It didn't take long for This to reach the entrance to the castle. Almost all of Winterfell had been memorized using its Mindscape.
The only parts it hadn't memorized were the parts it hadn't seen.
Receiving greetings from the guardsmen, This gave a small nod, something it was becoming very familiar with, and entered.
In the week it had spent here, This had noticed a key part of how humans communicated. This called it body language.
Oftentimes, humans said what they thought with nods or frowns, smiles and waves, and many other confusing ways. At first, it took a while for This to understand that each movement might have a meaning, but eventually This realized it was something it had to take seriously, as seriously as it took learning words.
Some body language was simple, like humans smiling to show happiness or lowering their eyebrows to show anger.
Others were more confusing, like Jon's deep stares and Septa's constant talking.
This still couldn't understand what these meant.
Still, This would understand them slowly.
This had also begun to speak to humans after practicing speech when alone.
Feeling confident, it had, as first intended, asked the humans many questions.
After all, it still had no answers about the System, and the box's first message had told it to understand humans to learn more.
However, unlike what it had expected, asking Septa about the floating, glowing System had not yielded any answers. Instead, it had resulted in a long conversation with Mother and Father.
The conversation was long and slightly confusing. They often asked questions This couldn't answer, like "Are you seeing things?" or "Why have you been acting so strange?"
This had answered "yes" to the first and was only confused by the second. However, instead of learning anything about the System, it seemed they now thought "Sansa was sick."
At least, that's what This heard the maids say.
This only knew what sickness was from Sansa's memories: tired, itchy eyes and a wet nose. But This had none of those. So it was certain it wasn't sick.
Yet it seemed every human in the castle thought so.
In the end, it worked out for This.
Humans asked fewer questions and stopped shouting when This ate with its hands.
Walking with quick steps, This found its way to its room. Entering, it placed the book down and prepared to leave.
However, to its surprise, when This turned around, it felt a soft lightness on the back of its foot.
Looking down, This saw the same white, four-legged being that had bitten it earlier. The blood around its mouth had dried, and the look in its eyes had simmered into something This recognized as confusion.
The being looked up at This and sat silently.
"How did you get here?" This asked the being.
"…" As expected, there was no response. The small thing only continued to look at This, occasionally opening its mouth and letting its tongue hang.
This couldn't understand what the gesture meant, but This thought that if it had hung its own tongue out, it would only be because it was hungry.
"You're hungry?" This asked again. This time, not waiting for a response, This walked toward the door and opened it.
Looking down again, This was now aware of how the small thing had followed it until now.
It was walking at the perfect speed to match This, hiding partially underneath its dress.
Giving an approving nod, This exited the room and headed straight toward the kitchen.
Even if the being wasn't hungry, This had planned to go there from the start.
* * *
After Father's announcement to the family and advisers about Sansa's condition, the house seemed to have shifted slightly.
Although the usual busyness and calm were present, there was now a firm feeling of the unknown.
Perhaps it was only my imagination, but somehow, it felt like things had changed.
Two days ago, Lady Stark and Father had spoken to Sansa about something. I didn't know the exact details, but they said she had trouble connecting the dots on certain memories and had even spoken about seeing things.
Father had made it clear not to speak of it to anyone, yet somehow this information was now common gossip for every busy mouth in the castle.
At first, I was worried this could somehow affect the reputation of House Stark. But seeing her reading and eating all the time, with such joy in both, I couldn't find a single negative word to say.
The new Sansa almost never spoke and often held a cold demeanour. But seeing her smile like a child every so often made me think it wasn't such a big deal. That in the end, it'd be okay.
Those sentiments kept my mind steady.
And with the new addition of the wolf pups, I was hoping it'd help her feel more comfortable talking again.
"Haah, this isn't my problem. I shouldn't think too much…" Doing my best to forget about the new, strange Sansa, I shifted my attention to the last pup I held within my coat.
Ghost. That was the name I had decided on after a short moment alone.
It resembled me in a way. Discarded, extra, almost forgotten. A stray pup kept distant from the rest of the litter, but in the end, still one of them.
Taking the pup out from under my arm, I lifted him above my head, getting a clear look at the young wolf I'd one day bury.
His fur was pure white, and his eyes were blood red. If any of my other siblings had seen those deep red eyes, they might have thought he was cursed, but I found him somewhat… cute.
Well, maybe Sansa wouldn't think he's cursed either, I thought idly, looking as deeply as I could into the pup's eyes. The red haze covering them made it hard to tell whether he was even alive.
Putting the pup back under my arm, I headed toward my room. I planned on leaving him there while I went to find Robb for a spar.
Watching that young man die while proclaiming a truth that nobody would believe had made something inside me burn, and Robb would be the perfect victim for such a flame.
