A/N: Well, took me a while, but this part's finally done. Two more of Robert (I think) and then it's back in the North for a bit. Next up we're jumping all the way to 278 AC.
"-. 275 AC .-"
He found Shaggy. Shaggy gave him a toy griffin carved by his own hand. It was even painted. Pretty well too, in white, grey, and gold for the eyes. One could spot Aly's handiwork a league away.
Robert was pissed to the seventh hell. That Shaggy had also brought a lifelike toy raven for Robert to give Ned only made Robert madder. And no, the fact that the raven's head, legs and wings moved didn't make up for it none, because Robert's griffin was the same and it even had four legs that moved, so it was actually better than Ned's present! Again!
Robert stared at the man, then turned around without accepting either gift and went back inside. He could understand all them holier-than-barths in there, but even Shaggy didn't get it? What even was this? Forget basic decency, where was all the low cunning? Where was the common sense? Gods!
Unfortunately, things had gotten away from him in his absence. Ned ended up getting his two card game tournaments after all – which was good! – but it also left all the smartarses free to spew nonsense about how Robert's whole 'spectacle' had surely been a mummery from the start to finish – which was a lying lie!
Spectacle! Mummery! Him! The nerve of them!
Robert seethed quietly. At the nobles. At their brownnosing. And himself for expecting better from Shaggy. At Shaggy too! But it was exhausting and he was never one to seethe quietly when there was a perfectly acceptable target for his righteous anger, so he went back outside to give Shaggy his proper what for.
"Not to upset you none, little lord," Shaggy said on Robert giving him his proper what for. "But I don't care about the Stark. I don't care about anyone here really. You saved me. I only care about you."
Well shucks, what was he supposed to say to that?
Robert sullenly accepted the gifts, went to his room and hid the griffin under the bed before he returned to the great hall to give Ned his raven. He never got around to it though. The Pazaak tournament had long since ended – Lord Marq Grafton won that one, to Robert's annoyance – but the Gwent tournament seemed to just be entering the semifinals. Robert put the raven with Ned's other gifts (what few of them were still out in the open after Robert's righteous retribution of rectitude) and went to find his friends while the matches finished. He found Softbeak eventually, but Kyle was nowhere to be seen and Ned was busy refereeing. Robert grumbled a bit about people being so useless that they needed to put the nameday boy to work, but Ned seemed to be in good spirits so he didn't make a fuss this time.
In the end, it came down to Lord Royce against Jon. Both had Vale decks, though Lord Royce seemed to have swapped all the base cards he could for First Men auxiliaries. Jon won, but only because he had a spy that let him draw Artys Arryn out of nowhere and deploy him alongside his three Knight Lords, while his opponent didn't get any of his legendary cards. Lord Yohn still almost won with a combo of the Bronze King and three First Man Chieftains, but even with a scorpion in siege he fell one point short in the end, and that was that.
Robert didn't know who started the chant, but that's when people started to call for a game between the winner and Ned. The bastards, they still wanted Ned humiliated! Robert was this close to bursting into another rant about them wanting to get back at Robert through Ned, but Ned shrugged and agreed before he could. Joke ended up being on them, though, because all the age and trickery in the world didn't prove enough to topple experience.
The smugness Robert felt on Jon losing seven games in a row was too good for words.
It was only afterwards that Robert found out that was an almost perfect mirror of what happened right after he left the first time. Jon had played against Ned and lost seven times in a row. Even with Ned strengthening Jon's deck after every loss with one of the special cards, he still only eked out a win on the eight set, and even then just barely. Jon, to his credit, vowed to get his own back, and without the extra help. To hear Softbeak say it – he wasn't tongue-tied around him no more! – that was Jon's way to get Ned his contests after all. Robert was surprised to not feel surprised that Jon would do something like that. Then again, he supposed Jon was living up to his House words unlike all his lords. As long as he didn't begrudge his failure to get his own back. Wasn't he the one that always crowed about the worth of experience?
Oh well! At least Ned got his Pazaak tournament. And then the Gwent tournament since Ned's brother had sent him ten of those sets too, one faction corresponding to each of the seven kingdoms, plus three decks of neutral cards for people to customise their sets if they wanted, like Lord Yohn had. Ned had been pretty vicious about it too, to hear Elbert repeat it. Which he did word for word.
"I've submitted to your notion of honor long enough," Ebert said with a terrible attempt at imitating Ned's voice. "Now, you'll submit to mine."
Robert was almost sorry it wasn't his day so he could get in a good gloat. He settled for watching everyone else for tricks instead. Someone had to watch out for Ned when he was distracted you know! Not that there was much happening with everyone watching the show.
Though there was that thing Robert spotted from the corner of his eye. Lord Elys, that is, who'd been talking to a certain Lady Melcolm and her regent uncle. Robert watched as the man went to talk to Alyssa about something that Robert didn't need to guess when she gaped, turned and glared at Robert with all her hate. Ha! Now that was a look worthy of going down in Ned's mysterious notebook of mystery!
