Ned
The day flew by with everyone busy rushing to do the bidding of their lord, or in Lady Stark's case avoidance because of anger and hurt kept her away. Ned studied the timeline in his book that he made sure to pack with him and made notes of people to message and thinking about what could be done to save the north all the loss and blood shed that was to come if he failed. He knew he needed to work on not just the wall and those recruited there but the condition in which it was in also. He would need the help of those from the south mainly his old friend the king. He knew that the man was not who he had once been but maybe he could change that as well, if not then at least the line of succession before it was too late. He still felt very torn in being there to help his friend and resolute that he would never go to that cess pool again because no Stark lived long out of the North.
Turning my thoughts to my lady wife I didn't know what to think. I know that I had overreacted and maybe took the wrong approach with her this morn but having been through that vision and then watching how our children's lives turned out and ended had me reacting before planning. I was not normally so reactive but one thing that I had learned from the Gods was that I was pretty short sided in my thoughts and was not as good at looking at the big picture but just reaction to the event in the moment. Rob was much like me; good in war and battle but lacking in politics. We just didn't have that here in the North like in other places and being the Second son, my place had been to learn how to be a banner man and run a lower keep then my brother. I knew in the last three and ten years I had failed in some areas and had to do better.
Trying to temper my reaction to my Lady wife and all that I had seen and remember she had not seen the same nor done any of it yet and we could change it I pulled the letters from Baelish closer to me and reread it. There was not much context, but it was leading in questions, and it worried me just how he had twisted her and gotten information that he shouldn't have. He obviously was doing the same to Lisa Arryn as well and that worried me also. I was determined to speak with my wife and try and understand but she would have to grow and change as well and understand the position we were in. One I should have worried about much sooner.
"My Lady, thank you for joining me. I understand that you are angry and rightly so with me just dropping so much on you at once, but Cat you need to understand that for so long I have let things go because of the perceived slight to you and my honor in trying to make it up to you. In the north unlike other places except Dorne, our bastards are a part of our holds and treated the same in most cases as our trueborn children with the same education and position in our hold just behind our trueborn. I always tried to understand that you were not taught that way and that as such you could not get over this slight but now you are trying to teach our children the same way and that cannot stand. However, you did not come into this marriage pure either and I know you laid with my brother before he left for Kings Landing and his death." Ned confronted many truths that had never been spoken in all the 13 years that they had been together.
"Why now, why could we not keep the peace that we have found?" She asked not denying her lord husbands words about her and his brother.
"Because of Jon, the pain he has faced having a women treat him like he is not worth anything, the lack of a mother and love. Because of the state of the North and the fact that you overrule and step into other areas that are not for ladies of the north unless you are the holding heir like in Bear Islands. And most of all the fact that you are telling Baelish and your father business of the North." He explained between bites of food trying not to seethe in anger, but Baelish was a point he was struggling with because of what he knew and how much he wanted to run his sword through the man, but he knew he needed to keep things civil until he figured out what the long-term play was here and if his lady wife was a part of it or not. Knowing how manipulative Baelish he was figured her part was not even to her knowledge on what he has gathered over the years.
Ned tossed down the private missives that had come that morning for his wife and that he read just after his talk with Luwin. His memories of the betrayal of Baelish were fresh in his mind and he wanted to see what the snake had been pulling under his nose. It angered him even more to see that his wife had written and talked about hold finances and the running of the hold with him and seeking his advice on how to put more away without showing it in the books and alerting her lord husband. She had wanted to make a larger dowry for her daughter and the kings son.
"You read my private letters?" She asked with shaking hands taking them and not opening them knowing that what was in them would not cast her in the best of light as she had been seeking to hide things from her husband and set in motion a betrothal between Sansa and the crowned prince and between Rob and the Westerlings who were close family friends with her father and a distant cousin of hers.
"Aye, and I can imagine what the previous ones have been like all these years. From this moment on you will cease all contact with Baelish and all missives to your lord father will come through me. Rob will marry someone from the North just like our other children. Unless I choose otherwise. As we speak your rooms are being searched and you will then be confined to them until I return from the wall. I have let this state of things go for to long and it has weekended our position in the North. Luckily for you and our heir that I have a plan to fix this and create new ties." He laid out having sit his eating knife and fork down and glared at the woman whom he truly had come to love, and thought had loved him in return. He really was naive and lacking the training he had needed to run Winterfell and the North the way he should have. But he would be reading and changing what he could now and because of his love for his wife he would do all he could to protect her from that narcissistic scourge of a man. He also did not like the idea that her father had been keeping his nose in their business and guiding his daughter all these years in sneaking around behind his back.
