watch?v=IlxYSLiFHIk&t=1s
MARGAERY
The 'Walks of Fertility" continued in the Riverlands. After a septon gave a sermon comparing the traditional 'Walk of attonement' to the tradition I had accidentally started, concluding his sermon with the pronouncement that a woman who walks unclad to the Sept and prays to the Mother will be blessed with a child, the Lord and Lady Malister showed up with a septon. They wanted us to re-open the Riverrun Sept so that Lady Malister could do the 'Walk of Fertility'. It had gotten so out of hand that I didn't even laugh anymore. But as the weather got chillier, few and fewer couples were coming to Riverrun for this.
Lady Whent died. And since Bran didn't yet have a son that could take possession, Edric and Bran went to Harrenhal to lock it down and hide it under a fidelitis charm. Bran was made the secret keeper. But he told me the secret, which is the only reason I even remember the place.
I love the feeling of growing new life inside me. But near the end it can get really uncomfortable! I was ready for this baby to come out of me! One way to sometimes induce labor is to have sex. And since Edric had put this baby in me, I asked him to help get it out of me. Fortunately, he knew a spell that would allow him to last as long as he wanted to. I was so grateful that he's taught it to Bran before we got married. It allowed me to put Edric on his back and ride him as long as I wanted to. When I was done, I sat up on him, still conjoined.
"You know, we won't be able to do this for a while after the baby comes," I mused.
"By the time you get pregnant again, I'll be married to Sansa," replied Edric. "This is our last time."
"I suppose so," I agreed. "Unless we engage in swinging . . ."
"How would that work?" asked Edric. "Bran and I swap wives so I get to be with you while he's with . . . . Sansa?"
"Ewww!" I groaned. "I see what you mean. I wouldn't want to be with Loras! Though he'd probably rather be with Bran, anyway. Depending on which girl he marries, that might not be so bad. . ."
"You are so perverted," Edric said.
"I suppose I should stop teasing you like this," I said, as I rose up enough for him to fall out, then shook my head violently so that my hair swished back and forth as I shifted the colour from red to a brown that was slightly lighter than my skin. "I think I just had a contraction anyway."
"I'll go get Meera and Blossom!" said Edric as he leapt up and dressed himself, then fled the room.
It was a long labor and a healthy delivery. After the girls cleaned me up, Bran, Edric and Jojen were let into the room and I asked Meera and Blossom to leave us alone.
"Edric, you have a son! I said, as I showed him the baby.
Bran took one look at its' eyes which were and bright emerald green, not gray, like his, or brown, like mine or even blue, like Edric's.
"Something you want to tell me?" asked Bran.
"Oh! Look! He has my mother's eyes!" exclaimed Edric. "Not my birth mother," explained Edric. "In that past life, I had eyes like that and everyone told me I had my mother's eyes."
"How is that even possible?" I asked. "Not one of us came back in a way that would allow us to bring our old DNA with us."
"Magic!" replied Edric.
EDRIC
Now that my affair with Margaery was officially over, I felt a lot less guilty about doing things with Sansa. Late one night, she used her broom to sneak down South to she could see the Twins. After that, since she'd learned to apparate, she could sneak down and visit me in the middle of the night with no Cat to interfere. We came really close to consummating, and would have, if I had let her. But we had waited this long. Why not a little longer?
Finally, the day of our wedding arrived. Jon was unable to make it up from King's Landing. But Arya had landed her ship at the Saltpans and sent me a raven, so I could go and get her. Bran and Margaery took a portkey for the day from Riverrun. On horseback from the North came the Starks: Lord Stark, Cat, Robb and Rickon. Dacy was pregnant and stayed home with Edmina. When Sansa appeared, she was riding on the back of her dire wolf, Lady. Behind her were a familiar pair of mounted women. Mycella Waters had dyed her hair red. The other, was someone from my past.
After Sansa dismounted and greeted me, she introduced them:
"These are my Ladies-in-waiting," introduced Sansa. "Mycella, you already know. And this is-"
"Rosalyn Frey," I finished, for her. "Welcome home. Where did you meet her, Sansa?"
"I ran into her in Wintertown," replied Sansa. "We quickly became the best of friends! I didn't realise at first she was a- . . . a Frey. But by then, we had become such good friends, her past didn't matter to me."
"She's not the only Frey here," I replied. "This is Walda. She has been doing all the Lady's duties here at the twins. (except in the bedroom, I thought) She can help you ease into being Lady of the Twins and dealing with the Free Folk."
"That's what the Wildlings call themselves, my Lady," clarified Walda, after she gave Sansa a curtsy. "We're not the only Freys here, Rosalyn. Fat Walda lives in South Village."