Robert waited for her to meet his eyes and then smirked at her. Wasn't it just grand when everything worked itself out?
Unfortunately, busy as he was gloating at Aly across the entirety of the Great Hall, Robert missed a different commotion happening opposite from it. And Ned was right in the middle of it.
Robert shot Elbert a look before quickly making his way over. Well, soon as he wrapped an arm around Softbeak to make sure he didn't get misplaced. He wasn't going to leave him on his own in this den of false sheep. Ned would be disappointed if Robert went back to being a knight in not-so-shiny armor, especially after his big show of ultimate chivalry. Not that Robert needed the incentive. Elbert was their baby.
As it happened, Kyle turned out to be there already, near his uncle Yohn. And he was not happy.
"What's happening?" Robert murmured quietly – he could so talk quietly, shut up!
"Bad news," Kyle muttered, his voice as dark as his uncle's face next to him. When he opened his mouth to continue, though, Lord Yohn sent him a glare that struck him silent.
Robert looked ahead to the odd standoff that had swept aside what should have been the cheers after Ned and Jon's great game of war.
Jon and Ned on one side. On the other, a big, greying-haired, balding, fleshy man with big shoulders, black eyes, thick lips and – Robert squinted – webbing between the middle three fingers of his right hand. He'd thought the Sistermen's mark was just a story! And he had to be from the Three Sisters, the white crab on grey was from one of them isles, wasn't it?
"Lord Godric Borrell," Kyle murmured. "Lord of Sweetsister, Shield of Sisterton, Master of Breakwater Castle, Keeper of the Night Lamp."
One of the two Houses that didn't present Ned with anything, Robert recalled, the other being his sworn lord Triston Sunderland.
Lord Yohn ushered them to the side of the hall while Jon exchanged terse words with the ugly man. Didn't stop Kyle from regaling Robert and Elbert about all the things known and unknown about the sisterman, who apparently liked storms and his sister's stew, but hated Northmen and was more of a robber and wrecker that used false lights during storms to lure approaching ships to their doom, instead of letting them guide their way by the light of the Night Lamp as he should and Lord Yohn shut Kyle up with a glare again because Kyle gossiped worse than Aly on toffees, honestly. Not that Robert was going to say so.
Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake, Ned and Dad said so! Not that Kyle was an enemy, maybe, but he hadn't proven himself an ally either. He'd ditched Softbeak!
Robert turned his ear to the other people around them. They weren't as keen on keeping quiet as Lord Royce. It still didn't get him a proper explanation, but Robert heard enough to understand that Webhands had accidentally mentioned some bad news Jon meant to keep from Ned until the festivities ended. Except it might not have been actually accidental (maybe?) and was possibly done at the behest of Lord Sunderland (unknowingly?) who'd already retired and was therefore suspicious (allegedly).
Robert looked at Lord Godric. He wasn't impressed. The man was properly big – not Baratheon big of course – but his face was blunt and rough with far too big a brow, and he had a lumpy nose full of red veins. His teeth didn't look proper either, all yellow and even one that was black in the front.
"Triston Sunderland would sell his own mother for a pot of Lannister gold," Kyle finished with a wary eye on his uncle, who seemed to have given up on his one man war for discretion. "Or so it goes."
"Is anyone in the Vale worth knowing?" Robert demanded. "Except you, Lord Royce. You're alright."
"Perhaps one of Lord Sunderland's seven sons," the man grunted, though it was Robert he gave the hairy eyeball this time instead of his crummy compatriots, the nerve of him! "Lord Sunderland means to make knights out of all of them, or so I've heard."
What Robert had heard was that it took a lot of fish to buy a decent suit of plate and mail, never mind a destrier, but what did Triston Sunderland's hopeless ambitions have to do with Ned?
The answer, when they finally got it in their bedroom after Jon made them retire early – and held Ned back to explain while Robert and Elbert went on ahead – came from Ned himself.
"My mother has miscarried."
…Well crap, maybe Jon wasn't out to do Ned dirty after all. Robert wouldn't want to give him news like that either, especially on his special day!
"The wasting sickness has damaged her womb," Ned added with a calm that made Robert's hackles rise.
But wait, how long ago did it happen that the news could reach the Sisters? Before Sunderland and Borrel set off? How long had Jon been sitting on this news?
"It's not entirely clear that the sickness was responsible for the miscarriage itself. What is clear is that she is not likely to survive another pregnancy because of it. The cure was given too late."
"There's a cure for the Wasting?" Elbert asked, astonished.
Robert blinked and looked at Elbert. "That's what you find strange?"
"… You really don't listen to Maester Cudius at all, do you?"
Hey, he tried, it wasn't like he wanted the man's droning voice to put him to sleep and that wasn't important right now! Robert turned back to Ned. "I say pelt him with rotten eggs."
Ned looked at him blankly.
"Come on! The man's an arse and deserves it! Besides, who'd even know the difference with that face?"
"… Happiness is predicated on deferral of gratification."
"… That wasn't a no." Robert frowned. "Is that one of those things you get from that mysterious notebook of mystery? What all even is in that thing anyway? I thought it was stuff you wrote in."
