Disclaimer I own nothing of a song of ice and fire and any other fictional works belong to their respective owners.
The week after I had returned from the iron born rebellion I did not sleep easily. The night's were restless and dark. All I could hear in my sleep were the screams of men burning alive. Somehow each night I would slowly drift into sleep and each night I would awaken in a cold sweat. This night was not like the previous ones somehow it was different, worse. I closed my eyes in an attempt to get at least some sleep. When I opened them again all I could see before me was a vast and empty ocean. Some how I was walking along the water as if the sea was very shallow. As I slowly trudged though the waters and sand I began to slowly sink into the depths below. I could feel something grab hold of me. Cold hands and colder tentacles dragging me under. Waking up I began to chough and heave. Water gushed from my mouth and all I could taste was the salty brine of sea water.
There are many legends about Winterfell and the surrounding lands. Legends like the ghosts in the crypts, the children of the forest that supposedly still live in the wolf woods and the legends of the dragon eggs hidden in the crypts. I know, I know the Targaryen likes the local legend about dragons. Honestly though the dragons here were not truly dragons. They only had two limbs and wings. From a taxidermy stand point they were wyverns not true dragons. At least they breathe fire so there's at least one point in the dragon category for them. Anyway here's how the story goes: the dragon Vermax left a clutch of dragon's eggs in the Winterfell crypt when his rider Jacaerys Velaryon was trying to get the Starks support during the dance of dragons, supposedly he fell in love with a bastard stark. But I mean think about it there's no way a dragon could fit into the crypt and if Jacaerys hid the eggs they would have been found by now. But the hot springs had an entry way just big enough for a dragon to squeeze though and where the heat was more suited for a dragon. Well that and I have read a few fanfictions from my previous life where the eggs were hidden in the hot springs so it's a good guess I suppose. Anyway the legend has been passed down from stark to stark and even to many of the local servants. I first heard it from old nan late at night as a bedtime story she told Robb and myself. No one's ever managed to find them. I believe that's because people keep looking in the wrong spot l and because some of the hot springs are restricted to only Starks. Finding those eggs was my current priority.
Entering into the hot springs it was warm. Not Hot like I thought it would be. Overall it was rather pleasant. I began to swim out to the deeper end of the largest pool. Taking a deep breath I swam beneath the surface of the water heading downwards deeper and deeper. Diving below my eyes can barely see anything in so little light. The temperature would for most be boiling but I am hoping I have some kind of Targaryen heat resistant. Thinking about it I probably should have done some kind of test or such rather than relying on information from a tv show. A tv show that's already proven to not be as reliable as I would like. There's clearly elements of the books sprinkled throughout this world. As I reach the bottom my hand reaches out towards something I cut my palm on it. The texture is rough and feels like large scales, bingo pulling the egg up. I quickly feel around and count 4 more. Grabbing the 2 by 2 till only the last egg remains. As I swim up to the surface after my final dive I spotted standing there looming over the water's edge with my eggs at his feet was Lord Eddard Stark and he did not look impressed. "Would it help if I didn't know they were here and this whole situation is a big misunderstanding" I asked hoping my answer would appease him. Clearly he could tell I was lying. "No Jon no it would not" he looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. And perhaps he had as my mother was said to just as if not more wilful than I am.
