Eddard X

His hand moved the stone down the blade of Ice, ancestral sword of his family. Behind him was a Weirwood tree, its bark white and leaves red, a face etched into its bark.

"I don't think it's etched, most likely it has grown like this due to Greenseers influence." Ned's head snapped to the left towards the voice, his mind ignoring the word's that were just spoken out loud. A man he never saw met his eyes, but the sound he just heard… It was the Voice. 'How…'

"It is a dream, Ned." The all familiar Voice spoke. "I figured that it should be possible to take over your dream and show myself, or at least the way I looked back when I had a body of my own."

Eddard stared at his mind companion. The man had long brown hair that went past his shoulders, and an easy to look at face. "Take over?" Those two words made him shiver in fear.

The man raised his hands in defense. "Just a small space in your dream, I cannot even move unless you allow me to." It didn't make Eddard's worries go away, but if the Voice was capable of taking over his body… What was he to do to stop that? All he could was to end both of them in the only way possible. "Woahhh… Again, chill down Ned. No need to think that way. I am here just to talk. I am a friend, remember?"

Ned could accept that. It would be foolish to end his life off a simple fear he had, he sighed, he didn't even know why he thought about it in the first place. Eddard once again glanced at the Voice, the man must have been only slightly older than him in his twenties yet possessed so much knowledge. "My name is Jacob." The man spoke, for some reason it was to accept that the Voice had a name.

"Voice is fine… It kinda sounds mystical, which is cool." Jacob added, he still could hear Ned's thoughts. "Do you trust me, Ned?" It was a question Voice knew an answer to, how could Eddard not trust a being living inside his own mind. With that though Voice walked closer, he was allowed to move.

"Let me show you a small part of my own world."

Sun was shining into his eyes making him incapable of seeing. Ned moved his hand up to shield his eyes. Sea was the first thing he saw, endless blue stretching in front of him, then the sand and lastly he noticed the people. He felt his cheeks getting red before looking in another direction, yet no matter where he looked, scantily clothed men and women met his eyes covering their private parts with mere thin ropes.

"Beautiful view, isn't it?" Voice spoke from his left, having only the lower part of his underwear on just like every other man present around them. Eddard didn't know how to respond. Chuckle escaped Voice's mouth, the man must have done it on purpose. "Let me show you my home… Small steps first."

With a snap of their fingers the scenery changed. Instead of nature, walls and floor met his eyes filled with furniture not even Kings could own. A window caught his attention though, or rather what was behind it.

"Harrenhal pales in comparison, doesn't it?" Eddard couldn't agree more, towers larger than anything he ever saw before seemingly made of glass met his eyes. There were more than a hundred, he knew, yet they went far into the distance, further than he could see. He looked down, trying to measure how high he was yet another weird thing met his eyes, carriages without horses.

With another snap of Voice fingers they were on the street, right beside the carriages that Ned saw from on top. He could hear the low hum emanating from those things, they moved fast, as fast as horses could. "You think it's fast?"

Another chuckle and another finger snap.

This time Eddard was in one of said carriages. Voice sat next to him behind a wheel of some kind. Seeing as Ned was lost, the Voice spoke. "There is an engine in front, burning fuel which makes the car go forward. The wheel controls the front wheels while the pedals…" Voice pointed at the things below his legs. "Control the engine power." The explanation was lost on Eddard as he focused on passing trees to the side of him on the straight empty road. The ride was pleasant despite going much faster than even dornish horses could.

They stopped at some point after riding for a few minutes. Eddard needed some time to even think of all the things he saw. He understood some of them or a principle behind them but this engine thing..

Another snap of the fingers and a giant black metal thing was in front of them with some parts being glassed over showing the insides.

"Now, this is how one of the first steam engines looked like. It started an industrial revolution that led to creation of other machines like the car you just saw." A fire was started in one of the chambers using wood and Ned could see that it heated the water in a tank just over it, making steam. Steam then traveled down the pipe moving a metal piece making the giant wheel spin and spin. "There is more to it than just steam, vacuum is also important in making the piston go down to keep the momentum." Eddard didn't know what vacuum was.

Voice sighed. "Well, it is not important right now, your world lacks necessary tools and metal shaping techniques to create one that would be useful in the next twenty years anyway."

Another snap of fingers made them return to Voice's alleged house.

