82 War is coming

The side hall was full of noise, the clattering of the dishes, laughs and loud, youthful conversations were heard even at the entrance to this part of the castle.

Sitting at a round, lavishly set with all kinds of foods and drinks table, a group of eighteen men and women chatted without the usual court etiquette restraints.

"Lords! Ladies! If I may have your attention please!" Brendan stood up with a pint of mead in his hands.

The sounds from before quieted down, and he could speak leisurely without raising his voice.

Looking around the table he thought how time flies, after he gazed at the people he knew already 5 years ago, and the ones he did not he smiled and started.

"We have gathered here the second generation of every prominent, honorable and brave House in the North!" He said the last part a bit louder and with more gusto than the rest.

Just as he predicted, cups were rhythmically and repeatedly slammed at the table showing the approval of the gathered youth's.

Gesturing with his hands for the rest to quiet dawn he continued.

"9 Houses which chose actions over prayers, 9 Houses which decided that life from the handouts and scraps from different kingdoms is not what they want. Watching our people, men, women, children every winter die in the most horrendous ways is not our way of life!" Brendan slammed his cup at the table, paused looking at the eighteen boys and girls around the table as his hand shook from anger when he remembered every nightmare he saw after his arrival to this world.

"And we succeeded!" Lord of the castle said with force in his voice again, earning a clamor of metal, glass and hands hitting the table, but this one with more respect and hidden pain.

"We are richer than ever before, we are healthier, stronger, well fed, better equipped and more numerous than ever before! But most of all... we are united!" His charisma infected the rest, some were smiling, some nodded and some tightened their fists as memories of the old days moved in their minds.

It took them almost a decade to tear the old ways of doing things and take a step forward.

"This is the first meeting we will have, and I expect each of us to gather every 3 years like we did today with the intent to solve issues that we all need help with, together, tighten our bonds and get to know each other as brothers and sisters in all but blood. Don't get me wrong. As you can see not all Houses are here and neither of you was chooses on a whim." He finished with this mysterious words and sat down.

Brendan felt a hand on his shoulder, relaxing a bit he nodded his head slightly, but it was enough for the girl to see as she stood up.

"Most of you probably already know me. Dacey Mormont. We all are young now, me myself am only 15 name days old, but what we lack in strength, we make up with our open minds so allow me to go first." Dacey said as she pointed at the other two girls. "My sisters Jorelle and Alysane are here with me, my sisters Lyra Ryswell nee Mormont is here as well with her Husband Roose and son Adam." She smiled at the couple on the other side of the table.

"You all know of our situation before we were invited to the alliance... You were no different." her hand still on Brendan's shoulder. "Wildlings from the North and Ironborn from the south, each day spent training and waiting for death to come." under the watchful eyes of everyone she glanced at her sisters, after the smiles of each of them, even Lyra holding her 3 years old boy that was calmly sleeping in her arms, she gathered her strength again.

"Not anymore. It's been almost 5 years since the last raid, thanks to the help of you all... The whales that we are hunting now in the icy waters of the far North and selling the oils mostly to then Houses gathered here, meat and other products allow us to be self sufficient now. Three thousand strong Mormont Infantry men can be deployed if needed, they were all bloodied in raids beyond the wall."

"Is there anything you need?" Brendan gestured to Missandei sitting quietly in the corner with Bella to note everything.

"We need more Ironwood bows, spears and shields. Blacksmiths, doctors and teachers. With the influx of new people, you could send some managers and builders as well Lord Brendan." Alysane Mormont added looking at Rodrik, Asher and Mira Forrester. "We can provide fletchers and hunters, fresh fish, leathers, wood and the previously mentioned products in exchange." The she bear finished and sat back down all the time looking at SmallJon Umber.

"We can help with the Ironwood weapon, thanks to you all we are emptying our stocks earning a lot in the process might I add. Since your help in the conflict with Whitehill's we can concentrate on managing the forest." The oldest son and heir to the house, Rodrik bowed his head to Brendan with respect as did his sitting next to him brother Asher and sister Mira. "We need more of the oil lamps that you have, some books for the children in schools would be good as well, but most importantly stone. We are renovating and securing our keep as per Lady Dustin advice, but the costs are too large even now." Rodrik's face was showing his sadness.

The young man and his House only joined 3 years back, the Forrester's were grateful for all the help they've got, yet their pride made it difficult for them to still ask for more.

