Chapter 2: The Night Watchman
Summary:
For every positive relationship that grew between the Free Folk and the Watch, it seemed two negative ones remained.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)
Chapter Text
THE NIGHT WATCHMAN
Eddison Tollett didn't believe in many gods. As a matter of utter certainty, he believed in two gods. The god of shit and the god of death. It was the only rational belief, Edd maintained. Men do two things with certainty – they shit and they die. Most men shit themselves when they die and there had been men who died while shitting themselves. It was, all around, a virtuous and pious cycle.
His gods had convinced him that there was really nothing to do about Jon. Nothing could bring him back, nothing could save him, nothing could rectify the mistakes of the past. Jon had shit himself. Jon had died. Now, there was one path remaining. Go out the same way.
Oh yes, he had told the old Onion Knight he would get Tormund. And so he would. The big fucker would love to kill someone for killing Jon, Edd knew this. But beyond that, Edd had no real plans to live past today. If they won the day, great. Edd just wasn't going to win with them.
The road East of Castle Black was shoddy, poorly maintained, and frozen. Like Castle Black itself. The whole fucking North was frozen, really, a shithole of a land. But, if his gods had chosen this land to be a shithole, Edd couldn't argue. He could complain, of course, he wasDolorousEdd for a reason. But Edd wouldn't argue with their verdict. Even his horse was shit, one of the few living horses at Castle Black, barely able to go faster than a trot. Had Stannis really taken all of the good knights with him to die? Bloody fucker.
Davos had said an hour, he could hold out for an hour. Edd wasn't sure how much he could trust the man and therefore had agreed with him. Edd would be back within the hour, with as many wildlings as he could muster. Problem was, the Wildling encampment was a few miles away, probably a league. Took him a quarter of an hour to get to the encampment, would take them probably twice or more that number of minutes to get back.
And they needed to get backnow.
Edd didn't even dismount his horse as he strode into the encampment. "TORMUND!"
The Wildlings tore into a frenzy once he entered, galloping on his half-dead horse, driving through anything in his way to get to where he knew the big Wildling was living.
"TORMUND!"
The giant of a man burst open his tent, wearing no top and his pants even looked hastily assembled on his frame.
"Tollett! What the fuck?!"
"They killed him, Tormund, they killed him!"
"Who?"
"Thorne, whoever the fuck helped him. Probably the officers."
The giant giantslayer stares at him like he can't believe what Edd is saying. He does, Edd knows this, but Jon was achieving a status among the Free Folk that not even Mance had achieved after Hardhome. To have him stripped away from them too must be almost too much to bear.
"UP!" Tormund roars after regaining a grip. "THE FUCKING CROWS KILLED JON SNOW! THEY WANT TO KILL YOU TOO AND RAPE OUR WOMEN!"
Despite the situation, Edd couldn't help but laugh. The relationship between the Black Brothers and the Free Folk was tense at best, downright murderous at best. Between individual Black Brothers and Free Folk, however, there were a few positive relationships brewing.
The Free Folk streamed out of their tents, clutching their weapons and cloaks over their half-nude bodies. Though it was getting colder and colder below the Wall, Edd knew it didn't come close to the cold of the True North. The Free Folk were cold in their bones. Edd thought he saw one or two full nude Free Folk walk out of their tent, holding walrus pelts, which meant they were Men of the Frozen Shore, men who Edd had seen swim from the shore of Hardhome to the Night's Watch fleet waiting for them and survive. Well, some of them at least.
"The fuck does it mean to us?"
Edd turned to watch the big hulking warrior approach. The scars running down his head signified he was a Thenn as much as the brutish looking axe he was carrying. A gift from Jon, if Edd remembered correctly, for killing Sigorn's father. Was it his father's axe? Edd couldn't remember, didn't much care. It was a gift, however, and Edd knew the Free Folk better than to spit on hosts as courteous as Jon.
"Do you forget who gave you that axe?" Edd growled back.
Sigorn scowled in return. "Should been my father that gave me this axe."
Edd couldn't say anything in return, he could only glare at the Thenn. For every positive relationship that grew between the Free Folk and the Watch, it seemed two negative ones remained.
"But," Sigorn continued and turned to the assembling Thenns and other Free Folk. "My father was weak. Got killed by a pretty little crow. Mance Rayder was weak, got himself killed by a spindly Southron King. I thought Jon Snow was strong. After all, Jon Snow killed my father. Killed a White Walker too, yeh?" Sigorn dragged the blade of his axe across the ground as he spun to face Edd. "If he was so strong, how'd he die to a few crows?"