"Jon what you must understand I have lied to you, I am not your fat-'' he started "you are not my father but my uncle, my mother was your sister Lyanna and my actual father is Raegar and I was born in the tower of joy out in Dorne, is that all" I cut him off and finished his sentence. "H-how" he stutters his voice barely above a whisper. "Let's just say a few years back I had a dream, I dreamt of the past and of the future" I said. We sat there in a minute long silence "Dragon dreams' ' he finally spoke believing that like a few in my father's bloodline I could have dreamt of the future. I did not correct him. I told
no lie of what I dreamt but I never said they were Dragon dreams only that I had dreamt of the future and the past. "It's ok Uncle I understand why you hid the knowledge of who I am, to keep me safe and prevent another war from breaking out, but with my inventions and these" I say holding the egg in my hand up for him to see. "I won't need to be protected as much" I finished looking at him with a smile. I finally got a good look at the eggs and strangely enough they were warm to touch. They must have been preserved by the heat of the hot springs. So at least that's something that fanfiction got right. "Jon you can not mean to hatch them the last time anyone tried it left Summerhall a ruin and killed almost all of your kin" uncle Ned spoke, his eyes trained on the egg in my hand. "No at least not yet but one day they will be needed, trust me I know if even one of these eggs hatch it would be a huge boon" I said as I placed the egg with the others. "You can not know that Jon '' uncle Ned said his expression evidently filled with the horror of a family involved in a war, a war he tried to prevent. "But I do, how do you think I knew of the iron born, I dreamt it happened and I dreamt of far more horrifying wars to come wars that will reshape westeros and cause entire lines to go extinct" I said thinking of every major character to be killed off Uncle Ned and Rob the first two that come to mind and the horrific fate that awaited them. "What did she name me" I asked uncle Ned hoping my mother didn't give me the dumbass name of Aegon. I mean come on there's been five Aegon's crowned king in the past. Honestly the names been used to death. "Daemon she named you Daemon whether she named you for the rogue prince or the first Blackfyre, I have no idea" he answered, his voice kept low barely above a whisper. "I will do everything in my power to keep house Stark safe uncle Ned with or without your help" I said as ominously as possible. Between us was only silence as it felt like an eternity before we parted ways. In the end I would be allowed to keep the dragon eggs.
A few days later
After some time had passed the tension between Uncle Ned and I had been defused. I swore that until house Stark was in real danger I would not hatch the eggs. But the moment the war broke out and I knew it would all bets were off the table. I also swore that I would spare the children of the enemy houses if I could. Although I told uncle Ned that I would try but made no guarantees I would do what needed to be done. Thankfully he allowed me to fly the she wolf once more finally understanding that I had named the ship in honor of my mother. Was it playing on his guilt yes, did I let that stop me from taking advantage of it while enjoying flying No. He also let me back into the library and even had maester Luwin order some new books for me. Hopefully rumors of my bibliophilic tendencies have not spread yet but knowing my luck it's likely everyone from Dorne to the wall are aware that I read quite a bit. Mayhaps even more the Tyrion Lannister.
The eggs mostly sat and looked pretty. But time had clearly petrified them even after a long exposure to the heated water. Nature can only fight back time for so long. But I knew that I could revive them. With fire and blood. I had to make the risky choice. Who do I throw onto the pyre and burn with my eggs? All in all I had to make the most of what time I had.
Two moons later
Ok what the hell was I looking at I thought staring deep into the book before me. Some context I recently bought some old chests that were washed ashore after a terrible storm. I got them for a bargain. The scavengers who found the box managed to pry one open and found some books. It seems the rumors of me as a bit of a bibliophile are spreading unfortunately. The books were in all honesty in impossibly good condition. No evidence of them having spent time underwater I guess the chest must have created a sealed environment. Looking at the book it was filled with terms that were very familiar to me from my old world about a work of fiction and that was frightening. Terms such as arcane force, negative energy plane and necromancer were used but most telling of all was its author Acererak. Yes the books were supposedly written by the legendary litch. Inside I felt dread at the name of the archlitch of DND but also amazement at how I assume one of his spell books ended up in an entirely different universe. Looking at the other books in the chests they all appear to either be spell books or books covering the creation of magical items. This would come in handy. If I could understand them they could grant me a great advantage if I could learn the magic within them. First step first learning some cantrips and a few first level spells then I could call myself a wizard. Hopefully these books were easy for self study.
Honestly I don't think I've ever been this excited just to read a book before.
