The land that stretched out before Robb was one of jutting hills and torn-up fields, with the river cutting through it. The hills themselves were wild with shrubbery and Robb knew that the fields had been torn up in the war, as Lannister forces clashed with his own for control of the ford. But this place had been famous as a battlefield before the war, for this was the Ruby Ford, where Robert Baratheon had slain Rhaegar Targaryen and won his crown.

It was to this famous site that Robb had called his first crown wearing of the southern circuit of his procession. Here, for the first time, he would sit in open court and allow public petitions to be made to him and give his judgements. He wondered who would come to him today, who would be the first to come and ask him for favour openly, what petitions would he have to pass judgement on, and how would the realm react to his rulings.

"Olyvar," his equerry spurred his horse up next to Robb's. "Set everything up along the banks of the river."

"At once, your grace," Olyvar said, and immediately started issuing instructions. Robb had purloined Olyvar from his sister's guards after too many days of trying to manage the administration of the travelling court, the setting up of camps, resupplies and so on, as well as that of his new kingdom. So his former squire had taken the position, leaving Perwyn to command Roslin's travelling guard and Robb to manage the matters of the realm.

The camp was established quickly, with everyone now used to who set up their tents where. When they passed a castle or town, Robb would sleep within, but since he was to hold court here, they would camp. Already tents were erected in the area from those who had come to petition him. Three river boats moored near the ford, oars stowed, carrying petitioners from further afield, no doubt.

Roslin, not fond of sleeping in tents or wheelhouses, had wanted to push on to nearby Darry and hold court there, but Robb had refused. Darry was in a sorry state to say the least. When Gregor Clegane had wiped out the line of House Darry he had left the castle a ruin. The household had been exterminated with the boy lord Lyman, and Robb had put a garrison in to hold it until it was determined what was to be done with it.

Robb did not want his first crown wearing to be in a ruin, that would bode ill for his new kingdom.

In his tent, Robb changed from his riding clothes to more regal attire. A doublet in white and grey, black trousers with fur-lined boots and gloves. The clouds were not dark today, but there was still a coldness in the air.

As he lay the gloves on his bedroll, the tent curtain was pulled back and Olyvar stepped in. "Your Grace, my sister wishes to see you."

Robb nodded. "Show her in please."

Roslin, his short and demure bride entered and bowed low, not meeting his eyes. Grey Wind barely stirred at her entrance. "Your Grace, thank you for seeing me."

"How can I help you, my lady?"

Roslin bit her lip. "I just wanted to ask if you were well, we've been riding for many days."

Robb nodded. "I am, thank you for asking," he replied kindly, not reminding her that he had spent weeks in the saddle in heavy armour when at war.

She didn't follow up with another question, so he picked up his cloak, deep Tully blue with a red trim and was about to swing it up and around him when she spoke again. "Can I help you with that, my king?" He paused, then nodded, holding out the cloak to her. She was so small compared to him that he had to bend to allow her to reach up around his shoulders and pull the cloak about them. But she fastened it at his collar with practiced ease. "And your gloves?"

He nodded again. Roslin was not so comfortable with spontaneous conversation, he had learned since they had left the Twins, at least not with him. From what his mother said, she was far more comfortable with her and Arya and the ladies of her entourage, two of her half-sisters and a lady from House Haigh, one of Lord Frey's vassal houses. Hero worship, she called it. Whatever it was, it concerned Robb. Had he chosen poorly? Perhaps he should have chosen the bolder Alyx, he needed a wife able to hold a room with the likes of Roose Bolton and the Greatjon. She pulled his gloves over his hands until they were firmly secured.

He flexed his fingers, nodding at the comfort. Roslin reached over and took up his crown of iron and bronze, holding it reverently between her fingertips. She stared at it, eyes wide. "What do you think of it?"

"It's… strange," she said, running her finger up one of the iron longswords. "I always thought of crowns being gold."

"Iron and bronze are stronger than silver and gold. It is an ancient truth of the North."

"It would seem to be true. The Lannisters have gold and silver to fill both our castles, but you beat them all the same."

