I hope you like this story.
'Fav' and 'Follow' the story if you like it.
Review the story and comment on your experiences of the story.
As for the pairings, it is still undecided. There will be hookups but I want you all to vote for the final pairing.
Arya Stark looked at her father as she sat at the chair infront of him while he explained what she was to do.
"Desmond, Porther, Cayn, Wyl and Heward will accompany you along with 40 other House Tully guards" he said as he looked at her with a small smile.
Arya frowned "but father, don't you will be short on men then?" Arya asked looking at him.
Ned smiled fondly looking at his daughter "your grandfather had sent more men as I had send riders when you were not found by soldiers. We will not be short on men besides your granduncle Blackfish will escort you to Winterfell" he said with a small smile trying to encourage her.
"Granduncle Blackfish" Arya asked with wonder in her eyes as she looked to her father to confirm it.
Ned nodded and Arya smiled gleefully, Ned knew that Arya won't be bored in her journey now. Besides he had an inkling that the Blackfish will be quite hard pressed by his granddaughter for war tales.
Ned had not expected Blackfish to arrive when he had sent riders but fortunately the man had been visiting Hoster as his brother was a little bit ill. When he heard about what happened, he had arrived instantly with 100 of Tully men.
Ned had been thankful for his visit, now he had no fear of sending Ice along with him. The Blackfish was one of the best knights in the realm and Ice and Arya both will remain safe with him. It had been during midnight when the Blackfish's party had arrived to their camp and though it caused him a little less sleep it was worth it.
"Speaking of which, you will study well and not cause problems there in Winterfell for Robb" he said as he looked sternly at her.
Arya looked at him with wide eyes and protested "I don't cause problems to anyone, only Septa Mordane doesn't like me" she said looking at him.
"Your mother will be there to teach you now since Septa Mordane will be with us in King's Landing" Ned said with a small smile. Arya may bunk her classes with Septa Mordane but there was no way that she would be do so with Catelyn. Besides Arya too knew the punishments she had to face if she bunked her mother's classes.
Jory arrived at the tent at the moment "Lord Stark, The Blackfish have arrived" he reported calmly to him.
Ned nodded at Jory "bring him in Jory" he commanded to his captain of guards.
Moments later a Knight entered inside the tent. His hair was grey along with his armour and helm which he was holding in his hand. The man was clean shaved with deep blue eyes which saw everything calmly with a calculating gaze of their own.
"Lord Stark" he greeted Ned who nodded back "Blackfish" he greeted back.
"Did you packed supplies for your trip?" Ned asked as he looked at the veteran warrior.
"Aye Lord Stark, it will be nice to visit Catelyn once again" he said in his hoarse smoky voice.
"I have no doubts Cat would be delighted to see her uncle" he said with a small smile looking at the man.
"Arya, go and check your packing once more to see if you had forgotten something" he said calmly to his daughter.
Arya nodded and ran off the tent hurriedly to check if she had left something or not.
Blackfish looked at Ned with a serious face "I have arranged the guards and learnt everything about what happened yesterday from Jory" he spoke seriously.
Ned nodded and Blackfish continued "you believe the Lannisters are upto something" he asked looking at Ned.
"I have a feeling that something is not right about the death of Jon and it seemed too sudden according to Robert's descriptions. And yesterday's incident only sparked more hatred between the two houses. It will be better if Arya remains safe in North and I wanted you to escort her there" he said calmly as he looked at Blackfish.
The Blackfish nodded and Ned stood up and pulled out Ice from behind him along with the scabbard. "I want you to take it secretly to Robb and give it to him" he continued as he looked at Blackfish seriously, this was the gaze of Lord Stark.
Blackfish recognised the greatsword "I had a feeling that there was something more you wanted from me and this explains it. Rest assured Lord Stark it will be safe till I draw my breath" he spoke seriously.
"Aye, I thought of no men who is more capable to escort it back. I have a feeling that it will be better in Robb's hands" he said with a small smile. He was a little sad that he couldn't give the sword to Robb personally but under these circumstances he needed to protect Robert from harm.
The Blackfish nodded "your daughter is lucky that the boy was there to testify for her. The Lannisters would have been surprised and vexed due to the boy's testimony" he said with an amused look.