One moon later
Well I could finally say I am a wizard now. After having spent the better part of a moon and a half studying and reading the books as best as I was able. I can cast a few cantrips and I was ready to cast my first real spell. Reciting the verbal components as I performed the gestures. Allowing my mind to process the situation after my first spell my thoughts where first that find familiar is a super useful spell. The second is holy hell it's weird as fuck having a whole conversation with a voice in head. A statement that would have me deemed crazy by most without the context l. I mean even in context it's crazy to say out loud. It seemed that Familiars were a bit more free thinking and a lot more intelligent than I first thought .My familiar whom I gave the name Salem took the form of a black cat by default. "Now Salem" I called out to my companion, uttering the verbal components of the spell. As Salem's form shifted from a house cat to a shadow cat a panther like feline rather rapidly. "Good, seems like I can recast the spell to alter you at will and I'm not as limited in your form as 5e would have me believe '' I said feeling a slight drain on what I now recognised as mana reserves. My plan to start small with basic spells and cantrips worked great. I could now cast a few basic spells after some practice. But honestly figuring out what class I would be in DND terms was a pain in the ass. First there's my magical bloodline on both sides of the family therefore making me a sorcerer, I studied magic from books making me a wizard.I mean I can use a sword and wear armor so I was a fighter as well. So honestly what the hell was I? I mean I guess DND just didn't translate well into real life.
I ended up walking through the woods to clear my head till I came upon the heart tree before finally stopping my walk Salem coming to rest beside me, once more he was in his house cat form. I sat among the weirwood trees of the gods, the most sacred part of the whole forest at least in the belief of the North and other followers of the old gods. Letting myself reach out I took a deep breath, I could feel the mana in the atmosphere around me. After some time had passed maybe a minute or two I could feel something natural and wild, no wait it was orderly and controlled, no it was both and yet neither. It felt like it was white and green if colors could describe these incredibly complex feelings. I knew only one word to describe this bizarre combination of sensations selesnya. Somehow I had bonded to the land drawing the mana it was producing and adding it to my reserves. I seemed to have added the mana into a secondary pool of mana. Like an idiot I forgot that magic the gathering and DND shared a multiverse now. In that moment of sudden realization I felt I could taste every color of the rainbow, I felt like butter scraped too thin on bread, my insides wanted to become my outsides. As suddenly I found myself on a volcanic beach with a large volcano in the distance. Had I teleported to Valyria, no not smokey enough I contemplated looking around. As I then heard a loud roar and then another, and another as I looked up to see the multi headed horror of a shivian devastator, a type of dragon from the plane of Dominaria. Well at least that confirms I have a planeswalker. I reached out to grab the first thing I could to defend myself from the hydra dragon grabbing a large rock ready to throw it. Honestly it would probably not do anything but piss off the big dragon but if I hit it in an eye hopefully it would buy me a few precious seconds. I attempted to pull myself back to my home plane away from here. Tugging on the feeling of the gods woods to which I was bonded to. I quickly attempted to bond with the land making a brief connection so that I wished I could return here. I phased out of Dominaria and appeared back in front of the heart tree only with a souvenir of my trip, the big rock I picked up to defend myself as proof of my trip through the bold eternities. Taking a moment to acknowledge my new status as a planeswalker and taking a deep breath after that harrowing situation. Finally I managed to get a good look at the rock. I noticed it was more oval shaped than your usual rock and warm to the touch. "Gods damn it" I shouted loudly in realization of what I had picked up "not another egg". What was I gonna do with this one, how would I explain to uncle Ned that I just found another egg. Would he even believe me when I told him I was practicing magic and just so happened to teleport to another plane of existence. Furthermore I had no idea if you could even ride a Shivian dragon or devastator let alone anything about their biology. Thinking about it, I had just stolen an egg from a nesting mother. That might explain the aggressive attitude.
Returning back to the castle I thought about how magic the gathering handled the color wheel. Immediately I knew I would have to balance my lands or risk my personality being too much influenced too by the colors I was predominantly bonded to. White would lead to order and control and green to nature and giving into my instincts of a more primal animalistic part of myself. I desperately needed to bond with a source of red, blue and black. Looking at a map of the north I could probably get blue from bear island, red from the mountains and hills while black would come from the swamps in the neck. Hopefully I can convince uncle Ned to let me do a little travel in the she wolf.
