PART 13 : THEON / KAZUMA
Winterfell, 289 AC
This is awkward; especially when I looked at how Lady Stark slumped while being carried by Septa Mordane and two female servants toward her chamber while repeatedly muttering "Darkness... my brother is Darkness..."
Megumin is at my side, looking very guilty with the catatonic state her mother is currently in. She did not exactly cry but her eyes are already wet, while Robb tried to tell her that was not her fault. Nope, that was Megumin's fault all along for being such a jerk to her own mother at the first place and calling whoever this Edmure Tully as 'Darkness' is merely the last straw.
From Maester Luwin, we are informed about Lord Stark's stances about this; while my secret as another magic user would be kept safe, there will be letters sent to various Lords that is known to still worship The Old Gods south of The Neck. Lord Stark urge them to maintain peace of their land, not provoking The Faith of The Seven, and if they somehow meet with or already sheltering Edmure Tully, he should be told to go back to Riverrun as there are already Royal Guarantee for his choice of belief. Lord Stark also sent letter to his goodfather Lord Hoster of House Tully, as well as another to King Robert himself, but Maester Luwin did not share their specific contents to us.
I told Megumin that tomorrow, she should go with me to light the glass candle and hopefully we could contact Aqua to confirm whatever shit she pulled with her uncle, and how to get in touch with this Edmure Tully as apparently Aqua could reach him somehow. And if we get a definitive answer, we will apologize to Lady Stark. The uncoordinated chuuni bullshits start to claim unintended victims and this would be bad for us in the long run.
The explosion today is rather dull compared to before, as Megumin only said her rather standard chant of "I am Arya of House Stark, Blackness darker than black and darker than dark. The time of destruction cometh, return all creations to cinders and come from the Abyss! Explosion!"
Of course Maester Luwin still diligently documenting that chant, noting about the relative shortness, and also the relatively 'not-as-impressive-as-usual' explosion, that I would rate only as 45/100.
...
The next morning, after a mostly silent breakfast, I picked Megumin, and we go to my room to light the Glass Candle.
After the windows are closed, and there is only single normal candle to be our light source, I used tinder to light the glass candle. Much to our surprise, the Glass Candle not only burn, but it actually emitted a strange blue-white fire that actually feels cold.
I can immediately see Aqua clutching what seems to be a large bottle of booze in crouching position while there are numerous pale white skinned, glowing blue-eyed Demons wielding curved crystal swords that emits white mist from their blades, walked in a slow, menacing way toward her. One of them is having rather distinctive armor that looks like a long mail coat and a crown made of ice on his head.
"This is Darkness' fault! This is all Darkness' fault! Yamete yamete yamete yamete!" said Aqua while she keeps crying, clutching the bottle, and resisting the Demons who try to grab and the crowned Demon who try to manually bind her with chain made of crystals. "Yamete! This is Darkness' fault! Yamete yamete!" and not for long, Aqua's cry started to turn into unintelligible gibberish as she flailed her arms and legs while chugging the entirety of the big bottle, her pink hagoromo floats around her all the time, all in attempt to resist being captured by the Demons.
After seeing that scene for several minutes, the scene apparently ended with Aqua being hog tied with that crystal chain and carried away by those Demons, before starting again from the very beginning with Aqua crying while clutching a large bottle of booze. After watching that scene for the third time, I decided to simply put off the fire by blowing it, surprisingly, it worked.
Oh well, I recognize that scene has been mentioned by the Old God of The Green, Aqua's uncle, as apparently she instantly fell for the bait booze, but why she blame Darkness, of all people?
"The Others!" said Megumin after the vision in the flame ended. "Just like what Old Nan said!"
"Why can't she hear us anyway? This is unlike when she contacted me yesterday."
"Apparently this is some sort of Magic imprinting that gave the vision." said Megumin while raising her eyebrows. "And that's exactly why Aqua end up being captured, she was just being her idiot self as usual."
