Preparing for the Winter

Edmure POV

Riverrun was a humble castle, considering how many men in arms my household had. And it wouldn't be a mistake to call my family one of the richest families in Westeros, if not the richest. Tyrells were pretty close to us, but it was hard to tell as they wouldn't tell anyone how much gold they had, and rather than store the gold in dark vaults, I have put them in various projects.

The simplest of these projects were conducted right here, in Riverrun. With the farms flourishing in the Riverlands, the food was abundant. So, it is more important to find ways to preserve it. Like Riverrun, most keeps should have adopted storing food in cool, dry, and dark places. The cellar in Riverrun could hold enough food for thousands of people for years. And I have a separate storage that uses ice from the North.

I have advocated the importance of food storage to the other lords long before the war. Still, I couldn't enforce it on anyone, but with the winter coming, I hoped they would think of the future and do the right thing. At least nobody has objected to building glass gardens, and now almost every Keeps and richer household has built one, as glass was the industry almost exclusively belonging to me and House Martell and easily accessible.

"I am sorry, my lord, but we simply can't figure out how to improve it right now," My alchemist bowed his head in apology. "We tried various processes to seal the food. But iron would rust too fast, and we couldn't find a combination of metals to fix that problem. Even though ceramic seemed to work to some extent, in the end, it was best to seal the food in thick glass."

"How long does the food last?" I asked as I inspected the work.

"Up to half of the year," The alchemist replied, knowing it wasn't enough. "Any longer, and the food would start to spoil or sour. Even though we used wax to ensure the airtight sealing, the air still leaks. We simply can't find better solutions."

"Continue your work," I said, slightly disappointed but expecting these results. "It is not useless work you have done. With this, our fleet can be fed better food and will last longer voyages. You have done good work, so I expect even better results later."

"Thank you, my lord," The alchemist sighed in relief. "I promise not to disappoint you."

Too bad I wasn't too knowledgeable, otherwise it would be easier to make canned food. It has been years since I hired some alchemists, cooks, metalworkers, and scholars to work on this project. The idea seemed simple, but the technology wasn't up there to recreate my desired results. And I didn't have much time to check on them. But I was starting to get more and more concerned with the winter.

I was afraid that the winter might be even more cruel than I expected and I won't be able to support my people. Food would be the primary problem with prolonged winter, but no matter what I have tried, I couldn't make food last for years without it getting spoiled. Still, I didn't give up. Even without knowing how to do it, I am sure someone among the brilliant minds I have hired will find a way.

And the results weren't too bad either. With this method, we managed to preserve fruit and berries far longer than it was possible before. With it, we no longer had to worry about sailors lacking vitamins on long journeys. So, voyages to the Summer Islands and even Sothoryos would be far easier. So even if Westeros froze, we still could rely on the southern world for help.

…

Ser Desmond Grell was over sixty, but he still had a pair of healthy lungs to yell at his trainees. Henry and Miles, my new squires, were working hard with longbows with the rest of the new trainees. For hours, they would repeat various ways to shoot an arrow at various ranges until it was ingrained into their muscles, and they could do it without thinking.

Axel and Geralt joined them, too, but the kids couldn't last long, and soon, their muscles couldn't handle the training. Still, seeing the young lord joining in their training gave a lot of morale to the trainees. And it would be embarrassing if they complained when children three times younger than them didn't. Ultimately, I was satisfied with my men's training and had no complaints about Ser Desmond's methods.

"Axel, Geralt, get cleaned up, or you will be late for lessons with Maester Vyman," I called out to my boys, and they groaned in displeasure.

Every boy their age hated learning letters and numbers. But at least they were interested in history, so they weren't lost cause. Still, I wished they were more similar to their sister, who loved learning new things. She was curious as a cat. Sometimes too curious, the Maester didn't have the energy to keep up with her. So, she would go to the yard to learn swordsmanship or archery after her lessons.

"My lord," A guard came up to me as I made sure my children went in the correct direction and weren't pretending before running off to another place to play. "Lord Darry has arrived and asked for a meeting."

"Lead him to my solar," I replied, expecting Lord Darry to arrive sometime today.

Taking a last glance at my squires and seeing them working hard, I left for my solar. I had to climb the spiral staircase to reach my solar. The castle is triangular in design, and the solar of the Lord of Riverrun is triangular as well, with a triangular stone balcony jutting eastwards. I liked to watch my land from here. But this time, I didn't have time to enjoy myself as a knock at the doors forced me to return to the solar.

"Lord Raymun, I see you are in good health," I greeted the lord of Castle Darry. "How is your son? Is he well?"

"Can we skip the pleasantries?" Lord Raymun asked as he took a seat before me. "I thought you would come to Castle Darry, not the other way around."

