Unforeseen events

... POV: Eddard Stark ...

I look behind the rest of the small detachment, 20 men travel with me, and lord Cerwyn and Lord Forrest are both with me on this travel.

"So Lord Stark what happened that your visit is needed in the Moat?" Asked lord Cerwyn.

"My visit isn't needed, but I wanted to check if everything is going well, some lords of the north and Lord Hand are worried about lord Palestars... hurry to do everything."

"The task given to lord Palestars was a monumental one, feeding and sheltering approximately a hundred thousand people in such a region like the Neck, is not an easy task," I explained

"Bah, nonsense Lord Stark, with Lord Palestars in the helm the impossible turn probable, I am sure he is just fine, I would bet he is already finishing sheltering everyone and starting the planting by now."

"I pray for such a thing my lord," I say back, Our conversation is interrupted by a group of riders coming to us 4 of them, a patrol maybe, they fly the white owl and the stars of Antares.

"HALT, IDENTIFY YOURSELF!" the one who is not in full armour, shouts, the others stay silent with their visors down.

"I am Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell and I travel with Lord Cerwyn of Cerwyn castle and Lord Forrester from Ironrath," I shout back to them, a moment pass and they trot their horses closer.

"Lord Stark! I apologize for not recognising you, we didn't notice the banner."

"It's no problem, we head to the moat to speak with Lord Palestars," I say as we start to move further down the road.

"Then you are without luck Lord Stark, our Lord Palestars is away."

"Away where?" I frown at the man " I thought he would be building the shelters for the people and starting to plant the seeds that were sent to him" That is quite irresponsible of him to let him lend his hold without leadership in a crucial time like this.

"Somewhere in Essos if I am not mistaken," he looked at me with a raised eyebrow" And if you forgive me for asking what do you mean building shelters? Everyone has a house, and we have been planting for at least 5 moons already."

"What"

...

What an absurd sight, in barely a year, this was nothing but ruins and forest.

Now I see a thriving growing city, which is nothing impressive compared to King's Landing or White Harbour, but the difference is that those cities had generations to grow, this city wasn't here last year.

As we pass through the city I started to notice the differences though, King's Landing no matter the king, always had vagabonds and beggars in the streets, here there is none of that, not to mention the lack of the smell of shit.

People had, for a lack of a better word a purpose in their eyes, a sense of wonder for the future they see, their eyes see farther than the next meal.

As we travel the city we see many children and young men and women in dark robes walking in a direction., When they see us, and the Banner we are carrying, they hit the chest and salute us as we pass.

"Who are they?" asked Lord Forrester pointing to a group of children dressed in the same clothes.

"OH, those the students from the halls of knowledge" Seeing the confusion on our faces he continued

"The halls of knowledge teach people various skills that are necessary here in the moat, like how to plant, sail, read and write and how to shoot a bow as well, I heard that there will be more but could just be rumours."

"There are too many to be from northern nobility."

"They aren't nobles at all, we only have one noble family in town."

Why? How? Who will be planting if so many people are working in other areas, who is planting? how did Lord Palestars plan to supply food for an entire kingdom if so many will be alway from the fields?

As we arrive at the castle Moat Cailin, the gates open to us, The place is rebuilt, and is not one-third of what once was in height, the three towers that were standing were integrated into the new building, if one word could describe it, welcoming would fit well, nature blends with the dark red wood structures and green and golden seem to come from everywhere the air is so refreshing here, is calming, very detached from the noise of the city.

In front of the stairs is a group of people waiting for us, There is an old woman with dark skin and a patient smile on her face she is curved a little probably because of her age.

Besides her a middle-aged man with a brown beard and hair, he wears simple clothes and seems to be a little nervous.

By his side is Boric, the man I sent to work with Antares, he seems content to be here.

And last a woman with white hair and purple eyes, her beauty is simply captivating, She seems to have caught the eyes of everyone in the courtyard, dressing in a fitting silk black dress, but she also seems nervous.

I dismounted and looked around the stone front yard, I saw at least 20 black soldiers in full plate, Why? Are they expecting a battle?

"Lord Stark, welcome to Moat Cailin," Boric said and made a light bow with his head.

"Boric is good to see you once more, I see you got used to your new home,"

"Yes, a lot happened in this year that passed," He seemed tired" But where are my manners Let me introduce you to your host since lord Palestars is alway." He gestures to the beautiful lady" This is Lady Haela, she is... in relation with Lord Palestars, she doesn't speak the westerosi tongue very well."

"It's a preasure to receive you, on the Moat" She speaks slowly and with a broken westerosi and a heavy accent but her voice is very soft and pleasant.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Haella."