Ned shook his head and didn't say anything else until morning.
It was the first time Robert remembered Ned waking up more upset instead of less after 'sleeping on it.' Even after Robert went out of his way to make faces at Elbert until the baby figured out to snuggle Ned from the other side. Then again, Robert only noticed Ned waking up in a bad mood because Ned hadn't seemed all that bummed the other night despite the dark news and wow, that was a terrible thing to think about your best friend, wasn't it? Distraction! "Come on, Ned! The joust starts today! You'll forget about everything in no time, you'll see!"
Ned gave him a wry look that said he knew what he was doing, but followed after him and Elbert to the tourney grounds anyway.
So of course Robert led him to the Godswood instead. That Ned only realised it when Elbert went off alone two thirds of the way there told Robert just how out of it Ned was, but honestly, what did Ned expect? Robert could have fun without Ned just fine, but not while Ned was there. And he would be there, he wasn't one to snub everyone else over feeling down. Hopefully the Godswood would settle him like it usually did. Robert wouldn't have thought it in the beginning, but the Heart Tree looked much better since Ned did whatever he claimed to have nothing to do with that turned it clean and sane overnight. Probably something involving soap and a barbed brush, though it was odd that Ned didn't just say so, instead of letting the servants gossip and whisper about Old Gods and demons and divine favour (and curses from hell for a while there, before Robert started using their supply of eggs to enforce proper discipline). 'I did nothing' my arse, the tree face used to look like a blood-gobbling maniac!
Robert went to sit in his usual out of the way spot and was bored in the space of three minutes. Fortunately, the Storm King was always prepared! He took out a block of cherry wood to whittle at with the hunting knife from Jon that Robert definitely didn't treasure above everything else he owned that didn't come from Ned or his real dad.
He wasn't lying! He treasured the knitted socks from mom over them too, so there!
Ned still seemed rather standoffish. Usually he brightened the moment one of his raven buddies swooped down to his shoulder to groom his hair. This time it must have been half an hour before Ned stopped sulking and started to teach it words like he always did when he came down there. Well, at least he still did it eventually! What a relief! Robert wouldn't have to play the villain and remind Ned that he soon wouldn't have a Godswood to go to anymore!
Ned was almost fully back to himself by the time Elbert appeared with bread and bacon. Softbeak offering to play cards seemed to do it for the rest.
From then on, Ned proved willing to let them distract him for the remaining days of the festival. They bet half their desserts on who would win the melee (Yohn Royce won). They tried to predict the winners of the archery competition (bastard Whatshisname Stone or other won that Robert couldn't be arsed to remember). They bet ten silvers against one of Ned's Legendary Gwent cards on the winner of the joust (Denys Arryn beat Yohn Royce in the finals, earning Robert Durran Godsgrief himself!). And they pretended the Borrel and Sunderland delegations didn't exist despite Triston Sunderland swearing in a private meet with them and Jon that he'd had nothing to do with Borrel's breach of courtesy.
"The nerve of him," Robert seethed after they left. "Who else could it have been?"
"The Maester," Ned said, but he was just biased because his Maester had- "The Septon, Denys, whoever else Jon told, whoever happened to overhear any of them talking about it, whoever else found out in any one of the keeps and holdfasts and harbors that the Sunderlands passed to get here that had enough pull or coin-"
"Alright alright, I get it, sheesh!" Gods, Ned would be the worst spymaster!
When they weren't gaming or feasting, they played with Ned's presents (Robert heroically refrained from trashing them), played with Ned's other stuff (Ned could turn paper into crafts that could fly, what the hells?), commiserated about Jon keeping them in the dark 'for their own good' (Jon was the worst!), or asked Ned questions about the North (after they forgot they weren't supposed to bring it up on account of his mama's health). Robert was amazed to learn the North had found a way to cure lackwits, was disappointed when told it wasn't anything that would work on Jon (Robert was not cracked in the skull for asking!), was confused at Ned's confession that the whole secrecy thing had left him most upset with his brother Brandon instead of anyone else (how was he worse than Jon?), and then Robert promptly exploded at Elbert for his comment that Robert should be familiar with the feeling, how dare he? Ned was nothing like Stannis! And there was no way Brandon Stark was anything like Robert either! He wouldn't have somehow upset Ned from half-way across the world, for one! What kind of grump could even do something like that? Robert was nothing like that! He was great, he was funny, he was nice, he was an arse when the other arse earned it, he was perfect! Perfect just like his father! But Stannis was surly and unfunny and duty this, decorum that and he always acted like he was owed more than he got and even dad didn't like it but he still treated him like it was fine and gave him as much time as he gave Robert except he never had to work for it and no he wasn't jealous, take that back!
Ahem.
He might've gotten a little worked up there.
Somehow, though, his outburst made Ned laugh, which was great! It also got Ned up his arse about the ins and outs of his life at home and being a brother, which wasn't so great. But because it was Ned asking, and because Ned was still being hard on himself for not really mourning a sibling he never had the chance to form a bond with to begin with, Robert heroically chose to endure it so long as it worked to distract him proper. And it worked!