"Is getting stabbed in the back considered weak nowadays?"
"They stabbed him in the back?"
"Metaphorically speaking."
"What the fuck does that mean?" Dim Dalba, one of the Hornfoot chiefs, asked.
"It means they betrayed him. Don't know how, don't know why. But when I found his body he was unarmed, covered with knife wounds." Edd looked to Tormund. If he was heading down a wrong path here, he needed to know so he could go home and die with his brothers instead of here. The giantsbane simply nodded. "He had left his sword in his office. A bit of an idiot, aye," there were some chuckles in the crowd, "but not a weak idiot. If Jon knew he'd be in danger, he'd have brought that sword and would be standing here today, not me."
Sigorn ran his hands up and down the shaft of his father's axe. "Still don't answer my question – what's it mean to us?"
"If these betrayers have enough of the Crows on their side, they have our hostages," a Walrus leader shouted. One of the ones who had "willingly" given up a hostage to Jon Snow. "They'll kill them if we make a move."
"They killed Jon Snow because he let us through." Tormund stepped next to Edd's horse and stared down Sigorn.
"We've been through for over a month now," the Walrus claimed. "Why kill him now?"
"Because that Southron King, Stannis, is dead." There were some muted cheers at Edd's announcement. He didn't think any of the Free Folk held any love for Stannis after the Mance execution. "Even with the killing of Mance, Stannis liked Jon Snow enough. He wouldn't let Thorne kill him. With Stannis dead, there was no protection left for Jon."
"As I was saying," Tormund growled at the Walrus woman, "they killed Jon Snow because he let us through. You think they want us here? They'll use our hostages to force us back out the wall, or worse, to lure us into a trap. The people who killed Jon Snow want us dead too."
Sigorn stepped forward, pressed up against Tormund, but stared straight at Edd. If Edd hadn't seen what he'd seen Beyond-the-Wall, he'd be quaking in his boots. But Edd had seen what he'd seen, and Thenns couldn't scare him that much any more. "I'm asking the crow, one last time, what's it mean to us?"
"It means the crows who killed Jon Snow will try to kill you, let you die, or force you Beyond-the-Wall again. It means that if you come with me, kill those who killed Jon Snow, the man who brought you Behind-the-Wall, I can get you your hostages back. We kill those who killed Jon Snow, and your stay here becomes far safer."
Edd scanned the party. Near two-thousand fighting Wildings, and a giant, had been assembled here, waiting for Jon to send them to castles along the Wall. A third had come from Hardhome, and the disaster that was, while the majority of the rest had been let Behind-the-Wall by Jon, after being saved by Tormund. They all owed their life to Jon Snow, Edd knew that, and they knew that. Maybe most of them weren't willing to die for him the way they would have died for Mance, but they would happily kill for him.
"What do you say?" Sigorn asked, spinning to the assembled warriors. "One last time, shall we kill some Crow?"
The ensuing battle was over after that. Edd didn't know quite how many were supporting Thorne, but however many there were, they couldn't hold out against a giant, much less a giant and two-hundred Thenns. Tormund and the Giant – Wun Wun – headed to the main gate-that-wasn't-a-gate. Edd had told them to distract the traitors, even though Wun Wun probably could break through with a flick of his finger. Sigorn and the Walrus Woman – Jorra, Edd thinks her name is – came with him through a back door used by brothers to sneak out to Mole's Town. Luckily for them, it led to the tunnels below the Lance, where the hostages are being kept.
With the hostages secured – in the midst of the fighting and chaos it seemed Thorne had forgotten his original goal – the Thenns and Walrus clansmen stormed the training yard. It was a brutal showcase of how good Free Folk were at killing people. Some twenty or so officers were at the base of the King's Tower, holding shields above their head, trying to breach the door. Another dozen were trying to pick off the archers holed up in the windows of the King's Tower.
The sight of the siege relieved Edd. It wasn't that he hated the Onion Knight, but the man was Stannis' man and something was wrong with Stannis. It felt good to know the Hand was more honorable than the King he had served.
And really, Thorne could only muster thirty men against Jon? There were two-hundred at Castle Black. Edd didn't know how many were stuck in the King's Tower, he would guess about the same number as when he had left. So five and forty men fighting over Castle Black. Where were the other hundred-and-fifty?
