Lord Stark

Lord Stark - Part 1

Jon couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Me?" he questioned Lord Commander Mormont. "Robb wants me as his heir?"

   "That's what he says." Commander Mormont held a scroll in his hand that bore a broken wax seal of House Stark. "They are the King's words and the letter is signed by him. He has released you from your vows of the Night's Watch and has legitimized you as Jon Stark," the Lord Commander frowned.

    Jon didn't know what to think. Robb wanted him by his side as he rode into battle and fought for the seven kingdoms. It was what Jon had always dreamt of his entire life. He missed his brother terribly, his sister Arya as well. He missed all his half-siblings. Only, Robb was with Lady Stark, and Jon knew how she must feel about Robb's decision. She had always hated Jon, and now he would be Robb's heir above all her true born children she bore with Ned.

    "What will it be, boy?" Commander Mormont asked. Boy? Clearly the Commander held a similar view as Lady Stark did on the matter. Jon would be breaking his vows. But you have no more vows, Jon thought. Robb had dismissed them with the stroke of a pen, as if they had never existed. If Jon refused, he would be disobeying the King's orders.

           "I have to do what my King commands, my lord." Jon replied.

    "He's your King now is he?" The Lord Commander squinted his eyes at Jon, unflinching. "I shall wear no crowns, win no glories. I will live and die at my post. It shall not end until my death. Any of that ring a damn bell to you?" The Lord Commander's voice surged with anger.

   His words left a bitter taste in Jon's mouth. Of course he remembered his vows. He could never forget them, but Robb was calling for him. His true brother. The boy he had grown up with and ridden horses with and learned to handle a sword with. It was he who Jon had shared nearly every laugh and hurt with. It was Robb whom Jon admired his entire life. He couldn't say no to him now. The Night's Watch wouldn't miss Jon, but his brother would.

    "I'm going to accept his offer, Lord Commander. I hope you understand my choice."

    "If only I could, Jon Snow. As your King brother would say, winter is coming, and it doesn't matter who's arse is on the iron throne when it does." The Lord Commander shook his head in disappointment. "I really thought better of you, Snow. Or should I say, Stark. Leave. I hope you find happiness with your true brother."

    Jon felt his pride wounded. He truly thought the Lord Commander would understand why it was crucial for him to help Robb. But it didn't matter now. He was a free man. Jon left the Lord Commander's solar and returned to his own chambers. He gathered the few things he owned and packed them all in a small saddlebag. Once he was nearly set, he was faced with Longclaw. Yet another owner of Longclaw fails Commander Mormont, he thought. Jon wished he could have done the prestigious sword justice, but he knew he was as dishonorable as Jorah in the eyes of the Lord Commander. He picked up the bastard sword and left it on his cot as he was preparing to leave the castle.

    Before Jon left, he had to see off Sam. Would Sam understand? He had always understood Jon when no one else had. Sam listened to him when he talked of how he missed his brothers and sisters. Leaving Sam would be the hardest of all. Jon found Sam the first place he looked. In Maester Aemon's library.

    "Sam, can I have a word with you?" Jon asked. Sam was face and eyes into a huge, brown, leather bound book. He looked up and frowned at Jon.

    "What's wrong? You look like there's something the matter." Sam said, furrowing his brow.

    "The Lord Commander has shown you the letter from your brother I take it, Lord Snow?" A weak voice came from the corner of the room. By the warm fire, sat Maester Aemon, quiet and silent. Jon hadn't noticed him.

    "I'm sorry, I didn't see you Maester. Yes, he did." Jon replied.

   "And you have accepted your brothers offer? You will ride south as Jon Stark and leave all your sworn brothers behind?"

   "It's not like that-" Jon began but was interrupted by Sam's sputtering.

   "W-what do you mean riding south? Your brother wants you with him?" Jon had never seen Sam look so distraught. Jon sat down across the table from Sam and explained everything to him. What his brother had said, why he had to go, how he would never abandon the watch while he was still a sworn brother, but he wasn't anymore. Sam was taken back with a look of astonishment on his face and sadness in his eyes.

   "I'm sorry, Sam. I truly am." Jon could see Sam searching for words, but none came. The look of hurt on his face intensified to anger.

    "So when we took our vows beneath the Wierwood tree and I became your brother, that meant nothing to you?" Sam managed to say after a long straining silence. Tears began to swell in Sam's eyes though he fought to hold them back. Jon felt like he'd received a knife to the gut. Sam had to understand . . . he must. But to Sam, Jon was just another person leaving him behind. Jon was only another person who put others before Sam, as he always was.

    "Of course Sam. You'll always be my brother."

    "Not as much as Robb, I take it. The brave, honorable, King in the North." Sam spat back.

    "I wouldn't be so hateful towards Lord Stark just yet, Samwell." Stark? How odd, Jon thought. "I want you traveling with him. I am sending you south as well, to Oldtown. I am aging, and dying, as you may have noticed. I won't be of use to the Night's watch for much longer, and you are the Wall's only hope for a proper Maester after I am gone. We will be needing you here, Sam. With a long, linked chain to take my place."

    "Bu-but Maester, I couldn't- I can't leave." Sam stammered.

    "But you must. You will leave with Lord Stark as day breaks tomorrow, that is an order. Gather your things Samwell, you have a long journey ahead of you with your former brother." Sam, aghast, slammed the book he was reading shut and stormed out from the library, but not before he gave Jon a cold stare. What have I done . . .

    That night, Jon found it difficult to sleep. Voices that filled his head yelling, "oathbreaker", "traitor", and "bastard", kept him awake. If I ever truly acted the bastard, I am certainly one now. But it was too late to turn back. The damage was done. He had to focus on Robb now, and helping him win this War of Five Kings. To avenge his father and save his sisters from the clutches of the Lannisters. He said a silent prayer to the Old Gods, asking for forgiveness. He had never asked for this, for any of it. He'd never wanted to be a bastard. He'd never wanted to be an oathbreaker. He'd never wanted to abandon his post, but he had to. May the old gods judge me justly. He wondered if that was what killed his father, the Old Gods punishing him for being labeled a traitor. Would the same punishment come to him?

   Jon hated having to stay in the castle for one more night. He wanted to leave now, as fast as he could ride, but Maester Aemon said he must wait until dawn to leave with Sam. Jon figured it was the least he could do. His cot felt cold as he climbed into it for the last time. The night air was so raw it hurt his throat to breathe. He hadn't lit a fire in his chamber for somehow, when Jon returned from the library he found his brazier, along with nearly everything in the room including Longclaw, had been taken. All that remained was a rough woolen blanket on his cot and the old brown cloak that he had worn when he first arrived at the wall. Jon struggled to find sleep in the hours to come and eventually fell into a fitful rest. Though as he slept, he dreamt only of his black brothers pointing their swords towards his chest yelling "Oathbreaker! Traitor! Bastard!"