Some servants bring bread and salt to us and the introduction of the other lords takes place.

...

After introductions were made and protocols followed, we were taken on a tour through the new Moat Cailin, It is blooming with life everywhere, and there are many small gardens inside of the walls, It certainly wasn't the fortress that once was, It is more of a palace really, made for comfort and beauty, not war.

There are many of the black armours standing around the halls, I never know if there is someone inside or not, seems a little wasteful and vain to put such a useful and expensive thing like a full plate armour as decorations but who am I to judge the decor of another man castle.

Another bizarre thing is the statues, the gardens are full of them, One in particular has a set of 7 weeping winged people, they cover their faces with their hands, and I have to ask myself why. I can imagine how horrifying must be this garden at night, I can almost feel their stone eyes on me even as they are hiding it.

Boric said that the sculptors around town love Lord Palestars more than their wives.

It doesn't feel like the North for sure, but is not uncomfortable like the South, This place feels like something else, something new, and I hope that is a good thing.

...

But I can't deny the results, the place is fascinating, I feel like I could walk in these halls for days without losing interest.

"Is disorientating isn't it?" Boric asked "When I first arrived here there were only barren and broken walls, now? no wall is the same."

"It was all made by Antares?"

"Every painting, some I was there to look." Lady Haela said smiling weakly, I noticed now that she looked a little paler than before.

"Are you feeling well my lady?"

"Just a bit... queazy."

"Did your-Did the Citadel send a Maester?" Lord Cerwyn questioned, I hope is nothing bad.

"Yes, but he is with Lord Palestars," Boric answered, Now that is irresponsible, taking both healers away from the castle for months is a quick way for people to die of sickness.

"I-if you excuse me I have to..." She leaves in a hurry, Mansy the head servant follows behind her.

"What do you think Boric? Is something severe." I asked worried.

"The Maester and Lord Palestars may be away but Mansy also knows how to take care of a sick patient, but she is not sick," he said smiling.

"What do you mean?"

...Pov: Bradburn...

We sail smoothly through the Dagger Lake, Our destination is Norvos, and we need more supplies, Our stay in the Sorrows is taking longer than we should, and while our lord can grow plants the men need meat, ale and more so Lord Palestars send me, Qohor is closer but he said is better to go to Norvos, he doesn't want to interact with the city of sorcerers yet.

"CAPTAIN! A SHIP STARBOARD! NO FLAG!" the man at the Crowsnest screams, I go to the railing and take a look, an ill-kept galley is sailing at a distance, Pirates, the ships of the free cities don't travel through here without an escort.

"PORTSIDE CAPTAIN! ANOTHER ONE!" A carrack this time, I know this one, Hag's Teeth is its name, Korra that whore, thinks she owns the lake, they trying to trap us in between them by the sides, they are trying to stay away from our front, so they can board our ship and take control of it.

HA, and I am the crazy one.

"IN BATTLE POSITIONS YOUR RATS WILL BE A COLD DAY IN VALYRIA BEFORE I LET FUCKING PIRATES STEAL ONE OF MY LORD SHIPS!"

The sailors start to run around and arm themselves, and two of them start to boil the Greek fire, the hissing sound of the pilot flame is just... hypnotic.

The Tambor starts to sound and we pick up the pace.

"STARBOARD! FULL STRENGTH AHEAD"

The crash was quick and decisive, normal warships couldn't handle a strike of a sea dragon, ill-kept rotting pieces of driftwood like these pirate ships, had no chance at all.

the other ship turned tail in the other direction immediately, fucking bitch.

"BRING THEM OUT OF THE WATER"

15 pirates on my deck, Oh what I am going to do?

... POV: ?...

On another day of sailing through the Dagger Lake, we heard that Korra had a brush with Westerosi that hole up in the sorrows, they serve the owl lord or some shit like that, fucking bitch turned away at the first sign of trouble, women should stay in brothels not playing pirate, a man would have taken the ship of the westerosi lord as I will do.

"C-CAPTAIN! LOOK!"

I look in the direction of where they pointing and see, that thing.

Floating on a raft of wood is a mast, on top of it is a black banner with a white owl, and under a sign, written in red was "PIRATES BE WARNED" All around it or hanging from the structure were burned corpses, were just there drifting in the lake with no direction.

...

Norvos was an interesting place, The noble, the rich and all of those nice folks lived in the upper city, it was ringed about by mighty stone walls and was located on the tallest hill in the region, but it looked like a graveyard, a lot of stone building and silent as can be, the lower city, on the other hand, is three hundred feet below, at the base of the hill, by the river, spread out along shore is protected by moats, ditches, and a timber palisade there is also wharves, brothels, and beer halls, and look like people live here, is quite lively.

