King's Landing, three weeks after the death of Lord Baelish

Solar of the Lord Hand

The Lord Hand was sitting in his great chair behind his large desk and was looking to the young, small woman sitting in a comfortable smaller chair on the other side of the desk.

He was wearing black leather breeches and a dark grey cotton gambeson, his only decoration was the sign of his office as Lord Hand.

She was clad in a light grey cotton dress with a light blue silk bodice, her dark, shortish hair was unbound and her large, dark eyes were emphasized by kohl and silver powders. She was beautiful, that was undeniable, beautiful and helpful and way too young, as Ned Stark reminded himself in his head. He looked at her, banning his baser interests from his mind and concentrated at the more important task at getting this helpful woman the reward which she deserved.

"You proved yourself to be indisputable useful in helping us to discover all of hidden documents of the late Master of Coin. His Grace gave me free hands in rewarding you, so tell me Shae, what you want for your help and I do my best to give it to you."

The young woman looked at him with a light smile on her pretty and full lips, her eyes seemed to gleam with satisfaction and then she leaned forward a bit, so that the front part of her bodice seemed pressed tight against her breasts.

He kept his eyes on hers and her smile for deepend thus. She stood up from the chair and in just two steps, she was standing then on the front of the desk. Shae put her hands shoulderwide apart from each other on said desk and leaned forward with her whole upper body. Her face was now only a few handspans apart from the Lord Hand who was sitting still on the other other side of the desk.

He was still keeping his eyes on hers and her smile deepened a bit more and tiny dimples appeared.

The Lord Hand cleared his throat.
"Like I said, tell me what you wish for as reward for your help and I will do my best to give it to you. Without your assistance, we likely would have never found all secrets hidden by the late Master of Coin and so.."

He did not managed to finish his sentence, for the young woman had leand forward even more and pressed her lips on his. He groaned softly but then leaned backwards and thus away from her. She giggled lightly.

"I would not have taken m'lord for shy about kissing, not with how much children m'lord has. Or had m'lord never kissed your wives?"

"Is that what you wished for as reward for your assistance then, Shae? The knowledge if I kissed my Lady wives? That is a cheap reward for your help in getting Lord Baelish's records." he asked with a bit of curiosity clearly to hear in his gruff northern Voice.

She laughed out loud about his words and went away from her position on the desk with a twinkle in her eyes. Then she stepped towards the Windows and her face turned serious.

"No m'lord, I wish for a house of my own. A good House in a good part of the City and for an honest business to make honest money with. I wish for a good name for myself, for respect from people around me and for no more need to whore myself to someone to survive." she answered in a at the same time strong but also vulnerable way.

The Lord Hand Eddard Stark nodded with a respectful gleam in his eyes and his lips tugged upwards into an honest smile.

"That is a good wish, one which is fully understandable and easy to fulfil."

The young woman smiled back at the Lord Hand after hearing this words from him and then her lips widened into an impish grin.

"Though I must admit that I would not be against it to share your bed with you m'lord, at least till I have a home to call my own for real." she said in her sweet lilting voice.

Lord Eddard Stark stared at her in surprise over her boldness. He gulped audibly, his eyes wandering down from hers and down her body. Her grin widened.

Finally his eyes went back up and met hers once more.

"From your own free will?"

"Yes, from my own free will, m'lord. You are so honestly trying to only look into my eyes all the time, even though you know that I'm a whore, that I am really curious if how you behave with a women if you are in bed with a naked one."

The surprise vanished from his face while he listened to her words and his face cleared as he was now understanding her interest in him and the reason behind her words. She was clearly curious why he had not treated her like she had been treated by others before.

...

At the same time in the Westerlands

The second attack on Lannisport

Ser Kevan Lannister had finished reading all the letters on his desk, the last one still in his hands, was from the agents in Volantis and it had included such good news that it had put a slight smile on the lips of the regent of the Westerlands.

All of the known sellsword companies had agreed to be in service of House Lannister and together with the full Army of the Westerlands, Kevan felt assured enough right now, that he would soon be able to free Tywin and Tyrion too from the cold claws of the Northmen.