"I will drop the titles, I don't think there is any need for them between us." Brendan looked at his Forrester House counterpart and received an acknowledgment and approval to his words. "Rodrik, stop the renovations for now, we will have more important things to take care of soon."

Everyone looked at Brendan questioningly. "Missandei please arrange with Bella the products they need."

After hearing their Master or Lord the girls looked at Rodrik's aid and they nodded at each other.

The funny part here was, that all the alliance houses started employing helpers usually freshly graduated from the Neverwinter's academies, even to the point where Maesters were only responsible for the official ravens.

"Arthur?" The young Lord looked at his old friend.

Since the Glenmore family was directly under his mother's house, Brendan knew the boy very well.

When he was younger, with every visit at his grandparents castle Arthur Glenmore, a boy older than him by only 3 years, was the one responsible for "protecting" him.

"For us there are no problems, since we are situated close to each other we get everything we need, maybe just few hundred battle horses if you may. We now have about 2000 men, we need horses for our cavalry... oh!" The hair to the Glenmore House pointed at his sister. "And by dear sister, Elaena is engaged to our dear Rodrik, which he conveniently forgot to mention!" The group again started to knock on the table and cheer making the couple blush.

" HAHA Looking at how Darcey's gaze was on Sandor all the time, it probably won't be the only joyous occasion in the future!" Roose Ryswell laughed with everyone as the she bear didn't even hide her interest in Dustin's knight.

"Alright, alright. Allow me to continue!" SmallJon stood up.

His 16 years old body was already bigger then people similar age, well maybe with the exception of Wylis or better known to everyone as Hodor.

"Umbers are doing good as well, we don't have to much patience for schools and we mostly have to drag the young ones there by force. I swear, everyone in our house only thinks of smashing heads, drinking and fucking!" The group smiled as his words were known by everyone to be so true.

"We could use the fletchers from your House Darcey, we don't like to wear the fancy armor like the Dustin's do. Give us a good chain mail, leather armor and warm fur cape, with and axe or sword in each of our 6000 men hand, we will fuck everyone up HAHA!" The big boy laughed like a villain.

"The wildlings stopped coming and we restarted the expansion of farms to the North again, thanks to the frequent combined Dustin, Karstark and our patrols things are relatively calm in the passed years." finishing what he had to say, he sat down and started to enjoy the snacks and drinks again.

"My turn it seems." Harrion Karstark flanked by his brothers, Eddard and Torrhen stood up with grace. "Since we took over the distribution of the merchandise from House Manderly the situation on our lands stabilized. Like in the other alliance houses, lands we upgraded the standards of living for ourselves and our people improved tremendously. We now have 6000 fully armed and equipped men, yet the Ironwood bows, shields and spears do sound good... We did met with some "underhanded" actions of protest from White Harbor, but since the goods are always delivered in convoys under protection there is not much of inconvenience." His mischievous smile told everyone that the Manderly must have suffered at his hands.

"What of whaling and Ib? Are they making moves?" Brendan though about the biggest competition to House Karstark.

"They do. At least they try to, we did have a few skirmishes, nothing serious for now I assure you. We already have 10 ships patrolling the waters and it's a good training for our men as well. What is more surprising is that we noticed some movement from Skagos. Only at night I might add, but it seems like there are parties disembarking from time to time on New Gift's east coast. What we need is a fleet to guard our coast, Sellsails might do for now. Oh and my lovely, little sister Alys is engaged to our friend Darryn Hornwood over here." Harrion smiled and sat back down under the accompaniment of cheers.

"Congratulations! And about the fleet, that will have to do for now, until Lord Stark doesn't change his decision to allow us to add to our numbers." Brendan said and just after heard a unsatisfied sound coming from Jon.

Everyone at the table looked at the man, yet no intimidation was noticeable on his expression.

"Jon... He is still our Lord and Warden of the North..." said Rodrik.

"I know Rodrik, believe me, I know." SmallJon didn't look convincing.

"What do you expect Jon to do?" Said Torrhen, the youngest from Karstark brothers. "He, just like most of us could only helplessly watch our people die when winter came. We've lost 70 or 80 percent of able bodied men in Robert's rebellion and no steps were taken by Lord Stark to rectify it." His hands tightened and trembled from the force applied.

"He was grieving Torrhen..." Lyra tried to calm the situation before it gets out of hand.

