The day after Ned returned to Winterfell, Ned foisted Robert on Bran, they got along swimmingly and decided to go for a hunt in the Wolfswood and inspect the newly dubbed Wolfguard who are training and staying at the Old Tower in the Wolfswood. And Ned went to meet his Father in his solar.

After giving permission for Ned to come in, Father bid Ned to take a seat. And dismissed the guards outside as Frost and Ironeyes took their places. The walls of Lords Solar are thick and there are only tiny windows quite high in the room for light but walls outside are smooth with no footholds. The room is secure.

" So you have inspected the Moat on your journey home, how is the work going?"

" It has progressed splendidly, Father. But I believe it won't be finished before winter comes."

" Yes, I thought the same. These past few years have been a too long a summer, the winter to come will be long and harsh, I fear", Father admitted.

" While I could take up the Lordship and reside in one of the completed towers after my year at Storm's End, I believe, it will be entirely pointless. There won't be any invading armies I will have to defend against during winter. I have neither the infrastructure nor the resources to shelter the small folk of the lands near the Moat. They will have to endre this winter on their own. But I do have an idea about what I could do this coming Winter to help the North in the long run."

" Ho, what is this idea then?", Father asked curiously.

" A tour through Essos, but my main destinations will be Pentos, Myr and Braavos. Pentos because it is major trade hub, I want to see whether there are any new business contracts I could acquire for the North and the possibility of procuring any Dothraki horse studs to breed with the herd we gained as dowry by Brans wedding. Myr for the clear glass, we talked about expansion of glass gardens but had to shelve the issue due to the prohibitive cost, I wonder whether the price could be lessened by negotiating with them in person, or even find out secrets of its making. Braavos due to the ongoing timber trade we have with them. I know we sell Braavos very little due to their internal mess of politics, but they are the best ship builders in the Known World with the exception of longships. While you have started construction of the castle at Sea Dragon Point, Father, we haven't made any progress on ship building. Our timber for their Masters Shipbuilders. And I believe it is time to start negotiating with the Iron Bank. The timber trade will be a strong advantage for us as we negotiate with the Bank and may even get us reduced interest rates. As you mentioned earlier in our letters, yes, our treasury is full but even that isn't enough to fund everything we plan on doing. If we want to strengthen the North as best we can, then we need to repair the Kingsroad, build new roads, build new glass gardens, repair all the castles along the Wall, repopulate the Gift, build greater storages for grain, build a new port town alongside the Castle at Sea Dragon Point, dig new canals for greater irrigation, build a town outside Moat Cailin, build new ships. All of those could be accomplished in time, but that time will be fifty to hundred years, what guarantee is there those who come after you and me can keep the momentum going. No we need all of these to happen in next twenty years, for that we need the impetuous of the gold. We need to encourage our people to have more children, but why would they, they are having difficulties feeding themselves as it is, so we need to provide them with sufficient grain, grain we will have to buy at exorbitant prices. And then we need to provide them with better healthcare, so that the people we invested so much in don't die to a simple fever or a small cut, that means either paying Maesters to mollify them for having to take care of ' less important smallfolk ' or we need to send young men to the Citadel to exclusively study medicine, that will cost gold. We need gold, at least five million of it, to have any hope of completing all we wish to accomplish. As I said, it is time to negotiate with the Iron Bank." , Ned said in an implacable tone.

Father remained silent throughout Neds speech and listened intently, " Yes, the issue of the gold has been on my mind too. I agree with you that money from Iron Bank is our only viable option in the immediate future. But when you go to negotiate, you won't be asking for a loan of five million. Offer the timber trade to the Sealord of Braavos and the Keyholders of the Iron Bank, seperately but be open about it. I have thought of expanding our logging of Ironwood from Haunted Forest through the Free Folk to logging of every kind of timber, our allies among Free Folk have proven themselves as good ones to have in these past few years, they kept to their side of the bargain admirably, so we will have greater quantities of available timber than ever before. So offer a ten year trade deal openly to both of them, even though the Sealord and Iron Bank present an united front to any outsiders, they both jockey for influence quite regularly in Braavos. Either the Sealord will pay high price for timber or Iron Bank will reduce the interest on the loan to a minimum. But only ask for One million gold dragons, but with the same time limit of ten years for repayment. There is a very very good chance that costs of our grain import will be reduced significantly once the Prince and Lya are married.", Father replied with a smirk at the last part.

