Chapter 4
The wallflower
The interview with Stark had passed and days to. The moment I'd been declared free I requested a bed and for the rest of the day rested and tried to recover best I can. I woke the next day at midday my room being a room next to the entrance to the crypt. The bastards didn't even spare me a feather bed instead a bed made on straw and a single sheet of pelt that smelled like ass. The Starks were starting to piss me off to be honest.
I am the vessel not a peasant seeking asylum, one day the Starks would know what that meant. After waking from my rest I would begin building the only technological marvel I knew. To truly get a an advantage over my doubters I needed to perform espionage and thus behold the string and cups phone. Finding thread and cups was easy enough for a serving whench to fetch. Setting up the phone among the leaves of the heart tree and positioning it out of site on both ends took some time but I did it. A hook was nailed at the top of the tree and from the top it travelled down into a grove of bushes I had hollowed out for my uses.
From then on I began introducing myself to the people of my faith. All that saw me going about pointed and whispered, rumours had spread about me. A man from mud they said born from a heart tree. Hello didn't work too well with people who would be scrambling to get out of sight, so instead I spent my time at the heart tree spying spot thinking up plans. It was boring but once in a while someone would come and speak with their gods not knowing I was spying on them. When they were finished and leaving it was easy for me to pop out of nowhere. Striking like a viper I would voice the prayers of the faithful and passing on advice to the prayers with a solution and hope to those that didn't and everytime introducing myself as the vessel voice of the gods.
It took only a week for me to be established as a prophet, healer and spiritual mentor of the people. The highest in Winterfell were wary but also curious, sneaking visits at the heart tree in hopes of finding me without eyes and ears around. One of those was the boys Bran and Rickon who would play with their wolves in the godswood. Rickon was a babe who was easy to entice with sweets and a throw of a stick for him and shaggy to chase but Bran he needed the vessel.
"It was a dream, I was walking again practicing with my bow when a crow came. It was squawking so loud it made me follow it in to the crypts. I remember all the torches were lit and I saw all the statues of the dead Starks, all of them until at the end… father was there. He was a statue like the rest of them. Robb says it was only a dream so does the maester I was going to ask septon Chayle but Rickon said you are always speaking to people and helping them."
The boy was upset, of course he was. He didn't want his father to die. Telling the boy his dream was prominent would upset him prematurely but power was in the boy according to George and prying that power towards my own ends was one of my goals.
"It seems to me that you know what this dream was, a message from the gods perhaps. The gods speak to us Bran and they do so for a reason. Today you may not know what the plan was but soon you will. The gods of your father favour you so you must favour them as well denounce the gods of your mother and all will be clear."
"Father used to say the old gods didn't care if we prayed to other gods only that we speak with them when we have problems."
"Your father is a great man Bran but he is wrong in this and a great many things. The gods speak to me but you will be much more than that. You will be a god but only if you give yourself to the gods."
"Me? A god? But I'm, I'm only a cripple. A good for nothing helpless cripple. How could I be a god?"
"You boy have so much more than you know but you do not see it. You will because it is the will of the gods. You must first denounce the Andal gods and pledge yourself to the Gods of your forefathers. This is your destiny Bran do not run from it. You and I together will save the whole world. That is what you've always wanted right, to be a heroic knight. Knights don't save the world Bran they beat women and kill men. It is great men like us, like Bran the builder who can fell the terrible winter that is coming. Do what I ask and stand besides me Bran and be a hero."
The boy would leave the godswood pondering my orders. At dinner the same night as the inhabitants of Winterfell dined the young lord with the help of Hodor would call attention to himself. With a war eminent the hall was quiet with tension. He would declare his allegiance to the old gods and the vessel.
To the people it would be the first acknowledgement made by the Starks officially validating the man from mud. From then on I would be much busier than before and so began my search for disciples to loyally follow my edicts. The echoes of the vessel they were called.