In fact, it worked so well that Ned chose to join them in the Sept for the final liturgy of the Spring Festival without needing to be cajoled into it by Jon or whoever else. Which probably shouldn't have surprised Robert after how many times Ned had already attended services of in this or that Sept 'for science,' but somehow it still did.
"I still don't understand how you can be interested in these things," Robert told him as the three of them were getting dressed that morning. "Service bores me to tears."
"Me too."
"Wait, what? But then why do you keep going to them?"
"Septon Urizen's sermons can be very informative. Also, all the important people in the Vale will be in attendance today. I want to see what the Septon thinks the high lords need to be told."
"Oooh, it's like strategy! You're treating it like war! Why didn't you just say so?"
"… Sure, let's go with that."
"Wait, have you been going to war without me all this time? How could you!? Ned! Ned, don't you walk away from me!"
The Sept of the Moon was a seven-walled building with statues and altars for each of the Seven made of polished white stone. The altars were inlaid richly with mother-of-pearl, onyx, lapis lazuli and at least four other stones to make the seven. The building had seven windows made from leaded glass, depicting scenes and pictures of the Andal Conquest ending with the crowning of Artys Arryn under the light of the Warrior shining down from the God's throne atop the Giant's Lance. And high above everyone and everything at the center of the ceiling, a great crystal caught light, spreading it in a rainbow of colors.
Robert would've been impressed if he hadn't already been in there over a hundred times. As it was, it was all he could do not to fall asleep as Septon Urizen and holy brothers from almost every noble House in attendance went and walked up and down all seven aisles, praying and singing to each statue of the Seven Who Are One. Robert was sure that the service forced them all to rise and turn and hold hands each time just so they wouldn't all fall asleep, though he begrudgingly admitted the singing was better than usual. The songs themselves weren't to his taste, but all them newcomers must have practiced a lot to sing along so well.
There were ten times as many candles at the feet of the statues too, even the Stranger. Hopefully they wouldn't cause a fire to make all them go down in flames. Being on the front-most pew between the Father and Stranger – with just Ned, Elbert, Jon, Denys and his wife alongside – they were about as far from a possible fire as anyone other than the priests. That only meant they'd be the last to escape in case of disaster though. He wondered if it would be the smoke, the flames, or the collapsing roof that would do them in. Being crushed under that big ol' crystal would probably make for some mighty colourful smears when the rainbow lights were added in.
Robert was broken out of his daydream of a horrifying death when he felt Ned nudge him in the ribs like he'd asked him before coming in. Was the sermon finally going to start? Blinking out of his doze, Robert found Septon Urizen and six holy brothers arranged in a line at the center of the sept where all the pews faced, forming the seven colors of the rainbow. Very important thing for the Faith, the rainbow. For some reason. Robert thought it was silly, seeing as Septons were already dressed fancier than anyone else he'd ever seen, even the Hand of the King when dad had taken Stannis and him to see the capital that one time. Then again, Robert understood even less why everyone said the rainbow had only seven colors. It always had more whenever he saw one. Oh well.
"In the name of the true God who is Seven and One. My dear brothers and sisters, it is with the greatest joy that I gather with all of you this day in this beautiful Sept dedicated to the Seven in their aspect of the Warrior, he who delivers the Father's justice to the wronged, protection to the needy, and glory to the valorous. Also, too, do we celebrate today this Holy Service in honour of the Gods in their aspect of the Smith under his title of The Gardener, as we joyfully welcome Spring back into our lives. They are never far away, the Fulsome Seven, no matter which Face of the Holy God we honor in our hearts. We are all sinners, yet we are granted refuge at the hearth of the Father, consolation in the Mother's arms, cleansing in the eyes of the Maiden, and wisdom to light our way by the Chrone's lamp. And of course, just as the Stranger wanders from far places, less and more than human, unknown and unknowable, we men of the cloth are still here to lead our brothers and sisters forth in wisdom, that they may earn the Grace of the Seven in this life and the next. Just as the Stranger himself is always there to lead us to the next world, so he stands by us today, in this very Sept as we sacramentally re-present the 'once for all' covenant of the Seven Stars, sealed by the Father himself when he Crowned Hugor of the Hill with seven stars pulled down from the sky.
"We also gather to celebrate the great gift his beloved High Holiness, the High Septon, delivered unto the Faith in his Divine Rescript, the Folly of Intellect Absent of Acumen. Wise Crone, I know I speak on behalf of all gathered here when I say 'thank you' for your wisdom, foresight, and abiding generosity in allowing the Holy Sacraments of the Seven Who Are One to find the path through the treacherous ground that so recently emerged in the ever advancing path of the True Faith.
"As we gather here today in this magnificent Sept, one cannot help but notice the very large presence of people who have come from far and wide to participate in this Holy Service. I have met a good number of you personally. You are a sign – a great sign – of encouragement and hope for the Faith tossed about these days on the troubled waters of human misjudgement. You understand your place in the world and in the Faith to help renew the True Way in the world, and preserve the holy virtues within the Faith herself.
