Interlude: Red Keep.
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Joffrey Baratheon (Waters) was sitting on his very own small council. Yes, that's right, he was the King now. The big Boss, the one who told the others what to do. He was wearing the grown up pants now!
He was also seething from the message he and his council received from all the way up north.
"Those traitors! How dare they! I will have their heads! Hang them, burn them!" He turned onto Littlefinger and blew up at him. "You told me they would listen to me! All I had to prove was that I got what it took!"
Baelish just smiled and continued to feed the King honeyed words. Probably going with his mind to better things, like him porking Catelyn Stark (Baelish). Or her daughter Sansa, she had potential if not with her nonexistent brains, then with her being a younger copy of his Cat... Or the both of them together.
Ops, now he was popping a boner. He looked around and righted his clothes.
No matter, he was sitting and nobody would notice..
The spy master Varys the spider took the letter lying on the great table and pulled it up to him. His face had a slightly incredulous expression on it. Surely nobody would dare to really write something like that to the ruler of the seven kingdoms? Surely nobody would be that daring, that insulting and that provocative to one who could rally all Kingdoms against the enemy that insulted him so gravely, right?
The Martells had enough hatred in them for the King and his blood and even their sanyity would be questioned, if they were to write such a thing!
He read:
"'Sup Cunts. As you degenerates have thought it a good idea to execute my father and the Lord of the North, we here thought it just right to inform you of our immediate independence from the seven, oops, I mean six Kingdoms. I sincerely wish you all to get fucked trying to invade our Lands. Please, pretty please be retarded enough to still try it though.. So unless the queen fucking her own brother magically gave you your own motherfucking dragons..."
Here Varys could not help himself and a burst of laughter at the absurdity and truthfulness of the statement almost escaped him. Instead the years of spies and lies saved him the embarrassment and probably, as we are talking about Joffrey here, his life as only a light snort got to leave his twitching nose.
"...You can all get fucked. Joffrey is a bastard, in all meanings of the word. Cersei is a pathetic cunt and brotherfucker. The only one with the dragons is Daenerys Targaryens, so you are all shit out of luck. If Stannis the mannis asks, we totally support his claim on that useless piece of junk you call the iron throne, like really hard. We support him so hard, we will pray lots for him. Totally! Promised!
Oh and do be darlings and tell my dearest sister Sansa my greetings. As I have zero believes in any sort of decency you people might have, I will assume her already tortured, raped and beaten to death. Or not, as she does have some sort of abstract value, does not seem to stop you though. I do not negotiate with tyrants, she would only ever be a weakness for you twats to exploit, so I have come to terms with her death already. Even held a little funeral. Was all emotional and shit. I also remember being told the useless cunt ran to the queen bitch and rat my father out, which proved essential to getting him killed. In short: Bitch is dead to me. The kindest words I can offer to her, are the following: May the old Gods have mercy on her soul. Also mother misses you, but she might as well be the only one.
Wishing you all a painful death.
The King of the Motherfucking North."
"Barking mad!" Cersei laughed. "The little Targaryen wench having Dragons? Last I heard of her, she was sold to the Dothraki savages and will stay a personal sex toy and brooding mare of one of them. Ha! A destiny worthy of the Targaryen brood.." Called out the woman who half a lifetime ago dreamed of marrying the Targaryen prince, while getting it from her twin.
"Traitors!" Joffrey exploded in rage, flailing uselessly and directing his mad range onto the closes things to him, like the useless little miscarriage that he is. "How dare they! I will have their heads!" He then turned to the queen and his mother. "See! Even the traitor thinks Sansa is a useless twat! I don't want to marry her any more!"
"Of course my darling." She cooed him. "We will find you the most beautiful and subservient Lannister to marry, only the best for my King."
"Of course my king." Baelish chimed in, looking just enraged and poleaxed enough for Varys to see he did not anticipate such a response at all and how much it must have gone against any sort of plans the man had. "We will immediately gather our armies and invade the north at our earliest convenience."
