The second night of his stay at Winterfell after supper, his Lord Father called Ned once again to his solar and handed a two feet rectangular box and said, " The Prince Rhaegar left this for you, Ned. Something he wanted to give in person, but you didn't attend the wedding and he thought there would never be a better time and left this with me".
Ned took the box and returned to his room to open it. It was a Glass Candle and a letter with instructions of how to use it, as far as Rhaegar discovered. It's most prominent use of watching distant happenings Rhaegar named Scrying and wrote clear instructions of how to Scry using the Candle. While Rhaegar didn't yet know how to communicate using them, he was hopeful that he is near to discovering the method. Apparently Ned just needs to smear a drop of his blood on the wick and visualise the candle being lit, if there is sufficient magic in the area then the candle will come alight, Rhaegar theorized that lighting the candle will be easier for someone with an affinity with fire magic, like Valyrians and Red Priests, but anyone with a minimum of Seer levels of magic can use them with enough Will. Ned decided to test it out and tried to light the candle in his room, but there was no reaction even after trying it for an hour. Perhaps, doing this in the Godswood near the Weirwood Heart Tree will have better results, I will need to test that in the morning, thought Ned and went to sleep.
The next early morning found Ned in the Godswood before the Heart tree, he seated himself comfortably with the Glass Candle before him and smeared a dropp of blood on its wick and seamlessly dropped into meditation. The serenity of balance enveloped him and Ned senses came awake to magic surrounding him, he could feel the magic the Heart tree is pumping into the air and presence of his family and Berek, he could even feel the magic pulsing in Winterfell and a tiny spark of magic in the Candle. Ned focused his mind on the Candle and reached his mind towards the Candle forming a gossamer thin thread of magic latching to it and willed Neds magic through it to coax that spark into a flame, after minutes of effort the Candle came alight with a stark white flame, the flame reminded Ned of bright blinding fresh snow on a midday. The shadows the flame cast were pitch black, unnaturally so. The flame was so startling that Ned lost his concentration and the flame died out without a splutter.
Ned regained his focus and willed the Candle alight once again, Rhaegar said that Ned just needs to visualise what he wants to see and he will see it in the flame. Ned pictured his Lord Father and suddenly he saw his Lord Father in his solar doing paperwork, everything else faded in to background, it was as if Ned was in the room with his Father as a disembodied specter, if he willed it he could even see what was written on the parchments, but there is something different in seeing like this, the light was sharper, shadows deeper and the colors more vivid. He tried to see his siblings, all three were still abed, Brandon was with his Lady Wife and both of them in a state of undress, Ned quickly willed that image away and decided to never do that again, at least not with his family, it is a good indeed that Lya and Ben were fully clothed in their sleepwear, he didn't that need kind of mental scarring, thank the Gods.
Ned decided to test his range, he could scry Castle Cerwyn, the Old Tower in Wolfswood, the Kingsroad. He tried to see Moat Cailin, but apparently that was out of his range. Ned wanted to test a theory and tried to Scry the Wall, it was easier than trying to scry Castle Cerwyn, and the Wall was glorious when seen through the Candle, there is an ethereal shine to it. When Ned tried to see past the Wall, to see the wierwood grove beyond it where he met Frost for the the first time, Ned met with resistance, it almost felt like he bounced off an elastic wall. Ned can feel that if he pushed really hard he might break through and scry past the Wall, but for that he would have to expend ungodly amount of his reserves of magic to accomplish it, but he didn't know what kind of effect it would have on the Wall so he decided against the idea, atleast for now.
I was right! the Wall isn't just a physical barrier, it's a magical one too, and its presence is so great that it becomes trivial to find the Wall through magical senses, thats probably why it was so easy to Scry the Wall through the Candle, Ned thought with satisfaction, I wonder whether the Isle of Faces will be easier to Scry too. Ned put that thought to test and scryed the Gods Eye, while he could see the lake surrounding the Isle easily enough, when he drew nearer to the Isle he suddenly found his perspective at the outer edge of the lake away from the Isle, he tried again and again and found the same thing, his perspective always returned to the edge of the lake, hmmm, it seems the Isle of Faces is warded against magical scrying, I couldn't even feel it when my perspective was shifted away from the Isle. If I want to find out what's there then I probably have to go there myself, perhaps I will, once I return to Westeros from Essos.
Ned kept playing around with the Candle until his head started to ache slightly, warning him of the impending magical exhaustion. He willed the flame of the Candle to douse itself and packed it up and went in search of breakfast.