AN: Chapters will not be in chronological order, and only context clues will reveal when they take place.

Also, this is a first draft, and I haven't edited the last portions of the chapter yet. So bear with me so I can get a few hours sleep and I will fix everything when I wake up.

The Legionnaires, as they called themselves, loaded Joffrey and several other prisoners onto the back of wagons. He wanted to scream at them that he was a King and they could not treat him that way. But he couldn't.

From the whispering, he learned they had been near a village called Darkwater Crossing deep within enemy territory. And their General seemed inclined to cross the mountains to their west and make it to friendlier lands before dealing with the prisoners. All of it was strange and unfamiliar to him as anything else he saw

Joffrey focused on none of that though, he could only agonize over the burning wound within his mouth for the days they spent on the road. They had brought a physician to tend to him, but it turned out the man was a mage who had him drink red potions and poked at what remained of his tongue with his magics.

The potions burned him, as did the man's 'restoration' spells, but it was the bumpy road on that wagon that tortured him the most.

Then they finally arrived at a rather small town, with a smaller castle at its center.

Helgen, Ralof told him.

"Forget the list, the boy goes to the block." The captain glared at him, and he could say nothing in return as he was dragged before the headsman.

The man looked at him with pity. "Won't you forgive me, boy? I only do this out of duty."

Would Ned Stark forgive me, Joffrey thought. Even if Joffrey had not even asked or thought to ask for the man's forgiveness. There was a time when he had looked up to the man as another Hero of the Rebellion, the same way he looked up to his father. Even if he thought him too honorable by half.

The headsman hadn't asked for forgiveness from the previous men he had executed, not even from that 'Jarl of Windhelm' who the Imperial General insisted be executed first when the prisoners were drawn up. And if Ralof was to be believed, then Joffrey would be the second king that would be toppled today.

Joffrey didn't answer the man. He couldn't, even if he had wanted to. He kept reminding himself of that, every time he wanted to say something or make pleas and demands, it was now that he couldn't. He remembered Ser Ilyn Payne, that was a man who Joffrey had once ridiculed for his lost tongue. Joffrey wondered if Ser Ilyn would have asked forgiveness from Stark if he had been able to speak.

He wondered what Stark would have said to Ser Ilyn in turn. If Stark blamed the King's Justice or the King himself. What would there be to even say, for a man condemned to death?

Joffrey would have begged, if he could but speak now, gone down on his knees and begged for his life. In the slightest hopes that they would have shown him mercy. But he couldn't. And so, he didn't.

At least he will die with some dignity. Eddard Stark had shown him how a man should be when he was forced to his knees, waiting for death by the severing of the head. The Lord of Winterfell had not made a sound, neither had he even looked fearful of his death.

As they forced his head down on the block, all Joffrey could remember was Sansa Stark begging him on her knees to spare her father. He had called her weak and soft hearted.

He stared up at the man who would be his killer, he could see tears in the Justice's eyes through the holes of his mask. To the man, Joffrey was a boy who he would be obliged by duty to put to death.

But if he only knew what crimes Joffrey had done. But Joffrey couldn't tell him. Couldn't confess his last sins to the world and be spared from the Stranger's seventh Hell. It was now just his to die.

But the axe had not come down. And then there was screaming and shouting.

Alduin had come.

The Boy Smith

Gendry was incensed at being forced to leave King's Landing, the place where he was born and where everything he knew was. But Master Mott asked that he do so, claiming that his trade would be highly valued at the Night's Watch. And when Gendry had not been convinced by the words, Master Mott had then said that it was no longer safe for him to stay in the capital.

Gendry had not had it in him to question his Master then, not when the man's eyes had been so resolute that Gendry would be safe at the Wall. He felt strangely bitter with Master Mott for the whole ordeal, though he had no idea why, given that he owed the man everything.

