Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 45 Farewell
Jon walked slowly toward Arya, thinking that this might be the last time they would see each other. He tried to put those thoughts aside.

Arya was whispering something with the butcher's boy outside the kitchen tent where she was preparing breakfast, and Jon knew he would find her there.

"Little sister." He called out.

Arya was delighted when she heard the voice: "Jon, I was just about to look for you. They said the journey today would not be rushed and they would not set out until noon. I found a good place last night, hehe." She gestured with a silly grin.

Jon knew where she was going to practice her swordplay again.

Jon felt a little regretful that he had given her the "Needle" when they were in Winterfell. Every time the king's camp stopped in the past few days, she would plan and instigate the butcher's boy and Jon to accompany her to a secluded corner to practice swordplay.

But think about it again, Jon was just about to make things clear with Uncle Benjen. He wanted to tell him that he didn't want to go to White Harbor to see the sea, and they should go directly to the Wall before the heavy snow fell.

A lot of things happened.

Bran's father and everyone else were very sad about what happened. Jon and Bran had always had a good relationship. Lady Stark was so sad that the king stayed in Winterfell for two more weeks.

At this moment, Jon's agreement with Uncle Benjen to go to White Harbor to see the sea seemed so inappropriate, as if he was selfish and indifferent.

But Uncle Benjen disagreed with him, and even his father talked to him about it - only then did Jon realize that his father had always known about it and supported him.

They said, "It's not your fault, Jon. When you get to the Wall, you'll have more brothers and see more sorrows, but you can't stop yourself. Do what you've decided to do. If nothing can shake your determination, how can you get honor in the future?"

So Jon and his uncle Benjen followed the king's team south as planned.

And this is where they will say goodbye. The king's team will continue south, back to King's Landing, while Jon and Uncle Benjen will head east, to White Harbor.

"I cannot go with you, sister," Jon said.

Arya realized something. Her breathing became labored and her eyes became hot. She stretched out her thin arms and hugged his neck tightly. "Are you leaving?" She said breathlessly, "You came to say goodbye to me."

"Remember to come visit me at the Wall when you have time." Jon hoped that what he would remember after parting was his little sister's smile, so he smiled at Arya.

Arya looked like she was about to cry. "I really wish you would come with us."

Jon stroked her hair and said, "Little sister, different paths may not necessarily lead to the same destination. Who knows what the future will bring?" He wanted to say more: don't practice swords secretly on the road, if Sister Modan finds out. Tell her to listen to her father when she arrives in the south. Say.
But he had said so many things to Winterfell last time when he sent Needle and many times in the past few days. They hugged for a long time, and finally he could only say: "Little sister, I will miss you. I have to go."

Arya accompanied Jon and Uncle Benjen until they mounted their horses.

Her father escorted them out of the camp without Arya.

After leaving the camp, my father was silent and didn't say a word.

When they reached the intersection, his father said to Jon: "It is an honor to join the Night's Watch. The Stark family has guarded the Wall for thousands of years, and you are also a Stark. You did not take my last name, but we are still blood relatives."

My father's tone was particularly heavy today.

"Father," Jon called out.

"Well." Lord Eddard responded to him, and then said to him, "Let's go."

After the father and son looked at each other for the last time, Jon responded and spurred his horse without looking back.

Ben Yang's horse stopped under his urging, and he took the initiative to approach his brother and say goodbye: "Brother, are you okay? You look a little bit wrong. Is the Prime Minister very distressed?"

Eddard knew that his brother saw his sorrow and was trying to comfort him with unfunny jokes. He did not laugh. He looked at Jon's figure gradually going away and said to his brother deeply: "Take care of Jon, and yourself."

Seeing that his brother didn't say anything, Ban Yang had to pretend nothing happened and said goodbye to him in a hurry.

Eddard watched Jon and Benjen go away in silence, then he called Jory and Hullen who had been following behind him, and rode back to the king's temporary camp in the south.

Lord Eddard Stark, the current Hand of the King, was thinking about what happened in the morning. Before dawn this morning, the king summoned him to the horse race, saying that there were national affairs to discuss.

They rode at a furious gallop until they reached a low ridge and the king slackened his pace just as the dawn broke. They were now several miles south of the camp.

The king first jokingly discussed Jon and his unknown mother with Eddard, but was frustrated by Eddard's refusal to discuss the issue.

Then came the national affairs mentioned by the king. The first was a letter sent by Varys, the chief of intelligence, from King's Landing. The letter contained news about the beggar king Viserys and his sister Daenerys across the narrow sea. The news came from Jorah Mormont.

Ed will never forget that guy.

The Mormont family of Bear Island has a long history, is proud and values ​​honor, but their territory is remote, cold and barren.

