Chapter 6

Within a minute of opening the book, Jon was already both amazed and confused. The 'Atlas' had two small pieces of the thin parchment sticking out, which, he presumed, indicated the pages with information the foreigners wanted them to read. When he opened the book at the first of those pages, he saw an extremely detailed maps of a country called 'The Netherlands'. This, he realized, was one of the empires that send the letter.

The map looked like a chaotic mess, with a lot of different colors and names everywhere. After some time of looking confusedly at the map, he realized that there was something in the bottom left corner, called a 'legend', which seemed to explain what all individual colors and the different types of lines meant. Even after studying it for more than an hour, Jon still did not understand what everything denoted, as words like railway and airport did not ring any bells for him, but he could now read at least part of the map. There also seemed to be different symbols for different city sizes. The numbers mentioned confused him a bit, however.

"Sorry for interrupting you, Robb, but could you help me with something?" He said to his brother who was reading a book detailing the history of Germany.

"Sure, Jon, what is the problem?"

"Do you know how big the largest cities of the seven kingdoms are?"

"Maester Luwen taught me this a few moons ago, I remember that the three biggest cities were King's Landing, Oldtown and Lannisport. All three of them had a few hundred thousand inhabitants. After that, we have Gulltown with a bit more then 50.000 and White Harbor with somewhat less than 50000 inhabitants."

"Thanks Robb, I noticed something odd about this map. It shows with symbols how big the cities are, and I have already found 20 cities with more than a hundred thousand inhabitants. There are even two cities with more than 500.000 inhabitants."

"Wait, how is that possible? How big must that country be in order to feed all those people?"

"I found a way to measure distances on the map in the bottom left corner. Using that, I guess that the country is around 300 kilometers from North to South and 200 kilometers from West to East."

"Jon, are you serious?"

"Yes Robb, why are you asking that?"

"Because we have multiple bannerman with larger territories than that kingdom. It seems to be comparable in size to the iron islands. There is no way that the Kingdom can produce even close to enough food to feed all those cities on its own, even if it is situated on prime farmland. Can you take a look at the other empire?"

Jon then got to the other marked page and saw a similar map of the empire called "Germany". This empire seemed larger than the previous one. However, he also saw way more big cities on this map. There was even a new category, cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. Even more surprisingly, there were four of those. "Robb, this empire seems to have even more cities than the previous one, there even seem to be cities more than twice the size of any city in the Seven Kingdoms. Heck, this empire probably has a population that exceeds that of the Seven Kingdoms combined."

Robb then took a look at the map and came to the same conclusion as Jon: "This empire seems larger than the previous one, I guess it is about 1000 by 500 kilometers. But that still leaves it way smaller than the North and probably also smaller than the other Kingdoms. Even if it were as fertile as the Reach, it wouldn't be close to being able to feed itself. Additionally, with such a large population, it should also be impossible to import enough food to compensate for that. Even though that might have worked for the Kingdom."

Jon and Robb thought about this contradiction for a while. There seemed to be a few possibilities: Either the map was a fake, the otherworldly people didn't need to eat as much, or they had found a way to grow more crops using less space. With the amount of effort put into the book, and the short time they would have had for forging a fake, it was unlikely that it was a complete fake.

Robb then said to him: "If this information is correct, than they would be able to field much larger armies than us, and they would be able to reinforce their armies easily due to the short distance between their cities and the portal." They had spotted the red marker indicating the location of the portal earlier on the north side of the border between the two countries. There were multiple cities within a hundred kilometers of the portal, even though the direct area around the portal seemed to be mostly farmland with some towns in between.

Jon then asked: "Robb, how far along are you in your history book? Maybe that will explain the unnaturally large cities"

"I have managed to get through one third of the German history book. It starts about 2000 years ago, if we believe their claim that this year is 2020. Back then, their lands were populated by small tribes, which were slowly assimilated into an empire that was called the Holy Roman Empire. They called themselves holy because they believed that their god had given their emperors the right to rule. That empire seemed to be similar to our seven kingdoms, except it was significantly smaller than Westeros and consisted of way more than seven kingdoms within the empire. It was however larger than the Germany we saw in your book and also included the Netherlands within its border.