"Speaking of the boy, he will accompany you. Take this letter, it has my orders to make the boy the new steward as Vayon is in South with me. I will give another letter to the boy which just states that he is appointed as the steward. The letter you will carry must be given to Robb as it contains the details of everything the boy must do in Winterfell. Vayon was kind enough to write every task of a Steward, pass it to Robb" he said as he handed him the letter and the greatsword along with the scabbard. The boy was not going to have an easy time as a steward of Winterfell, Ned himself had seen how busy Vayon remained.
"Do you trust him Lord Stark?" the Blackfish asked as he looked at the Hand to the King, a Steward was a position which was very important and could be useful for a spy to gain information.
"The boy saved Arya as well as Sansa's direwolf, both of which he had no need for. In addition to that, the boy is perhaps the brightest mind in the whole realm. It will be good for the North to have someone like him" Ned stated calmly, he was unsure of the boy's loyalty but he had sensed the truth in the boy's words and he didn't seemed to be a spy for some family.
"Aye, so is it true that the boy forged every link in Citadel?" Blackfish asked looking at him.
"Grandmaester Pycelle confirmed that and the boy had even showed the chain forged by him. The boy was already going North, I just gave him a better offer" he said looking calmly at the Blackfish.
The Blackfish nodded, even though he had not seen the boy, Lord Stark's words were good for him to believe the boy slightly.
Jory entered the tent at that moment "Lord Stark, Alyn has arrived with the boy" he spoke calmly.
"Escort him inside" Ned commanded to Jory who just nodded curtly as he returned to follow the orders.
Severus looked at the ten huge chests which were infront of him.
"450 thousand golden dragons as per our promise" Ser Kevan Lannister said as he showed him the ten chests. The Kingslayer was also present there along with Ser Kevan Lannister as he looked at everything without saying a word. Severus considered that as strange since the Kingslayer was said to be one cocky knight.
Severus nodded as he inspected each chest and checked its contents. Techincally he couldn't count the number of golden dragons present but they sure were more than 300 thousand golden dragons. Besides he wanted to pose like a common man who was seeing this much gold for the first time in his life, they didn't knew that he already had chests of gold dragons which he acquired from the lost wrecked ships in the sunset sea.
"Aye Lord Kevan, you kept your word and I will keep mine" Severus said as he took the greatsword which one of the Stark guards named Alyn handed him as he stepped fordward. Severus had told him to hold the sword for the time being besides the man was practically salivating at the chance to hold a valyrian steel greatsword. The greatsword was too big to be handled by him while at the same time restricting his movements greatly so he had given the eager and tall man to hold it.
He handed the sword to Ser Kevan Lannister along with the scabbard. "I will advise to change the scabbard to your wishes, I had to settle for some simple ones as I didn't wanted to attract attention in Essos" he said as Ser Kevan took the sword with slightly shaking hands.
Severus understood the man's nervousness afterall this was his family's legacy which was thought long lost by them. Even more so, he had lost a brother to the expedition of bringing the sword back.
"We will be leaving Ser Lannister" he said as the servants started to place the locked chests on the carts pulled by aurochs.
Severus had been gathering them from the nearby forests with the help of little warging to bring them North and breed them there. He was by no means a beef lover but the aurochs had been extinct in his world and this was a chance to see them and experiment on them. A chance which he would hardly let go.
He had found twenty five aurochs, ten of which he had brought here in the camp as he woke up early whereas the rest were already moving towards the North with his raven guiding them to which he sometimes warged on the check them. Since he was with Starks, the aurochs were not taken to be butchered for the soldiers or Lords.
His skinchanging was an ability he exploited heavily, apparently when he tried his usual legillimency on animals unlike his previous world experiences, this time he found himself in the animal's mind able to see and feel everything by the animal's body. It was fascinating, however at the same time he was able to feel the animal's basal instincts influencing him or in better words trying to influence him. His occlumency helped him in detecting them in an instant and he was able to brush them off simply. After leaving the animal's mind Severus had found that they was a small bond between the animal and him which he could use to warg again, it had been an interesting discovery considering that one needed to form a bond with the animal to warg into them.
His occlumency helped him in warging greatly, one could be comatose if the person was inside an animal's mind and the animal died. But with his occlumency he could compartmentalize his brain into different parts and each part was able to warg into different animal. It was odd at first to multitask at such level but it became easier with time. Besides he had felt an increase in his mental capabilities to occlude after he had arrived in this planet, it was like a fog had been cleared of his mind and he could use his capabilities to its fullest. Perhaps the reason was that he was finally stress free and didn't had to listen to the annoying chatters of little brats who couldn't brew a simple potion.