To increase his income, Ser Jorah planned to sell the captured poachers to slave traders in Tyrosh. Since Mormont was a vassal of Stark, this would tarnish the reputation of the entire North. So Eddard traveled all the way west to Bear Island, but found that Jorah had already escaped by boat to a foreign land outside the "Ice" and the king's legal sanctions. Five years have passed since the incident.

And this human trafficker suddenly turned into a spy.

The news brought back by the spies was that the Beggar King and his sister, funded by a Pentos spice governor, were planning to travel to the various free city-states with three ships to borrow money in an attempt to restore their country.

Robert wanted to arrange an assassin.

Eddard was not surprised. Robert's hatred for the Targaryens was insane, and he still remembered the violent altercation between them when Tywin Lannister offered the bodies of Rhaegar's wife and children as a token of his loyalty.

It was said that Rhaegar's little daughter cried as they dragged her from her bed to die. His son was barely a babe, but Lord Tywin's men had ripped him from his mother's breast and hurled him against a wall.

Eddard thought it was murder, Robert said it was an inevitable tragedy in war. When he argued that the young prince and princess were no different from babies, Robert, who had just ascended the throne, responded: "I don't see any babies, I see only the spawn of dragons." Even Jon Arryn could not calm the dispute. Eddard Stark left in anger that day and led his troops to the south to fight the last battle alone.

Later, because of Lyanna's death, the two reconciled.

"He got three ships from a peddler in Pentos and he's going to borrow money, so what's next? Thirty ships? Three hundred ships? Three fleets?" King Robert shouted when Eddard tried to persuade him that assassination was not an honorable thing to do. "Honor? What Aerys did to your brother Brandon was honorable? Think about your father's death? And Rhaegar... How many times do you think he raped your sister? How many times?" The king's angry voice echoed over the ridge. "I will kill every Targaryen with my own hands. I will kill them all. I will teach them to die like dragons and piss on their graves in the end."

Eddard knew better than to confront the king while he was angry. If all these years hadn't quenched his vengeance, his words probably wouldn't either. But he said, "You can't kill this one yourself, can you?"

The king's mouth curled in anger. "It can't be helped, damn it. That damned Pentos peddler had them hidden behind a wall with a bunch of pointy-hatted eunuchs guarding them, and now he's given them three ships to sail on the sea. I should have killed them years ago when it would have been easier, but Jon is as mean as you. I was a bigger fool, though, and I listened to him."

He echoed the king's words about Jon Arryn. "Jon Arryn was a wise Hand," he said of the old man who had taught them honor. "If he were still here, he would tell His Majesty that a beggar king can do nothing, and even if he did come back, we could work together to defeat him fair and square on the field of battle."

Eddard changed the topic to Jon Arryn and the appointment of the new Warden of the East.

They then had another dispute over the appointment of the Warden of the East and the arrangements for Robert Arryn.

Later, they discussed the Lannisters, and Eddard and Robert's different attitudes towards the Lannisters led to an argument between the two.

The war had been going on for nearly a year, and nobles of all sizes had joined Robert's side, while many remained loyal to the Targaryen family. The powerful Lannister family of Casterly Rock, which had served as the guardian of the West for generations, had always stayed away from the battlefield and ignored the calls of the rebels and the royalists.

Finally, when Lord Tywin Lannister personally led 12,000 elite soldiers to King's Landing to express his intention to serve the king, Aerys Targaryen must have thought that his life was not over. So the mad king issued his last mad order, opening the city gates and letting the lion in.

The Lannisters used this trick to seize King's Landing.

When Eddard arrived at King's Landing, the roaring lion of the Lannister family was flying on the battlements. When he entered the Red Keep, he saw with his own eyes that Jaime, the white-robed guard who swore to defend King Aerys until death, was sitting on the Iron Throne with his sword stained with blood, while King Aerys lay in a pool of blood.

Eddard's impression of the Lannisters has never improved since then. He said of Jaime: "He swore to protect the king with his life, but ended up cutting the king's throat with a sword."

But Robert said, "Damn it, someone has to do it, right?"

They were talking about the same thing, but they were not talking about the same thing, and that was where the argument arose.

Finally, the topic returned to Targaryen and Lyanna.

They talked about a lot of things, but in the end nothing came to a conclusion except endless arguing.

Eddard had never imagined that his first state meeting with King Robert as Hand would go like this.

Eddard had said all he could. He felt helpless. He questioned what he was doing, why he had come so far south. He was not Jon Arryn, and he could not restrain King Robert's savagery or teach him wisdom. Robert would do what he wanted, and no matter what Eddard said, it would not change the facts.

His final destination should be Winterfell, the grieving Catelyn, and his children.

After witnessing the king's fierce hatred for Targaryens, the only thing Eddard could be thankful for was that Jon had found his own way.

(End of this chapter)