Jacob began speaking after sitting on the couch. "There are many, many things created in my world that you would have a hard time understanding. But I think the things I showed you should be enough for you to trust me, fully trust me that I am not from your world, nor that I am a thing of your imagination." Ned nodded. "Good, I will show you the future of your world then. A little, but the most important snippet of it."

Another finger snap landed them in the cold. Snow was deep and the winds carried a strong snowstorm, Eddard didn't remember seeing one so strong in his short life. There were wooden beams holding a roof and a campfire next to him on top of a big stone to keep it above the ice. He remembered it, he was on the Wall once before, visiting with his father. They were on top of the Wall.

Horn sounded once, Eddard heard it once before. One horn meant a returning Night's Watch rider.

Another horn sounded and at the same time the snow subsided a bit, allowing Ned to see figures on the other side of the wall, deep below, as far as his eyes could see. "Wildlings." Eddard spoke, yet another raiders that wanted to pillage his home. Two horns meant Wildlings, he remembered some of the older Night's Watch men telling him once.

"They are not Wildlings, Ned." Voice spoke from next to him. Soon the third horn sounded. This time it was the Old Nan story that he remembered as the horn sounded, the story of dead things that still walked against their will, the story of White Walkers and their beasts.

All of sudden everyone below turned their eyes on him, a sea of blue eyes met his own. A sea of death was below him.

"Ahhh!" He woke up with a scream, breathing hard. It took him a minute or more to calm down. 'It was just a dream.' He thought to himself, trying to forget the sea of blue eyes that stared at him.

'It wasn't just a dream, Ned. Do you remember it all?' Voice spoke to him inside his head, making Ned remember all the other things he saw. "I do." His voice cracked.

"Do what..?" Another voice made Ned snap his head to his left, landing his sight at his wife Catelyn, who was looking at him. It was still the middle of the night, making the moon the only source of light he could use to look at her. The moonlight danced in her eyes making Eddard stare at them for longer than he should have. She also had blue eyes, but they were full of worry rather than death.

"I do love you, Catelyn Stark." Eddard spoke, his lips and body coming closer to his wife.

"I love you as well, Eddard Stark." His wife responded likewise, a small smile visible on her mouth before kissing and allowing her husband in.

'Ewwww…' Voice didn't matter to Eddard, not now. Not after what he saw. He was too afraid to care.

After the fruitful night and the rich breakfast Ned finally went back to the important matters.

'When?' Eddard asked as soon as he was alone in his solar. 'Eighteen years from now, maybe nineteen if we are lucky.' Ned grabbed a strong wine from one of the shelves and poured it into his goblet. With one swift move he drank all of it.

'We better get to work then, we need plans.' Eddard spoke to Voice inside his head.

Not an hour later a knock sounded on his doors, he allowed the man inside.

"Raven from King's Landing, my Lord." Maester Luwin bowed as he passed the small envelope to his hands.

Eddard read it, and soon after spoke after thinking for few seconds. "There will be a feast and a jousting tournament in celebration of winning the war, followed by King Robert and Cersei Lannister marriage." A grimace stopped Eddard for a second in his explanation. "Robert wants me to come. He states New City charter as one of the reasons for me to go there myself." He sighed, together with Voice they were planning to attend such a gathering of notables down south but… "How is the work on concrete going, maester Luwin?" Ned asked but he already expected the answer, he took to asking the same question every few days, always getting the same answer.

"Slowly, there was some progress made on the matter but not enough to call it a success." He wanted to sigh, but he still had reasons to go. 'We can visit Benjen on the way. Maybe we can find him a wife down south, preferably a Redwyne.' Gold and trade on the western coast, Eddard quickly guessed the reasons for the Voice idea. Benjen would hate him for that, just like Lyanna and Brandon hated father. 'Just like you hated your father from banishing you to the Eyrie, away from your own family.' Ned didn't comment on that.

"I will attend. Send a raven to King's Landing announcing so." Luwin nodded and left, leaving Ned once again alone with his books.

It was how ruling and planning looked like, piles of papers with numbers written all over them, they appeared in Ned dreams as of late, he still wondered if it was worse or better than dreams of war and death.

'If you want, I can make you dream of something better… We called it porn back home.' A chuckle followed Voice's offer, Ned didn't know why but he had a feeling that told him to stay as far away from this as he could. Almost as if Gods themselves wanted him to stay away from it.