Robb smiled, reaching up and lifting her chin with a knuckle, forcing her to look at him with her big brown eyes. "You'll get one of your own, just as soon as we are wed."

She smiled. "I hope I prove worthy of it."

Robb nodded. "I do not doubt it," he hoped. He stepped up to the tent entrance and then stopped. "Will you accompany me, my lady?" He held out an arm.

"Are you sure?"

"You will not be able to sit at my side until we are married, but I would be honoured to walk you to the seat."

Roslin swallowed and nodded, slipping her arm through his.

When he stepped outside, Olyvar looked surprised but questioned nothing. Instead, he led the way to the crown wearing. It was held far outside the camp, by the river bank, near the site where his father had commanded the left flank of Robert's army at the Battle of the Trident against repeated attacks by Rhaegar's army. A dais had been erected, a half-moon stand, on which a great wooden chair had been placed. Smalljon Umber and Lucas Blackwood had been chosen to stand at Robb's back. Other than they, only Olyvar, as Robb's equerry, was permitted onto the stand.

Robb's family and closest advisors sat in chairs off to one side, his mother and Arya were there, and Roslin joined them when they reached the base of the dais. In the presence of the king, the rest had to stand.

He rested his hands on the arms of his throne. Grey Wind curled at his feet. He nodded at Olyvar. "Present yourself, his grace King Robb is in attendance!" His equerry boomed.

The lords came first, as was their right and immediately the fracture lines across Robb's kingdoms began to show. Lord Mooton requested a tax rebate to allow him to rebuild Maidenpool's defences, still not recovered from the Mountain's attack. He also asked permission to drive vagrants out of the town, who were still sheltering behind what was left of his walls. Ser Kyle Condon, the castellan of the garrison at Harrenhal also requested assistance in hunting down nearby brigands still plaguing the land from the war in the east, while Marq Piper requested the same support in the west. Then an aunt and a cousin of the slain boy lord Lyman Darry had come to press their claims on his lands.

He called the aunt forward first. Mariya, wedded to Merrett Frey, with five children to her name, including a son currently warding at Winterfell. "My King, my sister resides at Casterly Rock, wedded to a nephew of Lord Twyin himself. I can assure you, that we would use that connection for your advantage, however you would command it."

That could be useful to Robb, even with lord Tywin's passing, they remained the power in King's Landing. Beyond that she was the closest relation to Lord Lyman, and her wedding to his wife's family acted as a surety of their loyalty. "Your claims to castle Darry are legitimate and will be taken into consideration. But there is another claimant." Robb beckoned and the bastard came forth. He wore dented plate and carried a sword with the bearing of a knight. He bowed low and respectful.

"What is your name?"

"Ser Alyn Grell, my lord, son of Lord Raymun Darry's cousin Alinor."

"I remember Alinor, her wedding was unsanctioned by her family, everyone knows she was disowned for her love of a landless knight," spat Mariya.

Ser Alyn half rose to his feet before lowering himself back to one knee.

"You have spoken your case, Lady Mariya, I will not look kindly on it if you do not allow others to speak theirs." Mariya fumed but remained silent.

"Your Grace, I have no title to my name, only deed on the battlefield that others can attest to, deeds done in your name and for your house."

"Many can claim such, ser, but I do not know you, are there any here who can attest to your claims?"

Lord Blackwood stepped forward. "Your Grace, Ser Alyn fought at my side when we held the walls of Riverrun, he acquitted himself well in that fight." Others stepped forward to attest to Ser Alyn's presence at several battles throughout the war. His mother was five years dead now, dying in the birthing of his brother, but many attested to her name, if not her character.

"There are of course other concerns," Robb said. "Castle Darry is an important stronghold for the defence of the new Kingdom. However, the castle was greatly damaged in the war, the walls will need repairing, as will the keep and a garrison provided to restore just rule to the area. Whoever was to take the castle would have to see to these responsibilities. Ser Alyn, could you do this."

