GOT/ASOIAF: Ruler Beyond the Ice

"What happened?" Cersei's voice was sharp, her wide eyes betraying her panic as she heard the boy's scream.

"He fell," Jaime said abruptly, turning from the window. He grabbed his windbreaker and hastily threw it on. "Hurry, we need to get down there."

"Who fell?"

"Bran Stark—Eddard's second son!"

"Damn it," Cersei hissed, her face pale. "Did he see us?"

"No, but we can't take any chances. Move! I'll get to the Night's Watchman first."

---

Half a minute earlier, when Aegor had separated from two passing guards and returned to the old inner courtyard, Bran was already climbing. The boy had made his way from the roof of the guardhouse to the outer wall of the First Keep and was shimmying horizontally toward the ruined tower along his usual "route."

Aegor knew he couldn't stop Bran directly, so he resorted to shouting loudly. He didn't expect Bran to obey but hoped his voice would alert the pair in the First Keep to respond in time.

The first part of his plan worked, Jaime had indeed appeared at the window. But things took an unexpected and disastrous turn. Aegor, standing in the courtyard below, saw it clearly: Jaime hadn't pushed Bran. Instead, the sudden appearance of the Kingslayer at the window startled the boy, and in his panic, Bran lost his grip and fell.

The dull thud of Bran's body hitting the ground echoed in the courtyard. The boy now lay sprawled on the dirt, his eyes closed, completely still. A scattering of bright yellow corn kernels from his pocket, the feed he had intended to bring to the crows in the ruined tower lay around him, starkly contrasting with the lifeless form of the boy.

Aegor stared at Bran's small, motionless body, his thoughts a chaotic mess. His first instinct was to shout for help, but the Lannister siblings were still in the First Keep. If their affair was exposed during the rescue, Aegor's carefully laid plans to leave the Wall would collapse.

Even worse, he now found himself entangled in the incident. Aegor had been shouting at Bran moments before the fall. Would he be blamed for distracting the boy, or would the fault lie with Jaime for scaring him?

The situation spiraled further in his mind. A Night's Watchman being held responsible for the fall of Bran Stark, the nephew of the First Ranger and the son of Lord Eddard Stark, how could Aegor hope to escape such a scandal unscathed? The consequences would be disastrous.

Aegor shuddered at the thought.

---

Footsteps broke through his haze of panic. Jaime emerged from the entrance of the First Keep at a dead sprint, reaching Bran's side in seconds. He knelt beside the boy, checking his breathing and heartbeat. After a tense moment, Jaime stood, his expression no longer casual and cocky. His eyes now gleamed with something cold and dangerous.

The Kingslayer turned on Aegor, grabbing him by the collar. If not for the height difference, Jaime might have lifted him off the ground entirely. His voice trembled with urgency. "Tyrion said you were the smartest soldier he's ever met. So listen carefully, you saw him fall on his own. Understand? That's what happened. That's the truth—for both your sake and mine. Got it?"

Aegor, though startled, quickly pieced it together. Jaime's meaning was clear: there were no witnesses to the event other than the two of them. If they agreed that Bran had fallen on his own, they wouldn't need to worry about who was truly at fault—at least, not until Bran woke up.

But Aegor wasn't about to shoulder the blame alone. He met Jaime's gaze and replied evenly, "I understand… Yes, he fell on his own. But let's be honest—who's going to believe the word of a lowly Night's Watchman like me?"

Jaime's eyes narrowed. He hesitated for a moment, then relented with a begrudging nod. "Fine. I'll testify for you. But you keep me—and her—out of this. Understood?"

"Of course. Her Majesty has nothing to do with this."

Jaime's lips tightened, but he seemed satisfied. On an ordinary day, Jaime Lannister wouldn't have spared Aegor a second glance. But today was different. Circumstance had forced them into an uneasy partnership, first Jaime's ill-fated encounter with Aegor while scouting for privacy, and now their shared involvement in Bran Stark's fall.