I've read until the year 1400 and saw nothing that could explain the flying machines or their large population. In fact, I believe their population back than was comparable to that of the Riverlands. However, near the end, they mentioned some new siege weapon, called the cannon. It uses something called black powder and can apparently shoot big metal balls at high speeds. That weapon should have made it much easier to assault fortifications."

"Hmm, so 600 years ago, they had a similar society to ours, the only big difference being that they had better siege weapons, am I right?"

"Yes, I think so. If they are not lying to us, then they must have discovered the flying machines and increased their population in the last 600 years."

For the next two days, Robb and Jon continued reading their books and discovered more and more intriguing and disturbing information. Intriguing discoveries they made included the name of the thin parchment, paper, and the fact that other countries in that world had even more inhabitants than Germany. Two of those empires had even more than a billion inhabitants. Jon had triple checked the number of zeroes, but still arrived at that ridiculous number. Additionally, the foreigners seemed to have explored their entire world, including the frozen wastelands in the South and a gigantic sea which could swallow the whole of Westeros a dozen times. Most disturbingly, the black powder weapons seemed to be getting more powerful over time, further cementing their believe that the Seven Kingdoms would not be winning a war with those empires.

The mystery of the perfect handwriting was also solved. Robb read about a German invention called the printing press, a machine that could print books by pressing inked letters on paper way faster and cheaper than a septon or a maester could copy one. He and Jon agreed that the printing press or something similar was definitely responsible for their books and the letter. Robb asked his father during dinner if their family could buy one of those from the foreigners. Lord Stark, after hearing Robb out, agreed that it would be a good investment and that he would inquire them about it during the talks.

On the 16th day of the fourth moon, four days after the first sighting of the flying machines, a servant entered the library and walked up to Jon's brother

"M'lord, your father bides you to come immediately to the entrance of the keep. A small group of Lannister riders are approaching from the south."

Robb immediately stood up and walked out of the room, followed by Jon. As they were nearing the gate, they were approached by Arya.

"Jon, Robb, the imp is coming! I saw him riding towards us!" Arya told them enthusiastically.

"That's nice Arya, did you perhaps see anyone else from the King's party? I thought they were not supposed to arrive for another two days?" Robb replied.

"I only saw some guards with him, but this is great! We have the imp with us for a few days without having to deal with kings, queens, princes and wearing pretty dresses all the time."

Their conversation was then interrupted by the sounds of horses. Six people rode through the gate and stopped in front of the welcoming party. Tyrion Lannister, the imp, was immediately recognizable by virtue of his short stature. The other five riders seemed to be Lannister guards, judging from their red cloaks.

Once they had dismounted, Lord Stark spoke: "Welcome to Winterfell, Tyrion Lannister. We are surprised by your early visit, but we can have the servants clear one of the guest rooms for your use."

Lord Stark then proceeded to introduce his wife and children to Tyrion Lannister, including a very excited Arya.

Tyrion then spoke: "Thank you for your hospitality, Lord Stark. I was originally planning to stay with the King's party, but I came upon a most interesting letter. I was hoping you could clear some things up for me."

"Well, Lannister, we know not much more than you do. Three days ago, a flying machine flew over our keep, observed us for a few moments and then retreated to the west. One day later, the same happened, except that they left us this letter and a chest of gifts. I also continue to receive reports from my bannerman about flying machines scouting out their lands and keeps."

"Well that is unfortunate, what about the so called portal mentioned in the letter? Have your bannerman verified that claim?"

"I have ordered the Glovers from Deepwood Motte to send out a group of riders as soon as I received the letter. However, it will take them a moon to ride back and forth towards the portal. So we cannot confirm their tales before they arrive."