Ser Alyn's face flushed. "Your grace, I am but a knight, the resources to rebuild a castle are not mine to command. But I give you my oath I could find them. I am still a bachelor. As a lord I could find a bride that fetched a fine dowry, every copper would go to restoring the castle if that's what it took. And I may have no men to fight under my banner-"

"You don't even have a banner," Mariya scorned.

Robb spoke again. "I have warned you once, lady, I will not do so again. Continue, ser Alyn."

"I may have no banner," his eyes flashed towards Mariya and her Frey entourage, but he did not turn his face from Robb. "But I made many battle companions in the war, they would come and form a garrison for me."

"Companions?"

"Knights and riders from the lords I served under, I know I could bring many of them to serve in a lordly garrison."

Robb nodded. "And you, lady Mariya?"

"My King, my husband's family, your wife's family, has more than sufficient wealth to restore the castle of Darry. I can guarantee you that Darry will be restored to its former glory as a true castle of your realm."

"Has Lord Frey assured you that he is willing to part with that wealth?" Robb asked.

Mariya didn't reply.

"I cannot allow Castle Darry to be occupied by a lord unequal to the task. Its position is key to our kingdom, and the area is still plagued by marauders. Whoever comes to occupy it must have the necessary skill and loyalty for the task. Ser Alyn, you claim that you can raise a force of knights and men to form a new garrison for Castle Darry. I charge you now to fulfil that claim. As you heard, the lands of House Piper are plagued by raiders. Ser Marq believes that many hedge knights are among their number, left lordless from the war. You will return to the lands of House Piper with twenty men of my command, and a letter of royal duty from me. You will recruit as many of these hedge knights as you can. I expect you to find no fewer than thirty to form the first of a potential garrison."

Robb looked to his family and beckoned Edmure up. "Lord Constable Edmure, write up the documentation giving Ser Alyn my authority to recruit to this charge, I will affix my seal to it tonight. Ser Alyn, go with the Lord Constable, he will provide you everything you need."

Edmure bowed and beckoned Alyn to join him.

Robb had originally been planning to copy the structure of the Small Council of King's Landing. Doing so would make it quick and easy to assume responsibilities and effectively administer the kingdoms. But it quickly became clear that his lords were angling for those particular positions. So he had decided to begin making a new structure with new positions., that way no one could demand a position that they didn't know existed. it also meant he could create new titles and responsibilities, allowing him to reward more of his followers. Lord Constable was one of the first positions he had made. Constable was an old Andal word, not of the first men, and so Robb hoped to impress his mainly Andal Riverlands subjects. He was in charge of the administration of justice on all royal lands and castles.

Robb turned to Mariya. "Lady Mariya, if you would restore order to Castle Darry, I will also charge you to show it. Ser Kyle Condon, Castellan of Harrenhal, has, as you have heard, been struggling to contain the brigands in the area. I charge you and your family to prove your worthiness to hold Castle Darry by aiding him in this regard. Like Ser Alyn, I shall also provide you with twenty men to assist your efforts."

Lady Mariya, probably recognising that arguing the point would only make Robb look more favourably upon Ser Alyn's claim, also bowed. "Your Grace, my husband and his brothers will bring you the heads of a hundred brigands."

Robb nodded. "Then do so. Both of you will present yourself to me at my final crown wearing before my wedding, to take place at Seagard three months hence. There I will judge your claims."

Mariya Darry and her Frey cohort cleared the ground before him. Robb signalled to Olyvar.

"Who else would petition his grace?"

"We would petition the king!"

Robb frowned, looking across the assembled crowd, trying to identify the lord who had spoken. But the lords were also looking around, confused. "Come forward," Olyvar called.

It was no knight or lord who approached, but out of the crowd, a collection of smallfolk scurried forwards. They huddled close to each other, hoping that their mass might shield them from individual notice. There had to be fifty of them at least. They were led by a tall man in tattered Septon's garb. He alone stood forward and it was he who had spoken.

"What is your name?"

"My mother named me Yanich, if it please the king."

"You have a petition to present to the king?"

"We would petition the king, yes."

"Then present your petition, brother Yanich."

