accepted sandor’s offer. she was sure she would’ve been safer at his side than she was now. however, she eventually started to develop a close relationship to joffrey’s new fiancée, margaery; eventually confessing that the king was a monster. the tyrell women raised the possibility of her marrying the heir of highgarden, willas, who was crippled but kind and intelligent. it was something sansa didn’t have to think long about, she agreed eagerly  --  all she wanted was to be freed of the lannisters. when she shared these new plans with dontos, he didn’t seem very pleased. furthermore, he shared the information with petyr baelish, who then informed tywin lannister  --  who promply married sansa to his own son, the dwarf, against the wishes of both parties. sansa remained courteous despite her disgust and unhappiness, remembering that tyrion had always been friendly to her. much to her relief, he didn’t require the consummation of their marriage either. shortly after, sansa got informed about the deaths of her mother and brother, leaving her a sobbing mess and utterly broken.

subverse:  sansa, who was still wary of dontos, didn’t share the tyrell’s plans with him; which is why tywin had no fear of losing his valuable hostage, and didn’t come up with a cruel plan to bind her to his family. when words of sansa supposedly marrying the heir of highgarden eventually reached his ears, it was all too late   --  sansa had already left king’s landing  in a cloak-and-dagger operation. she wed willas tyrell soon after she arrived at highgarden, as both parties feared that the lannisters would find a way to prevent it. this time, the marriage was consumated. time passed by; time in which the two got to know each other  --  and started to actually fall in love with the other one.

attending the king’s wedding at tyrion’s side, sansa was able to watch joffrey choking to death with shock, and a bit of satisfaction. she used the turmoil around the dead king to flee, following dontos to blackwater bay, where she was greeted by littlefinger, who revealed that he was the one who wanted to bring her to safety, and who had given her the hairnet  --  the very hairnet which had been used as poison, to kill joffrey. he then proceeded to kill dantos, so that no words of sansa’s destination would reach the lannisters. petyr took her with him to his tower at the fingers of the vale, where her aunt lysa was already awaiting them, and who promplty married petyr. her aunt assured her that she would help her, and protect her  --  as long as sansa would eventually marry her sickly son, robert. she hesitantly agreed, knowing fully well that she had no other choice. from then one, she was known as alayne stone, bastard daughter to petyr baelish. she even dyed her hair a darker color before starting to live at the eyrie, as to hide her most obvious tully feature. for a while, life at the eyrie was rather peaceful.  (  except for marillon, the bard, trying to rape her.  )  alayne was able to rest, and enjoy the fresh snow  --  yet she also had to take care of robert, comforting him rather often because of his shaking sickness. she was disgusted by it, but she was still very gentle with the boy. however, one day, alayne was surprisingly and against her will, kissed by petyr, which lysa saw. her aunt accused her of trying to seduce her husband, and threatened to push her out of the moon door  --  but instead, it was petyr who pushed her through.

when they were questioned about lysa’s death by the keeper of the gate, alayne lied, telling him that marillon had pushed her to her death. she put up such a convincing show, that everyone believed her without a single doubt. now, she was the de facto lady of the eyrie, comforting sweetrobin while being tutored by petyr in some of the finer points of courtly intrigue. alayne was soon able to look through most of petyr’s intrigues herself, but so far, she kept staying at his side, supporting his plans. when they left the eyrie to head to the gates of moon, because of the onset of winter, she learned his true intentions: he had made plans for her to marry the heir of the vale, so that she would eventually reveal her true identity and reclaim winterfell.

❛  𝔀𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓲𝓼 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓰.    ( season 5ish - 8ish )

when alayne heard of jon snow’s plans to retake winterfell from ramsay bolton and to free their sister arya from his tyranny, she tried to convince petyr to send him their armies. after he denied her pleading, she decided to took it into her own hands; revealing her true identity to the lords of the vale. sansa also told them that it was petyr who had killed her aunt, that he had done it for greed as he had wanted to reign over the vale himself, and that he had forced her to lie for him, as well as call him father while staying quiet whenever he wanted to kiss her. with such a story, the lords had no other choice than to condone her lies; and to put petyr at trial. he had small chances, and in the end, he lost his head. after sansa was assured loyalty, she joined her forces with jon’s, thus helping him to retake winterfell.

subverse:  instead of going to the gates of the moon, petyr brings alayne to winterfell, wanting her to retake her actual name and marry ramsay bolton. sansa is appalled by this possibility, but she had no other choice than to agree. even though ramsay seemed courteous at first, sansa was soon able to see through his masquerade. while at winterfell, she met theon again, who had suffered at her betrothed’s hands more than anyone else  --  and she also met abel, a bard; however, after having spent some time with the man, she started to look through the facade. it was easy for her to see that he was no true bard, but she couldn’t figure out who he really was. soon, people started dying unexpectedly at winterfell, causing tension between house bolton and the other northeners at the castle. when little walder frey is found murdered the night before their wedding, the tension reached its high  -- sansa was taking her chance of trying to escape with the help of abel; and theon, as he and sansa both had grown up within these walls, and knew them better than anyone. after jumping into freedom, they were getting hunted by ramsay’s men  --  but brienne, a lady-knight sansa had met during her travels to winterfell, and her squire appeared just in time to save them. barely having escaped death, sansa seeked help at castle black, reuniting with her half-brother jon snow. after he listened to her experience, he was even more convinced that he had to go to war against the boltons. using petyr, sansa was able to join the forces of the vale with jon’s army, resulting in him winning back winterfell. the same day, she watched ramsay getting eaten alive by his own dog, smiling at the scene in front of her, satisfied that the man who had abused her was getting killed in such ways. later she, along with her returned sister arya, plotted to get petyr killed as well.

