288 AC
It was a wet summer's day as they rode through Stony Sept, a town now made famous by King Robert having been hidden inside a brothel when the Targaryen host came to fight.
Though whether it was just King Robert being the hedonist he was known to be and was just sampling the brothels services, or he was actually attempting to hide is not known.
The Titular Stony Sept was a large imposing figure across the rolling hills of the southern Riverlands, it was one of first great septs built by the andals and first men converts in the Riverlands and as such it was covered in both steel and bronze chains and bells to signify the unifying of both people beneath the seven pointed star.
The Tully's were strongly associated with their belief in the Seven and so the travelling party of Ryam and Edmure came into it to show their submission to the gods above.
Ryam felt dwarfed by the sept sitting on its hill, it being taller than the highest point of Brightwater keep. It was an authoritative building that physically represented the rule the gods had over these lands.
Both Knight and Squire swore silent prayers to their gods.
Ryam usually had shown preference to prayers for the Smith but whilst here he more so prayed towards the Crone for guidance and the Warrior for the strength to live up to what he needs to be Edmure's squire.
As the two departed the Sept Edmure fired another question towards Ryam,
"House Bracken has claimed that House Blackwood has snuck into their lands during the night and wrangled some cows over to Blackwood pastures, House Bracken is demanding the return of the cows but House Blackwood claims that these cows are rightfully under Blackwood jurisdiction. Both sides are close to drawing steel as they make their claims to you, how do you reconcile both sides?"
Edmure had been asking questions just like this since they entered the Riverlands, there was always some dispute between vassals and knights and there never was a clear-cut answer to them.
For once Ryam thought there was a simple enough solution to the question "I would find out where specifically the cows were taken from and check to see if they were in fact from Blackwood lands"
Edmure for a second looked annoyed, "Both Houses claim that this land was under their domain"
Now it was time for Ryam to be annoyed, how could two houses claim the same land as theirs?
"Surely the lands they control are well defined to prevent issues like this from ever happening again?" Ryam said as respectfully as he could to not seem like he was insulted Lord Edmure.
"The land they both claim is a strip of farmland that has been taken and retaken between the two since before Aegon the Conqueror arrived, both sides claim to have owned it first and both sides claim that the other is lying. House Bracken and House Blackwood have been feuding for longer than the Wall has stood" Edmure came across as talking down to his squire with that last statement, The Blackwood-Bracken feud was known all across Westeros.
"And never once has this claim been put into law? Never once has Lord Tully put his foot down and demanded reconciliation between both sides?". The Idea of House Tyrell allowing such open hostilities between houses to simmer for so long would never have been allowed. All houses have known the exact borders of their land since they have ruled it and as such it prevented such skirmishes from happening.
Both men had now stopped walking down the windy stone roads of the market, the roaring of merchants peddling wares and horses clopping along would have prevented clear communication. Ryam took the lead in pointing out a quite alley between buildings where they could talk easier.
"Is That how it is in the Reach, you are told by your Liege Lord what lands no longer belong to your family and you cannot dispute it?" Edmure had lost any tone of condescension and had now furrowed his brow he now saw it was not out of ignorance that Ryam had answered the question the way he had, they both had different ideas of what vassals could do.
"They are our Liege Lord" Ryam spoke slowly.
"What they say is what the lesser lords do, and it is the same for the hedge knights and the lords below us"
"Sure, there are often schemes and politicking to guarantee that what is decreed is what is done but never would a lord outwardly deny the word of his lord" Ryam Continued.
"Ah" Edmure Now Understood.
"In The Riverlands the Tully's grip is much less firm than that of the Reach or The Westerlands, Whilst House Tully is the undisputed Lord Paramount of The Trident each of our vassals have much more autonomy under us than compared to the other kingdoms"
Edmure Continued now fully relaxed and back into a "Maester Mode" as Ryam had dubbed it where he made sure Ryam fully understood something before moving on.
"This of course is a double-edged sword, House Tully receives less taxes and men proportionate to other Lords Paramount, but the Lands of our vassals is much better off for it, more gold and manpower is given back to the vassals who then use that to increase their own trading and fortifications meaning House Tully has less obligations to spend said gold on their vassals."
This seemed quite bizarre to Ryam as whilst House Florent was quite well off and spend most of their own income on improving their own lands if House Tully stopped all spending on Infrastructure in the form of roads and ports House Florent would be Substantially Poorer.
"So back to the question I was asked, If I had to choose between Blackwood and Bracken, I'd flee back to Brightwater Keep!" that got a chuckle from Edmure.
Whilst Ryam was laughing he also knew he had just dodged the question because he honestly didn't know how to mediate a position like that. Nor why he would need to.
He brushed his brown hair to the side and put back on his helmet, mounted his horse and both squire and knight turned back to camp.
That night around the campfire sat the twenty men who left Brightwater keep each man telling some stories from their lives, A Burly man named Alton told tales of him and other men fighting off a group of Iron born raiders from when he was part of the garrison at Seaguard, The Spindly Old Man called pate talked quietly about how once whilst transporting men north to take the black his ship got attacked by Lyseni pirates attempting to take prisoners for slaves.
Each man here had some tale of heroism or fighting with the noticeable exception of Ryam himself, sure he was only a squire but whilst surrounded by men some only like Edmure of twenty and one they had all seen battle and been bloodied by it.
Ryam did not sulk but did stop having such excitement over the tales of battle, When the fire had ashes kicked into it and the men went to their tents sleep did not seem to take Ryam willingly.
A few days had passed and now the group were fast approaching Pinkmaiden, the castle of Lord Piper and whilst it was still a day's ride the lands now sat firmly in the Horizon.
Like most mornings Ryam quickly was tossing on his Armour, mostly boiled leather with some steel vambraces to protect his forearms to his hands and picking up his falchion.
He had gotten better at not losing his breath during the spars against Edmure but he never got over the pain of being whacked with a blunted blade it had gotten so bad that sometimes when Ryam was just exhausted he would use his free hand to block the blade, In a real fight he'd lose the hand but whilst sparring it gave him some small reprieve.
After many more hours of having his footwork changed, his stance widened or shortened and a thousand other small comments from both Edmure and any of the other Rivermen who happened to be watching at the time. The sun had gone low, and the moon had started to rise.
Ryam was sticky from sweat as his hazel eyes barely kept open from exhaustion, he trudged into the tent to fall straight into sleep. Not even wanting to wait to sleep to eat with the other men.
But whilst the small Reach boy slept blissfully unaware of his surroundings the rivermen talked about what progress he was making while sitting down around a fire to once more eat and banter.
Then A whistling was heard just slightly louder than the crackling of the fire and the men looked up to see the shaft of an arrow embedded inside Marq Pipers chest.
