7 year's Later

Jon's POV

It had been 9 years since the Greyjoy rebellion had happened or succeed eh should say, he was still Hand of the King although the Kingdom hadn't been much together of the late and with the crown massively in debt because of their king. He and Petyr Baelish were sat in his solar going over the books and logs of all the taxes and payment sin the kingdoms and it was coming up short.

With The Iron Islands now their own kingdom, they had lost that source of taxes, the Reach were no longer trading much grain with free cities due to ships being intercepted by the Iron fleet and secondly their coast being raid and crops stolen or burned. The Reach was no longer one of the bread baskets for the entire kingdom due to the Iron islands raiding them more than ever due to them being the cause of death of 2 Greyjoys.

The Riverlands had gone relatively unscathed and was now the main place of trade for food as Seagard and the natural landscape had protected it from Iron Born raids. The Lannisters were no longer the richest House in the kingdom due to the price of grain rising making the Riverlands and the Tullys far richer than ever.

The Lannisters had also suffered due to half their gold mine territories being taken by the Iron born for a few years before being forced back than constant raids all along the coasts. Banefort, The Crag were still held by the Iron Born along with the gold mines of Pendric Hills and Nunn's Deep. Lord Lannister had managed to hold the line at Ashemark but raids were still happening and villagers were abandoning the coasts for inland towns or cities. Tywin was demanding his coin back from the crown that he had leant them before the rebellion but they needed more and the Iron Bank was only so generous. With Robert planning a Tourney to bring the realm together and nearly bankrupting the realm with building a fleet that they couldn't afford to retake lands from a fleet they could never beat due to sheer numbers.

The realm was in a dire state.


Eddard's POV

Looking back now he didn't know how he somehow he had managed to keep the North together over the past few years better than other lords had done with their region. Bear Island still stood as part of the new Iron born Kingdom, there had been no point risking men's lives when they didn't have the fleet to take it on, they had built quite a sizable fleet at White Harbour but they would have to sail it around Westeros past the Iron Islands to reach Bear Island.

The Night's Watch also been a growing issue over the year, with Euron inhabiting Bear Island ,Shadow tower had faced a few skirmished with Iron born raiders as well but also their ranks had been bolstered from captured Iron raiders or men south whom had all there lively hood taken from them during raids or attacks, or orphaned boys who had nowhere else to go.

The North had suffered some major attacks but they had only come out stronger for the first few years the raiding mainly stuck to the coast of the Rills, Barrowlands and the Stoney Shore. With Prince Rodik Greyjoy still controlling Flint's Cliff and Blaze waterway there wasn't much he could do. Moat Calin had been easily taken from the Greyjoy's grasps even with them desperately trying to fortify it to defend from the North. In the first couple of years he had sent forces to retake the Flints but at the loss of they suffered partly from the narrow strip of land that was not marsh that connected the Flint's cliff to the North but also due to the Greyjoy's having support of a large fleet that would provide ballista fire for retreating forces and also the Greyjoys threat that if they left the land they would leave the land uninhabitable and with no survivors.

They also convinced him to let them have that piece of land due to in later years showing how great their strength was, Iron Born raids pushing further and further inland, when they realised he had strengthen his coast line they changed tactics from large raids on the coastline to small but strong tactical raids sneaking in mainland. Castles including his own seat of Winterfell had been hit, crops and livestock raided but 2 years ago they had tried a daring raid, their target had been his daughter, they already had one daughter of a great house so must have decided that they needed another. 20 men came in the middle of the night and had made it all the way to Keep before the alarm was raised. They would have taken her that night had it not been for his own blood.

Jon Snow had killed the person who had taken her from her room while she slept. He had found him carrying her in the hallway and killed 2 other men to get to them, receiving a cut across his stomach for his loyalty. Since then he had barely left Sansa's side nor would she let him, he had become her sworn shield and he was grateful that Sansa had accepted him more but it had caused tension with his wife, now that Jon was protecting Sansa. Sansa had also just been betrothed to Domeric Bolton, they had met while he fostered at Winterfell.

He could see them out the window now, walking along the battlements with Jon not to far behind, 9 years ago he would never have considered betrothing any of his children to a Bolton but he needed to maintain his family's strength in the North and the Boltons had always been one of the Starks rivals centuries back and there was still slightly bad blood between them. Domeric thought seemed different from his far, kind and honourable and he was hoping the time that Domeric had spent at Winterfell would have made sure that he was as little like his father as he could be. They were due to be married in a year. His eldest had gotten married 1 year ago to Alys Karstark, they had grown fond of each other during their time spent as teenagers and hopefully they would grow into a strong couple to rule the North, they were going to need to close to survive the coming years, he could feel it.

Winter was Coming.


Wilas's POV

Sitting now in tower looking out over Highgarden, he wondered how different things could have gone if the Greyjoy rebellion had failed. 9 years ago his brother had killed a son of King Balon Greyjoy, causing the entire wrath of the islands down on the unprotected Reach. 5 months after that Oldtown had been attacked , Bandallon captured and Blackcrown burned to the ground. Then 2 months later Highgarden was assaulted in the middle of the night, the fleet they were building there burnt then they sailed up the river in their long ships burning crops and villages as they went, taking livestock, hitting Goldengrove, Cider Hall all the way up to Bitterbridge. His father Mace did his bets to combat it but ignored his advisors always reinforcing a place that had been attacked not send troops to the next expected target. Then 1 year after Highgarden was attacked his father did something that earned the scorn and disrespect of his Lord and his Family, in a deal with King Balon, Balon agreed to capture no more land and not travel past Highgarden up the river in return his father gave him Balon his only daughter, his sister Maragery Tyrell, whom it is rumoured has been married to Theon Greyjoy. This caused a hatred from his Grandmother Olenna which ceased a year later when Olenna asked mace to go visit the villages that had been raided. Then a raid happened at the same time even though no ships had been sighted in the area. His father was killed leaving him as Lord of Highgarden. With Margaery imprisoned on Pyke, his brother Garlan blamed himself as he was the one whom killed Aeron in anger. Garlan could not stay around Highgarden and felt he should pay penance for what he did so went and joined the Night's Watch. His once great family had been shattered in matter of years. His youngest brother Ser Loras was now his personal guard and Lord Tarly his closest advisor. Together they had managed to strengthens their defences and be altered more quickly to iron Born raids but with much of their crops burnt and villagers fleeing the Reach they were in a dire straight even with winter not yet on them. The only glimpse of hope was that his wife of 2 years Leonette Fossaway was pregnant with their first child.

Now he looked at this letter received form the King, the idiot king who sat on his arse drinking and whoring away while his people suffered, his great plan to untie the people was to have a huge Tourney at Harrenhal. Maybe his grandmother was right, the Targaryen's needed to return.