Alaric was not a man who smiled easily. When the Queen arrived at Winterfell without Jaehaerys, the Lord of Winterfell was disturbed. The king should have come not to justify her presence, but to carry the burden of her visit with his sister-wife. A queen alone was a burden he did not know how to bear.

He received her as duty required, with the respect that her position deserved, but his expression remained as unchanging as the ice that coated Winterfell’s walls.

But something about the queen’s persistence began to disarm him. It was not only her impeccable courtesy, but the way she seemed genuinely interested in the North—not as a foreigner judging the harshness of the place, but as someone who wanted to understand it.

And so, slowly, he relented.

When Alysanne mentioned her desire to learn more about life in the North, Alaric organized a hunt. There she saw majestic elks and wild boars. Her excitement was evident, and Alaric, though he did not show it, felt strangely pleased to share this part of his land with her.

He then led her to a place that few people have ever seen: a place where the bones of giants lay. Alysanne stood in silence before the relics, marveling at the enormity of what she saw. To Alaric, the bones were a dark reminder of ancient times, but to her, they were living proof of the stories that the South so often treated as legend.

She asked to visit the library, and he hesitantly allowed it. Alysanne seemed enchanted, leafing through parchments and manuscripts with restless curiosity.

When it was time for Alysanne to continue her journey, Alaric sent word to the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, informing him of the queen’s imminent arrival at Castle Black. His words were direct, as was his style, but there was a touch of caution in them that few would notice.

When Jaehaerys finally arrived at Winterfell to meet his queen, Alaric made no secret of his coldness. He led the king down to the crypts beneath the castle, but his words were laced with… a resentment of pent-up jealousy.