Death is coming to the House of Stark. The hints are all there.

So many great houses destroyed - the Tyrells, the Tarlys (Tyrion Lannister didn't remember/count Samwell Tarly), nearly all the Lannisters (and let's be frank, even with a bun in the oven no one expects Cersei's lineage to survive after the prophecy: "Queen you shall be??? until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.") - and knowing George R.R. Martin's bloodlust and dire warning that "no one is safe" likely means another Stark has to die.

Lucky for us Jon Snow is a Targaryen (I am choosing to ignore his mother's name as she would have taken her husband's - if you were like Sam and not paying attention to Gilly: Rhaegar annulled his first marriage to Elia Martell to wed Lyanna in Dorne). Also he has died once, surely that's enough. And there is still so much unfinished business concerning him (like being declared a legitimate heir to the Iron Throne and riding a dragon in the coming War against the Long Night) that even a suicide mission beyond the Wall can't spell the end ... just yet.

So my money has been on fan-favourite Arya. And with Littlefinger's meddling that became more evident.

His plan has always been to take Winterfell as his own (King's Landing too, eventually, but thankfully for us he'll die before then). In order to make his poor boy vengeance on the strapping Ned Stark who stole Catelyn's heart all the more sweeter, he could do that through marriage to Sansa or wipe out any chance of a Stark being declared heir.

We can see from this season's penultimate episode trailer that Sansa is going to be confronted by the no-name assassin, who was once her sister Arya, after the younger, more deadly Stark found Sansa's note from season two. The note is the one Sansa sent to her older brother Robb (then The King in the North) explaining (under duress it should be noted) that she needed him to swear fealty to King Joffrey, her then-betrothed.

Littlefinger knew of the note as he was a part of Cersei's plot against the Starks from the beginning: the dagger used in the attempt on Bran's life that drove Ned Stark to find answers in King's Landing and then his beheading because he discovered Cersei's secret (which has become so redundant now she is planning to declare her latest bub as Jaime's that it almost makes a mockery of this whole calamitous mess!).

"He's looking for a way to prevent this sister bond from developing further, because the tighter that bond is the more definitively he is caught on the outside of it," says D.B. Weiss in the Game of Thrones' Inside the Episode video.

"On the Sansa end of the relationship, he's seen the opening and now all he needs to do give Arya cause to display real rage towards Sansa. And he knows full well with what is going on in Sansa's head with regards to Arya and how dangerous she is, when Arya starts to act dangerous and act angry he knows where Sansa is going to turn."

It seems more than just a wedge. Littlefinger is fulfilling his prophecy to Sansa. "Fight every battle everywhere, always, in your mind. Everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening all at once. Live that way and nothing will surprise you. Everything that happens will be something that you've seen before."

And he needs to been seen to 'save' Sansa for her to ever allow him near after he sold her off to Ramsay Bolton.

But being Littlefinger, in his mind, if either Stark girl dies it's a win-win. Arya being sentenced as murderer, with none of the lords (or Bran, for that matter) particularly keen on the Three-eyed Raven ever taking charge, would allow poor Petyr Baelish to once again rise up the ranks.

But, and this is a big but, Littlefinger may be overlooking Bran (which is pretty easy to do given his wooden contribution thus far).

Bran gave Arya the dagger. And he knows everything.

Let us also hope Littlefinger has underestimated Sansa, for it was she who pointed out to Bran that Littlefinger was "not a generous man" and "He wouldn't give you anything unless he thought he was getting something back."

So death may be coming to House of Stark but perhaps not how we anticipate.

Besides, it would shatter poor Brienne if either of her adopted wards were killed at the hands of the other.