CHAPTER 14
-----
----
---
--
Despite the southern spies being terminated in their ranks through the efforts of Howland, Percy and Zoe, the Boltons were kept relatively isolated from the rest of the kingdom. Their initial plan was to isolate them and spread rumors so that the civilians would take initiative and leave the settlement to settle in some other place. When time came and the Boltons stepped out of line, they could clean house with justifiable reasons.
It was not like the Starks were doing anything illegal. They merely facilitated the other nobles to rise into prominence by giving them loans and certain technologies. The Boltons only knew that these nobles met with Lord Stark before their boom. They were not aware of any other dealings further than that. The nobles that were in the Starks' favor didn't want to ruin their relationship by engaging in actions that would earn them the Starks' ire. Right now with the changes their liege lords were imposing that were changing their lives for the better, should the Starks say jump they would just ask how high.
"We'll keep them isolated as we have done for now. Send ravens to the other nobles to limit contact with them. If they come to Winterfell, I'll handle the situation," Charles replied.
"Whitehills are trying to confront the Forresters again for the sole authority on the Ironwood trees. Varrik Whitehill has left his holdings to come and meet you. He will be here within a week," Howland added.
Charles grimaced. The Whitehills were almost as bothersome as the Boltons. They were the only family still clinging on to the Faith of the Seven in their kingdom and often undermined their actions and orders when it came to the spread of that particular religion. The current Lord Varrik had been best friends with Roose Bolton's father and the two families were closer to each other due to this bond.
Initially Charles tried to approach Varrik to get them under his control and bring him into their fold. But the man had rebuffed him. He was the reason that the Boltons and their few allies were aware something grand was happening around them that was centered around the Starks. It was not like you could hide the prosperous farms around the other settlements and the renovation projects happening in every corner. For six years Charles was successful in creating a buffer around Dreadfort. But as time went, keeping this buffer was proving to be a tremulous task. Sooner or later, Roose was going to find exactly what was going on.
Coming back to the Whitehills, this wasn't the first time the house tried to usurp the much older and more prominent Forresters. This wasn't the first petition coming their way by the house either. The Whitehills were jealous of the leap in strength of House Forrester since they started off as families of equal strength. With the creation of Aegis and the Western fleet, the Forresters were able to earn a significant amount of profit from their sale of Ironwood.
"I'll deal with him," Charles placated the room.
"Other than that my father sent news that the number of wargs in our ranks have increased to twenty. He also sent his thanks for the runes you provided to increase the security of Greywater Watch."
"Congratulation," the group said to Howland at the same time. Reeds were the most magically aligned house they had discovered other than the Starks. While all the Starks were proving to be wargs, the Reeds were more versatile in mystical abilities. Mostly it was because they had ancestors who were children of the Children of the Forest and First Men. Much of their craft had been lost over the years but there was a sudden renaissance in their abilities since Charles introduced runes and certain words of the magical language to them.
Wargs were their prominent source of information on things happening in the south. They were much safer and more discreet than usual spies. The past ten years, Lord Rowan Reed had been instrumental in creating a viable and effective spy network for the North ever since his father gave him the idea. Each warg was given a section of Westeros to monitor. They couldn't keep an eye on everything since their numbers were low at the moment. For now Lord Rowan was trying to find incrimination information on southern nobles to further their plans.
The only snag was that they were yet to discover a greenseer in their ranks. All of them wanted to see the capabilities of the greenseers since it was rumored to be able to see the future. Charles and the rest wanted to witness this world's version of oracles.
"Did your organization find anything that needs our attention at once?" Mark questioned the small man.
"King Aerys has chosen Elia Martell to be the bride of crown Prince Rheagar. Apparently he wants to further ties with Dorne and bring them closer to the Crown than before despite hating the Dornish with passion. Prince Doran and Oberyn are against the decision made by their mother to wed their sister to the dragons."
"Doesn't Princess Elia have poor health? How will be able to bear children with that body of hers?" Isla questioned.
"It doesn't matter. Now the crown prince has found his bride to be, there will be a large wedding to be held. I vote that none of us attend," Cregan said with absolute resolve.
"I second," Mark added.
"The Stark family will obviously not attend. But we can't force the other nobles to boycott as well," Silena said.
"You'll be surprised how many of these families would refuse to attend because of the slight the mad king did on their liege lord. You don't even have to ask. I guarantee that all the families that are loyal to you would ignore the wedding," Theo added.
"We'll see. Howland… keep an eye on the families that head south. We'll be able to find out where their true loyalties lie from their interactions with the southerners," Charles said. "And also keep an eye on the other noble houses of Dorne. Especially the Yronwoods and Daynes. We need to know whether they had truly given up their resentment to see the opportunity to further their influence. What else?"
