The Rebirth of the Dragons - Chapter 16

AN: Hey Guys.

Another Lyanna chapter, this one deals with some of what was said in the last one, as well as some issues that were brewing in the background for a long time.

Hope you guys enjoy this one.

Chapter 16

Lyanna Stark. 291AC

Lyanna saw Winterfell in the horizon and smiled, she was finally home again after so long. She hadn't seen her birthplace since she was a little girl, now she was a woman with a little girl of her own, even if she was only visiting for a small time, even if she was disguised as a servant for her goodsister, she still felt happy to be back in The North.

It took a lot of preparation and a lot of misinformation for her to be able to visit Winterfell again, Varys spent months working on her identity, creating a trail for her in case the likes of Tywin Lannister or Olenna Tyrell got suspicious of her identity, even if they didn't had that many spies in The North, information would still reach them about a woman with blonde hair and grey eyes traveling with Benjen Stark. Lyanna actually spent the last few moons as a handmaiden for Helaena to better cover her tracks, it took her away from her work as a mistress of whisperers for the Targaryens but the queen understood her desire to visit her homeland again and gave her blessing.

Not that her network was that fragile that her leaving for a few moons would make it crumble away, it could mostly run itself at the moment. Varys had a lot of power with his 'little birds' but Lyanna was just as powerful these days with her own network, even if she preferred to use adults instead of children. Her network consisted mostly of inn keepers and 'ladies of pleasure' with a few ship captains added in, it was incredible how much information men give away when they are drunk or after a good fuck. Her best asset was Mellario, the daughter of dusk, one of the courtesans of Braavos, the men that usually hired her were powerful and wealthy, even if they had no holdings on westeros they could still give good information away. Not to mention the other benefits of having a close relationship with a courtesan; Lyanna had certainly made plenty of use of her talents while they were having 'business meetings'.

It wasn't a romantic relationship, they were only taking pleasure in each other. Lyanna didn't believe she could have a relationship anymore, she could make another mistake like she did with Rhaegar; she wouldn't be the cause of another war, she couldn't condemn thousands to die just to sate her own desires, she would never be that foolish girl again.

She looked to the side at the only good that came from her mistake, her little Visenya. She was seven now and growing into a beautiful girl with her silvery hair and grey eyes. Her own cover story was as a niece of Helaena, Shaera, one of the daughters of Daeron, they looked similar enough to sell the lie, Shaera even had grayish blue eyes instead of the lilac of her family.

Visenya was looking around in wonder at everything around her, Winterfell in the distance, large and imposing as ever, the light dusting on the ground from the winter snow of the night before, everything was new to her daughter that had only seen Braavos and the andal highlands. A child of Stark blood that only knew the heat of Dorne where she was born and the heat of northern Essos, Lyanna smiled imagining the kings of winter rising from their tombs to lecture her on giving birth and living with her daughter so far away from the north, a Stark child that didn't knew snow must be some type of blasphemy to them.

Benjen looked calm as he rode side by side with his wife, the years of battle at the head of his sellsword company and more importantly the love of his wife for him had changed her brother into a man from the boy he was, a man that Lyanna was extremely proud of. He seems to have lost much of the self doubt and melancholy of his past, he now moved with confidence and sure of his path, he also seems to have finally made peace with the death of Brandon and their father, not that Lyanna could say anything since she still hadn't, but unlike Ben, the death of their brother and father was her fault.

Helaena also looked calm like she always was, her goodsister was probably her best friend at the moment, they were of the same age and liked many of the same things, which include teasing Ben about how he must have some Targaryen blood since he looked for a Targaryen version of his sister to marry. She was someone that Lyanna could share many of her doubts and worries and Helaena would do the same to her, usually while they practiced the sword and pretended to not see Rhaenys watching them, that girl was so obsessed with swords and spears that she must be sleeping hugging one right now. Although with her dornish blood and with how much her cousins are corrupting the little girl it wouldn't be long before she was playing with a different kind of sword, probably Maekar's.

Lyanna looked at the horizon again, seeing Winterfell and remembering better times in her childhood, when she could run around the keep playing pranks on Brandon and Ned, when she would ride her horse trough these very same grounds that she was riding now, even the soft smile of her mother which was the only thing she could remember, she was young when her mother died.