"Over the months since the release of Folly of Intellect, I have heard many in the Faith, from wandering septons to even some among the Most Devout, express dismay over why so many of our brothers and sisters are going against their own better judgment and believing the horrendous Oldtown Calumny. They say things like, 'I just don't understand. How could my flock be so attracted to the idea that such rot may exist in the Mansions of the Pious, when they have neither experienced nor witnessed such for themselves?'
"Whenever such doubts were expressed to me, I have often responded 'That is exactly the question you should be asking. Why are so many, commoner and noble alike, so inclined to believe the worst of the Cloth? Or perhaps more pointedly: what do these claims of rot among our Most Holy touch in them that their own experience growing up in the light of the Seven did not provide?' Now I do not want to be misunderstood. I am not at all calling into question the moral uprightness of my wiser brothers and sisters of the Cloth. Nor am I calling into question the legitimacy, the validity or even the goodness of the Divine Indulgence promulgated by his High Holiness in the wake of the Oldtown riots. But perhaps in the actual implementation of the Most Devout's directives, not everything that occurred since has borne good fruit.
"His High Holiness referenced this in his letter to the realm's septons, which accompanied the release of Folly of Intellect. In speaking of his predecessor's own efforts to provide for the souls of a people at risk of being led astray by the actions of certain maesters (as there always are in such institutions that so worship their own false wisdom that they shun the only true wisdom that is the Crone), his High Holiness wrote thusly in his own Divine Rescript of 4:20, 269 AC: 'Immediately after the publication of Archmaester Harmune's book Etched in Stone, the Starry Sept was faced with many a crisis of faith. Many were those who now questioned our most holy written scripture, which categorically attests the time and place of the Manifest Destiny in Tyrion: 1:44, clearly one generation in advance of the first Andal crossing to Westeros. Indeed, it has since been proven, by a more rightly guided man from that same institution of scholars, that what Harmune called axes were in fact hammers, the sign of the Smith, explaining the irregularity of the depictions of these hammers as the results of the Andals being warriors, not artisans.'
"Clearly, his High Holiness is encouraging us to be calm and patient, for though the light of the Seven may at times be obscured by the machinations of demons and mortals, the truth always shines forth in the end. Now, I don't want to claim that this much needed lesson in patience should mean dismissing the present concerns of the faithful. You in the here and now are important as well. However, I believe that one of the most important phrases in the letter of his High Holiness is this: 'There is no separation between the past, present and future. In the history of the Sacrament, there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely disbelieved or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Sept's faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.'
"As we conclude our celebration of the Coming of Spring, I wish to touch upon one special point. This has to do with the positive motivation of His High Holiness in issuing the Divine Rescript. He said that it is a matter of coming to 'an interior reconciliation in the heart of the Faith.' During my pilgrimage to King's Landing this year, I had the opportunity to visit with His High Holiness and thank him for the gift of Folly of Intellect. He responded at length to my intervention – beginning by saying that he had issued the Divine Rescript in order to reconcile the Faith with her most noble past. This reconciliation the High Septon spoke of involves learning from the experience of the Sacrament according to the Canonical Rite, in order to better inform and shape our understanding and practice of worship. I am not here to speak ill of our brothers and sisters, and certainly I challenge anyone to claim that I hold ill to any of my fellows of the Cloth. But it would be an insult to the Crone's truth and the Father's justice if I were to pretend that the Oldtown Calumny has not tested the resilience of our most Holy Institution, bereft as it is of the firm guidance and protection it enjoyed in the days of yore when the Warrior could be worshipped as much in deed as it is now in ritual.
"I am, of course, referring to the increasing number of septons and septas that have chosen to diverge from the Pure Form of the Sacrament in the wake of the Oldtown Calumny. They have shown much zeal to interpret the holy scripture in a way as far removed as possible from the teachings of that a handful of bad seedlings. Seedlings that have since been given the Warrior's judgment and been thoroughly excised from our Father's house. Certainly, through extraclerical abuses, other aberrations, or simply poor mortal folly, the Faith has been disfigured in the eyes of our flock. But this does not at all compare to the disfigurement inflicted with every brother and sister of the cloth that has experienced a rupture with our solemn past. I am blessed to live in a land much enduring against such blandishments, but I grieve for my brothers and sisters elsewhere who must now toil for not only their flock but also themselves. Nowhere have I found this to be the case more than in the Riverlands, that place where the Faith even now struggles to win the souls of a people led astray under the tyranny of the Hoare Kings, who so oppressed those of the Cloth before the Targaryen Liberation that the people stumbled in the dark right into the grasp of empty idols and bloodthirsty demons.
