The Benefits of Reek

A/N: Just for the record, this chapter will feature the introduction to the story of another character from the Game of Thrones Telltale game, the story where the Forrester characters come from. Don't worry I will keep it self-explanatory if you hadn't played the game. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

After about 10 minutes of slow-flying and a lot of shocked expression at the banner of truce being used, Jon Stark landed his dragon on the island where the House of Black and White was located and began to climb down; helping his sister as he did so, who was grinning with utmost delight.

"That was INCREDIBLE!" Arya shouted, her voice thrilled. "And I have always wondered what it would be like to fly on top of a dragon too. Thanks a lot, brother!" She added before tackling him with a hug, her short frame jumping in his arms.

The young King chuckled. "I am glad you enjoyed that. And don't worry, we will have more time to enjoy the skies when we head back to Westeros."

"Can't wait," She chuckled as she broke away.

Jon turned to look at the Greyjoy siblings, who were trying not to stumble all the way down of the dragon. Theon in particular looked a little pale and particularly nauseated but after taking a few deep breaths, he looked back at the face of his companion and grinned in wonder.

"Well, I won't deny that was the most fun I have had in years, and that includes fucking the tits out of that gorgeous woman on Volantis," She admitted. "Now, why don't you start by telling me how did you bring us here?"

"That's a long story," Jon said slowly, "Maybe we should head to the Iron Bank to discuss it properly?"

Yara raised an eyebrow at that statement. "So, the highest princes of the Gold Price decided to back you up and make you King? Is that it?"

Jon shrugged. "They have decided to back me up, yes but my kingship comes from the fact that Robb chose me as his heir in his will. The red wedding put those succession plans on hold but the word has spread quite a bit by now."

Theon's eyes widened at the revelation and his face looked guilty all of the sudden, probably because he reminded him of Robb. He sighed.

Yara glanced back at her brother for a moment before facing him once more. "That sounds like quite the tale. But I am not leaving my crew's sight until I hear what you have to say. So whether it's long or short, I will hear your explanations here and now."

Jon interlocked his fingers for a moment as he stared at Ironborn captain right in the eye, her gaze unflinching. "Fair enough," He ended up replying. "And you seem like a woman that appreciates directness so I suppose I can go straight to the point if you prefer."

"That would be good," She replied with a curt nod.

"Well, I brought you here with one of my new magical powers I have been experimenting with, like a Maester would put it," Jon began. "In this case, this one allows me to magically transport all the people and objects I want within a certain distance of a piece of wood that originates from a Weirwood tree, as long as on my end, I am near another piece of weirwood. The Children of the Forest called power that affects their collective presence across their ancient trees a weirwood web or something to that effect and it seems I have gained access to their might of old, among other things."

"Huh," Yara muttered, turning to look at Theon for a moment as he frantically searched in his pockets for the weirwood figurine of the stark sigil that he now carried before glancing back at him. "If you hadn't pulled me from Slaver Bay waters to Braavos in the blink of an eye I would have thought all that snow must have made you mad. But seeing is believing I guess. How did you pick up these new skills then?"

"Another long story," Jon went on. "The short version is that a red priest of R'hllor used her magic to revive me after getting stabbed to **** and ever since I came back, I appear to have gained a much stronger connection to the forces of magic," He told her, stretching the truth somewhat but not actually lying.

If she noticed he was omitting crucial information, she didn't say anything. However, she did look at him with more than a little disbelief. She was going to open her mouth to reply when she suddenly snapped it shut and looked towards the north in contemplation. Raising an eyebrow, he turned back and noticed that she was staring at the Braavosi Temple of Lord of Light, also located within the Isle of the Gods area of the city.

"Hmm, she seems to be remembering something important," Jon thought as he turned back to her. "Perhaps from her past travels across the numerous seas of the known world."

"It has been...a long time since I have seen something like that with my own eyes," She ended up saying. "Do you have proof, though?"