The wharf had a smell of mud and smoke to it, The people in the port looked at the warship with curiosity and a bit of fear, I turned to the crew united here and said.

"Hey, you lot listen to me now," their heads turn in my direction.

"We will be staying two days here so if want to do something in the city, do it, but if you try and bring a whore inside the ship I will throw her in the river with you. Again, "I focus my stare on one particular sailor, laughs pass through the crew as they pick on their crewmate, as we were ready to leave the ship we heard a sound.

*GONG* A deep bell rang through the city, some of the people on the wharf dropped anything they were doing and fell to their knees and started to pray.

A few minutes later a second *GONG* was heard and from their knees, they lowered their head till they touched the ground and kept praying.

Once again the deep bell sounded from the upper city *GONG* and they raised from their feet and kept going with their days.

Well, that something, must be one of the three Norvoshi bells.

...next day...

The supplies were bought and taken to the ship, and now a good part of the crew was in a tavern in front of our ship we basically took all the tables and we are at the moment the only ones in the tavern, just drinking and being merry when out of an alleyway a blur of white runs past us and enter the tavern.

Soon after three men leave the alleyway running.

"Where the fuck is the little bitch?" the first with a black beard and a missing eye said.

"Fuck man, fuck!" the scranny rat-faced one panicked.

"The fault of this shit is yours!" he slaps the back of the head of the rat man" We are supposed to give them a scare, you fucked up!" the third one with blue hair roared at the rat's face.

"Hey, you! River rat did you see a girl with white hair and purple eyes pass through here?" asked the one with the beard to one of my crew.

"Who you think you calling River rat, cunt?" I answer for him.

"Fuck off old man this doesn't concern you" As he says this some of my sailors start to raise from their tables, I get up as well, they notice our uniforms.

"H-hey calm down, no need for violence we're all friends here." the rat-faced one says.

"Are we now? Then let me offer you a drink, how about something that burns... on the way down?" At this point, they realise that they are pretty much surrounded.

"It's not necessary really!" the rat's face skiqued.

"W-we have business elsewhere" the blue-haired one shutter, I get close, to very close.

"You better be going then huh, it would be a shame if something happened and you wouldn't be able to attend." he nods and runs away with his mates, and my crew start to laugh at them.

" I think the rat boy shat himself!"

"The one-eyed fucker couldn't even talk!"

The laugh gets louder after that, Two men bring the little runner to me, it is a young girl between 0 and 15, I can never tell with children, She has white hair and purple eyes, puffed red and with tears, and she was dressed in a well made dark grey dress that was ripped in the legs, she had a sachel as well.

"Well girl, what did you do to piss off the three idiots that were following you?"

she looks down but doesn't answer.

"Do you have a name?" she just trembles and swallows some of her crying.

"Fine then, throw her in the street."

"A-ALISA" she half screams, that is a lie.

"Is that so, well Alisa why were you being chased"

"T-they were thieves, they killed..." The tears return and she starts to sob, sigh, I am not made for this.

"TUCO, COVIR, COME HERE!" both men raise from a table and get close to our table.

"Captain!" both say.

"You both escort the little lady home and tell her parents what happened here." By the quality of the cloaths and the soft skin, she is clearly a noble, and might as well gather some goodwill around here.

"I-I don't live in this city," she says controlling her crying once again.

"And pray to tell where do you live girlie?"

"Nowhere"

"Listen, girl, you have to help me so I help you, got it?" she nods

"Now where do you live and are you a noble?"

"I-I was kicked out of my house with my brother, It was in Braavos and we are nobles."

It only gets better.

"And your brother was the one they killed?" she nods again, just great.

"So what will you do now?" she looks around with a lost look.

"I don't know?" she looks at me like waiting for an answer.

"If you don't how would I?"

"Hey, cap'n we could take her with us and dump her in the halls of knowledge." one sailor from a nearby table said, the girl looked between us without understanding.

"We can do that?" I am not so sure about it, as far as I know, the Halls of Knowledge are not an orphanage.

"Dunno," he shrugs" We probably should ask Lord Palestars," the sailor said back.

I mean if she is from a noble house from Braavos that could be useful for Lord Palestars, ransom her or make an alliance or some shit like that, you know what, I take the girl to him and he decides.

"Fine then girly, we take you with us, but my ship is a warship, not a cruise, you will work to earn your passage."

"I-i, yes"

I have a bad feeling about this.

...3 days later...

