"No, I would have not," he conceded. He had seen enough strange things in his young life, like dead men walking around, that he was willing to give the woman a chance. Because if his aunt was here and alive, on this island, it meant that more of his family might one day join them here. Or that he was dead like her, and this was the afterlife.

"I serve no house, my lady. I am a sworn brother of the Night's Watch." He paused, the next words still feeling so foreign on his tongue: "I am its Lord Commander, and my name is Jon Snow."

The pause, this time was longer as his face fell slightly: "I was the bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark, your brother."