Sitting down for another lesson with maester Luwin. He began to give both Robb and myself a lecture on mathematics. Closing my eyes I focused on the first spell I had created by myself. By channeling mana I was able to turn my brain into a calculator. The only downside was that it caused headaches. Hopefully when I had a source of blue mana it would be a bit easier. The spell which I had named calculate helped massively as I could Proform complex equations quickly. I was now a living calculator taking that math class.
Three moons later new year
After several moons of experimentation with both DND's magic system and magic the gathering's I can honestly say I have even less of an idea of how magic functions in real life. Uncle Ned was finally allowing me to travel to enough places to balance out my mana from lands. However he did have one condition, that was that I had to take a guard with me at all times. At least he let me pick which guard. In this case I took ser Jory Castell. Jory had just been named captain of the guard and was an excellent guardsman. I did have to give an excuse that I was looking to visit some of the vassals of house Stark. This wasn't a total lie, just a slight omission of the truth to obscure my real reasoning for these trips. As we prepared to set off I loaded the She wolf up with bags of things to sell and a chest with some gold dragons. Jory wasn't too bad of company as we both did our own thing aboard the she wolf. He was on lookout and I steered her while also fuelling her hearth.
As we slowly descended towards a flat section of ground amid hills and mountains of the north the chief of the Flint clan approached us. With him were the chiefs of the other hill clans."So you are the child of The Ned who sails the sky as men do the sea" he said his accent was thick and hard to understand at first. But after the first few words I could understand most of what he was saying. After a few hours the mostly consisted of me feasting with the chiefs and their family. I made my bond to the mountain where they made their home. A strong source of red mana would go far in helping me achieve balance. Before I set to head off I gave a gift to each of the chiefs consisting of a few good quality axes. They happily accepted them and promised to one day repay the favor. Well that was after they tried to give me their daughters or granddaughter's hand in marriage. It turned into a small competition between them. I only got out of that by saying that talks of marriage would need to be taken up with lord Stark not me hopefully that would satisfy them.
Next stop on my trip around the north was bear island. As we landed I was greeted by lady Marge Mormont. "I thought the lord of bear island was Jeor Mormont. Where is he my lady" I asked as she approached. "Well seems your information is a little out of date, my nephew has fled bear island after lord Stark caught him trying to sell poachers into slavery" she spat the last word out as if it were a vile curse. Considering Westrossi attitudes towards slavery it was understandable. "Well no matter what I thank you lady Mormont for your hospitality and I even brought a gift" I said as I had Jory help me unload a chest with a Myrish far eye which I recognised as a telescope from my old world. "These should help you my lady see if those accursed squids ever dare to raid the north again" I said, handing her the device. Most of my time on the island was purchasing all the preserved fish I could. After some time the sun began to set and rather then attempt to head off into the dark of the night I decided to accept the hospitality of lady Mormont for the evening.