It looked like much had changed since those days, she knew Ned and Ashara were working hard to improve The North and it was clearly showing with how much difference she could see, the road was better than she had ever seen, there were more farms, the smallfolk had more animals and even from this distance she could see that Winter town was larger and more active than ever. She had some reports from her many agents in the inns, taverns and brothels all over The North about how much had changed in the last few years, but seeing with her own eyes was a different story. Even when they landed in on White harbor things already seemed different, the city was booming with trade and there were much more children on the streets, sometimes it seemed there were even more children than there were adults. She waited to see if the rest of The North was the same way, not thrusting White harbor to be a true depiction of her homeland, it had always been the largest city in The North and much more prosperous than any other place north of the neck, but it was quite quick to see that it wasn't only the trade city that was prospering, everywhere they passed seemed more alive.

She should have known things were going well for her homeland based on the reports she had from how much trade was going on between Braavos and White harbor, it wasn't something that was important to the Targaryens but her network brought much more information to her than she needed, especially in Braavos, were it was at its largest. Howland and Ashara couldn't help her expand her network much more in The North while keeping her cover, it was already dangerous to use her alter ego of Sara Snow, a northern woman working for the Targaryens would always draw attention and Varys already had to cover her tracks once when Olenna Tyrell started to get curious about her.

She looked at the faces of the smallfolk when they entered Winter town, everyone seemed happy and hopeful, they seemed healthier and more full of life, children were playing of the streets and there weren't any of the many shady characters around like it used to be in her childhood, she was happy that her home seemed so prosperous and was even happier for Ned and Ashara for achieving so much.

They were stopped at the gates of Winterfell before the guards realized that her brother was at the head of their group and opened the gates, riding into Winterfell again almost brought a tear to her eye, she was finally home again.

Riding into the courtyard and dismounting her horse she looked to the side and saw Ned and his family waiting for them, her brother looked as strong as ever, but there was a softness to his face that didn't exist before, Ned was always known for having a serious face and an even more serious attitude, but he now seemed much more free and even had a few lines on his face that told he laughed a lot, no doubt the work of Ashara. Speaking of her goodsister, she was even more beautiful than before, if that was possible, her violet eyes, so similar but at the same time so different from the Targaryens, still had that same glow and inner light that they had all those years ago in Starfall. Her nephews and nieces were also there and they looked like a perfect mix of Ned and Ashara, little Bran almost caused Lyanna to think she had traveled back in time with how much he looked like Ned, the only difference was his violet eyes, the twins couldn't be more different from each other, Sansa looked like a little Ashara while Arya looked much like Lyanna did at her own age, only with her mother's black hair instead of the Stark dark brown, Edwyle was a cute little four namedays old boy with brown hair and violet eyes, and maybe Lyanna was wrong but it looked like Ashara might be bringing another Stark into the world in a few moons.

Benjen was the first to reach Ned hugging their brother with a strength that showed how much they missed each other, while Benjen started going down the line, greeting Ashara and the children her eyes crossed with Ned's nut they quickly looked elsewhere, it wasn't the moment for their reunion yet; Helaena moved forward and gave Ned a short bow, once they exchanged greetings she signaled for Lyanna to move forward and she did so, Visenya following her.

"And this is my niece, Shaera, and my handmaiden Jeyne." Helaena said, pointing at Visenya and then at her.

Lyanna bowed to her brother deeply as a servant would, selling the lie as much as possible.

"Since uncle Benjen is married to aunt Helaena does that make you my uncle as well?" Visenya asked causing Lyanna to smirk a little to hid her laughter; Visenya was a bright young girl and she knew she needed to lie right now, but there was only so much you could ask from a child, at least she didn't outright call Ned her uncle.

"I might as well be, so you can call me uncle Ned little one." Ned responded ruffling the hair of her daughter and causing the little girl to scowl, it was quite cute.

"I hope you find Winterfell to be accommodating Jeyne." Ned said looking at her, his eyes sparkling a little, she could almost see a tear starting to drop before Ned composed himself.

"You have a beautiful home Lord Stark." Lyanna responded bowing again as was expected from a servant.

Once the greetings were done Ned signaled for a few children behind him to walk forward while saying "Our youngest one, little Lyanna is not feeling well so she is with the wet nurse and the maester at the moment."

Lyanna almost gave away her secret when she almost cried, that was why Ned was hiding the name of his youngest daughter, he had named her after her. Her eyes still watered even if she didn't cry, she couldn't wait to meet her niece, to hold her in her hands and sing the same songs that her mother used to sing to her when she was young.