"She does?" I asked. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"You've seen her, My Lord," replied Walda. "You probably
just didn't recognise her because she's lost so much weight."
The Wedding was held in the North Gods' Wood. It was a beautiful ceremony! Just as it was ending, snowflakes started to fall, giving everything a sense of serenity. But once in the Great Hall, we soon kicked things up again. Free Folk and Northerners together make for a rowdy party. There were two bands in the balcony having a battle of the bands, of sorts. One was a Northern Rock and Roll band playing, what to me, were familiar old songs like 'She Loves You' and 'Good Golly Missy Molly'. The other was a Riverlands Jazz band playing songs like 'Singin' the Blues', "Green Fork Blues' and "Barnacle Bill the Sailor", which Arya liked a lot.
When someone called out for the bedding. I grabbed Sansa by the arm and told her:
"You don't have to do this part!"
"Nonsense!" said Sansa, as she drew her wand and stepped into the middle of the hall. "It's a Southern Tradition, and I want to be a Southern Lady! But keep in mind, boys. If I don't like the way you touch me, I'll turn you into something unnatural!"
Everyone gave off a nervous laugh as she waved her wand, threateningly. As the men came forward and began pulling on her dress she told them:
"You don't have to rip the dress. I designed it for this. Each of the seams has a chord. Pull out the cord and the seam will come undone."
While all this was going on, the women were undressing me. I had mixed feelings about this I was enjoying being touched by so many women, but it also made me a bit uncomfortable. Margaery was one of them. And she knew exactly where and how to touch me. By the time I got to the Bed room, she had me fully ready for Sansa!
Our wedding night was . . . Let's just say that Sansa made the experience worth the wait. And I did the same for her. By the next morning, we were both quite happily married. Though Sansa was a bit disappointed she didn't get pregnant on the first try. After a few weeks, she made me take her to Riverrun to enact that new tradition one of the women at the wedding had told her off. I cast a warming charm so she was able to do it without freezing. And I would never be able to admit to her the true origins of Margaery's new tradition. When she finally was with child, she insisted on enacting that other tradition that Margaery started. Fortunately, she could cast her own warming charms as often as she wanted. But she still only lasted a couple of days before she stopped that.
SAM
The renovation of Fleabottom was coming along splendidly! On this day, I had arranged to share a drink with my good friend, Jon Stark, who had now become the Hand of the King. We were sharing a bottle of wine, while a small band played some Northern style music.
"So, this private army you're building," inquired Jon. "What's its' purpose? Why are you building your own forces?"
"Ah! You're wearing you Hand of the King hat today!" I observed. "Through out history, there have been numerous incidents where the highborn fell onto the low born. The Sacking of King's Landing at the end of Robert's rebellion and the Fleabottom Riot are just the two most recent examples. And so I created the Minute Men so that the so-called 'small-folk' would have a way of defending them selves if the nobles attack again."
"I see," replied Jon. "And how to you feel our the threat of Stanis' Wight Walkers?"
"I feel that the Others do pose a credible threat," I told him. "Although the public seems to have forgotten, I remember the wight well and can see the full implications of there being more."
"If that why want the dragon glass scraps? to make some sort of weapon?" asked Jon.
"I am indeed turning the obsidian scraps into weapons. I wrap them in paper to be used as missiles fired from my muskets. They not only cut through human flesh, I believe that they'll prove efficacious against wights if such creatures even make a mass appearance in King's landing.
"The King does not believe the wights are a credible threat," said Jon. He thinks that The Wall is all the protection we need. I am not so certain. But I can't act against my King. So am preparing in what small ways that I can. If there is a sudden need for an army, I may need to take the gold cloaks with me. Do you think you could turn your Minute Men into a police force to help me keep order in the city while I am gone?"
"I think I can conceive of such a thing being possible," I admitted.
"I would want you to make especially certain that the Red Keep is protected," added Jon. "I don't want anything to happen to my betrothed, Shireen!"
watch?v=7hvnaror92U
"I shall do all things possible to assure the safety of the Princess," I replied. "Wait! is that snow?"
"Yeah. So what?" said Jon.
"It hardly ever snows this far South, even in winter," replied Sam. "This is an ill omen . . ."
