Chapter 5
266AC: Winterfell
Brandon
The Winterfell heir walked between the halls of Winterfell with Shiera by his side. The silver-blonde beauty was carrying a wooden box in her arms. "Lord Brandon, are you certain this will work?" She asked. "I mean no disrespect, my lord, but if this was this simple then why didn't anyone else try to sell it to the South?"
"Most of the time the hardest problems have the simplest solutions, my lady," Brandon replied with a light smirk. "How is Sylvia's study coming along?"
"She is doing quite fine for her age. At least that's what archmaester Boros said to me." Shiera answered. "Although she is more inclined towards playing with swords than reading books."
Brandon chuckled, "If that's the situation, I'm more than happy to assist her with that." The silver-blonde beauty sighed, "My lord, I humbly request that you refrain from encouraging her unsavoury behaviour."
"Come now, my lady," He smirked, "In the North, women who are warriors are highly sought after."
"I understand that it's impossible for me to change your mind if you try to teach her, but please ensure her safety, my lord," Shiera said with a sigh.
"Rest assured, my lady, I'll take the utmost care." Brandon said, "Now, is there any new information about maester Walys?" The silver-blonde beauty shook her head in denial, "Only the usual. Secret messages to the Hightower and the Citadel. With lecherous glances towards me."
"Shiera, if you are uncomfortable then you can always—" Before he could finish the silver-blonde beauty spoke up, "You have already done enough for me and my sister, my lord. If you do any more, the maids will definitely start to gossip about how the Valyrian slut is corrupting the young heir with her cunt or how the young lecherous heir has bought a southern slut and her bastard daughter for his pleasure."
"I just had my sixth name day celebrated a few weeks ago, lady Shiera."
"Yes, my lord, but you will find more logic in horse shit than in a woman's gossip." She smiled lightly. "Fine." The Wild Wolf grumbled, "Let's just go and meet my father."
Rickard
Rickard was seated near the fireplace in his chambers while Lyarra swung their newlyborn daughter, Lyanna, in her arms.
The last five moons have been quite hectic in Winterfell. As soon as his eldest son came back from the Citadel, he forcibly took the blacksmith and made him create some long and bendy iron pipes for a few weeks. Then he forcibly took the castle carpenter and stonemason and made them install those pipes in various places of the castle.
Two moons later the Winterfell castle had the most advanced sewerage system he had ever seen. Brandon even made some potions with the new maester and turned the shits into fertilizer for the nearby farmers and the glass garden of Winterfell. By doing this, their castle's food production increased by double.
His son didn't stop there, no. Brandon then went on to create some more new machines that helped to produce very finer quality papers which they sold to the Citadel and other houses for some decent amount of money. Maester Walys wanted to send the process to Citadel but Brandon refused to share the secrets with the maester. Rickard thought he would get some protest from the new maester but got none. Maester Walys still bothered his son for several weeks until Lyarra and he decided to put an end to it.
However, despite the new paper business, they were still losing money since it was mostly used by the maesters of Citadel regularly. Brandon was also adamant about letting commoners learn to read and write. For what, he did not specify. But with the help of the new maester and the printing press, he was educating every man with trade and every child from the age of four to sixteen. Boy and girl alike.
A knock on the door pulled Rickard out of his thoughts. "Lord Stark, your son and lady Shiera wishes to speak to you." A guard called from outside.
"Send them in." Rickard orderd.
"Father, Mother," Brandon walked in with his ever-beautiful maid in tow. "Lord Stark, Lady Stark," Shiera bowed.
"What kind of mad idea do you bring today, son?" Rickard asked, hoping to get this over quickly.
"How rude!" The young Stark pouted, "Can't I even come for a visit?"
Lyarra giggled, "Come now, Bran! You hardly ever visit your father without any plans,"
"Speak up, boy." Rickard voiced. "Fine." Brandon grumbled, "I have this idea about a way to make us easy money and expand our trade." The Wild Wolf continued, "And the best part is this trade isn't going to cost us any money. Just some little manpower and time."
"Oh-ho?" The Winterfell Lord looked at his son curiously, "I hope that your brilliant idea does not involve digging up mines. The ground is frozen solid and in a few moons, autumn will come to an end and winter will arrive."
"We won't be digging for any mines, Father. My plan involves, digging up snow." Brandon signalled Shiera to put the wooden box down. "We both know how hot it gets in the south during the summer. What I propose is to cut ice from the blocks from the pounds around Winterfell and store it in creates like this. The crates are filled with sawdust and straw. We can sell those blocks of ice down the south for quite a lot of gold."