" About Lya and the Prince's marriage, what is the situation with Lord Tywin, have you word of his reaction to the news?" , Ned asked carefully.

" While in public, he remained silent, but the Shadow assigned to him reported that Lord Tywin promised his daughter, who grew inconsolable at the news, that she will be Queen regardless of whatever may happen, while after that he didn't speak of what's on his mind to anyone he was planning something", Father replied somberly.

" You know what this means Father", Ned said in a stone cold voice.

" Yes, Lord Tywin decided that we are enemies", Father replied waerily.

" We cannot go to war not untill next summer and even then, we would be too weak due to losses we will suffer during winter. We are no match for him on political arena, even the betrothal was a gamble that paid off due to fortune, we cannot give him time to plot Lyanna's death, because she will be his first target, Lord Tywin Lannister needs to die and he needs to dead due to natural causes or by accident. And he needs to die soon", Ned said implacably without an ounce of hesitation in a tone as cold as deepest winter.

" Son, you are asking me to order murder of a man who hasn't done anything yet", Father said there was a plea in his voice.

" Either you order it done Father, or I will do it myself. I will disguise myself and journey to Lannisport, bond with most poisonous snake I could find, that snake will enter his rooms to lie in wait and will bite him in his sleep. Or I will Warg into his horse while he was out on a ride and have it kick his skull in when he was down. I have even more imaginative ways in which I can kill him, but I assume you get the picture. I have the means and the Will to kill him. And you have the means but do you have the Will ? Nothing threatens my family and draws breath for long. So decide father, either this murder is on my hands or yours, but Tywin Lannister will be dead", Ned gave his ultimatum standing.

Several expressions chased across his father's face rapidly, fury, sorrow, regret and finally resignation ," I will give the order tonight, the Shadows have some thing that gradually weakens the heart over period of weeks, Maesters won't be able to identify it as poison, he will be dead with in two months, Maesters will diagnose it as heart failure. Gods forgive us this murder"

" We both know that they won't, Father. But I am sorry for pushing you into this", Ned replied sincerely, bowing deeply.

" But you are not sorry about killing Tywin ", Father stated.

" I have made my peace with it, ultimately I have no regrets, has Tywin been anything other than what he is, it wouldn't have come to this, but he is what he is and we have to put him down", Ned replied.

" However much I want to, I cannot disagree with you, I will keep closer eye on House Lannister after the deed is done too, Lady Cersei doesn't seem too stable and neither does Lady Genna", Father said with a sigh.

" Good. Moving on, Father, any advice regarding Myr? ", Ned asked, brushing aside issue of Tywin Lannister.

" Most glass makers are slaves and freed slaves, whose situation isn't much better, their owners keep tight leash on them, they must to keep the secrets of glass making for hundreds of years, I do not believe you can negotiate any significant lowering of the price. And it won't be possible to pry out secrets of making it either, the glass makers know that the slave masters won't stop at anything to see anyone who defects dead, slave masters might even hire the Faceless Men to do the deed. Until the Slave Masters are dead and gone there is no possibility of easy trade of clear glass. But negotiate either way, to get a better picture of the situation there, and there is a chance for acquiring services of other skilled workers for House Stark, see what you can find and make offers as our House's representative.", Father replied after a thoughtful pause.

" I will, anything regarding Pentos? ", Ned asked quietly.

" Your idea of breeding Dothraki horses with Northern ones has merit, I believe you can find such in Pentos, Dothraki 'visit' Pentos with some frequency, so keep an eye out. The sellswords clash with the Dothraki regularly, some victorious sellswords sell the horses they gained as loot along side the defeated people. So it is a very real possibility to acquire some. The Prince of Pentos has no real power, you will have to negotiate with the Magisters and those come and go as seasons, ask around when you get there about who lasted longest and discuss business with them, we do some trade with Pentos, mostly silver and gems, I don't remember the names, but we will check the ledgers for them. Look for any new possibility for trade in your time there", Father advised calmly.

