29

Chapter 29: Ch 20 West of Westeros...

Chapter Text

The castle of Winterfell loomed in the darkness, its walls and towers silhouetted against a starry sky. Only a handful of lamps flickered here and there, casting feeble pools of light on the cobblestone paths.

The only people awake and moving in the castle of Winterfell were the night guards and in some of the private chambers, couples were hard at work, striving to increase the population of the North. Their faces glowed in the dim light of torches as they laboured through the night.

An exception to this was Jon who was neither a night guard nor old enough to participate in contributing to the population yet.

He had slipped past the guards after his family had retired for the night and made his way to an isolated stretch of the wall, where the guards rarely ventured, it was a place where you could get the best view of the night sky in Winterfell Castle.

Jon lay sprawled on the wall, his eyes tracing the glittering constellations that speckled the night sky. He fancied himself a bit of an expert on the subject, having spent countless hours poring over dusty tomes in the castle library. The Moonmaid, the ice dragon, and the Crane were old friends to him, but others were more elusive. The Stallion and the Shadowcat, for instance, were so similar that he struggled to tell them apart.

But don't be fooled into thinking that Jon was simply star-gazing to while away the sleepless hours because at that moment the neurons in his brain were firing at light speed at full intensity as he fought hard to keep his eyes open and his focus sharp to stay in his own body.

Jon's attention was split in two: one half focused on the twinkling stars overhead, while the other half delved deep into the mind of Frost, who was far away on the other end of Wolfswood near Last Hearth, dashing through the trees on the hunt for prey.

It had taken months of grueling practice, but Jon had finally achieved a level of control over his warging abilities that he'd never thought possible. He could now seamlessly slip into Frost's consciousness while maintaining full control over his own body and senses.

The first time he did it properly, it felt like a bolt of lightning had struck him, and his mind felt as if it had leveled up, and his thoughts suddenly were clearer, more agile, and he could multitask with ease that he never could before. But at first, he was only able to maintain that state of being in two bodies at the same time for a few dozen seconds so he had decided to come here to train in this ability until he could reliably do it.

About ten minutes later, Jon's eyes snapped shut as he began to pant and sweat from the effort. The mental strain of warging was immense, and warging while keeping his body fully functional was a Herculean feat that pushed him to the limits of his endurance.

A grin spread across Jon's face as he glanced at the hourglass beside him. Ten minutes of warging without losing control was a new personal best, and he felt a surge of pride and satisfaction at his progress. As mentally taxing as this training was, the thrill of improvement kept him motivated.

His mind began to wander, seeking relief from the strain of warging. Jon's thoughts flitted from one topic to another with no discernible thread. He mused aloud about the three ships he'd recently acquired, "I hope Sam is playing it safe with those ships..."

He had told Merchant not to take any risk with the three new ships, and only allow them to take the safest trips, even if it means sacrificing profits. At the moment his priority was to build up a skilled crew so he had also told him to select youngsters from Wintertown and to rotate them on the ships to learn so that when they increased the number of ships in the future they have skilled captains, first mates, and sailors readily available.

As his mind wandered, Jon's thoughts turned to his animal companions. Frost, who he had just been warging into, was currently moving towards the wall at Jon's request. He had always wanted to see the wall and since it was inconvenient at the moment to physically be there himself, he thought to see through Frost's eyes.

Frost had never stopped growing and despite Frost's size - having grown larger than Jon himself - she remained light as a feather and incredibly fast. But with such a large creature, Jon had to be careful about when and where he met her. Frost's size was sure to scare the inhabitants of Winterfell, so Jon only met her at night to avoid causing any unnecessary rumors.

Frost had made the entire North her home, and she could move fast enough to traverse the distance from Moat Callin to the Wall in just one day. However, she mostly wandered through the mountains and forests without leaving the North. This was a source of joy for Jon, as he got to see the many beautiful things that were hidden from the rest of the world through her eyes.

