It is Lyanna who sneaks into his rooms waking him, well after the hour of the wolf, holding three skins of wine. 

“Come, Ben,” is what she says, and even half-asleep, Benjen knows that she is in tears. 

He sits up, and pulls back his covers, lets her climb into bed with him. He tries to put his arm around her, but she shrugs him off, and offers him his own skin of wine instead.

“Drink with me, Ben,” she says thickly, words slurring just a little, and Benjen is left wondering how much wine she’s already had. 

He sips at his. Father always allowed them one cup at special feasts, and kept a watchful eye on them to ensure that they did not drink all of it. Benjen had taken just three mouthfuls of his tonight– one when they toasted to Brandon’s betrothal, one with his meal, and one when they toasted to the surprise of the evening– Lyanna’s betrothal to Robert Baratheon. 

Lyanna is not sipping her’s. 

She is guzzling it, taking long, deep swallows, drinking, not for the taste of the sweet Summerwine, but to get drunk.

“Lya,” he begins, reaching out to take her hand. He knows she is not pleased by the betrothal. He’d seen her eyes narrow, go the same stormy gray Brandon’s did before he went off in one of his rages. 

“Drink, Benjen,” she says sharply, using her fingers to tip the wineskin up to his mouth. “Drink, or I have no use for you.” 

He drinks, though slowly, and tries to hide the sting of her words. She glares at him, and he gives in with a sigh. He finishes the skin in five long swallows, and when he finally puts it down, he notices that the room has started to spin. 

“I am to be wed,” she says, slowly, deliberately, as though testing the weight of each word on her tongue. “I am to be wed, and I’ve never had so much as a full cup of wine. I thought we ought to fix that,” she says, and drains the last of her wine skin. She barely takes a breath before unscrewing the top of the third. 

She pauses with it half-way to her mouth before she is sobbing again. 

“Lya,” he says, again, and he hates how anguished his voice sounds. He wants so badly to be strong for her, but her tears bring his own. He sets his empty wineskin aside, and pulls her against him, and this time she goes willingly. 

“Would that we were Targaryens,”she says with a hiccup. “I would just marry you or Brandon, and everything would be fine.” 

Benjen huffs out a laugh into her hair. 

“Why not Ned?” He asks, and he delights in Lyanna’s snort through her tears. 

“He’d never approve of me being drunk,” she tells him, but she’s laughing now, and Benjen feels the swell of pride in a job well done. Soothing Lyanna’s rages is no easy feat. 

He laughs with her, and she takes his face in her hands and kisses him lightly on his nose. 

“Ben, I don’t want to,” she tells him, gray eyes wide, boring into his. 

“I won’t make you marry Ned,” he says, and hiccups and Lyanna laughs softly. 

“Can you make me not marry Robert?” 

The laughter in Lyanna’s voice is gone. She speaks so softly, so sadly, the way she did whenever she spoke of mother. Benjen cannot bear it.

“Shall I slay him in single combat?” He asks her, resting his forehead against hers. “Shall I steal you away, to North of the Wall, so that we can join the wildlings?” 

“I could marry the King-Beyond-the-Wall,” Lyanna says with a little smile. “My sons would be princes.” 

Her smile fades again, and Benjen squeezes her hand in his. 

“Father thinks I don’t wish to be wed, or to mother children because I am too wild,” she tells him. “He doesn’t understand.” 

“You want children,” Ben says slowly, beginning to follow her logic. “Just not with Robert.” 

“I want wild Brandons, and solemn Neds, and sweet Benjens,” she tells him, solemnly. 

“What, multiples of each?” Benjen says, and is pleased with she gives him a playful swat. But her smile fades again, just as quickly as it had come. 

“I want a little Lyarra. With dark curls like Brandon, and a smile like yours.” 

“But not with Robert,” he says, and the look she gives him is so pained that Benjen’s heart breaks anew. 

“But not with Robert,” she echoes, dully. 

There is nothing he can say to her. 

He heard the argument she’d had with Father after dinner. He wouldn’t be surprised if all of Wintertown heard, so loud were the shouts. 

You are a Stark and you will act with honor, Rickard Stark had shouted at his only daughter. 

What honor is there in selling your child away to a stranger, Lyanna had screamed right back, bold and unafraid. 

The girl that sits in his bed now is defeated. There is no comfort that Benjen can give her. 

He kisses her forehead, her nose, her cheeks, and then very lightly, her lips. 

“I swear by the Old Gods,” he says, though he knows he has no such power. “All your children will have the curls you desire. They’ll be wild as Brandon, and as trustworthy as Ned. But they will have your smile.”

She offers him her smile then, and he gives her one in return. 

“And of you? What will my children have of you?” 

“My love for you,” he tells her, and she buries her face in his chest and sobs until she falls asleep. 

