The Return Of The Natives

Author: Wardown

Words: 5,934

Status: Unfinished

Rating: Mature

Language: English

Chapter 4, Welcome to Hell. https://archiveofourown.org/works/91469301/chapters/244474351

But, the news she'd received this morning had been like a bucket of cold water, thrown in her face. She and Jon had been tried, in absentia, by a Northern Court, presided over by her brother Robb, and the pair had been sentenced to death for treason. Her own brother.  She'd complained to Dany about it, and the princess had stared at her, as if she'd sprouted a second head. 

"Sansa, this is not a game we're playing.  Defeat comes with a firing squad attached - if we're lucky.  Torture, and the hangman's rope, if we aren't." 
Her heart lurched. Being wired up to a car battery, and worked over with a length of rubber hosepipe hadn't really occurred to her as possible outcomes, before now. It had seemed such a jolly lark to elope with Jon. They'd planned to flee to Braavos. But, once Jon had found out who his real father was, it seemed the obvious thing, to seek out his uncle.

"But why?" she'd asked. "We're highborn!"

"Sansa, in the eyes of our enemies, we are war criminals."

"That's ridiculous!  What have we done?"

"Sansa, what do you think that warfare entails?"

"Erm ... well, I really hadn't given much thought to it."

"Sacks, burnings, and massacres, Sansa.  Famine and pestilence, naturally.  Murder and rape, obviously.  Bombing from the air. Collective punishment. There are people starving in this city, and the countryside.  This is the Time of Troubles.  Everyone is seeking revenge.  I've tortured and murdered, and I tell myself it's all for the greater good.  So will Jon.  And, whether or not you get your own hands dirty, you'll be blamed, just as much as the rest of us.

"Oh", was all she could say.

Dany gave her a mirthless smile, before remarking "Welcome to hell, Sansa."