He looked off to the east and west, at the Wall stretching before him, a vast white road with no beginning and no end and a dark abyss on either side. He sat down on the frost-covered ground and began to cry, huge choking sobs that made his whole body shake. Lord Snow wants to take my place now. Jon Snow offered a hand to help him over a thick tangle of roots, but Tyrion shook him off.
As ever, Robert had not troubled himself to attend the council session, so it fell to his Hand to speak for him. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light. Ned Stark laid his head back against the damp stone wall and closed his eyes. He would scarcely have been the first man who came to look on things differently after a few years at court .
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