"And these are my other children. Bernar, Olyvar and Sara, the twins are Lonnel and Alys, then there is also Beron, Raya, Serena and Robyn." Ned said while pointing at each of the children all of them with the Stark look causing Lyanna's mouth to open involuntarily. She had heard the rumors that Ned and Ashara constantly brought other women to their bed but she never imagined that Ned had a bastard, much less nine of them.

"You've been busy brother." Ben said in a sarcastic tone causing Ashara and Helaena to laugh.

"I blame my wife." Ned responded in the same tone while kissing Ashara on the cheek.

"You are the only lord in westeros that can blame his wife for his baseborn children and still be right." Ashara responded without a hint of shame causing the others to laugh again. She then walked forward grabbing the children including those not from her and started walking towards the keep saying. "Come children, we have a feast waiting for us." for the loud cheer of the children.

Lyanna walked with her, shaking her head at her goodsister's antics.

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The moment the door to the solar closed Lyanna hugged her brother with all of her strength.

"Gods, i missed you so much Ned." She said, the tears that she had been holding in finally falling from her eyes.

"I missed you too Lya, it was painful spending that entire feast pretending you weren't there." Ned responded, his voice heavy with emotion.

Breaking the hug she turned to the side and hugged Ashara.

"It is good to see you again, sister."

"You as well, sister. I'm glad you are safe." Ashara responded.

"Let's sit and talk, we have much to catch up to." Ned said after she broke her hug with Ashara. "And you, little one, will seat with uncle Ned alright." He added ruffling Visenya's hair.

As they took their seats Lyanna looked around the solar, it was much different than the old days when this was her father's solar, it was filled with brighter colors and the desk had changed, she could also see a few of the books on the shelves were different, the biggest change was the other desk on the side of the larger one, the lilac and white silks on it, the colors of house Dayne marking it as Ashara's desk, as far as she knew something like that had never been done before, no other lady of Winterfell had ever had a desk at the Lord's solar.

While all the others sat at the chairs on the side of the room, near the fireplace, Lyanna stayed standing waiting for someone to comment so she could make her joke, it would be good to keep the mood going before they started talking about the heavy topics. She was rewarded when Ned looked at her and asked.

"Aren't you going to seat Lya?"

"I'm the handmaiden; I'm here to fetch the wine my lord." She responded with a smirk drawing a laugh out of everyone but Visenya.

"You are correct, fetch me my wine handmaiden." Helaena said in a teasing tone.

Lyanna laughed with the others, but she still fetched the wine pretending to be an overly eager servant all the time drawing more laughter out of her family. She served some wine to all but her daughter before she sat down on the last remaining chair.

"So, tell us what happened to you these last few years Lya." Ned said.

They spent hours talking about many different things, Lyanna told her family all about her life, how she started to sort out the letters and information Varys passed to the queen and how it evolved into her starting her own network of spies and agents and how she was now the unofficial mistress of whisperers of the Targaryens. She told them about the years she spent living in Braavos, about much of what she did in the city and how she met Mellario, one of her best friends and occasional lover. She talked about how she became a sort of surrogate mother for all of the children, how proud she was of all of them, of how Rhaenys and Maekar figured out how to hatch the dragon eggs and how Visenya and Daenerys follow Aegon everywhere he goes, causing her daughter to pout at her. She talked much more about the last two years, how it was living in the andal highlands, the problems she was having with the constant spies from the Lannisters and from some magister from Pentos called Illyrio Mopatis, an old friend of Varys who still refused to respond when the eunuch tried to contact him.

This was followed by Benjen talking about his work with his sellsword company, the major battle and few skirmishes he fought in the war against Tyrosh and the minor contracts that he accepted from Norvos and Qohor to fight against the dothraki. He talked about the camp near the new Targaryen manse in the andal highlands, were he trained thousands of men, preparing them for the wars to come. And he talked about the last year, as he spent most of it in Lys, working closely with Maegor and Daeron as they prepared the strategy for the war with Myr and possibly Pentos.

Neither Ned nor Ashara knew much about Helaena, having only briefly met her during her weeding to Benjen. So the silver haired woman talked about her childhood, how it was growing up in a city like Lys, in a family that refused to engage in the city's largest industry, that of pleasure slaves, she talked about her siblings, Daeron, Aelor and Rhaenyra, about her many nephews and nieces. She talked about the many men that tried to win her hand and how she put all of them on the dirt, with a sword on her hand, how the one she chose to marry was the one who gave her the most trouble, not that Benjen had ever defeated her in their many spars, which caused Benjen to suffer a lot of jokes and teasing. And she talked about the last year, how she hardly left Lys, she helped her father, brother and husband with the preparations for the upcoming war sometimes, but she mostly stayed with her mother, who was getting sick constantly.