Speaking of that, Jon's other companion, Tiger, the shadow cat he had bought from the Wolfswood along with its sibling, had grown large enough to hunt on its own. Jon had found a cave in the nearby forest for Tiger to live in, and he visited him every other day. However, Jon mostly left him alone so that Tiger could grow up naturally in the wild. The only thing Jon told Tiger was to avoid any humans he might come across.

Jon didn't know if it was a coincidence or not, but somehow every single animal that was associated with him seemed to be growing abnormally quickly, with their diets being almost double the normal amount. In addition, they all seemed to be smarter than their counterparts

A perfect example of this would be his horse, Pegasus. Despite both Jon and Robb acquiring their horses on the same day, Pegasus had already reached the normal height of an adult while Robb's horse was still far from it. And Pegasus didn't show any signs of stopping his growth anytime soon, which meant he might break some records if he continued at this rate. Similarly, Jon's tiger was growing much faster than its sibling.

The only thing he could conclude at that moment was that all this abnormal growth was related to him. His frequent warging into the animals since they were young might have stimulated their brains to grow, which in turn forced their bodies to bring out their full potential.

Jon wasn't sure when he had fallen asleep, but the next time he opened his eyes, he noticed that the sun was rising on the horizon. He let out a big yawn and slowly climbed down the wall before Sansa or Arya started looking for him.

As Jon made his way through the courtyard, he couldn't help but overhear a couple of maids gossiping in hushed tones about something in the distance. His curiosity piqued, he quietly approached them and began to eavesdrop.

After a few moments, Jon pieced together the gist of their conversation: Lord Stark was preparing for a trip to the Bear Islands because the young lord Mormont had broken a sacred law by selling to slavers, and now Lord Stark was obliged to punish him.

The news jogged Jon's memory, and he suddenly realized that the Jorah poaching incident was supposed to happen around this time. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks as a chain of thoughts raced through his mind, and an idea began to formulate in his mind that might turn out to be his brightest yet.

If he could execute his plan properly, this seemingly irrelevant incident could be turned into North's biggest advantage.

...

"...and that's why I know that every single year after you pay taxes to the throne, you spend all the remaining money to buy food from the Riverlands, Vales, or the Reach, to make sure that more people survive the harsh winter and don't have to die of starvation..."

Lord Stark was seated at his desk in the Lord's Solar, with Robb sitting in the chair before him. They were listening intently to Jon's proposal of how they could use this Mormont incident to their advantage and listening to him till now Ned could say proudly that Jon was a lot more eloquent than he could ever be.

"...That is also the reason I never came to you when I initially had the idea to sell Starkhouses to make a profit because I knew that you hate spending money frivolously as a few dragons may just mean that one more family survives in the winter. And I had no way of knowing that my idea may even work but now that we are making a steady profit in White Harbor, I can bring this to you as a profitable business..."

Eddard knew more clearly than anyone else that one of the main reasons for North being the poorest of Seven Kingdoms (except for the Iron Islands) was that they seemed to be stuck in some kind of a perpetual wheel where the harsh winters make it difficult for the North to accumulate wealth, as they spent much of their resources on food and supplies to survive the long, cold months.

They could never afford the luxury to spend coins like the other kingdoms on things like roads or ships to increase trade, or fancy armor and horses to improve their military might Even if they somehow managed to save some money after a short winter, someone, somewhere will start a war over some petty reason, dragging the North into it and leaving them with no choice but to focus on fighting instead of development.

It is as if every Northerner had accepted the reality in their heart that come Winter a great culling will happen where the weak will perish and the ones who survive will have to continue. And it seems that it will continue to happen perpetually unless they somehow instantly become rich enough to afford food for every single person in the North.

"...But if we continue down this path we never develop and will always be known as barbarians to those in the south but this... this is a chance for us to break through. If we can fully capitalize on it, we can improve the lives of Northerners like never before," Jon concluded his well-prepared speech with a deep breath, looking at Lord Stark expectantly for his response.