Rickard sat and looked at his son for a moment. The boy came up with another genius plan. Selling, ice blocks in summer to the Southerners. If it worked then even he knew the lords in Dorne and the free cities of Essos would pay quite a lot of money for it. At worst, if the plan fails then they wouldn't have lost anything in general.
"Alright, Bran. I'll order the folks to start working on it from tomorrow. I'll also have to send a letter to lord Mandely."
267 AC: Winterfell
Brandon
Four months or moons as it was called in this world have passed since Brandon came up with the idea to trade ice with the free cities of Essos and the results spoke for themselves. He was able to sell the first six batches of ice before winter arrived.
The Mandelys did their part and took the ice to the warmest location in the south. Lys, Volantis, Meereen, The Summer Islands and many more southern cities have already started to spread the word about how the young wolf heir had preserved the colds of winter so that he may share it with the rest of the knownworld.
Brandon also made sure to brand every crate with their house sigil to build the Stark brand. Before any white raven arrived with winter news, thousands of gold dragons flew into the Stark household's coffers. Even in Winter the demands of Ice never went down. Cities near Slaver's Bay and Old Valyria always had a warmer climate so the demands never truly went down for the Stark Ice.
So, to make a profit out of it the Wild Wolf introduced a new style of fur clothes for the smallfolk. It helped them stay warm for longer in cold winters and mine more ice from the frozen ponds. Two weeks ago a black raven arrived in Winterfell, declaring the end of a surprisingly small winter season. The maesters have already recorded this event as the Eight-Moon Winter.
In Brandon's opinion, it may have something to do with Flare's presence in this world. The Black Phoenix was quite the powerhouse with her fire affinity. Although she built a nest in the broken tower of Winterfell, she also travelled a lot. The firey bird was a very free spirit.
Brandon was currently sitting inside the newly made office room inside the castle and reading reports of the Stark finances that his secret assassin made. 'Jaqen's report indicates that we have made a profit of seven million gold dragons with just ice trade alone.' He read the report again to make sure to go through every single detail thoroughly. 'That's a lot of money. Let's see if I can convince Father for two million dragons for my own use.'
'That amount may be enough for Shiera's spy network program.' The wild wolf thought.
Archmaester Boros has proven to be quite trustworthy to Brandon. The man only seeks knowledge about magic and alchemy. He also doesn't have any ulterior motives behind his kind gesture. 'Boros and Shiera have proven themselves quite trustworthy.' He smirked. "It's time to reward them with my Binder's Mark."
In the Gods Wood Brandon sat with his trusted maid Shiera as they waited for Archmaester Boros's arrival. They were sitting at the edge of the hot spring near the Weirwood heart tree. The Winterfell heir focused his attention on the heart tree. For some reason, it was sending powerful magical impulses.
'That's odd. The tree magic signature was not this powerful since the last time I visited.'
He decided to check the heart tree after his talks with Borors and Shiera. "Is something wrong, my lord?" questioned his silver-blonded maid. "No, my lady. I was just admiring the heart tree." The Wild Wolf replied.
"The heart trees of the old gods are quite beautiful," Shiera said with a smile. "I feel very welcomed in this woods."
"Is that so?" Brandon asked curiously. She nodded in response. "Why? Is that something wrong with it?"
"No, of course not, my lady." He replied with a smile. "Most foreigners feel uncomfortable near any Weirwood tree."
Shiera raised her eyebrow, "Then why do I feel so welcomed in these woods?" Brandon smiled and answered, "It means that the old gods have accepted you as a northerner and a member of House Stark."
"Oh, my! Lord Brandon, I don't think our union could ever happen. I quite old." She playfully blushed. "You're nineteen, Lady Shiera." He chuckled, "You're anything but old. And as for our union…we could always run away. We could even take Sylvia with us and raise her as our own."
"Oh…but that would break my little sister's heart. She has a massive crush on you, my lord." Shiera giggled. "Please, my lady, you underestimate me. I can take care of both the older and the younger version." Brandon replied with a smirk.
"Ambitious, aren't you, my lord?" She rhetorically asked as they both burst out laughing.
After some time and a few small talks later Archmaester Boros arrived and bowed towards the young Winterfell heir and his maid. "Lord Stark. Lady Shiera."
"Lord Stark is my father, archmaester." Brandon began, "I told you to call me by my first name."
"Apologies, Lord Brandon," The archmaester smiled, "Old habits."
"Anyway, let's not waste time," Brandon stated. "I have called both of you to inform something. But first tell me, what do you two know about magic?"