At that, Jon opened his shirt and showed her the scars of all the violent stabs on his chest. She actually gasped in surprise for a brief moment. But then she frowned, tilting her head as if trying to sort out a mystery in her mind. "If what is dead may never die, then what does that make you?"

Suddenly, Jon's mind went blank at her line of questioning, as the topic brought possibilities to his mind that he has avoided dwelling much on until now. Then he shook his head, remembering the details between the lines that the deity that had empowered him said.

"Not immortal, if that's what you are asking," He responded in the most neutral tone he could manage.

Inside, however, he couldn't keep a stray thought from hitting him. "But I could become one if I worded a wish right."

Jon shook his head slightly as if to clear it, after noticing that Arya had tensed at that line of thought as well, probably wondering what to make of those godly possibilities herself.

"You sound unsure," Yara asked suspiciously.

Jon hesitated then sighed. "That's because I am. Some of the things I saw while I was dead were...hard to interpret but they did leave the possibility open that I may come to grow older at a much slower rate than before," He admitted, thinking back to the passive rule of his powers that extended his lifespan a bit every time he has sex with one of his relatives. "But complete immortality? That sounds...much harder to achieve with magic."

Yara scratched her chin as she analyzed those words narrowing her eyes as she stared at the secret god. But then she nodded. "I suppose that does make more sense, yes. Now, you have told us how you brought us here. Let's focus on the why now. I would have thought you wanted us dead, especially my little brother."

Theon tensed at that but said nothing, his head hung low as if in a constant state of apology. In the end, Jon thought back to the recommendations Sansa had made to him last night and sighed. "I won't deny the thought did cross my mind. However, my sister convinced me to take a page out of King Jaeherys the Conciliator and at least offer you a chance to redeem yourself for your crimes against the North and in ways that would become convenient for you two."

Yara frowned at that while Theon's eyes snapped open and he stared at Arya, who was standing beside him, in surprise. Before the King of the North and the Trident could explain himself better, his little sister rolled her eyes. "Don't look at me. I am the one that wanted to see you hang."

Theon immediately closed his mouth but didn't look the least bit shocked at the response, which actually made Jon grimace a bit. So, he decided to get back to trying to defuse the tension.

"As Arya has so...delicately put it," he added while giving a mild glare of disapproval to her utterly unashamed face, "you have my other sister, Sansa, to thank for giving me the idea in the first place."

"And why exactly should we seek redemption for crimes against peoples who are not our own?" Yara demanded as she crossed her arms.

Jon took a deep breath so that he wouldn't reply with the very first thing that crossed his mind. Instead, he decided to double down on diplomacy.

"To begin with? Because I am interested in helping you kill your uncle," He said in a nonchalant tone.

For a long moment, Captain Yara Greyjoy had nothing to say, her face more than a little surprised. But then, her eyes found his Ice Dragon again and she started truly smiling for the first time since they have met. "Do go on, King Jon. Do go on."

Sansa was listening to Josera's voice while she remained in the form of her direwolf, the experienced warg trying to provide some guidance.

"...am sure that you are experiencing a lot of different things now that your mind is in that powerful body," He said. "Not just the strength but especially the sense. Direwolves have a remarkably strong sense of smell, for example.'

He didn't have to tell her that. The smoke may have no longer been hitting her directly but it felt even stronger than before. And that was just one among a myriad of smells that were assaulting her nostrils, most of which she didn't recognize due to the sheer strength of it.

"I know it can be overwhelming, especially at first," Josera went on. "So, for now, try to isolate individual smells from among the group. Take your time, breathe in deeply, and focus. This will help."

The last thing Sansa wanted to do at that moment was to breathe in deeply with her senses disoriented but he was the veteran there when it came to warging so, she swallowed her hesitation and did as asked several times.