Gendry had once assumed that his entire existence had been predetermined; at least the Septons kept saying that it was. And so, he had assumed that his life was decided for him by the Father Above, after he found himself becoming an Apprentice Smith. Especially when after a few years, Gendry had worked himself to being a Journeyman in the Sacred Smith's guild. It would have only taken him another year to complete his training with Master Mott, then he would have earned Mastery and been able to open his own shop on the Street of Steel. Or even travel the realm and be accepted to the hold of any Lord, as any smith with a certificate from the Sacred Smith's Guild could find employment across the kingdoms. All to have it uprooted and taken, while Gendry is hauled off to the Wall.

It was hard not to feel bitter about it. And Gendry felt it was the fault of those highborns who had kept paying him regular visits. Not that he knew what they even wanted from him in the first place, other than to ask the same questions.

He might need to find a Septon for confession soon, likely on the road to the Wall. Gendry needed to get all of this bitterness out of his heart. It was not right for him to let such demons linger within his soul.

-

Gendry found Master Yoren of the Night's Watch near the center of the city. At least he assumed he found the man, for he had never quite seen anyone else dressed entirely in black from head to boots. The man was standing around, gaze fixed on the distant Red Keep and perhaps waiting for something.

"Master Yoren?" Gendry asked.

The man jumped up, sourleaf flying out of his mouth in his startlement, before he rounded on Gendry with a glare.

"Are you from the Keep?" Yoren asked harshly.

Gendry blinked. The Keep? The Red Keep? Who had the man been waiting for?

"My name is Gendry, milord." He bowed lowly. "I am here to join the Night's Watch."

That seemed to utterly stump the man for a moment. It seemed a little strange to Gendry, since the man's whole life was riding around the kingdoms looking for men to enlist. Why would another recruit be strange to the man?

"Oh," Master Yoren said as he looked Gendry up and down. "Don't get many volunteers for the thing nowadays. Do you have a trade?"

"A smith, milord." Gendry lifted up his steel, bullhead helmet, for the man to see.

"Don't milord me, boy," Master Yoren took the helmet and quietly inspected it. "You made this yourself? It seems…"

"I did!" Gendry interjected. It always made him so angry when someone questioned his work so skeptically just because he was young. "I have a signed Journeyman letter to prove it!"

"Then you'll make a fine smith at the Wall," Master Yoren nodded. "A steward, trained to fight but only expected to pick up a spear if things get dire enough."

Gendry nodded; it wasn't like he had been expecting the Wall to be safe. "I am no coward, Master Yoren. I will fight, if I am asked."

"Good lad," Master Yoren nodded approvingly as he patted Gendry's shoulder. "The Night's Watch has a Master Smith you can learn from at Castle Black, to complete your training."

"It does?" Gendry asked.

"Donal Noye," Master Yoren answered. "From Storm's End. He is the one that made Robert Baratheon's own Warhammer, did you know that?"

Gendry had in fact known that, there was hardly a smith in King's Landing who didn't or maybe in the whole kingdom. But instead of interrupting, Gendry let Master Yoren regal him with stories of the Night's Watch.

Well, at least Gendry will be able to be a Master Smith. Maybe the Father had not forsaken him after all.

-

Master Yoren would eventually leave Gendry in the small quarter set aside for the Night's Watch near Visenya's Hill. Told him sternly to stay with the other recruits and the other Night's Watch men. And not to go anywhere near the cage.

The cage being on a wagon and holding three men fettered inside. All three among the strangest sights Gendry had ever seen, except for maybe some men he had seen in Flee Bottom.

Not that Gendry needed any warning to stay away from the cage, with the one called Rorge threatening to kill anyone who so much as walked a little too close. And the one named Biter being his own warning. The third man was the quietest, with strange foreign looks and hair.

-

It was a few hours later did Master Yoren returned, dragging a small boy called Arry behind him. Who was apparently who Yoren had been waiting for.

But the Night's Watch couldn't leave the city just yet, as the streets were suddenly filled with crowds returning to their homes, as apparently there had been some execution held at the Great Sept.

That had troubled Gendry, and he had spent much of the night thinking on the matter. To have executed a man on the steps of the holy Sept, especially one who had confessed to his crime. Mercy had even been asked… it was just not right.