"And this is why, on this most auspicious of days, I want to continue with what I preached about last sennight, which was the subject of soul-winning. As you will surely have learned from your brothers and sisters that call the Gates of the Moon their home, last time we talked about the philosophy of why soul-winning is so important, why we go soul-winning, and what we mean when we go out soul-winning, knocking on people's doors and opening our Seven Pointed Star and showing them how to be saved. Or this could just be done walking up to somebody out and about; it doesn't even have to be at their door but just walking up to a stranger, opening up the Holy Book and showing them how to be saved. The thing that I focused on last sennight was starting the conversation. We went into all the philosophy of why we need to go out and preach the Holy Word to every creature and why the Seven want everyone to be involved in this. But then we got into just how to start the conversation, and how to assess where the person is at spiritually – finding out whether they have been saved or not. We talked about how to do it at the door and then also how to do it in everyday life – just easy ways to bring up the conversation. Tonight I want to pick up right where I left off and get into the part where one actually presents the Seven Pointed Star to this person, and the most critical truth that has been under threat since the noble and common people alike have succumbed to the temptation of rendering their own judgment instead of abiding by the Gods'. And that critical truth is this: everyone is a sinner.
"A couple of scriptures on that are in Bronze Kings 3: of course we have the famous verses in Bronze 3:10, 'As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.' And then of course verse 23: 'For all have sinned, and come short in the sight of the Father above.' Here is the essence of this first point about everyone being a sinner. I don't spend a lot of time on this point and for a simple reason: 99 out of 100 people already understand this. How often do any of you really come to somebody that tells you, 'no, I don't sin, I've never sinned.' It is very rare. It happens every once in a while but it's extremely rare. So on the whole I have found easy to convey this point like so: 'First of all, the Seven Pointed Star says that we are all sinners. Right here in Bronze Kings 3:23 it says, 'For all have sinned, and come short in the sight of the Father above.' I've sinned, you've sinned. Truth be told, we probably sin every day because, as the Crone herself clearly says, the thought of foolishness is itself sin. Even just thinking something stupid is sin. We've all sinned.' So that is a really quick point.
"Then you'd obviously go to other verses like 'if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us'. If we say that we haven't sinned we challenge the Father's capacity for justice and the Mother's Mercy will not be bestowed upon us. Nor will the Maiden look kindly on us, or the Crone grant us her guidance. Then, too, will the Warrior turn his gaze away when we need him most. You needn't look too far to see this in the flesh. Think of the strife in Dorne of just this moon past, that sparse kingdom of rocks and sand where the Faith struggles to win the souls of men to this very day. I shan't dwell on matters of divine blessings and lost opportunities that are spurned with their decadent ways. The increasing wealth, fertility and valor enjoyed by West, Reach and, of course, the Vale are evidence enough all by themselves of the truth of the Seven's blessings.
"But still, think of the strife that beset that land of princes, which nearly saw that bereaved realm descend into a full blown civil war: the Lord of Yronwood found Prince Oberyn Martell in bed with his paramour. But instead of taking this as the Mother's lesson it clearly was on being faithful to your wife and not committing adultery, he chose to interpret it as a trial of the Warrior. Can any of you claim that his failure to win a clear victory in the ensuing duel was not the Warrior's judgment passed from high above? The Bloodroyal's wound quickly festered in the aftermath, what else could that be than the Mother holding back her mercy from one who had spurned her? And what of the Stranger? The Bloodroyal could have accepted his embrace and been delivered on. Perhaps he might even have found some dignity in the Warrior's final judgment, had he accepted the truth of his sin and repented before moving on. Instead, he and his kin cried far and wide for any help, no matter how blasphemous. And what did they get? Poison passed as cures. Godless sorcery that sapped all the vigor the proud Bloodroyal might otherwise have enjoyed until the twilight years of his life. Even now he is dependent on the dark arts and droughts of mummers and mages, as he will doubtless be for the rest of his life. I ask you, is that half-life not the Stranger's own judgment?
"Perhaps you are tempted, like so many nowadays, to question the power of the Seven if they allow evil like this to exist and flourish. To this I say that it is an even greater statement of their power that the Seven Who Are One can turn even evil as base as this to the service of good. I see it every day. Indeed, I see it in this very story I just shared with you: the continued good health of the young Prince Martell despite receiving a wound in turn, is that not testament to the Maiden's favour? I dare say the young Prince may just be that 1 out of 100 people that don't care they are a sinner, but who may nonetheless be saved through the act of soul-wining. After all, is the call to soul-winning not obvious in the Grace he received from the Seven Themselves?
"This brings me to my second point, that many find their faith challenged in the wake of the Oldtown Calumny. This second point is that there is a punishment for our sins. If you were to ask me how I would have conveyed this point in the past, I would say go to Bronze Kings 6:23, where the Seven Pointed Star reads, 'For the wages of sin is death'. This is a point that I always have had to spend a fair bit of time on just because a lot of people don't believe in the Seven Hells, don't understand the Seven hells, or they just don't realize that we deserve to go to the Seven Hells. Yes, all of us. A lot of people don't realize this. They think that the Hells are a place where only the truly foul among us go, like the Vulture Kings, the savages among the Hill Clans of this very kingdom, or perhaps the Wyl of Wyl of the First Dornish war, which I'm sure needs no elaboration. If you were to ask the average person 'what would you have to do to go to the Seven Hells?' Many of them would think they would have to do something major, become a murderer or kinslayer or something equally heinous. You'd have to truly commit some serious sins to go to even the softest of hells.