"I will never love that child; bastards are dangerous, and you want to promote him as an heir. Where does that place him or our own trueborn children?" she bites out knowing that was all she could protest as she knew once he found the letters and other things hidden in her quarters that she would be doomed. In her defense it had started out innocently enough because she hadn't had anyone in the North to talk to and few wanted to accept her but then she had been caught up in the thought of running the North and having more say in things, being the mother of the future Queen, and the influence she could have over Sansa. Most of the Jewels and other things she had taken was from those first few years and she had forgotten about them as time went on. She could only hope that once she was given the place to explain and Ned had calmed down, he would accept her truth.
"I am not asking you to love him but for a mother to blame a child for their parents' sins and to shun him so totally, speaks more of you as a person than of him and his place in our home. Jon will come just behind Rob in line and will have his own keep and lands same as Bran and Rickon. Winter is always coming and along with it, war. They all need to be trained to run Winterfelt and the North. Your southern thoughts and antics will not set them up well if I should die." Ned explains having thought out what he wanted to say most the day.
"What do you mean, my Lord?" she asked quietly seething as she had been trained as the heir for many years to her Lord father who was the warden over the Riverlands and she knew how to run the lands and lords of those lands. She would be honest with herself she didn't know much about the Lords in the north and had not really taken the time to learn either but how different could it been from one to the next in how you dealt with them.
"Who would you trust above all others in the north, who should be watched but utilized, and who should you never turn you back on for they will try and take your position if you did. What would the northern lords assume with you sending my daughters south to marry instead of places within the north in which is custom. What position did my father give up having his heir marry a southern lady and not even having one arranged for his second and third sons and sending his only daughter to yet another southern lord even if going to be king someday." Ned asked and watched her think over his questions and frown as he knew she had no answers. He had to be fair though to her he had not thought it through either and had not considered all of the different angles until his time with the Gods.
"Is our daughters' status and happiness not your worry, your friend is the king with a son that could be wed to our daughter making her the future Queen. Arya, the seven knows not who would take that wild child, but we could attempt to make some arrangement with one of the other realms like Dorne or one of the lords of the Reach." Cat asked and Ned was seeing finally with clear eyes the women who was the mother of his children but only a good mother to those she liked or who she could mold into a southern lady. Oh, how she would have hated being married to his brother and his sister as she was as wild as Arya.
"Is that all you care about my lady," he hissed out attempting to hold his temper because he knew the hell his daughter faced on this path, and it was never going to happen as long as he could stop it. "The status of your daughters in the game of thrones, but you worry not of the position that you place our house in the North nor the protection of our sons and Heirs. Your treatment of Arya is detestable, and I hope changes while I am gone, or we will have more words. All my children will be treated with care and if not love at least decently. You and they will study the stories of the North and you will learn our ways along with Sansa. I forbade anymore of this hero and song notions being filled into her head. Then in the afternoons they are to practice with their bows and their daggers. In the evening they can practice their stitching." Eddard said and took his leave being at his end with his lady wife and wishing she would have tried much harder to learn their ways before it had affected their children but that was not all on her it was also on him, he just hoped it was not too late for the future of their children.
Ned went to see his youngest son who was in the nursery and held him close telling him a story of the north that he could remember his own mother telling him as a young boy and then laid him in his cot and nodded to the smiling wet nurse who was working on what looked like clothes for the boy who was growing quickly. Next, he visited Bran who was just settling down to rest and who was surprised to see his lord father in his chambers as that was not a common theme but lit up at the sight of his father making him feel like a heal for not having spent more time with all of his children and took interest in them individually.
Checking in on his children he told each what he wanted them to be doing and then lastly with Jon and Rob who were excited about the extended trip as they had not been allowed out of the walls before. Making his last rounds he gathered his messages that had arrived over the day, took the notes he had made for each head for Luwin to manage and then making sure all their provisions and needs for the trip was completed and checking the guards one last time before falling into his own bed for the first time in years. He could only hope that things would work back out, and life become as happy as he had blissfully believed they had been.
After seeing the evidence and the mountain of letters written between his wife and Baelish and her father Ned knew that his wish of the night before would not be coming true. Not only were there jewels and coin found but other things that had value from the hold. He could only imagine what was in the letters themselves and would be going through those after his return and until then had banned all letters out from anyone but the master himself and all incoming was to be read and held for him by the same man. He ordered that all the hold be cleaned and searched quietly while he was away and that an account of all findings be made for him.