It was also hard to sleep as he had been the closest to Arry, who spent the whole night weeping silently and calling out for his father.

-

They were set to leave the next morning, but suddenly the streets were filled with crowds again. And soon there was a riot as people attacked the Gold Cloaks and looted shops and homes.

Some rioters tried attacking them as well, but the Night's Watch quarter had stout iron gates that could be locked shut with a key.

Still, more men had tried scaling the walls of the quarter, only to be shot dead with arrows or felled by slung stones by Master Yoren and some of his brothers. The man himself would later draw his sword and strike down some of the men that managed to make it inside. Gendry had been wanting to fight as well, feeling an unexpected rush in his veins at the combat. But Master Yoren had kept all the recruits back.

Order in the city was only restored the next day.

-

"The fuck you mean the city is closed?!" Master Yoren screamed at the guards manning the Dragon Gate.

"That's what I fucking said." The Gold Cloak answered belligerently. "That's our orders. Due to the riots, no one gets into the city and no one leaves."

"Can't you fucking see with your own eyes, the riots are over!" Master Yoren yelled. "They have been over for a day now, let us fuckin leave!"

"I have my orders," The Guard argued.

"Orders, eh? And how much silver do you want me to hand over to let me through?"

"No silver, Ser." The man shook his head before pointing at a man standing on top of the gatehouse. "I'll be hanged if I let you through, those are my orders."

The man on the walls was wearing a gold and black tabard, with the royal crowned Stag rearing on it. He looked stern, with cold black eyes not much different from Yoren's own. He stared down the Master of the Night's Watch, and the Black Brother only stared back up at the man.

Gendry wasn't sure who had won, but in the end, they were bid to return to their quarters.

-

Later on, when they had laid down to sleep, Arry wept for his father again, all throughout the night. The other recruits slept through the near silent wails, but Gendry stayed up giving silent prayers to whomever Arry's father had been.

Feeling restless, Gendry got up to stretch his legs and ended up wandering towards the cage wagon. Only to hide when he saw a man there conversing with one of the prisoners. No one noticed the presence of a hooded man who had found his way into the Night's Watch quarter as everyone seemed to be silently asleep. They had all drunken from some hearty ale someone had brought down for them from the royal kitchens. Though Gendry and Arry had been the only ones too sour with ill mood to drink.

Gendry would have sounded the alarm if not that the man did not even go near the cage. At first, he had believed that the man had been talking to Rorge, that violent outlaw from Flee Bottom. But instead, the hooded man was speaking with the foreigner with strange hair, too quiet for even Gendry's sharp ears to hear anything.

Then as quickly as the hooded man had been there, he had left the quarter and had disappeared into the night.

Gendry shook his head and thought nothing of the affair. None of the prisoners had been freed, and the man had not even gotten close to the cage. So, he returned to his place to find Arry fast asleep, wherein after he had laid his head down and fallen asleep.

-

The next morning, Gendry saw that the cage had been opened. All three prisoners had run off that night.

Yoren left, hunting down and capturing Rorge and Biter again. Placing them back in their cages, now with more locks and a guard to watch it at all hours.

But the third man, the foreigner, had disappeared into the city and had not been seen again.

-

That same day, Yorren had exclaimed aloud that he would not be losing another recruit. And so again, they attempted to leave. This time through one of the other gates of the city, hoping to find a more sympathetic guard, but they were turned away once more.

They returned to their quarter to find two strange, cloaked men waiting for them. Arry had gasped when he got a close look at the men, and even Master Yoren seemed shaken by the sight of them.

"Master…Yoren." The shorter one said as the men of the Night's Watch settled back inside their quarter.

Gendry would have followed suit until he saw Arry move closer to where Master Yorren was speaking with the two men.

"What's wrong?" Gendry asked the other boy.

"They're looking for me," Arry whispered.

"For you?" Gendry questioned just as quietly. "Then why are you going closer?"

