With a deep fortifying breath he knocked on Lords solars door .
" Come in " , his Fathers voice replied . So Eddard entered the room .
" That will be all Maester , you are dismissed " , his Father sent Maester on his way .
" So Eddard you wanted to speak with me , what is this about ? " , Father asked .
Taking a seat and gathering his thoughts , Ned began slowly , " Before ... before Mothers passing we had a conversation about The Pack and The North . I have been thinking and studying upon it . And Father , I have come to some disturbing conclusions , and those conclusions led to more studying and I have a fee ideas I wish to discuss with you "
His Father whose face turned blank and eyes cold at the mention of Mother , showed a tiny amount of interest at last .
" So what are these conclusions and ideas then ? " , he asked .
" Well every winter we lose most our elderly and newborns to cold and starvation , and some women to childbirth , of this loss of newborns is a blow we don't feel heavily but it is heavy indeed . With their loss , we lose potential , new farmers , new craftsmen , new soldiers , maybe even new lords . Of cold we could do nothing about immediately , maybe we have enormous resources and years of planning , but about starvation during winter, we can do something about . But for that we need money , and I researched how we can make more of it with less investment than other venues . My answer : Ironwood and mines "
" Son , we make all the money we can off of Ironwood , if we harvest more aggressively we risk extinction of the species , and our silver and Iron mines are running at full capacity already "
" Yes , Father , I know this . But we have another Ironwood reserve untapped . "
" Where ? "
" The Haunted Forest , Beyond the Wall , I know you are about to dismiss this , but listen me out , there are many wildling tribes near the Wall and most of them have agreements of trade with Night's Watch , they generally stick to those agreements . We make a deal with tribes who settled in the Haunted Forest , they log the Ironwood and carry it to the trading posts we establish at one of the abandoned castles along the Wall , some of our own men and some Night's Watchmen gaurd it ,then we trade them food for it , we transport Ironwood and sell most of it to the North , the profits go to us with a cut for Nights Watch for leasing a castle and facilitating the trade , the Ironwood we log from the North we export to other regions "
" Hmmm , this idea has some merit , so I won't dismiss it out of hand , I need to see how logistics of it work out , if we can even make a profit out of it , so what about the mines ? "
" To that I have no big plans , only a thought experiment , most famous mines of Westeros would be Casterly Rock with its gold mines , and Iron mines of Stormlands . While Iron mines of Stormlands are mostly open air ones , Most of Casterlys gold comes from digging in to the Rock , we have rocky terrain like Stormlands and mountains like Westerlands in the North , why shouldn't there be more of precious metals , gems or even just more Iron in the North , North is vast , we have places that are untouched by man in millenia , we may have many untapped resources , we don't know , because exploration hasn't been a priority for North , I think we should call for prospectors to check for resources we might have , yes , hiring prospectors will mean spending gold we might need for Winter , but I believe this is a risk worth taking , we do not owe any money to anyone , Winter has just passed last year , we may have three more years before next Winter comes , by your own admission we have some surplus gold , not much , I know , but enough to make this work , please , Father will you think about it ? "
" Yes , I will ,You have given me much to think about , and these are not bad ideas , son "
" Thank You Father , I will take your leave then , Lya and Ben will miss me , if I stayed any longer "
As he was at the door , his father called , " Eddard , know that I am proud of you , son , for your ideas today and your conduct during days of your Mothers passing "
To that he turned around , swallowing his suddenly dry throat and rubbing his itchy eyes , bowed low , " Thank you , Lord Father , for your kind words "
And left with ringing of words in his head ' Promise me , Ned '