Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun.
Chapter One-Hundred and Seven
The sun was just creeping over the tops of the trees when he left Greywater Watch, there was the chirping of birds and insect alike, he liked to think that they were greeting him but in truth he knew that they were only greeting the dawn of a new day. There was comfort in that as well, that for the many varied creatures that called the Neck home all of them thought there would be a new day always.
It was a sweet thought, even if it was not a true one.
Howland walked deep into the marshes, deep and deep and deep again. Not many would go this deep, even fewer would go this deep alone. The children of the forest had...changed the Neck, their magic was entangled with every root. It was easy to get lost and ghosts walked in broad daylight, older things that might have been gods once slept deep beneath the mud.
The causeway was an agreement, between the Children and the old kings of Winter. A place that their magic would not touch, a safe path through. Most Crannogmen choose to stay as near it as it could. And visitors were deterred from straying from the path, lest they fall claim to the dangers of the marsh, from snakes and lizard lions or from forces darker and older still.
But Howland was a Reed, his blood was old and he would not be afraid. So, he walked.
He walked until he found the place where he needed to be, a pool of water vast and green and deep, it had been a depth with no end. Once, when he was a child, one of his boyhood friends had bet he could swim to the bottom of it. He had never came back up and everyone had said that he drowned, but Howland knew that wasn't true. He was still swimming down even now, he had not aged even a second since, he had dreamed it so.
He knew the old grey men in their citadel like to say that time was like a river, that in order for something to happen there needed to be a reason for it to happen. An effect and then a cause, but the old men were limited. They were so small, so unimportant in the grand scheme of things. They only saw the effect and the cause because it was the way they experienced time.
In truth, time was more a vast ocean than anything else. It's possibilities were endless, everything that could be possibly happen did happen, they only happened somewhere else. Another bubble of time, in another bubble Lady Cersei married a Prince of Dorne and was actually something akin to happy, in another Elia had married Baelor Hightower and had a dozen, dozen sons who adored her and would die old and fat and surrounded by dozens of grandchildren.
And in another, Lyanna had chosen to go with Rhaegar of her own free will. He could see all the endless possibilities, in his dreams. The water from the pool made the images clearer. It had hurt to do it, to inform Rhaegar of when she had left the Neck, of where she was going to be alone on the Isle of Faces. It had hurt so much, because oh he had loved her.
He had loved her from the moment he had first seen her in his dreams, when she saw him being attacked by squires bigger than him and she came to his aid, braver than anyone. There had been other dreams, other times, where she had been his wife. Where there had been children by the score, where they had both been happy with one another.
But it was not a time that he could have, it was not a time he choose. This was the time he had choose, the time that he had made for himself.
It's why he had stuck so close to Ned, whispering in his ear during the war. Making sure that he would always make the right choices and Howland's dreams always told him what the right choices were. Because the long night was coming, a night that would no know end, and he had dreamed of a time where all would be well, where the future would be secured and the sun would rise again.
But only if hard choices were made, and he would need to be the one to make them.
But there would be peace now, for a time at the very least, and Howland Reed would let himself enjoy it. As much as he could, he would need to make certain other things were set in motion but there was time enough to do that now. Ned was on the throne, just where Howland needed him to be and everything else could wait just a little bit longer.
Howland gazed deep into the waters of the pool, his green eyes flashed gold for just a moment, and he smiled.
Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun
Book 1
END
I debated long and hard about letting this chapter just stand on it's own but I figured that there needed to be an author's note for this chapter, it was needed more than any other.
First of all, I know what you're thinking. There are a lot of plot threads left hanging, all of those will be addressed I promise. Ashara and her children, what Varys is up to, what happened to Jon Con, all of them. But they are story threads that will be wrapped up in Book 2, which will start in the new year.
Thank you everyone who had stuck with me this far, it means more than you will ever know.
Love you loads,
DiscordantSymphony