Even Visenya talked a little about herself, the little girl didn't have much to say but she talked a lot, like children normally do, and to Lyanna her daughter appeared happier than ever as she told her family all about her days.

And finally, Ned and Ashara talked about the years since their wedding, how they worked to improve The North, introducing new ways to farm the land, improving the roads and building new ones, creating a new port on the western shore, repairing Moat Cailin, the repairs were still ongoing but the ancient fortress was in a better shape than it had been for the last hundreds of years, they talked about how Ned negotiated a trade treaty with the wildlings and since then the only raids on the north came from the cannibal tribes in the frozen shore, which really impressed Lyanna. They talked about their children, including Ned's nine baseborn ones, which caused a lot of laughter when Benjen pointed out that Brandon would be prouder of Ned for the number of children he had than how much he improved their homeland. They also talked a lot about the last few years, the ironborn rebellion, how Theon Greyjoy was supposed to come to Winterfell but when Asha Greyjoy was abducted by the Targaryens, which caused they all to chuckle, it was decided the boy was to go to King's Landing. Ned's recent trip beyond the wall was also a point of conversation, how he was able to point the increasing discontent wildling raiders towards the Ibennese whaling ships and how he was able to convince a couple of giants to settle south of the wall, he was now trying to convince them to work on his canal project to connect the fever and the white knife rivers.

It was around that point that Visenya started to get sleepy so Lyanna excused herself to put her daughter to bed, when she returned was when Ned decided to drop the heavy news on them.

"There is something else that happened in my trip beyond the wall; I met with the greenseer that told the free folk to settle in Hardhome again." Ned said once she sat down again.

Lyanna still found it hard to believe that a greenseer still existed, they were legends of old times like the giants and the children of the forest, the only thing she knew about them was the stories that Old Nan used to tell them when they were young, she never truly believed the stories but they were still quite fun. Sure, she knew that magic once was important both to her family and westeros as a whole, she knew that many of her ancestors were skinchangers and even a few were greenseers, but that was thousands of years ago, magic was dead now. But that was her thinking before Maekar and Rhaenys hatched the dragons, before she saw the Targaryens practicing their fire sorcery, her own daughter knew a little about the ancient valyrian arts, if that kind of magic still existed then the magic of her people, the magic of the first men could also still exist.

"And what did he tell you?" Lyanna asked, wanting to know what vague advice the greenseer had given her brother. It was always vague advice according to the stories that Old Nan used to tell.

"I don't know if you can believe it, but the greenseer was Bloodraven, and he was guarded by the earthsingers, the children of the forest." Ned said drawing shock from all but Ashara and exclamations of impossible from Benjen.

"I know i don't lie brother, not about something like this." Ned said to Benjen. "He was half tree, his body taken by the roots of the largest weirwood I have ever seen, he still had the one red eye he was known for, and he told me things that it was impossible to know if he wasn't actually a greenseer." Ned continued.

"Even if he was telling the true brother, why would you believe and follow the advice of a kinslayer, you know the reputation he has, and if he still alive then he is also an oath breaker, he was Lord Commander of the watch after all." Benjen said, a little anger in his voice.

"Because of what he said, Ben. Because of what Leaf, one of the earthsingers hinted at. The ancient enemy is stirring and it won't be long before they are ready to make war on the living again." Ned said and Lyanna felt a chill go down her spine.

She suddenly wanted to go back to her daughter, hold her little girl in her arms and make sure she was safe, that the terrors of the night wouldn't come and take her away. It brought a unnatural fear to her, a fear that was ancient, from the time when men were hunted in the night by the others, a fear so instinctive that it had never gone away, despite the thousands of years since the others were defeated.

"And what advice did he give you, Ned?" Lyanna asked, hoping that they had a plan, something that could defeat the terrors of the night.

"He told me to buy as much dragonglass as I can, that it is one of the few things that can actually harm them, make spears and arrowheads from the material; I've been buying as much as possible from dragonstone since I returned and i also instructed the mountain clans to mine the few deposits that were available there." Ned said. "He also told me to tell the Queen that the moment to give the sword should be coming soon, and that she should look at page 43 of the book, one of the pages that were lost in all other copies of it, apparently she would know what it all means." He added.

"I will tell her, Ned. I don't think she will believe me but I will tell her." Lyanna promised her brother.