Arry didn't answer, the younger boy only clutching at the small sword on his belt. Gendry had admired the blade before, when he had seen Arry swing it around 'practicing'. He had wondered if Arry's father had been a smith, and if the blade had been a gift from the man. But the boy did not speak much about it to Gendry, nor had he agreed to show him the small sword so Gendry could closely admire the work.

Arry hid behind one of the carts and glared down the two men with hatred in his eyes. Gendry eyed the men himself, and tried to gleam what he could about them. The taller one, he was probably the tallest man Gendry ever saw, though Gendry couldn't see his face clearly. What he did see of the man's face seemed to have been charred or had otherwise been burned. Something about that was somehow familiar to Gendry, like it was something he had learned before but could not quite remember. And his head started hurting when he racked his mind for the answer.

The shorter man seemed to be Gendry's age or just a bit younger than he was. He had golden hair from what Gendry could see from under his hood, and otherwise seemed rather sickly and pale.

"Your g-" Master Yoren seemed unsure of himself, and had been making to bow or kneel when the blonde boy held him up with both hands

"No..need…Master…Yoren." The boy said. "Only…here..to…talk."

"What about, your…" Yoren looked at both men up and down. "-lordship?"

The boy was a lordling then. It almost seemed obvious since he had such a large man looming over and guarding him. But Gendry didn't know why the Lord would be looking for Arry, who was a common orphan. Or why Arry even despised them so much.

"I..am…looking…for…a..boy." The blonde said, speaking rather strangely. The speech was uncertain, with notes of where frailty or illness was apparent for all to hear. It was strange, since Master Mott had once told him that highborn were often obliged to hide things that would make them look weak to others.

Master Yoren had clutched his dagger at the words, though the blonde boy did not seem to notice. His guard certainly did as the giant of a man narrowed his eyes and wrapped a hand around his sword.

Arry looked ready for a fight as well, seeming to want to charge in and skewer the lordling himself.

"His…name..is…Gendry," The blonde said. "I…am..told…he…carries..a…bullshead…helmet."

What? Was the only thought that went through Gendry's mind at the words. Though at this point, he shouldn't really be that surprised anymore. He had been being visited by highborns that had wanted to question him for some time now.

"His…Master…told…me…the…boy…would..be…here." The lord continued. "I…hoped…I…might…call…on…him."

Gendry cautiously stepped forward towards the three men. "I am Gendry, my lord."

The lord looked Gendry over, and now that he was close enough, Gendry was struck momentarily by the striking green eyes the man had.

"I…would…like…a..moment…Master..Yoren" The lord said while looking at the recruiter.

Master Yoren seemed a little reluctant to leave Gendry there alone, but after a moment the man patted him on the shoulder and then retreated out of earshot.

"I..came…here…today…to..ask..you..to…remain..in..the..city," The lord said, with some difficulty.

"Why?" Gendry asked. He wasn't exactly sure if the Lord wanted Gendry to serve in his household as a smith, or something else. "There are other smiths on the Street of Steel, plenty of them are masters too. And some would be happy to serve you, milord."

The lord looked to want to say something, but nothing came out despite his lips moving. Frustrated, the lord turned to his guard and gave him a rather desperate look.

"His g…" The guard looked at the boy. "His Lordship would offer to make you a squire, to a knight of his household. And he would further promise a landed knighthood if you had managed to prove yourself."

Gendry felt himself let out all the breath in his body at the words, before he spent the next few moments staring slack jawed at the two of them.

"…why?" He asked weakly. "Why me?"

The lord was just about to answer when his guard interrupted. "Does it matter?"

Gendry wasn't sure if that had been a question at all.

"This is a far greater honor than joining up with the Night's Watch," The man informed him gruffly. "You might end up a knight, and master of your own holdfast one day."

And that would have been far higher than Gendry could have ever dreamed to climb.

"I am sorry milord, but I can't." Gendry refused.

