The darkness was empty.
Yet it filled everything in every direction.
There was no beginning nor end.
Nothing below, nor above.
Only darkness.
And time.
This existed in it.
This had been here as long as it could remember, tied to the absolute nothingness surrounding it.
The passage of time here was indistinguishable, one moment slowly bleeding into the next.
It left This with only one consequence: profound and unbearable boredom.
So, This had started counting.
Its understanding of counting was very minimal; it was an idea it had come up with in an extremely ordinary moment.
Its numbers repeated too often or too infrequently, and the names it had decided to give each number were incomprehensible and easily forgotten.
Yet that didn't matter. Not to This.
Glorp…
Glip…
Glurp…
And like this, time passed.
Whenever it found itself incomparably bored or with an empty mind, it would count.
Although meaningless, even to This, the mess of made-up numbers was all it had.
Eventually, This reached a count of 7,950,883,411 before losing track.
It tried again, but ultimately gave up.
And with that, counting had stopped meaning anything.
Boredom and emptiness soon became the only things it felt.
With only its thoughts there to garner its attention, This remained inside the darkness and waited.
Although, This didn't entirely mind. After all, darkness was all it had ever known.
…
Time continued by slowly, perpetual, dark and unchanging.
Then, one unremarkable moment, something changed.
For the first time ever, This felt something.
At first, it was subtle, almost unnoticeable to This.
A faint pull tugged at a corner of itself, which it hadn't known was there.
Then the pull grew wider.
No longer pulling at a portion, something slowly wrapped itself around the form This wasn't aware it had.
Then it began to tighten.
For some reason, perhaps due to its lack of understanding, This felt quite calm.
Having never felt anything before, the new sensations it could feel so clearly had shifted its focus entirely.
Still within that compression, another change appeared.
This was pulled.
The movement wasn't gradual. In one instant, it had been studying the tightness surrounding it, and in the next, it was dragged forward with such impossible speed that even its thoughts seemed to lag behind.
Its shapeless form stretched violently in the direction it was being pulled, portions of itself trailing behind before snapping back toward the rest. The sensation was unlike anything it had ever experienced.
This couldn't truly comprehend the speed it was moving at. It couldn't even comprehend movement itself.
No longer as calm as before, This tried to hold onto anything it could, but failed.
The momentum tore its thoughts apart the moment they rose and left This with no chance to resist.
Experiencing such a thing for the first time, subtly, deep within a portion of itself, This felt something resembling fear.
Yet with no choice but to give in to the force around it, This allowed itself to be pulled further into the deep darkness.
It was dragged forcibly for only a few more moments before the compression vanished entirely.
Afraid its thoughts might be ripped apart like before, This remained motionless in the darkness for a while, until, abruptly, an intense barrage of new sensations slammed into it.
The first it noticed was a sort of movement coming from itself.
Thump.
This focused on it.
Thump.
Again, This felt it.
Something was moving inside of it.
This's first instinct was to take it out, but having never properly moved before, it wondered how it would even do so.
Catching its thoughts, This wondered whether the tightness from before had left or not.
This had no understanding of what the movement was. Yet instinctively, its attention was drawn to it.
Thump.
Focusing intensely, This felt a force surge outward from that spot, rushing through countless different paths.
It could feel them now.
A thin force spreading in every direction.
With every thump, the sensation grew clearer, branching farther and farther from that single point.
The more This focused upon it, the more of itself it began to perceive.
The shape of its form.
And the movement within it.
Slowly, guided by the movement within itself, This felt as if something had opened.
Along with that feeling, the darkness, the only thing This had ever known, was replaced by a blindingly bright light.
It was entirely different from what This had known.
It wasn't dull or boring, but overwhelming.
It had spent an eternity surrounded by nothing but darkness, and now something had invaded that emptiness with an impossible intensity.
Yet it still couldn't look away.
As it stared, This subconsciously pulled something into itself, only slightly at first, then with an intense fervour, until something inside itself felt full.
Enjoying the full feeling, This did its best to make sense of what was happening when something appeared in front of it, cutting out the bright light.
The thing was large, larger than the light from before, and thought loudly, somehow inserting its own unique tone into This's mind.
"Lady Sansa, we really shouldn't be out here too long. How about we go have some tea?"
The words "Lady Sansa" echoed strangely inside This for a moment.
Then it hit.
Without warning, a violent storm crashed into its mind.
Thousands upon thousands of memories, images, words, and feelings that were not its own slammed in all at once.
Unknown images, sounds, thoughts, feelings and concepts it had never heard of, like family and dreams, lessons and songs, dresses and dolls, and more it couldn't even remotely understand.
