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“You killed my dragons.”
“Yes, my lady. I did.”
“I am your Queen, you will addr-“
“You are a Queen, but you are not my Queen. You are not the North’s Queen. I am the North’s Queen. The North is grateful for the part your dragons played in the defeat of the White Walkers, but the north remembers. The North remembers the mad king. The North remembers being burned under dragon fire. The North remembers being subjugated under not just a Southron rule, but a Targaryen rule. The North remembers, my lady.”
Daenerys’ jaw was clenched. The dragons might be dead, but it seemed as though they live on through her anger.
“I am the rightful heir to the seven kingdoms. I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, rightful heir to the Iron Throne, rightful queen of the Andals and the First Men, protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains. You are just a false queen.”
The lords gathered in the room surge to their feet protesting this claim. Jon looked as though he is unsure what he is meant to do. He knows what he wants to do. He wants to be sitting next to his Queen. He wants to have her favor again. He had bent the knee to Daenerys, but when they came to the North it was clear they did not agree. (He knew they wouldn’t.)
I should have seen that they had already made her Queen of the North in everything but crown thought Jon. She had always been Queen in the North.
There had been little time to sort out fealty before news came that the Wall had fallen. There had been little time to talk of bent knees before news came that the Wall had fallen. There had been little time to explain before news came that the Wall had fallen (“Sansa please you must know everything I do is for you.” “What I know and what is true are not always the same things, Jon.”)
The great hall is loud with unrest, but one voice chimes through. “Actually, you were the mother of dragons.”
“Arya, please” Said Sansa.
Arya smirked as she held up her hands in a placating gesture, and inclined her head, “I’m sorry, my Queen.”
Sansa went to continue speaking when she was interrupted by Daenerys, “She is correct. I was the mother of dragons, and now you have taken my children away from me. If I had them with me now there would be nothing to stop me from burning this wretched place.”
“You forgot one thing, false queen. I may not have my dragons, but I still have my army. And you will feel my wrath through them.” Daenerys turned to walk out of the great hall, out of Winterfell.
“They say only a fool would meet the Dothraki in an open field.” Sansa’s words make Daenerys stop.
“Then you must be the biggest fool of them all. You murder my dragons seconds after defeating the white walkers. Turned on them as we celebrated-“
Jon remembered the chaos of victory. He remembered his fright. Fright that they wouldn’t win. Fright that the dragons wouldn’t be enough. Fright that down below in the ground fighters, Arya wouldn’t make it out alive. Fright that they would all fall. Fright that they would all rise.
Jon remembered the thrill of victory. The thrill that he had beaten the Night King. That the White Walkers were vanquished. Jon remembered the dragons landing on the field of the dead. Jon remembered Arya with needle in her hand. Jon remembered Brienne with Oathkeeper. Jon remembered the dragons didn’t stand a chance, not with swords through their eyes. Jon remembered Daenerys’ scream.
It was later revealed to have been the plan all along, before he returned North, but after the dragon pit meeting. Whispers had reached the North of Daenerys’s wrath. Bend the knee or die the whispers said. The whispers spoke of the supply train. The whispers spoke of the House Tarly.
The North listened to those whispers, and a plan was hatched. Kill the dragons before they kill us. The North will not bend the knee.
“-our victory over the dead. Yes, you must be the biggest fool of them all.”
“They also say that you should never invade the North during winter. Tell me, my lady, are your Dothraki horse lords accustomed to the frigid cold of the North? Did they bring their furs when you crossed the sea? It’s rather warm in Slaver’s Bay, year-round they say. How do you think your unsullied army will far against my Northman in the winter? I daresay that I don’t have to worry about a siege from your army, I simply have to wait for them to freeze to death.”
Sansa stands tall as she asked her questions. The Queen in the North whose name is Stark.
“Winter isn’t coming. Winter is here. We are prepared for it. Are you?”