Chapter Text
Eddard
Lord Eddard Stark was sitting in front of the heart tree in the godswood cleaning Ice. He had just come back from an execution.
The rapist had gone unpunished for almost two years until Rickard Karstark captured him. The man had committed dozens of crimes, and still, it hadn't been easy to pass sentence upon him. It was never easy.
He heard the sound of steps softened by the layer of fallen leaves. He knew who it was.
"Catelyn, love," he said before seeing her.
"I didn't mean to interrupt," she hesitated before continuing, "A raven arrived from King's Landing."
Dark wings, dark words. Receiving a letter from King's Landing couldn't be good.
Every time he received a letter from Robert, it was to request his services to face yet another war. The last one had come only three years ago when the King discovered that his children weren't his.
Jon Arryn and Stannis Baratheon had presented the King with the evidence that proved Cersei Lannister and her twin brother had been insulting the Crown and laughing at the King's back. Robert, explosive as ever, exposed the twins, their children and their transgression to the rest to the Seven Kingdoms. Obviously, Tywin Lannister was furious, and he started a Rebellion against Robert. Robert called his bannermen, and Ned followed his King and friend as he had sworn he would.
However, their friendship suffered a fatal flaw after the war ended. Robert won and crushed Tywin, but he didn't stop there. Ned told him to send Jaime Lannister to the Wall, and allow Cersei and her children to return to Casterly Rock. There Tyrion Lannister, the new Lord of the Rock, would keep them under control. Robert ignored him and sentenced the twins and their children, to death. Ned wouldn't forgive Robert for ordering to kill the children.
He had allowed something similar to happen following the Rebellion. After all, it hadn't been Robert who killed the Targaryen children, but not again. He had kept as far away as he could from the Crown during the next years. Now, the perspective of receiving a letter from the King, filled him with dread, not the joy he had experimented in the past.
He took the parchment from his wife's hand, trying not to show his fear. He read and confirmed his suspicions, awful news.
"What is it, Ned?"
"Jon Arryn is dead."
"I'm sorry. I know he was like a father to you."
"He was," he admitted, "but that it's not the worst. Robert's coming to Winterfell."
When he saw his wife's face, he knew she was as worried as him. She was aware that their friendship no longer existed in his heart; he had confessed it himself. If he felt something for Robert Baratheon, that was revulsion and dread.
"Why would he come after so many years?" Catelyn asked hesitantly.
"I have no idea, Cat," he lied.
Eddard Stark knew perfectly what his old friend wanted, and it wasn't pleasant.
Winter is coming.