Chapter 15

She felt heavy like her body what not quite her own. It felt like an afterthought. She felt the weight in every limb. She new moving would not be a good idea. How long had she been like this?

It was only when she realized the nightmare were not real that she knew she was not conscious. She had spent days in the warm sun with her mother and father and brothers- even Sansa. She had spent nights in the smithy watching Gendry make the most amazing things and see him smile at her silliness. But it was not real. Laced in the sweet dreams were a sickly mocking. It were as if it was a play. From there the dreams distorted.

She was running in a constantly changing place through forests, holdfast walls that were barely lit and fires that rained sharp glass. Even in the dream her body was not her own but a loosely fitting dress. She felt hands on her grabbing her, restraining her. She remembered instances were her mother's embrace turned into the grasp of a rotted corpse clawing at her skin. She watched lemon cakes turn to piles of horseshit. Horrifying image after image. Then nothing

No dreams. No thoughts. Just a blank hollowness. It was as if something was taken from her and she just couldn't find it. She tried to remember but the memory that wouldn't come forth. Finally she gave up and lay her body down as one for dead should.

A smell came . One long since lost to the faceless girl, to Arry, Nan, Beth, or Cat. It was one that belonged to Arya Stark of Winterfell. The smell was pungent with dirt, cedar, blood and sweat. The smell was something untamable, something that could not be tamed by any man or god. She knew what it was. It was the woods she ran in where she set little snares that could never catch. It was the halls of an ancient home barely lit. It was her face nestled in fur that carried this smell. It was a direwolf.

That single thought brought out two yellow eyes she knowing and reserved and then she was in the forest. The ground shaping to her four feet. The wind caressing her. She was a wolf the taste of iron in her mouth. She knew where she was in the Forest just outside the walled of Kings landing.

"Arya"

Like a strange blur she remembered fire. It was enough to hinder her substituting weapon halt on the queen's throat, enough to make her look to the door as it opened birthing out many men, most she had never seen. The one with white hair and violet eyes at the front. Staring. He could see she was a wolf and he knew the volatile nature of her. There was physical tension. Would they let her do what she wanted to do. Or would they be next?

"Arya!"

He pushed past them all. Looking lost until he found her. He shook her, yelling something she doesn't understand. He pulled her off the queen. She doesn't know why. She bites at his arm feebly but gives up. There's too much blood in her face and her body feels drunk.

It still feels drunk but now she can feel the soft linen sheets beneath her. She can hear the slow breathing of someone in the room. Opening her eyes she sees the canopy above her in crimson. Lannister colours. No! Her hands went to her head. She felt the bandages and her heart quickened.

Arya went to lift herself on the bed and reach for the cup of water but brought her head back to the pillow and groaned.

"Ayra."

She reacted to the voice and saw him but remembered. She quickly looked down. The new knowledge still felt raw. She didn't want to she her in him.

She could hear him rise from the chair he was sitting in through the buzzing in her head. She could hear the stiffness in his body and knew she must have sat there the entire time.

He put the cup of water in her hands and she nodded a sort of thanks. When she didn't say anything he moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

"You've been asleep for days.".

"How's Anguy?" That wasn't what she was supposed to ask. They both knew it.

"Managing."

She couldn't think of anything to say. She just wanted to stop thinking and knowing. She didn't know if he was supposed to know either.

"Arya."

His hand was on her lap, squeezing gently.

"What happened?" she whispered. She watched his hand tense and release.

A hand came under her chin and lifted it until her face met with his. She shut her eyes instantly. She knew she was being stupid. When she felt the fear and unsureness of him she broke and looked into blue eyes under a concerned brow.

He was still Gendry.

She felt dumb for ever thinking Cersei could change him.

Arya threw her arms around him, tightly, hard. She needed something solid to ground to the earth and he was it. He was proof that she wasn't dreaming. He was hers despite whatever the queen could say.

He returned the hug, smoothing her hair. She let go to look at him again. It was all over.

"Gendry, what's happened?"

He was hesitated before answer gauging whether she should hear his words or not. He looked to the door when there was a knock and then to her.

"I was suppose to … the queen will be wanting to see you now that you're up."

Her heart dropped.

Gendry looked at her and realized.

"The new queen."