"Snow, Lord Stark will be expecting us" Alyn spoke up as he looked wide eyed at the huge chests carrying gold which were being driven by aurochs. Never had he seen such amount of gold in one place in all his life.
"Aye, lets go" Severus replied as Maved started leading the aurochs with them. Each auroch was driving one cart and Severus was going to put some lightweight runes on the cart and the chests. Maved was the butcher and also Mycah's father, Lord Stark had talked with him and told him it would be better if they return to North as they could gather some ill will from the Lannister men present there. The man had agreed and now was a part of their group and leading his aurochs as Lord Stark had commanded him to return North along with Mycah. Apparently saving his middle son warranted some goodwill for Severus as the man had came and thanked him profusely. Since the man was no longer with King's party, Severus had hired him to lead the carts with chests containing gold. He had promised the man a good amount of money, more than that he could earn as a butcher and the man had been more than eager to accept.
They arrived to the tents as the guards stood near the roads with the chests while he and Alyn went to the tent of Lord Stark, Jory Cassel was standing guard outside of the tent. He motioned for them to wait as he entered inside probably to alert Lord Stark for his arrival.
The man returned after some moments and looked at him "Lord Stark wishes to see you" he said and motioned for him to go inside.
Severus nodded simply to the man as he made his way to the tent. As he entered inside he found Lord Stark sitting there with a middle age man who looked to be in his fifties.
The man's hair was grey as was his armour and helm which he was holding in his hand. The man was clean shaved with deep blue eyes which saw everything calmly with a gaze but Severus could see the calculation and intelligence in those eyes. He was however easily to recognise with the talks of his arrival at the tents this morning as well as his personal sigil which was in his armor.
"Lord Stark, Ser Blackfish" he said greeting them each with a small bow.
"Severus, I hope everything is ready and settled" Lord Stark asked looking at him.
"Aye, M'Lord" he said simply as he looked calmly at Lord Stark.
The man nodded "good, Ser Brynden whom you already know as Blackfish will ride with you to Winterfell to escort Arya and your party" he said looking at Severus with an impassive gaze which Severus knew had been perfected over the years.
"It will be honor to ride with the Blackfish, M'Lord" Severus said calmly looking at both of them.
The Blackfish simply nodded at his words not bothering to reply to simple ass kissing, "Ser Brynden, go with Jory and tell Arya to arrive near the road along with her luggage" Lord Stark said as he looked at Blackfish who nodded and went outside holding a greatsword and a letter in his hands.
"Here is the letter which officially states that you will be the steward of Winterfell now. Vayon's wife will be there to help you as she know the work and is performing them in his absence. I believe that you will be able to fulfill what you had claimed" he said as he handed him a letter with a calm look.
"I will try my best though there are many things to be considered, I will have to personally check the Little Lord to see the extent of his injuries M'Lord. As well as regarding the glass, we will need certain ingredients to make them" he replied as he looked at Lord Stark calmly.
"What will you need?" Lord Stark looked at him curiously with a calm gaze but there was a gleam in his eyes. A gleam to see better future for his homeland.
"Finesand and limestone M'Lord" he said as he looked at Lord Stark who nodded.
"Tell your requests to Robb my son who is the acting Lord Of Winterfell and he would see to it" he said as he finally spoke after some moments of consideration.
Severus nodded simply, even if there were some irregularities at the amount of substance he could bypass them with the help of his runes. A little help of runes will be enough to make glass with the finest quality. However the shaping of glass needed to be done carefully.
Lord Stark went to his table and brought out the sword which Severus had given to him to keep safe previous night as Lord Stark's tent was the second most guarded tent after the King. Lord Stark had perhaps the most honourable reputation in the realm and he had no fear of having his blade stolen afterall the man already had his own Valyrian Steel greatsword.
"Here's your sword which you left in my care. I order you to not give it to Arya who will definitely want to use it" he said sternly at the last part. Severus nodded at his words, from what he had seen the girl would surely want to wield the sword.
"Lord Stark, I don't think I should have a say in this but I believe you should know something about your daughters" he said as he made his mind to speak about which was in his mind to the Northern Lord.
"You may speak" Lord Stark asked calmly holding a serious glint in his eyes as he heard about the daughter part.
