Chapter-7: Fostering
I was surprised by Lord Royce's personal welcome but pleased nonetheless and quickly got off the ship to greet Royce lord or "Bronze Yohn" as people call him.
I calmly walked towards Lord Yohn and bowed my head and said, "Lord Royce I will like to thank you and House Royce on behalf of House Bolton for accepting our request. You do me great honor by taking me as your squire, my lord."
Lord Royce seemed both embarrassed and pleased by my proclamation. He replied back while smiling "It was no trouble at all young Bolton and it is I who truly am honored to have the heir to the Red Kings of Dreadfort as my squire."
We idly chatted for a bit while making our way to the castle proper. Runestone was similar to Dreadfort in many ways yet it still maintained its unique character. Both Dreadfort and Runestone were first constructed by the First Men, while Dreadfort remained more or less same even after the many renovations the castle went under Runestone had evolved a lot. While House Royce was proud of its roots, it has not remained untouched by Andal culture and this was shown in the castle's design and structure. Some towers were clearly older and had more Northern touch, for lack of better word, while others were fairly new and a lot more stylish and lavish compared to the older looking ones.
When we arrived at the castle I was shown my room and was told that Lord Royce has organized a small welcome feast in my honor. At the sound of feast I was immediately on guard, 'My armor won't have made such a big impression. I am sure he wants something from me but what it could be, god let it be anything other than a marriage proposal.'
He further thought, 'But if it was about a marriage proposal then he would have to talk to my father, maybe he just wants to make a good impression on me, a young boy of eight nearly nine. Or maybe he wants more armors or the secret behind making one which I am going to tell no one and I am certain he knows it to then what the hell does he wants. Well only time will tell but I won't get married on my father's order, not now or ever'
I made my way to the great hall following my escort. The great hall of Runestone was spacious with plenty of light coming from glass panels along the walls which I am sure would have cost a small fortune in itself. As my presence was announced I made my way towards the head table and indicated a servant to bring forth my gift for House Royce.
I announced, "Lord Royce as a token of thanks from House Bolton I would like to present you with this pair of runic sword and dagger. Though, it is a poor replacement compared to Lamentation (Valyrian steel sword of House Royce) it still is better than any castle forged steel sword."
There were many oohs and ahhs after my presentation and Royce family looked incredibly happy and thankful so I decided to earn some more brownie points.
I said, "The great sword is of course for Lord of the House Royce but you can give dagger to any of your untrained children. It is good for blocking and stabbing and will help putting a good fight against attackers until help arrives."
Now Royce looked even more pleased if that was possible. He thanked me sincerely and then started the feast. Throughout the feast members of House Royce thanked and welcomed me repeatedly. I was asked by Lord Royce to meet in his solar after the feast. By the time the feast was finished it was already nearing midnight. I walked with Lord Royce to his solar making small talk with him along the way.
After we were seated he started by saying, "I once again welcome you to Runestone. Now first of all I want to ask about the runes that were carved on both the dagger and the sword, they are not runes of the First Men."
Sharp, that was the word that comes to my mind at the moment. "No, those were not the original runes of the First Men but their heavily modified versions created with the help of Children of forest, at least from what I was able to gather," I bullshitted easily with a complete straight face.
He seemed to accept it and then started discussing the finer details of his new toys. Soon the topic of training came up.
Yohn Royce asked "Tell me lad, have you undergone any type of weapon or hand to hand training."
I answered confidently, "Father did not allow me to train with any heavy weapons so I am adept in archery using a very light bow and I am also good at throwing knives and riding."
Lord Royce commanded, "For the next two years till you become my squire, you will be practicing sword fighting and will continue on improving your skills with bow and throwing knives. Once you become my squire you will start training in jousting and I will up your training in melee fighting as sword is not the only melee weapon available to you."
I nodded my head in acceptance and went to my room as soon as I was excused.
After initial excitement died down and things in Runestone returned to normal, Domeric was able to fit in with rest of the members of House Royce.
