A/N: To clarify, as I got some confusion last time. This is in no way part of the main plot, this is just set up House Teague and set up their rule, and most importantly to place some important points for Harry's story that would truly make it a crossover.

The Codds came with the rising sun, and with them, they brought four hundred foot and near one hundred horse. The mist of the morning obscuring their column, their steel helms with a wet glint from the rising sun, and the points of their pike swaying with their steps. A bald, ageing man on horse lead them onwards, surrounded by men carrying the silver codfish on a black field that was the sigil of house Codd, the dark cape he wore identical to the ones on his sons Caldwlyn and Waldon wore behind him.

Lord Cadrons' arrival was a surprising one.

The Teague sworn bannermen of Vypren and Strong, of Stillfen and the Red Fork respectively had heeded the call of their lord. Even the Freys had come with all their power from the Twins, the Mallisters too, with their proud silver eagle from Seagard. All lords who could field more men, and in the case of the Strongs, had seats further away than the Seven Bridges that the Codds held.

Yet, they had all come sooner.

Lord Harwin Strong swore that he had camped with the Codds at their seat on the Blue Fork when their own strength had gathered, but Lord Cadron seemed to stall, and he grew fearful of attack at the rear from Harren and moved further north to join them at Fieldstone, as were too close to the construction of the kings' monstrous seat, and they knew not how many men the king had stationed with him.

Even so, he had come, and it would not do for Ignotus to greet him with suspicion.

And he hadn't been. He was warm with his welcome, thanking the lord of Codd for his presence, offering him mead and bread and commanding a servant see him to a chamber. The man seemed grateful and willing to be there, as far as Ignotus could understand. So much so that he had even gone to a knee in the courtyard with his sons, and proclaimed:

"I thank you for your hospitality, my lord. I will return it by vowing to help deliver justice to you and yours."

Ignotus was still distrusting, but he had accepted the pledge - it was one made publically and with no force. He could nothing but accept him to his cause.

But, alone with Ignotus in the war room, Walder Mallister voiced his disagreement, "You should have off with his head, my lord."

He could see why the Mallister could be as distrusting as he was. They had once been the guards of the Riverlands against the ironborn, and had repelled a long list of invasions from said revears, and because of that, they had been at the receiving end of some of the worst treatment from their Ironborn overlord. And they had already had a reluctance against ironborn prior to it all.

"I've welcomed him under my roof," He looked up to the brown-haired man from the map on the table, "I would not dishonour myself by betraying him."

"Betraying him?" He leaned forward onto the table, "It would not be a betrayal. The man has already taken himself to Harren, I know this to be true, and works have our cause undone from our backs. It would not be a betrayal."

"And what proof have you of this, Lord Mallister?" Ignotus stood straighter, raising an eyebrow at the man. Ignotus was suspicious of such a plan from his Bannerman, but he had no means to bring it up to others and have them without a doubt. He needed evidence. Evidence he strongly doubted the Mallister had.

Ignotus was proven right when Lord Mallister shifted uncomfortably, "His slow arrival is evidence enough."

He shook his head, "It is not. No man would ever find that to be a just reason. What would become of our cause if I were to kill a man whose only crime would be a late arrival? No, my lord. It cannot be done. It will not be done."

Ignotus saw the mans dissent was clear in his eyes as they held his own. To be true, the other lord could have done as he pleased and found means to sort his beliefs on his own accord, and it would be a hard thing to have him out of it without force. Knowing the Mallisters dislike for the ironborn, that should be a likely thing, yet, Ignotus was sure that he saw any desire to do something drastic drain away from the older lord when he turned down to the map once more.

Ignotus thought he glimpsed a small smile on the man.

Perhaps he had seen reason. Jeyne had yet to leave the sickroom at Raventree Hall, but Maester Maric had sent letters assuring him of her survival now, and that had managed to tame the anger that had been festering within him. But that did not change the injustice done to his lady wife and the dishonour of his house, and he still meant to see justice served, they could not tarnish their cause by serving an injustice out themselves.