"From what I had seen and felt, both of your daughters are wargs or skinchangers" he said as he looked to Lord Stark with a straight face. He knew it because a warg could sense another warg and the girls were already forming a bond with their wolves.
"How do you know this?" he asked with an edge in his voice, clearly whatever he was expecting, this was certainly not it.
"A warg can sense another warg M'Lord. We of the North have the blood of first men still flowing in our veins" he said leaving the obvious implication of his words while reminding the man about his roots. He needed to be careful afterall the man had married from South and fostered there too, the people of the South had different beliefs and faith than that of North.
Lord Stark sighed finally as he seemed to look tired, perhaps he didn't knew what to make of this development. Severus couldn't fault it, he needed time to consider and process the information carefully.
"It was the reason I could find your daughter and the butcher's boy Mycah so fast. It is also the reason why I don't encounter bandits so easily M'Lord" he said softly with a calm tone. He was taking a huge risk but he had belief that the Lord Of Winterfell would not be foolish and accept the fact as it was their history and pride. Besides a skilled warg could use his talents for many things, it was just left to their imaginations.
"Don't tell Arya until you deem it extremely necessary. Was it the reason that you found aurochs and were able to keep Nymeria out of the soldiers reach easily and away from Arya?" he asked looking for confirmation, his tone betraying nothing.
"Aye M'Lord" he said looking at the Lord Of North cautiously.
"Keep this quiet, it is our history to have greenseers and skinchangers as opposed to the Andals and the men of South. Don't tell anyone about it as I believe you know perfectly well how well it will be received" he warned looking at him.
Severus nodded already knowing the disdain Citadel held for magic.
"We must hurry, it is time we move our camps" Lord Stark said as he looked at Severus with a calm look. Severus nodded at the request, they needed to start their journey to North as the Royal Party also needed to go forward.
Severus looked at the road infront of him as he rode with the men of House Stark and Tully. The Blackfish was riding infront of them as his men were scouting the area, besides him was the Lord Stark's daughter as she rode with the guards of House Stark. The butcher's boy was riding alongside her as she talked with him cheerfully about something.
He was riding infont of his carts along with Maved who was riding near the middle cart, the chests were locked and only Severus had the keys to unlock them. He didn't think that the Lannisters would send bandits or soldiers, their pride was too much. Besides he had heard Tywin Lannister offering about 2 to 3 Million Dragons to other Great Houses to sell their blades. He had sold their own ancestral greatsword to them at less than 25% of what the man was offering to other peoples, he didn't think they would come after him now. Besides he doubted Tywin Lannister knew about the sword till now, most of the money was collected by Ser Kevan. Ravens took time to reach and Tywin Lannister could hardly read the raven and send gold within the time of a night. So it was arranged by his brother Kevan according to his opinion.
Eight hours later...
Severus looked at the place in which they were camping for the night. The nearby area was empty which he had already checked with the use of his warging for bandits and was doing it in between intervals. Besides him was one of the House Stark's guard Porther who was eating a slice of meat as they sat near the campfire. They had settled on a small village but since there was no inn in the village, they had to settle on capms. Though Severus found it nice to camp, he had placed runes on his tent which allowed him to sense any evil intentions towards him of a nearby person. There were some mild confunding charms which will act on a person with evil intent towards him or his tent. A temperature regulating rune for a nice sleep also made him love camping more in this life. They were camped in the middle of the village as the Blackfish wanted to stay close to settlement. Apparently there were news of bandits in the area and he didn't wanted to engage them at the night with children present, when his main concern was guarding them.
"And then Ser Barristan fought Maelys the Monstrous as the two engaged in a duel. Ser Barristan was skilled but Maelys was full of raw strength, their duel garnered attentions from everyone in the battlefield but after what seemed like an enternity to us who were fighting. Barristan finally slew the pretender and once he was killed, the Golden Company was not for long as we finally defeated them" Blackfish finished to the amazed looks of Arya Stark and the men present there.
"Was The Pretender Maelys very powerful?" Arya spoke up curiously among the chuckles of the men present there as she asked about the Last Blackfyre.
"Aye, it was rumoured that he killed a horse with just a punch from his fist" Blackfish said garnering awed looks from everyone present there. Severus had to admit it was impressive considering a horse was no small animal to kill with a single punch.