For the next two years Domeric trained and integrated himself in Royce household. Lord Yohn became like an uncle for Domeric and he greatly appreciated his help in sword training. Maester Helliweg was a constant source of information and sage advice. Royce household members quickly realized that I was very bright and smart kid so my lessons with maester and Lord Royce on politics and warfare were short and less frequent.
I took many tomes from the library for reading; this allowed me to explain the long hours that I usually spent cooped up in the solitude of my room. While people thought I was a scholar and was reading some books in my room I was actually meditating to complete my animagus training. The reason I was in hurry to complete it was simple; I knew that it was some kind of bird and I had a plan that would go smoother and faster this way.
Braavos and Pentos were not very far away from Runestone and I did not want to go on a lot of voyages, it was both incredibly boring and time consuming. Braavos was about 400 miles away from Runestone and Pentos some 600 miles. I could pretend to be under weather for a day or two and apply some muggle-repelling and notice-me-not wards on the room.
I could easily finish my business in that 48 hour window. I can possibly make these trips every six months or even every three months if it becomes necessary. My form had cleared out a bit and from what I could understand of it; I was a powerful bird and was closely related to eagle family that means that I could fly between 70-100 mph. If my last form was any indication it could be a magical bird and maybe I can even achieve 150 mph, something to ponder about at a later date.
While I was improving on my swordsmanship in leaps and bounds my semi-self training in archery and throwing knives was not going so well. It seemed to me like I have reached a block and need some professional guidance.
To that end, I asked help from Ser Andar Royce, Lord Royce's eldest son and heir. He was already an accomplished knight but the field that he excelled the most in was archery. We bonded over our shared love for archery and in that short time he came to see me as his little brother; what can I say, I just have this affect on people around me.
Although I didn't need to train in magical arts I still practiced it so that I didn't freeze up in a magical battle because I have no doubt I will be coming across some magical people while in Essos.
I was aware of the fact that though my magic was stabilizing it was still becoming more erratic and difficult to control. On further analyzing my core I realized that my magic was changing on some cellular or atomic level or whatever smallest particle level that existed for magical energy. Simply speaking my magic was changing or maybe even evolving from its very essence. While as Harry I could spam spells for hours on end, here as Domeric I could barely fight for two hours using my magic.
I knew my power levels were increasing as I age but even after reaching my full potential I will never be able to cast as many spells as I used to. It was a sobering thought and I decided then and there to research magic of the world in more details. I now understood that if I want to use magic out in the open I will have to improvise. I also upped finding a focal point in my list of things to do.
Now that I have lived in this world for some time I have begun noticing similarities between my previous world and this one. Western civilizations like America and Europe in my previous world were considered developed and advance while here Westeros especially Westerlands, Reach and Crownlands are considered epitome of luxury and comfortable life in this world.
In both the worlds, West is considered civilized and progressive while Essos is thought to be land of exotic people and mysterious cultures. The number of similarities medieval middle-east and pre-colonial Indian subcontinent had with Essos were numerous. From their continental climates and skin tone to their trade in spices and slaves, both had a lot of things in common. This allowed me to better perceive my new world and the people around me.
My relationship with other members of household was complex to say the least. Robar Royce, second son of Lord Royce was usually away as he was working as a squire for some Vale night, we both were able to form a friendship of sort. Waymar Royce, youngest son of Lord Royce however, was another matter entirely.
He considered himself to be my rival even though I was three years younger than him. He constantly tries to show me up but always falls short of succeeding. It quickly became a constant source of friction and tension between both of us. I didn't care one bit for this one-sided rivalry and this seems to make him even madder at me because I have somehow slighted him.
My relation with Lord Royce's daughters was distant, it was simply because I did not want to be seen getting along with them. I don't want a stupid marriage contract to tie me down dammit, not if I can help it.
I didn't see Lady Royce often, sometimes only during meals. She was usually busy with household work and looking after her children especially her daughters. She is a cordial and warm host but we just didn't get any time to spend with each other.