He left her only after he made sure she ate something. A piece of bread she all but inhaled. How long had she been asleep?

She wasn't alone for long though for as soon as he left her, the door didn't even shut and a new person entered.

"Lady Alla."

Alla smiled at her looking at her and trying not to look at the bandage running along her forehead.

She looked better than she had in the black cells. Her hair was once again lush and shiny blond. She had the same worried look as Gendry and Arya wondered just how strange she had acted that night.

As if remembering herself, Alla let herself smile and took the space on the bed previously occupied by Gendry.

They were silent each wondering what to say to the other. So far Arya had only lied to the girl who claimed to be her friend. It was rather a big lie actually. She wasn't sure the truth was any better.

"That man hadn't left your side at all." Alla finally said. When Arya looked at her she saw that familiar mischievous smile.

Arya smiled back at her.

"Are you alright?"

Alla tilted her head a bit and looked up to the cut on her forehead and laughed.

"Much better than you I suppose."

"Alla what's happened? The queen-"

"She's dead."

She waited for Alla to continue. Alla took a breath as she thought of where would be best to start.

"We wandered about a bit wondering where would be safest. Harrys led us through the servants' kitchens and we hid in the bath house so we never saw them or her."

"Her?"

"The queen. Daenerys. She had been hiding outside the castle walls bringing allies from across the seas as well as from Dorne."

Her head was throbbing. She didn't understand what Alla was saying. How much had she missed. This silly girl didn't realize that a new queen could be just as bad as the last- this new queen's whole family had been annihilated by the previous rulers. If anything she would want blood.

Her blood? Now that her identity had been compromised Arya would most likely face trial for her discretions. There would probably be many to see her shame. Politically there was nothing she could do. She had never focused on these tiny details. She could run. Leave now. Her training had made this possible. Were there guards outside her window? She could hide in her closet and then ambush them. She could run and never look back. It sounded so pleasing. Her reputation had never been good, by running she would just being throwing mud on mud.

But there would be mud on House Stark. If she ran she would be seen as a coward, if she was the last of house then her brothers, sister, mother and father would all be cowards. Her uncle and grandfather had been the last Starks to be summoned by a Targaryen ruler.

She turned before speaking.

"The Queen. She wants to speak with me? When?"

"Immediately."

Arya bit her lip and nodded.

"Then I will speak with her now."

When she was certain she had no fear on her face she turned to look at her newest friend.

"Well let us at least get you out of your night dress."

Arya walked flanked by the two men from outside her room, to the King's hall. It was ridiculous for her to try to escape, especially in the stupidly useless dress Alla had put her in. Unconsciously she fussed with the collar, which sat uncomfortably on her collar bone.

The hall was dark and she wondered what time it was. She was curious when they walked passed two men in horse leathers. One of the men looked at her with a smugness that wouldn't go unchallenged. Since she was already dead she stared him down. He smiled as her response before walking over.

"Is she still awake?" He guard asked the strangely dressed man.

He nodded and motioned for them to wait as he went through the heavy doors to the iron throne. A few minutes later she was allowed in.

The room was filled with more men in leathers and hides as well as some women. The smell was overbearingly of people, sweat and horses. Not the heavy incense of a ruler. At the end of the hall in the throne sat a small woman with striking white hair, she was staring directly at Arya as if she were an unexpected difficulty. She lower her head allowing the smirk to run its course across her face. Starks didn't smirk, they were ice. Ice felt nothing and so she would just be. Her face neutral the entire time. Her time to be faceless and nameless were gone.

"Lady Stark."

"Your… Majesty" She bowed.

"Rise." The new young queen got up from her new seat and walked down a step closer to Arya. Arya steeled herself,this was her trial. Of course she was rather confused and worried by the new queen's words.

"Thank-you."

It took her a while to realize the word were for her and not the two guards that seemed much less intimidating now.

"Your pardon?"

Daenerys smiled at her, taking in Arya's confusion.

" Your work inside the castle and your performance out in the square all contributed to our overall planning and entrance into the city."