At that moment, they heard the sound of horses arriving fastly, Severus looked towards the noise and saw some villagers who had arrived with two carts. On the cart he could see some young boys who were bleeding profusely and clutching their robes tightly.
Blackfish looked at the men as he crouched protectively over Arya, the rest of the men of House Stark and Tully alert and holding out their swords. "Who goes there?" Ser Brynden asked as he looked towards the men who were closer.
The man who was at the front of the group of men of 9 and holding a sword looked at the Blackfish and immediately stepped down from his horse. The man had a leather armor and he was around six feet in height with sandy brown hair.
"Ser Brynden, we are the people of this village. This boys had went to graze their cattle but were attacked by some bandits through the banks. We searched for them and found them bleeding" the man said looking at the Blackfish with a worried look. Severus used legillimency and found that the man's words were true. Apparently he was one of the levies sent during the Ironborn rebellion as he looted a sword there.
"Aye, you may continue. I recognise you from the rebellion" Blackfish said as he put his sword down but there was still a hint of alarm in their eyes.
"Call Lady Jenny quickly, we have need for her" the man said as he looked at two of the young boys who had passed out completely with clothes tied on their wounds, only three of them were conscious and even they seem to be in a bad shape with their clothes fullef of blood.
The man in his thirties nodded as he quickly urged his horse while the leader of the men simply told the men to lay the boys in the ground near fire as he placed some of the rags for a make shift bedsheet. At the moment the horseman who had gone returned running with a woman in his fifties or sixties who was sprinting slightly behind him with a bag of items.
Severus crouched near the boys and saw that the boys were pretty much hurt badly with sword wounds. The first boy had a deep slash in his arm which went from his shoulder to the elbow, with it there was a slash on his back which the men had tied with rags tightly to avoid excessive blood flow. The second boy had the same slash in his back but he had another slash on his face. The slash ran from his brow to chin, it seemed someone had threatened him with a knife pressed in his face. Thankfully his eye was spared.
"They are in pretty bad shape" the old lady whispered after she opened the tied rags and looked at the man who was acting as the group's leader and who was standing near to the old lady as he seemed to be very concerned about them. Indeed the boys were not breathing properly and they seemed to be on the verge of death due to blood loss. The wounds needed to be closed if they wanted to survive.
Severus walked to his bag which was placed near the log in which he was sitting earlier among the curious whisperings of the men present there and looks of Stark and Tully men and found what he was looking. The bag had a jar full of essence of dittany which was improved and stronger than regular doses.
He brought his bag near the boys bodies as the old lady wanted to speak but was interrupted by him "the wound are deep, there is too much blood loss already and if we don't close the wounds on both of their bodies than they will simply die" he said his voice smooth and silky and commanding a presence.
He opened the bag and took out the glass jar which was spelled and carrying the essence of dittany. The old lady seemed to want to say something but was silenced once again by a simple look for him which told that he was in no mood to listen.
"Bring me a spoon or utensil" he called and he heard some rumblings, he didn't cared for the pleasantries now.
He brought out his spare towel as he tore it to small pieces while he cleaned the wound of blood. The gash was nothing too deep to bone, it could be healed by the dittany. He passed on the one of the clean towels to the lady who nodded and did the same with other boy.
"Lord Snow, the spoon" came the voice of Maved from his besides. Severus without looking took the spoon as he finally finished cleaning the wound.
He opened the glass bottle's cork and poured some dittany in the spoon and under everyone's curious eyes poured the spoon's contents over the boy's wounds on his shoulder.
Under everyone's eyes the wound seemed to close automatically and the old lady cursed among the gasps of the people present there as she saw skin regenerating over the injured area with green smoke. Within some moments the wound looked completely healed and nothing indicated that there was even a wound there. He didn't turned to see the astonished or baffled looks of the people or Blackfish. Instead he turned the boy over and started using dittany on his backwound. The green smoke started to form after the usage as under everyone's eyes once again the wounds started to heal.
He got up and went to the other boy as he did the same to him under the baffled eyes of everyone who had never saw such type of healing before.
"You three come over and get your wounds healed" he said looking at the three of the boys as he finally turned to them ignoring everything and everyone, he could see Arya peaking with excitement at the whole healinng of the wounds as she looked and saw skin healing itself. He knew that he will face questions but he had no fear, if the Blackfish will become too big of hindrance then he will use legillimency to plant thoughts into his mind. Afterall he will do his best to survive in this world even if it meant manipulating others.