"Actually.." Varys cut in. "The Riverrun we can assume will side with the Starks, the Vale is as silent as ever ,Stannis has half of the Stormlands under him, while Ranley got the other half plus the Tyrells. The Martells... let's not even start on them. So in reality, we only have the Lannisters on our side.." He left the sentence open for the little King to finish.
"Traitors! All of them! I will have their heads on the pikes!"
"Yes, of course you will, my King." Littlefinger slimmed his way back in. "And if you give me an order, then I shall go and get the Vale on our side, that I can promise with certainty, my King."
"What about Stannis? Do we have to fear an alliance of the North and those traitors?" Cersei asked.
"Bah, the boy obviously doesn't care at this point and only wants to hole himself in his shit hole of a kingdom, where he thinks he is safe of us!" The Maester got out.
"Actually.." Varys cut in. "There is evidence that an alliance between them might indeed take place. After the news of Renly having gathered so much support, more than his older brother that is, Robb Stark did something very curious. He very publicly wrote to all of those lords, claiming that the Tyrells only supported him because and I quote: He sucked Loras dick like a lollipop."
Joffrey laughed at that cruelly. "The traitor is a faggot? Ha! Too good."
"Yes, while the people in this room know of Renly's sexual preferences, not many are really aware of that. And while that rumor could have been just lies, it surprisingly had strong consequences for them. Many lords, faithful to the seven did not take too good to the man who they wanted to put on the throne being, what you called, a faggot. In the end 7 Lords and still counting left their camps and allied themselves with Stannis. While that in of itself is nothing world changing, it does show that the North is actually supporting Stannis claim to the throne above all else. As in, this might be a scheme of theirs."
"What are the reactions of the Lords to his provocative actions?"
"They mostly think he is unstable.." Varys admitted, also not sure if the boy was mad, insane, had some incredibly intricate plans himself or just went allong with whatever.. what it was that he was doing.
"How do they even listen to that little shit! A boy, how do they even take him seriously in the north?" Jopffrey asked out loud and every single one of the attendants thought on the irony of those statements. Even his mother and bitch as a halfstep away from madness.
"Truth be told.." Varys answered. "We are not exactly sure. We only know of some things young Robb-"
"Traitor! You will address that scum as the traitor that he is!"
"The traitor had a bright mind as it turned out, as he invented many things that made the north a much more.. tolerable place to live in. Not all went smoothly, some lords barely paid him attention, others questioned his authority, but those Lords were only laughed at in the end. When it turned out that the inventions of the traitor brought the lords many riches, so they were made the laughingstocks of the north and accepted it still in the end. I also do not know how exactly he commands the Norths respect, but from all I could gather, he has this.. nonchalance about him. He laughed Greatjon Umber in the face when that man challenged his authority and had done something to Lord Bolton that forced him to cut any contact to me and mine.. As if he does not take any danger seriously at all... Or maybe he takes nothing serious at all, which is the answer to all our questions. Not to mention what he did to the Freys.."
Yes indeed, they all knew of what happened to the Freys and their Twin castles. Why? The Stark boy had written it themselves, letting them know of the sorts of might he commanded. A risky, move, but not like it did not fit in with the rest of things he did.
"A noble house, the Freys." Queen bitch Cersei cut in. "With ties to us. That action alone is reason enough to call them traitors and rail the whole kingdom against them." How she could speak that sentence with a straight face, nobody on the council knew, guess she was good for something. "The King has worked too much to have peace. To then have a mad boy ruin it all would surely raly all the Lords to a right cause!"
It was here that Varys thought that the Queen knew not of the word Irony and its meaning, which answered a lot of his questions about her.
"And what about those claims of his magical weapons?" Joffrey asked, suddenly much smaller. They knew not of the weapons workings and magic was the go to answer in those times. It was that, or the gods or some other shit like that.