"And in her desperation to gain more worshiper to escape, somehow she contacted my Greyjoy uncle, didn't know which one, and your uncle Edmure. I suspect she gave both of them magic too, not just your uncle."
"So what should we say to my mother?" said Megumin with concern. "I didn't think..."
"Sssh... we will find a way. Maybe stop bothering your mother would be a good start. And never mention anything about Darkness ever again."
"I now started to understand why Darkness used to worry so much when her father was sick."
"And my father here rebels against the crown, my elder brothers all died, and now I'm taken hostage at your house. In term of misfortune, I got it worse!"
"But now you are the heir to Iron Islands, despite you being the youngest child."
"Well, yeah, but that's not the point dammit." I do end up frightened if all this 'misfortune' is the result of my high luck that will work in my favor when we consider long term benefit. I know I should feel guilty being an indirect kinslayer somehow, but then my eldest brother is a pirate and my second eldest is a jerk. At least this beats having your own parents laughing at the funny matter that is your death, somehow.
...
Our supernatural experiment today end up with zero result with regard to contacting Aqua, so after Megumin going somewhere to be with Old Nan, I end up having our lesson with Maester Luwin as usual with Robb and Jon. Today's lesson is rather boring numbers again, and I don't want to say much about it.
After lunch with Robb and Jon, we had riding lesson again, but that was also kind of boring to me. Not much can be said as well.
At night however, Megumin appears to already regain her good mood, while Lady Stark appears to be not as catatonic as yesterday (she still has those black bags under her eyes, and she still stares blankly every now and then). I exchanged knowing smile with Megumin, who appeared to actually ask forgiveness to Lady Stark for her cold rudeness lately. From what Megumin said, Lady Stark herself already resigned from trying to cure Megumin from her 'curse of magic', and having her daughter herself said 'sorry for making you worried sick' definitely do wonder to repair Lady Stark's mental health.
Much to everyone's surprise at dinner, Lord Stark told Robb, Sansa, and Megumin (while I and Jon just hearing at the sideline as we sat on the far side of the table), about how their grandfather, Hoster Tully, asked for Lord and Lady Stark to visit him at Riverrun in around a month, apparently to do some sort of peace conference because Lord Hand Jon Arryn himself would be present as well. Travel time between Winterfell and Riverrun is about little more than half a month with carriages, so it would be a rather long journey. Accompanying them would be Lord Karstark, who would come to Winterfell first, and Lords Manderly and Reed, who will join them along the way.
Long story short, in about two weeks, give or take, Lord and Lady Stark would leave Winterfell for Riverrun, and give the authority over us to Rodrik Cassel the Castellan. More surprising is how Sansa and Septa Mordane would be included on their travel, while we boys and Megumin would be left here at Winterfell. Lord Stark told us that there is a big possibility that Sansa may end up fostered at Riverrun, so if they wanted to play with Sansa, they should try to do it before the journey to Riverrun begin.
I barely knew Megumin's older sister anyway, so that would not be a loss for me. Same here with Jon, right? Sansa never play with him anyway.
So leaving aside the family matter, I end up feeling bored and ask Jon if he feels the same way. Jon said yes, and I suggest for us to go looking around Winterfell, just seeing things around in the meantime. Jon is obviously not too comfortable leaving Robb, but apparently the boredom is too high upon us, who are not really included in this family talk of some sort.
So we stand from our seat and bid Lord Stark our leave.
"Sure you can leave Jon, Theon, just be careful." said Lord Stark with a smile.
"May I..." said Robb while trying to leave his seat, but Lord Stark touched his shoulder, not permitting him to leave as apparently there is still personal matters that must be said between Lady Stark's children.
We looked at Robb before we walked out of the dining hall.
...
The situation here is rather silent at near midnight, Megumin already blasted her explosion some time before when we both not looking at her. Jon and I lie near the black pool under the Weirwood tree. Because we literally circled this castle three times already, and we are literally exhausted over our night walk.
"Well, this day is boring, isn't it Jon?" I questioned Jon, who is already half asleep upon the grass.
