Chapter 18

Eddard Stark hadn't slept well. How could he, when his son was taken to another world? However, he didn't think he had make a mistake by letting the foreigners take care of him. After all, this was the only chance to make Bran walk again. Furthermore, they wouldn't ever use Bran as a hostage, if only because they already had the means to conquer the whole of the Seven Kingdoms.

To distract himself from his worries, he had decided to spend this morning by going through his finances. While the promised gold from the foreigners seemed infinite, it was still necessary to keep track of how much they owed him exactly, as well as how much gold he owed them in return for their promised goods.

"Lord Stark, the foreign ambassador is here to see you, he says it's urgent!"

Fearing that it might be bad news about Bran, Ned immediately replied to his guard: "Let him in!"

While Ambassador Mertz looked mostly composed on the outside, Ned could still see that he wasn't in a great mood.

"Ambassador Mertz, did something happen to one of my sons?!"

"Lord Stark. From what I have heard, Brandon Stark is not in life danger and is undergoing surgery today. However, there is something else that happened yesterday. At half past 4 local time in the afternoon, a group of horseman attacked our civilians and their escort unprovoked in our new lands near the Fishing Village. Luckily, no civilian was harmed, and all attackers were captured alive. However, they claimed to have been send by Lord Glover of Deepwood Motte, who is your vassal. Do you know if there is any truth to their statements?"

A mix of cold rage and fear came over Ned after hearing this. He had stated explicitly in the letter to Lord Glover that he should only investigate what was happening on the Stony Shore, not provoke a war with the people who were already known to have flying creatures! And Ned knew exactly how a war with the foreigners would end, namely with Winterfell in ruins.

Ned then took a moment to calm down. The fact that the ambassador actually came to see him and ask him about the situation proved that the foreigners did not plan to use this as an excuse to go to war, so those idiotic Glover man had at least not doomed the North.

"I think there might be some truth to their statements. When the first flying machine flew over Winterfell, I wrote a letter to Lord Glover where I asked him to send a small party to the Stony Shore. However, they were only to investigate where the flying machines came from, not attack anyone. So if the horseman were part of that investigation party and actually attacked you unprovoked, then it was against my orders."

While this probably spelled doom for those Glover man, Ned was not going to try and protect them if it meant risking the relations with the foreign realms.

"That seems to match with what the horseman were claiming. Their leader will face trial in our world, and if it is indeed the case that he ordered the attack on our civilians against his own orders, we will leave it at that. However, Germany still wants a statement from lord Glover, and get confirmation that he didn't order the man to attack us."

Ned breathed a small sigh of relief. This had the potential to turn out so much worse, especially if the Glover man had actually managed to kill a foreigner. What surprised him was that the foreigners weren't planning put the other Glover man on trial. Did that mean they would just release those man?

"As of this moment, Lord Glover should be on his way to Winterfell, since I called for a meeting with all Northern lords. I will ask him to give you that statement when he arrives."

Now Ned was no longer afraid for retaliation, he started to become curious about the reason why the Glover man decided to attack the foreigners.

"That said, what were your man doing when the riders attacked them?"

"We were spreading the details on our agreement among the villagers of the Stony Shore, as part of said agreement involved them. However, halfway during such a visit, the group arrived via a small boat and almost immediately attacked our people."

Ned realized he had totally forgotten about that part of the agreement. He had been far more focused on the large amounts of gold, unique goods and services the foreigners were offering. More importantly, he had forgotten how fast the otherworlders moved and communicated.

Because of that, the foreigners had been claiming the Stony Shore belonged to them in front of the Glover man, who only knew them as invaders with large flying creatures.

Ned decided he needed people on the Stony Shore as soon as possible to observe what the foreigners were doing.

"Ambassador Mertz, it might be a good idea if I were to send a small group of man to your part of the Stony Shore. They could accompany your man to the villages so that severe misunderstandings like this won't happen. They can also tell you about the way the Stony Shore was previously ruled, as well as our customs."

"That would be very helpful indeed. We already had some villages where no one believed you sold us their lands, even after showing a copy of the official agreement. I will ask my superiors but I believe they'll happily send a helicopter tomorrow to pick them up. They could also bring a radio so that you are able to keep in contact with them."

What? The foreigners would just lend him such a valuable and useful machine like that?!

Ned had been there when Ambassador Mertz showed how his radio worked. He spoke into the weird small black contraption while pressing some sort of miniscule lever on its side. A few seconds later, an unknown female voice replied, seemingly coming from that magical contraption. Knowing that the voice really came from someone 600 miles to the West made the experience even more magical.