"Bah! They just used wildfire!" The Maester jumped in. "Everything points to that. If that is their main source of confidence, then we have already won, HA!" He then turned quiet and muttered. "Though I did not see our Alchemists for more than a month now.." He quickly stood up, appologized to the counil and ran. If his concern turned to be real...
Ther rest, all but Varys and the Queen did not understand what his concern was at all. They exchanged a look but stayed seated, hoping the maester was wrong and the Alchemists were still somewhere here. Just out of everyones eyes.
After some pause, Varys finally asked. "Soo... Are we really going to invade the North?"
"Bah! No, especially not now, with the next great winter standing before our doorsteps." Cersei answered immediately, leaving the: Even I am not THAT stupid out of it. "But we won't allow them to just get away with it. I will be sure to write to my father and we will sanction them hard. They did have close ties to the Tullys and Riverrun?" She ended drawing it, gaining a cruel gleam in her eyes.
"Buuut Moooooom! They questioned Mah Authoritah" Joffrey whined and everyone turned him out, going back to their own little plans, schemes and plots for the future.
How really unpredictable the north turned out to be...
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Chapter 3
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3 Months Ago.
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Bran looked over to his big brother. He had just woken up from his coma, woken up a cripple for life. He did not know what to do and almost fell into a depression, were it not for the things his brother told him.
"Yer a wizzard, Brandon."
Yes, apparently his brother somehow got the bright idea that he, the crippled son of a dead lord got himself some magical powers after his fall. Do not get him wrong, it is bloody awesome, if it were true. He just is not sure where his brother got the idea from.
"Yes, wargs." He explained it to him yesterday, his younger brother Rickon sitting next to him. "The ability to skinchange into an animal... It's like you get to live inside the body of you wolf.."
"Do I get to live in Shaggydog?" Rickon asked.
"..yes, this is exactly what I had just told... you get to live inside your shaggy doggy. We Stark children all have that wondrous gift. I would like to say it came from our ancient and magical line, but it probably comes from the Whent blood we have thanks to our mothers family. That or from the old times where the Starks practiced the right of the first night and took all the good genes from the first men inside their families, but whatever.
Next step is being a greenseer. Now that shit is a little bit more complicated. It's like seeing visions of the future and the past and stuff like that. I don't really know, but Bran has that."
"Do I really?" He asked excitedly.
"Yeah, sure..."
"And why exactly do we have to do.. that?" He finally asked and pointed to the dark catacombs beneath the castles, a place Robb said would help them unlock more of their powers.
"Because sensory deprivation will stir our survival instincts and forecfully awaken our dormant genes and, as in our third metaphysical minds eye that will allow all those telepathic feats that are so famous through the histories of the north."
He and his younger brother just stared at him. "Whut?"
"Sigh.." Did he really just say sigh out loud? "The.. darkness.. will awaken our... super duper cool magics.."
"Ah, why didn't you just said so, you dummy?" Rickon asked him annoyed.
"Gods dammit Rickon.. Fuckin... just go inside and keep close to your shaggy doggy. If you get really good friends with him, he lets you see through his eyes, okay?"
"Okay!"
Like that they walked inside the dark resting place of the Starks of the past and got to live a few days in complete darkness. Though, as it turned out, his brother was right! Being a direwolf was freaking awesome!
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7 Weeks Ago
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Bran sat in the darkness of the tombs of Winterfell. Only the knowledge of Summer being so close to him brought him any comfort. For every day for one week straight, he would come down here for some time and be then escorted later out. Today though? He was left in here for hours, with nobody coming for him.
It was dark and so eerily silent, any odd sounds coming from the darkness around him would bring the worst of thoughts to the forefront of his mind. Ghosts, demons and all sorts of creatures that could have been hiding just there, looking down on him as he was unable to see anything. Taunting him, stalking him and he would be non the wiser.
Cold, he was thirsty and hungry. He hated the place and just wanted to get out. "Robb!" He called out to his brother. "I don't want anymore.. I don't care for those stupid powers, Robb!" He sniffed and hot tears fell down his cheeks. "I wanna get out!"