His words seemed to take both men by surprise. "My life is in the hands of the Father Above, and I have also taken the Smith as my lord and patron. If my path leads me to join the Night's Watch, then I am content with being under Castle Black's famous smith Donal Noye, who forged King Robert's hammer."

Gendry had expected some mockery from the highborn, cruel words to deride his lowly path. But none came, though the tall guard had snorted and shook his head.

"You…are..convinced…of..your…path?" The lord asked.

"I have not yet sworn the oaths of the Night's Watch," Gendry confessed. "But yes, I am set upon my path."

"And..if..tell..that…I..am..your..brother?"

Gendry froze.

For several moments, he could not even perceive his own thoughts as his ears began ringing.

"…brother?" Gendry choked out.

The lord, his brother apparently, nodded. "From..one…father."

So, Gendry was a bastard. The thought seemed almost insignificant compared to the fact the boy in front of him was his own brother.

"Does..it..change…things…Gendry?" His brother asked, there a certain gleam in his eyes that Gendry could not derive the meaning of. The words almost seemed like a test.

It had only been a few days past when he had been bitter with his Master for sending away from King's Landing. Perhaps if he had been asked a few days earlier, he would not have hesitated to follow his lordly brother at the prospect of honor and advancement.

But there was also the matter of the reason his Master had even decided to send him away from the city in the first place, 'for your protection' the man had promised him.

"I am certain," Gendry said with convection for the path ahead of him. This had most certainly been a test, if only unsure if the offer for squire ship and knighthood had been genuine or not. Though he had no reason to doubt the words of his own brother.

Gendry had finally realized who the knight behind his brother was, and who exactly it was who was claiming Gendry as kin and asking him to be a squire in his service. His Master was right to fear for him, for Gendry might soon lose his life if he became a bastard squire at the Red Keep.

"Can..you…read?" The Lord of the Seven Kingdoms asked him suddenly

Gendry flushed a deep red. "Only my name, milord."

"There…should..be…someone…on..the…Wall…who..can…read," His brother said. "Have…them…read..my…letters."

"Letters?" Gendry asked rather stupefied.

"Can't…I..write…my..brother..who..is…serving…duitifully…at..the..end..of..the…world?" The King asked.

The King then patted his shoulder and told him goodbye. Gendry had been halfway to kneeling when is brother brought him back up and patting his shoulder again.

The two cloaked figures turned away and walked to their horse who were tied nearby. But before the King could ride away, Arry had emerged from hiding and charged the King with his sword.

It did not end well for the smaller boy and King ended up taking him away to the Red Keep. Where he promised Arry would be his honored guest. Though it still left Master Yoren deeply upset by the whole affair.

And the King had promised the Night's Watch recruiter more men before they left for the Wall and a ship to take them to East Watch.

-

Master Yoren had not been impressed when only four men arrived at the Night's Watch quarter in the days following the King's visit. But then he had gotten a closer look at the men arriving and did a double take. Then the man of the Wall had fallen on the floor in hysterical laughter.

Gendry hadn't known what had been so comedic about the four men, as they had looked perfectly ordinary. One of the four was old, with a bald head and large round belly. He sneered at all the recruits, but mostly kept to himself and the three other men who had arrived with him. Another man had flat face with dead looking eyes, and yet another had lively eyes but was instead rather short. The last of the four had copper colored hair and beard.

They also came with their own shields, colors black painted on white.

-

It was another few days after that they would be sent another group of men bound for the Wall. This time there were nearly a hundred of them. To the point where some of the King's men-at-arms would help escort them all the way to Castle Black.

Among the men were hedgeknights and the like, as well as a number of former Gold Cloaks, and even three sellswords who were apparently brothers. All of the men wore some strange collars around their necks, that they were only allowed to take off once they had sworn their oaths to the Night's Watch.

It was also so strange.

And then, they were finally permitted to leave the city with the King's blessing. They marched down to the harbor and found the ship meant to take them to the Wall.

Gendry's brother had even stocked the ship full with weapons and provisions. He was indeed such a kind King. Even if Arry had accused the man of murder until the boy could say no more.