*

Benjen Stark had been drunk many times since, but he had not thought of that night in over fifteen years. 

Not until he comes to Winterfell at Ned’s behest to greet King Robert Baratheon, first of his name, and finds Jon well and truly drunk smiling up at him with Lyanna’s smile. 

It hurts, gods it hurts, and worsens when he sips the Summerwine in his nephew’s cup. 

Lyanna is an ache that never stops, that even the cold beyond the wall can only slightly dull. Sitting here, with her son, worsens the ache in his chest so painfully that Benjen thinks he may die right there. He would welcome it, if he meant going to rest beside his sister once more. 

It strikes him that Jon is the same age as Lyanna was that fateful night. His chest constricts painfully, especially when he realizes just how far he’d had to walk to find Jon. 

His nephew had not been given a place at the table. He says a silent apology to Lyanna. He wonders if she can hear this conversation, hear her son, all the way from the crypts. 

Selfishly, he hopes she can’t. Lyanna had suffered enough heartbreak in her short lifetime. She need not suffer more. She’d cry to see where they had placed her son.

Then Jon asks to join the Night’s Watch, and Benjen can hear his sister’s pained sobs echo in his head. He struggles not to cry. 

Maester Luwin says bastards grow up faster than other children, Jon says, and this time Benjen cannot keep the frown off of his face. 

You are not a bastard, he wants to tell the boy. And your mother would have hated either of us being in the Watch. 

Jon continues to plead his case, using a Targaryen prince as his cause, and Benjen marvels at it. 

Does he know, Lyanna? He asks his sister silently. Have you told him in a dream? 

It is not until Jon says a bastard can have honor too, that something inside Benjen breaks. 

There are many kinds of honor, Benjen wants to tell him. There is honor in letting a woman refuse of betrothal, he thinks bitterly. Honor in keeping a secret. Honor in telling the truth.

He thinks he might tell the boy right then and there, Ned’s secrets, and Cat’s jealousies, and King Robert be damned. Lyanna’s son sits in front of him. The boy deserves to know before he signs his life away. 

Lyanna deserves grandchildren, he thinks wildly. Her Brandons, and Neds, and Benjens. Her Lyarra.

He opens his mouth to tell Jon, but movement at the dais catches his eye, and he swallows them down. He has already let down his sister. He cannot let down the last sibling left to him. 

He tells Jon as much, as much as he can, without giving it all away. He tries to imagine how Lyanna might say it, and calls Jon son. 

The weight of the word is heavy on his tongue, Benjen feels aged far beyond his thirty years. 

I’m not your son, Jon says, and damn if the words don’t cut more cruelly than any blade. Lyanna’s sobs echo in his head. 

I am so sorry, Lya, he tells her silently. Would that he had run away with her. Would that they were Targaryens. Would that Ned had never gone to the Vale. 

More’s the pity, he tells his nephew, and means it more than any of the other words that have ever left his tongue since the day Ned rode home with Lyanna’s bones. 

When the boy runs out of the hall after shouting that he’d never dare father a bastard, Benjen ignores the looks from the men at the table and drains the entire flagon of Summerwine. 

He picks up another, and stands, maneuvers his way through the hall as quickly as possible, pausing only to pick up a torch from one of the sconces on the wall. 

With the torch in his left hand, and the flagon in his right, he heads straight for the only place he wants to be. The place he wanted to stay, if he were ever honest with himself. 

Dalinar: Yes, I looked it over. Nice work, son.

Kaladin: Good. Thanks, Dad.

Everyone: *staring*

Kaladin: Why is everyone staring at me?

Drehy: You just called Dalinar “Dad.” You said, “Thanks, Dad.”

Kaladin: No, I did not! I said, "Thanks, sir.”

Dalinar: Do you see me as a father figure, Kaladin?

Kaladin: No! If anything I see you as a “bother” figure because you are always bothering me!

The Lopen: Hey, show your father some respect.

If you are new here you may have a few questions. You may have stumbled here on your own or been dragged in by a friend. No matter. Here is a comprehensive guide to get you started.

The Cosmere is an extended universe.

This universe extends across many different planets and systems.

Currently it consists of many individual books or series with cameos and references to other books. Many compare it Marvel and the Avengers or to the DCEU. The two main series are Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive.

When Brandon does converge everything, it will likely resemble Star Trek more than the MCU or the DCEU. The final books will feature a group of people from different planets and origins learning, exploring, and resolving conflicts across space. 

While the books are mainly fantasy right now, Brandon does plan or bringing more science fiction elements into later books.

Where to begin?