"Well, not too much, my lord," Shiera answered. "Magic has been lost for more than a century. The only people who can use magic nowadays are warlocks of Qarth and shadowbinder from Asshai."
"Even their magic is not what it used to be." Boros nodded and continued, "A few years ago when three comets showered many thought magic would return again but no such reports ever came. People of Qarth and Asshai called that event, the false of magic stars."
Brandon nodded in understanding. 'My powers alone mean that magic is real…so those people must be lying or the rebirth of magic hasn't affected them.' He began, "What I'm about to tell you must stay between us." The Wild Wolf summoned golden flames on one hand and crystal-clear water on the other.
"Magic is real." Brandon voiced as both of them looked at his powers in awe. "On the day I was born, magic was brought back to this world with the blessing of the strongest goddess." He continued, "I was blessed by her in magic, knowledge, strength."
"I knew it. I knew magic was real and it came back in this world." Boros blabbered while Shiera looked at me in shock. "Focus, archmaester Boros," Brandon instructed. "Oh!Yes-yes! Lord Brandon! Please forgive me but this is all very exciting for me." Boros replied as Brandon looked towards his maid. "Are you scared of me, my lady?"
Hearing the question Shiera snapped out of her shock and shook her head. "No, my lord. It's nothing like that. It's just very hard for me to comprehend the things you just informed me. I mean gods and magic."
"I know it's hard to accept this, Lady Shiera. But I speak the truth." The Winterfell heir stated. "All of the new knowledge I'm introducing in this world is possible because of the blessing I have been given by my goddess." The silver-blonde beauty nodded in understanding while the archmaester rubbed his long white beard.
"That makes so much more sense. You truly are a remarkable genius, Lord Brandon." Boros continued, "Most natural-born geniuses are fast learners in one or two subjects. Some are natural-born fighters others a born to be scholars or healers. But you always showed brilliance in every aspect."
"Thank you for your kind words archmaester." The Winterfell heir smiled. "But there is another reason why I called both of you here than to just inform you both about my gifts."
"I have another power, in which I can bestow a fraction of my powers to others, like a small blessing," Brandon informed. "The main reason I called both of you here is because I want to bestow a fraction of my powers to both of you. Magic for the both of you and strength for Shiera."
"If you pledge your undying fealty to me and only me then I will share my powers with you." The Winterfell heir narrowed his eyes and gazed at both of them.
"For as long as I could remember, I always wanted to wield the powers of the old legends." The archmaester whispered. "When I was young wanted to use magic to help my mother. Even after her death, I never stopped looking for magic," Tears started to fall from Boros's eyes as he continued, "Years after years of searching, I finally have a chance to fulfil my dream…I accept. I swear by the old gods and the new that I Boros, in the name of my deceased mother, Beissy, pledge my undying loyalty to Lord Brandon of House Stark, heir to Winterfell."
The Wild Wolf smiled as he looked at Boros who was kneeling in front of him. He turned his attention to his sliver-blonde beauty maid. She looked slightly conflicted.
"My lord, can I ask you something?" Shiera asked.
Brandon nodded in response. "What would you expect from me if I choose to have a part of your power?"
"The same as usual." He shrugged. "I will expect you to use your powers for my interest first. Other than that, the same as usual."
Shiera locked her eyes with Brandon for a few moments until she sighed. "I Shiera, in the name of my little sister, Sylvia and the goddess of love and beauty Mirabella pledge my undying loyalty to my lord and saviour, Brandon of House Stark, heir to Winterfell and the new progenitor of magic." She kneeled beside the old archmaester.
Brandon shook his left hand with Boros and a mark appeared on his left tricep. He then walked up to Shiera with a smirk. Since she was kneeling in front of him her head was right below his. Brandon quickly cupped her face and kissed her on the lips.
Brandon inserted his tongue inside Shiera's mouth and danced with it. He inserted his right hand inside her dress and fondled her left breast as a mark appeared on her left chest. "M-m-m-my lord! Maester Boros…" She tried to protest between the kiss but Wild Wolf drove his tongue deeper in her mouth.
After a minute both of their lips parted away for air and Brandon smirked, "Don't worry about the old maester, my lady, I put him under an illusion. In his eyes, I just kissed your hand."
Shiera gasped in awe as Brandon explained, "We can do a lot more than that with magic. I'll teach you everything about it." He smirked, 'It's a shame, my body is still seven. Puberty is going to be a bitch.'
Chapter 5 Done.
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I will be unavailable till November 11 due to my work. This story will resume after November 15th.
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