He sat on top of Summer, the wolf just large enough to carry his small body. He got his wolf to walk. Anywhere really, he just wanted to get out. His eyes started to play tricks on him, showing the many shadows moving, the odd sounds down here just enchanting his imagination.
For hours he wandered more, finally thinking he must have walked only deeper inside and would be forever lost in here.
As his breathing increased and his mind rushed in panic, he leaned against Summer and lost consciousness.
Though as he opened his eyes once more, his eyes saw better than ever and his smell was as sharp as only an animal could be. The last nail in the coffin was him seeing his own body right beneath him.
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1 Month Ago
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"What is that?" Bran asked his older brother. Together with him, Rickon and Arya, who just recently got back, they all sat as a family before the weirwood trees of their castle and were preparing themselves for another one of Robbs ideas.
"This, my little, stupid and far less handsome brother... "He was too handsome, damn it! "..Is a plant that I had searched far and wide. I had sent my men to search the forests beyond the wall, had sent them to look through the old ruins of Valyria and through the cursed forest of Ifequeron and Yi TI. Had the whole world looked at, just to find even some traces of it.. Then it turned out it was growing naturally in the swamps of the neck, fuck me.. At least my trip to the Freys was good for something."
Rickon giggled. "You said a bad word!"
"And you are an annoying little shit I do my utmost to ignore, brother dearest... But anyhow, the fucking Reeds were smoking weed for ages now! Asses, did not even share.. No wonder they are so chill." He gave each one of us one of those things he called a "joint.", though Bran really did not know why he called it that way... "Anyhow, shit is not as strong as the Shade-of-the-evening that the fucking Warlock drink in their little cult in Qarth, buuut it will make do, for now."
"And you are sure this right here will help us.. open up that third eye thingy you spoke about?" Arya asked, skeptical.
"Heell fkin yeah it will!" He giggled. "Shit will make yall tripping balls. Me and my good friends Tyrion and Qubyrn... tested it extensively. Let it just be said we were happy with the results.."
Bran did not know why he would be tripping over balls, but he did as his older and far more responsible brother told him and breathed in through the smoking joint.
He caught, smoked some more, caught more and more, until he smoked it whole and then turned back to his brother. " I don't feel any different."
Then the face of his sister started to look funny and all the colors of the world began to dance around him. Even a crow with three eyes appeared to him!
Bran did not remember all, but he did remember giggling a lot. Man, greenseer dreams were sure lots of fun!
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Present.
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"And you are really sure I, a cripple should go with you to beyond the wall?" Bran asked me for the tenth time.
"Yeah, sure. You'll get to meet this old wizzard and... It's gonna be real cool, I hope."
"Okay.." He looked like he was gathering more courage to ask about something else and finally did so. "I wanted to ask... is it true? What you had written about Sansa? Is she really banished from our family?"
I just chuckled, not believing Brans naivety. "Bran, come on, you are not stupid.. Of course I just did that to make sure they could not use her against us. She is a hostage sure, but now at least they won't do stupid things like cutting of one of her fingers and sending it to us. And if they do? Well fuck them! Why? We would not care at this point. We have cut all ties to her, publicly. I am also betting on Littlefigner getting all obsessed over her and to kidnap her to the Vale, where his degenerate of a fuckbuddy and our aunt waits for him. Don't worry, we'll get her in like a year or so... by that point everybody will get over my stunt and just accept her. And if not? Well, I am the King and she gets married of to another house anyway. Won't have to tolerate her shit even all that long.."
"Mother cried a lot.." Bran got out.
"Bran.. I don't want to sound mean or anything, but our mother is a woman. The dead wife of a lord, as in; left baggage. Her opinions don't fucking matter, so doesn't she. I am the lord and when I tell her to shut her trap and don't do any retarded shit, since she is just a stupid little woman, she ought to do just that."
Bran just stared horrified at me, not believing it.