"What about their books, Lord Stark. In the letter they stated that they left you maps and books detailing the history of their empires."

"I did not read them myself, as I am too busy with keeping my bannerman informed and making sure they do not provoke the foreigners. Instead I tasked my heir Robb and my natural son Jon to read them before the foreigners arrive. Let us go inside now and continue our conversation during the evening meal."

Jon followed the imp and his family towards the dining hall. There he moved to sit at the servant table until he was interrupted

"Jon Snow, could you accompany me to the table?, I want to ask you some questions about the foreign books you read."

"You would have to ask my Lord father for that Lord Lannister, I am usually not allowed to sit there."

"That should not be a problem, I'll take full responsibility."

Jon was then taken by Tyrion to the head table, where he was seated next to the imp. His trueborn brother Robb meanwhile was seated across the imp, probably for the same reason he was brought here. Lady Stark was clearly unhappy that he was seated at their table, but was unable to say anything about it in front of their guest.

At the start of the dinner, Lord Tyrion was mostly conversing with Lord Stark about the King's party which was still on their way to Winterfell, naming notable members and giving a guess on the total number of people coming their way. Jon was content with just listening to Tyrion and his Lord father talking, but alas the topic changed.

"So, Robb and Jon, your father told me earlier that you were reading the books gifted to you by the foreigners. Did those books contain any interesting information about their empires?"

Jon was unsure if he should tell a Lannister about what he and his brother discovered. But when he saw Lord Stark nodding, he began to tell the imp and the rest of his family about his and his brother's discoveries from the book of maps. Robb took over and told them about the irregularities discovered in the history of the empire until a bit more than 200 years ago, as he had not yet finished the book, which became harder to read the further he got along. Tyrion Lannister mostly listened to them without interrupting, absorbing all the information Robb and Jon gave him. However, they were interrupted by their younger siblings multiple times, especially when Robb was talking about the black powder weapons.

"But where is the honor in fighting with those weapons?" Bran asked during Robb's explanation. Jon's younger half-brother was planning on becoming a knight, and was told stories of their chivalrous behavior by Lady Stark.

Lord Stark was forced to reply "Not all empires look to fight with honor in war. I know for a fact that any of the free cities would immediately use those weapons if they ended up in their possession."

"I can also guarantee you that my father will use any advantage in weaponry he can get his hands on" Tyrion added to Lord Stark's statement.

Robb and Jon then continued with their explanation until the meal was almost finished.

"So, we can already confirm from those books that the empires on the other side are small but extremely populous, have likely way better ranged weapons than us and that we are lucky they seem more interested in trading than in conquering." Tyrion concluded after Jon and Rob finished speaking. "My father won't like having neighbors he cannot intimidate, but I myself am very curious about them and their advanced machines. Is it possible for me to read those books during my stay here, or shall I keep myself content with the other books in the Winterfell library?"

Lord Stark thought for a moment, but seemingly concluded that there was no harm in letting Tyrion Lannister read about the foreigners. "You have my permission to read any book given to me by the foreigners, under the condition that the book is not in use by either Robb or Jon and that you will give them the book if they need it. You are of course welcome to read other books in the Winterfell library."

As everyone was done eating, this marked the end of the conversation. Jon and Robb returned to the library, intent on completing the task their father set up for them. This time however, they were followed by Tyrion Lannister, who was silent the entire way, seemingly lost in thought.

AN: Multiple reviewers were pointing out the rather long review responses in comparison to the length of my chapters. To combat this I am planning to do the following: I will continue to answer all reviewers who ask a question in the review response section. However, I will delete the review response sections after I have posted 5 new chapters. This should give you guys/girls 3 weeks to read my review response and will make sure that all but my newest chapters will be chapters that are all story (except for AN's). Thanks as always for everyone who reviewed/followed/favourited my story!