As morning came, so did it become time to depart. After bidding Lady Marge and her daughters farewell, Jory and I set off towards the neck. I was kinda hoping the fandom was right and that Lord Howland Reed was a diehard Jon supporter. We landed just outside of the massive swamp that greywater watch called home. "Jory watch the she wolf" I asked my companion. "Lord Stark told me to watch over you Jon" he responded to my question. "I know but this is something I have to do on my own '' I retorted back as I stepped onto a small pier as a raft from within the swamp approached me. At the front of the raft was a man whom I recognised as Lord Reed the others I assume are servants. "Lord Reed '' I greeted. "Jon" he returned with a slight bow. I knew then and there Howland Reed was on my side. "come I have prepared a feast for your arrival" he continued as he led me onto the raft. "Tell me did Lord Stark ever tell you of your mother" he asked "No" I replied "but I did see her in a dream". He then went silent and still "green seer" he muttered. Much like lord Stark I let him have his own assumption regarding my dreams. In the end the truth was stranger than both answers. As we sailed Greywater watch finally came into view it was a marvel to behold. As we approached two men at the docks tied the small raft and safely secured it to the greater whole of the floating fortress. the feast was a pleasant affair with a selection of pork, fish and lizardlion. After the feast I was led into Howlands's solar. "Now I believe we have some business to attend to your grace, '' said Howland. "Yes, first a gift for you" I said as I handed him a pouch filled with twenty five gold dragons. "My deepest thanks your grace and I have something for you" Howland stated confirming he was a supporter of me reclaiming the throne. He then pulled out a chest out from a hidden area behind his desk. "These belonged to your mother and father and the chest contains letters sent between the both" he said as he pushed the chest and it's contents towards me. Thankfully Fanon strikes again as several fanfictions I read have had Howland Reed keeping several documents that often helped prove Jon's true identity. These will be very useful to me, they will let me obtain power. No, that's the black mana talking. It will be over in a few minutes. I draw as much mana from the other colors to help even myself out. "O hello floor" I mutter as I fall forward, blood leaking from my nose. I could hear Howland say something but I have no idea what he said.
A few days later.
"Jon wake up Jon" I could hear a voice call out. Opening my eyes I could see surrounding my bed was maester Luwin, Robb, Uncle Ned and Howland. "How long have I been asleep?" I asked as I made to sit up. "Four days Jon you gave Lord Reed quite the freight when you collapsed like that" Luwin answered "we rode straight here when Howlands message arrived" uncle Ned said with worry in his tone. "Overall you seem to have recovered just fine and should be able to move about soon" continued maester Luwin.
After we left back for Winterfell I managed to convince Uncle Ned to fly in the she wolf with Jory and myself, maester Luwin would travel by cart with the guards uncle Ned had brought with him. Overall it was a pleasant flight as we came to a rest in the cleaning outside of Wintertown. A large fence had started to be built in my usual landing area big enough that I could take off and land in the enclosed space. Once we were inside the castle I headed off to my room. I spotted Theon loitering around the great Hall flirting with one of the maids who appeared disinterested. I think her name was Lilyin or something. Honestly did he have nothing better to do or did he just enjoy the sting of rejection that much. Reaching my room I begin to pour over my spells Acererak had a long list of spells in his book. Some I had no use for others where going to be very useful. Usually a mage need a certain amount of mana to able to cast spells of a higher level. Thankfully I can cheat a little by drawing on the mana directly from the lands I am bonded to giving me an in theory infinite mana pool. The spell I was casting should help improve my physical stats. Make me stronger more dexterous and have a greater Constitution and stamina. Drawing as much mana in as I could I channeled it into my body I focused on doing this carefully, I didn't want a repeat of the last time I flooded my body with mana. All in all the spell was half successful I got the result I wanted but there where a few unintended side effects. My eyes which until now had been very dark gray and where now a light purple. Unexpectedly I could also see an hear far better than I could before and even in pitch black I could see as well as in middle of the day. All in all the spell worked out far better than I would have thought possible. Now if only my Shivian dragon egg would hatch I mean how long could it possibly take years ha yea right. O crap I just taunted Murphy didn't I.
Once I was able to, I asked Mekehil the castle blacksmith for lessons. I even paid him to let me use his forge and for the material. All in all it was great as it allowed me to make my own armor and weapons. My main armor was a set of half plate that I had after a few weeks enchanted to better resist damage. I was only able to achieve these results so quickly by drawing mana from lands. I also crafted a full suit of plate with a shield for jousting. The shield was black with a white direwolf's face, the eyes painted a red to give it an albino appearance. I had yet to create a magical sword but I decided that once I was fighting in real battles I should probably forge one or find one.
Authors note
Apologies about the long wait guys and gals. I got moved to night shift, my beta reader got a new job and real life just seemed to always get in the way. Hopefully it won't be such a long wait for the next chapter.