"Can't blame father though, this is his duty. Pity for us to miss Arya doing her explosion though." said Jon while looking up to the cloudy sky. "What was that?"
I also think that there is someone I feel I know flying upon us, carrying a long black bundle of something, and before we even realize anything, said bundle is suddenly dropped from the sky and fall neatly in front of us.
Yes, with my night vision, I could confirm that flying thing is definitely the three eyed crow I have met. But why he dropped this bundle when I was being alone with Jon instead of when I have Robb and Jon at my side?
I opened the bundle out of curiosity and found two things wrapped inside the tattered black cloth. A long, bone white weirwood bow with some red stains marking the body centered with some runic carving on its body (I knew because there are several weirwood furniture at Winterfell, and also has looked at some runes), the length is about five feet long, taller than myself. And while we are at it, there is also a long sword inside the bundle, with distinctive dark rippled, slender blade, shiny red jewel in the center of the hand guard, and the rather distinctive flame shaped pommel.
"Why does that crow dropped this Weirwood Longbow anyway?" I scratched my head while inspecting the sudden literal dropped items.
"And isn't this a Valyrian Steel blade?" questioned Jon while scrunching his eyes, looking at the sword he carried in his hand. "We should tell my father about this..."
"... maybe next morning? I am already sleepy right now."
"I think we should go to my father right now. Anyway, you want to keep the longbow?" questioned Jon while I realize I still grab the longbow at my hand.
"You could keep the sword; I feel that would be too long for me anyway. I'll keep the bow." I didn't mention that I prefer having Chunchunmaru, err... a shorter katana as my personal sword.
"How would we carry these weapons into our rooms without anyone noticing anyway? We should go to my father, right now, come on Theon."
"Alright Jon, alright..." I nodded before start walking behind Jon toward his father's solar.
...
The guards outside the Godswoods informed Rodrik Cassel of our findings, as Jon end up being a good boy who did not want to be caught sneaking around with real sharp sword in his hand.
After the Master-At-Arms arrive, we gave the weapons to him to be inspected and safekeeping (he insisted these are not toys for untrained children to carry around), but he would be with us to carry these findings to Lord Stark, as having those weapons dropped from the sky when we're at the Godswoods may meant The Gods wanted us to have these weapons at the first place.
Rodrik did confirm that yes, that long, slender sword is indeed a very well-made Valyrian Steel Sword, and he wanted to inform Maester Luwin to check the tomes for mention about any historical sword that bear resemblance to the sword that just dropped from the sky by a three eyed crow. He also confirmed that the bow is indeed a very well-made Weirwood bow with some weird runes carved into the handle, but for most parts, he is far more interested in examining the Valyrian Steel sword.
Alright, why did that mutant freak of a crow gave us these weapons anyway? I start to think those are intended to be my 'cheat items' or so to speak, but then why dropping them with Jon Snow present? If only that three eyed crow gave me those when I'm alone, I may have better luck on silently lurk into my room and keep them both safe under my bed. Oh well, I do prefer bows, so I have no complaint if Jon Snow end up claiming the sword. Back then when adventuring in Eris' realm, the etiquette is to share any items you found together with your party members who present at the time of finding, so in a way, I just feel that Jon Snow deserve to have that sword at the first place.
...
As we entered Lord Stark's study, Lord Stark immediately asked for Maester Luwin to come with the tome describing various Valyrian Steel Sword heirlooms that was known in Westeros, all while paid comparatively far less attention to the Weirwood longbow we found. It seems that not even Lord Stark is immune to the typical cliché about sword being more prestigious weapon than bow.
"The slender blade, the red jewel marking the hand guard, and the flame shaped pommel are the very description of the lost Valyrian Steel sword Dark Sister, my lord." said Maester Luwin after finding the matching description and illustration found in the tome he carried from the library. "This sword is last known to have been wielded by Brynden Rivers, the 993rd Lord Commander of The Night's Watch when he disappeared while ranging beyond The Wall in 252 AC."