after successfully retaking winterfell  (  and freeing jeyne poole; it had turned out that it had not been the real arya, but sansa’s old childhood friend.  )  and thus reclaiming the north, the northerners unanimously proclaimed jon as their king  --  and oh, how happy sansa was for him! she knew of the love their people had for him, and she knew how capable of leading jon was; even if he mostly didn’t want to do it. she did fear for him though, as kings and queens seemed to die like flies; and if there was one thing sansa wouldn’t be able to handle, it would be jon’s death. sitting at his side as his advisor, making sure that he wouldn’t repeat past mistakes, sansa supported his reign the best she could, as he was a just and good ruler. at the rare occasions that she didn’t agree with his opinions, she questioned him in private, giving him a chance to explain his reasons. in return, jon always made sure to listen to her carefully  --  as she clearly had the most experience with families such as the lannisters.

when jon received a letter from tyrion lannister, hand of daenerys targaryen, sansa advised him to be careful, reminding him of the last targaryen who sat on the iron throne. having heard many varying stories about that new dragon queen, she was rather suspicious of her, and didn’t want her brother to walk into a trap. however, she supported his decision to meet daenerys, as they badly needed an alliance and the dragonglass for their fight against the wights  (  which she had known nothing about, until jon had told her. that alone showed the absolute need for a strong alliance.  )

jon had given her control of the north during his absence, and sansa made sure to use her powers to prepare for the winter and war to come, meaning she tried to stock up on food and invent a warmer kind of armor for their men. it was also during that time that her siblings, bran and arya, returned to winterfell. sansa immediately offered the north to bran, as he was the last remaining male stark, but he refused, explaining that he was the three-eyed raven now. still, she kept both of them close to her, only making decisions about their mutual future after advising with them before.

when jon returned to winterfell with daenerys by his side, she greeted the queen with a certain wary, but also with warmth. she knew that jon wouldn’t have allowed her in the north if he hadn’t put his faith in her, and so she was willing to make an effort for his sake. in the beginning, she was displeased that he had bent the knee and given up the crown, but after she had listened to his reasoning as well as found out about her saving him from his clear death, she later openly supported his decision when he announced it in the great hall. she also sent out letters to the house wanting to abandon jon, reminding them that a crown meant nothing when they were about to face death himself. wanting to make her own mind about the dragon queen, sansa made sure to talk to her followers, knowing that these people would be the only ones who could tell her the actual truth. it was safe to say that sansa was pleasantly surprised, and relieved that there were no signs of madness within this targaryen queen. she eventually developed a friendship with daenerys, helping her to find her way around winterfell, introducing her to the most important people at the castle, including her in little silly talks and dinners; simply making sure that wouldn’t feel alone in the north.

subverse:  instead of jon, the northerners chose sansa as their queen.  when tyrion wrote to her in the name of daenerys targaryen, she trusted his words in regards to their past. though she did send jon to meet the dragon queen instead of going herself, as she did not want to leave the north. he brought her back with him to winterfell, after having convinced her of the importance of fighting against the night king instead of fighting for the iron throne. they joined their forces, and sansa was happy for their alliance, but she would not give up her crown for it  --  she knew she’d lose most of the north if she did. however, daenerys allowed her to keep it; after seeing the wights with her own two eyes, she had come to the conclusion that reigning over six kingdoms would be better than reigning over corpses and ashes.  

given the fact that tyrion was hand of the queen, and technically still her husband, she eventually came to terms with him. after all, he had always been kind to her, and he did seem to be a special kind of lannister. though, she immediately looked through cersei’s ‘offer’, calling him out for believing that she would actually help him. she also met sandor again, who came to the castle shortly before the battle began. the years had changed both of them, she was not a little bird anymore, and he seemed less pleased by murdering people.

during the battle of winterfell, she hid in the crypts along with tyrion and everyone else who wasn’t able to fight. when the wights climbed out of her ancestors’ graves, sansa used the blade she had received from arya to defend the helpless. she survived the battle with only minor injuries.

❛  𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓯 𝓼𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰.    ( post battle of winterfell )

after the battle, sansa attended the war council in preparation for the war against cersei, and advised them to give their forces some time to rest, and grieve,  before sending them into yet another battle, to which daenerys agreed. in the time passing, they were treating the wounded, burned the fallen, rebuilt winterfell, and made sure their army would regain their strength. eventually, the remaining forces of daenerys and the north were stationed in front of king’s landing, with the greyjoy ships waiting on the blackwater. attending the exchange of words between tyrion and cersei, sansa soon realized that the latter had lost all common sense. she was also part of the last war council before the battle, advising daenerys that even though cersei would not back down, the population of king’s landing would give up their city  --  and reminding everyone of the common hatred against the lannister queen, who had blown up her own city with wildfire.

sansa remained on dragonstone during the battle, but every word she had spoken turned out to be true. after daenerys had destroyed the weapons made to kill her dragons, as well as burned the iron fleet  (  while yara was successfully killing her uncle  ),  the population screamed to ring the bells. the lannister armies, soon realizing that they couldn’t possibly survive the attack of such an army as well as two dragons, were happy to follow their demand. when the balls rang, daenerys accepted the surrender.  and when sansa stepped into the throne room again, after all these years, she found cersei’s corpse laying in front of it  --  killed by arya stark. she only smiled; sansa had known about her sister’s list, and also about her finding a way inside king’s landing to murder the queen.

with daenerys targaryen sitting on the iron throne, the realm was finally at peace. furthermore, the new queen allowed the iron islands to crown yara as their queen and thus becoming an own kingdom, for the support in her wars. she also granted the north their independence, knowing that none of them would be sitting here if it hadn’t been for the north defending the realm from the wights.though jon was tired of ruling, resulting in the northerners choosing sansa as their queen.

and so the three queens ruled, and the realm thrived.