* * *
The kitchen was full of humans. They all shuffled about, making different sorts of food at the same time.
For a while, nobody even noticed This watching the busy scene.
This had no problem waiting; it had been here before. Eventually, a human would speak to This and feed it.
In the idle time of waiting, This wondered what kind of food the small being would like; it had bitten so hard into its hand that This briefly considered whether it would like to eat meat or not.
…Who wouldn't like to eat meat?
"Ahh, Lady Sansa! I apologize, I didn't see you there! Are you hungry, my lady?" Interrupting This's thoughts, a small woman with simple brown hair appeared directly in front of This.
Looking into the woman's eyes, This keenly felt the slight shock mixed with a tinge of happiness the human felt.
Perhaps because it had been with humans for a while, This felt that these things were becoming easier and easier to notice.
"One large meat… please." This spoke slowly; the last word was added with a bit of carelessness, but the woman didn't seem to mind and smiled brilliantly.
"Of course! Just wait one moment, I'll get something for you!" Bowing her head once, the maid turned around and joined the many humans moving wildly in the kitchen.
This would have liked to follow her and see how she got the meat, but being so small, it would have been hard to blend in with all those humans, and This wasn't in the mood to talk either.
Looking around, This found a seat near a rather empty table and waited. It considered putting the small being on the table so it could see, but, looking down and watching the thing settle comfortably underneath its chair, This decided against it.
With nothing left to do, This waited. But not idly.
It closed its eyes, and the dark Mindscape, which This had come to accept as a sort of home, welcomed it.
Feeling around within its Mindscape, This first noticed the large mental pile of memories that it still hadn't gone through.
With the discovery of words and human language, This had put off going through each memory for when it was bored.
After all, going through the memories didn't take any thinking; it was like watching the snow fall, unending and extremely slow.
Instead, it had spent its first week here understanding humans, like the System wanted.
Since the box had spoken of Mother, This had often thought of ways to make the System come back, such as speaking to humans, speaking about the System, even thinking strongly about the blue box, but in the end, nothing happened.
This had even considered the possibility that it would never come back.
Leaving the System pile to the side, This moved on to another large mass of memories: the words, books, and letters that This had been studying.
The pile was quite large, almost as big as Sansa's memory pile. The only problem with it was the complete lack of understanding. Although This had technically "read" hundreds of books, they were all simply memorized, with almost none of the words actually making sense to it.
Even so, This still found books interesting. The idea of human thoughts, thoughts that This itself could never have, all written carefully inside a small book, was very interesting to it.
Yet the rate of learning words was still extremely slow. Just learning the alphabet had taken a full week; This could only imagine how long it would take to learn every word.
But something even more important to This, currently, was the word kill.
This hadn't had any time to enter the Mindscape until now, so it still had no real understanding of what the word meant.
So, without thinking too much, it delved deeply into Sansa's memories to see if it could find anything related to "kill."
The memories weren't easy to sift through, and there was no way to find exactly what it was looking for, so instead, it went purely by feeling. With the Mindscape, no memories or feelings could be forgotten, so all This had to do was connect that earlier feeling to one of Sansa's memories.
Searching through pure feeling, This tried to cut away as many happy or joyful memories as possible. Then it moved on to all memories involving wiggles or four-legged beings.
With these steps in mind, This could only hope to find what it was looking for.
…
This wasn't sure how long it had been inside its Mindscape, but after searching for so long, it had found nothing. Not many wiggles, not many four-legged beings, and certainly no "kill."
Opening its eyes, This let out a large exhale and rested its chin on the table. Going through the memories like that was tiring, even for This.
And to find nothing relevant left This feeling slightly empty.
"Erm… m'lady? Your meal is ready! Would you like a drink?" With its head still resting against the table, looking vaguely into the distance, This first noticed a plate appear in front of it, followed by the soft voice of the familiar brown-haired maid.
Lifting its head, This looked at the maid for a split second before dragging its eyes to the shiny, golden-brown meat.
It was covered in beautiful juices and still sizzling in certain spots. Without even having to take a breath, This could smell the delectable aroma waft off the meat and enter directly into its mind.
This wanted nothing more than to eat the meat right then and there. But thinking of the hungry small thing, This decided to wait.
Not noticing the drool escaping its mouth, This spoke hazily.
"Thank you…" And without another word, This grabbed the plate and headed toward its room.
The maid said nothing as This hurried toward the exit with the large plate.
Only as This turned did it feel her gaze drop, briefly, to its blood-stained hand, and to the small being following beneath its dress.
* * *
With careful yet quick steps, This found itself back inside its room.