"Dark... Sister..." said Lord Stark with a wince on his face when Maester Luwin mentioned the name 'Dark Sister' in front of us, for some reason.
"And with the identity of the sword confirmed, it would be a certainty that the Weirwood longbow found alongside the sword must be Bloodraven's famed Weirwood longbow."
"Bloodraven?" wait a minute, where did I hear that name before? Oh wait, that uncle of Aqua do refer to the three eyed crow as 'Bloodraven' back then.
"Lord Bloodraven is the alias of Ser Brynden Rivers, he is well-known for being an expert bowman with his Weirwood longbow, but he was also known to carry the sword Dark Sister, bestowed unto him by his father, King Aegon IV of House Targaryen." said Maester Luwin softly while Lord Stark again looking very uncomfortable with said sword held in his hand..
"In another circumstances, I would prefer sending the Sword to King's Landing, for King Robert should be its rightful owner. This sword is half of the pair of Royal Swords that once belongs to House Targaryen. It should belong to the rightful King on the Iron Throne." said Lord Stark with a frown on his face. "But as you said, a three eyed crow dropped those weapons in front of you at the Godswoods. The meaning of this..."
"I feel Jon Snow deserve to own the sword Lord Stark, as we are both the finders of those weapons. The Old Gods said that Weirwood amplify magic, and I like the longbow more, so the longbow could be meant for my use." I said while thinking that mentioning Valyrian Steel could be used to amplify magic as well may work in my favor, but then it could turn everyone to think myself as a greedy Ironborn. "The etiquette here is to share whatever you found together with your friends right?"
"Uh Theon, you shouldn't think about me that much, I am just a bastard after all and not deserving the sword." said Jon with awkward smile on his face.
"But isn't Brynden Rivers himself is a bastard's name?" I smirked while looking at Jon Snow, who in turn nervously eyeing the sword in Lord Stark's hand. "Lord Stark, I already offered for Jon to keep the sword while I keep the bow for myself. We found two items; we share the loot between us, just giving Jon his rightful share."
Lord Stark seems to wince again when I said that sword is Jon's rightful share.
"Y... You gave that sword to... J... Jon?" Lord Stark uncharacteristically stuttered his speech, maybe he actually prefers if that sword to be sent to the King, or maybe he thought Robb would be better owner.
"If I was with Robb, naturally the sword should be Robb's but because Jon is the one with me; I felt that sword is his right."
"This sword, Dark Sister, was associated with the previous Royal Family, the House Targaryen, it is a very precious, priceless sword." added Maester Luwin. "It could end up causing misunderstanding because that sword could be used to bolster the claim to the Iron Throne, if the wielder has that claim at the first place. If this sword ends up in the hand of a Targaryen loyalist, or a Blackfyre claimant..."
"Then just have Jon wield it carefully, Dark Sister belongs to Jon." I said while looking toward Lord Stark, who for somewhat reasons started to have sweats forming on his forehead, thanks to my improved observation skill. "Or did that means I should not wield the longbow either? Is this another Targaryen heirloom forbidden to be used by non-Royals or something?"
"No, the longbow is fine if you want to use it as it was Brynden Rivers' personal weapon, never being directly associated to House Targaryen at the first place... but the sword..." said Lord Stark.
"Belongs to Jon."
"Theon, I don't mean to..." said Jon while looking his father on the verge of panic or something.
"Wait, is this sword is that important to The King or something?" I asked to Lord Stark while even Maester Luwin and Rodrik Cassel seem equally puzzled by Lord Stark's sudden nervousness.
"Father, you could just send the sword for your friend King Robert. I did not mean to... Theon, I did not wish for this sword, this must be something very important to The King." said Jon seeing his father's distressed face.
"But I feel this sword should be yours Jon." I stressed while pointing toward the sky. "If I found the weapons alone, that may be another matter, but I found those weapons together with you, so you deserve the other weapon that I feel no inclination to wield at the first place."
