Part 14 : THEON / KAZUMA

Winterfell, 289 AC

"You get what?" said Robb in disbelief while we're eating our breakfast.

"An unnamed, previously unknown Valyrian Steel sword that dropped from the sky alongside a Weirwood longbow that would be Theon's." said Jon softly

I smirked a bit hearing what Jon just said, oh well, Lord Stark do ask us to not spill about that Valyrian Steel sword's true name and origin due to his secret sistercon fetish.

"If not because of the Hand of The King asked Sansa to be fostered at Riverrun to keep grandfather company, we would be there together." said Robb with tears in his eyes. "Who knows if there would be two Valyrian Steel swords or something else The Old Gods want to give me."

"But isn't Lord Stark said that your sister Sansa being fostered at Riverrun is just big possibility, and not a certainty?" I am genuinely curious with the sudden departure of Robb's (and Megumin's) sister. "She would not be raised as worshiper of The Seven right? She's a..."

"She would... Father agrees because that was Lord Hand's advice to keep grandfather from going weak and sickly. Loneliness could do that to old men, and grandfather needs someone to accompany him in worshiping The Seven." said Robb while looking down. "Unless uncle Edmure end up showing himself before the peace conference ended, that is, no badmouthing The Seven."

"Well, father did forbid us to say something bad about The Seven." said Jon while I curse both Megumin and that useless Goddess Aqua for contributing to this almost-war-state between religions of The Seven and The Old Gods.

"Anyway, as Sansa would still stay with a close family, father said we should not worry too much about her." said Robb with what I could see plainly as forced smile. "Let's back to talk about your brand-new Valyrian Steel sword given by The Old Gods themselves."

"That's just generic, finely crafted Valyrian Steel sword." said Jon awkwardly. "Maybe if you pray hard enough to the Weirwood Tree, the Old Gods might give you something?"

"Hmm..." Robb scratched his head. "Guess that's how you get being close with someone else touched by The Old Gods. Theon, you will accompany us to the Godswoods! Riding lesson could wait!"

"Ok." I think maybe I just need to roll with the flow, even if Robb managed to contact the Old God or even Aqua, at least I could actually *ask* them about what Lord Stark himself inquired about Edmure Tully and his purpose other than plain old saying he's a gullible idiot used for Aqua and her uncle's amusement.

But then, I shuddered, what if they somehow end up knowing that I didn't really know how to contact Aqua at the first place, and I actually loathe to worship her if not because of the possibility that I could lose my inheritance?

...

When we boys arrived at the Godswoods we immediately head to the Heart Tree.

Robb immediately stand at the side of said Weirwood Tree and placed his hand to the trunk with his eyes closed.

Around fifteen minutes later.

"Well, I feel better now." said Robb with a smile. "I'm sure the Old Gods heard my prayer!"

"What kind of gift you wish from the Old Gods Robb?" questioned Jon with raised eyebrows.

"Why? Explosion magic of course!" said Robb, and I shudder while imagining a male version of Megumin running around. "Why Arya is the only one who get explosion magic while I, the heir of House Stark, did not?"

I wish I could simply say blame reincarnation, but I can't, so I just shrug off Robb's literal juvenile wish.

Afterward, we go to stables and start our riding lesson for today.

...

After lunch, we end up walking toward the library for Maester Luwin's regular lesson. As we walk the corridor, my enemy detection skill suddenly activated and I could sense someone detected as hostile is heading toward Lord Stark's study.

"Ssh... call the guards, I see someone just enter your father's study." I said while walked away from our original destination to shadowing the enemy I sensed with my skill.

"But the guards? There should be guards in front of ..." said Robb while following me, but he went silent when he sees two Stark guardsmen already lies on the floor, don't know if they were dead or just knocked unconscious.

"Call the other guards! *Now*!" I gave my order to Robb who immediately dart out and screamed for help.

I sense the thief, intruder, or whatever, is thankfully just a human instead of something worse. From here I could sense her carrying something in her hand too, so...

I look back toward Jon, his face is uncertain, and without the lurk and detection skill, he would be a liability if said thief turned out to be hostile.

"Stay here Jon. I'll try to slow down this thief."

Jon only nods while I try to found something that is either rope shaped or could be used as projectile upon the fallen bodies of the guards. Speaking of which, after touching them and ensuring they are still breathing, the guards seems to be knocked out using nonviolent means, possibly something in their drinks seeing they already dozed off in deep slumber.