"What I need to get across to people with this second point is that the wages of sin is death, no exception. And no matter what sins we've committed, we are not worthy of even glimpsing the Seven Heavens, let alone entering them. We cannot enter any heaven on our own good either, because we've all sinned and we all come short of the Glory of the Seven Who Are One. Here are some verses I like to use to show that. Go to Unveiling 21. I like to flip over to Bronze Kings 6:23 because it is so close to Bronze Kings 3:23 so if you are already showing them we've all sinned, it is really easy to flip the page to say there is a penalty for sin, that there is a punishment involved: the Seven Pointed Star says 'For the wages of sin is death.' But after we die physically, that is not the end. The Seven Pointed Star talks about a second death. So you can show them Unveiling 20:14,15: 'And all who have sinned will be cast from the Father's sight. This will the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Mother's Book of Delivery will be cast into the lake of fire.'
"Then I ask the person what we commonly refer to that place as, the lake of fire? Of course, 99 out of 100 people say that's the Seven Hells. Here is what the Seven Pointed Star says about those that are bound for the hells: look at Unveiling 21:8, 'But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. And all kinslayers also, who will suffer seven-fold the punishment of all others, thus the Father rules.' So, you may not be a sorcerer or a murderer or a whoremonger, but have you ever told a lie? 99 out of 100 people will admit they've lied. I know I've lied, have you ever told a lie? Of course we've all lied. I always say this, we have done other worse things in life too. We have probably done some of the things on that list, but either way we know we have all lied, we have done all kinds of sins in our lives and because of our sins the Seven Pointed Star says where are all liars going? To the Seven Hells. The Gods did not jest when They said that. We do deserve the hells.
"But the Father, Warrior and Smith love all worthy men, and the Maiden loves all unsullied women, and the Mother has mercy enough for us all regardless of who we are. So if the Seven Who Are One love us, do they want us to go to the Hells? No.
"And so that's the point I am trying to make when I preach the Scripture: first of all, we've all sinned. Secondly, the punishment for our sins is that we deserve the hells. But thirdly, the Seven love us. They don't want us to go the hells. It is what we deserve, but that's why they Revealed themselves to us – that we should know to whom we may plea that we might still be saved. And obviously, the last thing I would have to get across to people is that in order to be saved, they have to believe in the Seven as their Saviours. That's how it gets applied unto them. And this is the last and biggest point: faithful or not, whether they hold to the true Gods or they worship trees or idols or whatever else, the average man and woman think they can work for their salvation. And then on the tail-end of that, I always teach people that you cannot lose your salvation, and the reason why is simply that the average unsaved folk thinks that you earn your spot in the heavens by being good and you go to the Hells by being bad. They're right, you do go to the hells by being bad. The problem is, there's none good but one, and that's the Seven Who Are One. Which means that without them, hell is where we'd all be going.
"And this is what I want you all to take from me today: we go to the heavens not by being good, but by Grace. By Grace through faith. It's by faith, Grace, it's not deeds, it's nothing you can earn in the end. Salvation, in the end, is a free gift from the Seven. Why would the Seven have had to reveal themselves to Hugor on that Hill if we could get to the heavens just by being good?
"So, point one: we've all sinned. Point two: we deserve hell because of our sins. Point three: The Seven love us, they don't want us to go to the hells. So here's what they did: 'But the Mother commendeth her love toward us," Bronze Kings 5:8, 'in that, while we were yet sinners, the Seven took charge of us and showed us how to win our place in this world and the next one.'
"At this point you might be wondering where I am going with this since I'm still talking after saying I'd made my final point. It is because of the ultimate question that I wish to clarify, the question that we want asked by the one from whose soul we're trying to win the Grace of the Seven Who Are One. And that question is: what must I do to be saved? And the Seven pointed Star has the answer. I like to take them to Acts 16:30, 31, where the Book asks the question straight out. We're trying to make Scripture simple, and what could be simpler than Acts 16:31? 'What must I do to be saved?' Thank the Seven that man asked that question. And thus the answer: 'And they said, hold to the Seven Who Are One, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.'
"I am joyful to say that we, all of us today, are blessed with a momentous opportunity: the opportunity to help bring salvation for one such soul and his house. Earlier I spoke about how the power of the Seven Who Are One is expressed not in the banishment of evil, but through the turning of evil in the service of good, as we recently saw with the bloody retribution exacted on that grand and ancient institution that had grown so proud. But evil does not mean just the evil of men, but also what would pass as mere chance in the eyes of laymen: accidents, killer snows, pestilence, losing one's unborn infant. So please join me today, as we pray for the salvation of the newest and youngest among us, that in winning his soul's place in Heaven we might call down the Seven's Grace on his far-off kin so recently struck by tragedy and loss."
