A late update, but an update nonetheless. Worry not, I have not dropped this fic.
Though I had been extremely busy in this last 3 months which was the reason this fic took a little more time.
Hope you enjoy this, if you do, add it to your favourite and follow too.
Also comment on the chapter too, waiting to read your reviews about this.
Severus looked at the field in which they were growing rice, it had been just six days since his arrival to Neck and for some reason Rice grew like a weed here. Granted his modifications should have ensured that but for some reason the plants were just growing a little faster than usual. There was and could be only one reason why it was so and it lied in the history of the Neck. It was said that the children of the forest resided here and he could guess that the area of Neck for this reason had a ambient magical environment. It was far less than Hogwarts but there was still some magic present in the air. Perhaps this first men magic was helping in the growing of rice a little faster. At this rate the crop would take nearly 63 to 67 days to mature fully rather than the usual time of two and half months.
"Maester Snow," called out the Heir of Greywater Watch from his back.
Severus turned around and met the face of the two Reed siblings. Both were carrying their frogspears, the elder girl was the more talented one though in his opinion than the boy in wielding the weapon.
"Heir Reed, Lady Reed," he spoke formally looking at the two person infront of him.
"Maester Snow," both of them greeted back. Jojen Reed was a strange and aloof boy but he did knew how to mingle on occasion, it was his obsession with the green dreams which irked him. He for a fact knew who was behind it, the great bastard both in name and in Severus's opinion, Brynden Rivers or Bloodraven. A man who hadn't stopped bothering him since his arrival to this world. At first he had felt it in his sleep, a connection to his mind but the great bastard had forgotten that a connection was forged two way. The most important thing to him had always been his privacy and when he felt it being breached he had responded in kind and slipped into the man's mind and saw everything. It amused him to no end, and at the same time annoyed Bloodraven, the great bastard had then tried repeatedly but failed each time. His reach in Westeros was afterall better than when he was in Essos.
"We were going to practise our sparring," Meera Reed spoke slowly looking at the attractive boy of her age infront of her, "we wanted to see if you could give us some pointers?" she asked slowly looking at him.
"I am not a great fighter Mlady but I do can fight mediocorely, I will try my best to help," he said looking at the duo. He had unfair advantages in his fights due to the number of rituals he had partaken but if he wanted to have a living chance in this world then he needed them. Power was power afterall at the end of day and, if it helped in not meeting his death at the end of someone's steel then it was all okay for him.
An Hour Later...
A sweaty Jojen and Meera Reed were slumping and barely able to stand without the support of their spears. Infront of them was Severus who was sweating very slightly and not a single tear or bruise in him or his padded clothes. Around them were the majority of Reed household members who were watching the sparring with interested eyes.
"We couldn't even land a single hit on you," Jojen spoke up groggily holding his frogspear as he tried to stood up.
"You were becoming slow and more erratic in the heat of the fight MLord," he said slowly afterall the boy did became reckless very fast. One shouldn't do that during fighting; afterall when you put your life on line, a single mistake could be deadly for you.
"Maester Snow is right Jojen, it could cost you your life in a battle," Howland Reed spoke sternly looking at his two children.
The duel reminded him of a duel which he had been long ago, a duel which proved to be the death of Ser Arthur Dayne, Ser Gerold Hightower and Ser Oswell Whent. The three knights nonetheless slayed many of his companions cutting a bloody path to their last moment before they each were killed by the efforts of them. The boy reminded him of the Sword of the Morning with his movements and the calm disposition he had maintained during the whole fight.
Meera Reed looked at the meat of the lizard lion as her mind wandered to the earlier sparring done by her and Jojen against Severus Snow. He severly outclassed them in speed, reaction time and strength. It was humbling to be defeated so soundly, she had never seen someone move so fast and it was a hard pill to swallow for her. She had been best among her peers and then a boy of her age had proceeded to defeat her so soundly as if he was playing with a small child not a trained warrior.
Jojen was sitting besides him with a frown on his small face. The last dreams had not been nice for him and he dearly wanted to ask what the three eyed raven wanted him to ask.
"You are an anamoly, you are disturbing the song!" Jojen exclaimed looking at Severus. It was quite weird for everyone to see the boy act so much out of composure. The boy was always broody and melancholic in his own way otherwise.
Meanwhile Severus simply looked at the boy, he had long ago started to give no fucks to the last greenseer. The man had the audicity to try to infiltrate his mind, he would have suceeded if Severus was a regular muggle or didn't knew much about the mind arts. But alas! The three eyed raven didn't knew whose mind he was trying to penetrate? A mind breach was very risky as it could be used both ways, Severus had sneakily went to the mind of the three eyed raven and saw everything about him and his life till he became the Three Eyed Crow. Brynden Rivers, another of great bastards and the man who dared to breach his mind but failed. The man had not stopped doing that but Severus had started to cast anti scrying charms resulting in him being non visible directly to Three Eyed Crow. The greenseer didn't seemed to have learnt his lesson.
"Am I?" Severus asked amused, looking at the boy who had said that. Lord Reed and Lady Reed were there too along with the household staffs of Greywater Watch.
"Does the three eyed raven tells you that?" Severus pressed on.
He could hear murmurs and the slight widening of Lord and Lady Reed's eyes at the question. It seems that the people of Neck knew who the three eyed raven was or had an inkling what the man was. Regardless Lord Reed didn't said anything simply viewed it all in silence.
"You know about him!" Meera exclaimed slowly looking at him along with Jojen.