"You felt no inclination to wield the sword?" questioned Maester Luwin with raised eyebrows. "Valyrian Steel sword is a very expensive, very precious thing for many people."
I shook my head at Maester Luwin's statement, signaling my intention to not taking the sword clear. Uh well, what to say about this then, my weapon skill mostly lies in snipe skill due to my outrageous luck, and Weirwood could be used as magic staff if required. I know I could train myself to be more comfortable wielding a long sword such as this, but Jon definitely deserve his share of loot at the first place.
"Dark Sister was heirloom of House Targaryen wasted on a bastard by King Aegon the Unworthy." said Rodrik Cassel. "For it to be wielded by a bastard once again might be taken as insult to the current Baratheon dynasty."
Jon looks down at Rodrik's statement. Oh well, maybe this is the side effect of being a bastard in this world. I feel that I should cheer Jon up with something, so...
"But considering the name of the sword is Dark Sister, maybe this refers to your sister Arya, The Arch Wizard Arya who wields the mighty explosion magic is your sister after all." I said with a grin to Jon. "Arya and her explosion, a nice match for the sword's name, right Jon?"
"Umm... that seems to be forcing it Theon. Why are you thinking about Arya only because the name of the sword is Dark Sister?" said Jon with confusion.
"Because she is your sister, duh. Dark. Sister. Something something about your sister. Something about Sister." I said the obvious, but then I can't help but notice Lord Stark's face turned pale for a while. Did Lord Stark think Jon would end up trying to woo Megumin just because he wields a sword named Dark Sister? Oh joy, Lord Stark must have quite an imagination in his head.
"Sister... Dark Sister..." said Lord Stark in shaky voice before he regained his composure. I never imagined before that Lord Stark would have quite an imagination about sistercon between his children, but that may be the only explanation. Have no worry Lord Stark, sometimes as men; we tend to have too much imagination about that thing.
"Why not let Jon have the sword that could be said to be named in honor of his sister Lord Stark?" I tried my best to not snickering over imagining Lord Stark's secret sistercon fetish between his children; this poor guy must feel very guilty over his own overly active imagination.
"No... Not about..." said Lord Stark before he looks outside the window and back to us again. "This sword is former heirloom of House Targaryen. This sword should belong for King Robert... in another circumstance... but... but..."
I looked at Jon, who is also confused on why this sword caused that much distress unto Lord Stark. Well, maybe Lord Stark does think Jon should not wield that sword at the first place because he's a bastard and the sword being too precious to be wasted on a bastard, like Rodrik just said.
Maybe it would be better for that sword to be sold, as Maester Luwin once said about lost Valyrian Steel weapons in his lessons. If that sword can not belong to Jon due to his bastardy, then at least Jon should be reimbursed with the financial value of Dark Sister.
"Maester Luwin, how much the price House Lannister offered to buy a Valyrian Steel sword anyway? The one you said about Lord Mormont and his Longclaw." I questioned to Maester Luwin as he once said that Tywin Lannister once offered to buy the sword Longclaw from Lord Mormont, which was refused despite House Mormont being a rather poor Northern House.
"Five hundred thousand golden dragons." said Maester Luwin softly.
"Then, if Lord Stark did not permit Jon to wield this sword, why not sell the sword in the first place and have Jon reimbursed with the financial value?" I said with a smile on my face. "Let's just sell that sword to House Lannister then. Half a million golden dragons should be far more than enough to build Jon a comfortable castle with developed land somewhere in the North, right?"
"Selling the sword to House Lannister is not an honorable thing to do... considering its status." said Lord Stark with a sigh.
"Then have an open bid start from half a million golden dragons, let House Lannister and The King offer their price for the sword, right? Considering its status as Targaryen heirloom and such, it might actually end up with price above one million golden dragons, you could give half million to Jon, and use the profit to improve Winterfell..."
"T... Theon, but I... I..." said Jon while waving his hand in front of my face.
