Everyone's gaze focused on Jon Snow.
Jon's chest rose and fell slightly as he felt the complex stares interweaving upon him.
Expectation, scrutiny, pleading, and confusion.
He first glanced at Lord Commander Jeor Mormont. The old man's wrinkled face wore an unspeakable weariness.
He then swept his gaze over the traditionalists, arms crossed and faces full of hostility, their eyes as cold as the northern wind.
Finally, his gaze landed on Lynn.
Lynn didn't look at him; he simply stood there calmly, as if none of this concerned him.
But Jon knew Lynn was waiting.
Waiting for him to make the decision a "Stark" ought to make.
Jon Snow raised his hand.
The movement was slow but incredibly firm.
"I agree."
His voice instantly stirred up a thousand waves.
"Jon! Are you mad?"
A traditionalist steward shouted, losing his composure.
Jon ignored him, meeting everyone's gaze as he spoke word by word.
"I am a ranger too."
"I have seen the charred villages in the Haunted Forest with my own eyes. I have seen the corpses frozen solid like blocks of ice."
"I have fought wildlings. They are fierce, but only to survive."
Jon's voice echoed in the silent hall.
"My father, Ned Stark, taught me that the duty of the Night's Watch is to guard the peace of all Westeros, to be the shield that guards the realms of men against the darkness."
"Now, the darkness has fallen."
"Our true enemy is not the Free Folk, who are flesh and blood like us, who laugh and cry like us."
"But the monsters lurking in the Lands of Always Winter, waiting to devour all living things."
His gaze swept over everyone present.
In those grey eyes burned a fire identical to Lynn's.
"It is hard to let go of hatred."
"But if we hold onto it, we will all die."
"I choose to fight for the living."
"I choose to believe in Lynn."
When he finished, the room was silent.
Ygritte stared blankly at this "crow" who was as young as Lynn.
He said he would fight for the living.
That sentence was like a beam of light shining into her heart, which had long been encased in hatred and cold.
She suddenly felt that perhaps there were good people inside the Wall after all.
Hearing Jon's choice, Jeor Mormont let out a long breath, as if unloading a thousand-pound burden.
"Twenty-six in favor, twenty-five opposed."
"The motion passes."
"From now on, negotiating peace with the King-Beyond-the-Wall is the Night's Watch's highest directive."
"Anyone who defies this will be treated as a traitor!"
The faces of the opposing Night's Watchmen turned incredibly ugly, but they couldn't say another word.
The decision was made.
---
The meeting adjourned, and the crowd dispersed.
In the Lord Commander's Tower, only Lynn, Jon, Benjen, and Mormont remained.
And Ygritte, who had seemed like an outsider from beginning to end.
"Now that it's decided, how do we get there?"
Benjen was the first to break the silence.
"Do we ride... that big fellow over?"
His gaze instinctively drifted to the window.
Winter was napping in the courtyard, its three massive heads resting on its forelimbs—though one head didn't get a paw and had to rest on a haystack instead.
The heat from their breath had melted a patch in the surrounding snow.
"No."
Lynn rejected the suggestion without hesitation.
"Why?" Jon was puzzled.
"Riding Winter there would make Mance Rayder take us seriously, and the success rate of the negotiation would be higher."
"That dragon is our ace, but it is not the card to play right now."
Lynn's gaze grew deep.
"You forget, beyond the Wall, there isn't just one King-Beyond-the-Wall. There is another King."
The Night King.
At the mention of this name, the temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees.
"I have a feeling," Lynn said slowly.
"That guy has been watching us."
"He is waiting. Waiting for an opportunity."
"A living dragon is an irresistible temptation to him."
"Once Winter flies over the Wall, it would be like delivering the fattest piece of meat right to his mouth."
"I cannot take that risk."
Lynn's words silenced everyone.
They had all witnessed the horror of the White Walkers.
But they couldn't even imagine the apocalyptic scene if a dragon were turned into a wight.
"Then we..."
"We walk."
Lynn's tone carried a decisive strength.