The sellsword companies would attack in combined forces from the east, brought over from Essos with the help of all the sellsails that had been available and when the Northerners were distracted by that attack, the Westerlanders would strike at full force from the West, sailing as deep as possible up the Rivers into the North and from there the best troops would force their way up to Winterfell and free their Lord.

If luck would be with them, thought Kevan to himself, while he stood up from the chair behind his desk and went over to his bedroom, readied himself for sleep and then went into his bed where his wife was already deep asleep, if luck would really be with him and his men, then maybe most of the Winterfell armed men and their Lord would even fight then in the east too and Winterfell would be easy to bring down.

He allowed himself to rest with these hopefull thoughts on his mind and closed his eyes, just a night of true rest before he would ready his army and could start to free his brother.

..

..
It was the last moment of peace he would have for a long time to come, because just an hour after Ser Kevan had closed his eyes in Casterly Rock , the Lord Reaver, standing on bord of his ship "Silence" which was in the midst of the Iron fleet and not far away from the Western shores, gave the signal for the attack on the Westerlands and unlike the attack many years ago when he, Euron had planned the attack but his brother Balon had been the Lord Reaver and everything went to shit afterwards, now with Euron as Lord Reaver himself, there were Powers involved in this attack which had not seen before in Westeros.

The blue-liped Lord of the Iron Islands watched in cruel satisfaction as the Grand City of Lannisport and the fleet burned and turned to Chaos for the second time in ten years because of his plans. This time though, there would be no survivors, this time there would be no one to steal his triumph from him.

He gave the signals and three large horns were blown into, the horrible noises blaring over the sea. From deep deep down growling echoes seemed to answer these horns and the black Waters of the Sea started to erupt in large waves upon even larger waves.

The Krakens had arrived!

Lord Reaver Euron Greyjoy's grin was so gleeful now that even the most bloodthirsty Ironborn felt unease to grow in their unmerciful hearts and minds.

...
The people in Lannisport screamed and died amidst the fiery chaos, some prayed for help, others tried to escape the greatest of dangers with their loved ones, some took to whatever weapons they could lay their hands on to fight their way out of the chaos but in the end they all died either ways. Some through fire, a lot from Ironborn weapons and even more from the monsters which attacked from the Sea and who had also completely destroyed the fleet in the Harbor.

From Casterly Rock came the elite Household troops of the Lions with Ser Kevan himself leading his two thousand men and they managed to fight their way through hundreds and upon hundreds of bloodcrazy and brutal Ironborns, but in the end it was to no avail, for they were soon surrounded in the midst of Lannisport itself.

Had Ser Kevan at first hoped to find Westerlander soldiers and City guards still alive and fighting in the City itself, he and his own Guards sadly soon found out that there were none alive of them anymore.

The Ironborn had truly managed a sneak attack in the deepest hour of the night and neither soldiers garrisoned in the City nor the guards themselves had been able to form a counterattack quick enough nor to regroup themselves in any meaningful way when they had been overrun by the Ironborn attackers and the monsters which accompanied them.

And so Kevan Lannister found himself in a City which had fallen to the enemy and had not one of his Captains warned him and saved him at the cost of his own life, then Ser Kevan would have found his death in the ruins of the greatest City of the Westerlands too in the early hours of the morning, barely eight hours after the attack had begun .

Captain Raymond though had warned his Lord Regent of the danger, had screamed at the Ser Lannister to retreat to Casterly Rock before he threw himself on a monstrous creature which had emerged in full run from a burning building and thus the brave Captain saved the life of his Lord and countless companions while he himself was thorn to shreds by the claws of the monster.

The Household Guard and their Lord Regent barely managed to fight their way out of the fallen City back the long way to the Rock through ever increasing hordes of Reavers and monstrous creatures alike and when the large Gates of the Rock closed behind the last of the Lannister guards, it was only too clear to see how many lives it had cost them.

From the two thousand men who had went with Ser Kevan, just forty of them came back, wounded and entirely exhausted on white lathered horses but at least they were alive and one of them was holding the Lord Regent in front of himself, for Ser Kevan himself was not only wounded badly but also unconscious and had it not been for the sheer loyalty of these brave guards, then he would not have survived the trip home to Casterly Rock.