I can't found any rope shaped object upon the guards to use bind with, and undressing their belts would be more of a hassle, so I simply took one of the guards' axes (as their spears are too big), use lurk, and entered the empty study room of Lord Stark.

Much to my surprise, the intruder turned out to be a woman dressing in a maidservant's clothes, I never know this woman before, as her face is someone I don't even recall. She appears to also hear Robb's scream about intruder, and already tried to sneak out from the still dark room. Of course, due to my night vision and lurk skill, I would bet she could not see me while I could see her. And from my observation, other than the bag she carried in her hand, she seems to not carrying any kind of weapon.

"What are you doing here in Lord Stark's study, thief?"

My voice startled the thief, who end up abandoning stealth and just run out of the study with the bag she held in her hand. As she goes out of the door and toward the corridor, she immediately realizes Jon Snow is there, but she kept running.

Jon Snow, recognizing the woman must be a thief or something, yelled at her to stop, but said woman, upon seeing he's just a six years old boy, shoved Jon hard that he end up hitting his head to the wall before falling on the floor.

Oh well, I never hope this would turn violent, but an adult woman hitting a little child like that is one thing I could not ignore. I held the axe in my hand in throwing position, and aim for her feet.

"Snipe!"

The woman apparently realize what I just done and try to dodge by lowering her posture as if she guessed I would aim for her head or something. Bad luck for her, as the axe end up lodged in her waist with a scrunch. She screamed in pain as she falls crumpled to the ground like a rag doll, frantically try grasping the blood coming from her waist while looking at me in terror.

Come on, this is not my fault; you dare to hit a six years old boy first! At least I was not deliberately aim at your head.

Jory Cassel comes with some guards, and more could be heard running into the ruckus. Knowing that she could not escape, I go to Jon and checked if he is alright.

"Wow Theon, you're really good with throwing things." Jon grinned while I helped him to stand up.

Two guards seize the thief's arms while another held her feet, so she can't escape. Jory then took the bag, which seems to hold only a few parchments before closing whatever is inside back.

"This woman is a spy." said Jory while he then pulls off the axe lodged in said spy's waist. "And I must say this is quite an impressive axe throw squid, this spy would never be able to walk again, as you literally cut deep into her waist bone."

"I actually aimed for her feet."

The spy looked at me in terror, her face obviously indicate severe pain, but aside of that expression, she did not speak anything when another guard forcibly strip her skirt before using that as impromptu bandage to stop her wound from bleeding further.

...

Lord Stark is pacing inside his study with his face set in a grim expression, he has re-checked that nothing else was stolen, but found some documents placed at the wrong place. Rodrik Cassel is at his side, while we boys are ordered to sit in front of the table.

"So you squid are the one who spotted the spy first?" questioned Rodrik with a smile. "She must be a careless wench, having little boys able to peek at her at the first place."

"Aye ser." I said while did not really know if I was already in trouble or would be up for praise. Apparently the woman is really a spy, and she stole some very important documents about something, and has been suspected on peeking on more.

"That does not match with how she carefully spiked the guards' drink with sweetsleep and how nobody see her entering Maester Luwin's turret at the first place, seeing she has stolen Arya's written spells there." said Lord Stark. "Other than how easily she got caught by the boys, everything indicates she was an experienced spy of some sort."

"The spy only worked as maidservant here for six days. She is of Northmen descent, but her accent seems to be closer to Valemen accent. And we found this inside her cloth." said Jory Cassel, who entered the room with a small scrap of parchment with seven pointed star inside a circle painted upon it, there seems to be some writing at the back of the picture. "This is a charm of The Crone; she is one of the damned Seven worshipers."

"Then she must not be given mercy, for she has seen not only Maester Luwin's writings about Arya's spells and sayings, but also even more sensitive information." said Lord Stark grimly. "For if this spread to the South, we will risk war against the rest of Westeros."

I gulped involuntarily as this meant this woman has looked at the written form of Megumin's chuuni bullshit, and she must pay with her life.

"And I must say thank you to you again Theon, for your work on stopping the spy." said Lord Stark grimly. "What you just do saved many from a possibility of pointless war. However, to throw an axe rather recklessly, you may hurt another..."

Uh-oh, here comes the lecture...

"She attacked me first father, Theon only attacked her afterward." said Jon. "There are nobody else near us, Theon did the right thing."

Lord Stark's mouth turned into a sad smile, before closing his eyes. "I am not speaking of what he has done, but what I feared he will do if not warned at the first place. I am aware of the Ironborn game of finger dance, and I did not want my children to play that kind of game here."