"What? We live in the damned middle ages, Bran! Fucks sake, women are treated like that here, it's the norm. I am betting even you are turning into a misogynist at this point."
"Wha, I'd never.."
"Yeah sure and when Arya beat you in any physical activities in the past, you did not get your manly pried hurt or anything, no! You were honored to witness such empowerment of the female sex!" I flipped him off. "Yeah, whatever. I am all for equality up in here, but it does not change the fact that most females do happen to be completely retarded. I mean, Cersei? Bitch believes herself to be so clever but is more nearsighted than a manatee. Oleana Tyrell? Queen of thrones my ass, she too never plays the long game. Though respect is where it's due, she does kick some ass. Daenerys Targaryen? Bitch likes to play dragon Jesus, but is this entitled little cunt that likes the sound of her own 27 titles being called out in every occasion."
"..how do you even know of her?" Bran wondered, probably thinking on some weird ass greendream he had or something. "And what are the middle ages?"
"I am awesome like that. What I was getting at? Guess I just wanted to rant about Daenerys a little. Gods, I hope that twat stays in Essos. Hopefully those theories were true and she would need to travel to Ashai and do her own duty against the others there.."
Wait, was she not much better in the books? I was in the book verse, right? I mean, she did have that sense of entitlement in the books as well, only not to that ridiculous degree.
"I will break the wheel! How I will do that? Getting rid of feudalism? Fuck naw? What, do I look like a fucking commie to you? Nah man, I'll just fly in with mah dragons and burn lots of shit down, like the people that disagree with the house of Targaryen. Also fuck the common people, let's burn in lots of food supplies and then later complain how little food is left in Westeros! GENIUS!"
She was still this marry sue of a character, but that was justified. She had this whole theme of predestination, of her being mostly a puppet to powers far above herself and in such had fate on her side. As in she was just this one girl that had all the right genetics and was in the right position for the powers above to guide her to where they wanted her.
Even still, in the books she took over Mareen and did this whole "Hollier than thou" act by being all against slaves, but in reality was really racist against those people. Wanted really nothing more than to just take the peoples riches, her "freed" slaves and to fuck of to Westeros. There once again, her sense of entitlement would force her to take over the throne, because she is the blood of dragons or whatever.
Daenerys is this 15 year old girl that only some years ago thought of her big brother as this godlike figure, with him never being any wrong. She even really believed she would get to marry him, which shocked her later when she found out he wanted to well her off like that.
Ok, she gets away with it. As long as she stays in Essos...
"Anyhow, the reason why I came here to begin with. We are setting out in 7 days. Get yourself and your Hodor-mobil prepared, you are not going to return any time soon. Chilling with tree wizards and smoking the best pot and shit.. Lucky sonofabitch.. Let's just hope he doesn't turn out to be evil or anything, kay?"
".. I am not so sure I want to go anymore.."
"Ha, as if you had a choice! The Reeds are getting here by tomorrow, so you won't stay a friendless looser for any longer! Good on you, brother dearest!"
"I hate you.."
"Yeah? Well, how about you stand up and hit me? Ohh, wait, you can't! Ha!"
"Fuck you.."
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6 Days Later
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"Sub bitches." I walk into some rooms I took over from the Winterkeep, threw all the useless junk out of it and called it mah labs. Because me smart. Me having visited 13 years worth of classes in public edukayshun. "Sup hoe." I greeted Tyrion. "How's the glass production going?"
He just rolls his eyes. "It's okay, could be better. There is not really a high demand for most of the components of glass to be easily available on the open market, so we have to look deep. Then there is us trying to be discreet in not just giving the spies access to the receipt by simply following our shopping list, which forces us to buy lots of different things.. Finally you do not want to give the secret out to many people, which leaves only us 3 and some more muscle worth of manpower... Finally this is not even the only project we are working on! What I am saying, I need a break, please."
"Hmm yeah. Lucky you, I won't be able to take your crippled ass beyond the wall then. So there, like a month you can dedicate to just that."
