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Just as this fragile alliance was being forged, heavy footsteps came from behind them.
The footsteps weren't fast, but they carried an undeniable weight.
Lynn and Jaime turned around simultaneously.
Ned Stark.
The Warden of the North had also ascended the wall at some point.
He was alone, unarmed, wearing only a plain grey tunic.
His determined face was etched with deep exhaustion.
Jaime Lannister let go of Lynn's hand almost instinctively, his body tensing slightly.
He looked at Ned Stark.
His handsome face was once again covered by that mask full of sarcasm and wariness.
"Lord Stark."
Jaime's tone was frivolous, as if deliberately covering up something.
"So late, not accompanying your drunk King at the feast, but coming here to brave the cold wind on the wall?"
"Or are you here to conduct a bedtime moral judgment on me?"
"About honor, or about oaths?"
Jaime paused, the corner of his mouth curving even more mockingly.
"If so, I advise you to save your breath."
"My ears are calloused from hearing your clichés."
Ned ignored his provocation.
His gaze swept over Jaime's feigned relaxed face, then glanced at the calm-faced Lynn beside him.
Finally, it fell back on Jaime.
Those grey eyes were like a cloudy winter day in the North.
Deep, oppressive.
Yet surprisingly devoid of the usual disdain and loathing?
"I just heard, you're going to the North with Lynn."
Ned's voice sounded.
It wasn't a question.
The smile on Jaime's face froze.
He didn't expect Ned to say this.
He had prepared a bellyful of retorts, only to find the opponent didn't strike at all.
This feeling was like punching with all his might, only to hit empty air.
"So what if I am?"
Jaime raised an eyebrow.
"A Lannister always pays his debts. I'm just going to collect the favor Myrcella owes me."
"Can't let her be widowed right after getting married; where would House Lannister put its face?"
Jaime continued speaking in that cynical tone, trying to regain the initiative in the conversation.
But Ned just looked at him quietly.
Looked for a long time.
Long enough for Jaime to start feeling uncomfortable.
"I never asked you."
Ned finally spoke again, no emotion audible in his voice.
"Back then, why did you kill him?"
This question completely stunned Jaime.
He had imagined countless confrontations with Ned Stark.
He thought the other would curse him, despise him, nail him to the pillar of shame with the word "honor."
He never thought.
Nearly twenty years later, on this ridiculous night, Ned Stark would ask him "why" in such a calm tone.
Jaime suddenly wanted to laugh.
He had repeated it thousands of times!
Ned never listened seriously once!
Every time, he never listened to the end!
Jaime looked at Ned's serious face, at his grey eyes now devoid of any prejudice.
A sense of absurdity and grievance suppressed for nearly twenty years instantly washed away all his disguises.
"You want to know?"
Jaime's voice carried a tremor even he hadn't noticed.
"You, the 'embodiment of honor' Ned Stark."
"Now want to know why I, the 'Kingslayer,' forsook my oaths?"
Jaime took a step forward, closing in on Ned.
Those green eyes burned with madness in the darkness.
"When you found me, I was sitting on that ugly iron chair."
"My cloak, my sword, the floor of the Throne Room, all covered in Aerys's blood."
"What did you see then, Lord Stark?"
"You saw a treacherous traitor, a scum who defiled the honor of the Kingsguard!"
"You didn't even... bother to ask me why!"
"You just judged me with your self-righteous eyes!"
"Then turned around to pursue your greater war merits!"
Ned listened silently.
There was no expression on his weather-beaten face.
Jaime's chest heaved violently.
Like a trapped lion, he poured out all the anger and unwillingness accumulated over the years!
"You want to know? Fine, today I'll tell you!"
"Do you know how the Mad King spent his last days?"
"He was actually afraid of his own shadow, afraid of his son's shadow!"
"He cut his own hair and nails because he thought they were assassins sent by Jon Arryn to kill him!"
"He became obsessed with wildfire!"
"He liked listening to the screams of people being burned alive!"
"He thought that was the most beautiful music in the world!"
"He thought only the screams before people were burned to death could stop the chattering voice in his head!"
Jaime's voice became fearful, as if returning to that purgatory-like night.
"At that time, Robert and your army were at the city gates; he summoned his chief pyromancer."
"He told me he wanted to bury wildfire all over King's Landing, in every street, every house, even under the Great Sept of Baelor!"
"He wanted Robert Baratheon to be King of Ashes!"
"He smiled and said to me, 'Jaime, go, bring me the head of that old dog Tywin!'"
"He fucking!"
