[Chapter Size: 3100 Words.]
---------------------------------------
Third Person POV
Winterfell, 298 AC.
---------------------------------------
"These are the proofs of how they were acting. We were lucky they didn't destroy it. Besides, it's very interesting to know that the queen's name is among those who ordered this letter and as the one who commanded the ambush they tried to set against me."
"I must ask, queen... were you planning to kill me?" Arya asked openly, leaving everyone there, at the very least, horrified.
...
...
As soon as those words were spoken in the middle of the hall, the entire place fell into chaos immediately, sounds of people speaking loudly about what they had just heard began to echo through the hall.
At the same time some people exclaimed on one side, another part of the audience stared at Arya frozen, unable to react at first to hearing such things.
Robb and Ned had a serious look, just like Jill. They already knew about it beforehand and still, they didn't seem any less angry.
The king looked at Arya as if she were a fish out of water, and that reaction could be equally described for Tyrion Lannister in the middle of the crowd, while the royal guards looked uncomfortable.
The queen's children were stunned and Jaime Lannister looked on with a furrowed brow.
The queen seemed lost at first and her gaze met Arya's, staring at her with a cold look, while the queen's green eyes finally managed to react to the accusation from the Stark girl.
Cersei began to clench her teeth while showing a look full of fury.
"You're accusing me of sending those men to kill? You liar!" she screamed almost hysterically in front of the entire hall, while turning back to the Lannister men present.
"Are you going to let her accuse me like this?!" she shouted like an order that could not be disobeyed.
Quickly, the Lannister men began to step toward Arya, while the swords on the side of the Starks and Arctican men began to be unsheathed. People screamed across the hall at that moment.
"Stop this madness!" the king finally reacted in time before that place became a bloodbath.
The men seemed to hear reason at that moment, halting their steps.
"Stop this madness, sheath your weapons!" Lord Stark exclaimed to his men.
"She's accusing me!" the queen's voice cried out, full of indignation.
"And your way of solving it is to create a battlefield where you'd put yourself and our children at risk? I didn't expect you to become such an imbecile!" the king roared at Cersei through clenched teeth. She nearly put everyone in danger at that moment, taking advantage of the tense mood between the Lannister men and those who were part of her entourage along with the Stark men from Winterfell.
The situation between him and Ned was already not good at that point. He didn't want to make it even worse.
When everything seemed to calm down, with several servants having fled the hall as soon as a war seemed about to start, Robert finally turned his attention to the girl.
"You're making a serious accusation. Even if you're a queen from another kingdom... it's still dangerous for you to say such words." he warned with a serious tone, while Arya turned her gaze to him, since she hadn't taken her eyes off the queen, even when a fight was about to erupt around her.
"Arya..." Catelyn murmured beside her, clearly shaken ever since her daughter accused the very queen of the Seven Kingdoms, while Sansa, beside her, was lost in it all, knowing it was a very serious accusation.
"Why don't you just take this paper, King Robert Baratheon, and say exactly what's written here." Arya openly challenged him, showing the paper as she stepped forward.
The king nodded when he saw the questioning look from his royal guard, and Barristan Selmy approached Arya, taking the piece of parchment and handing it to the king.
He read it, raising an eyebrow. His gaze lifted to the queen, displeased by this, then to Arya, and lastly back to the militant faith men in the middle of the hall.
"It's been 2 days since the wild girl hasn't left the castle, she should leave soon and you must be ready, for the lioness is growing impatient." Robert spoke the words from the parchment, looking at the men who kept an indifferent expression.
"Tell me, who is this lioness?" he asked.
"We do not know who you are talking about, Your Majesty." was all that the one who seemed to be the leader said.
"Tell me, what is your name?" Arya spoke suddenly.
The man looked at her with a hateful glare.
"I will not answer you, wildling." he growled before receiving a second blow to the head from Jory.
"You better speak properly to the people here, you idiot." Jory growled as the man collapsed in some pain, his face hitting the stone floor of the hall.
"Answer the girl, you fool. What's your name?" The king, instead of getting angry at Arya for raising her voice, allowed the man to answer her question.