The Septon stepped forward, closer to the dais than any who had come before, guiding the people forward who still huddled back. He felt his protectors tense behind him.

"Your grace. I come from Stoney Sept, a town in your new kingdom."

"I know of Stoney Sept, it was the site of a great battle in Robert's Rebellion."

"Aye it was. The town burned then, and it burned in this war as well, many times."

"The Lannisters did much damage to the kingdom, I grieve for everyone lost."

"And what about the damage done by your own men?" A silence whipped around the crowd as Yanich raised a finger and pointed at the Stark banner flying over Robb's head. "The second time Stoney Sept burned in this war it was burned by men under that banner. I know that your father was murdered by King Joffrey, unjustly. But you are our king now. You won your justice, we now ask you for ours."

Robb sat forward. "Do you know who led the recapture of Stoney Sept?"

"No one recaptured Stoney Sept, your grace. They just burned the Lannisters out and left us for the wolves, the real wolves" he added. "Your brother drove them away, but our walls and homes still lie in ruins."

Tristan hadn't mentioned that, but then he'd done a lot while Robb was negotiating with the Lannisters. "So you don't know who led my soldiers that day?"

Septon Yanich bristled. "We didn't think to ask them, your grace."

"You will address the king with the appropriate respect, or you will be removed," Olyvar warned.

Yanich pressed his lips together and bowed his head. "I am sorry, your grace."

"As am I. All justice flows from the king, if you have been wronged, it is my duty to put it right. While the names of those who harmed Stoney Sept may be unknown, their crime is not. I shall appoint a commission to identify he who led the attack on your town, and ensure that restitution is appropriately made." Robb scanned the assembled court. "Ser Patrek Mallister, Robin Flint, step forward." The heirs to Seagard in the Riverlands and Widow's Watch in the North approached the dais and bowed. "You fought at my side in the war, I know you were not involved in the attack on Stoney Sept. I charge you to act in my name, and investigate the attack on Stoney Sept, identify the attackers and have them brought to me to answer for it."

Robb glanced at the crowd as Patrek and Robin accepted the charge. The lords were not happy. Would any of them be implicated? The actual culprits would be impossible to find, like as not they were back in the North right now, their swords beaten back into ploughshares, and tilling the fields they had abandoned when Robb called his banners. But even their lords had little to fear. He would take no heads, for what was done was dark, but war was a dark business, and he could not punish someone for driving the Lannisters from these lands.

"We thank you for this, your grace," Yanich said.

But he didn't move. "Did you have another petition for me?"

"We do, your grace. Not all of us are from Stoney Sept." He beckoned and the group of smallfolk behind him stepped up. They were more assured now, no longer huddling like a herd of sheep. "Behind me are men of Wendish Town, Harroway, Longleaf, Peasedale, Mudgrave and fifty other towns. All of them were attacked in the war, some were taken, some retaken, all suffered fire and damage. We humbly petition your crown for assistance in the rebuilding."

Robb knew that well enough. He had ridden through the Riverlands enough to see the damage done by the war. He knew that even these fifty towns didn't account for all the damage that had been done. How many other towns were wrecked and ruined? How many villages had been wiped from the map?

"You will have assistance of course, from your local lords as well as the crown. I cannot make the pain of your losses disappear, nor restore your homes in a day, but you will have the assistance of the crown in this regard." With Tristan keeping the most outspoken malcontents in King's Landing, he would be able to get the lords to agree to assist as well, spreading the cost. It would also be a message to the Feudalists, that Robb would be no distant king, but that his interference was to help, not dominate. With their most outspoken members in King's Landing with Tristan, he could hope to bring the others around.

And Robb also had an opportunity to deal a blow to the Nostalgists, that something new was coming.

"Thank you, your grace," Yanich said, bowing."

"And it is in this spirit that I have an announcement for the kingdoms," Robb said, getting to his feet. "On this site of victory and unity between the North and Trident, I announce that a new town shall be founded. This town shall be called Rubyton and shall stand on the north side of the Trident, together with the town shall be a new bridge. No more will men have to ford this vital crossing, they shall cross on a fine stone bridge. Ser Donnel Locke, Keeper of Roads and Bridges, step forward."