This time it was the silence that snapped Robert out of his doze. As he blinked hard to push sleep away for who knew which time, he found everyone staring at them. No, not at them. At N-
"Lord Eddard," Septon Urizen called, one arm held out entreatingly. "Come and join us in prayer for your mother's recovery."
Robert looked at Ned and felt… he didn't know what was going on but that look wasn't-
Ned stood up, turned around and walked out of the sept.
"-. .-"
Robert caught up to him in the main yard. "Ned, wait!"
Ned stopped.
But he didn't turn around or say anything. Not even to ask Robert what he was thinking walking out on everyone too. Which was good because Robert wasn't too sure himself, he just knew the Septon had upset Ned somehow. Upset him a lot if Ned wasn't taking such a perfect opportunity to rag on Robert for being a moron and snubbing the Faith and everyone attending the service when he didn't have the excuse of being a northern savage. That's what he gets for not paying attention, he'll never doze away in a Sept again!
They were still standing there awkwardly when Jon caught up with them. Fortunately, he didn't seem too upset. Not so fortunately, the Septon was with him. Robert glared at the priest, even if he wasn't sure why he deserved it. The Septon ignored him though, which made him definitely deserve it. Robert glared harder.
The three of them stood there watching Ned's back until the rest of everyone began trickling out of the Sept as well.
When the steadily-less-and-less quiet finally broke, it was Jon that did it. "Ned."
"Jon." Ned's voice was cool and hard as winter ice as he turned. He refused to look either man in the face. "Is Septon Urizen going to join the rest of us when we move to the Eyrie?"
The Septon spoke before Jon could answer. "Lord Eddard, surely this-"
"MY MOTHER IS NOT SOME WHORE FOR YOU TO PEDDLE TO EVERYONE PASSING UNDER YOUR ROOF!" Ned roared.
Robert recoiled.
"Neither am I," Ned growled while damn wellglaring Robes in the eye now. "No matter what your 'brothers and sisters' in the Mansions of the Pious would have said about it before my father went down there and turned evil to the service of good."
Who? When? What? What was he talking about!?
Now the Septon was angry. "I won't stand here and-"
"Jon!" Ned interrupted, turning his face away in dismissal. "Is Septon Urizen going to join the rest of us in the Eyrie?"
Jon looked at Ned. "Yes."
"Then I demand the right of bread and salt."
What!? Why? What the hells had Robert missed in there!?
Jon's eyes widened, then softened. "Oh Ned, you don't need to go so far. You're not a mere guest."
"There is nothing mere about guests. Either I take your bread and salt or he does."
"This is outrageous!" Robes burst. "Never in all my years -"
"Septon," Jon said flatly. "Silence yourself."
Septon Urizen shut up with a look of naked shock. Belatedly, Robert noticed the growing crowd of worthies and realized that Ned had been using his best attempt at command voice to have his words heard as far as possible.
"Ned," Jon said softly. "Explain."
"Justice and vengeance, Jon," Ned snarled. "Either guest right or a challenge to the death." WHAT!? "Then when his champion kills me because the Warrior says murder forgives all sin as long as it's done out in the open, you'll have to explain to my father how his poor son got himself killed under your roof."
Right then and there, Robert vowed he was going to stab himself before he dozed off in a Sept again.
"My Lord!" Robes hissed. "You cannot truly be entertaining this… this-"
"Alright."
Robert had no idea who between Ned and Robes was more surprised.
"My lord-"
"Ned," this time it was Jon who ignored the Septon. "You're my foster son, not any mere guest. I hope the day comes when you can believe that enough not to feel like you need to blackmail me. Septon Urizen will take the bread and salt."
Robert was stunned. He didn't think Jon would actually do it. But he did.
And when they travelled to the Eyrie a week later, after the festival ended and everyone left for their own homes, Jon even followed through! Damn that man! He didn't want to like Jon, he was supposed to be the worst!
Well fiddlesticks.
Robert gave himself a few days to explore and roam and gawk alongside Ned from the tallest towers of the seat of House Arryn. Eventually, though, he freed enough of his wits to pester Denys until the man washed his hands of him and agreed to lend him his biggest, brawniest men-at-arms for a day.
Then he tied himself with rope and made them drag and drop him up and down the cliff sides of the Giant's Lance until he found the only proper gift that would express to Jon his appreciation for his honor and bravery. Robert would have asked Shaggy, but Jon hadn't let him come live in the Eyrie with them because of limited living space, don't you know. As if!
Jon damn near wept when Robert gave him the baby falcon. Then the man said the only thing he appreciated more was the chance to raise and train it together. To his own surprise, Robert believed him.
Jon's reaction on finding out just how Robert had procured the passager was even better though. Being too big to be given the switch was the best! Well, not so much for his nose, what with how long he was on manure duty afterwards, but great in every other way! It all even made it into Ned's mysterious notebook of mystery! After so long fighting that war, Robert finally got his well-earned victory!
Then the first week up in the Eyrie finally ended, so Robert Baratheon set about gathering intelligence on the two sides of the other war being waged around him that needed the right side to gain victory.
"-. .-"
Robert,
I'm proud of you.
Love,
Dad.
,,- -,,