"It's Berg, Your Majesty, that's what my mother called me." he said.
"Now tell me, Berg, I've been hearing some things from Kingsland, that the new High Septon has invoked the militant faith and you've been recruiting for over a year now..." Arya spoke again, as people fell silent.
"..." The man only clenched his teeth, saying nothing to the girl questioning him.
"I wonder why you've returned to this... because I remember that this same militant faith caused many problems in the early years of Aegon's established rule... Are you doing this out of fear of Arctic...?" Arya asked, provoking some murmurs when the name of the kingdom beyond the wall was spoken.
"You're going to let her speak for you?" Cersei suddenly mocked.
"She has every right to, she was the one ambushed." Ned raised his voice this time beside the king.
"You have no right to speak like that..." Cersei growled at Lord Stark.
"Silence, woman, you've said enough, let the girl continue." Robert said, not wanting to hear his annoying queen any longer, especially when his name was in the middle of this mess.
"We do not fear your kingdom, you pagan wildlings!" he growled, while Arya nodded at him, unsurprised by the insult. She wanted to understand more about this sect full of lunatics.
"I also have a question for you, King of Westeros. Were you so desperate over Jon that you brought this sect back to power? You do know very well that this can turn against you too, right?" Arya spoke openly to Robert, without showing any hesitation, even as those around her looked horrified.
"How dare you speak to the king like that?!" Cersei once again growled.
"Silence, woman!" Robert exclaimed once more, as he turned his gaze back to Arya.
"You should also know that I will not take this as anything other than an insult, right?!" he said seriously, but she did not back down, while Ned looked slightly uncomfortable with it all.
"I'm just trying to understand what's going on here. After all, everything indicates that your queen is trying to kill me in an ambush along with these men. Today it could be me, tomorrow it could be anyone," Arya replied with a tone full of disdain.
The queen grew irritated and stepped forward, approaching the king.
"Give me that paper, I want to see it!" she demanded, while Robert handed it to her to read for a few seconds, before she simply took it between two fingers and began tearing it in front of everyone.
"This says nothing!" she exclaimed, provoking a series of reactions throughout the hall.
"If it says nothing, then why are you so desperate to tear up that evidence? But don't worry, there's a large number of drafts that the fools you hired didn't get rid of, and now we can use them against you," Arya mocked, as the tension in the room continued to rise.
"Enough of this! Stop accusing each other!" the king exclaimed.
"My king..." Ned spoke beside him. "I know we can't conclude anything yet, but we should at least continue reading the evidence and questioning those involved," Ned said, and Robert agreed with him.
"Alright, Ned. Let's continue the trial," he said, as he looked at the queen — a woman returning his gaze, full of hatred. He didn't like her attitude; simply tearing that apart really showed desperation.
He began to suspect.
Quickly the box with the documents began to be passed around. Maester Luwin began reading: each one showed the movements of the Faith militants since they had left the procession, or even earlier during the journey to the northern kingdom, as some of the papers indicated. Some messages mentioned that they were hiding within the forests and were heading toward the Winterfell area.
Then came the messages about Arya, of her solitary activities in the wolf forest, silently taking down a few animals with a bow and arrow at intervals of days.
The name "Cersei" was never mentioned, but the person who gave the orders was always referred to as "the lioness." Perhaps she herself had chosen this codename for sounding powerful, while avoiding saying her name.
Only an idiot couldn't associate "lioness" with her — and it was at this moment that Arya thought the queen was an extremely stupid woman, even more so than she had initially believed.
The men also began to be questioned, while they avoided saying anything. And, upon insulting Arya or any member of the Stark family during the continuation of the trial, they received a few blows to the head.
"In the end... we can't do anything," the king simply said with a tired look, not that he could do much there, and he knew it. "There's not enough evidence to accuse the queen," he said at last.
"You expect me to accept staying in the same castle as a murderer, King of Westeros?" Jill's voice spoke behind Arya, louder than she had intended.
"Who are you calling a murderer, you savage whore?!" Cersei exclaimed from the other side.
"Don't call my mother that, you savage!" Joffrey shouted beside her.