He was quickly brought to the Maester and the loyal survivors were helped from their horses and were cared for. Some of the Guards cried openly and unashamedly of their tears, they told of the horrors they had seen in the City and on the way back, of monsters devoring screaming people, behaving worse than the most cruel Ironborn even, of huge tentacles from the Sea, reaching deep into the City, of burning and screaming women and children raped or impaled on claws of never seen before creatures.

Other guards were silent though, nearly deadly silent, their faces were like Stone, without any outward emotion to be seen, but their hands and bodies were shaking badly, so badly that it was hard to care for their wounds.

And then...then the people of Casterly Rock felt tremors from deep beneath them...

...

At the same time in the North

...

At the same time high up in the North of the Grey Hills

Jon Stark, formerly known as Snow, sighed deeply in exhaustion and tried desperately at the same to imitate enough sincere looking interest for the Stories which his host was telling tirelessly for hours now.

He really hoped that he feigned his put upon fascination for the hosting Lord's long gone fighting years and battlestories but the quiet giggling of his host's daughter made him doubt his own abilities to mummer enough sincere interest.

Luckily his host did not even seemed to care much anymore about the played or real interest of the listeners in the Hall but had instead sunken back so deep into his memories that his old wrinkled face was now glowing with excitement and he was shouting out as if he was back in battlefever.

Jon risked it now to glance away from his overly excited host and his eyes meet the ones of the young Lady who sat near her father. She smiled at him prettily and Jon felt his cheeks heating up and quickly looked down on his hands. He felt stupid for his reaction, he was a man now after all and a Stark on top of that now too but he still felt embarrassed when a pretty young Lady smiled at him.

But then he remembered that Robb had reacted much the same with his fiancee and now wife when she had arrived in Winterfell and Jon immediately felt better. Robb had blushed each time his gaze had meet the eyes of his own Lady and so Jon thought now to himself here in his host's Hall that it must be a natural reaction to a Lady's gaze after all.

Though he really really hoped that he himself would not blush throughout his whole life with his future Ladywife by his side.

His eyes met hers once again and he found that her lovely cheeks had also reddend quite a bit now and this made him feel a bit bolder now as an idea started to bloom in his mind.

He stood up from his comfortable chair opposite of the Lord of the Hall, bowed down with sincere respect and thus managed to bring the Lord out of his vivid memories and bid his thanks for the warm welcome and the interesting evening.

"My greatest thanks to you Lord Moss for how you have welcomed my men and me into your Halls and to the warmth of your Hearth.
My thanks for bread and Salt and food and drinks and for your entertaining company.

But most of my thanks are for the honor you gave me in agreeing to accept my bid for your lovely daughter's hand and even deeper and more grateful are my thanks to you my dear Lady Agnes for agreeing to become my wife and thus make sure that my Heart which you had bewitched with your Charme and Beauty and kindness, will forever feel the joy of you sharing my life."

The Hall was completely silent when he finished his words and everyone who was in the Hall looked at him open-mouthed and full of astonishment.

The Winterfellians who had accompanied him looked at him as if he had grown a second head and the people of Lord Moss seemed gobsmacked at how he had handeld their own notoriously long-winded Lord.

But the most satisfying reaction to Jon's words was the one of the lovely Lady Agnes Moss herself, for while her cheeks were now as red as her lips and her eyes were a bit teary, she was also laughing sweetly while giving Jon her hands to be kissed and then she showed her own talent with words afterwards.

"If you are this sweet with your praise of my beauty and ways now already when we barely spent time in each others company, then I will never need for honey to sweeten my food in the future, for I have no doubt that your sweet praises will only increase when we spent our lives in the future together." she finished her words with a twinkle in her eyes and Jon, still holding her hands in his after his kiss to her fingers, smiled happily at her quick wit.

And the people in the Hall, wether they were Winterfellians or the Moss people themselves erupted in joyful noises.

And the night was spent in laughter and Joy over the betrothal of Jon Stark and Agnes Moss ...full of hope for a peaceful and happy future.

Wait, did Jon just betrothed himself to a noble lady? Just like that? No prior plans and the usual negotiations?

Well, Ned had given Robb leeway to arrange/agree to betrothal offers for Jon now if the Chance was given and so when a tentative question from the Minor Lord Moss came about the newly named Jon Stark, well this was the result.

More knowledge in the 'informations about Jon' update.