Calling the head of his armory and most trusted commander to his office he waited while writing out what he needed to say to get Jon Arryn to meet with him as soon as possible. "Mi Lord, Commander of Arms Earlstark is here along with Sargent at arms Cassell, and his son captain of the guard Cassell." The door guard said after having knocked and been called in.
"Good Send them in and then do not let anyone disturb us." Eddard said.
"Come we have things to discuss. As you know I leave in the morning for the wall and a tour of the western part of the North. What no one else knows is that I will be leaving the main body once on the way back and sailing to Storms End where the Hand of the King and his family along with the King and his family are staying for the summer festivals. I have personal business with them that could have dire consequences and will need you to protect Rob and Jon while I am gone and make sure that if the worst happens, they are able to hold the north." Ned told the three who were now standing much straighter and looking sharper at their Liege Lord.
"Do we need to prepare for war?" his cousin and leader of his armies asked in a gruff voice. He was a big man with dark hair and grey eyes and a long face. Built for the hard life of the north and was the oldest nephew of his father from his sister Loerna.
"War is always coming, and we have relaxed to much I fear, but we need to train and prepare as if there was one on our door steps. As for this trip it will be telling and I pray to the old gods I return but the truth I have to deliver is the kind that most would kill for and so yes I think we can expect fall out. But what kind I can not say yet. Both of you are to start making sure we can fight a war and win. We will be getting three new blacksmith in a few weeks and they are to start on weapons and armor. I want even the women to have something to protect themselves with if need be. Look at the fortifications and have repairs made if needed and then start inspecting the other holds that are of importance and do the same. Make sure the roads are passible for an army if we should have to move quickly and so on. I want a full account of where and what we have when I return and a plan on things that we need to address. I need you to put someone else in charge of the castle until this is over, I need your sole attention on this and nothing else." I explained.
"I have a person, Jorah Torrgin. I have been training to take over for a while just in case. I will make him start doing more and working with the Maester." Torrenh said gruffly.
"Jory, I need you to take this missive to Storms End with much haste and once Jon has an answer send it to White Harbor where I will be waiting for it if the timing happens how I have planned. Talk to no one and give this to only Jon Arryn the Hand of the King. He will be expecting you as I have already sent word that I have sent you." Take some men to ensure your safety and go by way of White Harbor where a ship is waiting to sail you the rest of the way. Ask for a man at the docks called Jenjin Starkwater of Summer Isles. As far as anyone knows there you are going to the free cities to retrieve more resources in grains for the east and some more glass houses. Those ravens have already flown and so will be waiting to bring back here and hide your true trip." Ned explained handing over a sowed skin holding a letter for his friend and mentor. He only hoped it was not too late and that what he believed from the letters and the pervious life was not true and he could be proven as nothing more than a horrible dream. Even as he thought it, he knew it wasn't the case and he had to move in ways to protect his friends and his beloved north but most of all his family.
The three talked late into the evening more about what was happening with the trip to the wall and some changes that they were hoping it would make things a bit different and change up training to attract a few new people. Areas in the North that were weak from houses becoming extinct or no heir having been had or named that would need to be sure up. How moat Cailin was so important and had fallen even more and needed to be fixed and manned because it was their first point from the south on that route which would stop having to deal with Walder Frey. He would have to think on these things and figure out what to do. It might be time to study the blood lines more closely and appoint heirs or establish new houses to hold these areas.
By sup that evening Ned was bone tired having spent many hours looking over blood lines and writing down information. Looking through the books and seeing how much he would need to establish new holds, fix old ones, and possibly buy the lands of the New Gift and Gift from the wall as it was not being utilized. Of course, this would be before he approached the subject of the disrepair of the wall castles and lack of manning. He felt it was time for a change in how the wall worked if it was to run the way it was made to and not a corrupted lawless group withstanding a few. He would have much to talk to his brother about and how once again he felt so unprepared for this role of leadership that was never supposed to be his.
"Children before you retire for the evening, I wanted to talk to you so follow me to my solar. My Lady please take Rickon and put him to bed and retire to your new rooms that have been set up for you across from the nursery. We will talk once I return." I tell his family and watch as his wife stormed off and the nurse maid following carrying Rickon with her. He knew his wife was not spending much time with this babe as he often was cranky and not wanting to be held or messed with but not wanting to be left alone either at time.