At first, it fell nauseating. Everything was heightened, to the point that she could smell half a dozen kinds of stench coming from far away. But she repeated his instructions and tried to clear her mind. Eventually, after many repetitions, the new warg started to recognize a few smells. The snow was easy, for one, as were the tree leaves of the Wolfswood. A few minutes later, she started to recognize the smell of people, which was not that pleasant, although in some cases they were not that awful. Before long, she started smelling smoke coming from a different direction, and, based on what she remembered from their location, it could be the flames coming from the blast furnaces from the smithing workshop.

But then, she caught another smell she recognized, and before she knew it, she had risen on all four paws, her joints clearly tense.

Blood. And mixed with something else. Something...familiar.

Josera raised an eyebrow at that and asked her if something was wrong. Instead of getting back to her original body, she sniffed the air with resolve, wracking her movable mind as she tried to remember where she had smelled that particular fragrance before. Then, she gasped as the revelation hit her but it came out as a bark.

She had smelled that specific, flowery perfume before...back on King's Landing...in Margaery's presence.

Abruptly, Sansa gave out a roar through Lady's form and raced ahead, in the direction of the blood. She heard Brianne and Josera shouting but her instincts jumped like they had a mind of their own and her powerful legs would not stop running.

A few minutes later, when she had left the Godswood far behind, she stumbled upon a woman's form that laid collapsed across the ground of the forest, her hands bound, her face dirty and scratched, and her right shoulder bleeding.

For a moment, Sansa just stood there, her wolf body tensing in shock.

"That's Mira Forrester!" She thought, stunned. "She was Margaery's only Northener handmaiden. Asher had told me that no one at Ironrath has known what happened to her since she was arrested in King's Landing, at least according to Lord Whitehill's demoralizing speeches during the old siege. What in my brother's name is she doing here?"

Shaking her big head, she focused on her bond with Lady, heading back to her own body but not before giving her the emotional impression that she was to guard the **** lady until she came back with help.

Before she knew it, she woke up back in the chair, startled.

She looked around, noticing that Lyanna was entering the Godswood with Asher Forrester in tow, while Brianne and Josera stayed behind with her. Apparently, she had been gone longer than she thought.

"My Lady! Are you alright?" Her sworn sword asked her with concern.

"Yes, but..." She turned to look at Asher. "I ran off because I recognized that smell. It was the perfume your sister Mira and the other handmaidens that accompanied Margaery wore...while mixed with blood.

For a couple of seconds, there was an absolute moment of silence as Asher Forrester stared at her, shocked. But then his gaze hardened with anger and determination. "Where is she?" He asked on the spot.

Sansa took a deep breath, rising. "All of you, follow me, she can't stay much longer out there in the snow."

Without preamble, everyone followed her lead, heading to the non-weirwood area of the Ironwood forest. It took them longer to get there on the slower pace of the forms gave them but they walked with purpose, a need for answers in their expressions.

Eventually, they reached the spot. Lady had moved her to a nearby tree so that the canopy would better protect her from falling snow and then snuggled her with her furry body, clearly trying to make her feel warmer. It seemed to be working because she started groaning by the time they knelt down to see her more closely.

"Mira," Asher said, longing and concern both deep in his tone. "What happened to you? How did you get here?"

"A...Asher...is that really you?"

"It is, sister, it really is," He assured her, gripping her sure-to-be cold hands tightly. "I am back from my exile in Essos and we have defeated the Whitehills. Just come with us back home and you will be safe."

"Not...safe..." She moaned in pain.

Sansa felt a shiver down her and not from the cold. "Mira, do you remember me?"

The eldest daughter of the late Lord Gregor Forrester blinked rapidly before her eyes widened. "Lady Sansa?"

"Yes, it's me," She said in a soft voice. "House Stark and House Forrester have become allies against the Boltons. But what happened to you?"

The injured woman's hands tighten around her brother, before she started gasping. "Lord Glover has betrayed us...Euron was there...they are coming..."

And with that, she collapsed again, her eyes closing on the spot.

A/N: Well, that happened XD hope you enjoyed the chapter, its cliffhanger, and the double meaning of the title. Until next time guys, see ya!