"Tywin Lannister stormed out of King's Landing taking all his men and servants back to the Casterly Rock. He resigned his post as the Hand of the King. The mad king humiliated him just like he humiliated Lord Stark when Tywin suggested prince Rheagar wed his daughter. The king only laughed at the suggestion. He even went far as to order his son into the King's Guard denying the man an heir. I hear he's furious and broke many a thing in his anger."
"Good riddance," Ethan cheered.
"Agreed," said Cregan.
None of them had a good impression on Tywin Lannister. He was painted as a vicious schemer a symbol of all what Northerners hated. The man had too much power and wasn't hesitant to use it to his advantage.
"Doesn't he have another son?" Norval asked.
"The imp? He would commit suicide rather than watch his seat of power fall to the hand on the symbol of his humiliation," Isla replied.
'Now we wait,' thought Charles as he entertained the Targaryens and Lannisters at each other's throats finishing themselves. Tywin was a man who would look for revenge. He wasn't a man who waited too long to exact revenge like his father. When angry, Tywin looked for short term solutions.
"There are rumors of a break in at the Citadel. I hear something important has been stolen."
Charles wasn't surprise to hear a low chuckle from his father. Even he couldn't hide his satisfied smirk. Soon everybody joined in cheering for Percy and his bold action of showing a middle finger in the Order's face.
"We'll get the details from Percy when he comes back. He'll be here before tomorrow for I know he promised Lady Lyarra before his departure. For all his skills and powers, he's such a momma's boy," Silena said chuckling with mirth.
"I knew Lord Perseus would be triumphant. You see… you needn't worry at all," Norval said to Isla. The woman huffed and turned away from her friend.
"Other than that, Robert Barratheon called for his most loyal nobles to discuss something in secret. There are rumors that Jon Arryn was there as well. I haven't been able to discover what it was. Give me some time. I will manage to grasp it. Sooner or later one of those nobles is going to slip up."
"What could it be that the Wardens of the Stormlands and the Vale could possibly be hatching?" Rickard asked breaking his silence.
"It matters not. Unless it affects us we won't stick our hands in their business," he said after a short time of pondering.
"I'll keep an eye out," promised Howland. "The Night's Watch are requesting more men to man the wall."
With the supply of prisoners from the south drying up due to the tense relationship, there was a drought in the recruitment by the Night's Watch. Had it not been for Zoe and her efforts to crack down bandits, they would have had to close down another castle.
"If the king is denying the Night's Watch recruiters the prisoners in their cells, we can only turn to the free cities. I'll try to get some of my old contacts to try to gather criminals in the various cells for the wall. Slavers would fit in the Watch nicely," Norval replied.
The Targaryen was doing this on spite. The Night's Watch was an independent institution with no political agenda. It was not right to call them Stark sympathizers in court. The Night's Watch may be branded in a bad light in the south now since it contained the desperate criminals who wanted to avoid the chopping block, but in the North taking the Back was considered an honorable duty. Aerys had branded the recruiters as people trying to gather more men for the Stark army and ordered all nobles to deny them their request.
"Good," Charles acknowledged the input.
"There is one more thing that I must inform you," began Howland. "Prince Rheagar is not thrilled with the wife chosen for him. He's going on and on about a prophesy that he needs to fulfill. He's muttering something about a dragon having three heads. Frankly, I'm not certain the prince is of sound mind much like his father. From what I've managed to gather, the prince has a woman in his mind."
"Find who it is. It will be beneficial for us in the long run," Silena replied.
"That better not be any of my sisters," Charles growled lowly. "I'm going to slay a dragon should that come to pass."
"Honey… Percy will be the one leading the charge. He won't leave anything for you should that happen," Silena smirked at her betrothed.
"We'll see about that," Charles replied in a challenging tone. But deep inside knew this to b true. While he was hurdled behind laws and duty, Percy was free to do as he wished. He had appointed Ethan Glover and Cregan Karstark to take up his slack and help Charles when he was absent.
"We need to take back the New Gift from the Night's Watch. That's land that's been left to waste by the Watch since they don't have manpower to use it," Ethan pointed out.
"I'll personally go and broach this matter with the Lord Commander. I too have been thinking of taking it back since they aren't using it," Charles replied.
The room lulled into a silence. They were going through what they had learnt and trying to remember anything else that was important.
"If there is nothing else can we call this meeting to a close?" Rickard Stark questioned when nobody broke the silence for more than five minutes. He got nods from the other participants. They all stood up at once and left after bowing down to Rickard. All of them had duties that they had to attend. Isla had to leave back to the Tower immediately and Norval to White Harbor. Only Charles, Silena and his father remained behind.
"Father I think it's time to introduce Brandon to the larger schemes. He will need proper training for his duties and I want to start it sooner than later," Charles said to his father as soon as the door closed.