Looking down expectantly, This noticed that the small creature was still walking beneath its dress, although it now seemed much more tired than before.
This placed the plate on the table near the mirror, forcefully ripped a piece of meat off, and placed the chunk in its fabric-covered hand. It was hot, but This didn't mind.
Lowering its body, This held its hand out, looked directly into the thing's eyes and spoke.
"Don't bite me this time." The words came out coldly, with a hint of anger that was not intended, but the small thing seemed to understand.
First taking a sniff, then another, it no longer hesitated and bit the meat, taking it from This's hand and moving a small distance away.
This didn't mind its attitude, even preferring its quickness. At least this way, it had more time to enjoy its own food.
Standing back up and returning to the table, This haphazardly picked up the large piece of meat with both hands and began to feast.
As soon as the first piece entered its mouth, This was reminded, once again, that nothing in the darkness had ever compared to this.
As much as it enjoyed learning words and understanding humans, This felt that if it could eat meat forever, it wouldn't mind doing so.
With the first chunk of meat sliding down its throat and into its stomach, This felt its body and mind grow more comfortable, similar to when it had first eaten.
This still couldn't understand why it became so much easier to move whenever it ate, but in that moment, it did not care.
Right now, there was only This and the meat.
* * *
It didn't take long for me to find Robb; he was always spending time in his study, worrying over finances or the responsibilities of becoming the next lord.
I respected him for this. In a way, it was easy to treat Robb like an older brother.
Even then, with all the work he did in that study, it was never good to let your body rust while your mind sharpened. It took only a few short words to convince him to come out and spar.
This wasn't uncommon for us; we had been sparring partners since we were young. I'd have been more surprised had he turned my request down, but that would just mean I'd have to spar with Theon, and Robb was never a fan of bullying.
"Have you decided on a name for your pup?" Walking toward the training ground, I started some casual small talk with my brother.
"Not yet. I think I'll let the name come to me. Have you decided on yours?" he replied without turning.
"I have. I was thinking Ghost? What do you think?" I responded in the same casual tone, asking his opinion on the name.
"Ghost?… It's fitting. I see why you named him that." Giving me a brief look, he seemed to approve before turning away again.
Reaching the training grounds, Robb headed for an old barrel filled with wooden swords. The barrel had been in the same spot for so many years, I had come to believe it was older than I was.
Following closely behind, I fiddled with the handles before finding a familiar dark brown handle with a hint of red dyed deep into it.
The blade had always held a tint of red, whether from its material or from the hands that had held it before mine; either way, I found that this sword fit me best.
Robb gave my blade a cursory glance before picking a random one and swinging it a few times.
Done with his warm-up, he looked at me with undisguised laziness and spoke.
"Are you ready?" Not feeling the need to warm up, I answered quickly.
"Of course." And with that, the duel officially began.
Robb held his ground with no intention to move; it wasn't an uncommon tactic of his, so instead of hesitating, I dashed in and quickly closed the distance.
Allowing the unease within my gut to guide me, I lifted the sword high with the full intention of breaking his guard in one strike.
Without wasted motion, Robb decided against blocking and simply weaved to the right, dodging the strike entirely.
Not finished with my move, I shifted the blade's weight in my hand, swinging it horizontally in his direction.
My goal in this duel had never been to be calculating, but simply to apply an onslaught of pressure.
Seeing the sword headed in his direction, Robb calmly lifted his blade in a reverse grip, parrying the hit.
However, my momentum forced him to step back slightly. Not holding back for a moment, I went in again, this time aiming for his neck with a diagonal slash.
Seeing my movement, Robb lifted the sword above himself in a blocking posture, using his off-hand to steady the full length of the blade.
Thooom
The sound of our blades colliding was loud enough for anyone nearby to hear clearly.
Taking a moment to breathe, I attempted to look into Robb's eyes, but not satisfied with the stalemate, Robb stepped forward, aiming a thrust kick at my stomach.
Not expecting the kick, I was a moment too late to respond and took it harshly. Falling backward, I rolled quickly to land back on my feet, rising to a stand as fast as I could.
Yet with the same calculating precision, Robb had already appeared in front of me with his blade aimed at my face.
"Shall we consider this my win?" With a hint of a smirk, Robb spoke with slight mockery in his tone.
I had long gotten used to losing, especially to him, but through the many losses, the bitter taste of defeat never diminished.
"…Yeah. It's your win." With those words, Robb lowered the wooden sword and held out his hand for me to grab.
Gripping it with some anger, I let him pull me to my feet.
"Again," I said, as calmly as I could manage.
Not answering, Robb simply took a few steps back and entered his familiar counter stance, waiting for my move.
Smiling slightly at that, I charged in once more.