"Enough!" the king shouted at this moment, trying to regain control of the situation. He turned his attention first to Jill.
"I won't let you call the Queen of Westeros a murderer. I'll make that very clear," he said, while Jill clenched her teeth.
"Sorry, Your Majesty, but..." When Arya was about to say something, her father raised his voice.
"I won't allow you to remain in the castle after this." He spoke while Robert looked stunned.
"What do you mean by that, Ned?" Robert raised an eyebrow.
"I'm saying that someone tried to kill my daughter. And he has been in this castle ever since he came with your entourage. And we discovered here that he's been sending letters to assassins. Even if there is no proof that it was the queen, I cannot allow this to continue." He spoke with a serious tone, leaving Robert stunned.
"What do you mean by that, Ned?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Sorry, Your Grace, but I won't allow her to remain in the castle." He made it very clear, causing everyone to fall silent. Lord Stark was truly forcing the king to leave his house.
Even Arya looked surprised at her father — she hadn't imagined he would do something so radical. This was madness, to expel the king himself from his home?
'I won't make the same mistakes of the past...' Ned told himself.
"You can't be serious, Ned!!" Robert asked, outraged, while the queen was equally offended and on the verge of cursing the entire Stark family.
"Maybe we should reach an agreement. We don't need to be so extreme." Meanwhile, Arya decided to try to calm the situation. When she spoke, everyone turned their eyes to her.
"What do you mean?" the king asked, still furious and shaken by her father.
"To avoid a direct confrontation, we could move the queen to the other side of the castle." Arya said.
"You want me to leave my quarters? Go to another part? Leave the main part of the castle?!" Cersei exclaimed, outraged.
"Your children don't need to leave. Just you." Arya said with an indifferent tone.
"You can't be serious!" she growled, not believing what she was hearing.
Arya knew that, by saying such words, she was practically destroying all of the queen's dignity in front of everyone around.
She might have great power in most of Westeros, but in Winterfell... that wouldn't happen. She was being humiliated in front of everyone. Arya knew the queen was too vain — perhaps she would never hate anyone as much as she hated Arya now.
"Robert, if this really happens, I swear my father will march with his armies to Winterfell immediately and will put the entire Stark family in their place! You'll all be on spikes!" she growled with fury.
Her children, even Joffrey, looked disturbed.
"How dare you?!" Robb exclaimed with anger, beside Arya and his father, as the Stark men almost reacted as well.
"Let's stop this madness!" the king said once more and turned back to the queen.
"Don't threaten the Starks in front of me again!" he exclaimed, while she returned to him.
"They threatened me! And they treat me like a servant in your castle?! I'm Tywin Lannister's daughter! No one in the Seven Kingdoms would dare do this to me!" she shouted.
"And you threaten my family! Do you really think you have any right here in Winterfell, Cersei Lannister?" Ned said with fury.
The soldiers were about to react again and the servants began to flee, knowing very well what might happen here.
But before the sound of swords could be heard, something else broke the tension of the judgment hall.
"HAHAHAHA!"
Suddenly, someone started laughing, and everyone turned to the source of the laughter. It was Arya.
She didn't even seem to care about the chaos anymore, and she looked at Cersei with disdain when she stopped laughing, while already seeing her brother preparing to attack, if necessary, the royal guards of Westeros.
"You say you're going to call your little daddy, I just wonder how exactly Tywin Lannister will manage to march to Winterfell. Tell me, Cersei: can you handle Jon when he finds out about this? When he sends over a thousand ships to attack the West, burn Lannisport, destroy Casterly Rock, and sink your precious house to the bottom of the sea? I wonder if your father would be foolish enough to challenge Jon. After all, the Starks are still his family." She paused before continuing.
"And believe me, it doesn't matter how many armies you gather across the Seven Kingdoms. It doesn't matter if you have the Faith Militant, your father's wealth, the Greyjoys' ships... all of you will perish before the power of Arctic." She said in a cold tone to Cersei.
Arya left the entire place in shock. Even those who were ready to fight seemed to reconsider. Arya had never spoken so openly about Arctic, but this time she couldn't hold back, as she stared at the queen, daring her to find some argument that her daddy could handle Jon and the kingdom of Arctic.