I look as "Alisa" tries to tie a knot, and fails, miserably, she looks miserable as well.

"GIRL!" she bolts up in alert.

"Y-yes captain!" she says and comes running to me, she is still in her grey dress since none of our uniforms was small enough.

"What in all the hells were you doing?" I ask her, my first mate, Gibbs is beside me.

"I-uh I was tying a knot for... something?" Gibbs laughs at her answer.

"Thank you Mister Gibbs for volunteering yourself to teach her the ropes around here" The smile fades and he tries to reply.

"Wait captain, I-I... aye captain"

That will keep her mind occupied and prevent her from mopping around.

...

The crew settle down to eat dinner on the deck, many men sit around to talk and socialize, among them a small girl sits there as well.

"So Alisa how has been your voyage aboard the Burning Sea?" one of the sailors questions.

She makes a face "Is that really the name of the ship?"

"Got a problem girly?" I ask from the castle of the ship.

"N-NO CAPTAIN!" she shrieked the men around laughed and she turned red.

"I like it, I always liked the sea, it makes me feel free, Well, We are not sailing on the sea, but is close enough." Some smiles emerge around her.

"You right about that missy, Sailing is freedom, and those that sail under the sorcerer owl are the freest of all." one of the sailors said and the others cheered.

"The sorcerer owl?" the lass asks him.

"Our lord, Antares Palestars, his house symbol is a white owl, You have seen our flag, he is also a powerful sorcerer."

"You just lying to me now" she pouts the way only children do.

"We are not, I swear on all my dead relatives, even those that are alive and not that well."

"Did you see? him using magic," she asks with scepticism.

"HA, did I? Many, many times, sometimes an item is out of reach and it just flies to his hands, I never know if he is lazy or just showing off." the sailor says and the others laugh, They start to share the casual use of magic we saw, coming from Lord Palestars.

"He must be an interesting man," she states.

"You can accuse Lord Palestars of many things and he probably will be able to dodge them all, but boring is not an accusation he deserves, he created Greek fire after all," I say, and the crew roll their eyes.

"What is Greek fire?" the girl asked

"Is a fire that burns even water and sticks to anything like a bad stench, it burns hotter and for more time than any normal fire, and is more controllable than wildfire" I explain.

"Whoa, it must be pretty!" she widens her eyes.

"A girl after my own heart," I say and the crew laughs at that.

"Please no, one is enough." Gibbs comment by the side

"I hope I meet him someday," she says with a small smile on her face.

"You will, soon," I answer her.

...

The men are unloading the ship, on the dock and from them, the others are taken to the temple where we made our base, and where the glowing weirwood tree is, but my focus is somewhere else, is in the man in front of me.

"So you brought her here, and you don't know who she is? Is that right?" Lord Palestars question me.

"I mean, is just a girl, she said her house was in Braavos so maybe we could get a ramson or something, I know she is lying about her name, sometimes we call her and she doesn't realise, it makes it obvious"

I hear a heavy sigh coming from the man and he mumbles something like

"Of course, she would end up with the pyromaniac." I didn't know what a Pyromaniac was, but I liked it.

"What about her brother" How did he know? right, magic.

"Dead"

"Dead?" he raises his eyebrows.

"Yeah, some thieves killed him and almost got the girl, but I think there is something more, they fucked up, they aren't supposed to kill them, just scare them," I speak in a low voice.

"The plot thickens," he says in a low voice also.

"What?"

"Forget it"

"What you will do with her, my lord? She doesn't know her way around a ship but she learns fast, certainly faster than those fuck ups my crew is full of" I say without any bite on my speech.

"Let's ask her," he says and goes in the direction of the girl who is sitting on some crates waiting for us, she is wearing a black and white uniform, where lord Palestar got it is beyond me.

As we approach I see the girl grow nervous, I don't blame her, Lord Palestars is a good fellow, quite friendly, but the first time you see him, he can be intimidating, he is too tall, too handsome, too clean, too colourful, like a book character, or something from the age of heroes, he gives a feeling of unnatural, which is fair considering all the magic.

"M-my lord" She got up from the box and made a courtesy, her stutter was back, and she was nervous, She looked at me and then at him.

"I see," he says after a few moments of silence.

"How about this little one, I will bring you with me to my hold, you will live as a... ward, you will learn how to sail, how to fight, how to survive, under my protection, but you must make an oath to me, a magical oath, in front of the old gods." he says, the girl digest all of that and hesitantly asks.

"What oath?"

"You will renounce your heritage and your birthright, do that and not only you will gain my protection but I will show you that you are not the last of your lineage."

Her eyes turn big at the revelation and she says...