"Fucking cowards," Edd growled as he hit a brother other the head with the pommel of his blade. He didn't mind that Sigorn was burying his axe into some officer's head, he didn't much care that the Walrus Woman had smashed another officer's chest into the ground using her walrus-tusk morning star, and he could give less shits about the way Tormund was carving through the archers atop the gate-that-wasn't-a-gate. But he didn't want to kill a brother in combat. They'd hang for their treachery, aye, and maybe Edd would be the one to release the gallows, but he didn't want to kill a brother in combat.
"They didn't fight well, no," Sigorn laughed, cleaning off his blade on a dead brother's back.
"I meant the other hundred-and-fifty brothers cowering in their barracks right now."
The Thenns and Walrus Clansmen were looking decided put out by the short battle. Sigorn had gotten most of the kills so the new Magnar wasn't part of that group. "As much as I like killing Crows, probably for the best they didn't fight. Too many dead men isn't a good thing these days."
"Never thought I'd hear a Thenn say that," Jorra the Walrus Woman chuckled, sitting atop a dead brother.
"Well, the world is ending."
The door to the King's Tower opened. Dougas walked out first, all of his height and lank meant he had to duck a bit. "Took you long enough."
"Caught them all sleeping and half-undressed," Edd shrugged, coming in to give his brother a hug. "They complained about not breaking their fast first."
"Careful, Crow," Sigorn growled. "Without us, your friends in that tower wouldn't have survived." The Thenn looked around at the dead bodies of crows. Only two of them had Watch arrows in fatal places. "Not with aim like that. How we ever failed to take the Wall is beyond me."
"You tried to take a 700-foot Wall of Ice. That's how you failed," Edd shot back. With brothers, Edd could snort and make a few jokes about the misery of life and he'd be best friends with those men for years. But with Free Folk, it was all about strength. Or at least Thenns. Strength in combat, strength of will, strength of words. Sigorn wouldn't respect Edd if he couldn't hold his own.
"Guess you're right." A mumbling of shouts and cracks of bone turned their attention over at a few Thenns dragging Thorne and Bowen Marsh and Olly towards them.
"You fucking traitor!" Thorne snarled and spit at the ground under Edd's feet. "For eight-thousand years we held the Wall against –"
Edd shut the imperious man up with a fist to the nose. As Thorne recoiled, the yard erupted in cheers from Free Folk and Black Brothers alike. Looking out over them, Edd saw the rest of the Castle slowly emerging from their barracks and holding their weapons tight to their chest. He saw no anger in them, no sign that they were about to attack the Free Folk. These were new recruits, green boys who hadn't been Beyond-the-Wall, had only heard stories of what lay beyond. They might not have believed everything about the Others, but they knew that Thorne was in the wrong. Just too craven to do anything about it.
"You really think the Wall was keeping the Free Folk out?" Thorne was gone, Edd saw it in his eyes. So was Olly. Both of them looked at him likehewas the fucking Night King. Sam had told him about Thorne's threat, that even once Sam and Jon took their oaths they'd be boys still. But Sam and Jon had killed White Walkers, had stared the True Enemy in the face. In reality, it was Thorne who was the boy, and Jon Snow the man.
"Take em to the ice cells. Dougas, you mind showing our guests where to bring these traitors."
Dougas smiled at the Thenn men who were carting the three officers around. "Not at all. Care for a tour?"
As they walked away, Ser Davos walked out of the tower and the Free Folk drew their weapons.Fuck me, Edd thought. Not even a moment of respite.
"You're that Southron king's man!" Sigorn took a step towards Davos. Edd thought he might be too late, but he shouted at Sigorn to stop anyways.
"He's on our side, Thenn, not Stannis'."
The Thenn didn't stop, not that he was surprised, though he did cease pulling out his weapon, and instead stopped right in front of the Onion Knight and straightened to a full head above the half-handed man. "But hewasat Stannis' side when they burnt Mance."
"Only out of duty. I counseled the King against it. I tried to stop him." That he found only the slightest hint of panic in Davos' voice made Edd respect him just a bit more. Not too many men could stand up to a Thenn without shitting themselves.
"Some shit counselor you were then."
"The King refused to listen to me."
"And in the end it didn't matter." The voice and sight of the Red Woman, gliding through the door, made Edd's stomach curl up. She was a truly freakish woman. Oh yeh, she was pretty, but Edd didn't care much for her looks when all she made him want to do was throw himself on his own fucking pyre. "Mance did not burn, and Stannis is dead. Perhaps if Mance had burnt, Stannis would still live. Perhaps Jon Snow would live."
