Luwin

It was very dark in my rooms and the fire had burned low when something woke me. It was not so much as a something or one as it had been a feeling of anguish and then overwhelming dreed. I tried the rest of the night to get back to sleep but the feelings just continued until light when I rose giving up the idea of sleep and dressed.

I am not as young as I once was it my joints ached and the cold seemed even more so that morning as I walked to the rookery to collect the messages from overnight and then to the sick rooms where I was treating a few who had a fever and a young woman who was going to be giving birth soon and would need a midwife but until one from the village arrived I was watching her. I did not ask who the father was as it did not matter much even if I suspected it being Greyjoy's as was most of those born inside the castle and many outside. I made a mental note to speak to Lord Stark on the matter because something needed to be done because I feared young Rob following in the older boys' steps as they were close.

After that I broke my fast eating very little as the feeling of dreed was back even worse than before, so I made my way to Lord Stark's solar to give him his morning messages and to go over the other information that I have received from the outer areas of the North.

Hearing a knock on his solar door Eddard turned from the window where he had been staring out looking out over the grounds not seeing much as he was thinking of the past and the future and how to make everything work. "Enter" he said taking his seat at his large desk just seeing the stack of books sitting to one side on a chair in the corner. He knew what they held but was shocked to find them here and now and realizing how off kilter he was since waking up. He would need to study them closely and think hard on the information given to him.

Maester Luwin entered carrying the daily messages that had arrived overnight and took his place in front of his lord.

"I bare missives from the Bear Islands, Kings Landing and Riverrun. Also, personal messages for your Lady Wife from her father, sister, and Lord Baelish. The new harvest is starting to come in and there is little surplus in the east as they have been fighting pestilence for a fourth night now and we will need to address the aid needed to them soon before it spreads to other hold fasts. Winterfell should be getting their share of stuff over the next two moons, but I think we are going to be very short compared to previous years. The small people are saying that there is a greater need for guards as two more were attacked last night after closing their shops and a woman was found dead behind the hostel." He laid out and then moved to the financial aspects of running the castle for the next moon cycle and what would be needed. He was always impressed at how Ned had taken to running things and that he would sit with full attention on him and listen, think it over, then speak, but on this morn, he could see that the man was troubled and distracted and the more he spoke the more glazed the man's eyes become.

"Start inquiring about more glass houses, as many as we can build in the next few moons, I need to see all heads of the hold this afternoon. I want construction to start on the broken tower while I am away for more storage and residence just in-case we need them. I want to be able to provide not just the hold but the small people a place of refuge in-case of a siege, a long cold siege. Set more guards in Wintertown and find this bastard who is causing us problems and I want him alive. I want a meeting with all the heads of Wintertown this afternoon and a plan on expanding into a new hold eventually for Jon, Bran, and Rickon so it will be in the not so near future. I want firm figures on the cost of four apprentices at least for each position. I have told the family and will be issuing an order that any bastard of Brandon that is presented in the next moon cycle will be made legitimate, but my line will hold head of house and the Paramount. They must be proven to be his in some way though. Set them up here in the hold on the family floors on the south side and start their education. I will deal with the rest when I return." He laid out and knew he was shocking the older man because this tradition fell out after the Blackfyre affair back in his grandfather's grandfather childhood, but he needed to secure the future of Winterfelt and of the north by marriages and new holds. His brothers' children would be just at the age of marriage by now maybe six and ten years to just about three and ten years. He would be surprised if non appeared and his brother was as much a player as what Robert is and he knew of at least four children born to him now and he would have to think on how to secure those children in case they would be needed once he confronted the issue of the cheating queen and her incestuous brother.

