CHAPTER 1

THE BIRTH

RAVENTREE HALL, RIVERLANDS, WESTEROS.

283 AC

MYLESSA BLACKWOOD'S POV

When her mother told her pregnancy was hard, she thought it made sense. Carrying something heavy was hard but carrying something heavy for months sounded really hard. Now, after being pregnant for 16 months, which according to their house maester was a medical anomaly, (whatever that means) as most pregnancies end in 11 months or less, she was suffering from headaches, knee pains, stomachache, and myriads of other problems that made it feel like hell on earth. Her mother had complained about the same, but her duration of distress did not seem to end. Her husband, her love, knew this was their firstborn and that her pregnancy had lasted for too long to be normal. It had lasted for almost the entirety of Robert's Rebellion and then some more. Her husband was away during most of her pregnancy as he fought in Robert's Rebellion (as it is being called by the bards), and as such, she was needed to take care of her duties as the lady of the house and so much more.

She looked outside the windows of her husband's solar in Raventree Hall and saw the colossal dead weirwood tree which housed close to 1000 ravens at nighttime. After her husband had arrived towards the end of the year and still found her pregnant, he called as many maesters as possible. Each day she was prodded and poked by old men in dusty clothing which did nothing to help her anger. Now a bloody woods witch was here today because she felt like she was some sort of attraction for all visitors. She felt like one more day of this and she would clobber her husband, proper behavior be damned.

The witch started murmuring something and started to move around her again and again. She started feeling dizzy from the witch moving around her. She was a single second away from shouting at the bloody witch to stop moving when she stopped abruptly and smiled. Mylessa had seen a lot of things in her life, she had seen bandits killed in front of her eyes, she had seen hangings and many other terrible things, but seeing the smile on the witch shut her up. The witch kneeled and bowed her head and said, "Luck seems to have fallen on House Blackwood like a fat man falling upon a tray of food. Your son and heir, my lords and ladies, is a miracle. The warrior the gods themselves sent to fight the coming darkness, the one who will take House Blackwood to great heights never before seen, the sorcerer supreme who will stand in the realms of men holding a handful of fire and lightning and waiting for those who would harm the realm of men. It will be six months from now and a 21-month pregnancy later he will be born on the worst storm known to mankind. I will take my leave, and I would suggest having one of the ladies that helped your mother deliver you be used to deliver your son. If you do not want those gray rats to try to kill your son, I would suggest you do not allow any maesters near your son ever. I will die never seeing the chosen one, but in my last moments, I thank you for allowing me to be near him a time before he is born." She coughed out a bit of blood as she said this, and her husband summoned a guard to help her out and pay her for her troubles.

The old lady was creepy and made a good show, but she had seen wood witches before, and she knew what they would say to make the most amount of gold as possible. Still, never the chosen one, at least she would give her points for originality. The maesters were continuously wrong about her due date and as such, she felt those grey rats would be useless during delivery. She felt another headache as she would rather have her mother and her maids during her delivery, but her husband would never allow any risk to the child in her belly. "Husband, enough of these maesters, witches, and charlatans. Let me go to my parents' house for a visit or I cannot promise I will not smother you in your sleep," her irritation was leaking out and she heard the guards outside move as far from her as possible, their armor making creaking sounds when they tried to sneak away. "My dear, you know that traveling during pregnancy should be avoided and it is more dangerous for the mother as well as the child." "I'm leaving tomorrow for my parents' house at least until the baby comes. If you would like to see me, you can visit me there, but the stress here is worse for the baby than the traveling alone," "But my dear-" stammered her husband, "NO, no more will I be picked and prodded apart by all those you can find to check if there is something wrong with the pregnancy. It's fine, so what if the child is late, I can feel he is fine but I'm not sure he and I will be if I'm being pissed off every single day." She declared and she felt her husband agree with her and she felt vindicated.

She knew he felt guilty about her doing all his work while he was a year away during the rebellion and she personally had to deal with salaries of the maids and soldiers, the food stocks, and even had to send caravans of foods to the villages that were suffering due to the rebellion. She had to send the soldiers available to hunt bandits as their numbers increased during and after the rebellion. She had something to do every day while their maester was as useless as a cotton ball in a burning house. Her husband had apologized and had sworn to make things right with her but

still, he needed her help with some matters from time to time. So, she feltlike a vacation was the best answer. Her parents were Blackwoods too and had never let her work a day when she was young, and she felt a long, peaceful, and stress-free end to her pregnancy beckoning her to visit her home.