Westeros would never stand a chance against Arctic's army. And only because they were at war beyond the Wall now could they not truly act. But when the war in the North ended... if the Seven tried anything, they would pay. Arctic would bring chaos and terror to everyone there.
Arya had no idea that Jon had already been aiming for the Iron Throne for some time, but she knew he would never let Westeros get off easily if they messed up.
"A thousand ships?" someone murmured, frightened. Arya turned back to the surprised man.
"Yes. A fleet of a thousand ships. The largest fleet in the world. Capable of firing wildfire at long range, as you've already heard of. Not even the Greyjoys could withstand Arctic's fleet for long. So, especially for the queen of Westeros, it would be wise not to provoke a war that she and her father cannot handle." Arya said with a mocking look.
"Your assassination attempt, even if the king can't do anything, is without a doubt something Jon will not let go easily. So, King of Westeros, it's very likely that your wife's actions just triggered a war once Jon finds out what happened here today." Arya said, not because she would ask Jon to start a war for her, but because she knew very well he wouldn't let things remain as they are...
"Anyway, I'm leaving. I hope, Father, that you sort this out with that woman. I don't want to cross paths with her in the halls of this castle anymore. She disgusts me, and I feel like vomiting every time I look at her."
Arya stepped forward as she said those words, leaving even the queen speechless, without a response, without words to defend herself from such declarations.
The girl simply turned her back and began walking out of the judgment hall while the servants, soldiers, and even the Lannister men didn't dare stand in her way, stepping aside.
Everyone watched as Arya simply walked away alongside Mearin and her two royal guards, leaving a new argument to begin in the middle of the hall, while her father seemed quite engaged in it and the queen was outraged, furious after hearing all that from Arya.
But Arya didn't care about it anymore and went straight to the godswood.
"Arya, are you okay?" Mearin let slip beside her after walking the whole way in silence until they reached the sacred tree.
"I'm fine. Just tired." Arya said, stopping in front of the tree.
"What do you think? I don't believe that woman will accept things as they are. This could become a big problem, Arya." Mearin tried to warn her.
"Don't worry about it. I was already planning to deal with the queen one way or another. Since she wants to be stubborn, then I'll make her feel a terror far worse than what she once felt from Jon a few years ago..." she said, as an eagle appeared atop the tree before landing on a rock in front of Arya.
Arya had a rather cold look at that moment, staring at the eagle.
"I'm going to pay the queen a few visits... through this eagle... In the coming days, I'm sure she'll be quite convinced to stay far away from us." Arya said, looking at the eagle's talons.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
I deeply appreciate your support since the beginning of this exciting journey!
I hope each chapter has provided incredible moments. If you like my work and would like to support the continuation of this fanfic, consider becoming a patron with plans starting at $2!. As a token of gratitude, I offer access to more than 210 extra chapters with 7 active fanfics at the same time, along with other exclusive benefits on my profile, such as images and significant decisions for the stories.
Even if you are not a patron, I am making chapters available a few hours earlier here, so become a free member on the platform!
🌟 RaccoonLeague | Patreon🌟
Visit our Patreon for more: https://www.patreon.com/RaccoonLeague
Extra Content Already Available:
🏴☠️ One Piece - I Am a Different Luffy!: 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: The Legend of Jon Arctic!: 30 extra chapters!
🌀 Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI!: 30 extra chapters!
🗡️ The Witcher - As Uchiha Madara! 30 extra chapters!
⚡ Harry Potter - Shadow Monarch! 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: DragonBorn! 30 extra chapters!
Except for One Piece with daily chapters and DragonBorn once a week, all fanfics are updated 3 times a week, there's just a pause in updating in the week, only to create drafts for the week's chapters.
In addition to the extra chapters, daily chapters are posted and 25 chapters per week!
Your support is very important and makes all the difference in keeping these stories alive.
Thank you very much for being part of this journey! I hope you continue to enjoy the story and that it brings even more joy to your life!
Visit our Patreon for more!!
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