"If Jon Snow was alive by blood magic, it wouldn't be a life worth living." Tormund looked tired, now that the rush of the battle was gone. Edd had never seen the raider look so tired. Not even as he sat in the ice cells after the Battle beneath the Wall.
"Valar morghulis."
"The fuck does that mean?" Jorra the Walrus Woman asked, her grip tightening around her morning star.
"All men must die, Jorra, daughter of the Great Walrus. Andvalar dohaeris, all men must serve. Sometimes even by dying we serve." The Red Woman ran her fingers along the scars of Sigorn's face. The bitch had balls, Edd wouldn't deny that. "You all have seen the Others. I thought that even in death Mance might serve in the fight against the Others."
"What's going to stop me," the magnar growled as he tore her hands away from his scars, "from making you serve even in death?"
Edd saw Davos gaze at the Red Woman, worry evident across his face. Not the type of worry he had seen when Davos asked to see Jon's dead body, the type of worry Edd had with Sigorn now. Edd was afraid Sigorn would kill the Red Woman, but Davos was worried the Red Woman would kill Sigorn.
"Nothing." The Essossi witch smirked at Sigorn, slipped her hand out of his grasp, and trailed away.
"There's something wrong with that woman," Tormund spit out.
"You have no idea," Davos' rough Flea Bottom accent responded. "Do you wish to see the body?"
The four Free Folk leaders – Dim Dalba had joined during the stand-off between Sigorn and Davos but hadn't said a word – nodded. "We should get wood for a fire too," Edd remarked. "I'll get that started."
The Free Folk chiefs and leaders filed into the King's Tower of Castle Black, to pay their respects to the 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, lead along by the Hand to a former Baratheon King of the Seven Kingdoms.
How about that for a story, Edd thought to himself.
Notes:
Okay, my Edd is shit, I apologize. I just thought a POV character from the Wall might be useful. Also, Edd is far more of a passive character. I don't like passive POV characters in GoT, because the coolest part about the show (you know, the one with four seasons?) was thateverycharacter felt like they had some sort of backstory or motivation to do what they did when. I'm just struggling a bit to find Edd's motivation/backstory at this point besides from "avenge Jon".
Some things about changes from the show. Some major plotlines are still going to be dropped because I am going to stick to one or two limitations the showrunners had. I'm not going to pretend that I like the decision to drop fAegon or cut Val or mess up the Dorne plot so badly, but I do understand a bit of the reasoning behind those decisions. Regardless of money and time, which I think we all know by the end of the show wasn't an issue, there's still the whole audience reactions to deal with. I am not, obviously, writing this so HBO can remake Game of Thrones using my writing. But I am going to accept that adding in fAegon, Val, the Martell Plot, or SuperVillain Euron to Season 6 would have severely confused the audience. Like 6 seasons in and we'readdingand not subtracting?
Basically, the showrunners lost their chance to add major players after Season 5, in my opinion. And no, the Sand Snakes or Euron do not count as major players. At least not this version of them.
So no fAegon, no Val, no Lady Stoneheart, no "Give Myrcella a throne but then have her be gruesomely transfigured by Darkstar." Because yeah, the audience of GoT couldn't really handle that in Season 6. Also there are only the two Tyrell children. I think shoving in Willas and Garlan in Season 6 feels like a bit of a cop-out. Why weren't they mentioned at all before? We've been with the Tyrells since season 2, but now that we need more Tyrells they just appear out of the woodwork? Sorry, not going to happen. (THIS IS NOT CONFIRMING THAT THE LIGHT OF THE SEVEN HAPPENS!)
Buutttt Myrcella is alive, Barristan is alive, and Arianne exists. Euron has more than just a "big cock" and has magic, but he's not the world-ender I think he's going to be in the books.
Speaking of said books, since I haven't read them and don't plan on doing so until either GRRM dies or publishes the last two, that's one other reason I don't want to bring in too many characters that I don't know from the show. There will be book details – like Jon taking hostages, like most of the free folk not coming from Hardhome – but not a whole lot of book characters. Except for Jon. Unless I'm wrong, I should write book!Jon how Season 4!Jon was portrayed? The whole, fuck honor, I'm going to kill Mance under his tent because it needs to happen Jon, right?
As for the next few POVs, here's the next three:
Jorah, Margaery, and Arya
Hope you all enjoyed, and happy reading. If you did, please leave a kudo. If you think there's somethings I can improve upon, please let me know in the comments!