"Sansa and Arya, I want you to practice hard with your bows and new daggers that should be ready in the next day or so. Study the ways of the North and work on learning how to run the hold and the keeps and towns attached to them. It is not easy and many lives will be in your hands once you are married. Bran you will be the Stark in Winterfell and it will be up to you to take care of things and lead while I am gone. I do realize you are a boy of barely 9 years and so Maester Luwin and Castellan Torgin will be helping guide you and anything of great importance will hold till I return, or they will send me a raven. Just be fair and listen to both sides and find a middle ground. If not is had, then the one who passes the sentence must wield the sentence but due to your age and size they will be kept in the dungeon. None of you are to visit your Lady mother accept during your studies until I return and have decided on what to do. She has betrayed me and by extension you as you are Stark's." I sadly had to tell his children and knew from their looks that they were worried and scared but it was not helped he refused to lie to his children and those staying here would need to be told something.
"Rob, Jon, are you ready to leave? While this is exciting to get to finally travel beyond Wintertown keep in mind this is also a time to make connections and to learn how to lead your people, how to see what others do not and how to respect those who follow you and to listen to their needs. If something should happen, you are to stay close, and do as I say at all times even if it is to leave and go with a guard." I laid out and both his sons nodded that they understood and would listen.
"Okay off to bed all of you. Rob makes sure Theon is packed up and ready as well and that he has all of his belonging as he will be going with Lady Mormont to Bear Island for a spell before we decided where he will end up. I must talk to the King on this matter." Ned said and stood leading his children to the door of his solar and hugging them each as they left.
"Father, may we speak for a moment alone?" Jon asked still not used to asking for time with his father nor to speak alone.
"Yes, of course. I take it you have thought over what we spoke of and have questions or answers for me?" He asked.
"Yes father. Is there anyone left of that side of my family? Can I learn the histories of that house or would that draw attention to us. I have also decided while I am interested in understanding what happened and that sides histories; I would like to have a hold here in the North and be a Banner for you and then Rob. I would like to have a family but what should be done if they take after that other side. How do you protect us then?" Jon asked and I sighed it was more than I had hoped for, but he had brought up a valid point when it came time for him to take a wife and produce an heir.
"I will always protect you till my last breath and when the time is right, we shall tell Rob about you as well to carry on that protection. The most I can hope for is to search out someone that carries some of the same traits as the Targaryen's for you to wed and if that trait comes out we can attribute it to your lady wife's side. I am unsure how we can obtain histories of them or where to inquire about it without many questions or drawing attention because even now they are not a popular topic in conversation. I will have to think on this a bit. As for family there is some distant cousins; the King being one but he is the reason as to why we kept you a secret. There is a many greats uncle at the wall that I will introduce you to and maybe he will be a place to start. Lastly, you have an aunt and uncle across the narrow sea that escaped. The uncle, Viserys is just about 6 or 7 years older than you and your Aunt is your age. Viserys is known as the beggar king and is as crazy and mad as the mad king was, but your aunt has potential if not ever put in a position of power. They say that it is a flip of a coin on if they are mad or great, but it seems it goes hand in hand with each other and there is just no hope if given the resources. What would you like me to do because again it would be very dangerous and bring attention to us if we do anything?" Ned explained to the boy who was at least thinking on this and taking it seriously. Many would have chosen to become king and let glory lead them instead of a quiet hopefully peaceful life.
"We do not need another Mad King and if he is as mad as the stories claim then I do not want to bring them here. I wish I could help my aunt though and make her safe like you have done for me. Maybe we can think on this as well and see what happens as the time goes on." Jon said and Ned nodded as that was a very mature answer and one that he too would need to think on because while her dragons did help in some ways it also destroyed her and the realm. But she had also did some great things before she went mad by saving millions from bonds of slavery and protecting the horse people; so yes, he would need to really think on this.
"Do you think my lady mother would have been safe had she lived since the king loved her so?" Jon asked something he had been really wondering about after visiting her statue that mornings.
"King Robert loved your mother deeply and still does from all accounts of the last time I saw him and from him she would have I believe been safe and I think eventually with her pleading and love of you, you would have been as well. From the Lannister family and others who wanted power and wanted their daughters married to Robert to become queen not the both of you would have been murdered; and most brutally I fear, or an accident would have come to you both and replaced by the Queen. Power perverts most and those who seek to play the game either wins or dies and there is no room for honor and love. But again, the man I knew growing up and as my friend was not the man who laughed at the sight of Princess Elia and her children dead and mangled and I have not spoken to that man since that day." Ned tells his nephew and was sad to admit he wasn't sure on his friend at all or how he would be received when he went to Storms End.
"Thank you for speaking with me, I will be ready in the morning. May I take my leave now?" John asked and was granted leave while I sighed and retook my seat to finish the holds books and to start the very upsetting job of reading the letters from Baelish then her father and on to her sister trying to figure out his wife's role. He needed to know what level she betrayed him and prayed for just her being used and played by those much more manipulative than she was.
