As I grew older, so did everyone else. A year passed since my family was slaughtered by the bear man, and Rodrick took me to King's Landing to pay my respects to the new 'prince'. Later that year the boy died. Good. Anyone who was a traitor prince should die in my opinion. A few years later we went again to see a new prince, this time the boy lived through the first year, his name was Joffrey. Then a girl, Myrcella, then another boy, Tommen. When the second boy was born, the queen came to see us at our blacksmithing store. I was around 9 at the time, getting to be pretty adept at smithing.

"do you do custom orders?" the queen asked, I noticed her long gold hair, the same hair Jaimie, the 'kingslayer' had.

"of course your grace, anything for the queen of Westeros" I replied, wiping my forehead, which left a smear of soot blacker than my hair. Rodrick was out getting supplies, leaving me to clean the forge. "Although your grace, I'm only an apprentice. My father, Rodrick actually runs the place, so if you would like to speak to him to make sure it's in the best hands possible you're more than welcome to wait. He should be back soon."

Her eyes narrowed, her already thin lips pressed into an even thinner line. She was studying the place, contemplating on if she should wait or not.

"No, I will commission you to do this order, and you will do it to my satisfaction no matter how many times you need to repeat it." I nodded in silent shock. This was the first time I've ever been commissioned to do any work on my own! And by the queen, wife to the bear man. "I want two exactly identical necklaces, with pendants that hold the Lannister sigil. They are to be either be silver with a gold lion, or gold with a silver lion. And I want them to be lockets, which may be opened and closed and locked. To fit this…." She held up a very small vial. Rodrick had come in during her explanation.

"And when would you like that done by your grace?" he set down the materials.

"I shall return tomorrow morning for them"

"Well can I hear the explanation again, I may have missed something, and Asher may have too much soot in his ears to tell me properly"

"Actually, I want him to make them. I would like to see your apprentice's work. If it's even good or not."

"I'll have a set for you to look at by the first light of day tomorrow your grace." I nervously announced, making both of them turn to look at me. She smiled and nodded

"Then I shall see you tomorrow apprentice blacksmith." She glided out. Rodrick laughed and threw his hands in the air.

"Well then Asher, you better light that forge up and get to work!"

It took me working all night and I had just finished polishing the last bit of the second necklace when Cersei walked in. I handed them over to proudly, but my insides were trembling with nerves. Did she like them? Would she be disappointed and throw them at my face? Would she mock me? Kill me? An endless list of possibilities galloped through my mind as she carefully turned each of them over, inspecting them both meticulously.

"And uh, how EXACTLY do they open?" her scowl was frightening, either assuming I forgot that they were supposed to hold something, or furious that she couldn't figure it out. I grabbed the tail of the lion, which was just raised ever so slightly more than the rest of the lion, and pushed it in and up at the same time, then back, and the tiny gold lion swung away from the rest of the pendent, hanging on by just its tiny paws. "Marvelous, it needs to be that exact pattern to open it, that's very smart of you apprentice." Her scowl flipped into a smile as she put a tiny vial into each of the pendants. The vials fit perfectly into the pendants, not even enough room for a fingernail to also reside in the space.

"Are they to your liking your grace?"

"They are better than I had hoped for, thank you…..Asher was it?"

"Yes your grace, you are most welcome."

"Forget this ever happened if you are smart, and judging from the lock mechanism, I'd say you're a very smart boy." I nodded as she paid me (about double what I had been expecting to be paid), turned on her heel and glided out of our town. Rodrick patted me on the shoulder and took most of the money I had just been given.

"Good job Asher. But she's right, best to forget we even saw her." I beamed up, a smile ear to ear on my face at my fist solo job completed, and that I got praised for it so highly.

Nothing particularly eventful happened over the next few years. Until I was 16. That winter, Rodrick died and I was left to take over the blacksmithing position, luckily I had just been told I was no longer an apprentice only a few months prior, and had been learning how to run the place already, since Rodrick was getting more and feebler as time passed. Out of respect for Rodrick, and Lyanna, I didn't go wandering. I stayed in Rosby, this was my life. They gave me that life, and I wasn't going to throw away their gifts. The night that Rodrick passed, he told me an interesting story however.

"Asher, come here" I kneeled beside his bed, putting a glass of water on his nightstand.

"Rodrick, save your strength, you'll need it to survive the night."

"do you remember the tunnels that Lyanna stark brought you here in?"

"Of course."

"In those tunnels, it's said there's a secret room that the man who built the tunnels made, a sealed up after he put a few books in that room."

"Why would he go through all that trouble to conceal a few books?"

"It's rumored that those books are instructions on how to make Valerian steel, how to hatch and raise dragons, and how to fight off the ancient ones known as white walkers. It's said to be the room of forgotten battle plans."

"Rodrick, that sounds like old woman's tale to children."

"Asher… no, Daemon. If it is the room of forgotten battle plans, and you are the forgotten prince, I think it makes sense you are the only one who can find the room." He handed me a very old rolled up piece of paper. The scroll looked to be at least a thousand years old, and even touching it might break it. I gently took it by the clasp that was keeping it rolled. The clasp had no way of coming off of the scroll without destroying the paper it was protecting.

"Rodrick, Father, Master. Please, rest. Save your strength to fight the cold away."

"My master gave me this scroll and so I am giving it to you. It is said that the clasp may only be broken by a dragons willingly given blood."

As I put the scroll into its box, only the few minutes it took to go to the other room and back, Rodrick had given in to the cold angel of death. And I was left on my own.