"I leave for the wall the morning after next with Rob and Jon, so Bran will be the Stark in Winterfell. Guide him and teach him and do so without the input of my Lady wife she has been given her own work. Starting today the girls will start training in bow and dagger. They must know how to defend their home and themselves. All the children will be learning only of the old Gods, and I want them studying the histories of the North and the people in it. This will seem an odd request, but I also want all the old stories pulled and compared to the books there and them copied for others to read as well, set the children and my lady wife to helping make copies. Focus on the threats beyond the wall and of the First Men." He tells the me and I knew that I looked concerned and confused as I glanced at the books to my right that I had never seen before with curiosity and caution.

"Is there any reason for this inquiring Mi' Lord?" I asked lifting the books up and flipping open the first to see tiny writing of my lord's hand.

"I believe if I told you where I got the information and how you would think I have done lost my mind and would worry. Not everything in those books need to be recopied nor taught to my family. You will understand as when you read it. I would like for them to stay in this room locked in the private chamber. I do not know how to explain it Maester. I do not know if it was a green-sight dream or reality in which it truly happened; either way I need answers and those are beyond the wall which is why I leave soon. But I must tell someone I trust who will at least understand the actions I am taking and why even if it was but not a dream." Eddard said pouring them both strong wine and handing it off to me before looking back out over the yard and walls of his home. This had me on edge as something in his voice warned of life changing information. Only a few times in my life had I have heard that tone in a voice before and none ended well.

"Go on Ned and tell me of your dream and we will try and see if we can prove or disprove it for their must be a reason for it. Greensight is exceedingly rare only one in a thousand used to have it, now, I would think it is even more rare than before with the waning of magic in our world. I do not know of any Stark that has had it in recent times but would have to check the histories closer." I tell him as I sit forward some and pay close attention to the young man in front of me. He had known this man all his life and he was not one for stories or fantasy as his siblings had been but the stark truth of things and was very thoughtful in his actions so if this dream had prompted him into action; action so unlike him then it was something to take seriously.

"It starts off in about three years or just about from now …." Ned laid out all that had happened to him and his family, the wars and then the others coming and the ending of the world as they knew it. The histories that the Gods had instructed him on and the knowledge of how to change things this time around. Leaving out only the talk with his sister and what she had to say or about Jon as he still wanted to protect everyone from becoming involved.

As he spoke of what he had seen I knew that my pervious feeling of dread was confirmed and was very worried for those who have become my family. This great house was the foundation of Westeros especially the North. Their blood lines could be traced into almost all the other lines and was the oldest here in Westeros. It was traceable back to Brandon the builder who was the first winter king and started their hold at Winterfell but it was told that they could trace their lines even farther back to Garth Greenhand. In all those times there was never a story much like this one. Greensight or not it was never so detailed and felt so physically as what Ned had explained which scared me to the core. I would need to watch closely for other signs of problems and evils coming again.

"This is most disturbing, and we do need to take action mi' lord but unless we can gather proof, I fear even your most loyal will not believe in a fool's fantasy of Others and myths. We can only hope you find that proof if this is anything other than a vivid nightmare. I must ask Ned, have you hit your head recently, taken a fall, did you drink ale or stout wine before bed last night?" I asked knowing the answer was no to all but asking all the same.

"No, it has been all the usual and no unneeded stress either and I would say until this morn a peaceful marriage also so like you I ruled all that out quickly once I woke early this morn. I do not know how to explain it but feel a pull north and like time is running out for something but what I do not know either. It is most frustrating." Eddard explains with a sigh as he stood and walked around his desk picking up the missives, he has written to the places he would be visiting on the way to and back from the wall.

"I will get these sent and talk to the needed people. MI 'lord" If said getting up and taking his leave to do his lords bidding. It would take till the sun was high in the sky to get the heads together for a meeting as most would have to close shops first. Finding two maids quickly I asked them to start alerting the heads of the keep for a meeting just after the noon mark and to then help get Eddard, Jon, and Rob ready to leave in the marrow. Lastly asking them to pass on to the kitchen staff to get rations started for the trip. One day was hard pressed to get everything done that would be needed. He just prayed that Ned found what he was looking for but on the other hand he dreaded what he would find also because if this was more than a dream then they all had a fight of humanity ahead of them.