"You all truly believe this, that the white walkers will come again?" Helaena asked. "It sounds like madness; I know Bloodraven was supposedly powerful in magic, I can even believe that he is still alive somehow, I know of shadow binders that can expand their own life, but to believe that the others are coming back is a bit of a stretch." She added.

"Seeing the future is a skill that all greenseers have, Helaena." Ned responded. "Is not even a rare skill, your own family only survived the doom because of Daenys' dream, and she wasn't the only dreamer in your family's history; I know maester Aemon in Castle Black sometimes has his own dreams, he told me so when I last visited the watch." He added.

"I will give you the point, seeing the future is something I believe is possible, but it still sounds like madness." Helaena conceded.

"But it isn't much difficult to prepare, even if it doesn't happen, buying dragonglass is cheap enough that it won't cause me any problems nor will it take away any growth from my lands." Ned explained.

They stayed a few moments in silence as they all thought about the implications of what Ned had said. The others coming back could spell doom on the entire world if it happened while they were fighting a war, or if the many wars that were to come in the future left westeros weak and lacking fighters, and more importantly, they would need all of the seven kingdoms fighting together against the enemy, The North alone wouldn't be able to fight against this enemy, the wall if properly manned could hold them off for a few years, possibly a decade, but it would fall eventually, either that or the long night and the eternal winter that comes with it would freeze them all.

"Bloodraven also gave me something else." Ned said, breaking the silence.

He rose from his chair and walked towards the other side of the room, opening a small alcove on the wall he took something from there and when he turned around Lyanna finally saw what that something was. After seeing so many of them she would recognize a dragon egg anywhere, it was white as snow with a few hints of blue, as Ned got closer the light of the fire started to dance on the eggshell making patterns and almost seeming like it was drawing a light from out of the egg, instead of shining one on it.

"He said this one came from Silverwing and it was destined to Visenya; I think it would be best if you gave it to her, Lya." Ned said offering the egg to her.

"Thank you, Ned. She has been a little sad for some time now, she is the only Targaryen that didn't have an egg, she tried to hide it but we all could see that it was difficult for her, especially once the eggs hatched, she would always look at the other children playing with their dragons with a hint of longing in her eyes." Lyanna said accepting the egg and taking it from her brother's hands, it was warm to the touch, almost exactly the same warmth that she always felt from holding her daughter.

"Just promise that you will teach her to be careful Lya." Ned asked. "A dragon is dangerous, more for others than to her." He added.

"I will, Ned." Lyanna promised. "She won't follow in the footsteps of the grandfather. She won't burn people alive nor threaten to burn cities to the ground." She added.

They continued talking for a few more minutes but after such a heavy discussion and with the white walkers still on the mind of everyone, they quickly decided to retire for the night. Lyanna went to her daughter's room one more time and gave her a kiss on the forehead before she went to her own room to try and sleep, hopefully without any nightmares about cold blue eyes.

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They stayed in Winterfell for a week.

The day after they arrived Lyanna gave her daughter the dragon egg and felt her heart melt at the sheer joy coming from her little Visenya, the girl walked everywhere with her dragon egg, showing it to her cousins playing with it in the hot springs; She wanted to hatch the egg but Lyanna was able to convince her to do it when they returned to Essos, remembering that she needed to hide who she really was. The next few days were spent talking more with her brother's and goodsisters, subtly spending time with her nieces and nephews, they didn't knew who she was, Ned and Ashara decided not to tell them the truth yet, but Lyanna was still able to spend some time with them, often playing with little Lyanna, her niece was two and quick a little troublemaker already. Arya was also a favorite of her's, the little girl not only looked like Lyanna at her age but also acted exactly like her, playing pranks on her older siblings and running away to play with swords or ride horses, not that she needed to run away, Ned was more than happy to let her train the sword and Ashara was dornish so she also didn't have any problem with it, even if she only knew a little bit about how to use swords and daggers, not as much as Lyanna herself, and certainly not as much as Helaena who spent her time putting both Benjen and Ned in the dirt on the yard.

By the end of the week Lyanna was happier than she had been in a long time, much of her worries forgotten, but it was time to go back to Essos, she had much to tell the queen and much she needed to prepare for the troubles that were coming.

AN 2: Lyanna has some major ptsd from her decisions during the rebellion and now we see a little of how it was affecting her.

She still has a long way to go, but she is getting better.

Next chapter we go back to Essos.

I will see you guys in the next one.