At the moment the whole of the planetos was an Agrarian civilization where wealth was measured by the amount of arable land one owned, protected by their army, with only a few exceptions such as the Lannisters who had a huge gold mine under their ass. So at the moment, the only way Jon could see a way to make some quick money before the shit hit the fan was through some kind of industry and he chose the most practical one that he could remember.

"I wholeheartedly agree with your point about needing a breakthrough," Ned said with a sigh, before leaning back and nodding at Jon. "So, tell me exactly what you need."

"As I've already mentioned, my plan is to sell Starkhorses in cities on the eastern shore such as Braavos, King's Landing, Pentos, and all the Essosi cities through White Harbor. Therefore, I was thinking that if we had a similar port on the western shore it would make cities like Lannisport and Oldtown more accessible, without having to go all the way around through Dorne," Jon explained.

Ned shook his head with a bitter smile. "While it's a noble idea, you might as well give it up because I don't think it's going to be feasible at all," he said.

"Why not, Father?" Robb asked immediately, "Not only could we sell Starkhorses through there it would also improve trade on the western shores," Robb had been the one most excited listening to Jon create a vivid picture in their mind about his future vision, and he was already on board with every single idea that Jon placed in front of Eddard.

"Ironborn," Jon said answering Robb instead of Ned.

"That's right," Ned nodded approvingly at Jon, "They would never let a port survive that close to them,"

"B-But they just lost the huge war," Robb said with wide eyes as if urging them to see from his point of view, "They must be lacking any kind of army at the moment, a-and won't they be afraid of retaliation so soon after the war if they tried anything again,"

"While you're right for the most. You've never fought them so you don't know them well enough," Ned calmly explained to his agitated son, "Ironborn are best explained by the Greyjoy motto, 'We do not Sow,'. They do not believe in money or trade— just pillaging and plundering,"

"So even though they just got out of a huge war, it won't be long before they are able to assemble a few wooden ships to start their pirating ways again," Ned continued, his nose crunching in disgust, "They will probably just change their targets for a while to Essos or maybe they'll hide their flags and disguise as pirates if they want to hunt on Westeros's shore to have deniability but they won't stop. So it is almost impossible for a port to survive in waters close to them as they won't let a single ship pass by without sinking and looting them,"

"But...But..." Robb appeared crestfallen at having the idea that he thought was brilliant being shot down due to those pirates but before he could dwell on his disappointment, Ned turned to Jon with a smile and asked him

"Jon, it seems you've already pondered this situation. Do you have a solution?"

"You are right, Father, I do have a solution," Jon nodded with a proud smile, "We simply take away their biggest weapon and it will be very easy to defend against them,"

"Their biggest Weapon? What is that?" Robb asked hurriedly and Ned also looked curiously at Jon.

"If you look at the history of most of the battles that ironborn have ever won, you can easily notice that the biggest thing going for them, their biggest weapon is SURPRISE. They always employ ambush tactics and they're sneaky and can move quickly on their ships. By the time their targets realize what's happening, they're already on their doorstep. Then their suicidal charge and sheer numbers take care of the rest,"

Jon's eyes lit up with excitement as he spoke, "If we strip away their element of surprise, the ironborn become just another band of pirates." He gestured with his hand, emphasizing his point. "Just imagine if the Lannisters had been warned about the attack on Lannisport even a day in advance. It would have made a huge difference. Removing the surprise factor is like taking the wings off a bird."

Ned leaned in, his expression serious. "That's all well and good, Jon, but how do we take away their surprise?"

"For that, I need to tell you something that I've kept a secret all this time..." Jon hesitated for a moment, exchanging a glance with his brother before finally taking a deep breath he said, "You know those stories about the wargs... Well, they are kind of true..."

Jon was in that room for a very long time, even past dinner and it was only when Lady Stark herself came that the three Stark males left the solar to eat. A few days later, Lord Stark and Jon left for the Bear Islands with their minds filled with a whole lot more than just punishing a Lord.