"Wow." He answers in deadpan. "Thank you so very much. A truer friend one could not wish for."
"No problemo bro." Then to Qubyrn. "And the glass gardens?"
Glasshouses, or gardens as they were called here, were a thing over here in the North. At least over here with the Starks. Maybe it was thanks to the hot springs around here, but I do not believe glasshouses were so ancient to exist in the middle ages. Which is odd as this place is mostly being stuck in the middle ages.
Technological advancement is kind of odd and all over the place in this world. Like they have galleys for ships, they have telescopes that some marines use, they have very advanced and incredible wildfire. Steel, with Valyrian steel being the magical version of the incredible wootz steel alloy people even hundreds of years back in our world were somehow able to create, but not yet the simple non-magical wootz steel. (Wootz Steel was famous for having the same beautiful patterns on its blade as Valyria steel has. Incredibly durable and makes for some incredible blades that are far superior to any convenient steel.)
Man, now that I think about it, I do remember some of the process of the creation of said steel. No step by step guide or anything, but man. I should at least give the things I remember to the smiths and tell them to experiment with it and to see if anything useful will come out of it.
And yet they did not have any compasses. Field rotation. Use something quite like, but not yet at the level of cement to hold the stones together they build their castles out of. No cement itself though. Had glass, but only really one place in the world only even knew its secrets and the how's and they guarded those secrets jealously, willing to do just about anything to keep them only for themselves.
Need to keep watch out for them, now that I think about it..
Still, greenhouses. In the books only the Starks had any, probably because of how costly any glass from Myr would be. Not only that, but they'd have to import it from all the way from Myr, which could lead to it easily breaking on its massive journey by boat and carriage.
Ramsey, by the way destroyed them when he sacked Winterfell. Am I fucking glad I got rid of that little tumor on the body of the north! You did a good job the me of the past, I am proud of you.
I believe those greenhouses of the Starks were quite old. As in, from times of Bran the builder or something like that. Incredibly costly to build an very valuable to the Starks. I remember Jon debating building such greenhouses near the wall, which he thought would be quite possible. But alas, up till now those were mostly dreams of the Northern folk to have them.
Not anymore baby!
Know how to create that shit now, at least the glass part of it. Which is really all that matters. Gonna create more of them over here, show them off like some priced possessions and sell that shit for far less than in Myr, but still a huge sum to the rest of the lords in the North.
Maybe even export it to the other kingdoms, who will no doubt ignore any signs of war to get their greedy little hands on some very valuable glass. The Maesters in the citadel would easily buy that, as long as I get some people to work that into bottles and spherical containers.
I needed money. Why? Well, I did some maths...
One year and a half of summer in the North. As in not just 3 months of summer, followed by Autumn, Winter and Spring. Instead I would have one and a half years: 18 months of summer weather you could compare to countries like Canada. Beyond that I will have maybe a full year of transition to full blown winter, as in 12 months of Autumn. Maybe less, I was not clear in how the cycle worked here. IT was confusing to say the least.
That means actually more than 2 years worth of nonstop time to get myself as much food as possible as Autumn is mostly the time where you get to actually harvest all the things you grew.
Though the lands would need rest after each harvest, as the plants will suck them dry of any minerals otherwise and produce inferior results over time. But it is really no problem with how much land the north has.
The problem comes if you start to calculate all the food stocks and how they would fare in a 10 or so year long winter. As in, with my calculations I will have enough food to live comfortably for 5 years by the end of the autumn. 5 years after which anybody but the Lords, who will no doubt have the most food stocked in their castles, will start to hunger and die off horrible deaths.
That is only if you account for the people of the North and just them. No immigrants from the free folk, of which I do plan to take in quite a few. The North has just about 300.000 people, of which there are some mountain clans. They are not strictly speaking under my jurisdiction and the only difference between them and the mountain clans in the vale is that we are both of the first men and in that share a peaceful relationship. They leave us alone and work with us if needed, but value their freedom.
