"You should be resting and in bed," Ned murmurs, knowing his sister's voice, a shining light breaking apart the clouds that have gathered in his mind, stealing him from the reality of the village and his existence in it. "We will find a maester. We will find a maester to make you well. He will save you," he adds, echoing the very things he'd told her in the Tower of Joy so many years earlier. He envisions himself the young lad he'd been then, trying his hardest to maintain his strength and bravery, even in the face of the shattering loss of his dearest, beloved sister. He's unaware that the situations have since been reversed, though he manages to reach up and smooth down the hair at the back of her head, however lethargically.

"The Seven Hells themselves could not tear me away from you," he continues, words slurred and stitched together without pause or normal cadence. "I will take care of him. I promise you. I will raise and love him as my own."