"Me and Jon, plus a few of the most elite rangers."
His gaze landed on Ygritte.
"She will lead the way."
"Huh?" Ygritte was stunned.
"You have a monster like that for a mount, yet you want to walk on your feet like us?"
" are all you Southerners sick in the head?"
She couldn't understand.
In her eyes, Lynn, possessing a dragon, was like a god.
Why would a god step down from his altar to walk with mortals?
"You know nothing. Just follow the plan."
Lynn didn't explain much.
He looked at Lord Commander Mormont.
"Lord Mormont, I need you to prepare some things for me."
"The best leather armor, and enough dragonglass weapons."
---
Night fell.
The forge at Castle Black glowed red hot.
Shirtless smiths placed a red-hot steel ingot on the anvil.
Swinging heavy hammers, they struck down again and again.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sparks flew.
Jon and Lynn stood aside, watching silently.
Jon watched the smiths' fluid, powerful movements as the ordinary iron was shaped bit by bit under their hammers into sharp daggers.
"You seem to have changed a lot," Jon said softly.
"So have you," Lynn replied without turning his head.
"You're no longer the bastard who only sulked in corners."
Jon gave a wry smile.
"I just... want to do the right thing."
He paused, a trace of worry in his voice.
"Lynn, are you really confident?"
"Mance Rayder is a traitor to the Night's Watch, after all. He isn't exactly easy to talk to."
"No confidence," Lynn said truthfully.
The smith finally stopped his work.
He tossed the shaped dagger into the water trough, creating a loud hiss.
"But someone has to do it."
Lynn turned, looking at Jon's worried face.
"Remember, Jon."
"We are not going to beg for peace. We are going to grant it."
"We are the strong. We are the givers."
"Straighten your back. Show the bearing a Stark should have."
"We are not negotiating with wildlings; we are offering them amnesty."
"If they refuse, then we meet them with steel!"
"My dragon will destroy all challengers!"
Lynn's words instantly changed the look in Jon's eyes.
Yes, they had a dragon.
Power enough to crush everything.
They were going to give the wildlings a way to live.
This shift in mindset dissipated much of the unease in Jon's heart.
---
Early the next morning.
A small team assembled at the mouth of the tunnel leading beyond the Wall.
Lynn, Jon, and three of the most elite rangers personally selected by Benjen.
And Ygritte, sandwiched in the middle of the group, now dressed in black leather armor.
On her back was the elm longbow she was never without, and the quiver at her waist was full of arrows.
Although still guarded as a prisoner, her movements were much freer now. Her hands were not bound by hemp rope as they were when she arrived.
"Take these."
Lynn distributed several weapons, forged overnight and tipped with dragonglass, to the group.
"These can kill those monsters. Guard them well; do not lose them," Lynn said concisely.
Everyone solemnly put the weapons away.
"Lynn!"
A clear female voice came from behind.
Myrcella trotted over.
Behind her followed a complicated-looking Lord Commander Mormont.
"Where are you going?"
Myrcella looked up, her emerald eyes full of worry.
Winter also sensed the air of departure. It stood up in the courtyard.
Its massive body blocked the morning sun as all three heads leaned in, letting out uneasy low growls.
"Going out to handle some business. I'll be back soon."
Lynn ruffled Myrcella's hair.
He patted Winter's largest head, soothing it in High Valyrian.
"Look after Princess Myrcella."
"And listen to Lord Mormont. No more tearing down buildings."
Winter let out a wronged whimper, rubbing its head against Lynn's chest as if promising.
"Let's move."
Lynn said no more, turning to lead the way into the deep, dark tunnel.
This tunnel pierced through the entire Wall; every step echoed.
Ygritte walked in the middle of the group.
She looked back once.
In the sunlight, the ice-blue dragon was watching them leave with a look that was almost sorrowful.
This man...
What kind of person was he, really?
When the heavy iron gate slowly closed behind them with a final boom, the whole world was left with only endless white and silence.
The biting wind, carrying snowflakes, rushed toward them. Ahead lay the vast, white expanse of the Haunted Forest.