JOFFREY
This Blizzard had been going on for weeks, now. It had gotten so dark, you couldn't even tell day from night anymore. The weather was so bad, we couldn't get or send ravens anymore. Yet still, Cotter 'damned' Pike insisted that The Wall had to be manned, and tonight was my turn to do it. So here i was. hopping around in the freezing cold, trying get warm. Looking out over the wall was useless. It was nothing but a white haze as far as my torch could shine into the darkness. I almost didn't hear it when someone scrambled over on top of The Wall from below. I drew my sword and stabbed the Wildling through the gut. He didn't even flinch! Now that I was closer, I saw that he looked like he had been dead for quite a while! It was a wight! I backed off and grabbed the torch. When I poked him with it, the whole creature burst into flames. He staggered towards me, as I backed away. When I could go no further, it made a lunge at me, which I dodged, before pushing it off the South side of The Wall. I ran to the horn and blew it three blasts. My wait seemed forever before the elevator returned with a group of men, led by my father.
"What is Sevens Hells is going on here?" asked my father.
"A wight!," I cried. "A wight came over The Wall!"
Several of them just laughed at me.
"Are you certain what you saw?" asked my father.
"It was probably just some Wilding in a scary mask!" joked Pyp. "It's like the Lord Commander says: There's no such thing as-"
He then screamed, when a new wight grabbed him from behind and pulled him off The Wall.
"Get behind me!" yelled my father, as the wight finished climbing up here.
"No! Swords won't work against it!" I protested, as my father charged it.
He swung his sword, like lightning, as he cut off one arm, then the other. The wight then tried to bite him as the hands started crawling towards him. I used the torch to set each hand on fire before lighting the main body of the wight.
"Harald, go down there," commanded my father. "The rest of you, grab a torch!"
The wights continued to come up The Wall at us. It was a sporadic trickle and we could handle them, for now, but they never stopped. They just kept coming.
EDRIC
Even though it hadn't stopped snowing since our wedding, it was a light snow and I didn't think much of it. We sometimes got heavier snows than this back in Britain. And to my Free Folk subjects, this snow might as well have been invisible. I wasn't going up to Winterfell daily any more, so I didn't notice how much heavier it was there than here. It wasn't until I got a raven from my father by law, Lord Stark that the true horror dawned upon me. The Long Night had come!
MARGAERY
My plants were not doing well with all this snow. It kept getting colder and colder, freezing off the delicate parts that grew above ground. The trees were taking it better than smaller plants. And I had originally bred the birth blossoms back when I was teamed up with Mister Freeze, so they were better adapted to cold than most of them. But the snow kept piling up. When the raven from Bran's father arrived announcing that the War for dawn had begun, I used the birth blossom to go back to Highgarden to set in motion the mobilization of the Reach. The raven hadn't reached them yet. But I was sure the King would call upon them soon. Once things were set in motion, I returned to my husband to help Riverrun prepare.
JON
Lord Varys caught me in the hall as I was on my way to visit Shireen.
"Lord Hand, If I could have a moment of your time?" asked Varys "My little birds have just sung me the most distressing song from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea."
"What is it?" I asked.
"It seems too incredible to be true," reported Varys. "But my little birds sing that The Wall has come under attack, by a force of wights."
"I'll inform the King," I commanded Varys. "But try to get verification of-"
"Lord hand!" Grand Maester Pycel shuffled down the hall clutching a raven scroll. "I have an urgent raven from Lord Stark for the King!"
"Let me see it!" I demanded, as a I snatched the scroll from his hand and began reading. "According to this, the winter storms have become too severe for ravens to fly from The Wall. So Castle Black sent a messenger to Winterfell. According to the messenger, Castle Black is under attack . . . by wights!"
"It appears, Prince Stanis was not so crazy, after all," tittered Varys.
"Come with me!" I commanded. "The king must be informed of this immediately!"
TRYSTANE
The deserts of Dorne are usually cool at night. But it was worse than I remembered. I had finally returned home, to Sunspear. When I entered the palace, I found my father in conversation with a young woman who was dressed like one of my cousins, the Sand Snakes, but her hair was too light a shade of brown for a Dornish woman. Her back was to me but my father was facing me and he was the first to spot me.
"Ah! Trystane! I was just getting to know your wife," said my father, Prince Doran Martell. "She is a remarkable woman! You have chosen well!"
"Thank you father," I replied before taking Arya's hand. "I didn't even recognise you in dornish clothing. You look exquisite."
She snickered, but let me kiss her hand. Then jumped out of her seat to give me a hug, followed by a kiss on the lips.
"Took you long enough," scolded Arya. "You missed Sansa's wedding!"
"How long have you been here?" I asked.
"'bout a week," replied my wife. "I really like your family, especially your cousins! They are everything you said they were!"
"I told you you would like it here," I reminded her.
As it turned out, her men liked Dorne, and especially its' women, as much as Arya did. She loved sparing with the Sand Snakes and had already been accepted as one of the family before I even got there. She stayed almost a month before a raven came to send it all crashing down.