Lord Royce's master-at-arms Ser Samwell Stone and I shared an interesting relationship. We spent a lot of time together in training yard. He was not only an excellent instructor and hard taskmaster but also an honorable man; there are not many of them in south, so I decided to make good relations with the one that I found. He in turn admired my dedication and growing prowess in fighting.
For the next eighteen months I did little other than training, meditating, learning and helping Liam with his spy network. The last one was progressing at a pace faster than I anticipated. Apparently, he had managed to induct a local information trafficker in his network who was also working against Baelish. His name was Bilius or Billy, as I started calling him. He was a bastard son of late Lord Coldwater.
Lord Coldwater provided him with education in childhood and then some money so that he could live safely until he found his own trade. His father and his only trueborn brother got trapped in one of the machinations created by Baelish. Baelish murdered them both so that he could place his man on the seat of Coldwater.
Late Lord Coldwater's younger brother was part of the scheme and was then named Lord Coldwater as his reward. Lord Coldwater and his son were allegedly killed by mountain tribes and the whole thing was then left uninvestigated. Billy was in Essos at that time but as soon as he learnt of his family's death he returned.
He then started investigating the mysterious murders with his step mother and met with many clans of Vale in that time. All the leads went cold except one which led him to his uncle. His confrontation with his uncle went poorly and he lost his step mother and a finger in his left hand but he did get Baelish's name from his uncle. Since then he had been trying to cut down Baelish's powerbase in Vale but had only small successes so when Liam offered him our help he readily agreed and became an important member of our network.
My network now included all the major houses of Vale and Liam even added a few contacts from King's Landing to it. I asked Liam to search some guides for me in Essos; one in Braavos, one in Pentos and lastly one for Lorath.
In this time we were able to root out all the enemy spies from Runestone, one way or another. We killed the Lannister spy quietly and made it seem like a natural death. I exposed the Tyrell spy to Lord Royce the same way that I did with my father, only that instead of me Liam was the one to capture him red-handed and without Tyrell trying to kill any member of House Royce.
Though it did not make "Bronze Yohn" any less wary of Tyrell, however, he was not angry. It was like he already expected a spy to be there. Maybe he was a lot more involved in southern politics than I presumed him to be.
We stayed away from spider's little birds as I didn't want spider's attention toward me so early in the game. Baelish was another matter, apparently he in his arrogance did not consider Liam working for me and pulled out his previous spy that was working in Runestone and gave that job to Liam.
Apart from that I found some weak wards around the castle which were similar to the wards around Dreadfort before I strengthened them. I worked hard on improving them a bit. It was extremely taxing to do so without actually knowing the location of the ward stones that were used to bind wards around the place. If I had to take a guess I would say they were buried with foundation or were placed in some hidden room.
It was night time and a now nine year old Domeric Bolton was making his way to the castle godswood. House Royce still maintained a godswood to honor their ancestors though it did not have any weirwood trees left. The only people to ever come here were Domeric and members of his small party. So here he was, sitting in a meditative trance and incredibly closed to bonding with his inner animal.
Suddenly where once Domeric Bolton sat was now occupied by a large bird of prey. The bird in question had the face of an eagle but the similarities ended there, it had three sets of large and powerful wings resting on its back. The bird was at least 7 feet tall. The bird had beautiful stormy grey feathers which were tinged royal-blue at ends.
It had crest of blue colored feathers which shined in the moonlight. Its tail feathers, like the rest of its body were storm grey but had intermingling blue feathers which formed a beautiful pattern on it. I knew what it was; it was none other the legendary Thunderbird.
I tried flapping my wings and let the instincts of the animal help me through the process. 'Fuck this is hard. Using two wings was far easier than this; it fell like I am once again a baby who is trying to learn how to walk. These coming few days I will have to practice hard if I want to take a trip before I turn ten.'
I had already written by the time asked reader's opinion on my choice of POV but the oncoming chapters will be in third person with occasional first person scenarios.