Ser Donnel was another of Robb's former guard. A man of the north, but he held to the Faith of the Seven, an ideal candidate to be in charge of the maintenance of the royal roads and bridges of Robb's new kingdom in the north and south. "As part of your responsibilities, I charge you with ensuring the construction of this new bridge per our laws and rights." Donnel had already been informed of Robb's plan and accepted his duty readily.

"As for the population of this town. Lord Mooton, the vagrants you no longer wish to be housed in Maidenpool are to be escorted here and settled in this new town, and the invitation is spread across the realms, any made homeless or destitute by the war may find a new home in Rubyton. Ser Olyvar, the charter."

Olyvar was handed the charter by one of his brothers and he unfurled the large document. Robb sat down as Olyvar read out the rights that the charter of Rubyton gave the town. The first was the right to elect a reeve annually. The position of reeve came from the old tongues of the First Men before it entered the common tongue of Westeros. Robb had considered another old Andal name like mayor or hetman, but in the end had decided on one from the time of the first men, a link that many in the riverlands would have forgotten, and perhaps remember again. The reeve would represent the town to the king, oversee the collection of the town's taxes, preside over its courts and keep and maintain its records.

The second right granted by the charter was the right of tax and trade. In peacetime, the town was exempt from almost all royal taxes. The only money extracted would be for the upkeep of the town's castle and the maintenance of the bridge. A small sum would be paid by the town to the king every year to renew the charter, but other than that the town would be allowed to grow and become a focus of money. They would, however, be subject to taxes in wartime. Citizens of all river towns would also be granted the right to purchase from the crown a river permit, allowing them, if they had boats, to dock, free of charge, in any other river town. Unless a citizen had been convicted of a crime, the king's representatives would not deny them their right to purchase this permit. Part of Robb's hope was that this would help a shipbuilding enterprise along the Trident. If he could have boats constructed that could transport up the river easily, he could commission a small fleet of river ships to more quickly transport soldiers in wartime rather than having to ride up and down to find the next available bridge. Or be extorted for all he was worth for one river crossing, he thought.

The third right was the right of market and fair. As long as the charter was renewed, the town had the right to hold a market once a week and a merchant fair once a year for two weeks, where merchants from across the realm could come and trade. There was nothing new in this charter right, and Robb's scribes had copied it wholesale from the charters issued to other towns by Robert Baratheon.

When Olyvar had finished reading out the rights, Robb stood once more and addressed the representatives of the towns. "You may rest assured that you will all be able to take advantage of the new rights of this charter, for every town in the Riverlands will be entitled to one of their own, granting you the same rights and privileges that the Rubyton will have. And with these new charters, I shall also correct another wrong. I declare that every town in my new kingdom, no matter where they are, will be able to have stone walls erected around them."

That was an error long due to be corrected. In order to build walls around your town, you needed the permission of the king. But after Aegon the Conqueror had forged Westeros into a single nation, he had seen no need to wall towns, except those on the coast at risk of pirate attacks. Only those that already had stone walls were protected. What would towns along the Trident need walls for? Aegon the Conqueror had a vision that none since him had matched, but even he had not foreseen the raiders of Gregor Clegane. Robb could not guarantee such peace any longer. How many towns had been destroyed because their walls were timber, if they had walls at all, and simply been burned to cinders by the Mountain's raiders, leaving the people at his mercy. While Robb hoped that they had peace for all their remaining days, he could not promise it. His people would not rely on peace to proect them. His towns would have stout walls and keeps to protect them from those who would slaughter them on a whim.

His council had urged him against such a proposal. Where would they get such stone from? But Robb already had a source of stone in mind, and there was more than enough there to wall all the towns of the Trident.

Even if it would mean felling another of Aegon's accomplishments.

A/N: CMY18 - Shireen doesn't regret being born a woman, she completely accepts her gender. And yes, House Baratheon currently still has naval superiority in the Narrow Sea.

House Awesome: You've clearly thought this through. I love it, and I hope you're not disappointed with what comes.