"Ofcourse. Now let me tell you a story about your Three Eyed Crow M'Lord and M'Lady," he said looking at both of them carefully as the hall quitened suddenly at his words. He was glad that despite his young age his words still carried a presence in them. He really missed those days dearly when he used to simply scare people with a glare of his intimidating presence.
"The man you know as Three Eyed Crow, If I am not wrong then the title is held by someone who have the most powerful greensight. Do you know who is the current Three Eyed Crow M'lord?" He asked with a calm face looking at the Heir of Greywater Watch.
"No, the identity is not known by me," Jojen replied closing his eyes off while saying that.
"Very well, yet you still place so much importance in his words" Severus commented with a frown as he looked at the Heir of Greywater Watch. He already knew that the man would hardly tell his name to the brat infront of him.
"The man who is the current Three Eyed Crow. His name is Brynden Rivers, one of the great bastards, ex Hand of the King and Lord Commander of the Nights Watch, and only a fickle shell of his old self who is only alive till now with the help of Children of the Forest beyond the wall", he finished with calm and straight face.
"No way!" Meera said in surprise and shock. There could be now way that the man could be alive till now.
Howland's eyes widened in shock as well as Jyanna's along with the other people present there in the hall.
"Yes way M'Lady. You underestimate the power of the Three Eyed Crow. If I had the power to have greensight and enter into your dreams, I could change you completely. I could see and know your darkest moments and secrets, deepest desires. I could influence your decisions or even make you completely different from your recent behaviour with carefully added subtle foreign thoughts and advices on your head as if they were your own. The possibilities are many M'Lady," he said, respectfully addressing her.
Howland's face went slight pale when he heard that along with the most people present there. He couldn't have imagined this ever, at that moment he started to have doubts that if the whole rebellion was started or even manipulated by Brynden Rivers for some reason. He knew the prophecy about which Rhaegar had been obsessed with and for which Lyanna had suffered heavily along with the other members of the Stark family. The words of Severus had started to place doubts on his mind. He felt the hand of Jyanna squeezing his own as she smiled reassuringly at him. It felt a little great that she was still keeping her cool.
"Lies! All of them," Jojen said calmly with anger as he got up and tried departing from there instantly, not bothering to look back anymore at anyone.
"The truth: is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with caution M'Lord. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live M'Lord," he said calmly quoting two lines of wisdom from the man whom he had started to see as a mentor. Besides it would irk the Heir more to hear wisdom from others, when usually it was him who gave it to others.
Two Months Later...
It had been two moons since his stay in the Neck started and today he was finally going to Winterfell.
He had already sent a letter to Braavos with his raven. Nyra would receive the letter and would start the arrangements to arrive here already. Who would have thought that he would have a harem of his own made by slaves gifted to him? Granted his still didn't knew, what he will do with that much women? As much sex was nice and enjoyable, he will eventually become bore with it after some time.
"Hope we meet again soon Severus," Meera Reed spoke up looking at him with a small smile on her face.
"And also looking forward to see and hear more from you about the different recipes you could make with rice," Meera continued with a glint in her eyes.
Severus had shown them everything about the rice in this few months. How it is cultivated, how the grains are separated and even how to make them best. Her father had caught on the importance as rice could be a godsend food for the people who are facing a siege or were common folk. They had grown different varieties of rice, some long grains, some short and some medium.
He had even cooked some dishes for them, the simple ones done with simply boiling the rice. Whereas some other ones too where he used certain spices. The fried rice, the pilaf, the galinhada, the jolof rice were some of the items he had taught to prepare to the cooks and the interested men and women of Greywater Watch.
Meera along with others liked the items he had prepared heavily. Now it was clear to everyone that Rice was going to be one of the staple food of Greywater Watch and Neck. Possibly of the entire North by the large amound of fields which had already been prepared and were being prepared to grow it along the river banks.
"I will make sure of it," Severus replied with a small curl of his lips looking at Meera. The girl had became a nice enough friend of him in this past two months after he had dressed down his brother nicely.
Jojen was still a little awkard around him but was coming in terms to him slowly.
Lord and Lady Reed were courteous and happy about the new dishes as they liked it heavily. He wouldn't be surprised if the next few years of their life would be spent in eating meat broth and rice or the rice pudding he had taught.
"Hope you have a good journey Maester Snow," Howland spoke up with a small smile looking at the boy who had changed much of the Greywater Watch by now. Earlier there were only swamps to look around. Instead green plants of rice could be seen among those fields now, the lizardlions were kept and hurried around to other areas and the poisonous plants were also planted in different area than before.
"Thank you Maester Snow for everything," Jyanna Reed spoke up with a small smile looking at him. She was glad that Jojen was becoming a little like the children of their age. His words had changed him and Jyanna too doubted the Three Eyed Crow like Howland for some things which suddenly started to make sense now.
"Thank you for your greetings Lord and Lady Reed. I should take my leave," Severus said as he looked at the bags of rice which he had to take to Winterfell.
Surprisingly Desmond had arrived with a garrison of guards to escort him to Winterfell along with Maven and some aurochs as per ordered by Lord Robb.
He was already going to take some bags of rice to show the Lord of Winterfell but now with the arrival of Desmond, the whole thing was going to be a little easier.
Atleast he would have to wait a little more since the various bags would be carried around by the soldiers. If he had gone alone, he would have simply kept the money and rice in shrunken bags and fly away fastly.
Atleast this way he would have reached within hours. But it seems he must wait around a little more now.