" I will, thank you Father. What about the Wolfguard that Brandon is overseeing?" , Ned asked

" They are coming along very well. The girls who were trained as bodyguards for Lyanna, went to Bear Island to recieve training in their courtesies as well as normal training in weapons. The boys are ready, they just need to be blooded, I am looking for a bandit infestation or Wildling raid for them to wet their blades. Of the three Wargs that finished their training, one is seeded at Queensgate to keep an eye on our interests there, another is seeded at Karhold, the shadow there called back so that he could be assigned to the Red Keep in Kingslanding. Last one is seeded in the Bolton lands in a village near Weeping Water, the Shadow assigned there will remain, but he will exclusively keep watch on Dreadfort and the Boltons while our new spy will keep watch over the lands itself. ", Father replied with a note of pride.

" Excellent, it seems Brandon's idea is bearing fruit. So how is he dealing with married life ?", Ned asked curiously.

" He beds his Lady Wife enthusiastically enough and Lady Barbrey is infatuated with Bran, but I do not think he reciprocates the feelings. He doesn't spend time with her during the day, always placating her with sweet words and empty promises, he even visited the whorehouse in Winter Town just a week after his wedding too, but at least he was discreet and I shut down any word from reaching Lady Barbrey. I don't know what to do about it, he is a grown married man, I can't take a switch to his backside and I don't have any hopes that, that will even work. He does his duties well enough, charms our bannermen easily, but he doesn't try to do better, at anything, just does what he is told and nothing more", Father admitted with a sigh.

Ned remained in thought for awhile and said, " Winter is coming and he will have to spend most of it inside Winterfell, maybe then He will grow closer to Lady Barbrey, after all there is a very real possibility of children, from what I heard last time from Brandon's room. Involve him more in the plans, Father, give him duties that will interest him, he has in it him to be a great Lord of Winterfell"

" I will, Benjen is doing well in his studies, I have informed him that he will foster with the Manderlys for awhile to learn ships and seafaring and he recieved the news with enthusiasm. Lya, I know you have already talked to, she is excellent as Lady of Winterfell, Lyarra come again, she took up the duty with little complaint and showing the ropes to Lady Barbrey now, of course Lya will remain as Lady of Winterfell untill she marries. They get along well enough, Lya and Barbrey ", Father replied.

" I see that the repairs on the Broken Tower are nearing completion, was anything found when they were searched ?", Ned asked quietly.

" Yes, some old scrolls ready to fall into pieces, written in runes of the First Men, while I can speak some of Old Tongue, I do not have much knowledge on the runes, I have been making quiet enquires about anyone who can read them, here in the North and beyond the Wall. The First Keep isn't as fragile as we always thought, the walls are still strong so are the pillars, it is the roof that needs most repairs and most of the wooden flooring, The Broken Towers damage while extensive is only really confined to top quarter of it and the same as First Keep the wooden flooring needs replacing, all of it would be done in Ironwood this time around. We haven't yet gotten to clearing debris in the Crypts", Father answered.

" Father do you sense any pulses of magic from the walls of Winterfell, I noticed it as I came into the Castle yesterday, even now it is just at the edge of my senses. It is like a mans heartbeat, I tried to pinpoint where those pulses originate from but couldn't", Ned admitted.

" Hah, you too, huh? Yes I feel it, started feeling it some months ago, when I consulted Berek, he said that he couldn't sense anything but admitted that, that might be because he isn't as powerful as me, Brandon does sense it too, but only when he meditates, Lya doesn't, but that's probably because she just started learning", Father replied.

" If practice and power is the way to sense it, then heart of this pulse will probably reveal itself in time", Ned said.

And they moved on to other topics and remained in discussion into the evening until Bran and Robert returned with a deer and a brace of rabbits from their hunt.