294 AC
Jon Snow was very confused. Incredibly confused.
Had he heard his father and Lord correctly?
He was to set sail for the Free Cities in a week's time, specifically finding his way to Braavos
It made no sense to him really, he was 13, barely a man, what's he going to do in the Free Cities?
But his Lord allowed no argument, Jon figured it must be Lady Stark's doing, Lady Stark and Sansa always seemed to treat him with indifference and he knew why, after all, he was the living embodiment of Lord Eddard Stark's unfaithfulness, to Lady Stark, he must've been a sight for sore eyes and while he hungered for the comfort of Catelyn's maternal love, he knew from the age of six, he would never be allowed to partake in that particular luxury.
He always had joked to himself as he never knew a mother's love, he truly knew nothing
And so he had immersed himself in his studies and sword fighting since he was old enough to understand what the word "bastard" meant
He had by this point, a good enough understanding of the Old Tongue and High Valyrian thanks to tuition from Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrik Cassel had turned him into a singularly ferocious fighter adept with two swords which he preferred over the more classical single sword styles practiced by swordsmen like Ser Rodrik
But that was not his greatest asset, that would be magic
Magic was most certainly dead according to most people, the ancient sorcerers of the Valyrian Freehold were simply dust and bone now and the greenseers of the forest were near extinct
Near being the keyword
Jon vividly remembered his first exposure to magic, it was his sixth nameday and he had gone to the godswood to pray for a long life, in hindsight, such as an action seemed pointless, after all, who was he to proposition the Gods?
They carved the dice and threw it
Jon was drawn to a certain tree in the centre of the godswood with a face carved in that seemed to crying tears of blood (This was a heart tree as Jon later discovered, a sort of shrine to the Old Gods) but the peculiar tree was not what caught his interest, perched on the topmost branch of the tree, there was a raven, its feathers dark and foreboding as night
And it had three eyes
Jon's fingers brushed the bark of the weirwood tree and as he did so, his eyes rolled back into his head
"Well hello young man" was the first words he heard from an albino man with red eyes and red wine stain birthmark on right side of his face, he was thin and gaunt but towered over Jon like a giant, and as Jon looked at him, he saw the spark of cunning that danced free in the man's eye.
Jon did what was most sensible at this point
"Who are you and why do you only have one eye?" asked an irritated Jon, who felt he was very much out of his depth here
"Hahahaha, Not all questions need be answered and as to your second question, I have a thousand eyes and one" said the mysterious man
Jon was not happy, he was stuck here, wherever here was with an enigmatic old man who seemed to communicate solely in riddles
"You may call me The Three-Eyed Raven, young one" answered the Three-Eyed Raven, breaking Jon out of his momentary lapse into silence
"That doesn't answer my question" said Jon
"It will answer your question" replied Raven, as Jon had taken to calling him mentally
"What will?" asked Jon confused
"My previous answer" answered Raven with a laugh
"I am a greenseer" continued Raven, startling Jon, according to Old Nan, greenseers were those who see into the future, present and past
"Am I a greenseer? Is that why you bought me here?" asked Jon, feeling incredibly excited
"No, only the summer wolf and the shaggy dog are greenseers amongst you" said Raven cryptically
Jon felt downbeat after that, it was very anticlimactic
"No, you have the power of will magic, my boy" explained Raven
"Eh?"
"It's where a single person can use their will to overpower others, it makes any man who wields it incredibly powerful"
"Can you teach me?" asked Jon, his little mind mentally salivating at the endless possibilities this ability presented
"Let's begin!"