These contraption would be invaluable in a war. Being able to coordinating maneuvers with other armies miles away would win wars on its own, not to mention that scouts would become much more effective with such a contraption.

After he gratefully accepted the offer and the ambassador left, Ned went back to his paperwork, now to distract himself from both his son's fate and the near disaster that had just happened. He hoped there would be no more unpleasant surprises today.

Of course, that wasn't meant to happen. Roose Bolton, the bannerman he liked to deal with the least, decided to make his appearance in Winterfell today. Ned had hoped Roose would have taken his time and arrived just before the counsel started, but he wasn't that lucky.

"Welcome to Winterfell, Lord Bolton."

Roose Bolton, entering through the gates, calmly replied: "Lord Stark, I have heard some disturbing rumors in the last few days. Smallfolk whisper the Starks have sold our ancestral lands to the barbarians from the other world. I hope none of them are true."

Ned, simultaneously happy that the foreign ambassador wasn't here to hear the insult and annoyed Roose was already subtly undermining him, answered: "There is some truth to the rumors, as I did sell part of the Stony Shore to the otherworlders for very generous terms. However, the otherworlders are not barbarians at all. They even have armies that could wipe out the whole of the seven kingdoms without any effort on their part. So I ask of you Lord Bolton, do not antagonize the foreigners under any circumstance, as the North cannot afford a war with them. If you don't believe me, ask Lord Cerwyn. He was here when the foreigners showed us the weapons they use."

While Lord Bolton's face didn't visibly change, Ned thought Lord Bolton hadn't expected him to just admit they were at the mercy of the otherworlders.

Although Ned didn't like Roose Bolton, he was at least smart and cunning enough to realize the severity of the situation. In fact, Ned was more worried about how the more traditional and warlike Northern houses like the Umbers would react to the sale of Stark lands. Maybe he should ask the foreigners to hold another weapon demonstration during the counsel to show why he wanted to keep good relations with the foreigners.

"I see. In your last letter, you spoke of certain books left by the flying creatures of the otherworlders. Could I read those books? After all, it is prudent to know your neighbors."

"All of them should be in the Winterfell library, as well as some books brought by their delegation. There is also a foreigner here in Winterfell. His name is Patrick Mertz and is here to represent them as a so-called ambassador."

Having nothing else to say, Roose Bolton ended the short conversation and walked towards his temporary chambers, followed by the few guardsman he brought along.

Is wasn't until the evening that Ned finally had a chance to speak to his wife alone. Like him, Catelyn had decided to distract herself from Bran's fate with work. And, from the way she was complaining to him, it seemed like she wouldn't have a choice but to focus herself completely on managing the household.

"Almost all the rooms are already full Ned, and not even half of the Northern lords are here! Soon, there will be no other option but to host some lords in the Wintertown inns. I just hope those American and English otherworlders will keep on their promise to only stay for one day, as I don't think we can host them, the Northern Lords and the King's Party at the same time.

What's even worse is that we are already running low on summer wine and almost all of our exotic food! We won't be able to provide those for all the feasts we still have to host."

That was definitely going to be a problem, as Ned didn't want to insult Robert, his Bannerman, or the American otherworlders by not providing welcoming or leaving feasts. But how would he get the food and wine for those fast enough?

Ned then realized who could help them with that.

"Catelyn, I think I have a solution for that. The foreigners could almost certainly provide us with as much food as we need, and bring it to us with those flying machines. In fact, they are already sending a flying machine here tomorrow to pick up some of our man. If you write down how much we need, I'm certain those foreigners could provide it. We can even ask them to bring us some more whiskey, cola and some of their other local food."

Catelyn flinched at the mention of the otherworlders, as that brought worries about how Bran was doing in their strange lands. However, realizing there wasn't anything she could do except pray, she calmed down and answered him.

"While I don't like us depending more on the otherworlders, especially now they have Bran, I fear we have no other option. Ned, I'll make that list and see the ambassador about it immediately."

It took a long while before Catelyn, who had prayed in the sept for more than an hour after visiting the ambassador, joined him in bed that evening.

AN: As always, thanks everyone who favourited/followed/reviewed the Winter Portal! This story now already has more than 500 favourites and 700 followers!

Thanks to Bran no longer being in Winterfell, and the fact that she is far more needed here than in Canon, Catelyn managed to get her act together by herself.

Note that I'm now also editing the earlier chapters of this story, mostly to improve readability and dialogue. The prologue and first 3 chapters are now edited, and chapter 4 will follow in a few days.

For next chapter, I'm still undecided between a Kevan chapter/interlude (showing Tywin's reaction on events) or continuing Jon's adventure in Germany.

Edit 1: Instead of the whole Glover party, only the leader will be put on trial in Germany.