On top of it all was something called "Sansa Stark."
This tried its best to understand, but the thoughts continuously flooded in, allowing not a moment of reprieve.
This felt its mind begin to sting intensely.
Subconsciously, it raised both hands to where the new sensation was coming from. This understood why it struggled to think properly.
It's too much…
Its mind spun, the loud thoughts from outside continuously mixing with the unknown thoughts within.
Where is This? This asked itself, but no answer came.
The sensations continued to pile up; the thoughts seemed unending.
The thumping inside This grew faster, stronger, louder, like something was about to burst.
"Lady Sansa? Are you alright?" This heard the thoughts but could not comprehend them; they only added to the unknown stinging sensation in its mind.
This felt something was wrong.
Earlier, there had only been darkness.
Now there was… everything.
This lowered its hands and moved the top part of whatever it was.
Doing so, it could see everything around it. It was similar to the flash of images it had seen in its mind, yet no matter where it looked, it couldn't find the darkness it had known anywhere.
Although it couldn't see it, This felt keenly that the darkness was still present.
Somewhere.
As if the place it existed in had shifted, forced somewhere else entirely.
The connection was still there, although faint, like something stretched too far but not yet broken.
This could not understand it.
But it did not need to.
Because something inside it had already reacted.
Before This could properly think, it had somehow begun moving forward at a surprising speed.
This had never known what it meant to move, but regardless, it had done so, with only the desire to find the darkness and escape the loudness in its thoughts, the blinding light and the endless new sensations.
As it moved, the thoughts that had inexplicably sounded before grew quieter the further it went.
"My lady, stop!"
Not hesitating at the thoughts, This kept moving.
This pushed between two tall shapes, the layer beneath it making a crunching sound with each movement forward. The further This moved, the more common the tall, dark shapes around it became.
This did not know where it was.
Yet the stretched feeling of its connection to the darkness had shrunk, along with the loudness of the moving things from before.
Looking back, the only things This could see were the various tall things around it, and the eerie quiet of where it was.
As it continued moving, This felt the stinging sensation from before begin to simmer, feeling more like a slight buzz.
Still, there was plenty it couldn't understand, like the rapid thumping inside of it, accompanied by the strange sensation pressing softly in from all around it.
Slowing to a stop, This did its best to think and analyze what was happening.
This is no longer in the dark… This is here… This can feel… With the full understanding that it was no longer in the darkness, and that it could feel, its mind slowly calmed itself.
That single understanding cut through everything for a single moment.
This was no longer in the dark.
It was here.
But that wasn't enough.
This could still feel a pull from what it could only assume was the darkness.
Until it could connect and reach it, This felt it couldn't stop, even with the comfort of knowing it could now feel.
Pushing forward, This continued for a while until the bottom portions of itself felt like they would give out. That it could even move felt like a miracle on its own.
The thought barely formed before its next step failed entirely.
Unable to resist the movement, This fell forward.
The impact struck This's seeing parts hard, forcing the light and everything around it to disappear.
Not fighting, This let itself be swallowed by the darkness again.
It wasn't the same darkness This had known. But it was close.
In the darkness, This began to organize its thoughts and understand what had happened.
This had been pulled from the darkness and forced into a new place.
A mass of foreign memories still swirled inside it: memories of something called Sansa Stark, of something called a family, along with a place called "home."
This felt the new body it now inhabited. Two gripping extensions. A steady thumping in the middle.
This could only get a slight understanding of what was happening before a bright shape appeared within the darkness.
[Unstable Interpretation Detected]
Name: Sansa Stark / Unknown Host
Age: 13
State: Overwritten / Merged
Classification: "Void" (approximation)
Ability Fragment: Mindscape
[Note: Interpretation incomplete. Data inconsistent. Please further understand humans for more information.]
This examined the strange shape. At first, the lines were incoherent; then they slowly settled into something meaningful.
Name? Although This had only seen the lines for the first time, it felt as if their full meaning was shown directly to it.
The lines said This was Sansa.
Not This itself. But the body. The thump. The loud thoughts. The memories. It was all Sansa.
Setting the understanding aside, This read the rest of the shiny lines.
Classification: Void… Understanding the lines, This felt even more confused than before. Even with the absolute understanding the lines gave, it still didn't make sense.
This's mind told it that it was a "void," yet it also told This that "void" was the absence of anything. But This was clearly not nothing.
This thought back to its time in the darkness. Even then, it was never nothing.
This considered for a moment whether to trust these lines. Saying This was nothing was like saying darkness was light.
Moving on, This tried to understand the rest.
Ability Fragment: Mindscape
The word appeared clearly. A faint understanding came with it, not a full explanation, but a feeling.
