Darkness had no weight.
Yet it pressed in from every direction with no edges.
No beginning nor end.
No ground beneath. No ceiling above. Just darkness.
And time.
This existed in it.
Or drifted. Or floated. There was no way to know.
This had been here a while. This was bored.
Counting started.
One…
Two…
Three…
This lost count.
This came up with an idea. Each thought would count as one. Every time this thought, this added one.
The count was held tight, clung to, it was very important.
This counted 7,950,883,411 times.
Then this lost count again.
Reset. One. Two. Three.
This gave up.
Numbers had stopped meaning anything.
Boredom soon became the only thing this felt.
This sat inside the darkness. This didn't mind. What else was there to do?
Then something changed.
At first it was subtle, almost like one of this's own thoughts.
A faint pull tugged at a corner of this it hadn't known existed.
The pull grew stronger. It wrapped around all of this.
For the first time, this felt something.
Compression. Like being forced through something far too narrow.
The pull soon became violent.
It dragged this forward, tearing thoughts apart. This tried to hold onto anything but failed.
Everything collapsed into an even deeper darkness.
Then the compression vanished..
This remaining the deep darkness for a brief moment until subtle, yet for this; an intense barrage of new feelings where felt.
A biting sensation was felt unlike ever before aswell and a strong pumping sensation deep within.
Subconsciously this pulled in something deep into itself. It was shallow at first, then without thought was taken in freely until this felt full.
The whole action brought a subtle, unfamiliar yet good feeling.
This was still trying to make sense of the new sensations when something came very close.
The nearby thing thought loudly. Similar to this's thoughts, but they didn't make much sense. And unlike this's thoughts, they did not come from inside this.
"Lady Sansa, we really shouldn't be watching something like this."
The words Lady Sansa echoed strangely inside this.
Then something unlike before hit.
Without warning, a violent array of thoughts crashed into this's mind. Thousands upon thousands of memories, images, words, and feelings that were not its own, slammed in all at once, like someone had forced an entire lifetime into its mind in a single thought.
Faces. Voices. Rooms. Sansa. A tall man with a serious face. A woman smiling gently. Lessons. Songs. Dreams of princes and feasts and summer snow. Fear. Excitement. Loneliness. Love. Everything "Sansa Stark" had ever known flooded in chaotically without a single moment of reprieve.
This, for the first time was keenly aware of what pain was. Through these memories, it had recalled the moment Sansa had fell and rolled her ankle, this was pain.
This's pain was different, much worse but it was pain nonetheless.
Even while going through the intense mental pain, the memories ceased to stop.
Food. Family. Brothers. Sisters. Wolves. It was all too much, all too fast. With such little time, this couldn't make any sense of it.
This's world spun. The loud thoughts from outside mixed with the storm inside.
'Where is this?' This thought absently, the answer came to him sharply, this was in Winterfell, home of the Starks.
The sensations continued to pile higher, the memories kept pouring in, and seemed to have no intention of stopping.
The thumping inside grew faster, louder, like something was about to burst.
"Lady Sansa? Are you alright?"
This felt bad. Earlier there had only been darkness.
Now there was too much of everything.
This moved the top part of whatever this was. Suddenly it could sense everything around it. No familiar darkness anywhere.
In front of this was endless light.
Light.
The word surfaced from the chaos, but this barely registered it.
An overwhelming urge rose inside this.
Move. Get away.
Before this could think, the lower parts lurched forward.
Movement happened. Fast and uncontrollable.
This had never experienced movement, but even this knew it was too fast. It only wanted to escape the crushing flood of memories, the loud voices, the blinding light, the endless new sensations.
But this couldn't stop now. Following the previous urge this pushed his new sensations to their limits.
Tall shapes blurred past. This pushed through them.
Ahead, something thick and white rose from below. This ran toward it.
Fragments flashed uselessly through this's mind — blurry white covering everything, the word "snow" appearing and vanishing, a small girl laughing while throwing the "snow", someone shouting "don't go outside the gates."
None of it formed clear thoughts for this, this only recognized a clear warning not to go through those gates, yet that's exactly what this did.
This didn't understand what was happening.
This only knew it needed to get away.
This pushed between two tall shapes and left the moving humans behind. The thick snow grew deeper with every step, clinging to Sansa's legs and making each movement harder.
With the memories being processed into this's mind, this began to learn new things at an alarming rate. The feeling surrounding him, was the cold, the things pushing this forward where let's, and the person running, was Sansa.
This could understand this much through the searing pain in its mind, but it didn't matter, but this kept going.
The things this had thought of as thoughts before where slowly being recognized as sounds, and behind this, they grew louder and more desperate.
"LADY SANSA!"
"My lady, please stop!"
"Sansa, come back!"
"Please, my lady — the snow!"
The words "Sansa" and "snow" kept surfacing from the tangled mess of memories. This recognized them, but they helped minimally is slowing this down.
This kept running.
Each step sent sharp sensations through the legs. The thick snow clung onto the legs and slowed this down, but this did not stop. The inside thumped harder. The sharp biting sensation of the cold began to spread, lightening the burden this's mind felt, it somehow felt almost good.
It proved this was here.
This was alive.
The realization cut through the chaos for a single moment.
This was no longer in the dark.
This was alive..
Why?
This felt itself let go and fell down harshly to the floor.
For the first time since being brought here, this finally felt itself slowly calming down.
Not fighting, this let itself be swallowed by it.
Without control all the lights silently disappeared, and returner this back it's solitary within the darkness.
This keenly noticed It wasn't the same darkness. But it was close.
In this calm darkness, this began to organize it's thoughts and understand what had happened.