"If you can't wield the Dark Sister, at least you can sell it, right? Two hundred thousand golden dragons are enough to build a decent castle according to Maester Luwin, five hundred thousand and you would be a well off Lord. I have feeling that House Lannister might just pay one million golden dragons up front because of the history of that sword, so you could as well..."
"Why are you so eager to sell something given by The Gods?" questioned Rodrik.
Uh-oh... wait... oh well, stay calm Kazuma, you are master of business negotiation back then, being billionaire adventurer and all, but maybe saying something about selling the sword might alarm people here. Calm down, calm down, do not think about this with your business intuition, it seems.
"The Gods revealed Weirwood to be magic amplifier, and I do feel The Gods meant to me to wield the longbow at the first place." I tried to stay calm while everyone is looking as if I just committed some sort of blasphemy. "And I do feel the sword Dark Sister belongs to Jon. If he can't wield it, it should be within his right to sell the sword, if he is not permitted to wield one."
"You feel... You *feel* the sword belongs to Jon?" questioned Lord Stark while looking directly into my eyes.
"Yes Lord Stark, I do feel Dark Sister is for Jon to wield. However, if you do not give him permission to wield it for fear of offending House Baratheon or something, then at least Jon deserves fair financial reimbursement of some sort." I said while try to keep my confidence. "Of course, it would be preferable for Jon to simply wield Dark Sister instead of selling it, but if you're afraid of offending The King... Or are you afraid with something else?" I said while shrugging my shoulder. From nervous expression on his face, apparently Lord Stark do has sistercon imagination running in his brain, oh well, this is beyond hilarious.
Lord Stark looks toward said sword in his hand for a considerable amount of time, before he looks toward Jon as if he's thinking something about it.
"You are of my blood..." said Lord Stark with pained expression. *OH COME ON*, did this guy has overly active imagination that rival Darkness?
"Come on Lord Stark, it's not like that this sword actually having something with sister you know. Arya is a magic user but her magic is much more about direct explosion, she would not be inclined to wield that sword..." I said with a sly grin on my face. "Or are you thinking what I am thinking?"
Lord Stark's face turned pale upon hearing my words. Gotcha, it seems that I finally peeked into Lord Stark's imagination closet!
"What... no..." said Lord Stark weakly.
Alright, this guy is definitely a closet sick fuck sistercon that secretly wanted his children to fuck each other. In the case that he is a sick enough guy to expect Jon to do something unmentionable to Megumin, I think that would be the clue for me to start escape this castle and back to Pyke. I did not hope that would happen, considering my own family is filled with idiots, but some contingency could never hurt.
"..." I only smiled to Lord Stark while his pained expression goes even deeper. Should inform Megumin about his father's secret fetish next morning? This is uncomfortable but maybe Megumin should know that his father has secret fantasy about his own children doing unmentionable things to each others like House Targaryen.
"Theon, you are touched by The Gods, if you really feel about this sword being Jon's right... maybe you are right." said Lord Stark weakly. "I will keep this sword safe until Jon is deemed competent with the use of longsword."
"T... thank you father." said Jon with a smile. I can't help but notice Lord Stark seems to look as if he has seen a ghost when he looked at Jon. Oh well, that's your fault to have sick fuck imagination at the first place, and this is the guy who usually being a gentle, loving father to all his children.
"However, everybody here must keep this as an utter secret, we did not identify this sword today, and we would call the sword by other name. The Valyrian Steel sword we found today is simply an unnamed sword." said Lord Stark with concern in his face. "This sword is too dangerous to be known here..."
"Father, please just send the sword to The King, I don't want it! The King is the rightful owner of this sword right?"
"If you really do not want this sword, you should sell it and use the money, which was your right Jon. Minimum worth of this sword is five hundred thousand golden dragons, must be a bargain price for The King." I said with a convincing smile. "This is the bare minimum you could do to get rid of this sword, if you do not want it, The Gods would actually understand if you sell it instead of giving that for free. However, I feel that you should be the one to wield Dark Sister."