After a brief but tense exchange to align their testimonies, Jaime straightened and stepped away. Moments later, Cersei appeared, emerging from the First Keep with an anxious expression. Aegor nodded silently and left the courtyard to call for help.

---

Winterfell descended into chaos, the likes of which hadn't been seen since Robert's Rebellion.

Guards scrambled to carry Bran's unconscious body to the main castle on a stretcher. Lady Stark and Maester Luwin were summoned immediately, along with a physician who had accompanied the king's party from King's Landing. Every person in Winterfell with even a semblance of medical knowledge was enlisted in the effort to save the boy.

The rescue efforts continued uninterrupted until the king's hunting party returned that evening.

---

That night, Bran's direwolf howled outside the window of his room. The mournful cries echoed across Winterfell, as though the wolf were calling for its fallen master.

Aegor lay awake in his room, tossing and turning.

Bran's penchant for climbing walls was well known to everyone in Winterfell. Nearly every resident of the castle had worried about the boy's recklessness at some point. To them, this fall was a tragic but foreseeable accident, a direct consequence of his climbing obsession.

For Aegor, though, it was a nightmare.

No one immediately suspected him of wrongdoing. He was just the Night's Watchman who had stumbled upon the scene. It wasn't until Eddard Stark returned to Winterfell that the Lord of the North summoned Aegor to ask for details.

Aegor stuck to the agreed story, recounting how Bran had fallen on his own. Fortunately, the two guards who had seen Aegor earlier, as well as Jaime Lannister, corroborated his version of events. Lord Stark, after a long moment of contemplation, dismissed Aegor with a wave, his brow furrowed in thought.

While it seemed that Aegor had avoided suspicion, the incident left him deeply shaken.

---

Bran's fall had shaken more than just Winterfell, it had shaken Aegor's entire worldview.

He prided himself on his materialist perspective, believing that everything, no matter how strange or magical could ultimately be explained through science and logic. Whether it was the White Walkers' sorcery or the Lord of Light's miracles, Aegor assumed there were underlying systems of rules governing these phenomena. With enough time and knowledge, he believed he could understand and perhaps even harness these forces.

But despite all his efforts to interfere with the timeline, Bran had fallen at the same time, in the same place, and under nearly the same circumstances as in the original story. Was it coincidence, or was there some unseen force compelling events to align with the original narrative?

Aegor forced himself to stop dwelling on such existential questions. He had more immediate problems.

Though he had escaped suspicion for now, he remained deeply entangled in the plot. If the timeline continued as he remembered, an assassin would soon attempt to kill Bran in his bed. When that happened, the Stark family would undoubtedly revisit the circumstances of Bran's fall.

And when they did, Aegor—the Night's Watchman who had been training in the secluded old courtyard and was the first to discover Bran's accident would certainly come under scrutiny. By that time, Aegor might already be far from the Wall, traveling south with Tyrion. But even if Tyrion had no connection to Bran's fall or the assassination attempt, his Lannister name would cast a long shadow.

If the Starks decided that Aegor was a Lannister collaborator, his fate would be sealed. The North's reach extended far, and it would be a simple matter for Eddard Stark to demand that the Night's Watch recall Aegor or even declare him a deserter.

On the other side, the Lannisters posed an equal, if not greater, threat. Cersei's vindictiveness was well known. A Night's Watchman who might have discovered her secret and refused to take the blame for Bran's fall was a liability she wouldn't hesitate to eliminate.

Aegor was caught between two powerful forces, neither of which he could afford to antagonize.

He clenched his fists in frustration.

"I wanted to stay detached from this mess, and the first time I interfered, everything went wrong," he thought bitterly. "If I'd known this would happen, I would've stayed far away."

But self-pity wouldn't solve his problems.

Now that things had come to this, Aegor knew he needed a plan. He had to find a way to escape the web of suspicion tightening around him. But what could he do to break free from this precarious situation?

*****

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