"What?"

"As someone who has faced Ironborn axe-throwers in battle, I must say that this kind of weapon use is supremely dangerous and far from being a game. While you may still practice your axe throwing at the range, I forbid you to teach my sons finger dance."

It seems that Lord Stark is actually not mad at me for what is essentially crippling a woman, she is a spy after all, but he is very concerned about me teaching his sons to do the finger dance, which I never done before. I have seen even the rest of my family however, including my sister Asha playing that godsdamned insane game. But even Balon Greyjoy forbid his children from playing that game until the age of eight, wow, speaking of dodging an axe thrown at me...

"But father..." whined Robb.

"Why we can't learn..." added Jon.

"No, this is too dangerous for children." said Lord Stark while he looks at me. "I don't know what is your father thinking to teach you such skill in such young age, but then you are of Ironborn stock, so..."

I grinned as not even my father is crazy enough to teach me finger dancing. "I am not insane enough to teach your children finger dance at the first place Lord Stark. I promise not to teach them that."

"Good, you all dismissed."

I am genuinely curious about what else the spy had seen outside of Megumin's chuuni bullshit, but considering 'The Seven are Demons' alone could spark a war; maybe I should not try to dig deeper into it.

...

Next morning, I rode on toward a small holdfast in the hills with some Men-at-Arms of Winterfell to see the spy beheaded.

Robb and Jon are apparently not yet permitted to see the execution of the spy, or so to speak, that I end up being the physically the youngest person to attend this execution. Megumin joked this morning about executing the spy with her explosion instead, but Lord Stark's sharp glare and grim expression caused her to cry while saying sorry for her apparently tasteless joke to her father.

Nobody is talking about what else the spy has done outside of stealing written chuuni bullshit spells and being follower of The Seven. But when considering the chuuni bullshit also includes something that could spark a war (The Seven are Demons), maybe this is for the best.

Said spy bound hand and foot in front of the holdfast, chained to a post of some sort, lying at her side awaiting her death. Her face seems resigned at her fate, as according to Jory, she utterly refuses to speak anything, even under duress. She has been given new cloth to keep her modesty, as her skirt has been torn off to keep her from dying out of blood loss yesterday.

I sat stoically at the side of Rodrik Cassel, I already seen men and women slain in droves back at Pyke. But this time is the first time I will see someone die because of my own action in this world.

Lord Stark sat solemnly on his horse, his eyes are grim and his expression subdued.

There were questions asked toward the spy, but she utterly refuse to speak anything to Lord Stark. Finally, Lord Stark gave a command, and two of the guards dragged the woman to a stump in the center of the square. They forced her head down onto the wood.

Lord Stark dismounted and Jory brought for the heirloom sword of The Starks, Ice, a Valyrian Steel greatsword, which is almost as tall as Lord Stark himself.

Lord Stark took hold of the greatsword with both hands and said. "In the name of Robert of House Baratheon, the first of his name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm. By the word of Eddard of House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, I do sentence you to die."

"Keep your rein on your pony." whispered Rodrik while Lord Stark hoisted the greatsword high above his head.

The spy's head fall off with a single stroke, blood sprayed out across the grass. Some horse neighed but everyone is capable on holding their mounts.

The woman's head rolled as it came up to a halt when hitting some root or something. Said head has a rather resigned expression, and when it stopped, her eyes looks directly unto myself.

Oh well, I have seen worse, and died far worse deaths than her in my past lives, continue then.

"You are unfazed by this." said Rodrik softly. "Well, you have seen the fighting in war, so there's no surprise."

I only rolled my eyes upward upon hearing his statement.

"She died without saying anything. The last thing she had done in her cell was drawing a seven pointed star with her own blood. We suspect she was sent by The Faith to spy upon us."

"Wait what?" The Faith of The Seven already starts spying upon us at Winterfell? Oh joy, what else can I expect next?

"It was very likely squid, she was a very loyal, or should I say, a very faithful one, for she kept her tongue silent at all time, not even once betraying her master. Shame that The Wall is unavailable for women, and sending her to Silent Sisters may end up sending her back to her employers."

"My father has his own headsmen, while he boasted to slay men left and right personally in combat, he never done that in an execution like this."

"This is the way of the First Men of The North, we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take someone's life, you owe to do it personally." said Rodrik while a guard collected the woman's head and two other carried her body to somewhere else.

"Let's head back to Winterfell. We could only hope there will be no such things in the future." said Lord Stark with pained expression on his voice.

...