"How did…" Arya started to ask until she noticed another person in the great hall. Varys. Had he hired her for the dragon queen? It made sense; he had allegiances over seas and it was where he had found her after all. He probably knew she was training to be a faceless man the entire time watching her cling to her hatred of the Lannisters and using it to bring her back to Westeros. She looked at the Spider and he was smiling with a knowing look- he had always known and always watched, perhaps, since the death of her father. The amount of knowledge this man possessed was truly terrifying. She unintentionally wandered if this new queen Daenerys was too a pawn of his?

"Is there any way the realm can thank you and your kin?" Daenerys asked, breaking Arya's train of thought, but like rain the words sank into her. She felt her throat go dry.

"My kin?" It was too good to hope that they had survived and yet this queen spoke of them she wondered which of them were left.

Daenerys seemed to understand and her look from conqueror softened to one of a mother though she was not much older than Arya.

"Yes your sisters is the lady of the Vale, and your youngest brother is now lord of Winterfell."

"Is that all of my kin?" There were so many left unnamed though she had expected as much. She looked down at her slippered feet. They weren't hers but neither was the dress, she felt like another person trying to be someone else. She wanted to be Arya, the person she was supposed to be and the person she was expected to be but she couldn't find her through all the Nans, Beths, squabs, Arry's, Vionnyas. She tried them all on and through them away so that all she was left with was facelessness, an incomplete girl at best. She wasn't wearing a mask but it still felt feigned. Meeting with her family she was they would see a stranger. She couldn't be the girl she once was.

"Your other brother chose to stay at the Wall, Lord Comander Snow. He spoke of you once." Daenerys said.

Arya looked up with real surprise. Snow? No he was Jon. Her Jon, her brother. Just thinking his names felt like warm arms around her fragile frames, like something unbreakable, latching her to this persona. She nodded not sure how to speak. It felt like a dream, lingering on only a string of reality that could at any moment fall and she would wake up to a harsher place. It felt her feeling exhausted, the weight of the past six years finally falling on her.

"What is going to happen now…with the realm?"

The man, Ser Jorah, whom she had met before answered rather than the queen.

"Your sister will rule in the Vale along with her Lord. Your brother rules the North, though he continues to remind us that the North is its own realm within the realm."

She felt a smile on her face, thinking of a fiery younger brother.

"And what of the Lannisters?" Arya felt the heavy words. She wanted revenge still. It still hurt and she still wanted them to pay.

"Ser Jaime shall face execution for regicide and Casterly Rock will belong to Lord Tyrion."

"Wouldn't it go to Tommen." Or Gendry perhaps? What would happen to him, the true heir of the seven kingdoms? They would probably banish him or send him to the Wall.

"Lady Stark, sometimes the truth bring nothing but trouble. Since the boy is not at fault why should we curse him for the sins of his parents."

It was Varys who spoke, his eyes boring into her. She realized he knew that she was not just talking about Tommen. He knew of all of Cersei's children.

He continued.

"I might interest you to know that your companion, Gendry has received the Queen's permission to be legitimized. Making him the heir to the Stormlands."

This should have made her pleased. She knew how it would make Gendry feel to be legitimized. She could see herself teasing him about it already but she still felt hollow. She couldn't be satisfied with this.

Maybe that's what like was- that void of something. Perhaps for those who once had everything and now had nothing there would never be that sameness or satisfaction. Nothing could bring back her family and the avenging of them now felt like just a distraction from the pain that could only come from looking back at the past where everything was more beautiful.

The queen walked down to her until they were face to face. Daenerys took her hands in her own, ignoring Arya's flinching response.

"Thank-you for all you done. We can now move on"

Arya left the throne room feeling worn and even more confused. She had been too foolish in thinking that simply killing her enemies would heal her. Grasping something that had falling into fast moving water. Seeing, what you want in the rippling water but still not finding it no matter how deep you plunge your hand into the water and still risk being pulled under. Somewhere inside, she felt a chill at the prospect she might never find it. She would always ache. She needed to fill it up with something more substantial.

As she rounded the corner of the newly captured safehold- or newly reclaimed, depending on how you chose to see it- she saw the Bull, he was leaning against the wall with his brow furrowed from over thinking. When her steps halted he looked up. Like always she saw him search for words but she knew they would never be what he would say to her. She would have to fight for those words.

She began walking with her blacksmith beside her. She fit into his shadow as the sun began to rise.

"So what happened?" He opted to ask.