Rickard sighed. "I knew that this day would come. It's bad enough that the four of you have to carry the burden of an entire kingdom. All I wanted is to give my younger children the life a child should spend. I know I'm selfish. But I see your point. We'll let Brandon accompany us for the Rite tonight. But I want Lyanna kept out of this as long as possible."
"Come on father… aren't you being a little hypocritical here? I mean you just dumped your responsibilities on us when you found than we were more than capable of handling them," Charles said with a smirk.
"Yes, and you don't even supervise our dealings. Admit it father, you enjoy being free of your duties," Silena ganged up on her good-father to be.
"Now, now… you must know that I believe in you. I don't want to be a hindrance when you all seemed so capable in your duties… and my newfound freedom is nothing but a happy coincidence," Rickard said with a wink eliciting laughter from his son and future wife.
"You may want to keep Lyanna away… but from what I know of my sister, she will be there for the Rite no matter how much you try to block her. She's already trying to wring answers out of me what you and Brandon are up to when you summon him to your office. She's getting suspicious. I don't think will do us good in the long run keeping Lyanna in the dark for any longer," Charles added with an afterthought. "Come lets go meet brother. We need to prepare ourselves for the ceremony."
With that Charles led the other two out of the door and down the winding staircases to the main level of Winterfell. The dark tunnels were lit with torches. They had plans to replace them with permanent magical light, but postponed its introduction until they were sure that the civilians were open to the idea of magic. It was hard to remove more than five century's worth of brainwashing. The passageways were not cold as one would expect even if they were above ground in a location with the average temperature hanging around fifteen degrees Celsius. The hot water pipes inside the walls helped to regulate the cold. Percy had of course tweaked with the wardstone raising the temperature a bit inside the castle.
Before this modification, they had to wear thick woolen clothes inside the castle to keep warm. But now even if you were dressed in the thinnest of the Myrish silks, you wouldn't feel uncomfortable.
The Main Hall was empty as Cregan had already taken the new Wraith initiates away. It was past lunch and nearing tea time. Most of the workers left the castle around this time to head to the baths or do their shopping in the Wintertown. This period from the lunch and tea were given as an off period for the castle staff. They had to alternate their times since they all couldn't leave at once and leave the castle unattended.
"You brother is most likely in the courtyard," said Silena when he stopped in the Main Hall thinking of where to head in search of his brother.
"Yeah, probably," he affirmed and headed out through the main doors of the mighty fort.
There was one other thing that was always popping up in his mind. That was on how to propose to Silena. Sure, they were betrothed. But there were some customs of the old world that was worth preserving. The proposal had to be private as only he and she should know about it. Maybe he would ask Zoe and Percy to stand witness. He wanted it to be magical… something that they would remember for the rest of their lives. A memory that they could often reminiscence and tell to their children.
But as soon as that was out of the way he wanted to tie the knot. The only reason they weren't married yet was because that they were the ones postponing it. People, especially nobles usually wed when they turned fourteen in this world. Silena and Charles couldn't agree to such an underage marriage since they were accustomed to something that was ingrained deep within them. But now that they had hit sixteen, the trepidation had gone away and he found himself wanting to be united with her as one more and more each day.
He didn't have to describe how pretty she was. He always thought that she was the most beautiful woman, without counting the immortals of course. But yet here she was even more devastating than he remembered in the previous world. To tell the truth he found his image of the previous Silena fading from his memory bit by bit.
"There he is, I'll get him," Charles' father broke his train of thought. He didn't even notice that he was overlooking the courtyard from the archway that led down to it. He nodded to the two sentries on duty nearby as the duo bowed in respect.
It reminded him to design an armor that could be distributed to all Northern soldieries after the new forges started functioning. All current guards wore light armor of boiled leather that didn't offer much protection. Titanium and Vanadium ores were in abundance in their land. The existing smiths had no idea on how to extract the metals and had ignored this heaven sent resource.
Charles made a note to look into this tomorrow after today's excitement died down. He turned his attention to the training yard.
He saw that his brother and sister going at it in the ground. They weren't give permission to use live steel yet. Charles smiled as he saw his siblings going at it like they were mortal enemies. All intricate footwork, blocks and movements were forgotten. Their fight was not dissimilar to a street brawl. Lyanna sat on Brandon's torso raining blows at his body. Brandon to his credit didn't make a single noise. Instead he kept his arms up so that his sister couldn't land direct blows on his face. He knew that Brandon must have cheated in some way for this to start. This was not a new incident to the Stark household.
"What were you thinking about? You walked here in a daze." Silena questioned when his father had gone out of hearing range.
"Nothing," he smiled at her. God, how he loved her. She understood everything in his mind. She could read him like a book. "Let's go," he said wrapping her arm around his letting his father diffuse the conflict between his younger siblings.
---
--
-
AN:
So? what do you think?
Review, follow, favorite... you know all the fun things