POV Eddard
Ned left the Merchant House of Blue Rose with a distracted air, plans were formed and discarded at a rapid pace, but all those plans had one founding element. The anonymity of the Company of the Rose, so painstakingly earned, is the greatest asset he has at his disposal. Of course, all of those plans were formed based on an assumption that he has the Company of the Rose at his disposal or more realistically at House Starks disposal. The current head of the company is called Edwyl Stark, a direct descendant of The King Who Knelts bastard brother, apparently this Edwyl Stark, was a man of age with Neds own Lord Father and without any direct heirs, oh the Stark blood runs thick in the Company, at least in the upper echelons of it, what with so many of the nobles who chose exile with Brandon Snow choosing to marry among themselves and their descendants continuing the practice, with only an occasional marrying of Essosi into the company, three hundreds years and a relatively small pool of candidates made sure that Stark blood runs through the veins of most of the Companys higher ups. But Edwyl was the last person in the Company with the Stark name.
Which could be the opening Ned needed to assume direct control of the Company in House Starks name. While Master Wylde seemed to have an unexpected reverence for the Stark name, which bled over to his treatment of Ned, that might not be necessarily case for others of the Company or even if they had the same reverence it might not bleed over to Ned or they might just become hostile if Ned attempted to gain control of the Company, when they see it as their birthright. Heh, it was pointless to overthink it until he had a better understanding of the situation and this tour was going to be very helpful in that.
The plan for the Essosi tour remained much the same, with a small change, Tyrosh and Myr exchanged positions. After Lys, Myr, Tyrosh, Pentos and Braavos, in that order, then finally boarding a ship in Braavos to return home to Winterfell via White Harbor, what changed it though is Master Wyldes offer to use the Company ships for the journey. Ned accepted the offer but with a slight amendment.
There is apparently a small contract the Companys military arm has undertaken in the Disputed Lands on behalf of Lys, to do battle with sellswords under contract from Tyrosh and Myr. The conflict was a small scale one, as far as the region is concerned, barely thirty thousand soldiers on all sides combined and the Company itself having deployed a little less than thousand men. The gains and losses incurred were largely irrelevant and the conflict only kept going because it has become something of a meaningless tradition. The Lysian branch is sending out a company of new recruits, one hundred in total to relieve a veteran company and get the recruits a small taste of war.
The Companys Military arm is apparently very organized, a Squad making the basic building block, a Squad has eight Privates, one Sergeant to lead them and a Corporal to serve as second to the Sergeant. Privates themselves are ranked based on years served. And a Company consists of ten Squads, a Captain and five Lieutenants to serve as Captians aides. And ten Companies make a Legion with a Commander at the top, with no less than ten aides and several Quartermasters to aid the Commander in managing the logistics. Master Wylde knows of at least three Legions of Infantry and a Legion of Cavalry, but he speculated that there might be more Legions, the Company of the Rose itself has never deployed anything more than three Legions at any given time.
Ned politely requested that he, Robert and their twenty men be allowed to join the recruits being sent to the Disputed Lands. A request Master Wylde granted without hesitation and even offered Ned the Captaincy, an offer he declined, the recruits will get a veteran Captain and Lieutenants once they reach the zone of conflict, it might do some good for Ned and Robert to have some training under a veteran commander while being a part of an ongoing conflict.
If everything goes as planned, Robert and Ned would fight in Disputed Lands for six months before a new batch of recruits arrive to relieve them or the Lysian Magisters deem the Company fulfilled its objectives in Disputed Lands. And then Ned and Robert can continue their tour, by taking roads through the Disputed Lands to Myr, then a ship to Tyrosh and beyond.
Once Ned finished with his musings he came to himself and found himself in busy market street, it was a very bustling one and seems to be doing trade in brisk pace, seeing the crowded space, Ned chided himself for being off guard and in his own head among so many strangers, while the men at arms with Ned managed to keep themselves in loose rings around Ned, the inner ring a pace from him and the outer one at three paces, Ned should be mindful of his surroundings anyway.
With that self admonishment, Ned finally deployed his Web of Awareness, as he strolled through the street, taking in the sights and people. He did not detect any hostility as walked, not many paid any mind to him in fact, what they are feeling is what anyone anywhere feels as people go about their daily lives, so Ned relegated the Web to the back of his mind as he enjoyed the sights, he has never seen so many beautifully exotic people, men and women alike, what with their ethereal valyrian looks anywhere he looked. While Ned did get acquainted with otherworldly beauty of Valyrians before, he did meet Rhaegar and Aerys after all, but those few instances he never quite took that aspect of them in, and both the Prince and King being men perhaps did not help matters.
However, those thoughts left his mind, as a black morose feeling, a feeling of weakness and helplessness creeped upon Ned, dredging up the memories of last moments of his mother, bloody sheets, tangy iron taste on his tongue, a smell of herbs and ill health somehow combing to form a entirely new sickening scent, sadness, despair, a pale face trying so very hard to be brave, cold clammy hands...
Ironeyes was suddenly there in his head, conveying deep concern and asking confusedly about what brought this despair on his bonded. Ironeyes presence helped shake Ned out of the memories that were threatening to overwhelm Ned and reduce him to ball of bawling mess. Ned regained his Balance as he dropped into meditation with slight struggle. Ned noticed that he dropped the Web at some point. As he searched within himself he could not find what had brought about that episode, Ned contended with those memories before, mostly in dreams but sometimes at the end of the day just as he was about to sleep, one of the reasons why he kept himself busy with one thing or other during the day. His ability to obsessively focus one thing at a time has served him very well.
So How did this happen? Why did it happen?
As Ned truly took in the people around him an absolutely horrifying thought popped into his head. He directed his men to a relatively less crowded area of the street and ordered them do some shopping, leave two behind to guard him. Once they followed the instructions, Ned once again deployed the Web, just as before, most of what those who passed through the Web felt is same as what people everywhere felt in to their day to day lives, boredom, irritation, anger, happiness, frustration, sadness and whole other medley of emotions humans felt. But beneath that layer of normalcy, from the most people who traversed the street laid a deep sense of despair that almost drowned Ned. And every one who felt it was a slave.
By the Old Gods, a few minutes of that despair almost knocked me off my feet and these people feel it for every second of their lives. Gods help me...