"Weren't we all?! Yet he is the Warden of the North!" Asher Forrester added. "Where was he when Northmen were waiting for their deaths from hunger, cold and sickness? Building septs for his wife!" He slammed his fist at the table making the dishes jump.

"I know of only one House that stood up and extended his helping hand at that hard time..." Roose lifted his wine cup in Brendan's direction.

Just a moment later SmallJon enthusiastically stood up with his mug and lifted it in the same direction as Roose did.

Like an avalanche everyone followed, even the Ladies.

"To the Dustin's!" Jon shouted with his powerful voice.

"To the Dustin's!" Echoed the rest.

"The North remembers... The good, and the bad..." Matthos said at the perfect time.

Brendan stayed expressionless, but in his mind, he already enjoyed the advantages he could get by occupying the place close to everyone's hearts.

"Thank you, your appreciation is enough." He nodded his head at everyone as they sat back on their chairs. "Darryn, how are the Hornwoods?"

"Not good... after the conflict with the Bolton's we are oppressed. Almost every week girls are missing from their villages, mostly close to the mill. Bolton soldiers are crossing to our lands as well, and now we even spotted some of Manderly's men doing the same from the south, coincidentally Lord Bolton frequently travel's through our land to White Harbor..." the boy was almost desperate.

"I will send 600 men to guard your southern lands. Harrion? Jon?" Brendan checked with the closest to Hornwood Northern houses representatives.

"Aye, the Umbers will do the same and additional 2000 to the border with the Bolton fucks. Never liked the flayers anyway." SmallJon grumbled.

"Especially after the event with Lady Barbrey and her sister, does Lord Bolton take us for idiots?" Eddard Karstarks added and looked at his older brother. Receiving a nod from the man he continued. "We are almost one family Darren, 600 from our men will join the Umbers and protect the Hornwood lands from the North, additionally we will send 2000 men to the Bolton's border." he calmly stated.

"Since that's the case the Ryswell's will send 600 as well, nephew can you secure the provisions?" glancing at his family's golden boy he asked.

Before Brendan answered, Dacey cut in.

"Let Mormonts take care of it with Forresters and Glenmores. We might not have as many men as you, but we can help a least with this." the representatives of the three families showed their solidarity.

"We will spare 600 cavalry as well, there's no problem in our lands, but we still are young and small House." Matthos spoke his mind. "That's the most we can do at this time, sorry." he apologetically looked at Darryn.

The Hornwood hair lowered his head to hide his red eyes. They were the last to join the alliance, yet no one pushed the responsibility of helping them, even as small as they were to the others.

On his way here, the young boy searched for words to convince the others, but to his surprise, there was no need to. That was the North he wanted to see all his life.

"Since everything is settled does anyone wants to add any subject to our agenda?"

"Yes, I do. Why aren't the Glovers here?" Mira Forrester asked as the issue was bothering her.

"Simple, they are avoiding their responsibility in the alliance." Everyone but the Mormonts were shocked. "Jorelle?"

"Mother asked for help when we went to curb the wildlings that were preparing a raid. We were rejected. The prices of materials we usually bought were inflated as well, we were not able to afford to pay. The whispers are, that the oil we sell them cheap is resold for double the price on black market."

"There are more examples, but it seems the Glovers got the taste of good life and decided that they can do better on their own without our support." future Lord Dustin added, making everyone wonder what were the two Glover brothers thinking about while taking such a radical step.

"What's with the Tyrells, Royce, Wainwood and the Martel's? Is there anything we need to know about?" Harrion watched Brendan's reaction carefully.

"For the Vale, there are some things that they need our help with, as friends of my Lady mother they asked for a favor, nothing to worry about for us. The Tyrells send the ransom for their men, we had some... "misunderstanding" with them during my return home trip. Still, the fastest 1.5 million golden dragons I earned." his evil expression made the Northmen chuckle. "The last thing... We want to keep a close relationship with Martel's and that's why... Nymeria, Tyene and Obara Sand will foster with the Dustin." the last part made the gathered people's mouths open wide in surprise. "That's not important and we can talk about it later. For now take a look at this..." Brendan waived his hand and Missandei stood up, walked around the table and gave some papers to everyone.

After a moment of reading it, most could not believe.

"If it's true, you do understand what it means for everyone right Brendan?" Elaena Glenmore asked, her hands shook and body trembled even with her trying to act brave.

"I do my Lady... send falcons to your Houses... war is coming..."