"Actually told me to kill my father!"
"Let me ask you, if the Mad King told you to kill your big brother, to kill your father, would you agree?"
"Would you kill the people who gave birth to you and raised you, kill your most respected brother, for your honor?"
"Or, kill the person who ordered you to kill your father and brother?"
"You can only choose one of the two; there is no other choice."
"Kill your father, you are a kinslayer!"
"Kill the Mad King, you are a kingslayer!"
"What do you know, Ned!"
"You always care about honor; have you ever stood in my shoes and thought about the problem?"
Jaime's eyes were bloodshot; he stared fixedly at Ned.
"The Mad King gave the final order."
"'Burn them all, burn them all!'"
"I watched that pyromancer run out to pass the order; I heard Aerys's mad laughter; I smelled the rotting stench on him..."
"Tell me, you noble Stark!"
Jaime was almost roaring.
"What the fuck was I supposed to do?!"
"Keep my oath, watch helplessly as five hundred thousand men, women, and children in King's Landing were burned alive into charcoal by that green fire?"
"Or... draw my sword, stab it into that madman's back, and end this fucked-up everything with my own hands?!"
"Did you see it? You saw it with your own eyes. Yes, I chose the latter."
"I killed the Mad King, then I found that pyromancer and slit his throat too."
"I hunted down all the madmen who knew this order, leaving none!"
"I saved this city, saved your King Robert, saved your life!"
"But what did I get?"
Jaime let out a laugh uglier than crying.
"Kingslayer."
"A villain spurned by the whole world!"
"And you, Ned Stark!"
"You walked into that blood-splattered hall with your honor, your army; you didn't even disdain to look at me."
Deathly silence on the wall, only the whistling of the night wind.
Lynn watched this scene quietly, waves rising in his heart too.
He knew this history.
But hearing it from the person involved, the impact still shocked him.
Jaime Lannister.
A hero misunderstood for twenty years.
A tragic hero who exchanged his reputation for the life of a city.
Ned Stark didn't speak for a long time.
He just turned around, overlooking the brightly lit city beneath his feet like Lynn just now.
He could imagine.
If not for Jaime's sword, the prosperity before his eyes would have long turned into scorched earth, a ghost domain.
He thought of Lyanna.
Thought of the secret she told him in his ear at the Tower of Joy, on her deathbed.
The secret he carried all his life, deceiving his best friend.
[Promise me, Ned...]
[You must protect him!]
Some oaths are destined to be broken.
Some honor must be defended with lies and blood!
Even he himself had broken oaths.
Ned looked at Jaime Lannister, the man he despised for half his life.
At this moment, he suddenly felt they were so alike.
"I judged what I saw."
Ned's voice was low.
Jaime's body trembled violently.
"I was wrong."
Three short words.
Yet like a thunderclap, exploding in Jaime Lannister's world.
He looked at Ned Stark's back in disbelief.
He waited for this sentence, waited for nearly twenty years.
A full twenty years!
He thought he would never wait for it.
But it came just like that.
Spoken in the plainest way from the mouth of the person he least expected.
Jaime's eyes reddened without warning.
He turned his head abruptly, not wanting anyone to see his weakness at this moment.
"The Mad King is dead,"
Lynn's voice sounded appropriately, breaking this suffocating silence.
"But the madness seems to still occupy the Iron Throne."
Ned and Jaime looked at Lynn simultaneously.
They both saw the same determination in each other's eyes.
Robert's suspicion, Robert's madness, Robert's order almost equivalent to murder...
All this was like the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Ned Stark's heart loyal to Robert Baratheon for twenty years had long died.
He was a father first, then the Hand.
He would absolutely not allow anyone to murder his daughter's future husband by such despicable means.
This was exactly the same as Jaime's choice back then!
Honor is bullshit!
It can't protect everything he cares about!
Ned knew deeply now.
"The King wants your head."
Ned turned around, gaze burning like torches, looking directly at Lynn.
"I cannot, and will not let him succeed."
Ned's words held no hesitation.
It was a declaration.
An open rebellion against the Iron Throne.
Jaime wiped the corner of his eye, regaining that Lannister arrogance.
"My father's army can reach the Twins in three days."
He looked at Lynn, then at Ned.
"Now, shouldn't we talk about how to let that mad woman Lysa Arryn choose a decent way to die?"
"No."
Lynn shook his head.
Ned and Jaime showed puzzled expressions simultaneously.
"We not only want her dead."
"I also want her, with interest, to pay me back with the entire Vale!"