"I apologize for misleading you, but plans changed," I replied, opening a bottle of wine and offering a cup to lord Raymun. "I have a proposal for you, though. I am thinking of making an order to deal with the refugees that turn to criminal activities rather than looking for honest work and make sure to deal with bandit groups before they do too much damage to my lands."

"Are you looking for men?" Lord Raymun asked as he took a cup of wine. "My household wouldn't be able to provide many men, and you would have saved more time if you just wrote me about it."

"No, I am not looking for men. I think many who have nowhere to go or do would take a chance to serve us," I replied. "But I need a man who could lead them. And I think you would suit the position quite well."

"You would entrust it to me?" Lord Raymun seemed surprised at my proposal.

"Ser Marq Piper and Ser Halmon Paege will serve you as the vice-captains under you," I explained further. "You will be provided with resources, but you will be responsible for the training and discipline of the new order. I have high hopes for the order to keep King's peace in the Riverlands and the Crownlands."

"What the new order will be called?"

"The Riverguard," I replied to Raymun's question. "I know it is a presumptuous name, but it is as it is."

"Why me?" Raymun asked, getting suspicious of my ulterior motives.

"Because you are an experienced knight, but most importantly, because you have little friends in Riverlands," I answered him truthfully. "Even though the order will have many men that fall under your command, without allies, you won't be able to point these men at me or the King. And at the same time, nobody will be able to take advantage of it, as I believe you won't be biased to anyone."

"I appreciate your honesty, and I will accept this honor you bestowed on me," Lord Raymun wasn't a man to overthink things.

"Good, good," I trusted lord Raymun's capabilities to handle himself and hold order in my lands, so I was relieved. "I have my steward bring you all the details you need, and you can ask him anything you want."

With one more thing done, I have to worry about other matters, like my visit to the Westerlands. Most of the Westerlands now belonged to the Iron Throne, but Casterly Rock and Lannisport were mine now. Yet, I didn't have a chance to visit them and establish my presence since the war ended. I needed to ensure that gold and iron mining was going well.

I also needed to start building a fleet in Lannisport. There were so many things to do that I was starting to think I didn't have enough time. I also needed to start looking for more coal sources. The small sources scattered around Westeros might not be enough for future consumption, especially when we must burn them to keep our homes warm.

I almost forgot how difficult it is sometimes to deal with my duties. The work just doesn't seem to end. I had to question why I even thought of taking the position of the Hand as if I was still stuck in Kingslanding. I might never be able to leave my solar. Tidying up my desk, I cracked my neck and started writing letters to various lords to prepare their reports for me.

…

"While serving as the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, he fell in love with a woman he saw from the top of the Wall. This woman had skin white as the moon and eyes like blue stars, and her skin was cold as ice, but Night's King was fearless and chased and caught and loved her, and when he gave his seed to her, he gave his soul as well."

I read the legend recorded in Archmaester Harmune's book, Watchers on the Wall, which included many stories of the Nightfort to my children as they were cuddled in my bed. I was more tired than them, but they refused to sleep, so I thought I would scare them with this story. Yet, rather than scaring them, they seemed to get more excited as I continued to read.

"Night's King brought this woman back to the Nightfort and declared her a queen and himself her king. With strange sorcery, he bound the Night's Watch brothers to his will and ruled the Nightfort as his castle for thirteen years with his corpse queen by his side. During the dark years of his reign, horrific atrocities were committed, of which tales are still told in the north. It was not until Brandon the Breaker, the King in the North, and Joramun, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, joined forces that Night's King was brought down and the Night's Watch freed."

"What happened next?" Elia asked as she put her head on my shoulder.

"After his fall, when it was discovered that Night's King had been making sacrifices to the Others, all records of him were destroyed, and his very name was forbidden and forgotten," I continued as my tired eye struggled to be open. "But the North didn't forget the atrocities that were done, for North remembers."

"Will the Others come back?" Axel asked, yet I couldn't detect any fear in his eyes.

"Maybe they will, and with them, they will bring the long night that will last through generations. Children will be born in the dark, and they will die in the dark," I was either a terrible storyteller or my children have heard this story too many times to get even a bit scared. "But even if they did, the Night's Watch will protect us. The Wall will stop them and banish them back to the coldest parts of the world where they came from."

"Nuh, Dad will defeat," Geralt said like it was a matter of fact. "Like you have defeated all the villains before. You will kill the Others, and then people will sing about you."

I was too tired to argue with them, so I put the book down and blew off the candles. Once the room fell into darkness, my eyes closed off. The last thing I felt before falling asleep was my children fighting over a blanket and room on the pillows.