At least, not without a justification that would make it not so.

There was a knock on the door, and a guards voice broke through, "It's Maester Dorrick, milord."

"Let him in," He voiced back, and the door opened, letting in the tired-looking man, with his chains and his hands in his sleeves.

"My lord," He bowed to the sitting Mallister - who nodded in return - before turning to Ignotus, and pulling his hands from his sleeves with a letter in hand, "Words from the Blackwood Vale."

Ignotus took and opened the parchment, half-expecting another report on his wife, but this one was of their war.

"What does Lord Walder write?" Lord Mallister inquired curiously.

"Best we gather before we go through it," he turned to the maester and gave instructions to call the other lords to council, "And beg lord Codds forgiveness, but it best he not get settled at all."

The news was mostly good. The Tullys, both the Vance houses and the Brackens joined had joined Lord Blackwood with their armies at Raventree Hall, and that already put most of the high riverlords behind him, and he had no doubt that would give him the numerical advantage against the host king Harren was gathering at his so-called Harrenhall, comprised of the few river lords who were loyal to him.

"Yet," Ignotus said to all the lords with they had filled the room, "Lord Blackwood also tells with the lords of Lolliston, Wode, Butterwell and Staunton have sided with Harren. Though our lords under Robert Darklyn have defeated their host and have Lord Butterwell and Wode trapped in Butter Hall under siege. They will not be able to join with Harren with what remains of their host."

"Would that we had been so quick with the Harroways," Jared Frey, heir to the Twins and representing his father, who was too old to war, "The war may have well been as good as done before long if we had."

Leslyn Harroway had been the only high lord to side with Harren, and was already with the Iron King at Harrenhall, yet the Darrys' had not joined their lords and instead had gathered by Castle Darry. Still, Ignotus was reluctant to agree with Jareds view.

"We may well defeat the king and his tyranny, but his sons have no doubt heard of their fathers' plight have called the Hoare banners on the Iron Isles. They will seek to reclaim their fathers' throne and put us to the sword, of that I have no doubt. We will have to send men back to Seagard to repel any landings they may attempt to make," He turned to Lord Mallister, who didn't seem entirely surprised that he would have to return to his seat with his host to guard their flank.

"It may not be enough," Lord Denys Ryger - the silent lord, as he was called because of his reserved nature, put in.

"It won't be. The capture of Seagard will be their focus, as it once was," The Mallisters were a powerful house, and they had come with near three thousand men to the Fieldstones, lessened by the men Lord Walder had left at his seat under his sons to garrison it. But that alone would never be enough to repel the full might of the Ironborn, "It would best be that you supplement his men with your own, Lord Ryger, and join them in their match to Seagard."

The man nodded his assent silently.

It was not to be a permanent solution to the impending retaliation but they would be able to hold whilst he killed or captured Harren Hoare, then they would bring their host up to assist them.

"We should march, as soon as tomorrow. Each day we have delayed here as given them time to prepare," Ignotus went on, earning a nod from Harwin Strong, and making Walder Mallister glance to Cadron Codd, "The rest of us will join the Blackwoods before moving south with our combined armies to deal with Harren, and put an end to his cruelty for all time."

And then what? It was a question he found himself asking more oft than not lately. He had no intention of ever bending the knee to another ironborn king. This war would bring about much and more bad blood, and any riverlord who did would never be safe if they were to accept the rule of another Iron King.

Jeyne was recovering - against all odds - and even though they dared not move her to the Fieldstones yet, Maester Maric had seen fit to write and declare that she would live. Yet, there was still a danger that would best be spoken of in person. Even so, Ignotus was glad for it, and he intended to give her the heads of the men responsible for her injury as a gift.

But what was to come after all the fighting?

Peace, he attempted to answer for himself. Did it matter under who, as long as they were not Ironborn?

The voice that answered came gently in his mind as he looked to the rest of the gathered lords, and he wasn't sure if it was entirely his own:

Yes.