"We will give this sword another name and claim ignorance on its origin for the meantime." said Lord Stark with pained expression. "I understand that giving the ownership of this sword to another is technically possible according to Theon, but this would be the talk for another day in the future. This is something we need to think about carefully."
"Are you afraid this sword may turn House Baratheon against us my lord?" questioned Rodrik Cassel.
"This is one of my chief concern." said Lord Stark while looking outside the window. "The other is a Targaryen loyalist might attempt to steal this sword and endanger our safety here."
Why did Lord Stark insist the sword would need another name anyway? Oh wait, Lord Stark had sistercon fetish, this is hilarious.
"Whoever wields this sword will have his or her claim upon the Iron Throne bolstered if he or she had the required blood. But considering we are ally of House Baratheon of the first place, why not just inform The King and Lord Hand about this? We have no alternative claimant to the Iron Throne my lord." said Maester Luwin. "If anything, this sword would be safer here, being wielded by your bastard who have nothing to do with The Iron Throne."
"..." Lord Stark stares blankly toward Maester Luwin before sighing as if he remembered something. "The Faith... I am afraid with this tension, this might be used by The Faith of The Seven to slender our name and plunge us into a war between followers of The Old Gods against the faithful of The Seven. High Septon's declaration about Edmure Tully is bad enough; we don't need to have another point of contention between us and the rest of Westeros."
"I see..." said Maester Luwin while scratching his beard. "So this back again to current tension in Riverlands."
"I must admit so." said Lord Stark quickly. "Rodrik, you will hide this sword somewhere safe until Jon finished his training. As long as there are tensions between The Faith of The Seven against followers of The Old Gods, we must try not to provoke them needlessly."
"I understand my lord." said Rodrik solemnly.
"You are all dismissed." said Lord Stark. "Theon, you stay here, we need to talk."
...
I tried not to laugh in front of Lord Stark. Oh well, having your secret fetish revealed is something shameful after all, and Lord Stark might be just an honest man trying to be a good father and not fall upon his temptation. He is a good man, and he deserves to not have his name shamed after all.
"Yes Lord Stark?" I said after Rodrik, Maester Luwin, and Jon already left Lord Stark's study.
"When you said 'are you thinking what I am thinking' do you glean upon something that should not be spoken out loud?" said Lord Stark with utterly serious face. "I know you are touched by The Gods, and you are far too mature to be a simple child."
I can't help but giving Lord Stark a big, sly smile that caused Lord Stark to wince upon seeing my face. "Of course Lord Stark, that was quite obvious... with your insistence on having Dark Sister called by another name..."
"Keep this secret from Jon and the other children, even Arya." said Lord Stark with solemn expression in his face. "There is no need for them to know about it. Swear an oath unto The Old God and The Drowned Goddess that you will not spill this secret."
Oh well, it seems I have caught his most repressed, most sick, and most debauched fantasy. Still, Lord Stark do deserve not to be humiliated like this over his sistercon BDSM imagining of his own children due to 'Dark Sister' name, so I sighed, turned my face into serious, solemn expression and look toward Lord Stark with my right hand raised.
"I swear before the eyes of The Old Gods and The Drowned Goddess, that your secret would be completely safe with me. This is my oath that I will never talk about this to anyone; my mouth shall never reveal your burden and your shame."
"I owe you once again Theon. Thank you." said Lord Stark with visible relief upon his face. "Let's not talk about it anymore."
"I understand Lord Stark."
Lord Stark then dismisses me from his study and I immediately head to my room. Once I get inside, I can't help but grinning like mad over how Lord Stark turned out to be a man troubled with his insane imagination. Well, maybe that's why he got Jon Snow; this guy seems to have something about shameful sexual fetish. Maybe that's why he never talked about Jon Snow's mother as she could turn out to be a famous dominatrix whore who caters her clients' sickest fantasy or something like that.
At least Lord Stark seems to learn from his mistakes and try to be a better man from this point onward. He has noble intention to quash his internal temptations after all, so maybe I should not inform Megumin about the sick fuck fantasy of her father.
Good night.