"Nothing. They just wanted to thank me and send me on my way." She stated. Letting the silence interrupt the brief conversation so that both could get lost in their thoughts. She was now Arya. Word would spread that Ned Stark's wayward daughter had returned and she would have to return to the life she had once try to so desperately to escape.

She reached out and grabbed his hand, bridging the distance between them. It felt nice, right.

"So…what will you do now?"

She really wasn't expecting him to talk but she wondered if these were the words he had tried to say earlier.

If she were to gage by his face, how his eyes were avoiding her , she was sure she was close to finding the words he was trying to hard to hide.

"I don't know. I guess I have to become a lady, help rebuild Winterfell. I want to see my brothers." Say goodbye to the dead and embrace the living.

Gendry nodded but said nothing. From the corner of her eye she saw his jaw tense.

"Well if you wait until after I am legitimized, I can ride with you as a lord."

"Even if you were a lord you couldn't keep up with me on horseback." She laughed.

"Still you'll be needing some escorts."

"Have you even been to the North before?"

He frowned at that.

"You will need to lead me I suppose."

"And why would a southern boy like you be wanting to go to Winterfell?" She couldn't help but tease him and watching him get flustered was just too much fun. The smugness she got from it was impossible to hide.

"Did you ever think that they might try and marry you off to some fat old lord, since you're at the marrying age."

Her smile fell. She stopped. She had been trying to ignore that horrible little fact.

"That can not happen." She stated adamantly, her fists in tight holds. Gendry stopped walking too and turned to face her.

"Well it might."

Well he had a point. She wondered briefly how long it would take her to get a ship and disappear and then realized that with was out of the question. Her future would most likely be married to some fat old man and a bunch of fat children.

"Arya. Have you ever been to the Stormlands?"

The question caught her off guard, but was a fortunate distraction the path her mind had been wandering.

"What? No…Why?"

Gendry shrugged.

"I heard there nice is all. The queen said that she'd be willing to give them to me based on what Ser Jorah and the spider said- since I'll be a Baratheon soon enough."

She started to feel worried at where this conversation was going.

"Race with me to the stables Gendry." She sputtered already beginning to go from a walk to a run, her slippers slapping the ground hard. And she tried no to think of how silly she looked running to the stables in a night gown and slippers like a lunatic.

"Arya."

She halted. He never spoke to her with authority unless he had to. He was probably saving her from being seen by anyone, though, the halls were still, graciously, empty. Sighing in resignation, she turned to look at him. See how made she had made him.

He walked the distance between them and stopped perhaps seven steps short.

"Arya. I only want to be a lord if I can be with you. That's what I told them. They asked what I wanted and I told them."

She didn't know what to say. Those were the words he had been hiding, she could see it on his face. He was waiting on her response now. Everything about his face told her that her next words would have to be well thought out.

She licked her lips, pulling out a smile that was truly genuine. She stepped forward.

"I won't be calling you My lord, will I?"

"Well can I be calling you milady?"

Gendry took a step forward, nearly to her. His eyes on her like they had always been. She wanted to laugh at how nice he made it sound.

"What a joke we will be." She sang. Her arms reached up to meet around his neck and he arched himself to give her a better hold.

"Perhaps they'll write a song about us?" He mused as he brought his lips dangerously close to hers. But anyone who knew the long lost Stark girl, knew that she lived for danger so it was no surprise that she eagerly greeted him with her own lips in a kiss that would be one of many shared between the unexpected stag and his unpredictable wolf.

As the realm slowly put itself together again with the guidance of its new Queen, lords and ladies, Westeros made its way towards healing. The children who had survived the wars and curses of their fore-bearers began to rebuild. Celebrating peace but never letting the past consequences of battle escape them.

A/N:

Ugh. This was too hard! The ending was not quite what I had originally planned. But it's done and i would like to thank all you readers who have read this since March, so many times I wanted to abandon it but your kinds words and input were so pivotal to this! But we did it! I'm scared to look back at this.

If you found yourself liking this story, perhaps you might like reading my Gendrya AU, "The Winter's Thief" :)

IMPORTANT: I am currently looking for betas, for this story, the story mentioned above and my Arya/Aegon story "A Marriage Bed of Ice andFire". If any of this interests you please message me :)

Thank-you.