This had been pulled from the darkness and brought to a new place, this wasn't sure where all these new thoughts had come frome, but from those thoughts this place was considered home.
In these thoughts this was a young girl named Sansa. Sansa was a princess, an heir to the family of Stark in the land of Westeros. This didn't understand what any of this meant, it was only forced into its mind just a few moments ago.
But it was all This had.
This felt the new body it was controlling. This had two gripping extensions which Sansa called hands. They could tighten and soften, but moving them was slow.
In the middle, this felt a steady thumping. This wasn't sure, what it was, but this liked that feeling.
Using the hands, this felt the top part, but couldn't understand it much.
Letting go of the softness on its head, this felt the sharp, cold beneath him and stilled.
'Was all of it this? How did this get here?' This had many thoughts shift through its mind ontop of the large amount of memories that weren't his shifting through his psyche.
Stopping this's deep thoughts, a bright shape appeared within the darkness.
[Name: Sansa Stark
Age: 13
Gender: Female
System note: To understand more, please spend time with the humans!]
This examined the strange shape. It didn't seem dangerous.
At first this didn't understand, but looking closer, the weird lines slowly settled into something this could understand.
Name? Sansa Stark?
This could now tell what the weird lines meant, instinctively. This has never known what names where, but having read it, the meaning became clear to This.
The lines said This was Sansa.
Not This itself, but the feelings. The thump. The loud thoughts, the memories. Even the good feelings. It was all Sansa.
This thought back to all the.memories it had of Sansa, how Sansa would get happy at "dolls" and how Sansa liked to where pretty "dresses".
This has never known dolls nor dresses, so how could This like them. If This was Sansa then did that mean This liked dolls?
It didn't make sense.
I am This. This is not Sansa.
If This was Sansa… then what was This?
Forgetting the messy thoughts, this read the rest of the shiny lines.
[System note: To understand more, please spend time with the humans!]
Without noticing, this mumbled the words aloud.
Although this could now understand the weird lines, it still did not get what they meant.
Humans? The things from earlier?
This had a clear image for what humans where. Although in Sansas memories, humans where called people. With the system making things clear, and the memories of family, this knew what humans where.
But this still didn't get why it had to spend time with them?
Not answering this's question, the shiny box quietly disappeared and returned This's mind to the previous darkness.
This, didn't question it, instead This let it's new human body do as it pleased. For now, this only wanted to be alone with his thoughts within the darkness.
________________________________________
I had been trudging through the knee-deep snow for the most part of dawn.
The search party had split up to cover more ground after Sansa had bolted past the gates. Father had sent them out as soon as he'd seen it, 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 outside the walls at this hour? As if the North isn't cold enough inside the damn castle."
"Haah, you know our sister. And it's getting around that time in her life, isn't it? Where doing silly 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 left for the brothel? We were around her age then, too. So don't be too harsh on her."
Rob looked at me for a few short moments whilst speaking. I gave a nod of acknowledgement and continued to search.
Robb and I kept pushing forward, and the snow was getting deeper the further we went. We were already far past the gates, and my toes were starting to freeze inside my boots, but there was no other choice.
Then I saw something.
In between two large twisted trees, I saw a small black ball-like object tightly curled into itself.
It was half buried in the snow and completely still.
For a second, my stomach dropped.
"Lady Sansa!" I called loudly, loud enough for my brother nearby to turn over and see what I saw.
I broke into a run, heart hammering.
Gods, if she was dead… frozen solid out here because she decided to wander off…
I knew what it was like to be clumsy or irrational; it was part of growth. But if that growth came at the cost of her life...
Loosely 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 loosely held my lantern in one hand and allowed the light to spill across the snow-dusted cloak.
Grabbing the cloak, I removed it entirely in a moment of rashness.
Underneath was a young girl with ginger hair, overly pale skin and a bluish tint to her now puffy cheeks.
She lay on her side, eyes closed, with her small hands tucked close to her chest.
Expecting the worst, I reached out with gloved hands and gently rolled her toward me.
Pressing the back of my palm against her chest, I noticed the slow and even rhythm of her breaths.
She was alive.
I exhaled sharply, relief mixing with fresh annoyance. "What were you thinking, little sister?" I grumbled under my breath.
"Running out here alone in this weather? You could have died."
"Yes, that was stupid of her.. C'mon, let's take her home quickly." Hearing the presence beside me begin to trot off, I didn't refute and slid one arm under her knees, the other behind her back and lifted her.
As I stood, I adjusted her against my cloak and pulled it around her to shield her from the wind, when her eyes opened.
I froze mid-step.
Sansa stared deep into his eyes. Neither of them spoke. In her gaze, Jon saw a profound, unnatural calm that had no place on the face of a thirteen-year-old girl who had just collapsed in the snow at dusk.
Sansa stared deep into my eyes. I was too stunned to speak anything coherent in the moment; I hadn't expected her to wake up. Holding eye contact, for a moment, neither of us spoke, only silently looking.
Something was off...
Subconsciously, on my way here, I had already imagined what I'd see when I found my sister. A crying mess was my conclusion.
Whether she had found shelter and would freeze or not, I couldn't have known.
But I was certain she would be knee deep in regret and would be 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 interpret this in any way. Thankfully, before I could overthink, she had closed her eyes again.
Her small body relaxed completely, perhaps after knowing it was her brother holding her. She even began to nudge in closer for warmth.
I stood there for a heartbeat longer, staring down at her peaceful face. "Gods…"
I shook my head, lightly muttering as I started the long walk back toward the distant lights of Winterfell.
"What was that look? You run off into the cold, 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 while my toes freeze off…"
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.