"Jon is..." Benjen stopped, sighed. "I cannot believe we ever considered the Wall for him, Ned. He is kinder and smarter than any of us, and with Ser Arthur's instructions, he's a better warrior too. He was born to be a lord. But then I suppose I never had to tell you that. After all, you were the one who decreed he grow up with the trueborn children."
Ned could not help but smile at those words. It was all he had ever hoped for for Jon, and everything he had never thought he would be able to give the boy. As honourable as the Wall had once been, and as necessary as the Night's Watch still was, it would never have been a place where Jon could have reached his potential. He was the best of both his parents, of what both lines had to offer, and Ned had no idea how a creature like him had even come to be in the midst of a War that had threatened to tear the fabric of the realm apart. "Jon is far more than the sum of his parts," he said at last, and that much was definitely true. "He did not need my guidance for that; it is simply what he is. If he had gone to the Wall, I expect he would have made Lord Commander before too long. And then what? Where could he have gone from there, given what the realm affords the Night's Watch? No, he is better off this way, and whatever else I have to hold against Robert, I am beyond grateful for this thing."
Benjen gave him a smile that was almost impish, more in line with their early youth than their current stations in life. "Are you ready to see him wed?" he asked.
Ned laughed out loud. "Not at all," he said. "I would rather he remain my little boy forever. But it is for the best, is it not? Dragonstone needs an heir, and however shrewd a girl Arya may be, she won't be able to trade on the respect Jon has gained the way a son of his would, will she?"
Benjen shook his head, face growing solemn. "Ned," he said. "I do not understand what is going on here. I cannot tell you why the vassals stopped resisting and decided to suddenly give Jon their full support. Arthur Dayne is up to something, and I do not know what. It frightens me. I have watched it happen, and I still do not understand, and I am terrified, for Jon, for myself, my wife and our babe."
"Jon would never let anything happen to you," Ned said. "The lad knows the value of his own kin. And you know Arthur. He would do anything to keep Jon safe, even put on a mummer's
show. I promise it is nothing you have to fear. And if he oversteps... He is the Sword of the Morning. For now, he is untouchable, and Jon by extension."
Benjen gave a quick nod, sucked in a deep, audible breath. "The servants say Jon is always cold," he said at last. "He requires hot stones on his fireplace, and he is always showing up with cuts on him. No one can explain them. I worry for the boy, Ned."
Ned had no idea what that meant, but the worry carried into his own being immediately. Dragonstone should be positively warm to a Northman - hot, even, on sunny days at least. But then, Jon was not just of the North. He was warm-blooded, in a way few could claim. In a way few could even hope to understand. His ancestors had always resisted the maesters' efforts to study them. The cuts, though, those were worrying. Ned, for all that it did not feel quite logical, wondered whether the boy suffered from the lack of the Old Gods' presence. "Make sure he does not over extend himself in the training yard," Ned instructed.
"He is not over extending himself," Benjen said. "Ser Arthur is the only one to really challenge him these days. Even his Tyrell friend, however talented, only gets the upper hand when Jon is distracted. Something is going on, Ned."
Ned swallowed, made himself bite it all down. Whoever he told would have a part in his treason. He had come to terms with that a decade and more ago. He certainly would not have his little brother put in danger because of his own decisions, his own promises. Whatever Arthur Dayne was devising only made it that much more important that Benjen stay ignorant. "I am certain everything will be just fine, Ben," he said. "The boy needs grounding. He came into a Lordship very young. He is clever and talented, yes, but it must still have been daunting and very lonely. I know it is frightening to see him married off so soon, and I hate it and am no more ready for it than you are, but it will be a good thing. He needs a companion, more than anything. More than what we can provide him with."
Benjen looked doubtful, and Ned felt the doubt himself, but still his brother nodded, and Ned had no choice other than to heed his own words.
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