It was a sort of space inside This, a place where its thoughts could be stored, sorted, and examined without the noise of the light. A place that belonged only to This.
This paused.
It seemed similar to the darkness it had always been in.
Mindscape… a place within This where the many memories could be slowly processed.
However, This keenly felt as if something in the explanation was missing.
This knew the ability's name now, as well as its existence somewhere inside it, but how to use it or what it really meant was still unanswered.
This stared at the shiny lines for a long time, turning the new words over and over.
Void. Mindscape.
Two new things that only made This more confused.
The shiny box lingered for a moment longer, then quietly faded away, leaving This alone once more with the softer darkness and the endless amount of Sansa's memories.
This let itself succumb to its new body's urges; it had done so often since arriving, but it wasn't sure what else to do.
For now, This only wanted to be alone with its thoughts… and whatever this new "Mindscape" was.
* * *
I had been searching through the Godswood for most of the evening.
The search party had split up to cover more ground after Sansa had been seen running toward the Godswood. Father had sent us out the moment he'd heard, yet the light was already failing, and there wasn't a trace of my sister.
"Seven bloody hells," I muttered, voice low. "Why in the gods' names would Sansa run into the Godswood at this hour? Alone as well?"
"Haah, you know our sister. Maybe it's getting around that time in her life, where doing nonsense like this becomes fun."
The man next to me responded calmly, then let out a hearty chuckle, seemingly thinking of something humorous.
"Reminds me of when we were that age. Remember when we stole two horses and rode off for a week without telling anyone? We were around her age then, too. So don't be too harsh on her."
Robb looked at me for a few short moments while speaking. I gave a nod of acknowledgement and continued to search.
Robb and I kept pushing forward, the Godswood growing darker and quieter the further in we went. We were already deep inside, the distant lights of Winterfell barely visible behind us, but there was no other choice.
Then I saw something.
Between two large, twisted trees, a small dark shape was curled tightly against the base of one of them. Completely still.
For a second, my stomach dropped.
"Sansa!" I called, loud enough for my brother nearby to turn and see what I saw.
I broke into a run, heart hammering.
Gods, if she's hurt out here… alone in the dark because she decided to wander off…
I knew what it was like to be clumsy or irrational; it was part of growing up. But if that growth came at the cost of her life…
Letting go of the thought, I inhaled sharply and skidded to my knees beside her. She was covered entirely by her cloak, from her face down to her shoes.
I held my lantern loosely in one hand and let the light spill across her.
Grabbing the cloak, I pulled it away entirely in a moment of rashness.
Underneath was a young girl with ginger hair and overly pale skin, her face still and slack.
She lay on her side, eyes closed, with her small hands tucked close to her chest.
Expecting the worst, I reached out and gently rolled her toward me.
Pressing the back of my palm against her chest, I felt the slow, even rhythm of her breathing.
She was alive.
I exhaled sharply, relief mixing with fresh annoyance. "What were you thinking?" I grumbled under my breath.
"Running out here alone like that? You could have gotten hurt."
"Yes, that was stupid of her. C'mon, let's take her home quickly." Hearing my brother start to trot off, I didn't argue. I slid one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, and lifted her.
As I stood, adjusting her against my cloak and pulling it around her, her eyes opened.
I froze mid-step.
Sansa stared deep into my eyes. I was too stunned to say anything coherent; I hadn't expected her to wake up. For a moment, neither of us spoke, only silently holding each other's gaze.
Something's off…
On my way here, I had already imagined what I'd find when I reached my sister. A crying mess was my conclusion.
Whether she had been trying to find her way back or had been lying here since she fell, I couldn't have known.
But I was certain she would be knee-deep in regret and overjoyed that someone had found her.
Yet what was in front of me was the opposite.
Where fear should have been, a deep layer of calm sat instead.
I had seen those eyes before, on my father, although rarely.
We continued to stare at each other for a moment. I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to read anything into it. Thankfully, before I could overthink it, she closed her eyes again.
Her small body relaxed completely, perhaps knowing it was her brother holding her. She even began to nudge closer for warmth.
I stood there for a heartbeat longer, staring down at her peaceful face.
"Gods…"
I shook my head, muttering as I started the long walk back toward the distant lights of Winterfell.
"What was that look? You run off alone, collapse between the trees, and then look at me like you've already made peace with the Stranger himself…" I spoke absently, not expecting a response from my sister.
"Why would you do that? Father will want answers. Tch, and I'm the one who has to carry you back like a sack of grain…"
Despite my words, I held her carefully and carried her back to Winterfell. Yet the strange look in her eyes lingered in my mind the entire way back.