Brandon Sanderson has stated that every book or series can be enjoyed on its own without previous knowledge of other books or series. Eventually, this will not be the case as everything converges. Below you can find the order that I recommend. This is not concrete and if you prefer to read a different order by all means do. This is simply the best order I have found so that the majority of Easter Eggs can be found on the first go.

The Books

Mistborn: the Final Empire

Mistborn: the Well of Ascension

Mistborn: the Hero of Ages

Warbreaker

Elantris*

The Emperor’s Soul

White Sand (graphic novel)

Mistborn: Alloy of Law

Mistborn: Shadows for Self

Mistborn: the Bands of Mourning

Mistborn: Secret History

Sixth of the Dusk

The Stormlight Archive: the Way of Kings

The Stormlight Archive: Words of Radiance

Edgedancer

The Stormlight Archive: Oathbringer

Arcanum Unbounded**

*Elantris has a tenth anniversary edition and an original edition. Either will work.

**The Arcanum Unbounded is a collection of novellas and short stories from throughout the Cosmere. The bolded books are novellas that you can find within Arcanum Unbounded.

You may be questioning why I would spit up series. For Mistborn there are two arcs. The first arc (books 1, 2, and 3) takes place about 300 years before the second arc (books 8, 9, and 10). Mistborn: Secret History is special.

For the Stormlight Archive, Edgedancer takes place between Words of Radiance and Oathbringer. It’s not necessary to read that before Oathbringer but it does help clarify a few things in Oathbringer.

Easter Eggs

The following is by all means not a comprehensive list. These are some of the individuals in the Cosmere known as worldhoppers. They pop up every once in a while in different books.

Hoid: The most well known of the worldhoppers. What is he up to? We’re not quite sure.

Khrisalla (Khriss): The author of the Ars Arcanum that is in the back of every book. She’s researching the different magics in the Cosmere and how they relate to Realmatic Theory (see the next section).

Nazh: Khriss’s assistant. Provides many of the illustrations in the Stormlight Archive

Other Easter Eggs can be found and are numerous in number. In Brandon’s early books, such as Elantris and arc 1 of Mistborn, he kept the Easter Eggs relatively subtle and hard to find. However by Oathbringer, the Easter Eggs are extremely obvious.

Realmatic Theory

This is something that we don’t completely understand. Here I will do my best to provide a short, sweet, and simply introduction to Realmatic Theory.

Shards

Long ago there was a force of creation known as Adonalsium. It was spit into 16 Shards. We know of 10. They are essentially gods and more or less create the magic systems within the Cosmere.

Investiture

Every magic system in the Cosmere is fueled by something called Investiture. When a Shard creates a magic system, it does something known as Investing. Investiture itself can take on many forms, depending on the magic system and how it was created.

The Three Realms

There are three realms withing the Cosmere: the Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual. Most books take place in the Physical Realm. Everyone and everything exists physically, cognitively, and spiritually. Every magic system interacts with these three realms in many different ways. 

I can’t remember everything! Help!

Luckily for you there is a wiki guide known as the Coppermind.

Fair warning though. Spoilers abound.

There is also a community of fans known as the 17th Shard. Here people post theories or other discussion points. Again, Spoilers abound. 

You might also want to check out Brandon’s website. Brandon and his team are fairly regular when it comes to updating it.

What about all those other books Brandon wrote?

——————————–

Devotion and Dominion: well, we’ve created nice, normal humans here for the most part, but what about the ones too packed with Investiture to stay that way?

Devotion and Dominion: … [look at each other]

Dominion: …aesthetic?

Devotion: aesthetic

—

Ruin: okay, good, we’ve pretty much replicated humans right (I think) with the addition of some cool new metal powers. we contributed equally. right? right. and I get to kill them all later

Preservation: [looks up from imbuing humans with some of his own self]

Preservation: ….yes.

—

Endowment: huh, there’s already people here? imma pick the ones I like and make them SUPER TALL and SMOKIN’ HOT

—

Honor: dear. dear, can we please try to make normal humans

Cultivation: NO NO NO okay look at this if we cross this strain with the natives then they get STONE FINGERNAILS. LITERAL STONE.

Honor: dear

Cultivation: and if we incorporate this version then instead of stone nails you get hair and skin that’s metallic gold HOW COOL IS THAT

Honor: honey

Cultivation: AND THESE ONES GET SHELL-CRUNCHING MOLAR PLATES AND SUPER JAW STRENGTH

Honor: please

Cultivation: and they’re all gonna display hair colour inheritance by PERCENTAGE

Cultivation: and that’s not even getting to the Invested ones

Honor: …

Cultivation: now get over here and do your bit

I’m on mobile so I cant/don’t know how to hide this behind a read more so uh. Be warned

I suppose it was to give the battle a larger sense of gravity. Having Kholinar fall but having no major casualties wouldn’t really have hit home the sense of disaster that came through in the end.