I expect to take in 25% of my peoples numbers from beyond the wall, which adds another 75000 of men, women, old and children to the equation. 75000 of the a million of all people beyond the wall is not all that much and yet I am afraid that taking in more would lead to disastrous consequences. I am still hopeful my talks with Mance will go the way I want them...
With those numbers, we will last maybe 4 years during the massive winter that will most likely last 10 years or so. It was said the winters were as long as the summers, after all.
And there you have it, the reason for me wanting lots of money. To buy as much food as I can get away with. The Tyrells are famous for their fertile lands and are such people that would sell us anything regardless of the political situation. They just don't give a fuck and like I said previously are an ambitious bunch. They would not loudly announce it, but wold do so regardless. We are, after all their most valuable source of export. Us and the Martells.
To buy foods from the south and to have all the castles in the North equipped with massive glasshouses is my game plan for the winter. Our glasshouses are mostly to grow such foods that we would not usually get in the northern lands, such as lime and other fruits, vegetables and even flowers. I could easily build more and dedicate them solely to growing a nice amount of nutritious foods. So could other lords, though I am unsure what the absence of hot springs will mean for their glass gardens.
"Since the both of you are staying here while I am gone, focus on that. Make as much glass as you possibly could for the other lords. What else.. Ah, yes that. How is Moat Cailin doing down south?"
"Last we heard, the reconstructions have begun and will still be going in half a years time. Why? Afraid of a war?" Tyrion taunted me. To be honest, he was not wrong. Moat Cailin was the greatest defense I would have from anything south of it. The swamps would make it impossible for anyone to move through them safely and with all the weapons, ammunition and food that the south would need for a full scale war.
Not that it will really happen. I mean, come on! That's like invading Russia, you just don't do it. Even if you win, by the time winter will come, you and all your armies will get fucked twice over!
"Naw, is just an awesome castle. Have this awesome buddy that I want to gift it to..."
"Brah. No way.. I am, I mean. I am honored. After all my life to have this happen to me." Tyrion became speechless. His eyes actually watering at that.
"I was talking about Qubyrn actually.."
"Ha ha." Tyrion got out a deadpan laugh. "Got me there. But you were kidding, right?" I did not answer and walk away. "Robb? This was just a joke, right? I am still getting my awesome castle to rub it into the faces of my once time family, right? Would that not be totally funny and worth it? Robb?"
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A Day Later.
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We gathered our supplies, readied and fed our horses. I prepared some things on my own, like me taking lots of glass with me on my journey to give it to all the lords whose strongholds I will ride past and to supply the wall itself with it.
Though as we were all ready to travel, I received one more letter. Something I had been awaiting for a long time now.
The Lannisters began to pillage the Riverrun in retaliation to my actions and to force me out of my save North.
"Good..." I had been awaiting that for months now. Had some 20.000 men prepared in Moat Cailin and the Twins. Ten thousand in each of the castles, waiting for just the right moment to ride out to war. "Give the order."
Like I had told Roose Bolton, I gave the order for the Boltons, Karstarks and Umbers to go there. 10.000 men would stay in reserve and man the 2 castles, while the other 10.000 would go and help Riverrun.
10.000 does not sound like much, but I did not just send them there with empty hands. Foods, supplies and new weapons. Their forces would help the Tully fight a defensive war. As in from within the castle, where each man was worth 5 of the ones behind the wrong side of the wall.
But not only that, I had also sent out a Raven to Stannis. One that would hopefully change history and make the small forces I sent there irrelevant anyway. I was mostly hoping for the woman in red to support the claims I made in the letter, but I had faith in her being more than just a charlatan anyway. Not only that, but she was perhaps the only person on this side of the continent that would believe any claims I made of the others returning.
She burned people and was a mad, old bitch, but did not mean she did not have her uses.
I had done all I wanted, instructed my men and sent all the letters. I had the supplies and the men I would need for my journey to the wall and beyond and plans were in motion all over the North.
With great satisfaction I rode out of Winterfell.